Business briefs
By Associated Press
Over 3 million steam cleaners are under recall because they can spew hot water and cause burns
NEW YORK | Some 3.3 million steam cleaners are being recalled across North America due to a burn hazard that has resulted in consumers reporting more than 150 injuries.
Select models of Bissell-branded “Steam Shot Handheld Steam Cleaners” can spew hot water or steam while the products are in use or being heated up, according to notices Thursday from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada. That poses a risk of burns to users.
Bissell has received a 183 reports of hot water or steam expelling from the products. That includes 157 reports of minor burns, the regulators noted, with 145 injuries reported in the U.S. and 12 in Canada as of June 4, according to Health Canada.
Consumers are urged to immediately stop using the now-recalled steam cleaners and contact Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Bissell for a refund or store credit. Impacted customers will have a choice between $60 (CA$82) in store credit or a $40 (CA$55) refund for each.
The recalled steam cleaners, which were made in China, can be identified by model numbers — listed on Bissell’s website. There, consumers can also find more information about registering for the recall and follow instructions for cutting the products’ cord and uploading photos.
On its site, Bissell said that “safety is our top priority,” later adding that the company chose to voluntarily recall these steam cleaners “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Bissell steam cleaners under recall were sold at major retailers including Target and Walmart, as well as online at sites like www.bissell.com and Amazon, from August 2008 through May 2024.
An estimated 3.2 million were purchased in the U.S. Nearly 355,000 were sold in Canada.
Netflix’s subscriber and earnings growth gather
more momentum
Netflix’s subscriber and earnings growth accelerated in its latest quarter as the video streaming service benefits from a crackdown on freeloading viewers, an expansion into advertising and an acclaimed programming lineup.
The results announced Thursday painted a portrait of a company still gathering momentum after a jarring decrease in subscribers during the first half of 2022 prompted a change in direction.
Netflix added 8 million subscribers during the April-June period, marking a 37% increase over the same time last year. It was the sixth-consecutive quarter of that Netflix’s subscriber gains have increased from the previous year, a trend triggered by the 2022 downturn that served as a wake-up call for the Los Gatos, California, company.
And Netflix is still financially thriving. The company’s profit in its latest quarter rose 44% from last year to $2.15 billion, or $4.88 per share — a figure that exceeded the estimates of analysts polled by FactSet Research. Revenue climbed 17% from last year to $9.56 billion, also eclipsing analysts’ projections.
But management predicted its revenue for the July-September period would rise at a slightly slower pace of 14% from the same time last year, lagging the 18% growth that analysts had been anticipating.
The forecast contributed to a muted reaction from investors who have driven up Netflix’s stock price by 32% so far this year. After initially falling by 3% in extended trading after the second-quarter report came out, Netflix shares recovered and were up about 1%.
Given that the competition in video streaming seems to be ramping up again, Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro called “the lowering of guidance an intelligent strategy for keeping excitement put amid sky-high expectations.”
As part of a shakeup that began in mid-2022, Netflix has been blocking the previously widespread practice of sharing subscriber passwords with friends and family living in other households. It also introduced commercials for the first time as part of a low-priced version of its service.
Since those moves began rolling out two years ago, Netflix has picked up nearly 55 million more paying customers, pushing its worldwide subscriber count nearly 278 million through June.
But Netflix is bracing for the gains from the password-sharing crackdown to taper off, prodding the company to sharpen its focus on selling more ads for its low-priced option, which the company said ended June with a 34% increase in total subscribers from March. It didn’t detail precisely how many of its worldwide subscribers have chosen to watch ads for the cheaper price.
Despite the widening audience for commercials, Netflix said it doesn’t expect advertising to be a major source of revenue growth until 2026 at the earliest.
“Ads are going to be a bigger piece of the puzzle, but it won’t be in 2024 or 2025,” Spencer Neumann, Netflix’s chief financial officer, told analysts during a conference call Thursday.
As part of its effort to train investors to pay more attention to its financial growth and foray into advertising, Netflix in April disclosed it will stop providing quarterly subscriber updates beginning next year.
