Business

UPS shares tank 15% after weak guidance, plan to slash Amazon deliveries by more than half

Jan. 31, 2025

Shares of United Parcel Service plunged more than 15% Thursday after the company issued weak revenue guidance for the year and said it planned to cut deliveries for Amazon, its largest customer, by more than half. The shipping giant said in its fourth-quarter earnings report that it “reached an agreement in principle with its largest customer to lower its volume by more than 50% by the second half of 2026.” At the same time, UPS said it is reconfiguring its U.S. network and launching multiyear efficiency initiatives that it expects will result in savings of approximately $1 billion.

Business

Big investors strike a cautious tone on markets for 2025 with Trump policies, inflation posing risks

Jan. 31, 2025

The backdrop should be reassuring for many investors: A lively bull market, pro-business policies promised by the Trump administration and a Federal Reserve close to pulling off a soft landing. However, Wall Street’s biggest names aren’t sounding so bullish for the year ahead. Convening at an alternative investments conference in Miami this week, hedge-fund titans and industry pros collectively struck a cautious tone about elevated market valuations and potentially negative impacts from President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies. Point72′s Steve Cohen said he believes tariffs and an immigration crackdown will stoke inflationary pressures and hinder consumer spending. The family office head and Mets owner therefore expects the broader market to get bumpy, particularly in the second half of the year.

Business

Key Fed measure shows core inflation at 2.8%, in line with expectations

Jan. 31, 2025

Inflation closed out 2024 on a strong note, as a price gauge the Federal Reserve focuses on came in well above the central bank’s target, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The personal consumption expenditures price index increased 2.6% on a year-over-year basis in December, 0.2 percentage point higher than the November reading and in line with the Dow Jones estimate. Excluding food and energy, core PCE registered a 2.8% reading, also meeting expectations and the same as the prior month. Though the Fed considers both readings, historically officials have seen core as the better gauge of long-run inflation.

Business

LVMH watch and jewelry CEOs see luxury sales picking up in 2025

Jan. 31, 2025

After a year of declines, sales of watches and jewelry at luxury giant LVMH rebounded in the latest quarter and continued to shine into January, according to several of the company’s brand CEOs. In its earnings call this week, LVMH reported that sales for its watches and jewelry group increased 3%, after falling in the previous quarters. The division outperformed the company’s core fashion and leather goods segment, which was down 1% during the quarter, as well as wine and spirits, which declined 8%. In interviews during LVMH Watch Week in New York, the CEOs of several of the conglomerate’s watch and jewelry brands said they’re increasingly optimistic about 2025. While China remains slow, they said a rebound in spending by Americans — both in the U.S. and Europe — is driving strong demand for both watches and jewelry.

Business

How hard is it to buy a home right now? The new NBC News Home Buyer Index measures the market

Jan. 31, 2025

Why is it so hard to buy a home? Prices have far outpaced middle-class incomes. Mortgage rates are above 7% for the first time since 2002. And 3 out of 10 homes are sold above listing price. But none of those factors fully captures the variety of challenges buyers nationwide face in the current market. The conditions on the ground can vary widely across state and even county lines. To better capture how housing market conditions shift at the local level — as comprehensively and in as close to real time as possible — we’re introducing a new monthly gauge: the NBC News Home Buyer Index.

Business

WNBA files trademark application to bring back 'Detroit Shock' as city submits expansion bid

Jan. 31, 2025

As cities across the country vie for the next Women’s National Basketball Association team, the league quietly filed a trademark application this week for the name “Detroit Shock.” The filing, dated Thursday, notes the intended use is for a basketball team, merchandise, jerseys and in-arena signage that could appear on TV or radio broadcasts. It could offer clues into the league’s ultimate decision for the location of a new franchise. On Friday, Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores submitted a bid for the Motor City to host a new team. The ownership group would be led by Gores and also includes Detroit Lions principal owner and chair Sheila Ford Hamp; former Detroit Pistons stars Grant Hill and Chris Webber; General Motors CEO Mary Barra; and Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff.

Entertainment

FireAid benefit concerts rock out in support of LA with help from Green Day, No Doubt and more

Jan. 31, 2025

An impressive lineup of musicians came together for a good cause on Thursday evening. Two concerts collectively referred to as FireAid kicked off at the Kia Forum and the Intuit Dome in the city of Inglewood in Los Angeles County to support relief efforts in the wake of the deadly wildfires that ignited earlier this month in the LA area, claiming 29 lives and causing billions of dollars in damage. Green Day opened the Forum show with their song “Last Night on Earth,” featuring a surprise appearance by Billie Eilish, and then followed up with their anthem “Still Breathing” off their 2016 album “Revolution Radio” and their 1994 hit “When I Come Around” from “Dookie.”

Entertainment

Country singer Carly Pearce's ‘debilitating chest pain’ led to chronic heart condition diagnosis

Jan. 31, 2025

Country music star Carly Pearce is sharing a health update after she was diagnosed with a heart condition called pericarditis. The 34-year-old singer detailed her "intense" symptoms during an appearance on "Today." "I had a really debilitating chest pain that was only relieved if I bent over like this (leaning forward), and that's a classic symptom of pericarditis," she explained on the morning show.

Sports

Deion Sanders' son likens himself Trump when discussing people who 'always just try to destroy you'

Jan. 31, 2025

The Sanders family is in the football limelight, and for very good reason. Shedeur Sanders may very well be the first selection in this year's NFL Draft just as his father, Deion, has put the Colorado football program on the map as the team's head coach. After a successful season, Deion's name has been floated around the NFL rumor mill, perhaps not coincidentally, as his son will go pro in about three months.

Entertainment

‘Scream’ alum Matthew Lillard hints that killer Stu Macher is coming back

Jan. 31, 2025

“My mom and dad are gonna be soo mad at me!!” This line, famously spoken by the character Stu Macher in the original 1996 “Scream” movie, made a momentous new appearance Thursday when actor Matthew Lillard, who played Stu, posted a video on Instagram Thursday teasing a return to the “Scream” franchise after 30 years away. In the video, a disembodied hand is seen writing the phrase – one of the final lines spoken by Stu in the movie after he was was revealed to be the accomplice to killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich).