6 Most Important Things in Business Today

April 2, 2018 by Douglas A. McIntyre

China hit the United States with tariffs. According to Reuters:

China has increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, wine and certain fruits and nuts, escalating a spat between the world’s biggest economies in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.

The tariffs, to take effect on Monday, were announced late on Sunday by China’s finance ministry and matched a list of potential tariffs on up to $3 billion in U.S. goods published by China on March 23

A hack hit Saks and Lord & Taylor. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Hackers breached the payment systems of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor department stores and stole credit card information for millions of shoppers, the latest in a series of intrusions that have exposed security gaps in corporate networks.

Hackers claim they have five million credit card and debit card numbers from the stores and have been releasing them for sale on the “dark web,” a network of websites used by hackers and others to anonymously share information, according to Gemini Advisory LLC, a New York-based cybersecurity firm. The hackers began stealing the card numbers in May 2017, the firm estimates.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) ran into trouble with the National Transportation Safety Board. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The National Transportation Safety Board expressed displeasure with Tesla Inc.’s recent disclosure that the company’s semiautonomous driving system was activated before a fatal crash last month in California.

The agency, which dispatched a team last week to investigate the March 23 crash, said Sunday it is “unhappy” that Tesla revealed detailed information it had gleaned from vehicle logs about the collision, including its suggestion that the driver had time to put his hands on the wheel and react.

Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” was number one at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo:

At the top of the box office is Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, delivering an estimated $53.2 million four-day after debuting on Thursday, and $41.2 million for the standard three-day weekend for the fifth largest Easter opening ever. The film is the largest opening weekend for Spielberg since the $100 million debut for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull back in 2008. Ready Player One received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences and played to an audience that was 59% male and 56% of the total audience was over the age of 25.

Tesla has made a push to increase the manufacture of its new Model 3 on worries it cannot produce enough to meet demand. According to Bloomberg:

With pressure escalating after one of the worst weeks in its almost 15-year-history, Tesla Inc. raced to manufacture and deliver its mission-critical Model 3 sedan to burnish the numbers it’s about to report to rattled investors.

Tesla’s Fremont, California, delivery hub was packed with people Saturday evening as the last hours of the quarter drew to a close. Red couches and tall white tables were set up outside, a DJ played music and a truck selling Vietnamese food was on hand. Behind the scenes, a company that’s struggled to figure out how to mass manufacture cars had implored workers to get production on track and disprove their doubters.

The compensation of the head of Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD), owner of Sears and Kmart, rose despite company troubles. According to CNNMoney:

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert only gets a salary of $1 a year to run the troubled retailer. But he does get a stock bonus, and for 2017 that bonus increased by $850,000, giving him a 24% raise.

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