(NEW YORK) — The World Economic Forum announced Monday it has indefinitely postponed its upcoming summit in the Swiss resort town of Davos due to uncertainty caused by the omicron coronavirus variant.
The announcement makes the high-profile gathering of business leaders, politicians and more the latest event to be canceled or put on hold recently due to omicron’s spread. It also marks the second year in a row that the Davos summit was disrupted by the pandemic.
Event organizers said the annual meeting, which was scheduled to take place from Jan. 17-Jan. 21, is now planned for early summer, though specific dates were not yet released.
“Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting. Preparations have been guided by expert advice and have benefited from the close collaboration of the Swiss government at all levels,” Adrian Monck, the managing director of public engagement at the World Economic Forum, said in a statement Monday. “Despite the meeting’s stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.”
Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, added in a statement that the postponement of the meeting “will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society.”
“Public-private cooperation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace,” Schwab said. “We look forward to bringing global leaders together in person soon.”
The delay of the in-person gathering comes amid a new surge of COVID-19 cases globally, propelled by the omicron and delta variants, that has upended many business leaders’ plans for a return to normalcy in the aftermath of a coronavirus vaccine rollout.
Nearly two years into the pandemic, the recent disruptions may be causing deja vu for some and serve as a harsh reminder the global health crisis is not over. A slew of major companies have again announced new delays in return-to-office plans and the omicron variant has been linked to the cancellations of Broadway productions to sports events in recent weeks.
(NEW YORK) — Proctor & Gamble has issued a recall for dozens of its products.
P&G announced it is discontinuing a wide range of aerosol dry shampoos and conditioners from some of the company’s standout brands such as Pantene, Herbal Essences, Old Spice and more due to the presence of benzene, a potential cancer-causing agent.
Benzene is a colorless or light yellow liquid chemical that has a sweet odor and is flammable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It evaporates into the air quickly and dissolves only slightly in water.
The CDC has said long-term exposure to high levels of benzene in the air can cause leukemia, cancer of the blood-forming organs.
Based on exposure modeling and cancer risk assessments published by the Environmental Protection Agency, P&G said daily exposure to benzene in its recalled products — at the levels detected during testing — would not be expected to cause adverse health consequences.
The personal care and consumer goods corporation stated that it has not received any reports of adverse events related to this recall to date. It said the recall was conducted as a cautionary action.
“While benzene is not an ingredient in any of our products, our review showed that unexpected levels of benzene came from the propellant that sprays the product out of the can,” P&G stated. “We detected benzene in aerosol dry shampoo spray products and aerosol dry conditioner spray products.”
The brands impacted by the recall are offering reimbursements for eligible products, and any reactions or quality problems related to the use of any of the recalled products should be reported to the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program.
See the full list of P&G products being recalled below:
– Waterless Dry Conditioner Weightless Smooth (3.6 oz) with UPC 37000543954 with a production code in the range of 0002-0248 or 9298-9350.
– Waterless Dry Conditioner Instant Moisture (3.6 oz) with UPC 37000543831 with a production code in the range of 0009-0069 or 9297-9350.
– Waterless Dry Conditioner Weightless Smooth (.98 oz) with UPC 37000544111 with a production code in the range of 0084-0085 or 9284-9361.
– Waterless Dry Conditioner Instant Moisture (.98 oz) with UPC 37000544227 with a production code in the range of 0017-0100 or 9283-9284.
– Waterless Dry Shampoo No Residue (3.7 oz) with UPC 37000543787 with a production code in the range of 0004-0357 or 9291-9344.
– Waterless Dry Shampoo No Residue (1 oz) with UPC 37000543978 with a production code in the range of 0175-0176 or 9295-9297.
– Pantene Sultry Bronde All in One Luxury Mist (4.9 oz) with UPC 80878188710 with production code 0038.
– Pantene Smooth Talker Dry Conditioning Oil (3.9 oz) with UPC 80878192397 with a production code in the range of 0183-0365 or 1042-1046.
– Pantene Mist Behaving Dry Conditioning Mist (3.9 oz) with UPC 80878190898 with a production code in the range of 0048-0336 or 1008-1218 or 9247-9349.
– Pantene Mist Behaving Dry Conditioning Mist (3.9 oz) with UPC 80878188758 with a production code in the range of 9108-9303.
