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Shoplifting numbers, who’s stealing, and why they’re stealing have become hot-button talk-show topics, so it’s no surprise that retailers have reported an increase in theft.”Retailers report increases across various methods of external theft (cargo/supply chaintheft, shoplifting, and walkout/pushout theft) as well as digital and online fraud (phonescams, ecommerce fraud, and repeat offender theft). The survey showed a combined19% increase in external shoplifting and merchandise theft incidents from 2023 to 2024,” according to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2025 Impact of Retail Theft & Violence Report.The NRF does not break out shoplifting from other types of theft, such as internal loss and organized retail crime (ORC), but it indicates that shoplifting has trended upward in the past few years.”Retailers reported a 93% increase in average annual shoplifting incidents in 2023 compared with pre-pandemic 2019 levels,” the NRF reported in its 2024 report.One retailer, Walmart, appears to be facing a bigger problem than its rivals, according to a new Lending Tree report.More Americans say they are shopliftingMore Americans are shoplifting, according to Lending Tree’s survey.”30% of Americans say they’ve shoplifted, up significantly from 23% in 2024. The behavior is most common among younger consumers, with 39% of Gen Zers and 38% of millennials reporting they’ve shoplifted. Among those who’ve shoplifted, 37% say they did so within the past year, up from 23% in 2024,” the report showed.The state of the economy has been the key factor explaining why more people are stealing from retailers.”Among those who say they shoplifted in the past year, 90% cite inflation and the broader economy as contributing factors. Across all respondents who say they’ve shoplifted, the most commonly cited reasons include financial struggles (28%) and items being too expensive to afford (19%),” according to Lending Tree.More Walmart:Walmart’s 7,200 price cuts land heaviest in one categoryWalmart makes another move to win higher-income shoppersWalmart makes unusual nuclear power betDietrich Oberwittler, a criminologist and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, believes the economic situation, especially inflation, has played a major role in the rise in shoplifting.”People want to maintain their standard of living, and when they see the enormous price increases of recent years, some people think: ‘I’m not going to pay that,'” according to a report from the Institute.LendingTree commissioned QuestionPro to conduct an online survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 80 from June 2 to 11, 2026. The survey used a nonprobability-based sample, with quotas applied to help reflect the overall population. Researchers also reviewed responses for quality control.

Walmart ranked as the retailer respondents said was easiest to shoplift from.Shutterstock

Walmart has a shoplifting problemWalmart does not mention shrink, which would include shoplifting, in its earnings call very often.CFO John David Rainey did mention it during the chain’s second-quarter earnings call, and his comments suggest the numbers have improved.”A couple of years ago, we encountered a higher level of shrink in the business. We demonstrated that we navigated that really well,” he said.Consumers, however, see Walmart as a target for theft.”When asked which retailers are easiest to shoplift from, respondents most frequently identify Walmart (47%), followed by Family Dollar (21%), Amazon Fresh (14%), Kroger (11%) and Costco (10%). Another 14% say they aren’t sure which retailers are the easiest to shoplift from,” LendingTree reported.Walmart shares the consequences of theftFormer Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who stepped down at the end of January 2026, talked about rising theft and its consequences.“It’s higher than what it has historically been,” he told CNBC.He was clear about the potential impact of rising theft.“Prices will be higher and/or stores will close if authorities not being strict about prosecuting theft isn’t corrected over time,” he said.Walmart did not return a request from TheStreet to comment on the survey results.Related: McDonald’s decided you are not worth helping anymore

