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China’s zero-COVID strategy makes no sense and its homegrown vaccines are not ‘particularly effective,’ says Fauci

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Widespread protests across China over the government’s zero-COVID policy dominated pandemic headlines Monday, with Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, weighing in with the view that the strategy does not make public-health sense.

China’s biggest challenge is low vaccination rates — and a vaccine that has not been “particularly effective at all” compared with the ones being used in the West that are made by Pfizer
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and its German partner BioNTech
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+5.68%
and by Moderna
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+1.08%,
said Fauci, who is retiring next month.

Fauci recalled that when New York hospitals were overwhelmed by COVID cases three years ago, the decision was made to introduce restrictions, such as social distancing and shutdowns, to help flatten the curve of infections. But he noted that it was a temporary move aimed at buying time to get more people vaccinated and move personal protective equipment to where it was needed.

The first vaccine was distributed in the U.S. in December 2020.

Read: U.S. stock futures fall as Chinese protests rattle markets, oil hits 2022 low

“It seems that in China, it was just a very, very strict, extraordinary lockdown where you lock people in the house, but without, seemingly, any endgame to it,” said Fauci, who is also head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci said one mistake the Chinese government has made is to refuse outside vaccines. “But also, interestingly, they did not, for reasons that I don’t fully appreciate, protect the elderly by making sure the elderly got vaccinated,” he said. “So if you look at the prevalence of vaccinations among the elderly, that was almost counterproductive. The people you really needed to protect were not getting protected.”

The protests have roiled financial markets and caused oil prices to erase their entire year-to-date gain. In a highly unusual move, protesters in Shanghai called for China’s powerful leader Xi Jinping to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled Sunday to suppress demonstrations that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party, as the Associated Press reported.

The BBC said reporter Ed Lawrence, who was arrested while covering protests, was beaten and kicked by police while in custody.

“We have had no explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, beyond a claim by the officials who later released him that they had arrested him for his own good in case he caught COVID from the crowd,” the broadcaster said in a statement. “We do not consider this a credible explanation.”

For more, see: BBC says official explanation for journalist arrest in China is that he was detained to prevent contraction of COVID

See also: China protests are biggest threat to Communist Party rule since Tiananmen Square, Kyle Bass says

In a rare show of defiance, crowds in China gathered for a third night as protests against COVID restrictions spread to Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. People held blank sheets of paper, symbolizing censorship, and demanded that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, step down. Photo: Noel Celis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

In the U.S., known cases of COVID are rising again with the daily average standing at 41,997 on Sunday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 6% from two weeks ago.

Cases are currently rising in 22 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Guam, but are falling elsewhere.

The daily average for hospitalizations is up 4% to 29,053. Hospitalizations are rising in 23 states, the tracker shows.

The daily average for deaths is up 4% to 330.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• The World Health Organization said Monday it is recommending the term “mpox” as a new name for monkeypox disease and that it would use both names for a year while “monkeypox” is phased out. “When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO,” the agency said in a statement. “In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name.” The WHO has responsibility for assigning names to new — and exceptionally, to existing — diseases, under the International Classification of Diseases and the WHO Family of International Health Related Classifications through a consultative process that includes WHO member states, it explained. The new name was decided upon following consultations with global experts, it said.

Residents in Shanghai received the world’s first inhaled COVID-19 vaccine by taking sips from a cup. WSJ’s Dan Strumpf explains how the new type of vaccine works and what it means for China’s reopening. Photo: Associated Press/Shanghai Media Group

• Unrest at one of China’s biggest manufacturing centers may cause a production shortfall this year of possibly 6 million Apple iPhone Pros, according to a source cited by Bloomberg. The Foxconn Technology 2354 facility in Zhengzhou, which makes the majority of Apple’s premium phones, has been struggling for weeks as workers rebel against COVID lockdown policies. Apple
AAPL,
-2.13%
recently lowered its overall production target from 90 million units to 87 million units. However, Foxconn believes it can make up any shortfall from Zhengzhou in 2023.

• A blood-thinning drug called Apixaban, which has been used for patients recovering from COVID, does not work and can cause major bleeding, according to new research reported by the Guardian. The anticoagulant, given to patients when they are discharged from a hospital after being treated for moderate or severe COVID, is widely used by hospitals across the U.K.’s National Health Service. However, the government-funded Heal-Covid trial has found that the drug does not work. Charlotte Summers, the chief investigator of the trial, said: “These first findings from Heal-Covid show us that a blood-thinning drug, commonly thought to be a useful intervention in the post-hospital phase, is actually ineffective at stopping people dying or being readmitted to hospital.”

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 641.6 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.63 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 98.6 million cases and 1,079,199 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 228.4 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.8% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 37.6 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 12.1% of the overall population.

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November 28, 2022
Confused about COVID boosters? Here’s what the science and the experts say about the new generation of shots.
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As we head into the third winter of the pandemic, only about 13% of American adults — less than 11% of Americans overall — have received the bivalent COVID-19 booster.

Only about 34 million adults in the U.S. have opted to get the new shot, which became available in September. The bivalent boosters, which were developed by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer, are designed to better protect people against the forms of the virus that are currently circulating.
Medical experts say the lackluster interest in the new boosters is due to several factors: pandemic fatigue, mixed messages from public-health officials, confusion about how the new boosters are different from previous shots, and the government’s decision to authorize the updated boosters without first getting clinical data in humans.

“It’s hard for people to wade through that,” said Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “Some of them are just throwing up their hands and saying, ‘I got vaccinated, and that’s all I need to do.’ Which, unfortunately, is not.”

A lot has changed since 2020. We now have vaccines that do a pretty good job of keeping most people from getting so sick that they end up in the hospital or die. You can now pick up at-home tests from pharmacies, and there are antiviral drugs that help treat COVID and may help prevent long COVID, in which symptoms can linger long after an infection. And now we also have the updated boosters, which are another way to ward off the worst of the virus.

Those boosters, however, don’t confer total protection from getting sick, leading some people, particularly those who are young and healthy, to ask: Why get one, then?

With new variants like BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now the dominant strains circulating in the U.S., and with the coming holidays bringing more people together to spend time socializing indoors with friends and family, it’s important to understand that your immunity, whether from an infection or vaccination, wanes within four to six months. In fact, immunity to all coronaviruses wanes over time “for reasons that we don’t quite understand,” Kami Kim, director of infectious-disease research at Tampa General Hospital’s Global Emerging Diseases Institute, told me.

“If you’re past three months [after vaccination or infection], you don’t want to rely on you having a BA.5 infection, because BQ.1.1 still can hit you,” said Eric Topol, chair of innovative medicine at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif.

Here are answers to some common questions about COVID.

1. What’s the difference between this booster and the shots that were available last year?

The earlier booster shots were simply additional, smaller doses of the original vaccine. But now there are two bivalent COVID-19 boosters available in the U.S.: Moderna’s
MRNA,
+1.61%
MRNA-1273.222 and the BNT162b2 Bivalent from BioNTech
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+0.20%
and Pfizer
PFE,
+1.87%.

Both shots are designed to protect against the original strain of the virus in addition to the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. The bivalent boosters were designed to better protect people against the forms of the virus that are currently circulating, as well as future variants. It’s a similar approach to the way influenza strains are selected for flu shots every year.

“It’s the same exact mRNA technology [as the original vaccine], but each dose now has half of the [original] variant,” said Jennifer Beam Dowd, an epidemiologist and professor of demography and population health at the University of Oxford in the U.K.

In June of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked drugmakers to design the next generation of COVID boosters using this formula. (In Europe, regulators took a slightly different approach, first opting for bivalent boosters that equally protect against the original virus and the BA.1 subvariant of omicron before adding a recommendation for the same bivalent formula that’s being used in the U.S.)

“Part of the rationale for keeping the old version and BA.4/BA.5 is that if you put all your eggs in the basket, as far as BA.4/BA.5, then the virus will change to turn into more like the original version,” said Tampa General Hospital’s Kim. “It’s hedging your bets.”

Up until last week, BA.5 had been the dominant variant in the U.S. But as of Friday, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which are sublineages of BA.5, now make up the majority of new infections in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This isn’t all bad news. BQ.1.1 is closely related to BA.5, according to Dowd, and that means many of the protective qualities of the bivalent booster will also guard against the new variants.