– Pantene Mist Behaving Dry Conditioning Mist (1 oz) with UPC 80878188765 with a production code in the range of 0107-0262 or 9112-9288.
– Pantene Gold Series Instant Nourishing Spray (4.9 oz) with UPC 80878188987 with a production code in the range of 0307 or 9263-9266.
– Aussie Smooth Vibes Dry Conditioner (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187957 with production code 0021 or 1038 or in the range of 9294-9325.
– Aussie Petal Soft Dry Conditioner (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187544 with a production code in the range of 9196-9246.
– Aussie Sleekend Warrior Dry Conditioner (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187537 with a production code in the range of 0014-0062 or 9198-9349.
– Herbal Essences Blue Ginger Refresh Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 190679001498 with a production code in the range of 9047-9072.
– Herbal Essences White Grapefruit & Mint Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 190679000262 with a production code in the range of 0015-0314 or 1004-1019 or 9028-9348.
– Herbal Essences White Strawberry & Sweet Mint Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 190679000255 with a production code in the range of 0167-0308 or 1105-1106 or 9049-9348.
– Herbal Essences Cucumber & Green Tea Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 190679000248 with a production code 0093 or 1075 or in the range of 9029-9294.
– Herbal Essences Cucumber & Green Tea Dry Shampoo (1.7 oz) with UPC 190679000330 with a production code in the range of 0036-0329 or 1019-1098 or 9023-9312.
– Pantene Dry Shampoo No Water Refresh (4.9 oz) with UPC 80878177042 with a production code in the range of 9009-9058.
– Pantene Dry Shampoo Sheer Volume (4.9 oz) with UPC 80878185276 with a production code in the range of 9025-9260.
– Pantene Never Tell Dry Shampoo (4.2 oz) with UPC 80878188727 with a production code in the range of 0006-0364 or 1074-1133 or 9157-9329.
– Aussie After Hours Dry Shampoo Texture Spray 4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187834 with a production code in the range of 0139-0140.
– Aussie Tousle Hustle Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187285 with a production code in the range of 0013-0300 or 1038 or 9189.
– Aussie Bounce Back Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187278 with a production code in the range of 0013-00357 or 1018-1123 or 9189-9345.
– Aussie Clean Color Protect Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187360 with a production code in the range of 9047-9123.
– Aussie Clean Texture Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187285 with a production code in the range of 9072-9176.
– Aussie Clean Volume Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 381519187278 with production code 9085.
– Hair Food Coconut Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 37000876717 with a production code in the range of 0027-0192 or 9007.
– Old Spice Fiji Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 37000779421 with a production code in the range of 9046-9228.
– Old Spice Pure Sport Dry Shampoo (4.9 oz) with UPC 37000785170 with a production code in the range of 9040-9239.
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — A jury of eight men and four women will begin to deliberate on Monday in the criminal fraud case against fallen Silicon Valley CEO Elizabeth Holmes.
The jurors will be tasked with weighing the 11 fraud charges leveled against Holmes following weeks of witness testimony from insiders who worked at the blood-testing startup, and patients and investors who prosecutors say were defrauded by the Theranos founder once lauded as the next Steve Jobs.
Holmes, 37, is charged with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She could face decades in prison if convicted.
Holmes’ fate was handed to the jury on Friday, after defense attorneys concluded their closing arguments and prosecutors wrapped up their rebuttal.
In the last minutes of his closing remarks, Holmes’ lawyer, Kevin Downey, doubled down on his team’s central defense: that their client did not intend to defraud the alleged victims — something prosecutors must show to secure a conviction.
Even as the company was thrust into turmoil, Downey said, Holmes stayed on as the company’s leader and never cashed out a single share of her Theranos stock, once worth billions.
“You know that at the first sign of trouble, crooks cash out, criminals cover up, and rats leave a fleeing ship,” he said, his voice rising to a crescendo. “She didn’t do any of those.”
“She stayed the whole time and she went down with that ship when it went down,” he added. “You don’t need more from me to know what her intent was.”
But in his rebuttal argument, prosecutor John Bostic reframed Holmes’ propensity for hard work and company success as a motive for the alleged crimes.
“The defense holds that out as a reason to doubt Ms. Holmes’ intent to defraud in this case,” he said. “But in fact that was her motive.”
