News of the day for March 8, 2024
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It’s jobs Friday, with February’s data likely to show the labor market is cooling; President Joe Biden’s fiery State of the Union speech touted the economy’s strength with proposals including caps on drug costs, homebuyer tax credits, and increased taxes on corporations; Costco Wholesale’s (COST) shares are slumping on its weaker sales growth; Boeing (BA) is reportedly planning to tie a greater portion of staff bonuses to safety over meeting financial targets; and DocuSign (DOCU) stock is soaring after after it released a bullish outlook. U.S. stock index futures are slightly lower ahead of the closely watched jobs data. Here’s what investors need to know today.
1. Jobs Data Expected to Show Slowing Labor Market
Friday’s jobs report will be a key data point determining when the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, with an expected slowdown helping to justify monetary policy easing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the February jobs report at 8:30 a.m ET, with economists expecting 198,000 jobs added last month, a cooling from the 353,000 gains in January. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 3.7%, according to a survey of forecasters by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal.
2. Biden Calls for Capping Drug Costs, Homebuyer Tax Credit, Corporate Tax Increases
President Joe Biden called the U.S. economy the “envy of the world” in a fiery State of the Union address, pointing to strong job growth and legislation he said was powering a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing. Among his proposals as he vowed to fight for “democracy and freedom”: extending price negotiations to 500 prescription drugs and capping prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for all Americans; a $400-a-month tax credit to homebuyers for two years to help buy a new home and eliminating title insurance on home purchases; and extending tax cuts that are expiring in 2025 and raising taxes on corporations and billionaires.
3. Boeing Reportedly Ties Greater Portion of Staff Bonuses to Safety
Boeing (BA) is reportedly overhauling how it pays employee bonuses to emphasize quality and safety over meeting financial targets. The move, one of many to address quality issues following the door-plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight, applies to Boeing’s nonunion workforce of more than 100,000 employees, managers and executives, The Wall Street Journal reported. The biggest shift will be in the company’s commercial unit, its largest, where safety and quality metrics will now account for 60% of annual bonuses, versus 25% tied to operational objectives including quality and safety previously.
4. Costco Falls on Weak Sales Growth
Costco Wholesale’s (COST) shares were down more than 4% in premarket trading after the retailer’s weaker-than-forecast sales growth weighed on investors and offset its earnings beat for the second quarter of fiscal 2024. Sales of food and sundries were up by mid-single-digits in the quarter, outgoing Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Richard Galanti said on Costco’s earnings call, adding that membership sign-ups have increased as the company cracked down on membership sharing. Galanti said, however, that member sharing wasn’t as large an issue as at Netflix (NFLX), another company cracking down. Galanti is stepping away as the company’s finance chief after almost 40 years to make way for former Kroger Co. (KR) CFO Gary Millerchip.
5. DocuSign Surges on Buoyant Outlook
DocuSign (DOCU) shares jumped about 9% in premarket trading, after the e-signature and document management company topped analysts’ quarterly estimates and issued a bullish sales outlook as its customers increased their IT spend. CEO Allan Thygesen said the better-than-expected quarterly results were driven by growth from both enterprise and small business customers.
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