 |
|
|
|||||
Americans are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to find a good job under President Donald Trump, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds, in what is a potential warning sign for Republicans as a promised economic boom has given way to hiring freezes and elevated inflation.High prices for groceries, housing and health care persist as a fear for many households, while rising electricity bills and the cost of gas at the pump are also sources of anxiety, according to the survey.Some 47% of U.S. adults are “not very” or “not at all confident” they could find a good job if they wanted to, an increase from 37% when the question was last asked in October 2023.Electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for 36% of U.S. adults at a time when the expected build-out of data centers for artificial intelligence could further tax the power grid. Just more than one-half said the cost of groceries are a “major” source of financial stress, about 4 in 10 said the cost of housing and health care were a serious strain and about one-third said they were feeling high stress about gasoline prices.The survey suggests an ongoing vulnerability for Trump, who returned to the White House in January with claims he could quickly tame the inflation that surged after the pandemic during Democratic President Joe Biden’s term. Instead, Trump’s popularity on the economy has remained low amid a mix of tariffs, federal worker layoffs and partisan sniping that has culminated in a government shutdown.Linda Weavil, 76, voted for Trump last year because he “seems like a smart businessman.” But she said in an interview that the Republican’s tariffs have worsened inflation, citing the chocolate-covered pecans sold for her church group fundraiser that now cost more.“I think he’s doing a great job on a lot of things, but I’m afraid our coffee and chocolate prices have gone up because of tariffs,” the retiree from Greensboro, North Carolina, said. “That’s a kick in the back of the American people.” Voters changed presidents, but they’re not feeling better about Trump’s economy The poll found that 36% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy, a figure that has held steady this year after he imposed tariffs that caused broad economic uncertainty. Among Republicans, 71% feel positive about his economic leadership. Yet that approval within Trump’s own party is relatively low in ways that could be problematic for Republicans in next month’s races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and perhaps even in the 2026 midterm elections.At roughly the same point in Biden’s term, in October 2021, an AP-NORC poll found that 41% of U.S. adults approved of how he was handling the economy, including about 73% of Democrats. That overall number was a little higher than Trump’s, primarily because of independents 29% approved of how Biden was handling the economy, compared with the 18% who currently support Trump’s approach.The job market was meaningfully stronger in terms of hiring during Biden’s presidency as the United States was recovering from pandemic-related lockdowns. But hiring has slowed sharply under Trump with monthly job gains averaging less than 27,000 after the April tariff announcements.People see that difference.Four years ago, 36% of those in the survey were “extremely” or “very” confident in their ability to get a good job, but that has fallen to 21% now.Biden’s approval on the economy steadily deteriorated through the middle of 2022 when inflation hit a four-decade high, creating an opening for Trump’s political comeback. Electricity costs are an emerging worry In some ways, Trump has made the inflation problems harder by choosing to cancel funding for renewable energy projects and imposing tariffs on the equipment needed for factories and power plants. Those added costs are coming before the anticipated construction of data centers for AI that could further push up prices without more construction.Even though 36% see electricity as a major concern, there are some who have yet to feel a serious financial squeeze. In the survey, 40% identified electricity costs as a “minor” stress, while 23% said their utility bills are “not a source” of stress.Kevin Halsey, 58, of Normal, Illinois, said his monthly electricity bills used to be $90 during the summer because he had solar panels, but have since jumped to $300. Halsey, who works in telecommunications, voted Democratic in last year’s presidential election and described the economy right now as “crap.”“I’ve got to be pessimistic,” he said. “I don’t see this as getting better.”At a fundamental level, Trump finds himself in the same economic dilemma that bedeviled Biden. There are signs the economy remains relatively solid with a low unemployment rate, stock market gains and decent economic growth, yet the public continues to be skeptical about the economy’s health.Some 68% of U.S. adults describe the U.S. economy these days as “poor,” while 32% say it’s “good.” That’s largely consistent with assessments of the economy over the past year.In addition, 59%, say their family finances are “holding steady.” But only 12% say they’re “getting ahead,” and 28% say they are “falling behind.” People see plenty of expenses but few opportunities The sense of economic precarity is coming from many different directions, with indications that many think middle-class stability is falling out of reach.The vast majority of U.S. adults feel at least “minor” stress about the cost of groceries, health care, housing, the amount they pay in taxes, what they are paid at work and the cost of gas for their cars.In the survey, 47%, say they are “not very” or “not at all” confident they could pay an unexpected medical expense while 52% have low confidence they will have enough saved for their retirement. Also, 63%, are “not very” or “not at all” confident they could buy a new home if they wanted to.Young adults are much less confident about their ability to buy a house, though confidence is not especially high across the board. About 8 in 10 U.S. adults under age 30 say they are “not very confident” or “not at all confident” they would be able to buy a house, compared with about 6 in 10 adults 60 and older.For 54% of U.S. adults, the cost of groceries is a “major source” of stress in their life ight now.Unique Hopkins, 36, of Youngstown, Ohio, said she is now working two jobs after her teenage daughter had a baby, leaving Hopkins with a sense that she can barely tread water as part of the “working poor.” She voted for Trump in 2016, only to switch to Democrats after she felt his ego kept him from uniting the country and solving problems.“It’s his way or no way,” she said. “Nobody is going to unite with Trump if it’s all about you, you, you.” The AP-NORC poll of 1,289 adults was conducted Oct. 9-13, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the NORC Center is NORC Center for Public Research, not Public Affairs. Josh Boak and Linley Sanders, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