“She committed these crimes because she was desperate for the company to succeed,” he added.
Theranos was the brainchild of Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 19 to pour herself into building a diagnostics company which she vowed would revolutionize health care. And just a few years later, when she was 26, prosecutors contend, she knowingly made false statements to investors and others to get money.
The “rosy” picture of her startup, which promised its technology could run a full range of blood tests from a tiny sample, among other claims, was never real, Bostic said.
“It never existed,” he told the jury at the top of his rebuttal, adding that this version of Theranos did exist in the minds of the investors and patients who believed Holmes.
But Downey said that some of the allegedly false statements Holmes made about her company to investors arose from information she obtained from her Theranos team.
Her perception of the number of tests that could be run by her marquee miniature analyzer — which she dubbed the “Edison” or “miniLab” — was provided by scientists and engineers, according to Downey, and the hefty financial projections Theranos had shared with investors were prepared by Holmes’ ex-boyfriend and company COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
It was also not until the fall of 2015 that she began to hear about the issues that beset her lab, and would be later uncovered in a federal audit, he added.
But in their two days of closing arguments, the defense did not utter a word about the bombshell abuse allegations Holmes had brought against Balwani during her seven-day stint on the stand — claims that Balwani has firmly denied.
The government, on the other hand, offered the jury a framework to judge Holmes’ accusations against her former boyfriend.
“In the absence of any evidence linking that experience to the charged conduct, you should put it out of your mind,” Bostic said.
(NEW YORK) — The Kellogg Co. said it’s reached a tentative agreement that could end the ongoing strike of some 1,400 workers, as lawmakers and even President Joe Biden have weighed in to support members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.
The work stoppage commenced Oct. 5. Union members are set to be presented with the new tentative deal this weekend and vote at the local level, with results expected to be released by Tuesday, according to Corrina Christensen, director of public relations and communications for the BCTGM union. The union declined to comment on the details of the new agreement at this time.
Kellogg’s said in a statement that the new contract includes $1.10 per-hour wage increases plus cost of living adjustments and more. The company also said employees at its U.S. cereal plants are among the highest paid in the industry, with average earnings in 2020 for “the majority of hourly employees” approximately $120,000.
“We value all of our employees. They have enabled Kellogg to provide food to Americans for more than 115 years,” Chairman and CEO Steve Cahillane said in a statement. “We are hopeful our employees will vote to ratify this contract and return to work.”
The strike at the company that produces breakfast staples such as Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies comes as an apparent labor shortage has given workers new leverage in negotiating with employers while the pandemic ebbs in the U.S.
News of the new tentative deal also comes after Kellogg’s signaled in a statement on Dec. 7 that it plans to “hire permanent replacement employees in positions vacated by striking workers,” saying the prolonged work stoppage “has left us no choice.”
The move to replace striking workers drew condemnation from Biden late last week, and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced that he will be in Battle Creek, Michigan, on Friday to meet with union members.
“Collective bargaining is an essential tool to protect the rights of workers that should be free from threats and intimidation from employers,” Biden said in a statement last week. “That’s why I am deeply troubled by reports of Kellogg’s plans to permanently replace striking workers from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International during their ongoing collective bargaining negotiations.”
The president called permanently replacing striking workers an “existential attack on the union and its members’ jobs and livelihoods.” He expressed his “unyielding support for unions” and urged “employers and unions to commit fully to the challenging task of working out their differences at the bargaining table in a manner that fairly advances both parties’ interests.”
In what many view as a show of solidarity from fellow workers across the U.S., one Go Fund Me page launched to support the striking workers has raised nearly $140,000 from over 3,000 donors.
Sanders blasted Kellogg’s in an op-ed published by Fox News on Thursday as the “poster child for the culture of corporate greed.”
“Last year, Kellogg’s made over $1.4 billion in profits. It paid its CEO, Steven Cahillane, nearly $12 million in total compensation, a significant increase over recent years,” Sanders wrote. “One of the reasons that Kellogg’s had such a profitable year during this pandemic was the extraordinary sacrifices made by their employees who, in significantly understaffed factories, were asked to work an insane number of hours.”