Retirees who spent June planning around a generous 2027 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) now face a much smaller number. The latest consumer price data has forced one of the most closely watched independent analysts to sharply slash her projection, while a second forecaster held steady, CNBC reported.The estimates still put the 2027 raise above the 2.8% increase that took effect in January 2026, so monthly checks will grow. Whether that growth can keep pace with grocery prices, utility bills, and climbing Medicare premiums is a different question entirely.About 75 million Americans collect Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits, and the final number will directly affect household budgets, according to the Social Security Administration. The gap between what beneficiaries expected and the smaller raise they may end up receiving could force difficult spending adjustments heading into 2027.Independent forecasts now cluster between 3.7% and 3.8% for 2027 COLAThe two leading independent projections now cluster around the mid-3% range, with Johnson’s estimate falling well below the figure she projected just weeks earlier.Meanwhile, the Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan advocacy group for older Americans, held its 2027 COLA projection steady at 3.8% after reviewing June data. Independent Social Security and Medicare analyst Mary Johnson lowered her forecast to 3.7%, down sharply from 4.7% a month earlier, Newsweek reported.At 3.8%, the average retired worker collecting roughly $2,081 per month would gain about $79, according to the SSA data.Under Johnson’s 3.7% estimate, that monthly increase would come closer to $77 when applied to the same average benefit reported by the SSA.Both projections still exceed the 2.8% raise from January, which added about $56 to the typical monthly check for retired workers. But neither figure approaches the 4.7% boost that Johnson’s earlier model predicted, a number that had raised expectations among beneficiaries.Cooling June inflation drove sharp downward revision in Social Security COLA forecastsThe Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in July that consumer prices rose 3.5% year over year in June, a sharp deceleration from May’s 4.2% rate. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, the metric used to calculate Social Security’s annual adjustment, matched that 3.5% reading.More Social Security:Fidelity offers a lifeline to millions before Social Security shiftsSocial Security retirees could pocket a bigger 2027 raiseSocial Security’s funds will run out sooner than expectedFalling energy prices drove much of the deceleration in June, though tensions between the United States and Iran continue to cloud the oil price outlook. Whether that energy price relief persists through the critical third quarter will directly shape the final adjustment announced in October.”This is a significant drop in inflation, and one that we’ve rarely seen in the June CPI data over the past five years,” Johnson said, as reported by CNBC.The Social Security Administration bases the official COLA on third-quarter Consumer Price Index data from July, August, and September each year. It compares that three-month average to the same period a year earlier, so the final number could still shift before the October announcement.

Cooling June inflation lowered Social Security COLA forecasts, but July through September inflation will determine the final 2027 increase.PIKSEL / Getty Images

Social Security benefits have lost nearly 14% of their buying power since 2016The projected raise arrives against a backdrop of steadily declining purchasing power that has accumulated over the past decade for retirees.Benefits are now worth only about 86.3 cents on the dollar compared with their 2016 value, the Senior Citizens League estimated. The group’s 2026 Loss of Buying Power study attributed the erosion to annual COLAs that consistently lag real-world price increases for older Americans.Payments would need to increase by 15.7%, or roughly $296 per month for the average beneficiary, to recover that lost ground, the group indicated.Rich Johnson, vice president of financial security at the AARP Public Policy Institute, told Yahoo News that the formula used to calculate annual benefit increases does not reflect how older Americans actually spend their money, compounding the erosion of buying power over time.The COLA has been sometimes viewed as inadequate, in that it does not reflect the spending patterns of Social Security beneficiaries. People 62 and older spend more on housing and medical care, for example, and less on transportation, food and beverages, and apparel.”A 3.8% COLA might sound like a lot compared to last year’s 2.8%, but it won’t be enough to make up the difference between what seniors bring in and what they need to live with dignity,” Shannon Benton, executive director of the Senior Citizens League, warned.The group’s 2026 Senior Survey found that 44% of retirement-age Americans now depend entirely on Social Security for income, up from 39% a year ago.Official Social Security COLA hinges on third-quarter inflation dataThe Social Security Administration typically releases the final COLA figure in mid-October, and the 2027 number is expected on Oct. 14 specifically. Three months of inflation data between now and then will determine whether the adjustment lands near 3.7%, swings higher, or drops further.Oil price volatility remains the most significant variable for retirees tracking the forecast, as energy costs ripple through food and transportation prices. Stephanie Ford, senior vice president at Wealth Enhancement Group, told CNBC Select that seniors should treat Social Security as a supplement to other retirement income, rather than a replacement. The CNBC Select piece Ford was featured in also pointed to high-yield savings accounts and CDs as vehicles that can help close the gap.”A COLA isn’t a raise,” Michael Ryan, founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek. “It’s an attempt to keep a fixed income from falling behind. Sometimes it fails.”Related: Bigger 2027 COLA may not help retirees as expected

