AMZN - Amazon.com, Inc.
| Previous close | 2,011.00 |
| Open | 2,021.40 |
| Bid | 2,019.00 x 1000 |
| Ask | 2,023.00 x 1000 |
| Day's range | 2,001.55 - 2,022.90 |
| 52-week range | 1,307.00 - 2,050.50 |
| Volume | 2,664,738 |
| Avg. volume | 3,992,408 |
| Market cap | 994.998B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.62 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 84.37 |
| EPS (TTM) | 23.95 |
| Earnings date | 25 Jul 2019 |
| Forward dividend & yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-dividend date | N/A |
| 1y target est | 2,238.95 |
- Yahoo Finance•14 hours ago
Amazon's Echo Show 5 puts Alexa on your nightstand
Amazon's Echo Show 5 brings Alexa to your nightstand in a smart screen packing an appealingly understated design.
- Yahoo Finance•17 hours ago
Here's how much Amazon Prime Day is expected to rake in this year
Amazon Prime Day 2019 is more than a quarter of the way through, and analysts are already expecting this year’s sales extravaganza to be the company’s biggest yet.
- Yahoo Finance•18 hours ago
Prime Day deals Amazon doesn't want you to see
If you can’t beat them, join them. That’s the mantra the entire retail world has adopted ahead of Amazon Prime Day.
- Yahoo Finance•19 hours ago
Amazon Prime Day 2019: The best deals in gadgets, fashion, and more
Amazon's Prime Day runs from July 15 through July 16 this year. And we've got a preview of the biggest deals on everything from TVs to mattresses.
- Bloomberg•10 hours ago
Amazon Prime Day Kicks Off
Jul.15 -- Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Day is well underway. Shoppers will spend $5.8 billion on Amazon over the two days, according to an estimate from Coresight Research. That’s an 11% increase from last year’s 36-hour sale when converted to spending per hour. Spencer Soper reports on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia."
- Yahoo Finance•20 hours ago
Amazon Prime Day 2019: Tips and tricks
Are Amazon Prime Day deals really worth all the hype? Here are some tools to help you find out.
- Business Wire•2 hours ago
Prime Day Update: 24 hours Left to Shop – Thousands of New Deals, Exclusives, and More
Prime members in the U.S. have already saved hundreds of millions of dollars during Prime Day
- The Guardian•4 hours ago
Whole Foods workers say conditions declined after Amazon takeover
Employees described increasing pressure to push Amazon Prime deals and memberships, understaffing and increased workloads. Since being bought by Amazon two years ago, employees at Whole Foods say their working conditions have declined markedly amid increasing pressure to focus on pushing Amazon Prime deals and memberships, widespread understaffing, increased workloads and labor budget cuts. Amazon announced in June 2017 it would buy Whole Foods. In interviews with 24 Whole Foods employees across the US, workers described an increasingly pressured environment and the erosion of Whole Foods’ corporate culture. Workers interviewed were reluctant to speak on the record for fear of retaliation. “Amazon has changed the company so much to the point where I can’t recognize Whole Foods anymore,” said one Whole Foods team member in California. “It sends chills down my spine every day to see the store I love bombarded with everything and anything Amazon, from the Prime signs, Amazon lockers, Amazon meal kits and the Prime shoppers.” In September 2018, a group of current and former Whole Foods workers organized Whole Worker, a group for workers to organize together to collectively push for improved working conditions. In a mass email sent out to Whole Foods employees by over a dozen current and former workers with Whole Worker on 21 June, the group characterized Whole Foods’ relationship with Amazon as a subordinate to Amazon, where workers are primarily used to increase Amazon Prime memberships and Prime deals. A Whole Foods team member in the south-west US said: “Cashiers are currently trained to ask each customer if they have Prime. In the fall, they are rolling out signing up for it at the guest service desk. They are aiming for 35% of product purchases to be items on Amazon Prime sales, even if the guest doesn’t have Prime.” A Whole Foods team leader who runs a meat department in the north-east US noted training for new hires now include sections about Prime benefits for customers. “It had nothing to do with customer service, expectations or requirements. Simply just the benefits of Prime, from everything to answering questions on Kindle, Amazon tablets, Amazon Fire Stick and Amazon music,” they said. A Whole Foods worker in the Pacific north-west region claimed Amazon kiosks are replacing Prime lockers in Whole Foods stores throughout the region, where Prime customers can drop off and pick up Amazon orders. “Whole Foods is not an independent company that has an investment or something from Amazon. It is a grocery retail outpost for Amazon, and it’s there to push online sales, Prime memberships and Prime devices,” they said. A Whole Foods representative told the Guardian in an email: “Our Team Members are the heart of Whole Foods Market