6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:24PM EDT · Published Nov 5, 5:03AM EST

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Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is close to the choice of a second headquarters. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Amazon.com Inc. has progressed to late-stage talks on its planned second headquarters with a small handful of communities including northern Virginia’s Crystal City, Dallas and New York City, people familiar with the matter said, as it nears a final decision that could reshape both the tech giant and the location it chooses.

The ongoing talks with some local officials come as discussions appear to have cooled in some of the other 20 cities on Amazon’s shortlist, including Denver, Toronto, Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., and Raleigh, N.C., according to people familiar with those situations.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” topped the box office last weekend. According to Box Office Mojo:

At the top of the charts, Fox’s Bohemian Rhapsody endured word of a troubled production as the film that was eight years in the making topped the domestic box office with a $50 million debut from 4,000 locations. On top of that, the film’s “A” CinemaScore is a great sign looking ahead as there is little in the way of direct competition over the next month or so. The film played to an audience that was 51% female with 78% of the crowd coming in aged 25 years or older.

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Sanctions have started to cut Iran oil exports. According to The New York Times:

American sanctions on Iranian oil exports officially resume on Monday morning, the most important action the Trump administration has taken against Tehran since the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Fearing reprisals, European and Asian companies have already cut back purchases of Iranian oil.

The growth of China’s services sector has slowed. According to CNBC:

China’s services sector chalked its slowest growth in over a year last month as the volume of new orders dried up, a private survey showed, suggesting a further loss in economic momentum as a rough 2018 draws to a close.

The slowdown in the services sector — which accounts for more than half of China’s economy and is an important generator of jobs — is particularly worrying for policy makers as they have been counting on it to offset rising pressure on exports from a heated trade row with the United States.

One of Saudi Arabia’s largest investment partners defended his deals with the kingdom. According to CNN Business:

The CEO and founder of Japan’s SoftBank on Monday expressed “strong regret” over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but said his company can’t turn its back on its financial ties to Saudi Arabia.

The killing of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was “a terrible incident that should never have happened,” Son said Monday in his first public appearance since an international outcry erupted over the journalist’s fate.

But he added that SoftBank had “received funds to invest from the people of Saudi Arabia.” As horrific as the killing was, the company believes it should “fulfill its responsibility for the future of the Saudi people,” Son said at the start of an earnings presentation in Tokyo.

Newspaper publisher Tribune Publishing Co. (NASDAQ: TPCO) will probably be sold. According to Bloomberg:

Donerail Group and newspaper publishers McClatchy Co. and AIM Media have submitted bids for Tribune Publishing Co., according to people familiar with the matter.

Tribune’s board is scheduled to meet early next week after bids for the assets were due Thursday, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public.

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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.