With that in mind, Verizon recently launched a cheaper monthly wireless plan called Welcome Unlimited that Vestberg said "will meet the needs of budget-conscious consumers."Wealthier consumers aren't necessarily tightening their beltsStill, even though the wireless behemoths and two top credit-card companies all noted the increased pressure on average American consumers, one company with a focus on higher net worth individuals is still holding up well. American Express (AXP) reported ear...

"For a Flipkart you need billions of dollars [to grow internationally], but for a Freshwork you need much less capital to go global," said Mathrubootham, who is also an investor in Postman. This is because e-commerce firms require a ton of money to set up physical operations elsewhere — they have to hire delivery drivers, rent warehouses and buy inventory. Bhatnagar of Sequoia Capital said that Indian software entrepreneurs "mastered" the art of "remote sales" fairly early. "Honestly, in this...

South Korea's second biggest conglomerate is investing $22 billion into the United States, in high-priority areas including chips and clean energy. The funding announcement comes just as the group's massive chipmaking unit warned of weaker consumer demand for technology products for the rest of the year. It also coincided with a key vote in the US Senate on Tuesday to push forward a bill that seeks to increase domestic production of semiconductors. Leaders from the mammoth SK Group ...

On July 17, Boeing told reporters it was "very close" to restarting 787 deliveries. * The FAA referred questions about the approval to Boeing. "We don't comment on ongoing certifications," the agency said. Boeing did not confirm the approval Friday but said it "will continue to work transparently with the FAA and our customers towards resuming 787 deliveries." Boeing has faced production issues with the 787 for more than two years. In September 2020, the FAA said it was "investigating ma...

Eurasia Group expects a 40% drop in Russian gas flows to Europe for the whole of 2022. "Even if Nord Stream 1 returns to normal levels, Moscow may cut supply elsewhere, possibly through the pipelines transiting Ukraine," it said in its note. "This strategy is probably aimed at inflicting economic damage on Europe in retaliation for its sanctions while still generating revenue for Moscow."Europe still in dangerThe prospect of a total shut off of Russian gas is a "likely scenario," according to...

Sales are likely to keep falling as buyers get priced out by mortgage rates, which are influenced by the Federal Reserve's key interest rate policies. And the Fed is all but guaranteed to keep raising rates aggressively until this historically high inflation reverses course. (Tune in next Wednesday when we see what Jay Powell and his merry band of nerds has in store for us this time...) Despite that overall sales decline, certain markets are still bumpin'. Miami, for example, saw me...

Goodell added that the league is looking forward to continuing to grow NFL+ while providing "access to a tremendous amount of NFL content, including the most valuable content in the media industry: live NFL games." There's also an NFL+ premium version, which costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year. That tier includes all the features of the cheaper version but also comes with full game replays and other options. The NFL had been an outlier among the four major US pro sports leagues as t...

Rising infections tied to the BA.5 Omicron subvariant could cause another wave of worker shortages and clogged ports, Krebs said. The potential for fresh sanctions on Russia or another round of lockdowns in China also needs to be monitored. Rail service disruptions are also causing friction at key throughways like the Port of Los Angeles. President Joe Biden last week took action to prevent US railroad workers from going on strike, which would have brought nearly 30% of the nation's frei...

However, it's a notable move considering that the service would be a heavy hitter in scripted entertainment with HBO and in the unscripted entertainment realm with Discovery+. The company said that in the second quarter of 2022, HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+ had a combined 92.1 million subscribers, which is up 1.7 million subscribers from the prior quarter. * * The company said that it would announce more information around the service at an investor event it plans before the end of the ye...

Strategists at Citi said their "general view is that higher taxes are an economic activity dampener." Yet once they dug into which S&P 500 firms would be affected by the new tax rate, they concluded it would have a "neutral" effect on aggregate profits, and that an economic slowdown and the Federal Reserve are "more relevant" to the outlook. Citi found that 358 companies in the index make enough money to be subject to the minimum tax, which is expected to raise more than $220 billion over the...

But within these broad categories, job hunters should be discerning. The key is to avoid employers that offer products and services that cautious customers might elect to forgo or postpone. For example, while the health care sector is generally a safe harbor during recessionary storms, elective cosmetic surgery providers aren't immune to recession as clients might decide to postpone procedures and other services. Another example is legal services, which is mostly recession-resistant. But...

The number of battery EVs that VW sold nearly doubled in 2021 to nearly 453,000 globally, vaulting it to No. 3 behind only Tesla and General Motors in pure EVs sold — and most of the latter's sales came from a Chinese joint venture. VW outpaced all other automakers, including Tesla, in European EV sales at 310,000 vehicles. Tesla still sold more than twice as many pure EVs as VW did in 2021 — and EVs represented only 5% of the vehicles VW sold last year — but the shift in focus under Die...