and we are proud to continue to have one of the highest ratios of full-time/part-time employment and hourly starting wages in the industry. We have not cut labor hours as a result of increasing minimum starting wage to $15 per hour.” However, numerous workers in different Whole Foods departments said they’re pushed to prioritize Amazon-related tasks over everything else. “We must have large signs over our Prime deals, additional signs on the displays and samples or we get asked about it constantly,” said a Whole Foods team member who works in a specialty department in the Rocky Mountains region. Several Whole Foods workers noted one of the Amazon-related changes is understaffing has become the norm within the stores they work in. Full-time workers cited their hours have regularly been reduced from 40 a week to 35 to 37 hours a week in the wake of Amazon enacting a $15 minimum wage for all its employees, thus rendering any rises in pay almost nonexistent. “I have worked for the company for over a decade and have seen the most recent crunch of labor since the $15 hour minimum was implemented,” said a Whole Foods employee in the midwest. The worker claimed their schedule was cut to 27 hours a week, despite being a full-time employee and working in an understaffed department. “They continue to give us more and more tasks and more checklists and things that need to be done, but our hours continue to be cut.” A full-time Whole Foods team member in the mid-Atlantic region noted: “Now I’m usually scheduled 36 to 37 hours a week” since the Amazon minimum wage increase. Another Whole Foods worker in California told the Guardian: “Our store has been labor deficient or compressed since the winter of 2018. We were successful, busy and a great environment. Then we stopped hiring, cut hours, moved people around to patch holes.” A buyer and supervisor for Whole Foods on the west coast said: “We don’t have the manpower to get product on the shelves for customers and we don’t have time for customer service because we are constantly playing catch-up.”
- Bloomberg•4 hours ago
Comcast Has a $45 Billion Cricket Problem
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- England won the Cricket World Cup on Sunday, defeating New Zealand in one of the greatest one-day games ever played. The victory was characterized by the sort of risk-taking and inventiveness which Comcast Corp.’s British pay-TV arm could also use.Sky has long been the broadcast home of English Premier League soccer games. In the past 15 years, it has also hoovered up the rights to cricket matches, Formula One racing, and much more besides. Popular as these sports are in the U.K., though, they don’t have the same cultural pervasiveness as soccer. As more and more games have disappeared behind a paywall, younger viewers have switched off.This is a strategic threat to Sky, which built a pay-TV empire by charging viewers to watch English soccer matches and then adding more sports. The fewer fans there are, the more difficult it will be to attract new customers. The 4.2 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) it spent on domestic Premier League rights alone over the past three years represented almost a quarter of its total European programming costs. But there is a counter-intuitive way to head this off, particularly when it comes to less popular sports: show matches for free occasionally.The need to do this will become more pressing as the giants of Silicon Valley take their first, tentative steps into sports. Amazon.com Inc. will broadcast a handful of Premier League games next season, Facebook Inc. has deals to show Spanish soccer in India, and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube will show some Major League Baseball games this year.The hope for the league administrators and teams that own the broadcast rights is that these new entrants offer a way out of the almost Faustian pact they have made with subscription broadcasters: in return for more money, they have had to sacrifice some of their audience. The tech firms have both huge user bases and seemingly bottomless pockets of cash. Little wonder the Premier League went so far as to give Amazon a cut-price deal to give it a taster of its appeal.Look at what happened when Sky allowed Channel Four, a British free-to-air broadcaster, to broadcast Sunday’s important match: the number of viewers doubled. Contrast that with the wider decline: Since Sky took English cricket behind a paywall in 2006, the audience for the Ashes, England’s biennial series against Australia, has fallen by almost 90%. The figures for F1 are also falling.The appetite for watching live sport on TV appears to be waning as people have got used to highlights on social media. If Sky can rekindle enthusiasm for these events among younger viewers, it would have a chance of reversing that trajectory. Give them a taste, foster their interest, and they might buy a subscription.The broadcaster, which Comcast acquired for 36 billion pounds in 2018, has time to experiment. The tech giants might take a few years to start bidding on rights for big sporting events as they establish whether the economics add up. For the broadcasters, there are inevitable risks, not least of losing existing subscribers who are happy with just the free-to-air matches. The trick will be selecting carefully which games it picks – and keeping the very best content behind the paywall.To contact the author of this story: Alex Webb at awebb25@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg•6 hours ago