The senator lamented how these workers are now being treated as “disposable” after they were revered as “heroes” for helping feed America during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The workers’ struggle against Kellogg’s is a lot more than just 1,400 employees on strike in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Nebraska,” Sanders wrote. “It’s about what this country and our economy is supposed to stand for.”
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — Federal prosecutors went toe-to-toe with defense attorneys for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes as both sides delivered hours-long closing arguments in her criminal fraud trial.
Prosecutors concluded their roughly three-hour-long closing statements on Thursday, and defense attorneys were over two hours into their remarks when Judge Edward J. Davila adjourned court for the day.
Holmes’ lawyer, Kevin Downey, is expected to resume his closing argument Friday morning, followed by a rebuttal from prosecutors, meaning jury deliberations could begin as early as Friday.
U.S. Attorney Jeff Schenk told the court on Thursday that Holmes had a choice to make in 2009, 2010 and again in 2013 — years when he said the blood-testing startup that would later grow into a $9 billion business was running out of money.
Holmes “chose fraud over business failure,” Schenk said, adding that “she chose to be dishonest with her investors and with her patients.”
“That choice was not only callous, it was criminal,” he continued.
Schenk then asked the jury to consider what an honest pitch to investors would have sounded like back in 2013.
“Ms. Holmes knew that these honest statements would not have led to any revenue, and she chose a different path,” he said.
Downey later shot down Schenk’s claims, telling jurors that, “Elizabeth Holmes was building a business and not a criminal enterprise.”
“The government would have you believe that entity that she presided over as CEO was built by lies, by swindling, by half-truths, by misrepresentations that were carried out over years and years and years,” Downey said.
“I think you will see that the full picture reveals something very different from what the government has been presenting to you for three months and, indeed, for the last three hours,” he added.
Holmes, who completed her testimony last week after seven days on the stand, is charged with 11 counts of fraud for allegedly defrauding investors and patients.
The 37-year-old faces nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and could be sentenced to decades in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty.
By dawn, over 60 members of the press and public were already lined up outside of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Courthouse, the crowd spilling out of the courtyard and onto South First Street. Hours later, at around 8 a.m., Holmes, her mother, her father and her partner, Billy Evans, arrived at the courthouse, all wearing blue and walking hand in hand as the rest of her entourage trailed behind.
At 9:05 a.m., the judge and the jury took their seats in the fifth-floor courtroom. Three minutes later, Schenk began.
One by one, the prosecution projected the picture of each witness their team had called to the stand as Schenk reminded jurors what the investors, patients and others had said to implicate Holmes.
Among those who testified were former lab director Dr. Adam Rosendorff, who said he voiced concerns to Holmes over lab procedures and test accuracy; lab associate turned whistleblower Erika Cheung, who said she was uncomfortable processing patient blood-samples; and former board member Gen. James Mattis, who said he was left to learn about the turmoil at Theranos from the press.
“[Theranos] is the story of a tragedy, but it is also the story of some people acting with really remarkable integrity,” Schenk said, pointing to the decisions made by both Rosendorff, Cheung and senior scientist Surekha Gangakhedkar, another government witness.
For Downey, the fate of his client — who was once was hailed as the next Steve Jobs — comes down to the question of intent.
“At the end of the day, the question you’re really asking yourself is, what was Ms. Holmes intent?” he asked. “Was she trying to defraud people?”
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(WASHINGTON) — Not far from the San Pedro Bay Port Complex in Orange County, which sees 40% of the nation’s imports, Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., has been witnessing supply chain issues in her district due in part due to bottlenecks in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Now she and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., are sending a bipartisan letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., calling for a bipartisan select committee to address the issue. The proposed committee would have an equal number of members from both sides of the aisle to address supply chain issues and the impacts on the economy, families and small businesses.
“Congress must come together in a bipartisan way to address this economic and national security crisis that threatens to undermine U.S. competitiveness abroad,” Kim said. “That is why I am proud to work with Rep. Sherrill and a bipartisan group of colleagues to call on House leadership to ensure Congress takes immediate steps to bring relief to our nation’s economy.”
The committee would investigate the root causes of the supply chain issues and how the crisis has affected various industries. The panel would aim to draft and submit a report to Congress with its recommendations.
“Addressing the current shortfalls throughout our supply chain is imperative to continuing our economic recovery from the pandemic and addressing the very real impacts of inflation facing families across the country,” Sherrill said.