Corning is best known for Gorilla Glass, the durable material used in smartphone screens.The company also makes the optical fiber, cables, and connectors that move data among thousands of processors inside artificial intelligence data centers.That business helped more than double Corning’s share price over the previous year.Corning (GLW) shares were down about 14.9% at $122 around midday July 28 after the company issued a third-quarter sales forecast slightly below Wall Street’s expectations.The decline followed a strong second quarter.Corning’s adjusted, or core, sales rose 17% to $4.74 billion, while core earnings increased 30% to 78 cents a share.The stock reaction centered on how quickly Corning can turn demand for AI connectivity products into additional shipments.Investors are also weighing whether the growing optical business can offset weaker demand for smartphone-related products. Corning’s shares fell more than 20% during the session, even though the stock remained more than twice its level a year earlier.AI demand is filling Corning’s fiber factoriesCorning’s Optical Communications sales increased 32% to $2.07 billion in the second quarter.Enterprise Networks sales, which include products used inside data centers, jumped 65%. Corning said sales of its generative-AI products grew considerably faster than the broader unit.A large AI data center can use thousands of graphics processing units, or GPUs.Those processors must exchange information quickly while training models and answering users’ requests. Corning’s fiber, cables, and connectors carry that data among the processors and across the facility.CEO Wendell Weeks said customer demand has moved ahead of Corning’s existing manufacturing capacity.We continue to have the enviable situation of if we could make more, we could sell more.Large customer agreements provide additional evidence of that demand.Amazon signed a multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement with Corning in June for optical fiber, cables and connectivity products used across its expanding U.S. data-center network.Corning also announced a long-term partnership with Nvidia in May.Related: Morgan Stanley says SpaceX investors miss the bigger storyUnder that program, Corning plans to increase its U.S. optical-connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold and raise domestic fiber-production capacity by more than 50%.The expansion includes three new manufacturing facilities in North Carolina and Texas.The multiyear agreements give Corning greater visibility into customer demand.Its production lines will determine how quickly those commitments become products that Corning can ship and record as sales.Why 16% sales growth disappointed investorsCorning expects third-quarter core sales of $4.9 billion to $5 billion, representing growth of about 16% from a year earlier.The company projected core earnings of 85 cents to 89 cents a share, an increase of about 28%.Analysts expected approximately $5 billion in sales.Corning would therefore have to reach the top of its guidance range to meet the consensus estimate.A 16% sales increase would be strong for many large industrial companies.More AI:The new Chinese AI model rattling U.S. tech investorsAnthropic restores access to Mythos 5 for select organizationsSoftBank CEO offers stinging critique of Musk’s AI betCorning faced a more demanding comparison because its shares had already more than doubled over the previous year as investors priced in faster growth in AI infrastructure.The Optical Communications unit also showed a modest deceleration.Its sales grew 32% in the second quarter after increasing 36% in the first quarter.Management’s comments still indicate that demand exceeds current production capacity.The market focused instead on the slower growth rate and a sales forecast that only reached analysts’ expectations at the top of the range.New factories and weak phone demand create the next testCorning plans about $2 billion of capital spending in 2026 as it expands manufacturing capacity.The company must build and equip new production lines before it can ship more optical products to its large data-center customers.It creates a risk: Corning spends the money before the additional lines begin producing revenue. A slower factory ramp could postpone shipments tied to the new customer programs.Corning’s other major businesses face a different problem.High memory prices are raising costs for smartphone manufacturers and weakening consumer demand. Corning expects global handheld-device shipments to decline by a mid-teens percentage in 2026.That decline affects Corning because Gorilla Glass is used in smartphones, laptops, and wearable devices.The company can therefore increase its AI-fiber shipments while selling fewer glass products to consumer-electronics manufacturers.Global smartphone shipments fell 11% in the second quarter, reaching their lowest second-quarter level since 2013 as memory shortages raised handset prices.

Corning expects to increase its U.S. optical-connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold.picture alliance / Getty Images

Key numbers from Corning’s quarter32%: Optical Communications sales growth65%: Enterprise Networks sales growth$4.9 billion to $5 billion: Third-quarter core sales guidance$2 billion: Planned 2026 capital spendingCorning has large customer commitments and is investing heavily to expand production.The next few quarters will show how quickly those new lines begin shipping products and whether optical growth becomes large enough to offset fewer device shipments.Related: Goldman Sachs sees writing on the wall for Eli Lilly stock