Kamala Harris Raises Nearly $12 Million in 2Q: Campaign Update
(Bloomberg) -- California Senator Kamala Harris raised $11.8 million in the second quarter, putting her fifth in fundraising among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who filed campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.Harris reported that 45 percent of her contributions came from low-dollar donors of $200 or less, and she spent $7.4 million during the quarter, leaving her $13.3 million cash on hand as of the end of June, according to her filing.South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the surprise leader with $24.9 million after beginning his campaign with little name recognition, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.The California senator’s campaign said it had raised $2 million after her appearance in the Democratic debate on June 27, when she challenged Biden over his record on school desegregation as a Delaware senator in the 1970s. Her campaign said she raised $3.2 million in the final three days of the quarter.Biden’s Fundraising Haul Trails Only Buttigieg’sFormer Vice President Joe Biden raised $22 million in his first two months in the 2020 Democratic presidential race, lagging the $24.9 million in second-quarter fundraising reported by upstart South Bend, Indiana Mayor Peter Buttigieg.Biden’s report with the Federal Election Commission showed that 38% of his contributions came from small-dollar donors of $200 or less. The frontrunner raised more money per day than any rival, his campaign said when it announced his fundraising numbers July 3. He spent about half of his contributions -- leaving him with $10.9 million cash on hand at the end of June, according to his FEC report.Biden, who kicked off his campaign on April 25, didn’t take any contributions toward the general election -- which campaigns can accept and hold in reserve, according to his campaign. He also reported contribution refunds of more than $540,000.Big Donors Help Fuel Trump Second-Quarter Fundraising SurgePresident Donald Trump’s campaign and joint fundraising committees reported raising a total of $68 million in the second quarter, and ended June with $80.2 million in the bank, as bigger donations began to supplant Trump’s small-dollar support, according to their filings with the Federal Election Commission.Grassroots donors, those contributing $200 or less, supplied 35% of Trump’s haul, down from 56% in January-March. Small-dollar donations totaled $23.7 million to the three committees, with the bulk, $19.5 million, received by Trump Make America Great Again Committee, which benefits the president’s campaign and the Republican party.The $108 million figure reported earlier Monday included money raised by the Republican National Committee, which doesn’t report its fundraising to the FEC until Saturday.Trump Victory, which focuses on big donors, raised $29.1 million, just shy of $30.2 million Trump MAGA tallied. Joseph Nakash, chief executive officer and co-founder of Jordache Enterprises, donated $250,000, the biggest political contribution he’s made and his first to Trump. Billionaire Phil Ruffin gave $255,200 while his wife, Oleksandra Nikolyenko-Ruffin, gave $244,800. Marvel Entertainment chairman Isaac Perlmutter and his wife, Laura, each gave $360,000.Longtime GOP donors supported Trump as well. Roofing supply billionaire Diane Hendricks gave $360,000 as did Marlene Ricketts, wife of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts. Trump’s first pick to head the Small Business Administration, Linda McMahon, gave the same amount, as did Robert “Woody” Johnson IV, the current U.S. ambassador to the U.K.Some of that money was earmarked for the Republican National Committee. The RNC announced it raised $51.3 million.Buttigieg Money Haul in Second Quarter Tops Democratic RivalsPete Buttigieg raised $24.9 million in the second quarter, the most of any candidate who has announced fund-raising totals for the period, and had $22.7 million cash on hand as of June 30 to cement his status as a top-tier 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.The fundraising haul more than tripled the amount the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, raised in the first quarter, in which he reported $7.4 million in campaign donations, according to his finance report filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission.Buttigieg’s campaign held 70 fundraisers in the second quarter, most of which focused on high-dollar donors. But he also staged events catered to grassroots supporters and generated 44 percent of his total contributions from small-dollar donors of $200 or