Kim also wrote a letter to California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in January urging officials to include dockworkers and others as essential workers.
She commended President Joe Biden for opening ports in southern California for 24-hour operation in October but said the administration needs to do more.
“While I was encouraged by the announcement that the San Pedro Bay Port Complex will be open 24/7, the administration’s actions so far are not the be-all and end-all that will solve the long-term issues of our supply chain and help ease persistent — not ‘transitory’ — inflation in our economy. A piecemeal approach won’t help solve the supply chain crisis, and that is why I led a bipartisan letter to the administration calling for a whole-of-government response,” Kim said.
(WASHINGTON) — Federal Reserve officials announced Wednesday that they intend to more rapidly end pandemic-era monetary policies meant to support the economy as surging inflation casts a new shadow over the recovery.
The U.S. central bank announced it would accelerate the tapering of its bond-buying program that flushed financial markets with liquidity during the coronavirus-induced downturn. Fed officials voted to keep interest rates near-zero currently, but indicated that they anticipated as many as three interest rate hikes starting in 2022.
“The path of the economy continues to depend on the course of the virus,” the Fed officials said in a policy statement Wednesday. “Progress on vaccinations and an easing of supply constraints are expected to support continued gains in economic activity and employment as well as a reduction in inflation. Risks to the economic outlook remain, including from new variants of the virus.”
The policy shift comes on the heels of the Federal Reserve’s final meeting of the year, which ended Wednesday afternoon.
The committee decided during the meeting to “double the pace of reductions in its asset purchases,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a post-meeting news conference, signaling the pandemic-era program could be halted completely by March.
“Beginning in mid-January, we will reduce the monthly pace of our net asset purchases by $20 billion for Treasury securities and $10 billion for agency mortgage-backed securities,” Powell said. “If the economy evolves broadly as expected, similar reductions in the pace of that asset purchases will likely be appropriate each month, implying that increases in our securities holdings would cease by mid-March, a few months sooner than we anticipated in early November.”
He added that they are phasing out purchases more rapidly because, “with elevated inflation pressures and a rapidly strengthening labor market, the economy no longer needs increasing amounts of policy support.”
Powell also said supply constraints and bottlenecks have limited how quickly production can respond to recent rises in demand, resulting in elevated levels of inflation.
“These problems have been larger and longer lasting than anticipated, exacerbated by waves of the virus,” Powell said. “While the drivers of higher inflation have been predominantly connected to the dislocations caused by the pandemic, price increases have now spread to a broader range of goods and services.”
While Powell didn’t use the words “temporary” or “transitory” to describe inflation levels — as he and the Fed have previously — he did say inflation is expected to continue falling, to levels closer to the longer-run goal of 2%, by “the end of next year.”
“I think the Fed is showing that they’re taking this threat of higher inflation seriously, more seriously than they seemed to be before, but they still think that inflation should abate next year,” said Megan Greene, global chief economist at the advisory firm Kroll Institute and a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Greene said open-ended questions about changing labor force participation patterns and evolving consumer habits in the wake of the pandemic ultimately will have a big impact on how policymakers can react to inflation.
“There are fewer people in the labor force now than there were before the pandemic, and there’s a big question about whether that’s just the big structural change, or whether people might still jump in off the sidelines and get jobs,” Greene told ABC News. “And we’ve never been through this before, so we just don’t know, but if the labor force participation rate is just lower now, then the labor market is pretty tight and that makes sustained inflation a bigger threat.”
Americans also are changing their spending habits, she said.
“It’s not just that as the economy reopened and there’s a surge in demand, there’s also been a change in what we have a demand for,” she said. “In the 1960s, two-thirds of what we bought were goods. Right before the pandemic, two-thirds of what we bought were services.”
The pandemic reversed that decades-long shift, but it’s unclear whether it’s structural or related to lingering worries over the virus, according to Greene.
“All the inflation pretty much is in goods, so there’s a question, Is this just a change in our consumption habits now? Or is it that people are worried that going to the gym will land them in the hospital, so they’re not paying for those kinds of services anymore?” Greene told ABC News.
She said while the “jury’s out” on how this trend will play out as the pandemic ebbs, it’s something the Fed will have to figure out to better address inflation.