2. What does the science say about the new boosters?

There is preliminary data about both bivalent boosters that appears to indicate they work against BQ.1.1 as well as BA.5. However, scientists and physicians say they are still waiting to see peer-reviewed research from the clinical trials to fully gauge the effectiveness of both shots.
- Moderna’s booster: Early clinical data shows that Moderna’s bivalent booster produced a 5- to 6-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against the BA.4 and BA.5 variants in about 500 adults who were previously vaccinated and boosted, according to a Nov. 14 news release. The Phase 2/3 clinical trial compared the new booster’s response against the company’s original booster. Moderna also said that the bivalent shot increased antibodies protecting against BQ.1.1, though not as much as it did against BA.4 and BA.5, based on an analysis of about 40 participants in the same study.
“It’s not orders of magnitude more protection — but at least 5- to 6-fold more protection against BA.5, that’s good,” Topol said.
- BioNTech and Pfizer’s booster: In a preprint published Nov. 17, the two companies said their bivalent booster led to an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against BQ.1.1 after 30 days, compared with the original booster’s 1.8-fold increase in antibodies against the same subvariant. The study assessed the immune responses in adults 55 years or older who had been previously vaccinated and boosted, regardless of infection history.
3. What if I had COVID this year? Does it matter when I get the booster?

Most experts interviewed for this story say immunity can last anywhere from three to six months, though the official CDC recommendation is that the bivalent boosters should be given three months after a COVID infection or two months after an individual’s last shot.

“We used to say, just go ahead and get vaccinated as soon as you recover,” Dowd said. “But there has been subsequent evidence that suggests it’s a little better to probably wait at least three months. Not because it’s harmful to get it sooner, but you really won’t be getting much of the benefit of that boost. You reach a ceiling.”

There are other considerations, as well. The timing of your last infection does matter if you have an idea what variants were circulating when you got sick. If you had an omicron infection last winter, you’re probably due for a booster. If you got sick within the past month or so, presumably with BA.5 or one of its subvariants, you may want to wait a month or two.

“As good as the vaccine is and as good as post-infection protection is, the immunity and protection wanes over time,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, told journalists at a White House briefing on Tuesday.

You also have to assess your underlying immune status, whether you have medical conditions that put you at higher risk for severe disease, and how concerned you are about long COVID.

“Most of the deaths that we’ll see from COVID could have been prevented if people stayed up to date with their boosters,” said the University of California’s Wachter. “And many cases of long COVID could [also] have been prevented if people stayed up to date with their boosters.”

Finally, if you’re planning to spend Christmas with family or take a trip at the end of December, remember that it takes a few weeks to build up antibodies from the new shots.

4. Do I really need to get a booster if I’m young and healthy?

We are long past the stage in the pandemic when the approach to vaccination was one size fits all, and not all medical experts think that people who are young and healthy need a booster right now.

Dowd said that people who are “younger and in good health” can wait up to six months after a previous infection to get another shot.

“If we go by the CDC data or the U.K. data, the people who seem to benefit from the boost fall into three categories: people who are immunocompromised, people who are elderly — mostly over 75 — and people who have high-risk medical conditions,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

It’s unclear whether that thinking has influenced people’s decisions about whether to get a booster. But the bivalent shots have been available to children older than 5 years old and all adults in the U.S. for months, and that availability hasn’t led to much interest.

“It’s for the same reason that 19,500 people pour into Wells Fargo Center [in Philadelphia] to watch the Sixers play, screaming their heads off, without a mask on,” Offit said. “They don’t feel compelled to get a booster dose.”

That may be due in part to the fact that COVID hospitalizations and deaths have largely remained stable. There is no longer the kind of urgency that drove people to book appointments for the original vaccine or to wear masks. With the annual peak in COVID cases occurring during the first two weeks of January in 2021 and 2022, the question now is: Will that comfort level change as we get further into winter and the holiday season?

“People want [a booster] to be like flipping a switch, like I’m 100% protected or not,” Dowd said, “but we know from the first couple of years that when the vaccine is well matched to the variants, which the BA.5 is a decent match right now, it really lowers transmission substantially and your chances of getting infected at all. We should take advantage of that.”
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November 22, 2022
Tyson recalls 93,000 pounds of beef contaminated with a ‘mirror-like material’
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Tyson Fresh Meats, a division of Tyson Foods Inc.
TSN,
+0.20%,
is recalling 93,697 pounds of ground beef over a possible contamination with a “mirror-like material.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the ground beef items were packaged on Nov. 2, and the issue was discovered after several customers found this mirror-like material in their meat after purchasing it from a grocery store.
The products part of the Tyson recall are as follows:

10-pound chubs containing “Hill Country fare ground beef 73% lean/27% fat with best before or freeze by: Nov. 25, 2022.”

5-pound chubs containing “Hill Country fare ground beef 73% lean/27% fat with best before or freeze by: Nov. 25, 2022.”

5-pound chubs containing “H-E-B ground chuck ground beef 80% lean/20% fat.”

The USDA advises individuals who purchased these items to throw them away or return them to the place of purchase immediately. The impacted products were sold in retail grocery stores in Texas.

The specific labels for the ground beef that Tyson is recalling can be found here.

See: Flying with Thanksgiving food? TSA dishes up rules for traveling with foodstuffs this holiday season

It’s been a tough time for meat lovers: Last week, the CDC warned that many people should “not eat meat or cheese from any deli counter” unless it was “steaming hot” due to a listeria outbreak.

But there could be some more meat alternatives on the horizon.

The Tyson recall news came as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Thursday that meat grown in a laboratory setting is safe for human consumption.

“Advancements in cell culture technology are enabling food developers to use animal cells obtained from livestock, poultry, and seafood in the production of food, with these products expected to be ready for the U.S. market in the near future.,” the FDA said. To be clear, such products are not yet on the U.S. market, but they have now received this preliminary vote of regulatory confidence.

And earlier this week, the CFO of Tyson Foods apologized to investors during a company earnings call over his arrest early on the morning of Nov. 6 after being found sleeping in a house that wasn’t his.
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November 18, 2022
Adidas lowers earnings outlook after breakup with Yeezy

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Shoe and sports apparel maker Adidas has lowered its earnings forecast for the full year to account for losses from ending its partnership with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in response to Ye’s antisemitic remarks

FRANKFURT, Germany — Shoe and sportswear maker Adidas on Wednesday lowered its earnings forecast for the full year to account for losses from ending its partnership with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in response to the artist’s antisemitic remarks.

Adidas cut its sales outlook for the year as part of its third-quarter earnings statement, to a low single digit increase from a mid-single digit increase, and net profit from continuing operations to 250 million euros ($252 million) instead of 500 million euros.

The company, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, had previously said ending the partnership with Ye’s Yeezy brand would cost it 250 million euros. The Yeezy brand accounted for up to 15% of Adidas’ net income, according to Morningstar analyst David Swartz. Adidas has ended production of all Yeezy products and ceased royalty payments.

For weeks, Ye made antisemitic comments in interviews and social media, including a Twitter post earlier this month that he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON. He was suspended from both Twitter and Instagram.

The company had already cut its year forecasts on Oct. 20, five days before it announced it was ending the relationship with Yeezy. The earlier outlook revision cited slowing activity in China, where severe restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 have held back the economy, and clearance of elevated inventory levels.

Net income for the third quarter from continuing operations was 66 million euros, down from 479 million euros in the same quarter a year ago. The decrease largely reflected 300 million in one-time costs, most of it from winding down the company’s business in Russia.

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November 9, 2022
Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass Resigns to Join Levi Strauss

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Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass Resigns to Join Levi Strauss

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November 8, 2022
Weekly tally of COVID cases and deaths continues to fall; Moderna lowers vaccine-sales outlook by as much as $3 billion

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The global tally of COVID-19 cases fell 17% in the week through Oct. 30 from the previous week, while the death toll fell 5%, the World Health Organization said in its weekly update on the virus.

The omicron variant BA.5 remained dominant globally, accounting for 74.9% of cases sent to a central database. WHO reiterated that newer sublineages of omicron, including BQ.1 and XBB, still appear no more lethal than earlier ones and do not warrant the designation of “variant of concern.”

But BQ.1 rose in prevalence to 9.0% globally from 5.7% a week ago, while XBB rose to 1.5% from 1.0%.

“WHO will continue to closely monitor the XBB and BQ.1 lineages as part of omicron and requests countries to continue to be vigilant, to monitor and report sequences, as well as to conduct independent and comparative
analyses of the different omicron sublineages,” the agency wrote.

WHO has cautioned that changes in testing and reduced surveillance of the virus are making some of the numbers unreliable and has urged leaders to renew efforts to monitor and track developments.

In the U.S., known cases of COVID remain at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 39,090 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 3% versus two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 2% to 27,161, while the daily average for deaths was down 6% to 345.

But cases are climbing in some states, raising concerns among health experts. In Nevada, cases are up 92% from two weeks ago, followed by Missouri, where they are up 75%, Tennessee, where they are up 69%, Louisiana, where they are up 68%, and New Mexico, where they have climbed 54%.