less, according to his reportHollywood Women Donate to Warren Who Swears Off Big DonorsElizabeth Warren is attracting a host of big names in Hollywood -- even though she swore off taking money from big donors.Entertainers Jane Fonda, Scarlett Johanssen, Bette Midler and Barbra Streisandeach gave the Massachusetts senator $2,800 -- the maximum amount a donor can give to a primary campaign. Comedian Amy Schumer gave $5,600, including an additional $2,800 for the general election, should Warren win the nomination. Prolific Democratic bundler Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks Animation and his wife Marilyn Katzenberg each gave Warren got $2,800 checks.Still, small-dollar donors, those giving $200 or less, fueled 67% of Warren’s fundraising. That was just behind Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who got 70% of his haul from grassroots donors in the second quarter.Beto O’Rourke’s Fundraising Collapses as Poll Numbers RecedeFormer Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke’s fundraising dwindled to $3.6 million in the second quarter from $9.4 million in the early days of his presidential run, his campaign said, when he seemed like a rising star.Unlike other top 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, O’Rourke waited until Monday’s filing deadline to disclose his figures -- fueling speculation that the numbers wouldn’t be good. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden reported early second-quarter fundraising totals of $24.8 million and $21.5 million, respectively.O’Rourke’s campaign said he received 119,888 donations with an average contribution of $30. He has met the 130,000 unique donor requirement for the fall primary debates set by the Democratic National Committee. However, his poll numbers dropped before and after a shaky performance in the June 26 debate and stand at less than 3% in recent surveys compiled by RealClearPolitics.Sanders’ Money Haul Slips in June, Claims He Has ‘More People’Senator Bernie Sanders had $27.3 million cash on hand at the end of June after raising $18 million for his Democratic presidential bid in the second quarter, slipping to fourth place from his perch as the biggest fund raiser among the 2020 contenders, according to totals the candidates have announced and campaign reports.The Vermont senator got almost 70 percent of his contributions from small-dollar donors of $200 or less, according to his report filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission, and almost all of the contributors gave $100 or less, his campaign said. Sanders also transferred $6 million from other accounts during the period.Sanders’s total roughly matched what he took in between January 1 and March 31, which had him leading the pack of Democratic candidates then in the race. But this time he’s trailing Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.Sanders’s campaign sought Monday to differentiate his fundraising from that of his rivals, saying in an email to supporters that he’s backed by contributors that are teachers, students and workers at Walmart, while other Democrats are being funded by pharmaceutical executives, lobbyists, hedge-fund managers and “many of the people we are fighting against.”“The truth is, those folks out-raised us by a bit this time around,” the campaign said in the email. “But there’s a limit to the number of rich folks out there who can give large donations to beat us. They may have the big checks, but we have more people.”Warren’s Second Quarter Fundraising Puts Her in Third PlaceElizabeth Warren raised $19.1 million in the second quarter, putting her in third place behind Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, according to totals the candidates have announced and campaign reports filed so far.Warren, who spent $10.5 million in the quarter, still had $19.8 million cash on hand as of June 30. Warren’s second-quarter funds came from 384,000 people, 67% of whom were small-dollar donors of $200 or less, according to her campaign and filing with the Federal Election Commission. Her fundraising surged from the $6 million the Massachusetts senator raised in the first quarter, when she spent $5.2 million.The senator’s intake compared with the surprise $24.8 million haul by Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor who began his campaign with little name recognition. Biden, the former vice president, raised $21.5 million since entering the race in late April.Biden Leads Close Contest in New HampshireA new survey of New Hampshire Democrats finds former Vice President Joe Biden in a close contest for the lead with Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.Biden had 20.8%, Harris had 17.5% and Warren had 16.7% in the poll conducted by St. Anselm College. All the results were within the margin of error of plus or minus 5.2 percentage points, meaning the three candidates are in a statistical tie.Behind them was South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 11.5%. Senator Bernie Sanders had 9.9% in New Hampshire, which he won in the 2016 primary.The poll suggests that the