While the Fed’s projections indicate the possibility of up to three rate hikes in 2022, Greene suggests Americans take this with a “grain of salt” for now, saying that the data released Wednesday only indicates what each member of the Federal Open Market Committee thinks will happen “based on their own assumptions about inflation and growth and unemployment.”
The Fed’s policy shifts comes, meanwhile, as data indicates inflation hit a 39-year high last month. The government’s consumer price index, which measures the prices consumers pay for a basket of everyday goods and services, soared 6.8% in the last 12 months — the largest such increase since 1982.
The latest indicators inflation is tightening its grip on the U.S. economy have thrown a wrench in the Fed’s original plans to boost the economy throughout the pandemic.
Economists have attributed the rapidly climbing consumer prices largely to supply-demand imbalances lingering from the pandemic shock to the economy. Global supply chain issues, and an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs in the service industry, have been linked to supply not being able to keep up with the surging consumer demand for goods and services as the pandemic wanes in the U.S. As a result, prices have been rising at a rapid clip.
The risk of inflation snowballing out of control, such as what was seen in the U.S. in the 1970s, makes it more difficult for the Fed to continue its easy monetary policy that was initiated during the pandemic — such as keeping interest rates low and injecting liquidity into financial markets. While these policies can help stimulate consumer demand, economists have linked the rising prices to issues clobbering the supply-side of the equation, not the demand side.
“We understand that high inflation imposes significant hardship, especially on those least able to meet the higher costs of essentials like food, housing and transportation,” Powell said. “We are committed to our price stability goal. We will use our tools both to support the economy and a strong labor market and to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched.”
(NEW YORK) — Kroger, one of the largest employers in the U.S. with 500,000 workers, announced that it will pull paid emergency COVID leave for unvaccinated employees.
The grocery chain is also adding a $50 monthly insurance surcharge for salaried associates who are unvaccinated.
The new rules will take effect starting Jan. 1, 2022.
Kroger said this is a necessary step to protect its employees and customers.
“We have been navigating the COVID-19 pandemic for almost two years and in line with our values, the safety of our associates and customers has remained our top priority,” Kroger said in a statement about the policy shift.
The supermarket chain said employees who are fully vaccinated will still be entitled to paid leave and the new policy does not apply to workers with medical or religious accommodations.
Kroger will continue to pay $100 to workers who choose to get vaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — Apple’s stock on Tuesday morning was hovering just below the threshold required to reach a market capitalization of $3 trillion, a milestone no publicly traded U.S. company has ever reached.
Shares for the iPhone maker hit an all-time high Monday during intraday trading before opening slightly lower Tuesday at $175.25 per share, roughly 4% shy of the $182.86 required to reach the historic mark.
The tech giant’s stock has gained more than 30% in 2021 and skyrocketed by nearly 500% over the past five years.
Analyst Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, said in a note shared with ABC News that hitting the $3 trillion market cap would be “another watershed moment for Apple as the company continues to prove the doubters wrong with the renaissance of growth story playing out in Cupertino.”
Supply shortages disrupting global iPhone production remain an issue for Apple, according to Ives, but he said he expects these to ease in early 2022.
Despite chip shortages and more, Ives said he’s predicting Apple is on pace to sell “north of 40 million iPhones during the holiday season,” driven in part by strong demand from China.
Rumors of an Apple electric car project also have investors optimistic for the tech giant’s future.
The tech sector has led the U.S. stock market’s rapid growth in recent years and proven resilient to separate shocks to the economy related to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as tech tools became essential for conducting business and remote schooling.
In August 2020, amid the pandemic, Apple stock soared to make it the first U.S. company to boast a market valuation of $2 trillion.
(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) — The Occupational Health and Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the collapse of an Amazon delivery station in Edwardsville, Illinois, that left six people dead after a tornado pummeled the facility during the height of the busy holiday shopping season.
OSHA spokesman Scott Allen told ABC News that compliance officers from the agency have been at the complex since Saturday to provide assistance.
“OSHA has six months to complete its investigation, issue citations and propose monetary penalties if violations of workplace safety and or health regulations are found,” Allen told ABC News in a statement. “No further information will be available until OSHA has completed their investigation.”