One of the stocks with the highest surges in premarket trading this morning is Beyond Meat, Inc. (Nasdaq: BYND). As of the time of this writing, shares in BYND are up a staggering 67% before the opening bell. But whats driving this surge? Heres what you need to know. Beyond Meats recent struggles Todays premarket stock price jump follows a significant rally on Friday for Beyond Meat, the California-based producer of plant-based meat alternatives, whose shares closed up more than 24% to end the trading week at 64 cents per share, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The stock price surge, which is now in its second trading day, may come as a surprise to many, considering that Beyond Meat is experiencing significant financial woes as of late. As noted by Bloomberg, the company has seen a decline in interest in its plant-based products in recent years, with consumers being put off by high prices, the taste of the product, and its excessive processing. Weakening demand for meat alternatives in the U.S. helped lead to a 19.6% decline in sales in Beyond Meats most recent quarter, Q2 2025. Beyond Meat reported $75 million in revenues during that quarter. Earlier this year, Beyond Meat had attempted a brand pivot in hopes of returning to its former glory, as Fast Company reported. More recently, however, the company announced that its creditors had agreed to a debt swap, in which the company will issue 316 million new sharesthereby diluting the value of its current shares. This event contributed to a significant fall in the stock. As of Fridays closing price, BYND shares were down more than 82% for the year. Beyond Meat shares surge in premarket trading So why are BYND shares surging this morning? Yahoo Finance points out that Fridays and todays share price surge is not due to any fundamental financial shifts in the company. Instead, it is the result of a sudden spike in trading volume amid a classic short squeeze, where a heavily shorted stock experiences a sharp rise, forcing bearish investors to buy back shares to limit losses. As investors are forced into buying back the stock, its price rises. Some retail traders on Reddit have been pumping up the stock, even though analyst ratings have largely turned negative. In the past, Beyond Meat has been cited as being among the so-called meme stocks that online traders rally behind, a list that has included Krispy Kreme, GoPro, and others this year. Even with todays premarket stock price surge, BYND shares have performed poorly in 2025. In February, they were trading above $4.40 per share at one point. And even that 2025 share price high is dismal when you consider the company’s stock price going back further. In 2019, shortly after Beyond Meat went public, its shares were trading north of $230 at one point. The stocks price has dropped massively since its IPO debut, leading to a decline of more than 98% as of Fridays close. Earlier this month, it entered penny stock territory, hitting a low of around 50 cents a share.
Category:
E-Commerce
The week is not off to a great start for much of the internet. In the early hours of the morning Pacific time, internet users around the world began experiencing issues with accessing various apps, websites, and platforms. Shortly after, a culprit emerged: Amazon Web Services (AWS)or, more specifically, an outage at Amazons cloud computing platform. Heres what you need to know about the AWS outage and what websites are affected. Whats happened? At around midnight Pacific time, internet users around the globe began experiencing issues accessing high-trafficked parts of the internet. Websites like Reddit, services like Lyft, and even apps from restaurant chains like McDonalds seemed to be down or working intermittently. The source of the problem was shortly found: AWS, Amazons cloud computing platform that hundreds of thousands of websites and services rely on, including Reddit, Netflix, Pinterest, Spotify, and more. At 12:11 a.m. PDT, the AWS Health Dashboard posted its first notification about the problem, stating that the platform was investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region. By 12:51 a.m. PDT, AWS confirmed increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region, and by 1:26 a.m. PDT, AWS said it could confirm significant error rates for requests made to the DynamoDB endpoint in the US-EAST-1 Region. But though the problem seemed to be affecting only the endpoint located in one region of the United States, any website, app, or service that ran data through that endpoint could be affected by its outageno matter where in the world the end-user was located. And that was bad news for users around the globe who were attempting to access some of the globes most highly trafficked sites and apps. What websites went down? Users around the world have reported troubles accessing dozens of websites, apps, and services, according to data compiled by DownDetector. As of this writing, the DownDetector home page is showing that multiple websites and services that rely on AWS are being reported as down, including: Amazon Amazon Alexa Amazon Prime Video Apple Music AT&T Chime Delta Air Lines Epic Games Store Fortnite Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Lyft Max McDonalds app Reddit Ring Robinhood Roblox Roku Playstation Network Signal Snapchat Spectrum Starbucks Steam Ubisoft Connect Venmo Xbox Network Xfinity by Comcast Zoom This list above is not exhaustive. Users of many other websites, apps, and services have also reported additional outages, including on Coinbase and United Airlines. Its also worth noting that some report being able to access select sites and services, while others report no luck while attempting access. What caused the AWS outage? Amazon has not yet mentioned whether a specific cause has been identified. A spokesperson for AWS referred Fast Company to its status page, which is still being updated with new developments. How long will the outage last? Its unknown how long the AWS outage will last or for how long your favorite site or service will be down. The last update on the AWS Health Dashboard, posted at 3:35 a.m. PDT and stated that the underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated, adding most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now. However, the same notice warned that Some requests may be throttled while we work toward full resolution. In other words, if you still cant access your favorite site or platform, its best to try again in a little bit. This story is developing . . .
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||