6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:34PM EDT · Published Jun 6, 5:09AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © courtesy of Tesla Motors Inc.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) expects to reach production of 5,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of the month. According to a Seeking Alpha transcript:

CEO Elon Musk told investors at today’s shareholders meeting that building 5K Model 3s per week by the end of this month was “quite likely,” as the company’s production lines already had demonstrated the ability to make 3.5K vehicles per week.

China telecom company ZTE may have set a deal with the U.S. government that would allow it to restart most of its businesses. According to Reuters:

ZTE Corp has signed an agreement in principle that would lift a U.S. Commerce Department ban on buying from U.S. suppliers, allowing China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker to get back into business, according to sources familiar with the matter.

ZTE ceased major operations since the seven-year ban was imposed on the company in April for breaking a 2017 agreement reached after it was caught illegally shipping goods to Iran and North Korea.

[nativounit]

Social Security will need to tap part of its reserves this year. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The Social Security program’s costs will exceed its income this year for the first time since 1982, forcing the program to dip into its nearly $3 trillion trust fund to cover benefits.

This is three years sooner than expected a year ago, partly due to lower economic growth projections, according to the latest annual report the trustees of Social Security and Medicare released Tuesday. The program’s income comes from tax revenue and interest from its trust fund.

An arrangement for the largest shareholder of publisher Tronc Inc. (NASDAQ: TRNC) to sell his stock will not go through. According to The Wall Street Journal:

A deal by Tronc Inc largest shareholder, Michael Ferro, to sell his stake to a relative of the family that helped build the company into a media powerhouse has fallen through, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Michael Ferro had announced in April that he had reached an agreement to sell his a 25.4% stake in Tronc for $23 a share to a group led by Sargent McCormick, a distant relative of Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune who died in 1955.

China has made a huge offer to buy more goods and services from the United States. According to The Wall Street Journal:

China offered to purchase nearly $70 billion of U.S. farm, manufacturing and energy products if the Trump administration abandons threatened tariffs, according to people briefed on the latest negotiations with American trade officials.

In weekend talks in Beijing, Chinese negotiators led by Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s economic envoy, presented a U.S. team headed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross a package that includes Chinese companies buying more U.S. soybeans, corn, natural gas, crude oil, coal and manufactured goods.

U.S. company stock buybacks topped $200 billion last month. According to CNNMoney:

American companies announced a record $201.3 billion in stock buybacks and cash takeovers in May.

Apple made up nearly half that total, according to a report from investment research company TrimTabs. Last month, Apple pledged to purchase $100 billion worth of its own stock. It didn’t provide a time frame for when it would complete the purchases.

[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.