Jensen Huang had never posted on X before July 24. His first post on the platform wasn’t about chips or Nvidia’s earnings or the next GPU architecture. It was a letter. An open letter signed by more than 20 tech companies, including Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Google, OpenAI, Hugging Face, Mistral, and Palantir, urging Washington not to place restrictions on open-weight AI models.Anthropic wasn’t on the list. For days, nobody said anything official. Then OpenAI signed on, and suddenly Anthropic was the last major American AI lab standing outside the letter. The longer it stayed quiet, the more the silence said something. On July 27, Amodei published his answer, CNBC reported.What Dario Amodei said about open-weight AI and why Anthropic didn’t sign”Anyone who has read my past writing should know that I don’t regard such bans as a useful measure, but let me state it clearly so that there is no doubt,” Amodei wrote on Anthropic’s website. “Anthropic has never advocated for a ban on open-weights models.”He went further. “Open-weights models that don’t have dangerous capabilities are a public good,” he wrote. “They don’t cost anything besides the compute needed to run them, and they provide value to businesses, developers, and researchers.”That’s a significant statement from a company that had just spent several days being publicly accused of the opposite. White House AI adviser David Sacks said Anthropic was using safety concerns to protect its own business model. An Anthropic researcher had taken a swing at Nvidia and Microsoft over the letter and received a pointed rebuttal asking why Anthropic hadn’t signed at all. Amodei’s post is a direct answer to all of that.Why Anthropic still won’t sign the open-weight letter despite agreeing with parts of itAmodei said he agrees with a lot of the letter. Open weights expand access, strengthen competition, give customers more control. He’s on board with all of that. Where he parts ways is on two specific claims: that open-weight models necessarily make it easier to develop safeguards, and that broad access to capabilities helps defenders more than attackers.More AI:Workers just sent AI companies an ultimatumPalantir CEO has a blunt verdict on OpenAI and AnthropicElon Musk pulls no punches with AI rivals as Grok 4.5 debutsHis counterexample is biology. A sufficiently capable AI model could potentially help bad actors weaponize pandemic-level viruses using widely available materials. Defense against those agents is a multi-year operational task at best, as the Covid pandemic showed. In Amodei’s view, that’s an attacker-defender asymmetry that open-weight release makes worse, not better. Whether that’s actually true should be determined by testing, he says, not assumed in advance.The Kimi K3 situation is part of the backdrop here. The shock release of the Chinese open-weight model in July, approaching US frontier performance at a fraction of the cost, is what triggered the entire debate. Amodei’s post specifically addresses Chinese frontier models and distinguishes them from Western open-source releases, according to Axios.The three things Anthropic actually supports on AI policyInstead of a ban, Amodei named three things Anthropic has been pushing for. Keep advanced chips and chipmaking equipment out of China, and go after smuggling networks that get around export controls. Crack down on industrial-scale distillation, which lets Chinese labs close the gap to the US frontier without needing matching compute. And require safety testing for all sufficiently capable models before release, open or closed.The safety testing piece is the most interesting. It doesn’t pick open or closed. It just says if a model is capable enough, it gets tested before it ships. Amodei even floated the idea that China might go along with a global testing regime because keeping AI away from bioweapon development is something Beijing doesn’t want either.He also made a distinction that the open letter doesn’t. The letter treats all open-weight models the same. Amodei is specifically worried about frontier models with dangerous capabilities. Startups, academia, smaller labs: he’s not talking about them. That’s a much narrower target than a categorical ban, TechCrunch reported.

The argument Amodei is making isn’t really about open versus closed. It’s about what a model can doAnna/Getty Images

Why the business model criticism of Anthropic has some truth to itThe accusation that Anthropic is using safety to protect its closed-model business isn’t entirely unfair. Nvidia sells compute. The more open models there are, the more companies self-host them, and the more GPUs they buy. Huang’s interests align perfectly with open-weight expansion. Anthropic sells API access to Claude. A world of freely distributed capable models is more threatening to that business model than it is to Nvidia’s.Amodei doesn’t address this directly. His safety concerns go back years and are well-documented. But the incentive alignment is what it is. Sacks isn’t wrong to point it out, and the safety concerns being genuine doesn’t make the business angle disappear. Both things are real.Amazon also didn’t sign the letter. Like Anthropic, it sells cloud AI services. Like Anthropic, its absence speaks for itself without needing an explanation.What Anthropic’s open-weight position means for AI safety and regulationThe argument Amodei is making isn’t really about open versus closed. It’s about what a model can do. A capable enough model gets tested before release, regardless of format. A model that doesn’t hit the capability threshold gets left alone. That’s the framework he’s pushing Washington toward.That framing, if it gains traction in Washington, would change how AI regulation develops. It moves the debate away from a binary choice between banning Chinese models and allowing everything, toward a regime based on what models can actually do. Whether policymakers find that framework more workable than a simpler ban is the next question.Anthropic is still the only major US AI lab that hasn’t signed the letter. Amodei’s post explains why without apologizing for it. Whether that holds as the political pressure builds is the next question nobody has an answer to yet.Related: Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO just made major AI decision

