Airlines are the 'ultimate thermometer' of global health, says Abra Group CEO
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Maine Trust for Local News workers rally to expand their union
Workers and union organizers walk out of the Portland Press Herald offices in South Portland, Maine on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, to attend a rally in support of expanding their union to cover reporters at other publications run by the Press Herald's parent organization, the Maine Trust for Local News. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) About three dozen reporters, photographers, page designers and union activists gathered on a brown lawn adjacent to the Portland Press Herald offices and printing plant Tuesday morning to announce their drive to unionize news workers at all of the Maine Trust for Local News' weekly and daily paper operations around the state. The News Guild of Maine, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, already represents about 150 workers at the Trust's papers and aims to include the 50 or so remaining non-union jobs at the Sun Journal in Lewiston, The Times Record in Brunswick and the Trust's 17 weekly publications. Workers at the daily Kennebec Journal are represented by a separate branch of the CWA and are in the process of merging with the guild. 'More than 70% of those [50 non-union] workers have signed union authorization cards,' said Megan Gray, president of the News Guild of Maine. On Monday, the guild filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking voluntary union recognition for those workers. The guild has marked the effort as a drive for 'One Big Union.' The nonprofit Trust is the state's largest network of independent news and media outlets. It's a subsidiary of the Colorado-based National Trust for Local News. Management at the Trust has yet to respond to union demands. Messages seeking comment were not immediately returned. Speakers at the union rally expressed concerns about huge pay disparities between publications within the Trust, lack of job security and dwindling local content as papers are forced to work with fewer reporters and share non-local stories. Paul Bagnall, an experienced reporter at The Times Record, said as a non-union worker he makes $18 per hour while starting reporters at the Press Herald earn a minimum of $28.75 per hour. 'With the cost of living going up, my paycheck has already stretched to a breaking point,' Bagnall said. 'I am currently priced out of potential sources of information — going out to events, restaurants and cafes due to the cost of living — and it's still rising.' Joe Lawlor, a longtime Press Herald reporter, called Bagnall's pay shameful. 'We can do better,' Lawlor said. Sophie Burchell, a non-union reporter at the Trust's southern Maine community news division, said her job is unfairly seen as a stepping stone, rather than a sustainable career. 'I want it to be seen as a place people can grow and thrive,' Burchell said. 'I want to see my peers and their talents thrive in Maine journalism.' Kendra Caruso, an education writer at the Sun Journal, said the Trust isn't living up to its own journalism mission. 'Its stated goal is to prevent news deserts across the nation. However, changes the company implemented early this year, including staff layoffs, have only increased the risk of more news deserts in Maine and decreased the amount of local news coming out of our newsrooms across the state,' Caruso said. Gray said there was no way for the Trust to continue to support local journalism without first supporting its local journalists. 'We're expanding our union because we know that we must invest in our workers in order to invest in the future of journalism,' she said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Walmart's earnings report will test investor confidence in US market
By Siddharth Cavale NEW YORK (Reuters) -Investors expect Walmart's management to strike a cautious tone on customer demand as the U.S. labor market cools and inflation ticks up, though the company has outperformed its peers over the last year due to its reliance on grocery sales and wealthier customers shopping there more often. Still, analysts say this environment is a sweet spot for Walmart, which reports second-quarter results on Thursday before markets open. Its low-price model and dominance in grocery can help it weather economic storms better than others. The world's largest retailer by sales has surpassed earnings estimates for 11 consecutive quarters, according to LSEG data, sending its valuation soaring even as other consumer staples companies have struggled this year. The Arkansas-based chain's stock has gained nearly 37% in the last 12 months, one of the notable non-tech companies leading a market that has largely sloughed off the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war. The broader Consumer Staples sector is up 4.5%, trailing the broad-market S&P 500. The company's May-to-July results are the most closely watched event among this week's retail earnings, following Tuesday's results from Home Depot and Wednesday's reports from Lowe's and Target. Its significance goes beyond retail; as one of the largest and most recognizable companies in the U.S., Walmart is viewed as a barometer for the state of the U.S. consumer. "Walmart essentially is middle America, so I'll be looking for cues from Walmart as to the health of the broader economy," said Charles Sizemore, a Walmart investor. U.S. shoppers remain resilient despite declining sentiment, but they are being increasingly selective about purchases and have shown signs of trading down. RBC Capital Markets analyst Steven Shemesh cautioned that Walmart may adopt a more cautious tone heading into the second half. "The million-dollar question at this point is how customers respond to higher prices. We have seen some higher prices to date, and the consumer has managed through them OK, and we haven't seen a material impact to volume. But I don't think they're very widespread price increases at this point where the consumer has really noticed," Shemesh said. Home Depot missed estimates for quarterly revenue and profit, but kept its annual forecasts intact on Tuesday. Walmart's forward price-to-earnings ratio currently stands at 35.7, compared with an average of 25.5 over the past five years, suggesting investors expect growth. Its market value has soared to about $800 billion, per LSEG Datastream. Investors and analysts expect the retailer to report earnings of 74 cents a share, up nearly 11% from a year ago, and revenue of $176.16 billion, up 4%. Sales fell slightly short of expectations in Walmart's last quarter, but July's retail sales report bolstered analysts' confidence in current spending trends. "July's data showing retail sales grew faster than inflation tells me that the consumer is still spending and unit counts are up," said D.A. Davidson analyst Michael Baker. Reuters' global tariff tracker shows at least 92 out of nearly 300 companies have announced price hikes in response to the trade war, with about one-third from the consumer sectors. That includes Tide detergent and Bounty paper towels maker Procter & Gamble, a top Walmart supplier. "Third quarter is the make-or-break quarter, really, where the higher prices ... are going to be passed along in a more broader way than what we are seeing now," Shemesh said.
