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The Morning Ledger: U.S. Companies Groom High-School Students |
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Students taking part in Coventry High School's vocational training program in Coventry, R.I., U.S. PHOTO: JESSE BURKE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Good morning. Get 'em while they're young! That's the rallying cry across corporate America as big companies from CVS Health Corp. to Tesla Inc. partner with high schools to develop vocational training programs for the next generation of workers, writes the WSJ's Michelle Hackman.
Filling the gap: The U.S. had 6.66 million unfilled job openings at the end of June, just below the highest level on record back in 2000, according to the Labor Department. And the jobless rate, at 3.9%, is near lows rarely seen in the past half-century.
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Direct ties: Volkswagen AG is helping schools in Tennessee modernize their engineering programs; Tesla is partnering with Nevada schools on an advanced manufacturing curriculum; and fisheries in Louisiana have created courses for students to train for jobs in “sustainability.”
But risks remain: Educators are seeking to avoid the mistakes of earlier programs, which were narrowly tailored and sometimes closed off graduates from college. Students in the new programs are often required to take academic classes, including enough English and math, to satisfy precollege requirements.
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Agilent Technologies Inc., Cree Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. are among the companies reporting earnings today. The WSJ's Shan Li has three things to watch in Tencent's results.
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Stocks: Global markets mostly gained Tuesday as concerns over the Turkish lira appeared to ease, though weak economic data weighed down Chinese and Hong Kong stocks. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.4% in morning trading and the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were set to open 0.4% higher.
Currencies: The Turkish lira appreciated 5.5% to 6.5250 against the U.S. dollar after selling Monday that saw the embattled Turkish currency fall as much as 10%. The Indian rupee touched all-time lows against the U.S. dollar before rebounding slightly, in a sign that investors are fleeing emerging-market currencies.
Treasuries: Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys rose to 2.898% from 2.877% Monday.
Commodities: Brent crude was up 0.8% to $73.23 a barrel, and gold rose 0.3% to $1,202 an ounce.
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Netflix Inc. on Monday announced the resignation of Chief Financial Officer David Wells, who is well regarded on Wall Street for helping investors understand the company as it has transformed from a DVD-by-mail service into a Hollywood powerhouse and global streaming behemoth.
Mr. Wells has served as the finance chief since 2010. Under his watch, Netflix’s stock price skyrocketed from roughly $26 at the end of that year to over $341, increasing more than 13-fold, report Shalini Ramanchandran and CFO Journal's Nina Trentmann.
The company said in a written statement that it would search internally and externally for candidates, and Mr. Wells would stay on until his successor steps in.
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Mike Trout douses one of his Los Angeles Angels teammates with a cooler of BodyArmor sports drink, April 25, 2017. PHOTO: JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA/GETTY IMAGES
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Coca-Cola Co. is buying a stake in BA Sports Nutrition LLC, the sports drink startup backed by Kobe Bryant and other athletes, marking the latest attempt by the beverage giant to break Gatorade’s lock on the sports market.
Carl Icahn no longer plans to solicit votes from Cigna Corp. shareholders against the health insurer’s $54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co. after two proxy-advisory firms recommended shareholders support the deal, the activist investor said in a statement Monday.
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk said Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund has approached him several times over nearly two years about providing financial support to take the company private. But, public discussions about such a move are threatening to increase Tesla's borrowing costs.
The sovereign-wealth fund's desire to take a big stake in Tesla Inc. reflects its ambitious plan to build a base in the kingdom for electric-car production and diversify away from oil. However, the fund's finances are tight, advisers and government officials say.
Citigroup Inc. reshuffled its consumer-banking leadership, with Jud Linville, current head of global cards and consumer services, leaving the bank, and Anand Selva, a 26-year Citigroup veteran, appointed to a new position called head of U.S. consumer banking.
Foxconn Technology Co. posted a surprise 2.2% decline in second-quarter profit, even after its biggest customer Apple Inc. said recent demand for iPhones remained resilient.
