Key Inflation Measure Rises Less Than Expected In February
(Washington, DC) -- A key inflation measure watched by the Federal Reserve is slowing slightly. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index which doesn't include food and energy rose three-tenths of a percent in February. On a yearly basis, it's up four-point-six percent. The softer than expected reading comes as monthly energy prices dipped.
>>Weekly Jobless Claims Rise
(Washington, DC) -- Weekly jobless claims are up. Government figures show claims rose by seven-thousand last week, landing at 198-thousand. That's a few thousand more than most analysts had expected. Another key economic report that's sure to get a lot of attention today is the GDP report. The nation's gross domestic product, meaning the economy's total output of goods and services, grew at a rate of two-point-six percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 despite rising interest rates.
>>Virgin Orbit Fails To Launch, Will End Operations
(Long Beach, CA) -- Virgin Orbit is ending its operations "for the foreseeable future," the company said late Thursday. CEO Dan Hart said the satellite launch company was done in because it couldn't secure a funding lifeline. Virgin Orbit will lay off 90-percent of its workforce, keeping only 100 employees working. The company developed a system that uses a modified 747 to send satellites into space by dropping a rocket from under the jumbo jet's wing. Virgin Orbit's last mission failed when launch problems kept the rocket from reaching orbit, instead crashing into the ocean.
>>Reports: Netflix To Make Fewer Movies, 2 Executives Leaving
(Los Gatos, CA) -- Netflix reportedly will make fewer movies and cut ties with two longtime executives. Bloomberg reports the changes are part of restructuring of the streaming giant's film group, combining small and mid-sized film units and leading to layoffs. Bloomberg and Variety report that Lisa Nishimura, who led Netflix's documentary and small-budget films will leave the company, along with film group vice president Ian Bricke. Bricke reportedly had been with Netflix for more than 20 years and Nishimura for more than 15.
>>Sam Bankman-Fried Back In Court
(New York, NY) -- Former crypto-king Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in federal court yesterday on bribery charges. Bankman-Fried is accused of bribing a Chinese government official 40-million-bucks in 2021 when he was the FTX CEO. The new indictment alleges Bankman-Fried directed an employee to bribe the official after Chinese authorities froze several of his accounts worth more than one-billion-dollars. He's already waiting trial after being hit with a list of charges due to the collapse of FTX, formerly one of the globe's biggest cryptocurrency firms. He's expected to face trial on these new charges in October.
>>Ford, Battling High Costs, Hikes F-150 Lightning's Price Again
(Dearborn, MI) -- Ford is raising the price of its popular F-150 Lightning pickup truck again. Ford's website showed on Thursday that the price of the electric pickup is going up again, the latest is a series of price hikes aimed at offsetting rising costs. The base model of the F-150 Lightning now starts just under 60-thousand dollars. That's nearly 50-percent higher than its starting price when it launched last year.