Central banks are good at fighting inflation they can recognize.The trouble starts when the price pressure arrives from somewhere the playbook never anticipated.For most of the past four years, the Federal Reserve has sorted rising prices into two bins.Demand inflation happens when people have too much money chasing too few things, and the fix is higher interest rates.Supply inflation happens when something breaks in the physical world, a war, a shipping lane, a harvest, and the fix is mostly patience.Oil is the textbook case of the second kind.When a barrel gets more expensive because tankers cannot move safely, raising the cost of borrowing in Ohio does nothing to reopen a strait in the Persian Gulf.Fed officials understand that, which is why they spent most of this year insisting the energy shock would pass through and fade.Then something turned up in the June and July commentary that does not fit either bin.Policymakers have started naming artificial intelligence infrastructure as its own source of price pressure, which quietly converts Nvidia (NVDA) from a stock story into a monetary policy variable.

Fed officials are naming AI data center costs as an inflation driver ahead of July 29.ANGELA WEISS / Getty Images

How the Fed usually reads an oil shockThe energy math this month has been brutal.Brent crude settled at $100.69 a barrel on July 23, its first close above that level since May 26, while West Texas Intermediate finished at $92.19, according to CNBC.Crude has climbed roughly 40% this month as disruption spread from the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea, according to Trading Economics.More Fed:Fed’s Waller issues stark warning on inflation, interest ratesFed’s Warsh faces tough interest-rate smackdown in CongressTop economist delivers blunt Fed rate warning for 2026The Iran war that began in late February has kept a permanent risk premium in the barrel price, and every attempt at a truce this year has collapsed within weeks.The classical response to that is to wait. Energy shocks are supposed to be one-time level shifts that drop out of the annual comparison twelve months later.Waiting only works if the shock stays contained, though.Headline inflation is now running at 3.7%, well above the central bank’s 2% target, according to Forbes.That is the fifth consecutive year prices have overshot, and patience starts to look like surrender when a target has been missed for that long.Markets noticed. Odds of a rate increase at this week’s meeting climbed from 10.7% on July 15 to 34.7% by July 22, according to The Motley Fool, with live pricing tracked on CME Group’s futures-based tool.Why AI data centers now move inflationHere is the part almost nobody priced in.Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack wrote in a July post that business leaders cite “pressures from insurance and the AI data center build up,” according to CNBC.Read that again, because it is a genuine break from precedent. A regional Fed president put data center construction in the same sentence as energy costs and supply chains as a driver of business input prices.Related: Nvidia stock is doing something it hasn’t done in yearsGovernor Christopher Waller made a similar point in a July 13 speech warning that inflation is up this year, adding that tightening may need consideration.The mechanism is not mysterious once you look at it. Building AI capacity consumes electricity, transformers, turbines, copper, concrete, skilled electricians and land, and it consumes them in the same regional markets where households and ordinary businesses buy the same things.When I lined up the Fed commentary against the price data, the pattern that struck me was the ordering. Officials mentioned energy first for four straight months, then started listing the buildout alongside it.Here is what the committee is actually weighing:Brent settled above $100 on July 23 for the first time since May 26, according to CNBC.Crude is up about 40% on the month as disruption widened past Hormuz, according to Trading Economics.Headline inflation sits at 3.7% against a 2% target, according to Forbes.Nearly half of policymakers signaled support for a hike later this year, according to CBS News.What a rate hike would cost Nvidia shareholdersThe awkward part is what this does to the AI trade itself.Nvidia is worth roughly $5 trillion and remains the most valuable company in the world, but the stock has gained only about 9% in 2026 while Apple surged more than 20%, according to CNBC.The chipmaker also sits well below its all-time high near $5.73 trillion, which means the AI leader has spent this year going sideways while the story around it got louder.Now the loop closes. Capital spending on AI hardware helps push input prices higher, higher prices raise the odds of tighter policy, and tighter policy compresses the multiple investors are willing to pay for long-duration growth stocks.Nvidia is, in effect, helping to build the case for the rate environment that would hurt Nvidia most.For a retail investor this is less abstract than it sounds. If you own an S&P 500index fund, a meaningful slice of your money already sits in a handful of AI infrastructure names, and their valuations are built on the assumption that the discount rate falls from here.A hike does not just trim those multiples. It raises the cost of financing the data centers that generate the revenue underneath them.Chief Executive Jensen Huang has said computing costs are heading from roughly $50 billion toward $100 billion per gigawatt, according to CNBC.That figure is a boast about demand. It is also, read from a central banker’s chair, a forecast of sustained pressure on industrial inputs.My read is that this is the most underappreciated risk in the AI complex right now, and it has nothing to do with chip competition or export rules. It is that the buildout has grown large enough to influence the discount rate applied to it.What to watch after the July rate decisionThe decision lands July 29 at 2 p.m. ET, followed by Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference thirty minutes later.Most economists still expect no change, and there is no dot plot at this meeting, so the statement and the press conference carry the entire signal.Warsh has stripped out forward guidance since taking over in May, which leaves markets reading tone rather than projections.Listen for whether he separates energy from the buildout when he describes price pressures.If he treats both as temporary, the AI trade gets room to run into Nvidia’s Aug. 26 earnings report.If he groups artificial intelligence spending with the structural pressures the Fed intends to lean against, the sector’s cost of capital just changed, and no chip cycle fixes that.For a portfolio, the practical takeaway is that AI exposure and rate exposure stopped being separate bets somewhere this summer.Most investors are still holding them as though they are.Related: Fed’s Warsh drops fresh clues on interest-rate path