Physicians are reporting high numbers of respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu earlier than the typical winter peak. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what the early surge means for the coming winter months. Photo illustration: Kaitlyn Wang

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• COVID vaccine maker Moderna
MRNA,
-2.21%
posted far weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Thursday and lowered full-year sales guidance by up to $3 billion. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech firm said advance purchase agreements, or APAs, for delivery this year are now expected to total $18 billion to $19 billion of product sales, down from guidance of $21 billion that it provided when it reported second-quarter earnings. The FactSet consensus is for full-year sales of $21.3 billion. For fiscal 2023, Moderna has APAs of $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion. The FactSet consensus for 2023 sales is for $9.4 billion.

• Virax Biolabs Group Ltd.
VRAX,
+36.26%
stock jumped after the biotechnology company said its triple-virus antigen rapid test kit, which tests for RSV, influenza and COVID, has been launched in the European Union, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The test kit, which can be used in both at-home and point-of-care settings, has also been launched in other markets that accept the CE mark, Virax Biolabs said.

Testing sewage to track viruses has drawn renewed interest after recent outbreaks of diseases like monkeypox and polio. WSJ visited a wastewater facility to find out how the testing works and what it can tell us about public health. Photo illustration: Ryan Trefes

• Royal Caribbean Group
RCL,
+4.11%
posted its first quarterly profit since the start of the pandemic, but the cruise-line company said it expected a loss for the current quarter, sending its stock lower on Thursday. Load factors were 96% overall and booking volumes were “significantly higher” than in the same period of prepandemic 2019, as the easing of testing and vaccination protocols provided a boost. For the fourth quarter, the company expects adjusted per-share losses of $1.30 to $1.50, compared with the FactSet loss consensus of 71 cents, and projects revenue of “approximately” $2.6 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $2.7 billion.

• The death of a 3-year-old boy in northwestern China following a suspected gas leak at a locked-down residential compound has triggered a fresh wave of outrage at the country’s stringent zero-COVID policy, CNN reported. The boy’s father said in a social media post on Wednesday that COVID workers tried to prevent him from leaving their compound in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, to seek treatment for his child, resulting in what he believes was a fatal delay. The post was met with an outpouring of public anger and grief, with several related hashtags racking up hundreds of millions of views over the following day on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 631.4 million on Thursday, while the death toll rose above 6.59 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.6 million cases and 1,071,582 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.9 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.4% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 22.8 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 7.3% of the overall population.

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November 3, 2022
How the Federal Reserve’s rate hike impacts your holiday spending plans: ‘It’s not the time to overspend’

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It is three weeks before Black Friday, but the Federal Reserve is about to make the post-holiday debt hangover a little more intense.

By the time the latest rate hikes filter through the very rate-sensitive credit card industry and pump up customers’ annual percentage rates a little more, experts say it will be some point in December 2022 or January 2023. Right in time for many holiday gifts and expenses to post on credit cards bills — and there to make the costs of a carried balance a little extra expensive.

Every year, many people accumulate credit card debt through the holiday season, pay it off in the early part of the following year and then repeat the process.

What’s different now is the presence of four-decade high inflation, coupled with fast-rising interest rates that the Fed hopes will ultimately cool those rising prices, although without sending the economy to a recessionary thud.

Wednesday’s rate move is the fourth straight 75-basis-point rate hike to the federal funds rate, taking it to the 3.75% -4% range, when it was near zero last year’s holiday season. By now, Americans are all too acquainted with 2022’s fast-rising interest rates. They just haven’t gone through a Christmas and Hanakkuh with it yet.

“It’s not the time to overspend and have a problem with paying your bills later. We know the economy is sending mixed messages,” said Michele Raneri, vice president of financial services research and consulting at TransUnion
TRU,
-4.31%,
one of the country’s three major credit reporting companies.

It’s extra important to think through a holiday budget and how much relies on credit, she said. “People need to think about how much they can afford to repay and how long it will take to repay it.”

Holiday spending could be the same as 2021 for many people — but not everyone

Last month, third-quarter earnings from major banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPM,
-0.92%,
Wells Fargo
WFC,
-0.15%,
Citibank
C,
-1.45%
and Bank of America
BAC,
-0.30%
indicated consumer finances, on the whole, are not yet showing cracks under inflation’s strains. (Other numbers show the strain, like the personal savings rate that’s been dwindling.)

Now, two forecasts suggest many people ready to spend the same amount for this year’s holiday cheer as they did last year.

People are planning to spend an average $1,430 on gifts, travel and entertainment this year, which is around the $1,447 spent last year, according to PwC researchers. Three-quarters of people said they were planning to spend the same or more than last year and respondents said credit cards were one of their top ways to pay.

“ Compared to last year, credit card balances are getting bigger, more people are sitting on balances and debt costs are getting pricier.”

By another measure, Americans will pay an average $1,455 on holiday-related gifts and experiences, essentially flat from last year, say Deloitte researchers.

More than one-third of surveyed consumers say their financial outlook is worse than the same point last year. Nearly one-quarter of people were concerned about credit card debt as of late September, Deloitte’s numbers show in an ongoing tracking of consumer mood.

It’s understandable to see the concern with households amassing a collective $890 billion in credit card debt through the second quarter. Compared to last year, balances are getting bigger, more people are sitting on balances and debt costs are getting pricier because the interest rates applied to those balances are rising.

When people were carrying a credit card balance month to month, the sum was $5,474 on average, according to Raneri. That’s through the end of September and it’s a nearly 13% rise year over year, she said. The 164 million people carrying a balance is a 5% increase from last year, she noted.

Credit cards carrying a balance during the third quarter had an average 18.43% APR, Federal Reserve data shows. That’s up from 16.65% in the second quarter and up from 17.13% in 2021’s third quarter.

How the Fed influences credit card rates

Credit card issuers typically determine their rates by applying a “prime rate” — typically three percentage points on top of the federal funds rate — and the issuer’s profit margin, said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com.

By late October, the rate on new card offers was 18.73%, according to Bankrate data. At this point last year, it was 16.31%, Rossman said. In a few weeks, the rates on new offers should beat the all-time record of an average 19% APR, exclusive to new offers, he added.

While it can take a billing cycle or two for a higher APR to make its way to an existing credit card account, Rossman noted the APRs on new offers could rise in a matter of days.

Here’s a hypothetical to show how much more expensive credit card debt becomes with every extra hike. Suppose the $5,474 balance is on a credit card with the current 18.73% average. If a person has to resort to minimum payments, Rossman said, they’d be paying $7,118 just in interest to pay off the debt.

“ In a few weeks, the rates on new credit card offers should beat the all-time record of an average 19% APR.”

What if the 18.73% APR gets kicked up 75 basis points to 19.48%? If that same borrower has to pay minimums, they are now paying $7,417 in interest to snuff the principal debt of $5,474, Rossman said.

The example has its limits because people may pay more than the minimum and they may incur more credit card debt as they pay off the old one. But it shows a bigger point: “Unfortunately, anybody dealing with credit card debt is a loser from the series of rate hikes. It was already expensive. It’s getting more so,” Rossman said.

When do rate hikes stop?

While decisions during the Fed’s November meeting can have a ripple effect on holiday-time borrowing costs, observers say the real question about Wednesday is the clues Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell drops for what’s next. The central bank’s committee voting on interest rate increases reconvenes in mid-December.

On Wednesday, the Fed said in a statement it expected further rate increases, but also said it would be watching to see if there were lag effects with its tightening policies, which could slow or limit the total amount of increases.

“People, when they hear lags, they think about a pause. It’s very premature, in my view, to think about or be talking about pausing our rate hike. We have a ways to go,” Powell told reporters at a Wednesday afternoon press conference.

The economy is strong enough to handle higher rates, Powell said. For one thing, households have “strong balance sheets” and “strong spending power,” he noted.

Stock markets first jumped higher after the latest interest rate announcement. But they gave up the gains — and then some — by the end of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.55%
was down more than 500 points, or 1.6% while the S&P 500
SPX,
-2.50%
was down 2.5% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-3.36%
closed 3.4% lower.

Top economists in major North American-based banks forecasted the Fed will keep raising interest rates “until the first quarter of next year before potentially lowering rates through the end of 2023,” Sayee Srinivasan, chief economist at the American Bankers Association, the banking sector’s trade association, said ahead of Wednesday’s latest rate hike.

“Top economists polled as part of a banking industry panel expect Fed rate increases through at least the first quarter of 2023.”

The forecast, coming through an ABA advisory committee, is no sure thing. “Everything depends on the ability of the Fed to bring inflation down, so that will remain their clear priority,” said Srinivasan.

Meanwhile, rising costs may cause more people to put the holiday cheer on plastic, even their decorations. The majority of Christmas tree growers in one poll are expecting wholesale prices to climb 5% to 15% for this season.

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November 2, 2022

20 dividend stocks that may be safest if the Federal Reserve causes a recession

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Investors cheered when a report last week showed the economy expanded in the third quarter after back-to-back contractions.

But it’s too early to get excited, because the Federal Reserve hasn’t given any sign yet that it is about to stop raising interest rates at the fastest pace in decades.