first-in-the-nation primary is wide open as Harris and Warren gain on front-runner Biden after strong debate performances.Former Representative Beto O’Rourke plummeted to 0%, according to WMUR, which reported on the survey.Gillibrand Fundraising Dipped to $2.3 MillionDemocratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand took in $2.3 million in the second quarter, down from $3 million in the first three months of the year, according to her filing with the Federal Election Commission.The New York senator, who has struggled in the polls since entering the race, ended June with $8.2 million in the bank after spending a total of $4.2 million. In addition to the money she’s raised for her presidential bid, she transferred $9.6 million from her Senate campaign in the first quarter.Gillibrand’s campaign said in an email that 65% of its online donors identified as women. The campaign said it is still on pace to hit the 130,000 donors needed to qualify for the third set of debates in September. -- Bill Allison and Mark NiquetteJulian Castro Raises $2.8M in Second QuarterFormer Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, hoping to emerge in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field after a strong debate performance last month, reported raising $2.8 million during the second quarter -- more than double the $1.1 million he raised in the first three months of the year.That still puts him well behind the Democrats who have announced their second-quarter totals so far: South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg at $24.8 million and former Vice President Joe Biden at $21.5 million.Castro’s filing with the Federal Election Commission showed that almost 75% of his contributions came from donors giving $200 or less. He reported $1.1 million in the bank as of June 30. Monday is the deadline for presidential candidates and committees to report their second-quarter fundraising and spending. -- Bill AllisonTrump, RNC Raise $108M in Second QuarterPresident Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee raised $108 million and have $123.7 million cash on hand, according to revised figures announced Monday. That’s more than the top five Democratic campaigns combined.“Yet another record-shattering fundraising haul gives us a major advantage over the crowded field of Democrats as the RNC continues investing in our world-class field program and growing our incredible grassroots army,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.Trump’s campaign committee and two joint fundraising vehicles, Trump Victory and Trump Make America Great Again, raised a combined $56.7 million, and ended June with $80.2 million in the bank. The RNC brought in $51.3 million, preliminary numbers showed, with $43.5 million in the bank.The top five Democrats running to replace Trump -- former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised a combined $95.4 million so far.Candidates must officially report second-quarter fundraising totals to the Federal Election Commission on Monday. Campaigns voluntarily announce the amounts they raised ahead of the deadline as a demonstration of the extent of support.Last week, the Trump campaign announced fundraising figures of $105 million for the second quarter and $100 million cash on hand.Trump’s campaign had over 957,000 individual donations, of which 98% were $200 or less, with an average donation of $41.48. -- Bill AllisonDemocrats Support Work Stop by Amazon WorkersDemocratic presidential candidates are supporting a work stoppage by Amazon warehouse workers in Minnesota who are protesting working conditions during the online retailing giant’s Prime Day sale.“I fully support Amazon workers’ Prime Day strike,” tweeted Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator who has proposed breaking up Amazon. “Their fight for safe and reliable jobs is another reminder that we must come together to hold big corporations accountable.”Julian Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary from Texas, also took to Twitter to express solidarity. “A company worth $1 trillion can absolutely afford to provide reasonable conditions for its employees,” he wrote.Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has co-sponsored legislation that would tax Amazon, Walmart Inc. and other big employers to compensate for the federal benefits received by their workers, also jumped in.After the bill was introduced last year, Amazon announced that it would raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour.