Walmart Dress Code to Get a Lot More Flexible

Walmart is testing new dress codes in a small number of U.S. stores with the hopes that this more relaxed environment will help to reel in and retain staff in an increasingly tighter labor market. This means that workers will be allowed to wear shirts of any solid color, which marks a shift from its previous option of only having blue or white shirts, according to an employee manual obtained by Bloomberg News. Walmart adds that visible facial tattoos will be forbidden for those hired after April 14, according to the manual.

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  Walmart just liberated its employees from khakis

  Quartz
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  Walmart may loosen employee dress code

  CBS News

Should We Call It a Comeback? Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Is Launching a Tech Incubator

Former Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer is starting a technology business incubator, Lumi Labs, with longtime colleague Enrique Muñoz Torres. The venture will focus on consumer media and artificial intelligence, according to the company’

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  'One of my key learnings from Yahoo is timing is everything', Marissa Mayer

  Business Standard India
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  Marissa Mayer is renting the original Google office where she started her career in 1999

  Quartz

Bitcoin Loses Out to Bitcoin Cash – Is it the Beginning of the End?

The Bitcoin bulls didn’t get the memo on Wednesday, with Bitcoin only managing a 3.56% rise on day, partially reversing Monday and Tuesday’s losses, to end the day at $8,169.5. A morning rally saw Bitcoin break out from the 23.6% FIB Retracement Level of $7,996.57 to hit a morning $8,168.8 high, breaking through the first major support level of $8,098.87 before seeing a pullback to an early afternoon $7,907.4 to call on buyer support at the 23.6% FIB Retracement Level of $7,996.57. A late afternoon rally saw Bitcoin hit an intraday high $8,237.2, testing the day’s 1st major resistance level for a 2nd time and this time managing to hold on through to the day’s end.

Dead Carcasses and Rodents Found at Farm Behind Massive Salmonella Egg Recall

Unsanitary conditions were found during multiple inspections of a Rose Acre Farms facility in Hyde County, N.C., that allowed for the “proliferation and spread of filth and pathogens throughout the facility that could cause the contamination of egg processing equipment and eggs,” according to a report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detailing inspections. A review of the farm’s pest control records flagged an ongoing rodent infestation, with rodents, dead carcasses and baby mice observed, along with workers who weren’t following proper sanitary practices.

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  FDA report details rodents and filth at farm linked to egg recall

  CNN
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  Rodent Infestation, ‘Spread of Filth’ Found Before Egg Recall

  Bloomberg

Philip Morris Plunges the Most in a Decade on Slump in Cigarettes

Big tobacco is still looking for a savior, if Philip Morris International Inc. is any guide. Shares in the cigarette giant plunged as much as 18 percent after its latest earnings report showed that $4.5 billion spent on four new products are failing to win over new customers. Sales growth of the iQos, a device that heats a tobacco plug without setting it on fire, has been slowing after initial success in Japan. Philip Morris, which sells Marlboros outside the U.S., reported revenue excluding excise taxes of $6.9 billion, less than the $7.03 billion projected by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The share decline, to as low as $83.50, was the biggest since the company split from Altria Inc. in 2008.

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  Philip Morris's Next Challenge Is Getting Grandpa Stoked to Vape

  Bloomberg
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  Philip Morris Int'l stock slumps on poor earnings as iQOS growth in Japan 'plateaus'

  USA Today

Kraken cryptocurrency exchange says it will not comply wi...

Kraken co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell says the cryptocurrency exchange will not comply with the New York attorney general's request for information.

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  Kraken Crypto Exchange Won't Cooperate with NY Attorney General

  Investopedia
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  ‘Insulting’: Kraken CEO Refuses to Comply with New York’s Crypto Exchange Probe

  CCN

TSMC's smartphone warning points squarely at Apple: analysts

Shares in Apple Inc and its suppliers fell on Thursday after a raft of analysts read a prediction of softer smartphone sales from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd as driven chiefly by concern about demand for iPhones. TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple supplier, revised its full-year revenue target to the low end of its earlier forecast. "Apple represents nearly 20 percent of TSMC's revenue so the outlook potentially points to weaker-than-anticipated iPhone demand," Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell told Reuters.

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  Global stocks take a breather as oil price rally continues

  Associated Press
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  Chipmakers' Rout Widens After TSMC Ignites Smartphone Fears

  Bloomberg

Options Traders Expect Huge Moves in Facebook (FB) Stock

Investors in Facebook, Inc. FB need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. What is Implied Volatility? Options with high levels of implied volatility suggest that investors in the underlying stocks are expecting a big move in one direction or the other.

