6 Most Important Things in Business Today

August 3, 2017 by Douglas A. McIntyre

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) blew past earnings expectations. The company also said demand for its new Model 3 is robust. Car division revenue rose 93% year over year to $2.3 billion. Tesla’s stock soared.

Qatar Airways gave up on its effort to buy 10% of American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL). American management had already turned down the bid.

The chance that Venezuela will default on some of its debt rose, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The government and state-owned oil company PetrĂ³leos de Venezuela, also known as PdVSA, together owe $5 billion in principal and interest payments due between now and the end of the year, according to Caracas Capital Markets. The country has $725 million due this month alone, the Venezuelan investment bank said:

The problem: Venezuela only has about $3 billion of its foreign reserves in cash, according to S&P Global Ratings. That means the country is dependent on oil exports to make up the difference.


Amazon.com Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) jobs fairs drew thousands of people as the e-commerce company added to its warehouse staffs. According to the AP:

Thousands of people showed up Wednesday for a chance to pack and ship products to Amazon customers, as the e-commerce company held a giant job fair at nearly a dozen U.S. warehouses.

Although the wages offered will make it hard for some to make ends meet, many of the candidates were excited by the prospect of health insurance and other benefits, as well as advancement opportunities.

Amazon plans to hire 50,000 people to fill the positions.

Tens of thousands of people have canceled orders for Tesla’s Model 3. According to Recode:

Tesla is continuing to see demand for its first mass market car, the Model 3, with an average of 1,800 new orders a day.

But on its quarterly earnings call, CEO Elon Musk revealed about 63,000 people have cancelled their Model 3 pre-orders. The number of orders went from approximately 518,000 to 455,000, Musk said.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) will build a state-of-the-art factory for satellite production. According to CNNMoney:

The defense and aerospace company announced Wednesday that it has started building a $350 million facility on its Waterton Canyon campus near Denver, Colorado. It’s a new 266,000-square-foot “factory of the future” that Lockheed Martin says will allow it to make satellites faster and for less money.

The company is a stalwart presence in the satellite and space industries. Right now, for example, it’s making GPS III satellites for the U.S. Air Force and a Mars lander for NASA.

But it’s touting the new campus, which will be finished in 2020, as a big leap forward. One reason is because the facility will bring key parts of satellite production under one roof.

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