Below is a list of dividend stocks that have had low price volatility over the past 12 months, culled from three large exchange traded funds that screen for high yields and quality in different ways.

In a year when the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.40%
is down 18%, the three ETFs have widely outperformed, with the best of the group falling only 1%.

Read: GDP looked great for the U.S. economy, but it really wasn’t

That said, last week was a very good one for U.S. stocks, with the S&P 500 returning 4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.32%
having its best October ever.

This week, investors’ eyes turn back to the Federal Reserve. Following a two-day policy meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee is expected to make its fourth consecutive increase of 0.75% to the federal funds rate on Wednesday.

The inverted yield curve, with yields on two-year U.S. Treasury notes
TMUBMUSD02Y,
4.540%
exceeding yields on 10-year notes
TMUBMUSD10Y,
4.064%,
indicates investors in the bond market expect a recession. Meanwhile, this has been a difficult earnings season for many companies and analysts have reacted by lowering their earnings estimates.

The weighted rolling consensus 12-month earning estimate for the S&P 500, based on estimates of analysts polled by FactSet, has declined 2% over the past month to $230.60. In a healthy economy, investors expect this number to rise every quarter, at least slightly.

Low-volatility stocks are working in 2022

Take a look at this chart, showing year-to-date total returns for the three ETFs against the S&P 500 through October:

FactSet

The three dividend-stock ETFs take different approaches:

The $40.6 billion Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF
SCHD,
+0.15%
tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Indexed quarterly. This approach incorporates 10-year screens for cash flow, debt, return on equity and dividend growth for quality and safety. It excludes real estate investment trusts (REITs). The ETF’s 30-day SEC yield was 3.79% as of Sept. 30.
The iShares Select Dividend ETF
DVY,
+0.45%
has $21.7 billion in assets. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index, which is weighted by dividend yield and “skews toward smaller firms paying consistent dividends,” according to FactSet. It holds about 100 stocks, includes REITs and looks back five years for dividend growth and payout ratios. The ETF’s 30-day yield was 4.07% as of Sept. 30.
The SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF
SPYD,
+0.60%
has $7.8 billion in assets and holds 80 stocks, taking an equal-weighted approach to investing in the top-yielding stocks among the S&P 500. It’s 30-day yield was 4.07% as of Sept. 30.

All three ETFs have fared well this year relative to the S&P 500. The funds’ beta — a measure of price volatility against that of the S&P 500 (in this case) — have ranged this year from 0.75 to 0.76, according to FactSet. A beta of 1 would indicate volatility matching that of the index, while a beta above 1 would indicate higher volatility.

Now look at this five-year total return chart showing the three ETFs against the S&P 500 over the past five years:

The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF ranks highest for five-year total return with dividends reinvested — it is the only one of the three to beat the index for this period.

Screening for the least volatile dividend stocks

Together, the three ETFs hold 194 stocks. Here are the 20 with the lowest 12-month beta. The list is sorted by beta, ascending, and dividend yields range from 2.45% to 8.13%:

Company	Ticker	12-month beta	Dividend yield	2022 total return
Newmont Corp.	NEM, -0.78%	0.17	5.20%	-30%
Verizon Communications Inc.	VZ, -0.07%	0.22	6.98%	-24%
General Mills Inc.	GIS, -1.47%	0.27	2.65%	25%
Kellogg Co.	K, -0.93%	0.27	3.07%	22%
Merck & Co. Inc.	MRK, -1.73%	0.29	2.73%	35%
Kraft Heinz Co.	KHC, -0.56%	0.35	4.16%	11%
City Holding Co.	CHCO, -1.45%	0.38	2.58%	27%
CVB Financial Corp.	CVBF, -1.24%	0.38	2.79%	37%
First Horizon Corp.	FHN, -0.18%	0.39	2.45%	53%
Avista Corp.	AVA, -7.82%	0.41	4.29%	0%
NorthWestern Corp.	NWE, -0.21%	0.42	4.77%	-4%
Altria Group Inc	MO, -0.18%	0.43	8.13%	4%
Northwest Bancshares Inc.	NWBI, +0.10%	0.45	5.31%	11%
AT&T Inc.	T, +0.63%	0.47	6.09%	5%
Flowers Foods Inc.	FLO, -0.44%	0.48	3.07%	7%
Mercury General Corp.	MCY, +0.07%	0.48	4.38%	-43%
Conagra Brands Inc.	CAG, -0.82%	0.48	3.60%	10%
Amgen Inc.	AMGN, +0.41%	0.49	2.87%	23%
Safety Insurance Group Inc.	SAFT, -1.70%	0.49	4.14%	5%
Tyson Foods Inc. Class A	TSN, -0.40%	0.50	2.69%	-20%
Source: FactSet

Any list of stocks will have its dogs, but 16 of these 20 have outperformed the S&P 500 so far in 2022, and 14 have had positive total returns.

You can click on the tickers for more about each company. Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Don’t miss: Municipal bond yields are attractive now — here’s how to figure out if they are right for you

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November 1, 2022

New omicron subvariants accounted for more cases in New York region in latest week than BA.5, CDC data shows

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The omicron sublineages named BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 continued to spread in the U.S. in the week through Oct. 29, accounting for 27.1% of new cases nationwide, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

The two accounted for 42.5% of all cases in the New York region, which includes New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, up from 37% the previous week. That was more than the BA.5 omicron subvariant, which accounted for 35.7% of new cases in the New York area in the latest week.

The BA.5 omicron subvariant accounted for 49.6% of all U.S. cases, the data show.

BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 were included in BA.5 variant data as recently as three weeks ago, because their numbers were too small to break out. BQ.1 was first identified by researchers in early September and has been found in the U.K. and Germany, among other places.

Last week, the World Health Organization said that BQ.1 and another sublineage dubbed XBB do not appear to have immune-escape mutations that warrant being designated as variants of concern. However, BA.5 is still a variant of concern that is being closely monitored, said a statement from the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution.

Workers in a manufacturing facility that assemble Apple Inc.’s
AAPL,
-1.66%
iPhone in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou appear to have left to avoid COVID-19 curbs, with many traveling on foot for days after an unknown number of employees were quarantined in the facility after a virus outbreak, the Associated Press reported.

Videos circulating on Chinese social media platforms showed people who are allegedly Foxconn workers climbing over fences and carrying their belongings down a road.

Separately, visitors to Shanghai Disneyland were left s t randed at the park on Monday after the resort halted operations to comply with COVID-19 restrictions amid a new outbreak of the virus.

In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 36,869 on Sunday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 2% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 3% to 27,415, while the daily average for deaths was down 6% to 352.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• With a downcast earnings season passing the halfway mark, results from financial-technology companies and vaccine makers will arrive this week amid questions about consumer spending as well as demand for COVID drugs, MarketWatch’s Bill Peters reported. Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
-1.82%
will report earnings on Tuesday, followed by Moderna Inc.
MRNA,
-0.47%
on Thursday. Analysts will have their eye on the state of COVID-19 vaccine and treatment sales and on what executives are anticipating for the full year, as they prepare for a private market for COVID medications and as more people shrug off the pandemic. Pfizer executives, during a call last week, said they intended to charge between $110 and $130 for a single-dose vial of the vaccine for U.S. adults when government purchases end. But they said they believe anyone who has health insurance shouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket.

The FDA authorized newly modified COVID-19 boosters to target the latest versions of the omicron variant. But as WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez explains, a key part of the decision-making process was changed with these new shots. Photo: Laura Kammermann

• A number of young children are being hospitalized because of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and it’s happening at an unusual time of year and among older children than in years past, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. COVID may be a contributing factor, in part because many children were not exposed to RSV last season and also because a prior COVID infection or exposure may change the way a baby’s immune system responds to RSV and may lead to more severe illness from an RSV infection, according to Asuncion Mejias, a principal investigator with the Center for Vaccines and Immunity at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

• On Saturday, more than 3,000 people took part in the first Pride march in South Africa since the COVID pandemic , celebrating the LGBT community and defying a U.S. warning of a possible terror attack in the area, the AP reported. The U.S. government this week warned of a possible attack in the Sandton part of Johannesburg, where the march took place. The South African government expressed concern that the U.S. had not shared enough information to give credibility to the alleged threat. Police said all measures had been taken to ensure safety in the area.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 630.2 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.58 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.5 million cases and 1,070,266 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.9 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.4% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 22.8 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 7.3% of the overall population.

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October 31, 2022
CDC shoots down false claims it will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren, saying states make that decision

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has refuted claims that it’s planning to add the COVID-19 vaccine to immunization schedules for schoolchildren, saying that the authority for that decision lies with states and other local entities.

The false claim spread after it was shared by Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a tweet this week, as the Associated Press reported.

