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Shares of Tylenol maker Kenvue bounced back sharply at the opening bell Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump promoted unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines, and autism. Dont take Tylenol, Trump instructed pregnant women around a dozen times during the White House news conference Monday, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen in the U.S. or paracetamol in most other countries. Shares of the New Jersey consumer brands company tumbled 7.5% Monday. At the opening of trading, shares bounced back by more than 6%. The announcement, which appeared to rely on existing studies rather than significant new research, arrives as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, advances the Make America Healthy Again movement that has focused on what it sees as potential causes of autism. Kenvue disputed any link between the drug and autism this week and warned that if pregnant mothers dont use Tylenol when in need, they could face a dangerous choice between suffering fevers or using riskier alternatives. Kenvue was spun off from Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical and medical device divisions in 2023 because it was thought that the companies could function more efficiently if they were independent from each other. Aside from Tylenol, the consumer health company makes Band-Aids, Listerine and other household brand names. Citi Investment Research analyst Filippo Falorni wrote that he sees a limited risk of new lawsuits after Trump’s announcement, but thinks there could be risk to Tylenol consumption given the negative headlines. Falorni anticipates a positive reaction for Kenvues stock at the opening bell on Tuesday, given the lack of new scientific evidence. The company has fought hundreds of lawsuits related to the product and its alleged ties to autism, but most have been dismissed. Tylenol made headlines in the 1980s when seven people in the Chicago area were killed after taking the over-the-counter painkiller laced with cyanide. The incident triggered a nationwide panic and led to an overhaul in the safety of over-the-counter medication packaging. No one was ever charged in the deaths. Michelle Chapman, AP business writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday signaled a cautious approach to future interest rate cuts, in sharp contrast with other Fed officials who have called for a more urgent approach. In remarks in Providence, Rhode Island, Powell noted that there are risks to both of the Fed’s goals of seeking maximum employment and stable prices. But with the unemployment rate rising, he noted, the Fed agreed to cut its key rate last week. Yet he did not signal any further cuts on the horizon. If the Fed were to cut rates too aggressively, Powell said, we could leave the inflation job unfinished and need to reverse course later” and raise rates. But if the Fed keeps its rate too high for too long, “the labor market could soften unnecessarily,” he added. Powell’s remarks echoed the caution he expressed during a news conference last week, after the Fed announced its first rate cut this year. At that time he said, it’s challenging to know what to do. His approach is in sharp contrast to some members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee who are pushing for faster cuts. On Monday, Stephen Miran, whom President Donald Trump appointed to the Fed’s governing board, said that the Fed should quickly reduce its rate to as low as 2% to 2.5%, from its current level of about 4.1%. Miran is also a top adviser in the Trump administration and expects to return to the White House after his term expires in January, though Trump could appoint him to a longer term. And earlier Tuesday, Fed governor Michelle Bowman also said the central bank should cut more quickly. Bowman, who was appointed by Trump in his first term, said inflation appears to be cooling while the job market is stumbling, a combination that would support lower rates. When the Fed cuts its key rate, it often over time reduces other borrowing costs for things like mortgages, car loans, and business loans. It is time for the (Fed) to act decisively and proactively to address decreasing labor market dynamism and emerging signs of fragility, Bowman said in a speech in Asheville, North Carolina. We are at serious risk of already being behind the curve in addressing deteriorating labor market conditions. Should these conditions continue, I am concerned that we will need to adjust policy at a faster pace and to a larger degree going forward. Yet Powell’s comments showed little sign of such urgency. Other Fed officials have also expressed caution about cutting rates too fast, reflecting deepening divisions on the rate-setting committee. On Tuesday, Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve’s Chicago branch, said in an interview on CNBC that the Fed should move slowly given that inflation is above its 2% target. With inflation having been over the target for 4 1/2 years in a row, and rising, I think we need to be a little careful with getting overly up-front aggressive,” he said. Last week the Fed cut its key rate for the first time this year to about 4.1%, down from about 4.3%, and policymakers signaled they would likely reduce rates twice more. Fed officials said in a statement that their concerns about slower hiring had risen, though they noted that inflation is still above their 2% target. Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
Category:
E-Commerce
British teenage boys aged 15 to 17 spend nearly 34 hours on average a week playing video games, a new report revealed. Thats almost five hours a day, seven days a week, and thats only according to parents estimates. The data was based on a survey of more than 1,000 parents of 7 to 17-year-olds, polled on Mumsnet, an internet forum for parents of children and teenagers. The research was commissioned by Ygam, an independent UK charity dedicated to preventing gaming and gambling harms among young people. The bulk of the group’s funding comes from GambleAware, a UK charity, with additional support from the UK gambling industry and other individual sources. While boys in the UK are bigger gamers than girls, the average time spent gaming for all genders has jumped 3.5 hours in the past year, to 20.4 hours per week, up from 16.8 hours in 2024. The average time children are expected to spend in a UK secondary school, meanwhile, is 32.5 hours. While these games often appear innocent to an observing parent, about half of parents noted gambling-like mechanisms in the games their child plays, including mystery boxes and loot boxes. As these in-game microtransactions involve spending money for a chance outcome, in essence, its analogous to gambling. Almost half (41 percent) of parents expressed concern about this exposure at such a young age. The fact that teenagers spend more time on hobbies like gaming than in the classroom is not, in itself, surprising. After all, most school days are finished by 5pm, leaving many hours for extracurricular activities. The data does, however, speak to the activity’s popularity among among young people. It is hard as a parent to manage it as there is so much peer pressure, one parent of an 11 or 12 year old boy told researchers. He was one of the last children in his class to get a console and really felt left behind as it was all that the rest of his class would talk about. Face-to-face time Teens are also spending far less face-to-face time with friends than they used to. For 38 percent of young men, gaming is the main way they socialize, with 75 percent of parents reporting that their child played video games where they were able to interact with people theyre not physically with. For parents, the social aspect of gaming culture can be a minefield. Fast Company recently reported on a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Roblox and Discord by the mother of a teenage boy. The 15-year-old died by suicide after allegedly being targeted by an adult sex predator posing as a child on the platforms. Unsupervised contact with strangers via game systems is one of parents top concerns. The chatrooms on these platforms cannot be monitored in the same way that games themselves can be, another parent of a teenage girl told researchers. There’s too much interaction with strangers which I definitely don’t like. I have added parental controls to my sons Xbox account and to his phone, but I dont think it filters out enough dangerous content, another parent of a young boy added. I find him talking to strangers when I didnt know he could. Hes now clear that he isnt allowed to do that, but hes 10. It should never have been possible in the first place. While parents also recognized the benefits of gaming for children, particularly in lowering stress levels and helping them to relax, the fear of the unknown increasingly eclipses those upsides. Its important that families are supported to keep gaming enjoyable by setting boundaries, establishing healthy gaming habits, and using the available controls to ensure the content children are exposed to is appropriate, said Helen Martin, interim chief executive of Ygam. Education has an essential role to play not just for young gamers, but also for the adults who care for them to help safeguard children and keep pace with our rapidly evolving digital world.
Category:
E-Commerce
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