>>Ahead Of The Bell
(New York, NY) -- The opening bell rings this morning after stocks closed lower on Wall Street Wednesday. The session started off with the major averages trading higher but they eventually fell into the red as the market attempted to regain losses from the selloff on Monday. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 234 points to 38-763. The S&P 500 lost 40 points to 51-99. The Nasdaq dropped by 171 points to 16-195. Investors today will be keeping an eye out for word on wholesale inventories as well as earnings reports from the likes of Frontier Group Holdings, Paramount Global and Eli Lily. Weekly jobless claims are also due with most analysts predicting a slight drop in initial requests from the previous week, coming in at right around 240-thousand.
>>JPMorgan CEO Dimon Says Recession Is Still "Likely"
(New York, NY) -- The head of JPMorgan Chase says there still might be a recession. CEO Jamie Dimon spoke to CNBC on Wednesday and said he still believes the odds of a "soft landing" for the U.S. economy are around 35 to 40-percent, making a recession a "likely scenario." Dimon said the U.S. is not in a recession right now, but he's "a little bit of a skeptic" that the Federal Reserve can bring inflation down to its two-percent target. He added, though, that he remains optimistic that if the U.S. does experience a recession - in his words - "we would be okay."
>>Delta Facing Lawsuit After Tech Outage
(Atlanta, GA) -- Delta is facing massive repercussions from the tech outage that affected thousands of passengers last month. A lawsuit filed this week against the airline accused the company of failing to provide passengers with vouchers for meals, hotels and transportation. Delta's CEO says the CrowdStrike outage caused the airline to lose half-a-billion-dollars. A letter from CrowdStrike's legal counsel to Delta rejected those claims and said it was "highly disappointed by Delta's suggestion that CrowdStrike acted inappropriately." The letter added that CrowdStrike's CEO offered personal online assistance to Delta's CEO but didn't receive a response.
>>Tourism Still Significantly Down On Maui 1 Year After Wildfires
(Maui, HI) -- A year after the deadly Lahaina wildfire that claimed over 100 lives, Maui's tourism numbers are still significantly low. The most recent data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority shows visitor arrivals down 22 percent this summer compared to 2023. And, visitor spending was down 27 percent from a year prior. After the wildfires, officials told visitors to stay away from West Maui, but many opted to stay away from the entire island, which has had a major economic impact. The HTA is now preparing to launch a campaign targeting travelers from Southern California, which is historically Maui's most important visitor market.
>>Study Shows The Cities Adding The Most Debt
(Boston, MA) -- Americans have a massive amount of household debt and continue to rack it up at a breakneck pace. Total household debt has now reach over 17-trillion-dollars. The debt is mostly being driven by soaring costs for food, housing, and auto loans. WalletHub reports Boston, North Las Vegas and Madison, Wisconsin are the cities where Americans are adding the most debt.
>>Roku Launching 24/7 Sports Channel
(San Jose, CA) -- Roku is coming off the bench. On Wednesday, the company revealed that it's launching a 24/7 sports channel. The ad-supported station will be free and feature live Major League Baseball games. It will also include original programing featuring the NFL, NBA and WNBA among other sports. Roku's sports division head, Joe Franzetta, called it a "curated always- on channel," noting that sports is one of the most watched genres for the company. Viewers can start tuning into the channel on Monday.
>>McDonald's Announces "Collector's Meal"
(Chicago, IL) -- McDonald's will give customers the chance to walk down memory lane with its latest special meal offering. The "Collector's Meal" goes on sale August 13th and will feature six collectible cups that are reminiscent of the glasses the fast food chain sold in the 1980s and 90s. The cup designs will spotlight classic McDonald's giveaways such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Beanie Babies, Jurassic Park and Shrek. The breakfast version of the meal will come with a Sausage McMuffin with Egg sandwich, hash brown and hot coffee. Meanwhile, during lunch the meal will come with either a ten-piece Chicken McNuggets or a Big Mac sandwich along with fries and a soft drink.
