
Kraft Heinz beats quarterly revenue estimates on steady US demand
A mix of sticky inflation and heightened economic uncertainty has forced people to cook more affordable meals at home, helping demand for some of Kraft Heinz's products such as its frozen meals, chilled meats and other pantry staples.
The Jello maker has also raised prices for some of its products such as coffee and meats to offset the higher costs of those commodities.
The company's shares rose about 1% in premarket trading. They have fallen about 7% so far this year.
Its quarterly net sales fell 1.9% to $6.35 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of a 3.35% fall to $6.26 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Now Elon wants to make an age-old motor sector job redundant: Musk launches bonkers car sale feature
Elon Musk's and his electric vehicle brand Tesla are plotting to put a lot of motor industry workers out of a job by debuting an all new sales feature. Tesla has completed the world's first autonomous car delivery – using its self-driving technology to complete the maiden hands-off delivery to a customer. Tesla has released a video showing a Model Y steering itself from the Gigafactory in Texas to the new owner's home – and of course Musk took to X to post about the AI-engineered development that could make delivery drivers redundant. 'To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fully autonomous drive with no people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway,' Musk wrote on the social media platform he owns. Boasting that the personless delivery was 'completed a day ahead of schedule', Musk congratulated the 'Tesla AI teams, both software and AI chop design' - seemingly confirming the need for delivery drivers has been entirely removed from the car buying process. We've quickly become accustomed to an era of car buying where everything can be done online, with no need to step into a dealership, and the car is delivered to your door. But this Tesla world first marks a moment of completely faceless new car deliver... A full clip was uploaded to YouTube where the electric crossover used its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. No human driver or remote operator was involved. Other than Elon Musk confirming that 'there were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point', Tesla hasn't said to what level humans were involved in the process. If staff weren't needed to remove the robotaxi software and replace it with FSD, and it was all done remotely, then the future of car delivery will indeed be very different, as AI and new technology will phased out the need for delivery drivers. There was certainly no driver on the 15-mile journey for this delivery, which included a mix of urban and highway roads. The Model Y successfully drove itself through merging highways, traffic light navigation, side streets and residential parking. The AI-based, camera-only FSD system is part of Tesla's Robotaxi initiative that launched in Austin earlier in June. This autonomous delivery is a step up for Tesla's autonomous driving technology in general, being the clearest marker yet that the US company is accelerating its autonomous roadmap. Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to X to congratulate the 'Tesla AI team' on the first fully autonomous drive to drop a car buyer their new car The new Model Y - what autonomous driving features does it have? The proud Texas owner of the new Model Y will find that his new car is equipped with Tesla's advanced driver-assistance system, Autopilot. As well as Summon, Autopark and Navigate, the Model Y has Full Self-Driving (Supervised) which expands on these features, enabling the vehicle to navigate more complex situations, including intersections and off-ramps, with minimal driver intervention. The driver has to have their hands on the wheel at all times and is responsible for the car's movements while using FSD mode. Available already in the US and Canada, FSD has just undergone its first trials in the UK. Tesla debuted videos of the Model 3 driving around London, navigating the city's dynamic driving situations including around famous landmarks like Pall Mall. Tesla Model Y - how much does the new version cost and what's changed? The new Model Y is the first time the World's Bestselling Car has had a full update. In brief, the latest Tesla Model Y features a redesigned exterior with a new front end inspired by the Cybertruck, including slimmer headlights and a full-width light bar at the rear. The interior also has upgrades including wraparound ambient lighting, more soft-touch materials, and ventilated front seats, and an eight-inch rear touchscreen for passengers in the back. As well as the original Launch Edition there's a Rear-Wheel Drive, a Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive and a Long Range All-Wheel Drive version. The Rear-Wheel Drive does 0 to 60mph in 5.6 seconds and 311 miles on a single charge, while the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive does 0 to 60 in 5.4 seconds and 387 miles. The Long Range All-Wheel Drive comparatively manages 0 to 60mph in 4.6 seconds and 364 miles. The cheapest is the Rear-Wheel Drive Y which starts at £44,990. The Long Range RWD jumps up to £48,990 and the Long Range AWD price bumps up again to £51,990.


