Francine’s footprint: Following Hurricane Francine, there are more than 42,500 customers without electricity Thursday morning across Livingston, Ascension and East Baton Rouge parishes, according to Entergy’s online outage map.
Slow growth: U.S. holiday sales are expected to grow at their slowest pace in six years, data from Deloitte shows, as persistent inflation and dried-up savings turn shoppers more frugal for the all-important shopping period. Holiday retail sales are likely to rise between 2.3% and 3.3% in the November 2024-January 2025 period. Read more from Reuters.
Severance cost: Verizon Communications Inc. will take a charge of as much as $1.9 billion pretax in the third quarter as it eliminates about 4,800 jobs by next spring. The communications giant announced a voluntary separation program for some U.S. management positions in June. Over half of the employees concerned will exit in September and the rest by the end of March, according to the statement. Read more from Bloomberg. A subscription may be required.