The profit push also has made Netflix more judicious in its spending, resulting in fewer movies and TV series than the service has been making during most of the past decade. But the programming coming out of its pipeline is pleasing viewers and winning high praise — as demonstrated by the industry-leading 107 Emmy nominations Netflix received Wednesday.
“Our goal and our mission is we have to spend the next billion dollars of programming better than anyone else in the world,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the conference call.
Netflix’s strategic shift also has resulted in more marquee events streamed live, such as a recent roast of retired football star Tom Brady, a hot-dog eating showdown featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.
Live shows that pull in huge audiences make it easier for Netflix to sell advertising and, ironically, “take us back to television’s roots,” Forrester Research analyst Mike Proulx said.
Stellantis tells owners of hybrid minivans to park outdoors due to battery fire risk
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. | Stellantis is telling the owners of more than 24,000 plug-in hybrid minivans to park them outdoors away from buildings, and to stop charging them due to the possibility of battery fires.
The company said Thursday that it’s recalling certain 2017 through 2021 Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrids, mainly in North America. Some are being recalled for a second time. All can still be driven.
Stellantis, maker of Jeep, Chrysler, Ram and other vehicle brands, said its investigation is ongoing but the company has linked the problem to a rare abnormality in individual battery cells. The risk of fires is reduced when the battery is depleted.
A company review of warranty data discovered seven fires within the group of vans being recalled. All happened when the vehicles were turned off, and some occurred during charging, Stellantis said. Four customers reported symptoms of smoke inhalation.
Engineers are still testing the remedy, which involves a software update designed to detect the battery abnormality. If a problem is found, dealers will replace the high-voltage battery at no cost to owners.
Owners will be notified by mail when to take their minivans in for service. After July 24, they can go to recalls.mopar.com or checktoprotect.org and key in their vehicle identification numbers to see if their vans are part of the recall. Later models have an improved manufacturing process and are not being recalled, the company said.
The recall comes six months after U.S. safety regulators began investigating a 2022 recall of nearly 17,000 of the vans. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents that it would review the effectiveness of the recall and try to understand the cause of the battery fires.
More Americans apply for jobless benefits as layoffs settle at higher levels in recent weeks
U.S. filings for unemployment benefits rose again last week and appear to be settling consistently at a slightly higher though still healthy level that the Federal Reserve has been aiming for.
Jobless claims for the week ending July 13 rose by 20,000 to 243,000 from 223,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It’s the eighth straight week claims came in above 220,000. Before that stretch, claims had been below that number in all but three weeks so far in 2024.
Weekly unemployment claims are widely considered as representative of layoffs.
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in an attempt to extinguish the four-decade high inflation that shook the economy after it rebounded from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. The Fed’s intention was to cool off a red-hot labor market and slow wage growth, which it says can fuel inflation.
“The Fed asked to see more evidence of a cooling economy, and for the most part, they’ve gotten it,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade. “Add today’s weekly jobless claims to the list of rate-cut-friendly data points.”
Few analysts expect the Fed to cut rates at its meeting later this month, however most are betting on a cut in September.
The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits rose after declining last week for the first time in 10 weeks. About 1.87 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits for the week of July 6, around 20,000 more than the previous week. That’s the most since November of 2021.
Continuing claims have been on the rise in recent months, suggesting that some Americans receiving unemployment benefits are finding it more challenging to land jobs.
And there have been job cuts in a range of sectors in recent months, from the agricultural manufacturer Deere, to media outlets like CNN, and elsewhere.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 1,000 to 234,750.
Strong consumer demand and a resilient labor market has helped to avert a recession that many economists forecast during the extended flurry of rate hikes. As inflation continues to ease, the Fed’s goal of a soft-landing — bringing down inflation without causing a recession and mass layoffs — appears within reach.
While the labor market remains historically healthy, recent government data suggest some weakening.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% in June, despite the fact that America’s employers added 206,000 jobs.
Job postings in May rose slightly to 8.1 million, however, April’s figure was revised lower to 7.9 million, the first reading below 8 million since February 2021.
—From AP reports
