For: February 27, 2026
>>Trading Week Winding Down
(New York, NY) -- The opening bell rings this morning after stocks closed mix on Wall Street Thursday. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17 points to 49-499. The S&P 500 dropped 37 points to 69-08. The Nasdaq fell 273 points to 22-878.
>>Trump Administration Plans To Repeal Independent Contractor Rule
(Washington, DC) -- The Trump administration is looking to make it easier for employers to classify workers as independent contractors. On Thursday the Labor Department released a proposal to repeal a rule from the Biden administration that requires businesses to classify workers as employees when they are "economically dependent" on the company they for work. Being an employee entitles a worker to a minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance and other protections. The Labor Department says the Biden era rule is flawed and deprives workers of the flexibility that comes with being an independent contractor.
>>Mortgage Rates Reach Lowest Level In Years
(McLean, VA) -- Mortgage interest rates are now at the lowest level seen in years. Freddie Mac said on Thursday the average 30-year mortgage rate is down to five-point-98-percent. This marks the first team mortgage rates have hit below six percent since 2022. Mortgage rates have been gradually coming down since reaching a peak of seven-point-eight-percent in October 2023. Around the same time last year, rates were at nearly seven-percent.
>>Block Cuts 4,000 Jobs
(Oakland, CA) -- Payments company Block is cutting 40 percent of its global workforce. CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday that four-thousand jobs were being eliminated. The company, which runs Square, Cash App and Tidal, saw its stock price soar 24 percent in after-hours trading.
>>Burger King To Launch AI Chatbot That Lives In Employees Headsets
(Undated) -- Burger King is launching an AI chatbot that will live in the headsets used by employees. The chatbot, called "Patty," will assist employees with meal preparation and will also evaluate their interactions with customers for "friendliness." The Verge reports that the company compiled information from franchisees and guests on how to measure friendliness, which pushed the fast food chain to train its system to recognize certain words and phrases such as "please" and "thank you." Employees can also ask Patty questions, like proper cleaning instructions or details about ingredients for meals. Patty is piloting in 500-restaurants.
>>Papa Johns Closing Hundreds Of Locations
(Atlanta, GA) -- Papa Johns is shuttering hundreds of underperforming restaurants in North America. The pizza chain revealed the information during an earnings call on Thursday that approximately 300 restaurants will close by the end of 2027, and about 200 of them will shut their doors this year. In addition to the closures, the company cut about seven-percent of its roughly 700-person corporate workforce. The closures follow a tough fourth quarter for the popular chain, which reported a five-point-four percent decline in same-store sales in North America as customers pull back on spending.
