8/31/22

Bed Bath & Beyond is making moves to stay alive. And how do Americans feel about unions these days? Looks like we’re finishing the month of August with a 4-day losing streak on the stock market, ending the month down over 4%.

The Dow fell another 280 points, almost 1%, to close at 31,510
The S&P dropped 31
The Nasdaq finished down 66 points.

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Bed Bath & Beyond is buying time. It’ll avoid bankruptcy… by shrinking. The chain is laying off 20% of corporate employees, closing 150 stores, and dropping several of its in-house brands. Bed Bath & Beyond also secured $500 million in financing to help right the ship. Shares fell 22% today.

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Not a lot of demand for mortgages these days. Applications dropped 2% for the week, down 23% from a year ago. The high mortgage rates aren’t helping. The 30-year fixed now stands at 5.8%.

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We keep hearing about workers at places like Starbucks and Amazon organizing into unions. Turns out, most Americans support the idea. In fact, Gallup says 71% of Americans now approve of labor unions. That’s the highest that number’s been since 1965. 16% of Americans live in a household where at least one person is a union member.

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From Los Angeles, I’m Brian Martin with your BEONDTV After the Bell report.