Category: Latest Headlines

Latest Headlines

Louisville employer stocks jump again, as post-Brexit investor confidence rises; the Dow soars 285 points; and Walmart hits Amazon with free-shipping trial

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 6:18 p.m.

Brexit umbrealla
Clouds are parting.

Those employers’ shares closed higher today, as overall U.S. stocks clawed back half the ground lost after Britain’s surprise vote Thursday to quit the European Union. It was the second rally in two days on Wall Street, which had been rattled since Friday by uncertainty over the so-called Brexit. Britain’s stock market also has recouped losses in the same stretch, although other major markets in Europe and Asia have yet to bounce back fully, according to The Associated Press.

The three major U.S. stock indices all closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketed 285 points, or 1.6%; the S&P 500, 35 points or 1.7%, and the Nasdaq, 87 points or 1.9%, according to Google Finance.

Here are today’s closing prices for the 10 employers tracked by Boulevard:

In non-Brexit news:

AMAZON: Walmart today launched a free 30-day trial of ShippingPass, its two-day shipping program to all U.S. consumers, as the world’s biggest retailer ratchets up the competition with Amazon’s Prime subscription service. ShippingPass costs $49 a year, half as much as Amazon’s $99 (Reuters and press release). Also today, Amazon slashed prices up to 50% on newly released, full-featured, unlocked Android smartphones for Prime members (company website). Amazon employs 6,000 workers in the Louisville area, at distribution centers in Jeffersonville, and in Bullitt County’s Shepherdsville.

KINDRED: Senior Vice President John Lucchese sold 4,341 shares for about $11.39 a share today for a total $49,000, the company said in a Form 4 regulatory filing (SEC document). Kindred shares closed this afternoon at $11.43, up 5%.

GE: U.S. regulators rescinded stricter oversight of the company’s finance arm, GE Capital, after saying the conglomerate had made changes that significantly reduced its threat to U.S. financial stability (Wall Street Journal). Its former residential home appliance business, now owned by Haier Group, employs 6,000 workers in Louisville.

John Yarmuth
Yarmuth

In other news, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville has once more donated his entire congressional salary — $174,000 — to charity, making good on a campaign promise when he was first elected a decade ago. The 17 recipients include three arts and humanities groups: Louisville’s Fund for the Arts, Louisville Orchestra, and the Muhammad Ali Center (WDRB).

Latest Headlines

Louisville companies snap two-day losing streak, as Dow Jones soars 269 points; and Yum China bidders reportedly bust deadline, balk at $10B valuation

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:16 p.m.

Those 10 companies tracked by Boulevard joined U.S. stocks clawing their way back from two consecutive days of steep losses, following Britain’s stunning vote last week to quit the European Union. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed moments ago at 17,410 — up 1.6%; the broader S&P 500 index jumped 1.8% to 2,036 points, and the Nasdaq climbed 2.1% to 4692.

June 28 Guardian
Today’s Guardian.

“This is going to take a long time to play out and I think the initial shock is being a little reversed right now,” Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management told CNBC. “This is not 2008. It’s more like 2011.” (Read the latest Brexit developments in Britain’s Guardian.)

In Louisville, virtually all of Boulevard’s top 10 rose by the time markets closed at 4 p.m. They included Kindred, which got pounded yesterday, falling 7%. The closing prices:

Those gains came even as Ford said it expects the double-whammy of any softer post-Brexit industry and a weaker British sterling “would have an adverse impact on our operations in the long term,” a Ford spokesman told financial news site The Street. Ford also said it would issue revised 2016 guidance during its second-quarter earnings call July 28 (The Street). Ford shares have now tumbled nearly 8% since Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union — nearly twice as much as the broader S&P 500 index.

In its most recent annual report, in February, Ford warned about the impact of a possible Brexit, saying it “could cause financial and capital markets within and outside Europe to constrict, thereby negatively impacting our ability to finance our business, and also could cause a substantial dip in consumer confidence and spending that could negatively impact sales of vehicles.”

Last year, the U.K. was Ford’s single-biggest market after the U.S., accounting for 8% of the automaker’s $149.6 billion in sales:

Ford sales graphic

Ford employs nearly 10,000 workers at an auto assembly and a truck factory in Louisville.

In non-Brexit business news: At YUM, potential bidders for the fast-food giant’s mammoth China division  Continue reading “Louisville companies snap two-day losing streak, as Dow Jones soars 269 points; and Yum China bidders reportedly bust deadline, balk at $10B valuation” →

Latest Headlines

Kentucky Opera names Dallas’ Derrer as new general director, in 2nd recent hire among big local cultural groups
Madame Butterly
The 2016-17 season starts with the classic Madame Butterly.

Ian Derrer, artistic administrator at Dallas Opera for the past two years, started his career at New York City Opera in 2004, after receiving his masters degrees in opera production, voice and performing arts management from Northwestern University and Brooklyn College, and a bachelor’s of music in voice performance from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.

Kentucky Opera announced his appointment yesterday, effective Sept. 1. Derrer, 41, will oversee a 64-year-old organization with a $2.4 million budget. He succeeds David Roth, who died unexpectedly last July.

Ian Derrer
Derrer

In 2006, Derrer moved to Chicago’s Lyric Opera, starting as rehearsal administrator and moving up to production director and head of the rehearsal department. In all, Derrer spent eight seasons there, with one summer as rehearsal director at Santa Fe Opera.

As artistic administrator at Dallas, Derrer oversees budgets for the orchestra, chorus, and principal artists as well as members of the artistic staff, orchestra librarian, orchestra manager, chorus secretary, and scheduling department. The company was founded in 1957, five years after Louisville’s. Its budget is considerably larger, however: $14.2 million for the year ended in June 2014, according to its most recent annual IRS tax return.

