Netflix’s first-quarter earning report disclosed a surprising addition of 9.33 million paid subscribers, zooming past analysts’ estimates of around 3.9 million. As of March 31, Netflix said it has 269.6 million paid subscribers. Subscribers were lured in by Netflix’s lineup of shows, including a live-action adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender;” a new series, “3 Body Problem,” from the creator of “Game of Thrones;” a new season of “Love Is Blind;” and Sofia Vergara’s drama,” Griselda,” among them. Netflix saw the biggest subscription growths in the U.S. and Canada, where 2.53 million subs ..read more

McCartney and Lennon are back with a new track—but not that Lennon and McCartney. Last Thursday, James McCartney, the son of Paul McCartney, released a ballad, “Primrose Hill,” which he co-wrote with Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. James dove into a music career in 2010 with his first EP, “Available Light,” which was partially recorded at Abbey Road. He’s since released two albums in 2013 and 2016, as well as contributed to albums by both of his parents. The B-side, “Beautiful,” was released in February. “With the release of this song it feels like we’re really getting th ..read more

Rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 7.1% for the week ending April 18, up from 6.39% one year ago, according to data from Freddie Mac. This represents a breach of a psychological threshold not yet crossed this year and adds to issues plaguing the housing market during a typically busy homebuying season. Although the Federal Reserve doesn’t set mortgage rates, it does influence them, and the lack of urgency on the Fed’s part to cut interest rates are pushing the mortgage rates higher. “As rates trend higher, potential homebuyers are deciding whether to buy before rates rise even mor ..read more

Google terminated 28 employees this week after sit-ins at the company’s New York and Sunnyvale, Calif., offices that protested a cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. Nine employees were also arrested this week on charges of trespassing at both offices. “Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” said a Google representative in a statement. In California, the employees refused to leave the office of Google Cloud’s chief executive, Thomas Kurian. The empl ..read more

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) has held onto its crown as the busiest airport in the world, with a staggering 104.6 million travelers passing through in 2023, according to Airports Council International. As the demand for post-pandemic travel has picked up, ATL saw an 11.7% increase in the number of passengers served from last year. The market for domestic flights remains strong, but international travel has surged with 36.5% growth. In total, nearly 8.5 million traveled through airports in 2023, an increase of more than 25% over the previous year. Dubai International A ..read more

In an analysis of 59 common fruits and vegetables by researchers at Consumer Reports, one in five were found to have pesticides that posed significant risks. Imported produce, particularly from Mexico, was most likely to carry troublesome levels of pesticide residues. The information used in the research came from the seven years of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which tests an assortment of organic and conventional produce, both grown in and imported to America, each year. Not only did the researchers find problematic levels of chemicals used to control weeds, fungi and bugs, b ..read more

People are watching the Federal Reserve and potential rate cut decisions too closely, said Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, and that’s a “huge constraint on economic growth.” The potential for interest rate cuts this summer is dwindling, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell stating that recent data indicates that it will take longer than expected to garner the confidence needed to make a move. Moynihan said there are more indications of a stable economy than the Fed would make it seem, citing strong consumer spending, business earnings and low unemployment. Bank of America researchers “say it takes ..read more

United Airlines would have reported a first-quarter profit, the company said, if it didn’t have to ground its Boeing 737 MAX 9 fleet for three weeks after a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Instead, the airline reported a pre-tax loss of $164 million for the quarter. Because the loss was less than expected, however, the airline’s shares rose more than 5% after the announcement. With 79 Boeing 737 MAX 9s in its fleet, United has more of the aircraft than any other airline, save for Alaska Airlines. Both airlines were required to cancel thousands of flights in January ..read more

Earlier this year, a Delaware judge voided a $56 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk on the grounds that because he effectively controlled the board, the payout was unfair to stakeholders. Now, Musk’s company Tesla is requesting that shareholders re-approve the payout and move company headquarters to Texas. The pay package was first approved in 2018 and will now go back to shareholders on June 13’s annual meeting. However, with falling sales, tumbling stock prices and slowing EV demand, another authorization is less of a sure thing this time. Board Chair Robyn Denholm said Wednesday in a let ..read more

The expectation that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates this year has been thrown into doubt after Chair Jerome Powell said there has been “a lack of further progress” on reaching the Fed’s 2% target for lowering inflation. If rate cuts come at all this year, they wouldn’t be until at least September, according to economists. “My sense is they need two, probably three consecutive months of inflation numbers that are consistent with that 2% target,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “If that’s the bar, the earliest they can get there is September. I just don’t see ..read more