Market could hit new highs by next year, says investment strategist
"We remain in a secular bull market," said Sanctuary Wealth chief investment strategist Mary Ann Bartels, who believes the S&P 500 could hit new highs by next year.
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The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Aldi is cutting prices on hundreds of items to help consumers deal with ‘sticker shock' in the rest of the world
Aldi is slashing prices on more than 400 items, aiming to ease consumer concerns over rising grocery bills. The discount grocer announced efforts Tuesday to help its customers across its 2,400 US stores save over $100 million over the summer months. From now until Labor Day, shoppers can expect lower prices on about 25% of its products, including grilling meats, organic produce, pantry items, and other popular summer items. 'Our customers count on Aldi for the lowest prices of any national grocer, every day, and we never take that trust for granted,' Jason Hart, Aldi CEO, said in a news release. 'While customers may see higher prices at other retailers, we're working hard to unlock even more value for our shoppers, just in time for summer's lineup of holidays and gatherings where food takes center stage. It's another way we're doubling down on our commitment to help shoppers fill their carts with great products for less.' The lowered prices come after the Department of Agriculture announced it expects grocery prices to rise by at least 3.3 percent this year. There have been fears of higher prices in the wake of President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' announcement of tariffs on goods from most countries around the world earlier this year, and the changing rates and policies since then. 'We want to do what we can to help shoppers,' Scott Patton, Aldi's chief commercial officer, said in a news release. 'Value isn't a trend at Aldi. It's been in our DNA since we opened our first store nearly 50 years ago.' In February, Aldi announced plans to open over 225 new US stores in 2025, aiming for 800 new locations by 2028 as part of a five-year growth strategy. There are currently over 2,500 Aldi stores in the US.
Reuters
44 minutes ago
- Reuters
US immigration raid of Omaha meat plant cuts staff, fuels food production worries
CHICAGO, June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. meat producer Glenn Valley Foods was operating an Omaha, Nebraska, facility with about 30% of its staff on Wednesday after federal agents detained workers in an immigration raid the previous day, slashing the output of products it sells to grocery stores and restaurants, the company's president said. In the wake of Tuesday's sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, livestock traders and market analysts expressed concerns that the potential deportation of undocumented workers from such raids could disrupt U.S. food production at a time when beef prices have soared and meat processors report a labor shortage. ICE agents detained about 74 to 76 workers out of roughly 140 at the Glenn Valley Foods plant, President Chad Hartmann said. Other workers did not show up on Wednesday because they felt afraid or traumatized, he said, adding that the facility's production dropped to about 20% of normal. Glenn Valley Foods sells steak, chicken and corned beef products to restaurants and grocery stores, according to its website. Retail beef prices have set records as the size of the U.S. cattle herd has declined to its lowest level in 70 years after a years-long drought raised feed costs. Consumer demand for steaks and hamburgers has stayed strong nevertheless. Glenn Valley Foods is trying to determine how long it will take to hire new employees, Hartmann said. "The hole that got punched into our business is staffing," he said. Livestock traders worried that immigration raids could slow meat companies' demand to buy cattle from farmers to process into beef, if the companies do not have enough workers. Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures came under pressure on Tuesday during the raid, after recently hitting records. "There's certainly going to be nervousness out there on where the labor situation goes, going forward," said Matt Wiegand, a commodity broker for risk management firm FuturesOne in Nebraska. Meatpackers still face an acute worker shortage, said Julie Anna Potts, president of the Meat Institute industry group. It worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, when major companies such as Tyson Foods (TSN.N), opens new tab temporarily shut plants because of a lack of workers. Glenn Valley used E-Verify, a federal database used for checking employees' immigration status. Hartmann said Homeland Security told him on Wednesday that there was no better system. "We will have to continue to use it," he said. ICE said a criminal investigation was ongoing into what immigration officials called a large-scale employment of immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally. Footage, opens new tab of the Glenn Valley raid released by ICE showed agents searching the plant, restraining workers' hands and ankles, and taking them into custody. ICE officers have been intensifying efforts in recent weeks to deliver on U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda of record-level deportations. Tensions boiled over in Los Angeles over the weekend when protesters took to the streets after ICE arrested migrants at Home Depot stores, a garment factory and a warehouse, according to rights advocates. On Tuesday night, demonstrators marched in New York, Atlanta and Chicago. More than half of all meatpacking workers in the U.S. are immigrants, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank. The Omaha World-Herald newspaper said on Tuesday that raids were also reported at local plants run by large meatpackers Tyson and JBS USA ( Tyson and JBS told Reuters their facilities were not raided.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Is chancellor's spending review the start of a 'national renewal' - or too good to be true?