“A higher wage is only one component of the fight for workers’ rights,” Sanders wrote Monday. “Amazon workers deserve safe working conditions, fair scheduling, and reasonable production demands.”Workers at Amazon’s Shakopee, Minnesota, warehouse -- one of 100 sorting and fulfillment centers it operates nationally -- planned to walk off the job Monday on one the company’s busiest days. Amazon has become a frequent target of Democratic candidates, who have used it as an emblem of income inequality. -- Gregory KorteTrump Crushes Democratic Contenders on TwitterRetweets are not endorsements, and neither are Twitter followers. But if they were, President Donald Trump would be winning the Twitter primary.Nineteen percent of adult Twitter users in the U.S. follow @realDonaldTrump on Twitter, compared to 14% who follow one or more of his Democratic rivals, according to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center.Perhaps not surprisingly, more Republicans (31%) follow Trump than Democrats (13%). And those who follow Trump on Twitter are more likely to approve of his job performance (54% approval) than those who don’t (24%).One defining characteristic of Trump’s tweets is that he often uses the social media platform to make inflammatory or controversial statements. Over the weekend and into Monday, for example, he let loose a torrent of posts going after four Democratic lawmakers of color, at one point suggesting that the women, all but one of whom was born in the U.S., should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”The Pew analysis is based on a representative sample of U.S.-based Twitter users and doesn’t include overseas, spam or bot accounts. Trump has 61.9 million Twitter followers in all. The top candidate for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, has 9.4 million. -- Greg KorteDemocratic Field Turns Out for Iowa AARP ForumsNineteen Democratic presidential candidates descend on Iowa this week for five days of forums hosted by the AARP and the Des Moines Register.“Older voters turn out in force in every election, so any candidate who wants to win in 2020 needs to focus on soaring prescription drug prices and other issues they care about,” John Hishta, senior vice president of campaigns for the lobbying group for older Americans, said in a statement.Monday: former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar and former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper in Des Moines.Tuesday: Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris, and former HUD secretary Julian Castro in Davenport.Wednesday: Representatives Tim Ryan and Tulsi Gabbard, and Senator Michael Bennet in Cedar Rapids.Friday: Senator Elizabeth Warren, author Marianne Williamson, former Representative Beto O’Rourke and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang in Sioux City.Saturday: Senator Bernie Sanders, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Montana Governor Steve Bullock and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in Council Bluffs.\-- Tyler PagerO’Rourke Reveals His Family Owned SlavesDemocratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who’s said he supports studying reparations for African Americans as a means of addressing the legacy of slavery and legal discrimination, now says the issue has become personal. His ancestors include slave owners.In a new Medium essay, O’Rourke said his great-great-great grandfather Andrew Cowan Jasper, in the 1850s owned two women named Rosa and Eliza, according to documents he was recently given. Another ancestor, Frederick Williams, “most likely” owned slaves in the 1860s, O’Rourke said, adding that his wife, Amy, is also a descendant of a slave owner.“Something that we’ve been thinking about and talking about in town hall meetings and out on the campaign -- the legacy of slavery in the United States -- now has a much more personal connection,” the former U.S. representative from El Paso, Texas, said in the post dated Sunday.The revelation follows an NBC News report citing U.S. Census records that found Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is also a descendant of slave owners. McConnell said he opposes government reparations because slavery “happened 150 years ago” and nobody living today is responsible.O’Rourke looks at the situation differently. “They were able to build wealth on the backs and off the sweat of others,” and those benefits ultimately passed to O’Rourke and his own children, he said. -- Terrence DoppSanders, Biden Intensify Fight Over Health Care (6 a.m.)Democrats are headed into a week of sparring over health care as two leading presidential contenders prepare to intensify their fight over the issue.On Monday, front-runner Joe Biden will unveil a plan that relies heavily on defending the Affordable Care Act enacted in 2010 when he was vice president. It would give Americans the choice of a Medicare-like, public option for insurance while increasing the value of tax credits, lowering the cap on the cost of insurance and offering coverage to 4.9 million Americans in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid under Obamacare. the proposal would cost an estimated $750 billion in its first decade.Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who champions a “Medicare for All” government-run insurance system, plans a Wednesday speech in Washington to “confront the Democratic opponents of Medicare for All and directly challenge the insurance and drug industry.”After months of maintaining a steady grip on second place behind Biden in polls, Sanders has slid to third or fourth in some surveys, and his advisers have encouraged him to take on Biden more directly.Biden, seeking to move past missteps in the past few weeks, has become increasingly aggressive in warning that Medicare for All – also supported by two other top rivals, Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren – would mean giving up on the hard-fought gains of Obamacare and starting from scratch.