Strasser’s firm invests in those specialty e-commerce companies he thinks would be good acquisitions for department stores, like framing business Framebridge or CustomInk, a custom t-shirt company. However, retail analyst Liz Dunn believes that will be challenging for department stores, whose “business is clearly broken.” That’s what we’re looking at with department stores. “This is a secular problem for the department stores. And the one thing that you can’t do is extrapolate what’s happening a

While there’s no shortage of news out of the Trump administration, mentions of the president have begun to fade from corporate earnings conference calls. From the start of April up to Thursday, a period the encompasses the bulk of first-quarter earnings season, “Trump” has been mentioned on 32 S&P 500 companies’ earnings calls, according to a CNBC analysis of FactSet data. That compares with 72 companies’ mentions in the same time period three months prior, although that is still substantially h

Saudi Arabia plans to make a $40 billion investment in one of President Donald Trump’s pet projects, U.S. infrastructure development, according a media report. The announcement may coincide with Trump’s visit to the kingdom next week, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. However, they cautioned that no final decision had been made and the announcement could be delayed. Saudi Arabia has been telegraphing its eagerness to invest in the United States for months. Saudi Energy Minist

A customer service representative said debit cards should still work for purchase transactions, but she noted that the bank’s website and app were out of service for the service team, as well. The representative told CNBC to call back “in a few hours.” Chase later said: “We are currently working to restore access to our website, mobile app and automated telephone service.” Chase customers took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

On a day when many retail stocks struggled, Nordstrom on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings and sales that beat analysts’ expectations. The department store chain reported earnings of 43 cents per share adjusted on revenue of $3.35 billion. Total same-store sales — a metric closely watched for retail stocks by Wall Street — fell 0.8 percent versus an estimate for a 0.1 percent drop, according to FactSet. In the Nordstrom Rack brand, which consists of Nordstrom Rack stores and Nordstromrack

For consumers, the higher inflation could mean elevated airline, hotel, and food prices, to name a few, based on what the PPI data show. There’s a strange decline in March month to month in both PCE core inflation and CPI core inflation. It was responsible for about a tenth of a percent decline in core CPI. Stanley said in April that there could be a bigger-than-usual jump in hotel costs, since PPI showed a 7.5 percent increase. Saijid noted that food prices in PPI rose 0.9 percent for a second

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein denied on Thursday that he threatened to quit over President Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey. When asked by a Sinclair Broadcast Group reporter if he made such a threat, Rosenstein responded, “No, I’m not quitting.” The Washington Post reported late Wednesday, citing a person close to the White House, that Rosenstein threatened to resign after White House press officials repeated a narrative which painted him as the key influence that led to Comey’s di

For most of the last two days, numerous accounts have discredited White House explanations for the firing of FBI Director James Comey. That made it noteworthy when acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe seemed to back up the Trump administration on one point: whether Comey’s firing followed his request for more resources into the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion with President Donald Trump’s campaign. Advantage White House. Second, he said if the FB

For many gun stores in California, business is soft and getting tougher due to state regulations making it harder to sell firearms. Jerry Brown signed six bills that add more regulations to the gun industry, including ammunition restrictions. Meantime, national gun demand slowed in January and February, but March and April reversed to positive. “We’re starting to see an industry rebound and we tongue-and-cheek refer to it as the Trump bump,” Keane said. “We see long-term growth as actually bette

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he was going to fire “showboat” FBI Director James Comey “regardless” of what the Justice Department recommended, directly contradicting what the White House said a day earlier. In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, Trump said the FBI had been in “turmoil.” “Look, he’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander, the FBI has been in turmoil. You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil, less than a year ago — it hasn’t recovered f

Most Americans say President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey was inappropriate and diminishes their confidence in a fair investigation of potential ties between his campaign and Russians who interfered with the 2016 election. Similarly, 55 percent said Trump’s move makes them less confident that the Russia investigation will be conducted fairly, while 36 percent say it makes them more confident. A 46 percent plurality said Trump acted because of Comey’s handling of the Russia i

“It’s hard to not be entirely sympathetic with them, because they’re paying for coverage that they can’t possibly use.” Premiums for plans covering families increased even higher in 2017 — 20 percent higher than the prior year. The average for families selecting plans was $997 per month this year, which is 49 percent higher than in 2014, eHealth said. In 2017, the average premium for a plan covering a family of four is more than $14,300 annually — or $1,195 per month, the company said. More than

U.S. government debt prices traded mixed on Thursday as investors digested key economic data and a Treasury Department sale. The Treasury Department auctioned $15 billion in 30-year bonds at a high yield of 3.05 percent on Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was marginally lower at 2.402 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond held flat to 3.046 percent. Yields had traded lower across the board before the U.S. government released economic data. The producer p

Basic resources emerged the winner on Thursday, trading up 0.36 percent, buoyed by rising oil prices and major gains for mining giants Fresnillo and Polymetal. At the other end, Europe’s telecoms sector was among the worst performers with most of its stocks trading below the flatline. Banking stocks edged lower Thursday as investors reacted to mixed corporate earnings. On Wall Street, stocks traded lower as retail stocks fell sharply on the back of Macy’s weak quarterly results. Meanwhile, the B

U.S. equities closed lower on Thursday as retail stocks fell sharply on the back of Macy’s weak quarterly results. “When you look at retail and consumer spending, they reignite concerns about the consumer,” said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management. The S&P 500 declined 0.2 percent with Macy’s and Nordstrom dragging the index lower. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) shed 2.7 percent as Macy’s shares tanked by 17 percent. Analysts polled by Reuters expected the firm to report ear

Your Amazon Echo is on the counter playing Bruce Springsteen while you cook. Instead of drying your hands and picking up the phone, you can now ask Amazon to call any other Alexa user — like your brother. Alexa users who own an Echo, or who have the app installed on their iOS or Android smartphone, can now call or message one another for free. I’ve been testing it for a couple of days and I’m blown away by how fun it is to use Alexa to place calls. The calls are clear, too, and Amazon even lets

Now retail investors can keep up with the humming algorithms already keeping track of this stuff on Wall Street for hedge funds. Wall Street firms are increasingly using social media mentions and sentiment analysis in company research reports. “Immediate alerts when powerful people tweet about public companies is a total game changer,” founder Andy Swan told CNBC. The app will allow users to subscribe and follow the tweets from influencers such as “President Donald Trump,” “The Kardashian Sister

However, if you’re truly bullish on Apple, shouldn’t you just buy its stock, and move on from trying to figure out which ETF is the best for your bullish Apple feelings? The two-year chart of Apple versus XLK, though, tells a different story. Facebook vs. SOCLAnother earnings-season headline grabber is Facebook, which is like Apple when it comes to blowing out its earnings report with more beats than Dr. Dre. And inevitably, when Facebook is about to report earnings, we will get similar stories

The new processor bound for the Apple iPhone 8 — likely the A11 chip that will succeed Apple’s A10 Fusion processor — recently entered production, according to a report. DigiTimes said on Thursday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company started production of the new advanced chips for Apple’s iPhone 8, following a few reported setbacks related to how the processor was stacked inside the phone. The report doesn’t mention Apple’s two other expected devices, the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus

The company’s shares were down 20 percent in early trading Thursday, a day after it reported disappointing first-quarter earnings results. Snap posted first-quarter sales of $150 million versus the Wall Street consensus of $158 million. “Snap is a scarce asset that offers advertisers access to a coveted younger demographic,” analyst Stephen Ju wrote. To be fair, the investment banking and research units of Wall Street banks have been separated by a wall since the early 2000s after they were accu