The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Republicans slam Trump's firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics chief
Senior Republican lawmakers are condemning the decision of their party leader, Donald Trump, to fire the leading US labor market statistician after a report that showed the national economy added just 73,000 jobs – far fewer than expected – in July. The disappointing figures – coupled with a downward revision of the two previous months amounting to 258,000 fewer jobs and data showing that economic output and consumer spending slowed in the first half of the year – point to an overall economic deterioration in the US. Trump defended his decision to fire US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Erika McEntarfer. Without evidence to back his claims, the president wrote on social media that were numbers were 'RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad' and the US economy was, in fact, 'BOOMING' on his watch. But the firing of McEntarfer, who had been confirmed to her role in January 2024 during Joe Biden's presidency, has alarmed members of Trump's own party. 'If the president is firing the statistician because he doesn't like the numbers but they are accurate, then that's a problem,' said Wyoming Republican senator Cynthia Lummis. 'It's not the statistician's fault if the numbers are accurate and that they're not what the president had hoped for.' Lummis added that if the numbers are unreliable, the public should be told – but firing McEntarfer was 'kind of impetuous'. North Carolina senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, said: 'If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just … because they didn't like the numbers, they ought to grow up.' Kentucky senator Rand Paul, another Republican, questioned whether McEntarfer's firing was an effective way of improving the numbers. 'We have to look somewhere for objective statistics,' he said. 'When the people providing the statistics are fired, it makes it much harder to make judgments that you know, the statistics won't be politicized.' According to NBC News, Paul said his 'first impression' was that 'you can't really make the numbers different or better by firing the people doing the counting'. Tillis and Paul were both opponents of Trump's recent economic legislative package, which the president dubbed the 'big, beautiful bill'. But Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who supported the legislation after winning substantial economic support for her state, remarked that the jobs numbers could not be trusted – and 'that's the problem'. 'And when you fire people, then it makes people trust them even less,' she said. William Beach, a former BLS commissioner appointed by Trump in his first presidency, posted on X that McEntarfer's firing was 'totally groundless'. He added that the dismissal set a dangerous precedent and undermined the BLS's statistical mission. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Beach also co-signed a letter by 'the Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' that went further, accusing Trump of seeking to blame someone for bad news and calling the rationale for McEntarfer's firing 'without merit'. The letter asserted that the dismissal 'undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families and policymakers'. The letter pointed out that the jobs tabulation process 'is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference', adding that US official statistics 'are the gold standard globally'. 'When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science,' the letter said. Democrats have also hit out at Trump's decision. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders described it as 'the sign of an authoritarian type', and he said the decision would make it harder for the American people 'to believe the information that comes out of the government'. Paul Schroeder, executive director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, described the president's allegation against McEntarfer as 'very damaging and outrageous'. He said: 'Not only does it undermine the integrity of federal economic statistics, but it also politicizes data which need to remain independent and trustworthy. This action is a grave error by the administration and one that will have ramifications for years to come.'


Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Zillow CEO reveals what he thinks is the cause of America's 'housing crisis'
Americans everywhere are struggling to purchase homes, with sales reaching a 30 year low in 2024. Despite the tribulations of the housing market itself, the number one real estate site in the country - Zillow - is thriving. CEO Jeremy Wacksman sat down with The New York Times to discuss what may be causing the dip in the housing market and what keeps Zillow afloat amidst it all. The Seattle resident was appointed as CEO a year ago, but has been with the company since 2009. Wacksman added that the major issue with homebuying in the United States is that there is an availability problem. 'We have an affordability crisis, which is driven by an availability crisis. It is a supply-side problem,' he said. While many complain about increasing mortgage rates, he said that it's only a small factor. 'The real problem for a home buyer is home prices are up 30, 50, 70, 100 percent, depending on the market, from pre-pandemic levels. Incomes are not up that much.' According to the US Social Security Office, the average yearly income in 2023 was $66,621, only increasing 4 percent from the year prior. Wacksman noted that if the housing industry had continued to build new properties to keep up with buyer demand, it may not have become the 'crisis' it is today. 'We have been chronically under-building since, really, the global financial crisis,' he said. 'Less supply and a lot of demand is going to keep home prices elevated.' According to Zillow, the average home value is almost $370,000 with just 1.3 million homes in the for-sale inventory. Despite the dip in purchasing and sky-high prices, Zillow is seeing hundreds of millions of unique visitors every month. The company has seen a jump in revenue and its stock is up more than 60 percent. The top site for real-estate listings in the country attracts what the internet has dubbed 'Zillow Surfers.' Those with little to no intention of purchasing a home browse on the website everyday. Wacksman welcomes such browsers. ''Zillow Surfing' is pretty pervasive, regardless of if it's a buyer's market or a seller's market,' he said. 'You spend all this time window shopping and escaping and dreaming. You are getting a little smarter about what you might want, and then something happens and you pull the trigger. 'As a marketer, I don't think you could have a stronger brand endorsement than all of the usage you get from people escaping on your platform.' The way Zillow makes money is by selling ads to real estate companies who want to reach those endlessly scrolling Zillow-surfers. The company requires agents to post listings within 24 hours of being on the market. If not, it's never allowed on the site at all. Real estate companies like Compass have grown wary of Zillow, and even filed a lawsuit claiming they maintain a monopoly, calling it a 'Zillow ban.' But Wacksman said that the lawsuit itself speaks to the larger issues of seller transparency within the United States housing market. 'The heart of the issue is the U.S. real estate market currently exists with a unique amount of transparency,' he said. 'So you and I, as a buyer and seller, can see all available listings, and that empowers us to shop on our own. There are a few companies that are looking to put the internet back in a box and hide inventory and force you to pay them. 'The lawsuit is about challenging that consumer benefit and that transparency.' Now, Zillow is trying to shift toward a 'super app' structure that allows buyers to be connected with any resources that they may need. That includes mortgage providers and rental properties as well as any other related services. The service even offers a three dimensional walk through option to help buyers completely view each property. Wacksman said that marketing a home 'in the broadest sense' is the best way for agents to get the most out of Zillow. Amidst a market low, that may be the best way to break through. 'That's why we spend so much time on the software to help agents do their job well.'