“I admire the rest of the field, from Bernie to Elizabeth to Kamala who want, you know, Medicare for All, but let me tell you, I think one of the most significant things we’ve done in our administration is pass the Affordable Care Act,” Biden said Saturday in New Hampshire. “I don’t know why we’d get rid of what in fact is working and move to something totally new.”Biden also highlighted over the weekend that Medicare for All would need to be funded with tax increases for middle-income Americans, something that Sanders openly acknowledges. But Sanders maintains that his plan would ultimately save consumers money because they’d no longer have to pay other costs.“Obviously what Biden was doing is what the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industries, Republicans, do: ignoring the fact that people will save money on their health care,” Sanders said in an interview with the New York Times published Sunday. “They will no longer have to pay premiums or out-of-pocket expenses. They will no longer have high deductibles and high co-payments.” -- Jennifer EpsteinCory Booker Unveils Health Care PlanSenator Cory Booker rolled out a plan Monday to expand Medicaid long-term care services to those with assets up to $200,000 and income as high as 300% of the federal poverty level.People above those thresholds would also be allowed to buy into the program, an initiative aimed at allowing every American to live at home while aging, according to a white paper from his presidential campaign.The proposal, which Booker is set to discuss at an AARP forum in Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday, would include raising Medicaid funding for direct care workers and paying them at least $15 per hour.“In one of the richest nations in the world, no person should ever go broke or have to quit their job to afford long-term care or to take care of a loved one,” Booker said.Health care is a focal point of the Democratic policy debate as candidates clash over bigger ideas like Medicare for all and offering a “public option” for insurance, both of with Booker has endorsed as ways to expand coverage. -- Sahil KapurComing Up This Week:Nineteen of the two dozen or so Democratic candidates will participate in AARP’s five forums in Iowa between Monday and Saturday.The Tuesday event in Davenport will feature Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris, and former HUD secretary Julian Castro.The Wednesday event in Cedar Rapids will feature Representatives Tim Ryan and Tulsi Gabbard, and Senator Michael Bennet.The Friday event in Sioux City will feature Senator Elizabeth Warren, author Marianne Williamson, former Representative Beto O’Rourke and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang.The Saturday event in Council Bluffs will feature Senator Bernie Sanders, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Montana Governor Steve Bullock and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.\--With assistance from Sahil Kapur, Jennifer Epstein, Terrence Dopp, Tyler Pager, Gregory Korte and Bill Allison.To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.net;Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Sara Forden, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks•11 hours ago
Amazon Prime Day 2019: What Does This Mean for the Company Moving Forward?
Amazon (AMZN) kicked off its annual Prime Day Monday, exclusively offering a vast variety of deals for its Prime members.
- Motley Fool•12 hours ago
Mark Your Calendar for Netflix's Q2 Earnings
Don't let soft earnings surprise you when the streaming-video giant reports second-quarter results later this week. Management saw it coming.
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Netflix "The Cable Killer": Can They Remain The Streaming King?
Netflix (NFLX), the cable killer, is continuing its tear with subscription growth appearing to be proliferating to no end, although Disney's (DIS) Disney+ video streaming platform has some investors nervous.
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Kroger Gains Edge, Food 4 Less Brings Home Delivery Service
Kroger's (KR) subsidiary Food 4 Less starts a new home delivery service. Groceries will be delivered at the customers' doorstep on the same day at their preferred time.
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Amazon (AMZN) closed the most recent trading day at $2,020.99, moving +0.5% from the previous trading session.
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The e-commerce giant has been posting some wild numbers recently. Can the momentum continue?
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4 Companies That Could Profit From the Grocery Delivery Trend
The need to keep groceries fresh is a key part of the growth of online grocery shopping.
