6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 6:37PM EST · Published Aug 30, 5:06AM EDT

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © the_eyes_of_albert_luo / Flickr

Corporate profits surged last quarter. According to The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. corporate profits boomed in the second quarter, boosted by large tax cuts and stronger economic growth than initially reported.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that its broadest measure of after-tax profits across the U.S. rose 16.1% in the quarter ended June 30 from a year earlier, the largest year-over-year gain in six years.

Tariffs are hurting profits for Jack Daniel’s owner. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The maker of Jack Daniel’s is feeling the sting of U.S. trade disputes and retaliatory tariffs on American whiskeys.

Brown-Forman Corp., whose brands include Old Forester and Woodford Reserve bourbon, warned that profits for its current fiscal year would miss its prior forecasts because of the uncertainty and added costs created by recently enacted European tariffs.

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Trade negotiations between the United States and Canada accelerated. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Trade ties between the U.S. and Canada took a sudden optimistic turn on Wednesday as the two countries signaled they were on track to meet a tight Friday deadline to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Canada very much wants to make the deal,” President Trump said at the White House Wednesday. He added a deal would be “very good” for Canada and talks are “on track” to conclude by Friday

Moody’s downgraded Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F). According to the credit rating agency:

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the senior unsecured rating of Ford Motor Company (Ford), and its supported subsidiaries and affiliates to Baa3 from Baa2. The outlook is negative.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) continued its acquisition of small companies. According to Reuters:

Apple has acquired a start-up focused on making lenses for augmented reality glasses, the company confirmed on Wednesday, a signal Apple has ambitions to make a wearable device that would superimpose digital information on the real world.

Apple confirmed it acquired Longmont, Colorado-based Akonia Holographics. “Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans,” the iPhone maker said in a statement.

Papa John’s International Inc. (NASDAQ: PAPA) responded to an attack by its founder. According to CNBC:

Papa John’s has issued a scorching condemnation of its founder.

A special committee of the company’s board of directors accused founder John Schnatter of disobeying the board and undermining CEO Steve Ritchie, including by going off script during a conference call last fall when he blamed the NFL for poor pizza sales.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.