Carlson tweeted that the agency would make the vaccine mandatory in order for children to attend school, a claim the CDC quickly shot down. While an advisory committee to the CDC voted to recommend that the vaccine be added to immunization schedules, the CDC “only makes recommendations for use of vaccines, while school-entry vaccination requirements are determined by state or local jurisdictions,” CDC spokeswoman Kate Grusich told the AP.

Grusich explained that the action was meant to streamline clinical guidance for healthcare providers by adding COVID-19 vaccines to a single list of all currently licensed, authorized and routinely recommended vaccines.

“It’s important to note that there are no changes in COVID-19 vaccine policy,” she said.

The news comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 38,077 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 8% from two weeks ago. Cases are currently rising in 14 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The daily average for hospitalizations was down 2% to 26,669, although hospitalizations are rising in almost all northeastern states as cold weather arrives. The daily average for deaths was down 7% to 360.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• Pfizer
PFE,
+4.42%
is planning to sell the COVID vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech
BNTX,
+9.88%
for $110 -$130 a dose once the U.S. market for COVID-19 shots becomes commercial, likely in the first quarter of next year, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. Pfizer and BioNTech are currently paid $30.50 per vaccine dose by the U.S. government, which contracted with the companies, as well as with other vaccine makers like Moderna
MRNA,
+9.07%
and Novavax
NVAX,
+11.35%,
and then made the COVID-19 shots available at no cost to people in the U.S. during the public-health emergency. The emergency declaration in the U.S. isn’t expected to be renewed next year, which will lead to the formation of an official commercial market for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments.

• Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
+1.91%
said the volume of surgical procedures is returning to prepandemic levels in many parts of the world, a trend that cheered Wall Street and could bode well for other medical-technology heavyweights like Stryker Corp.
SYK,
+0.57%
and Zimmer Biomet Holdings
ZBH,
+0.18%.
J&J, which reported earnings this week, said its medical-technology business had a “strong September,” with U.S. sales of hip and knee implants and other surgical devices rising 7.7% to $3.3 billion in the third quarter of the year. “We are seeing procedures recovering,” Ashley McEvoy, worldwide chair of J&J’s MedTech business, told investors during this week’s earnings call. “In the U.S., we started to see surgical procedures tick up, predominantly at the latter part of the quarter.”

The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual COVID shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to COVID could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes

• “As China’s ruling Communist Party holds a congress this week, many Beijing residents are focused on an issue not on the formal agenda: Will the end of the meeting bring an easing of China’s at times draconian ‘zero-COVID’ policies that are disrupting lives and the economy?” the AP reported. It appears to be wishful thinking. As the world moves to a postpandemic lifestyle, many across China have resigned themselves to lining up several times a week for COVID tests, restrictions on travel to other regions and the ever-present possibility of a community lockdown.

• Fantasy Fest, a 10-day annual party, is kicking off in Key West, Fla., on Friday, with a full slate of events for the first time since the pandemic started, the AP reported. “Due to the COVID pandemic, this will be the first full Fantasy Fest since 2019,” the festival’s board chair, Steve Robbins, said. “So I know our guests and staff are excited about getting back to the real Fantasy Fest.” Dozens of themed events are set for the festival, including a nighttime parade Oct. 29 featuring floats and elaborately costumed marching groups. Participants are encouraged to draw costume ideas from the festival’s theme, “Cult Classics & Cartoon Chaos,” and to portray characters inspired by favorite cartoons and television or film productions with a cult following.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 626.9 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.57 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.2 million cases and 1,067,190 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.5 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.2% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 111.4 million have had a booster, equal to 49.1% of the vaccinated population, and 26.8 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 40.6% of those who received a first booster.

The CDC reports that some 19.4 million people have had a dose of the updated bivalent booster that targets omicron and its subvariants along with the original virus.

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October 21, 2022
Pfizer sets new prices for its COVID-19 vaccines. The cost? $110 to $130 per dose

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Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
+4.17%
said Thursday that it plans to sell the COVID-19 shot it developed with BioNTech SE
BNTX,
+7.14%
for $110 to $130 per dose once the U.S. market for COVID-19 shots becomes commercial, likely in the first quarter of next year.

Pfizer and BioNTech are currently paid $30.50 per vaccine dose by the U.S. government, which contracted with the companies (as well as other vaccine makers like Moderna Inc.
MRNA,
+6.57%
and Novavax Inc.
NVAX,
+8.88%
) and then made the COVID-19 shots available at no cost to people in the U.S. during the public-health emergency.

The emergency declaration in the U.S. isn’t expected to be renewed next year, which will lead to the formation of an official commercial market for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. That said, this change doesn’t mean most Americans will be on the hook to pay for their shots in 2023 and beyond.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis said most people with private insurance won’t be expected to pay anything out of pocket for the vaccines, though the costs may eventually be baked into the price of health-insurance premiums, as is done with flu shots. People with Medicare will have their shots covered by Medicare Part B, while those with Medicaid should also have coverage of COVID-19 vaccines. It’s the uninsured who may find it difficult to find free vaccines and boosters in the future.

Wall Street analysts cheered the news, saying Pfizer’s pricing plan came in above expectations. It also bodes well for Moderna’s stock. SVB Securities upgraded the company to market perform from underperform, though the company has not yet announced its pricing plans for its COVID-19 shots.

“Presuming that MRNA prices as a rational duopolist, this substantially improves the company’s ability to meet 2023 revenue guidance,” SVB analyst Mani Foroohar told investors.

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October 21, 2022
CDC identifies new COVID variants that accounted for 11.4% of new cases in week ending Oct. 15

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a new COVID variant dubbed BQ.1 and a descendant called BQ.1.1 have gained traction in the U.S., accounting for 11.4% of new cases across the nation in the week ending Oct. 15.

The two variants are lineages of BA.5, the omicron subvariant that remains dominant but has shrunk to account for just 67.9% of circulating variants, the agency said in a Friday update. The CDC had previously combined BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 with BA.5 cases because the numbers of the new variants were so small. BQ.1 was first identified by researchers in early September and has been found in the U.K. and Germany, among other places.

New York and New Jersey currently have the highest proportion of BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 infections, at about 20% of overall cases, according to CDC estimates.

“When you get variants like that, you look at what their rate of increase is as a relative proportion of the variants, and this has a pretty troublesome doubling time,” Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said in an interview with CBS News.

Adding to concerns, the variant seems “to elude important monoclonal antibodies,” he added.

Fauci is confident that Moderna
MRNA,
+3.92%,
as well as Pfizer
PFE,
+1.84%
and German partner BioNTech
BNTX,
+2.45%,
will be able to update boosters to target the new subvariant. “The somewhat encouraging news is that it’s a BA.5 sublineage, so there are almost certainly going to be some cross-protections that you can boost up,” he said.

So far, only 14.8 million people living in the U.S. have taken advantage of the new bivalent boosters that were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration in late August. That’s equal to about 7% of the 209 million who were initially eligible.

The FDA authorized the Pfizer booster for use in people aged 12 and older and the Moderna booster for adults aged 18 and older. Last week, the FDA added children aged 5 to 11 to the Pfizer program and children aged 6 through 17 to the Moderna one.

Experts are concerned that the low number of vaccinations is due to a sense that the pandemic is over and no longer poses a major risk for most people. U.S. cases are steadily declining and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April; however, the true tally is likely higher than the official count, because many people are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 37,649 on Sunday, down 19% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker.

The daily average for hospitalizations was down 5% to 26,475, while the daily average for deaths was down 8% to 374.

But cold weather is expected to bring a new wave of cases, and hospitalizations are rising again in much of the Northeast, the Times tracker is showing.

“That’s the thing that’s so frustrating for me and for my colleagues who are involved in this, is that we have the capability of mitigating against this. And the uptake of the new bivalent vaccine is not nearly as high as we would like it to be,” said Fauci.

Coronavirus Update: Ma rketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• Moderna and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is supplying vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, have agreed to cancel remaining orders under their 2022 COVID-19 vaccine agreement given “sufficient supply.” The biotechnology company has supplied Gavi with nearly 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, in addition to facilitating the donation of more than 100 million doses. Moderna and Gavi said they will create a new framework that enables Gavi to buy up to 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2023.

• The World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Organization for Animal Health on Monday launched a new initiative that aims to address health threats to humans, animals, plants and the environment. The One Health Joint Plan of Action “aims to create a framework to integrate systems and capacity so that we can collectively better prevent, predict, detect, and respond to health threats,” the four agencies said in a statement.

• China is doubling down on its zero-COVID strategy as a historic Communist Party congress opens in Beijing, BBC News reported. Zero COVID was a “people’s war to stop the spread of the virus,” said President Xi Jinping as he kicked off the meeting. There is increasing public fatigue over lockdowns and travel restrictions, and Beijing has come under strict security measures ahead of the congress, sparking frustration in the city, including a rare and dramatic public protest on Thursday criticizing Xi and his strategy.

