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Good afternoon. Here’s what you should know today, March 1: |
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USPS looked the other way when its trucking contractors violated safety rules, a WSJ investigation found More younger people are getting colorectal cancers To meet climate goals, IKEA is switching glues |
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| The Labor Department next week will report job openings for January and payrolls for February. PHOTO: TING SHEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
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1. The robust U.S. labor market is showing signs of cooling. |
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According to ZipRecruiter and Recruit Holdings, the number of job postings is declining more than the Labor Department’s reports of job openings. The positive government data on job openings and hiring are helping to convince the Fed that the U.S. economy is overheated and fueling the high inflation it’s trying to tame. If federal stats move in line with the two online recruiting companies, the central bank could feel less pressure to raise rates aggressively. The Labor Department next week will report job-opening figures for January and payrolls for February. Stronger-than-expected manufacturing data pushed U.S. stocks lower and lifted the 10-year Treasury yield to a level rarely seen in recent years, as investors weigh signs of persistent inflation. |
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Brisk Sales Are Powering Restaurant Stocks (Read) Lawmakers Call for Broad U.S. Probes of Federal Officials' Financial Conflicts (Read) How FTX’s Nishad Singh, Once an Honors Student, Turned to Crypto Crime (Read) |
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2. Eli Lilly said it will cut prices for common insulin products by 70% and cap patients’ out-of-pocket costs at $35 a month. |
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The new Humalog and Humulin prices take effect in the fourth quarter. Not everyone with diabetes will see a decrease in their costs because many insured patients pay fixed monthly copays. People who struggle to afford insulin can be forced to ration it. Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act capped monthly insulin costs for federal Medicare patients at $35 a month. President Biden called for an expansion of the cap in his State of the Union address. |
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Congress Investigates How Pharma Middlemen Affect Drug Prices (Read) |
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3. Beep, beep. Tesla CEO Elon Musk kicked off the company’s investor day by rallying shareholders. |
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His long-term vision is to become the world’s biggest car maker. Tesla has suggested it might provide updates on manufacturing plans, the Cybertruck pickup and its in-house battery cell efforts. Investors are curious to know when the EV maker will introduce a less expensive passenger car. Separately, Rivian’s R1T electric pickup topped the J.D. Powers EV customer-satisfaction survey, knocking Tesla from the top spot for the first time since the list was introduced two years ago. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley wants to see how many people Musk needs to successfully run Twitter. In December, he said the social-media platform’s staff was down to roughly 2,000 from close to 8,000 before he bought it in October. |
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The 20-Somethings Fueling a Stick-Shift Renaissance (Read) Germany and Italy Signal They Could Block EU Combustion-Engine Ban (Read) 🎥 Hackers Could Target Electric Vehicles (Watch) |
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4. China’s economy is bouncing back after the Covid-19 pandemic. |
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An official gauge of manufacturing rose at the fastest pace in more than a decade in February, while export orders expanded for the first time in almost two years, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Plus, services and construction activity expanded further. Also, business confidence hit its highest level since March 2021, according to the unofficial Caixin PMI survey, which pointed to improvements in orders, pricing power, employment and supply chains. |
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Chinese Weapons Could Sustain Russia’s War Effort in Ukraine (Read) Missing Chinese Banker Fan Bao Detained as Part of Corruption Probe (Read) Fewer American Companies See China as an Investment Priority (Read) China’s Coal Use Is Rising, but Emissions Might Not Follow (Read) |
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5. Trucks hauling U.S. mail frequently violate safety rules—with fatal consequences. |
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Under pressure on costs, the USPS hired trucking companies at cut-rate prices and required them to meet aggressive schedules, according to a WSJ investigation. Particularly common among the postal contractors were violations of Transportation Department rules meant to guard against fatigue by limiting how many hours truckers can drive. The postal service tolerated the violations. Contractors’ crashes have killed 79 people since 2020. The USPS will begin requiring contractors to meet specific DOT rules, including for safety and maintenance, and will monitor their performances. |
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