6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:28PM EDT · Published Sep 7, 5:06AM EDT

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Job figures are expected to be strong when the government announces numbers for August. According to Reuters:

U.S. job growth likely accelerated in August, with the unemployment rate expected to have fallen back to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent, which would bolster views that the economy was so far weathering the Trump administration’s escalating trade war with China.

Nonfarm payrolls probably rose by 191,000 jobs last month after gaining 157,000 in July, according to a Reuters survey of economists.

CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) CEO Les Moonves may be pushed out by its board. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Independent board members of CBS Corp. are negotiating a possible exit for Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and asking for assurances of autonomy from controlling shareholder National Amusements Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

The fast-moving talks come as CBS and National Amusements, led by Shari Redstone, are trying to settle a legal dispute over control of the media company that is scheduled for trial in Delaware next month.

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Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) will start a movie studio. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Mattel Inc. is launching a film division to develop movies based on Barbie, Hot Wheels and other popular brands it owns, the struggling toy maker’s latest attempt to crack into Hollywood as its rivals have done.

The El Segundo, Calif.-based company said Thursday that it hired Robbie Brenner, producer of films like the Oscar-nominated “Dallas Buyers Club,” as executive producer to lead the newly formed Mattel Films.

Employees of the Whole Foods division of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) want to join a union. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Some Whole Foods employees want to unionize to address what they say are changes to corporate culture and diminished compensation under the ownership of Amazon.com Inc.

A group of workers sent an email Thursday to workers at most of the 490 Whole Foods stores urging them to back their unionization drive.

American companies have pulled out all the stops to kill planned tariffs. According to Bloomberg:

Some of America’s most prominent technology companies and retailers made a last-minute push to convince President Donald Trump to reverse course on a plan to impose tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports.

Members of the public had until Thursday to comment on the administration’s plan to slap tariffs on everything from bicycles and baseball gloves to digital cameras, paving the way for Trump to announce the tariffs as early as Friday. As of midnight U.S. time, Friday midday in Beijing, the White House had made no announcement on its intentions.

After a year-long search, Amazon has still not picked a place for its second headquarters. According to CNNMoney:

A year ago Friday, Amazon announced its quest to find a city for its second headquarters somewhere in North America.

The company has since whittled down 238 proposals to 20 finalists. Executives have crisscrossed the United States — and one Canadian city — to tour sites in search of the company’s next home. A decision is expected this year.

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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.