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
The senior living market can't keep up with demand as boomers age
Senior living has long been a somewhat under-the-radar real estate play, with a somewhat unappealing reputation. But it is on the edge of a boom — a baby boom to be exact. More than 4 million boomers will hit 80 in the next five years, and occupancy at both active adult and assisted living communities is already rising fast. This comes as annual inventory growth in senior housing just dropped below 1%, the first time that's happened since the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care began tracking the metric in 2006. Ventas, a senior living real estate investment trust with a $31 billion market cap, is betting big on what CEO Deb Cafaro calls the longevity economy. "We're buying billions of dollars a year in senior living, and we're seeing returns in the sevens going in, with low to mid-teens, unlevered IRRs [internal rates of return], so there's significant growth in assets, and we're buying below replacement costs," said Cafaro, who has been at the helm of the company for over 25 years. "I've never seen that combination of investment characteristics in my long career in real estate, and so we're fully taking advantage of all of that." CNBC's Property Play with Diana Olick covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, delivered weekly to your inbox. Subscribe here to get access today. Cafaro said there is 28% projected growth in the senior living demand pool over the next five years. She called the demand tailwinds "incredibly strong and durable." "Think about 2000 in the real estate investment trust business — office was over 20% of the overall REIT pie, and health care was 2%. Now when you look at the pie, office is 5%, and what is it now? It's health care, senior living. It's data centers. It's cell towers. Why? Because that's where the demand is," she said. Cafaro said Ventas, which purchases properties but doesn't develop them, benefits from the deep lack of supply in the senior living sector, from active adult to assisted living to memory care facilities. "As an owner with one of the largest footprints of senior housing, of existing stock in the U.S., we're benefited by the higher cost of development, because we have an installed base and we're acquiring assets actually at below replacement cost, and, right now, that's part of our strategy," Cafaro said. "We feel really good about our base of 850 senior living communities, where occupancies are increasing. And we also feel good about the multibillions of dollars we're investing every year in existing assets," Aegis Living is a developer and operator of senior living facilities in Washington, California and Nevada. The massive supply-demand imbalance weighs heavily on its founder and CEO, Dwayne Clark. "There's a problem brewing, and the only metaphor I can think of, it's like putting a party balloon on the end of a fire hose and watching it increase with great velocity. Velocity without being able to do anything until it pops," Clark said. According to NIC data, there will be just about 4,000 new senior living units developed this year and next year, but demand growth would necessitate 100,000 new beds each year through 2040. "It's the lowest amount of units we've seen since 2009, the lowest. And, again, I've done this for 40 years. I've never seen such a lack of construction starts," Clark said. Average rents at Aegis are around $12,000 a month, but that includes utilities, transportation, food, activities and differing levels of care. Clark said most residents are covering costs in part by using the proceeds from the sale of their homes, which have appreciated dramatically in the past five years. Higher interest rates, he said, are the primary roadblock to new development. "We have six buildings waiting to get refinanced. We never, in our 28-year history, have had more than two. We've got six, and soon to be seven, and it's all on floating debt. So that is a catastrophic problem for the industry. And again, we're not catching up with the demand," he added. Harrison Street is an alternative real estate investment management firm with $55 billion in assets under management. Its U.S. Core Senior Housing strategy posted a more than 30% increase in same-location net operating income last year, according to a company spokesperson. Harris Street has maintained that with new supply constrained and demand durable, this could be the strongest entry point for alternative real estate investment in its 20-year history. "Frankly, over the course of the past 20 years, I can't identify another period where we were more excited about the current setup within the sector," said Mike Gordon, global CIO of Harrison Street, which invests in the independent and assisted living segments, as well as memory care. Gordon said severe uncertainty in the first years of the pandemic — when there were horror stories of infections and fatalities in senior living facilities — has largely been resolved. He now said there are more seniors living in these communities than there were pre-Covid. Harrison Street acquired about 20 senior communities during 2020-2021, at the start of the pandemic, when there was virtually no liquidity in the sector. Over the past few years, growing demand and tight supply have resulted in annual average rent increase of nearly 5% across the sector and high single digits in certain markets, according to Harrison Street. Despite high interest rates overall, Gordon said private investors have new interest in the sector, thanks to that strong rent growth. "What we're seeing right now is a real quick return of liquidity into the sector," Gordon said.