In a rare display of defiance, two banners were unfurled from a highway overpass in Beijing condemning Chinese President Xi Jinping and his strict COVID-19 policies. The protest took place days before the expected extension of Xi’s tenure.

• Airline stocks rallied Monday after data showed that on Sunday, more people flew than on any other day since before the pandemic. Data from the Transportation Security Administration showed that 2.495 million travelers went through TSA checkpoints on Sunday, which is just above the previous 2022 high of 2.490 million on July 1 and the most since Feb. 11, 2020, which was exactly one month before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. In comparison, the day with the fewest travelers since the start of the pandemic was April 12, 2022, with 87,534 people traveling. And in 2019, there were 116 days of more travelers than Sunday, while the average for that year was 2.306 million. The U.S. Global Jets ETF
JETS,
+2.02%
was up 2.2%.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 624.7 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.56 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 96.9 million cases and 1,065,118 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.2 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.1% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 110.8 million have had a booster, equal to 49% of the vaccinated population, and 25.6 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 39% of those who received a first booster.

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October 17, 2022

21 dividend stocks yielding 5% or more of companies that will produce plenty of cash in 2023

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When the stock market has jumped two days in a row, as it has now, it is easy to become complacent.

But the Federal Reserve isn’t finished raising interest rates, and recession talk abounds. Stock investors aren’t out of the woods yet. That can make dividend stocks attractive if the yields are high and the companies produce more cash flow than they need to cover the payouts.

Below is a list of 21 stocks drawn from the S&P Composite 1500 Index
SP1500,
+3.12%
that appear to fit the bill. The S&P Composite 1500 is made up of the S&P 500
SPX,
+3.06%,
the S&P 400 Mid Cap Index
MID,
+3.18%
and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index
SML,
+3.80%.

The purpose of the list is to provide a starting point for further research. These stocks may be appropriate for you if you are looking for income, but you should do your own assessment to form your own opinion about a company’s ability to remain competitive over the next decade.

Cash flow is key

One way to measure a company’s ability to pay dividends is to look at its free cash flow yield. Free cash flow is remaining cash flow after planned capital expenditures. This money can be used to pay for dividends, buy back shares (which can raise earnings and cash flow per share), or fund acquisitions, organic expansion or for other corporate purposes.

If we divide a company’s estimated annual free cash flow per share by its current share price, we have its estimated free cash flow yield. If we compare the free cash flow yield to the current dividend yield, we may see “headroom” for cash to be deployed in ways that can benefit shareholders.

For this screen, we began with the S&P Composite 1500, then narrowed the list as follows:

Dividend yield of at least 5.00%.
Consensus free cash flow estimate available for calendar 2023, among at least five analysts polled by FactSet. We used calendar-year estimates, even though fiscal years for many companies don’t match the calendar.
Estimated 2023 free cash flow yield of at least double the current dividend yield.

For real-estate investment trusts, dividend-paying ability is measured by funds from operations (FFO), a non-GAAP figure that adds depreciation and amortization back to earnings. Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) takes this a step further, subtracting cash expected to be used to maintain properties. So for the two REITs on the list, the FCF yield column makes use of AFFO.

For many companies in the financial sector, especially banks and insurers, free cash flow figures aren’t available, so the screen made use of earnings-per-share estimates. These are generally considered to run close to actual cash flow for these heavily regulated industries.

Here are the 21 companies that passed the screen, with dividend yields of at least 5% and estimated 2023 FCF yields at least twice the current payout. They are sorted by dividend yield:

Company	Ticker	Type	Dividend yield	Estimated 2023 FCF yield	Estimated “headroom”
Uniti Group Inc.	UNIT, +7.36%	Real-Estate Investment Trusts	8.33%	25.25%	16.92%
Hanesbrands Inc.	HBI, +5.56%	Apparel/ Footwear	8.33%	17.29%	8.96%
Kohl’s Corp.	KSS, +5.80%	Department Stores	7.68%	16.72%	9.04%
Rent-A-Center Inc.	RCII, +10.40%	Finance/ Rental/ Leasing	7.52%	17.26%	9.73%
Macerich Co.	MAC, +8.18%	Real-Estate Investment Trusts	7.43%	18.04%	10.60%
Devon Energy Corp.	DVN, +5.72%	Oil & Gas Production	7.13%	14.47%	7.33%
AT&T Inc.	T, +1.19%	Major Telecommunications	6.98%	14.82%	7.84%
Newell Brands Inc.	NWL, +5.16%	Industrial Conglomerates	6.59%	17.42%	10.82%
Dow Inc.	DOW, +2.96%	Chemicals	6.18%	15.63%	9.45%
LyondellBasell Industries NV	LYB, +3.64%	Chemicals	6.09%	16.07%	9.99%
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. Class A	SMG, +5.01%	Chemicals	6.04%	12.68%	6.65%
Diamondback Energy Inc.	FANG, +5.23%	Oil & Gas Production	5.56%	13.63%	8.08%
Best Buy Co. Inc.	BBY, +5.86%	Electronics/ Appliance Stores	5.53%	14.08%	8.55%
Viatris Inc.	VTRS, +5.62%	Pharmaceuticals	5.50%	28.95%	23.45%
Prudential Financial Inc.	PRU, +5.66%	Life/ Health Insurance	5.38%	13.30%	7.91%
Ford Motor Co.	F, +7.76%	Motor Vehicles	5.23%	15.95%	10.72%
Invesco Ltd.	IVZ, +6.76%	Investment Managers	5.23%	14.95%	9.73%
Franklin Resources Inc.	BEN, +4.37%	Investment Managers	5.17%	13.21%	8.04%
Kontoor Brands Inc.	KTB, +0.73%	Apparel/ Footwear	5.17%	14.15%	8.98%
Seagate Technology Holdings PLC	STX, +4.09%	Computer Peripherals	5.11%	13.19%	8.07%
Foot Locker Inc.	FL, +1.35%	Apparel/ Footwear Retail	5.03%	15.52%	10.49%
Source: FactSet

Any stock screen has its limitations. If you are interested in stocks listed here, it is best to do your own research, and it is easy to get started by clicking the tickers in the table for more information about each company. Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

For the “estimated FCF yields,” consensus free cash flow estimates for calendar 2023 were used for all companies except the following:

For the REITs, (Uniti Group Inc.
UNIT,
+7.36%
and Macerich Co.
MAC,
+8.18%
), consensus AFFO estimates were used.
Consensus EPS estimates were used for Prudential Financial Inc.
PRU,
+5.66%,
Invesco Ltd.
IVZ,
+6.76%
and Franklin Resources Inc.
BEN,
+4.37%.

Don’t miss: Dividend yields on preferred stocks have soared. This is how to pick the best ones for your portfolio.

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October 4, 2022

Poshmark to be bought by South Korean internet company Naver in $1.2 billion deal

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Online secondhand-fashion marketplace Poshmark Inc. has agreed to be bought by South Korean internet company Naver in a $1.2 billion deal, the companies announced Monday, a move that executives said would help both brands expand internationally.

Shares of Poshmark
POSH,
-0.64%
jumped 11.8% in after-hours trading on the news.

Under the terms of the deal, Naver
035420,
-8.79%
will acquire Poshmark’s outstanding shares for $17.90 in cash, representing a 15% upside to Poshmark’s Monday closing price of $15.57. The transaction is set to close by the first quarter of next year, pending Poshmark shareholders’ approval.

Poshmark went public in late 2020, pricing shares at $42 a share, and ended its first day of trading at more than $100 a share, but has never approached those heights again. It last traded for more than the acquisition price Naver has agreed to pay late last year.

For more: Five things to know about Poshmark

In a statement, executives from both companies talked up the potential to combine Naver’s array of search, e-commerce, AI and social-media technology with Poshmark’s social and shopping platforms. Poshmark, the companies said, would also embark on a bigger international expansion strategy, including into other markets in Asia, in the “medium-term.”

They also talked about the potential for the combined company to save around $30 million annually within two years after the deal’s closing through “rationalization of public company costs” and higher operating leverage, along with the potential for more than 20% yearly sales growth by harnessing Naver’s advertising resources.

Naver, which runs large search and e-commerce platforms, said the move would broaden its e-commerce platform, bring younger users into the company’s fold and allow it to “capitalize on the global online fashion re-commerce and sustainable economy opportunity.”

“Naver’s leading technology in search, AI recommendation and e-commerce tools will help power the next phase of Poshmark’s global growth,” Choi Soo-Yeon, Naver’s chief executive, said in a statement, which also said that Naver hosted a large number of digital content creators in Korea.

Naver owns companies like Wattpad, a social-media platform, and runs Webtoon, a site for digital comics, along with a metaverse platform called Zepeto, and also has joint ownership of an internet service group in Japan. Naver said its online community in Korea consists of more than 36 million monthly users, who use its search engine and other services.

