Macy’s, Kohls and Dillard’s are the latest department store chains to report falling revenue, and the industry is struggling. He added Macy’s is investing aggressively on the digital front — an attempt to fend off retail giant Amazon. A week later the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has traded negatively in each instance, down an average of 2 percent. In fact, Macy’s is the the stock in the group that tends to hold up a little better. After the initial drop of more than 10 percent, the losses tend to slow,

On the heels of a disappointing earnings report, Macy’s saving grace could be a strategy to focus more resources on growing its off-price brand, Macy’s Backstage, outside of Macy’s full-price department stores. “We’re hoping that by the end of this year, we have a scaleable [off-price] model to aggressively roll out in the future,” CEO Jeff Gennette said Thursday on the company’s earnings conference call. “These are unusual and challenging times for retail, especially formal-based department sto

China has a long road ahead if it wants to rival Hollywood’s influence, said award-winning movie director Zhang Yimou. Chinese audiences hotly follow U.S. actors and movies, but Americans “probably” don’t care much about Chinese movies, Zhang told CNBC. China has splashed billions into the entertainment industry to cobble influence abroad — giant firms like Dalian Wanda and Alibaba invested big in Hollywood. Some critics say Chinese government censorship restricts creativity, while others say th

Since the crude oil bust began in late 2014, prices have rocketed through three major price rallies. In recent weeks, oil prices have dropped more than 10 percent as dismayed bulls closed out their long futures positions. Indeed crude prices rose over three percent on Wednesday on news of a large crude inventory draw. Meanwhile, exempted Libyan output should increase by another 200,000 barrels per day toward 1.0 million barrels per day by fall. Third, U.S. shale oil is roaring back.

Senator Ted Cruz has spent much of his tenure in Washington angering Democrats, Republicans, and the Trump team to boot. This is all because the GOP Obamacare replacement bill is on life support on arrival in the U.S. Senate. No problem, says Cruz who told the Washington Examiner he believes “robust high risk pools” are the answer to covering that segment of the population. But as the option of risk pools is getting more scrutiny lately, some good evidence is popping up that they can work when f

“For longer-term investors, holding off on adding to existing stock market positions may make sense here, as stocks could be markedly cheaper later in the year. If the Trump administration ultimately fails to survive the political turmoil that intensified, without warning this week, one could rightly assume that the stock market could be vulnerable to an extended pullback. That either means that everything is right with the world or the stock market has grown complacent about the risk of an unex

The list is growing of how many people President Trump has fired since he’s been in office. It’s been pretty apparent for a while that President Trump needs to fire the White House press secretary. Of course, whoever holds the press secretary job is probably of little importance to actual voters, and mentally healthy non-politicos. Insisting to the news media that President Trump’s travel ban on people from seven countries was not a “ban,” even though President Trump used that exact word to desc

New applications for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week and the number of Americans on unemployment rolls hit a 28-1/2-year low, pointing to a rapidly tightening labor market that could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in June. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 236,000 for the week ended May 6, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were unrevised. Economists polled by Reuters had fo

Inflation at the wholesale level jumped in April by the largest amount in three months, fueled by rising prices of food and energy. The Labor Department says its producer price index, which measures inflation before it reaches the consumer, rose 0.5 percent in April. It was the largest gain since similar 0.5 percent rise in January. Energy prices rose 0.8 percent in April, while food costs were up 0.9 percent. Overall inflation at the wholesale level was up 2.5 percent over the past 12 months, t

Less than two weeks ago, Donald Trump sent Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn out in front of reporters to unveil the administration’s “massive,” “phenomenal,” “big league” tax plan. The big reveal turned out to be a one-page, double-spaced outline that gave the impression it had been slapped together minutes before the press conference. When Mnuchin and Cohn were asked basic details about how the plan would work, their answers, invariably, were “w

The Kushner real estate family, whose scion Jared Kushner is President Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, has run into more turbulence in Jersey City, where it has placed a major bet on development. The Kushners have six projects under development in Jersey City — with square footage equivalent to two Empire State Buildings — the once blue-collar town that sits a mile across the Hudson River from Manhattan. But the mayor of Jersey City, Steven Fulop, also cast a shadow over an existing Kushne

Redefining philanthropy: Everyone has something to give Tuesday, 9 May 2017 | 6:51 AM ET | 03:42Millennials tend to give to charitable causes in the spur of the moment and based on emotion more than baby boomers do, a new study has found. Fidelity Charitable, the nonprofit arm of Fidelity Investments that runs its donor-advised fund program, found that 71 percent of millennial women give to charity based on the moment while less than half of baby boomer women do so. The study is based on respons

College students can expect to cough up even more money as they borrow for school next year. Starting in July, interest rates will rise on new federal loans for 2017-2018. They will pay 6 percent for a direct unsubsidized loan — which begins accruing interest as soon as the borrower takes out the loan — an increase from 5.31 percent this year. Finally, rates on direct PLUS loans, which both graduate students and parents of undergrads can use, will rise to 7 percent from last year’s 6.31 percent.

This is the latest volley in the ongoing proxy battle between Buffalo Wild Wings and the activist investor. “Shareholders deserve a management and Board who believe in the tremendous future potential of Buffalo Wild Wings — who like Marcato — believe that [Buffalo Wild Wings’] share price could be greater than $400 by 2021,” he said. The activist investor began pushing for Buffalo Wild Wings to refranchise more of its restaurants last July. Buffalo Wild Wings has defended its management, saying

Globalism and expanded trade policies have helped the global economy more than they’ve hurt displaced workers and efforts to suppress their growth won’t work, New York Fed President William Dudley said Thursday. Dudley, an influential voice on the central bank’s policy direction, offered a strong defense of open trade borders in a speech at the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai, India. In fact, he said, much of Asia has benefited from more open trade relationships. For areas of the economy that ha

Wall Street is waiting to find out exactly how much more money Wells Fargo management plans to save through cost cuts when top executives give six hours of presentations at the bank’s investor day on Thursday. Wells Fargo should be able to achieve another $3 billion in savings, Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg wrote in a report last week. While other big U.S. banks have carried out massive layoffs and cost-cutting over the past several years, Wells Fargo has been a relative spendthrift. Costs rel

The current fiscal year is expected to end with a budget deficit of $534 billion, $100 billion more than last year, according to the most recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office. Years of government spending exceeding revenue have exploded the national debt to $19.8 trillion, $14.3 trillion of which is owed by the public. During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly denounced the culture of debt and deficits and promised to end it once he got to Washington. However, his agg

“In need of Lantus will trade Novolog,” read a post in one of the forums. “I have Lantus pen and I’ll trade you as I need Novolog! Then someone in the opposite position, whose insurance covers Novolog but they would rather have Humalog might respond — and they’ll swap, mailing each other their drugs. When her husband switched jobs and insurance plans, she panicked when the new plan wouldn’t cover her brand of insulin, Humalog, made by Eli Lilly. But with a new move and new job coming up and ins

I had no clue how student loans worked, and N.Y.U. I, like many others, dutifully but mindlessly make my monthly payments, mostly resigned to being in debt forever. But robotically making monthly payments doesn’t have to be the whole story. Here are three lessons I’ve learned from Ron on how to be more strategic about student loans. If you’re just starting out, this is a great place to begin, as is The Times’s student loan calculator.)

Legendary investor Warren Buffett, billionaire Richard Branson and other successful individuals approach life differently. They see their time, money and career potential as precious resources that they need to make the most of. And that’s one the key reasons they got to where they are. By adopting their mental strategies as well as ones experts say are linked to success, you can get closer to a fulfilling career and a higher quality of life.