If you sat through the entire spending review speech delivered by Rachel Reeves in the House of Commons, you might have been lulled into a sense that the UK was awash with a wealth of riches as the chancellor sprinkled billions across the land. There were billions for social housing, nuclear power stations, rail lines and research and development to power the economy. There was money for schools, the police, the NHS, and defence spending, as the chancellor sketched out her roadmap for Britain for years to come, with an acknowledgement that the government - and particularly this chancellor - had endured a difficult first year. "We are renewing Britain. But I know that too many people in too many parts of our country are yet to feel it…the purpose of this spending review is to change that," she said. There was £113bn of borrowing to fund capital investment and an extra £190bn over the course of the parliament for public services, fuelled by those contentious tax rises in the budget last autumn. This was a Labour chancellor turning her back on austerity. "In place of decline, I choose investment. In place of retreat, I choose national renewal," she said. The chancellor deserves credit for the capital investment, which she hopes will unlock jobs and power economic growth. But when something sounds too good to be true, it normally is. For me, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell hit the nail on the head on Wednesday night as he remarked rather wryly to me that "the greater the applause on the day, the greater the disappointment by the weekend". 3:43 Could tax hikes be needed? Because, in talking up the prospect of national renewal, the chancellor glossed over what the "hard choices" mean for all of us. There are questions now swirling about where the cuts might fall in day-to-day budgets for those departments which are unprotected, with local government, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and the Department for Environment all facing real-terms cuts. My colleague Ed Conway, analysing the government figures, found cuts in the schools budget for the last two years of this parliament - the chancellor's top line figure showed an overall rise of 0.6% over the five-year period of this Labour government. There are questions too over whether council tax bills might be increased in order to top up local government and police budgets. Ms Reeves told me in an interview after her speech that they won't, but she has predicated increases in police funding and local government funding coming locally, rather than from central government, so I will be watching how that will play out. 4:28 Even with the increase in health spending - the NHS is getting a 3% boost in its annual budget - there are questions from health experts whether it will be enough for the government to hit a routine operations target of treating 92% of patients within 18 weeks. My point is that this might not be - to again quote Mr McDonnell - "mathematical austerity", but after over a decade where public dissatisfaction in public services has grown, the squeeze of day-to-day spending could make it hard for the chancellor to persuade working people this is a government delivering the change for them. There is pressure to reverse some of the welfare cuts, and pressure to lift the two-child benefit cap, while the pressure to reverse the winter fuel allowance has already resulted in Reeves this week making a £1.25bn unfunded spending commitment (she will set out how she is paying for it at the next budget). 10:03 Will voters feel the 'renewal'? Reeves told me on Wednesday there was no need for tax rises in the autumn because the spending envelope had already been set, and the money now divvied out. It's a very live question as to whether that can hold if the economy weakens. She did not rule out further tax rises when I asked her last week, while Treasury minister Emma Reynolds told my colleague Ali Fortescue on Wednesday night: "I'm not ruling it in, I'm not ruling it out." The gamble is that, by investing in infrastructure and getting spades in the ground, and tilting limited public money into the NHS, the government can arrive at the next election with enough 'proof points' to persuade voters to stick with them for another five years. On Wednesday, the chancellor laid the foundations she hopes will turn the government's fortunes around. The risk is that voters won't feel the same by the time they are asked to choose.