The Edwardsville Fire Department is still working to clear debris from the Amazon site and transition the property back to the company’s control as of Monday, city officials said in a statement on Facebook, saying the transition will take place “in the near future when emergency crews have completed their efforts.”
As of Monday, everyone reported having been at the Amazon facility when the tornado struck on Friday evening has been accounted for, and there are no further reports of missing individuals. One individual remains hospitalized with “serious injuries,” the city’s statement added, and six people have died.
“We’re deeply saddened by the news that members of our Amazon family passed away as a result of the storm in Edwardsville,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, told ABC News in a statement Monday. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones and everyone impacted by the tornado. We also want to thank all the first responders for their ongoing efforts on scene. We’re continuing to provide support to our employees and partners in the area.”
Edwardsville city officials identified the names of the six deceased on Sunday, who ranged in age from 26 to 62.
Among the victims identified by authorities was Larry Virden, 46, whose daughter Justice Virden told ABC News’ Rob Marciano for Good Morning America, “I walked out of that building after they told me my dad was gone, and I dropped to my knees and screamed at the sky at the top of my lungs.”
“I said, ‘No, my dad’s coming home,” Justice Virden said. “‘I need my daddy. He can’t leave.'”
The other victims of the tragedy are: Deandre Morrow, 28, of St. Louis, Missouri; Kevin Dickey, 62, of Carlyle, Illinois; Clayton Lynn Cope, 29, of Alton, Illinois; Etheria Hebb, 34, of St. Louis, Missouri; and Austin McEwen, 26, of Edwardsville, Illinois.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, known for representing the family of George Floyd, announced that he was representing the family of Morrow and meeting with other injured workers and their families.
“The family members we represent are deeply distraught and want answers to their questions. We are seeking to determine if Amazon did everything in its power to warn employees of the incoming danger from the tornado and provide a designated safe area for employees to shelter,” Crump said in a statement Monday evening.
“We are asking Amazon employees who worked at the fulfillment center to assist us with our investigation and help us understand what warnings were given and what procedures followed,” the statement added.
One tornado out of a barrage that raged through six states late Friday touched down just outside of the Edwardsville Amazon facility at around 8:30 p.m. local time, according to Edwardsville Fire Chief James Whiteford.
“There’s about 150 yards of the building that were impacted by the tornado. The walls on both sides of the building collapsed inward; the roof of the building collapsed downward,” Whiteford said during a news conference Saturday, where he also announced that the efforts were shifting from rescue to recovery. “These walls are made out of 11-inch thick concrete, and they’re about 40 feet tall, so a lot of weight from that came down.”
Whiteford also said that a shift change was going on when the tornado struck, causing further confusion for rescue efforts regarding how many workers were in the building at the time.
The building directly impacted by the storm was a delivery station that had opened in July 2020, according to Amazon, and was approximately 1.1 million square feet with approximately 190 employees across multiple shifts.
Amazon said it was donating $1 million to the Edwardsville Community Foundation, in addition to working with local officials to assist with recovery efforts. The company also said it was reaching out to the victims’ families to see how it can best support them.
The company said the site received tornado warnings and alerts, and employees worked quickly to ensure as many people as possible could get to a designated shelter-in-place location. In this case, the site got tornado warnings between 8:06 and 8:16 p.m. local time, and site leaders directed people on site to immediately take shelter. It appears the tornado formed in the parking lot and struck the building at 8:27 p.m., according to Amazon, which said it all happened incredibly fast.
The majority of the workers took shelter in a primary designated location, and a small group took shelter in another part of the building that was then directly impacted by the tornado, according to Amazon, which said this is where most of the deaths occurred.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who stepped down as CEO of the e-commerce giant earlier this year, reacted to the news on Twitter late Saturday. Bezos took some heat from critics on social media for a seemingly delayed response as his private space-tourism firm Blue Origin was launching a crew — that included ABC News’ Michael Strahan — on a suborbital jaunt earlier Saturday.
“The news from Edwardsville is tragic. We’re heartbroken over the loss of our teammates there, and our thoughts and prayers are with their families and loved ones,” Bezos wrote. “All of Edwardsville should know that the Amazon team is committed to supporting them and will be by their side through this crisis. We extend our fullest gratitude to all the incredible first responders who have worked so tirelessly at the site.”