Microsoft Corp. is moving to retool Cortana, its digital voice assistant that has struggled as the software giant shackled it to the personal computer.
Lockheed Martin Corp. has been awarded a $480 million U.S. defense contract for air-launched rapid response weapon critical design review and test and production readiness support, the Pentagon said on Monday, reports Reuters.
Major tech companies committed Monday to removing technological barriers that have hindered patient and provider access to health-care data online.
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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos attends an event in New Delhi, India, Oct. 1, 2014. PHOTO: MONEY SHARMA/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
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India wants to slap new rules on Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and other firms, using a page from China’s playbook to take control of its citizens’ data and shelter homegrown startups. However, the government is reworking some of the proposed rules after companies expressed concerns, reports Bloomberg.
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The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has released a draft version of its five-year strategic plan and is asking for public comment on its areas of focus, after a slate of fresh new board members joined this year, reports Accounting Today.
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The Financial Accounting Standards Board on Monday proposed a standards update that would reduce costs and ease implementation of the new leases standard and also clarify aspects of lessor accounting.
The proposal would allow lessors to not evaluate whether taxes collected from lessees are costs of the lessor or lessee, and instead account for them as costs of the lessee and exclude the amounts from lease revenue and the associated expense. The update also requires lessors to exclude those costs from variable payments and therefore variable lease revenue.
Finally, the proposal would require lessors to allocate certain variable payments to the lease and non-lease components when the changes in facts and circumstances on which the variable payment is based occur.
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The growth in spending in China’s nonrural areas slowed in the January-July period. PHOTO: MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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China’s economy continued to show signs of cooling, with fixed-asset investment slowing to a nearly two-decade low for the first seven months of the year as trade tensions with the U.S. escalated. Meanwhile, infrastructure investment is expected to stabilize in the second half of the year, the country's statistics bureau said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.
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Germany’s economic growth accelerated in the second quarter driven by solid domestic demand, but economists said global trade tensions and a currency crisis in Turkey are clouding the outlook for businesses, reports MarketWatch.
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Crude oil output by states in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose by 41,000 barrels a day in July, to average 32.32 million barrels a day, the cartel said Monday, even as production in Saudi Arabia -- the de facto leader of the group -- declined.
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U.S. economic growth will probably accelerate this year before slowing in 2019 to well below the Trump administration’s 3% target as a fiscal stimulus fades, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected on Monday, reports Reuters.
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Higher tariffs on imported goods aren’t likely to narrow the U.S. trade deficit because domestic producers are likely to face higher costs for exports, according to a new analysis from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
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France’s unemployment rate fell to 9.1% in the second quarter, after rising to 9.2% in first three months of the year, reports MarketWatch. The U.K.'s unemployment rate declined to 4% in the quarter to June, the lowest rate since 1975, reports the BBC.
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RH, a Corte Madera, Calif.-based furniture retailer, said President, Chief Financial Officer and Administrative Officer Karen Boone resigned, effective August 14. She will be succeeded by Ryno Blignaut, effective the same date.
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Mr. Blignaut's compensation includes an annual base salary of $750,000 and an options grant to purchase 100,000 shares of the common stock. He is also eligible to participate in a leadership incentive program with a target payout of 50% of his base salary and a guaranteed payout of at least $250,000 for fiscal 2018.
Advance Auto Parts Inc., the Roanoke, Va.-based automotive parts provider, named Jeffrey Shepherd as CFO, effective August 12. Mr. Shepherd has served as interim CFO, controller and chief accounting officer since April. His compensation includes a base salary of $525,000, a bonus targeted at 85% of base salary and a maximum bonus opportunity of 200% of the target bonus amount. He will also be eligible to receive annual equity grants for the 2019-2021 performance cycle of $600,000.
Siemens AG, the German industrial conglomerate, appointed Martina Maier as chief compliance officer, effective December 1. Ms. Maier succeeds the company's current compliance chief, Klaus Moosmayer, who is leaving the company at his own request.
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