Poshmark Chief Executive Manish Chandra said the deal would also give Poshmark opportunities to grow.

“Longer term, as part of Naver, we will benefit from their financial resources, significant technology capabilities, and leading presence across Asia to expand our platform, elevate our product and user experiences, and enter new and large markets,” he said in the statement.

Naver said the acquisition would also help give it a bigger foothold in the U.S. And it said the deal would allow it to broaden the appeal of so-called live-stream shopping.

“Live-stream shopping is a key driver of e-commerce in China and Korea (and increasingly in the U.S.) today, allowing shoppers to buy products in real-time through live video broadcasts, enabling greater insights and more clarity around purchasing decisions,” the statement said.

Once the deal closes, Poshmark will be a standalone subsidiary of Naver, with the same management team, brand and headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., the companies revealed.

At the close of Monday’s trading, shares of Poshmark were down around 9% year-to-date. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
+2.59%,
by comparison, has slid 23% over that time.

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October 3, 2022

These 20 stocks in the S&P 500 tumbled between 20% and 30% in September

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Stocks declined again on Friday, closing out September with large losses across the board as the rally from the June lows partway through August faded into memory.

The S&P 500
SPX,
-1.51%
fell 1.5% on Friday. The benchmark index slumped 9.3% for September, leading to a 2022 loss of 24.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.71%
gave up 1.7% on Friday, for a September decline of 8.8%. The Dow has now fallen 20.9% for 2022. The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-1.51%
pulled back 1.5% on Friday for a September drop of 10.5% and a year-to-date plunge of 32.4%. (All price changes in this article exclude dividends.)

Below is a list of stocks in the S&P 500 that fell the most during September.

It was the worst September performance for U.S. stocks since 2008, according to Dow Jones Market Data. William Watts looked back to see what poor performance during September may portend for October.

Real estate leads the sector bloodbath

All sectors of the S&P 500 were down during September, including five that fell by double digits:

S&P 500 sector	Sept. 30 price change	September price change	2022 price change
Real Estate	1.0%	-13.6%	-30.4%
Communication Services	-1.7%	-12.2%	-39.4%
Information Technology	-1.9%	-12.0%	-31.9%
Utilities	-2.0%	-11.5%	-8.6%
Industrials	-1.3%	-10.6%	-21.7%
Energy	-0.9%	-9.7%	30.7%
Materials	-0.3%	-9.6%	-24.9%
Consumer Staples	-1.8%	-8.3%	-13.5%
Consumer Discretionary	-1.8%	-8.1%	-30.3%
Financials	-1.1%	-7.9%	-22.4%
Health Care	-1.4%	-2.7%	-14.1%
S&P 500	-1.5%	-9.3%	-24.8%
Source: FactSet

Worst performers in the S&P 500 in September

Company	Ticker	Sept. 30 price change	September price change	2022 price change	Decline from 52-week intraday high	Date of 52-week intraday high
FedEx Corp.	FDX, -2.52%	-2.5%	-29.6%	-42.6%	-44.4%	01/05/2022
V.F. Corp.	VFC, -2.73%	-2.7%	-27.8%	-59.2%	-62.1%	11/16/2021
Lumen Technologies Inc.	LUMN, -1.36%	-1.4%	-26.9%	-42.0%	-49.8%	11/05/2021
Ford Motor Co.	F, -2.35%	-2.4%	-26.5%	-46.1%	-56.7%	01/13/2022
Charter Communications Inc. Class A	CHTR, -2.96%	-3.0%	-26.5%	-53.5%	-59.8%	10/07/2021
Adobe Inc.	ADBE, -1.10%	-1.1%	-26.3%	-51.5%	-60.7%	11/22/2021
Carnival Corp.	CCL, -23.25%	-23.3%	-25.7%	-65.1%	-73.5%	10/01/2021
CarMax Inc.	KMX, +1.32%	1.3%	-25.4%	-49.3%	-57.7%	11/08/2021
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.	AMD, -1.22%	-1.2%	-25.3%	-56.0%	-61.5%	11/30/2021
Caesars Entertainment Inc.	CZR, -0.49%	-0.5%	-25.2%	-65.5%	-73.1%	10/01/2021
Boeing Co.	BA, -3.39%	-3.4%	-24.4%	-39.9%	-48.2%	11/15/2021
WestRock Co.	WRK, -1.56%	-1.6%	-23.9%	-30.4%	-43.6%	05/05/2022
International Paper Co.	IP, -1.22%	-1.2%	-23.8%	-32.5%	-44.0%	10/13/2021
Western Digital Corp.	WDC, +1.15%	1.1%	-23.0%	-50.1%	-53.1%	01/05/2022
Newell Brands Inc.	NWL, -0.57%	-0.6%	-22.2%	-36.4%	-47.5%	02/16/2022
Eastman Chemical Co.	EMN, +0.34%	0.3%	-21.9%	-41.2%	-45.1%	01/19/2022
Nike Inc. Class B	NKE, -12.81%	-12.8%	-21.9%	-50.1%	-53.6%	11/05/2021
Seagate Technology Holdings PLC	STX, -2.11%	-2.1%	-20.5%	-52.9%	-54.8%	01/05/2022
PVH Corp.	PVH, -3.55%	-3.6%	-20.4%	-58.0%	-64.3%	11/05/2021
Dish Network Corp. Class A	DISH, -2.19%	-2.2%	-20.3%	-57.4%	-70.1%	10/04/2021
Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers for more about each company, including developments that led to their share-price declines.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

FedEx Corp.
FDX,
-2.52%
tops the list because of investors’ harsh reaction to the company’s sales and profit warning on Sept. 16. Claudia Assis and Greg Robb explained the implications of FedEx’s warning for the broad economy.

Shares of Carnival Corp.
CCL,
-23.25%
fell 23% on Friday (for a September decline of 26%) after the cruise giant again reported sales and earnings below what analysts had expected, even though it reported increasing its capacity usage to 92%.

Nike Inc.
NKE,
-12.81%
was down 13% on Friday for a September decline of 22%, after the company warned that discounting to clear inventory would continue to affect its earnings performance. Here’s how analysts reacted.

Adobe Inc.
ADBE,
-1.10%
made the list because of investors’ doubt about its dilutive $20 billion deal to acquire Figma.

The bulk of CarMax’s
KMX,
+1.32%
drop for the month came on Sept. 29, after the used-car dealer missed sales and earnings estimates and indicated that consumers were beginning to resist high prices.

Don’t miss: Dividend yields on preferred stocks have soared. This is how to pick the best ones for your portfolio.

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September 30, 2022

1 in 5 of Americans don’t know about new omicron-targeting COVID boosters, survey finds

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About half of the American public has heard little or nothing about the new COVID-19 bivalent booster, a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation has found. The new booster targets the omicron variants that have become dominant around the world.

One in five of those surveyed said they had heard “nothing at all” about the new boosters. Some 17% said they had heard “a lot” about the boosters, while 33% said they had heard “some” about the new shots. About a third said they’d already gotten the new booster or intended to do so as soon as possible.

“Intention is somewhat higher among older adults, one of the groups most at risk for serious complications of a coronavirus infection,” the authors wrote. “Almost half (45%) of adults ages 65 and older say they have gotten the bivalent booster or intend to get it ‘as soon as possible.’”

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

The news will likely disappoint health experts who cheered the regulatory authorization of the new boosters in August. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency-use authorization to boosters developed by Moderna
MRNA,
+1.36%
and by Pfizer
PFE,
-0.07%
and German partner BioNTech
BNTX,
+1.53%
for use in people aged 12 and older who have had an initial series of a COVID vaccine, including those who have already had one or more booster doses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all adults get one of the bivalent boosters at least two months after completing a primary series of shots. So far, some 7.6 million people in the U.S. have received it, according to the CDC.

From the CDC: Stay Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines Including Boosters

Once again, the country’s partisan divide is evident, with 6 in 10 Democrats saying they’ve already had the shot or will get it soon, compared with 1 in 8 Republicans.

“Notably, 20% of Republicans say they will ‘definitely not’ get the new COVID-19 booster dose, while a further 38% of Republicans are unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated and therefore not eligible for the new updated COVID-19 booster dose,” the survey authors said.

Also read: A common virus is putting more children in the hospital than in recent years

In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 47,569 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 26% from two weeks ago and now at the lowest level since late April. Cases are rising in 14 states and are sharply higher in several. Montana leads the count with a 75% rise in the last two weeks, followed by Washington with a 48% rise. Cases are up by double digits in Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and New Jersey.

The daily average for hospitalizations was down 13% to 28,639, while the daily average for deaths was down 11% to 407.

The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual COVID shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to COVID could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• The U.K. is the only G-7 country whose economy is smaller now than before the pandemic, the Guardian reported, citing data released Friday by the Office for National Statistics. The ONS released figures showing that rather than the economy being 0.6% larger than it was in February 2020, a combination of a deeper recession during the pandemic and a weak recovery had left it 0.2% smaller. All the other major economies in the G-7, including France and Italy, recovered strongly enough to be larger than they were in February 2020.