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  Top Rated Dividend Stocks

  Simply Wall St.
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  3 High-Yield Tech Stocks

  Motley Fool

How Amazon Prime's 100 million subscribers stacks up against Netflix, Spotify and Apple

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s annual shareholder letter, released on Wednesday evening, included an unexpected reveal. Your first question might be to wonder how that number compares to other subscription services for streaming content. To be sure, these are not apples-to-apples comparisons, since Prime is not only for video—in fact, it’s likely that the vast majority of Prime members pay for the service to get the shipping benefits, not for Prime Video.

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  Amazon's Bezos Says Company Topped 100 Million Prime Members

  Bloomberg
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  More people have Amazon Prime than live in Germany

  Quartz

CEO Awarded $60 Million to Lead Linn Energy Firm Past Bankruptcy

The same day Linn Energy Inc. exited bankruptcy, it awarded Chief Executive Officer Mark Ellis a $60 million compensation package, more than three times the amount Exxon Mobil Corp. paid its CEO.Ellis’s pay included an equity grant worth $58 million,

Blue Origin believes it can get tourists into space by th...

CNBC's Morgan Brennan talks with Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith about the company's new engine for it's latest suborbital rocket and new opportunities in space exploration.

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  The surprising reason Jeff Bezos loves bad reviews from ‘divinely discontent’ Amazon customers

  CNBC
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  Amazon Has More Than 100 Million Prime Subscribers, Reveals Jeff Bezos

  Time

AT&T's Merger Boss Mocks U.S. Claim About Comcast Coordination

An AT&T Inc. executive told a judge that the company’s contentious relationship with Comcast Corp. is evidence that the two rivals wouldn’t coordinate to withhold content from upstart distributors if AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc. goes through, as the U.S. claims.

Should You Buy General Electric (GE) Stock Ahead of Earnings?

Shares of General Electric GE surged nearly 2% in early morning trading Thursday, just one day before the embattled conglomerate is scheduled to release its latest quarterly earnings report. Investors will want to pay close attention to GE’s results on Friday morning as the iconic brand looks to rebuild confidence from the market. Earnings growth is expected to be strong throughout the Q1 report season, but the tone surrounding General Electric is concern—not optimism.

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  Blackstone first-quarter earnings better than feared as Gray lays out roadmap

  Reuters
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  Blackstone Group’s Assets Jump 22% to Record $450 Billion

  Bloomberg

Philip Morris Results Stoke Global Tobacco Stock Sell-Off

Philip Morris International Inc. led a sell-off in tobacco companies in the U.S. and London after its first-quarter revenue trailed analysts’ estimates. The stock plunged the most on record, pushing shares of competitors including Imperial Brands Plc, Altria Group Inc. and British American Tobacco Plc deeper into negative territory for 2018. The latest results from the maker of Marlboro and other top cigarette brands underscored the struggle the industry has had shifting to new products as global smoking rates decline.

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  Why Shares of Altria Group, Inc. and Philip Morris International Fell Today

  Motley Fool
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  Philip Morris Earnings: 11 Things to Know About Q1 Results for PM Stock

  InvestorPlace

Out of bankruptcy, Seadrill eyes closer ties with oil service firms

Offshore oil driller Seadrill plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late June or early July to catch the rising wave of rig market activity, its chief executive told said on Wednesday. The company won U.S. court approval on Tuesday for its multi-billion dollar debt restructuring plan after reaching a deal with more than 40 banks, unsecured creditors and shipyards. Obviously, we would like to do it as fast as possible," CEO Anton Dibowitz told Reuters.

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Analysis – Too Much Resistance to Overcome; Ready to Test Support

June E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are trading lower at the mid-session. Buyers failed for a second day to make a new high for the week, giving investors an excuse to take profits and play for a better entry price. Daily June E-mini Dow

Should You Buy Micron Stock? 3 Pros, 3 Cons

Micron Technology, Inc.(NASDAQ:MU) beat earnings expectations last month and closed at $61.07 on March 21, just off 52-week high of $63.42. Since then, Micron stock has retreated, and the stock now sits at $48.46 per share. Micron stock has more than doubled since December 2016.