Dallas Opera CEO Keith Cerny praised Derrer’s work, telling The Courier-Journal that he “guided important artistic and patron relationships, in addition to serving as advisor to both the music director and me.”

Louisville’s 2016-17 season of three productions starts Sept. 23 at the Brown Theatre with Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Dallas Opera’s upcoming five-production season also includes Butterfly.

Shifting artistic leadership

Derrer’s is at least the second appointment this year Continue reading “Kentucky Opera names Dallas’ Derrer as new general director, in 2nd recent hire among big local cultural groups” →

Latest Headlines

Ford debuts 2017 GT ‘Heritage’ echoing 1966 Le Mans winner
Ford GT 66 Heritage
A limited number of GTs with the special livery will be available this year alone.

The all-new 2017 Ford GT will be available in a limited-edition Heritage theme commemorating the GT40 Mark II driven to victory by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon at the French Le Mans race 50 years ago, the automaker said today. The car has a shadow black exterior in either gloss or matte finish with silver stripes and exposed carbon fiber package.

Limited quantities will be available for the 2017 model year only, the company said. It didn’t disclose its suggested retail price, however

Here’s a list of Ford dealers in Louisville.

Latest Headlines

Louisville companies slammed again in Brexit fallout; Kindred falls 7% more, as Dow Jones plunges another 261 points

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:42 p.m.

Kindred headquarters
Kindred’s headquarters at 4th and Broadway; its shares got hit today.

The 10 big louisville employers tracked by Boulevard took it on the chin again, tumbling for a second consecutive day in the aftermath of Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union. Only one — Qingdao Haier, new owner of GE Appliances — gained ground, as major stock market indices fell hard. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,140, down 1.5%; the broader S&P 500 index ended the day at 2001, off 1.8%, and the Nasdaq slipped below 4,600, or 2.4%.

Some of the losses didn’t make sense. Hospital and nursing home giant Kindred, with no discernible exposure to overseas turmoil, dove another 7%, to $10.49 a share — even steeper than its 3.9% drop on Friday. Volume was light: 767,818 shares vs. the average 837,761, suggesting little conviction among pessimistic investors; 1.1 million shares traded Friday. Still, Kindred was easily the worst performer of the 10 today:

June 27 stocks

Papa John’s, on the other hand, fell just 1%, to $65.82, after also declining 1% Friday. That’s despite the fact its biggest foreign market is the U.K., where it has 384 company-owned and franchised stores — 26% of all 1,505 outside the U.S., according to its annual report. In total, Papa John’s had 4,893 stores at the end of last year. The company’s top 10 foreign markets . . .

Top 10 Papa John's market outside U.S

. . . and the full list of all 37 overseas.

Today’s action came after Friday, the first day Wall Street could react to Brexit. The Dow plunged 3.4% to close at 17,400; the S&P fell 3.6% to 2,037, and the Nasdaq fell the most, 4.1% to 4,708. Here’s the latest news about Brexit, finance, and business.

In non-Brexit news, Papa John’s will donate 250 pizzas a day through Thursday to victims of recent devastating floods in the Elkview and Clendenin areas of West Virginia (WSAZ). At least 25 people are dead and several more missing after the disaster caused by heavy rains Thursday. Latest flood news.

Meanwhile, visits to fast-food restaurants — which had been growing at a quarterly clip of 2% since September 2015 — stalled in March, April and May, according to as-yet-unpublished data from market research firm NPD Group (The Wall Street Journal).

Latest Headlines

Saturday night dive: a bad one for Pizza Hut, after a good one for Roadhouse; and Jack Daniel’s reveals a hard truth

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 6:36 p.m

7247dc22-3b1f-11e6-8046-da06d5a386de-780x520
In an undated photo, Jack Daniel — center, in white hat — and to the left, a man who could be a son of Nearis Green, a slave who taught Daniel how to make whiskey.

PIZZA HUT: In Memphis, police are investigating why an officer shot and critically wounded a suspect around 11:10 last night in front of a Pizza Hut, after a caller reported two men were robbing a driver there. One suspect was shot and taken to the Regional Medical Center in critical condition. The second suspect fled; it’s unknown if he was also hit (Commercial Appeal).

In Ohio, Harrison Township deputies were investigating a break-in at a Pizza Hut early this morning; reports indicate a cash register from the business was located by deputies, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether burglars were able to get away with anything (WHIO).

And in northern Delaware yesterday, two armed men confronted a male clerk closing a Pizza Hut in Bear at 1 a.m., demanding cash from the register. The clerk complied and turned over an undisclosed amount. The suspects then fled the store; no injuries were reported (Delaware Online). BTW: Yelp reviewers don’t like the Bear restaurant one bit.

BROWN-FORMAN‘s Jack Daniel’s unit is using its 150 anniversary celebrations this year to talk candidly about its history: the founder learned his craft from a slave named Nearis Green. “This version of the story was never a secret,” The New York Times says today, “but it is one that the distillery has only recently begun to embrace, tentatively, in some of its tours, and in a social media and marketing campaign this summer” (New York Times).

TEXAS ROADHOUSE‘s new restaurant in Roanoke, Va., drew 350 diners when it opened last week for the first time. But managing partner Eric Grow wasn’t surprised in the least, “even though there was very little spectacle at the opening — no formal ribbon cutting or announcement,” says the Roanoke Times. “A few weeks ago he began switching on the building’s LED lights. The first night he did this, he estimates the restaurant got more than a hundred calls asking if it was open yet” (Roanoke Times).