• Taiwan is the latest country to end mandatory COVID quarantines for people arriving from overseas, the Associated Press reported. Officials said that beginning Oct. 13, the previous weeklong quarantine requirement would be replaced with a seven-day self-monitoring period. A rapid antigen test will still be required upon arrival, but people showing no symptoms will be allowed to take public transportation.

• Germany’s health ministry is warning of a rise of COVID cases heading into the fall and is urging older people in particular to get a second booster shot, the AP reported separately. Other European countries such as France, Denmark and the Netherlands are also recording an increase in cases, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin. “We are clearly at the start of a winter wave,” he said.

COVID-19 lockdowns, corruption crackdowns and more have put China’s economy on a potential crash course with the U.S. and the rest of the world, the Wall Street Journal’s Dion Rabouin explains. Illustration: David Fang

• The first Chinese mRNA-based COVID vaccine has received government approval — in Indonesia, the New York Times reported. The shot, developed by Walvax Biotechnology
300142,
+0.49%,
Suzhou Abogen Biosciences and the Chinese military, was cleared this week by Indonesia for emergency use. Countries all over the world, including Indonesia, have embraced mRNA vaccines, and they are considered among the most effective vaccines that the world has to offer. But more than two years into the pandemic, they are not yet available in China, which has relied on an increasingly draconian “zero-COVID” approach to keep cases and deaths from the virus low.

• Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a supporter of Russia’s war on Ukraine, has tested positive for COVID-19, the church’s press service said on Friday, Reuters reported. The church said Kirill, 75, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had canceled all his planned trips and events and had “severe symptoms” requiring bed rest and isolation. It said his condition was “satisfactory.”

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 617.3 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.54 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 96.3 million cases and 1,059,291 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 225.3 million people living in the U.S., equal to 67.9% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 109.9 million have had a booster, equal to 48.8% of the vaccinated population, and 23.9 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 36.6% of those who received a first booster.

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September 30, 2022
Nike stock drops 10% as execs predict cheaper clothing for at least the rest of the year

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Shares of Nike Inc. plunged as much as 10% after hours Thursday, after the athletic-gear giant’s executives said price-cutting efforts to flush off-season clothing from warehouses in North America would dent gross margins for the rest of its fiscal year and warned of a big potential hit from the stronger dollar.

Management also said they expected their rivals to keep cutting prices through at least the end of the calendar year, as they try to clear their own stockpiles. But the Nike executives said inventory levels in North America likely “peaked” in its first quarter, which ended on Aug. 31, and expected levels to even out — with newer, seasonally-aligned, in-demand product — in the months ahead as it prepares for the holiday rush.

“We’re taking decisive action to clear excess inventory, focusing on specific pockets of seasonally late product, predominantly in apparel,” Chief Financial Officer Matthew Friend said on Nike’s earnings call.

He added that he expected the moves to have a “transitory impact” on gross margins for the year.

The lopsided inventory levels, which grew 44% during Nike’s third quarter, followed factory closures last year in Asia, where most of its footwear is made, that led to late product deliveries, Friend said.

But those late deliveries are now getting mixed in with holiday-season deliveries that are set to arrive earlier than planned. The earlier arrivals, executives said, were a function of earlier ordering — due to the shipping delays that have characterized the past year —and then a sudden, more recent improvement in those shipping times.

And as the U.S. dollar strengthens, Friend said he expected the full-year negative impact of foreign exchange on reported sales and earnings before interest and taxes to be $4 billion and $900 million, respectively.

Still, executives said inventory management in China was “ahead of plan” as it recalibrates supply and navigates COVID-19 related restrictions there. And they said that consumer demand was still strong, despite rising prices. Friend and CEO John Donahoe both repeated that Nike remained customers’ “No. 1 cool” and “No. 1 favorite” brand.

Donahoe said shoes like the Air Max Scorpion — which offered the “most air ever, in terms of pound per square inch” — reflected Nike’s commitment to innovation. The company’s Travis Scott and LeBron 20 sneakers also remained popular, executives said. The back-to-school season, and demand for its Jordan and Converse sneakers, were also solid.

As for fiscal first-quarter financials, Nike reported net income of $1.5 billion, or 93 cents a share, compared with $1.9 billion, or $1.16 a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales came in at $12.7 billion, compared with $12.2 billion a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 92 cents a share on sales of $12.28 billion. Shares of Nike
NKE,
-3.41%
were last down 9.3% after hours, but fell more than 10% at one point after the close.

Prior to the report, analysts following Nike had zeroed in on the impact of the stronger U.S. dollar, the impact of China’s COVID lockdowns, as well as the effects from bigger discounts to sell shoes and other gear that sat around for too long due to backups in the company’s supply chain. The back-to-school season, and competition with the likes of Adidas AG
ADDYY,
-5.21%
were also points of focus for Wall Street.

Gross margins fell to 44.3% from 46.5% during the quarter. Nike executives said the decrease “was primarily driven by North America, which took measures to liquidate excess inventory through Nike Direct markdowns and wholesale marketplace actions.”

Inventory for Nike stood at $9.7 billion, a 44% increase from the year-earlier period, due to what executives described as “ongoing supply-chain volatility, partially offset by strong consumer demand during the quarter.”

Nike, in June, said it expected “higher promotional activity” in the first quarter, as it tries to sell seasonal items that arrived late, following the factory closures last year in Asia. However, for the full year ahead, management at that time said it was planning for “mid-single-digit price increases.”

Executives also said then that they were planning to expand sales that go directly to consumers, via its own stores and online. The company over the years has been trying to rely less on retail chains like Foot Locker Inc.
FL,
-6.36%
for sales.

Shares of Nike have fallen 43% so far this year. By comparison, the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-2.11%
is down around 24% over that time.

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September 29, 2022
FabricLink.com Announces the Launch of the Survivor Costume Guide

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Press Release
–

updated: Sep 25, 2018

TARZANA, Calif., September 25, 2018 (Newswire.com)
–
FabricLink.com announces the launch of the, “Survivor Costume Guide” for this Halloween. Featuring circus performers – ringmasters, trapeze artists, horseback riders, and lion trainers and tamers. Make this year a Do-It-Yourself Circus Costume success, that will take the imagination from the big top to your neighborhood.

Inspired by the popularity of the movie “The Greatest Showman,” Fabriclink.com offers a variety of whimsical and imaginative circus-themed costume ideas for time saving ideas this fall.

This year’s designer collection includes princess, pixie, ballerina, vampire, pirate and lion costumes that can be morphed into one’s wildest circus dreams. Let the princess, pixie and ballerina costumes outfit a little ringmaster, trapeze artist and horseback riders, while the vampire and pirate costumes are perfect for a ringmaster, lion trainer and lion tamers. There is plenty of room to get creative.

The costumes include patterns with all the instructions needed, utilizing hook and loop features to enable a quick “no-sew” creation and easy assembly. Not to mention all of the accessories to add to every and all costumes offered including necklaces, gold embellishments, and bow-ties, with an assortment of Halloween masks, mustaches, eyebrows, and top hats.

Start with just the basic cape pattern, or make the cape a sparkle fabric for a performer or trapeze artist. “Costume ideas for kids” provide tips for a fast and easy Halloween, leaving more time on the pumpkin path to candy heaven. This Halloween, Fabriclink.com is the go-to source for do-it-yourself costumes that provide an imaginative way for kids to conjure up ancient times and fantastic places.

Hosting the perfect open house theme party, or looking for unique party decorations; the Costume Closet’s decoration section has an extensive range of ideas for all types of Halloween party decorations.

Make this year’s Halloween celebration fun and easy.

About the FabricLink Network

FabricLink.com and TheTechnicalCenter.com are online textile resources, which make up the FabricLink Network. FabricLink.com (trade-to-consumer) and TheTechnicalCenter.com (trade-to-trade) provide information about new products and marketing opportunities for specialty textiles, textile-based products and services. The two sites offer valuable educational content and technical information, new releases on innovations, fabric descriptions, usage and care, supplier history, and key contacts. The searchable indexes make the FabricLink Network websites the go-to resource for textile developers, fashion designers, and researchers. Fabriclink.com

Contact: Kathy Swantko – kgswantko@fabriclink.com

Communications: Beth Cochran, 406-579-7909 Cochran@whatsuppr.com

Source: Fabric Link

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September 25, 2018

Tag: textiles

Holiday spending could be the same as 2021 for many people — but not everyone

How the Fed influences credit card rates

When do rate hikes stop?

Low-volatility stocks are working in 2022

Screening for the least volatile dividend stocks

Cash flow is key

Real estate leads the sector bloodbath

Worst performers in the S&P 500 in September