• Traders Sell Amgen (AMGN) on Strength After Insider Selling

  The Cerbat Gem
• MoviePass majority owner stock extends plunge after pricing of public share offering announced

  MarketWatch

ZTE woes may boost network rivals Ericsson and Nokia

By Olof Swahnberg and Eric Auchard STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) - Investors are warming to beleaguered mobile network makers Ericsson and Nokia as they begin to recover ahead of a once-a-decade uplift from a new business cycle and an unexpected boost from a U.S. ban on exports to low-cost Chinese rival ZTE. ZTE has snatched market share in Europe and the Americas, growing four times faster in those markets last year than it did its home market and acting as a drag on contract pricing and revenue growth for Ericsson and Nokia.

Qualcomm to Cut 1,500 Jobs in California, State Filings Show

Qualcomm Inc. will cut 1,500 jobs in California, the majority at the chipmaker’s San Diego headquarters, according to documents filed with the state. Some 1,231 positions will be eliminated in San Diego with terminations starting about June 19, the company said in a WARN, or Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, notice. The largest maker of smartphone chips pledged in January that it would slash $1 billion in expenses to improve earnings, part of its efforts to fight off a hostile takeover bid from rival Broadcom Inc. Qualcomm’s management team now must live up to its vow and work to solve other problems that have hampered revenue and profit growth.

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  Qualcomm layoffs will impact 1,500 Californians according to state filings (QCOM)

  Business Insider
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  Qualcomm begins layoffs as part of cost cuts - Bloomberg

  Reuters

Cambridge Analytica was looking to jump on the crypto bandwagon, too

Before news broke that it had improperly obtained millions of Facebook users' data and undercover videos showed executives listing entrapment among the nefarious ways it could halt political opponents, Cambridge Analytica was reportedly working on a digital currency. A Cambridge Analytica spokesperson didn't discuss the ICO but did tell Reuters, "Prior to the Facebook controversy, we were developing a suite of technologies to help individuals reclaim their personal data from corporate entities and to have full transparency and control over how their personal data are used.

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  Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant brought Brexit firm with Cambridge Analytica link to Ole Miss

  USA Today
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  Uber denies its CTO met with Cambridge Analytica

  TechCrunch

5 Stock Trades to Make First Thing This Morning

Here are the stock trades for tomorrow catching our eye as we prepare for Thursday’s trading session. As a result, SQ stock is moving higher and powerfully pushed through $50. The market (as if on queue) flushed out a number of traders by plunging MU stock down to $48, running stop-loss orders all along the way.

Shire rejects $63 billion Takeda bid as Allergan drops pursuit

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Rare disease drug maker Shire Plc said on Thursday it had rejected a $63 billion cash-and-stock acquisition offer by Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd , while Allergan Plc reversed course on pursuing a rival bid. An acquisition of Shire by Takeda would be by far the biggest acquisition of a drug company year-to-date. Botox-maker Allergan confirmed on Thursday it was considering an offer for Shire after Reuters reported on its interest, sending its shares down 7 percent.

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  Takeda shares drop after Shire rejects $63 bln offer

  Reuters
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  Takeda makes $61 billion bid for drugmaker Shire: sources

  Reuters

AAP Exclusive: Apple, Intel, and Boeing May Be the Next Trade War Targets

"President Trump and his trade team .....are now hell-bent on taking on China," said Jim Cramer in his during his March Action Alerts PLUS members' call. He is not happy about the President's handling of the pending trade war and says, "[The President] seems to have no real clue of what it means to bluff at this level." For more on what a trade war can do to your wallet, watch this video now! He now is worried that China's small scale retaliation will become bigger and affect AAP Portfolio names like Apple (AAPL)  (an AAP Portfolio holding) Intel INTC, and Boeing (BA) .  Watch the clip above to hear his thoughts on what happens to our markets.  "Want more exclusive investing insight from Jim

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  Cramer points to 'China's ultimate weapon' in the trade war: Boycotts

  CNBC
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  Cramer's lightning round: International Paper is a 'very good buy' at these prices

  CNBC

Why Did Semiconductor Stocks Dip This Morning?

Shares of several major semiconductor industry stocks were down in early morning trading Wednesday after the latest quarterly earnings reports from equipment suppliers ASML Holding ASML and Lam Research LRCX caused hesitation.Nevertheless, there were

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  A big slowdown in iPhone orders has Wall Street worried

  BGR News
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  IBM sinks, with the stock on pace for its worst day since 2014

  CNBC