Plenty of companies blame artificial intelligence for their recent layoffs, but whether they’re being truthful about their motivations is up for debate.U.S.-based employers revealed more than 97,000 job cuts in May, a 16% increase from the more than 83,000 they cut the month prior and 3% higher than last year’s total, according to data from Challenger, Gray, & Christmas viewed by TheStreet.The May 2026 total was the highest for the month since 2020, when the Covid pandemic forced employers to cut nearly 400,000 positions.The firm says it has seen “a jump in bankruptcy-related losses, which tells me companies are restructuring aggressively as they reposition for an AI-driven economy,” according to Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray, & Christmas.The tech sector was responsible for more than a third of those job cuts, and the 123,653 jobs it cut through the first five months represented a 66% increase year over year.“The labor market is being reshaped by technology in real time. AI is now the leading reason companies give for cutting jobs, and the primary industry citing it is Technology. Technology, already the year’s biggest job cutter, saw its steepest month of cuts since early 2023, even as it remains the sector with the most hiring plans this year,” said Challenger.“AI isn’t yet the jobpocalypse some predicted. Like spreadsheets and email before it, the technology will ultimately make workers more productive, but our data shows companies are already acting on it, citing AI for more cuts than any other reason. The open question isn’t whether AI changes the workforce, but how fast.”This week, payments network operator Visa became the latest corporation to cut thousands of jobs while blaming AI for the changes. Visa cuts 2,600 jobs, cites AI as the reasonVisa has plans to cut about 7% of its more than 34,000 global employees, according to a memo viewed by CNBC and Bloomberg.That means Visa is about to eliminate about 2,600 positions, mostly in its technology and product operations. The affected workers were contacted beginning Tuesday, July 28, regarding next steps and transition assistance, a source told CNBC.More AI newsThe AI honeymoon appears over amid stock selloffTech expert predicts an OpenAi collapseEurope hands Google a huge loss in AI search engine battle“To capture the opportunities ahead and best position Visa to lead this transformation, we must continue evolving how we work,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney wrote. “AI is also helping to accelerate this evolution and shape the way work gets done at Visa.”But AI wasn’t the only factor leading to the layoffs, according to CNBC’s source. The company wants to invest in growth areas, including affluent customers, cross-border activity, business payments, stablecoins, and geographic expansion.Visa shares were trading 1.7% higher on July 28, ahead of the company’s earnings release after the closing bell.

Visa is the latest corporation to cut thousands of positions, blaming AI for the layoffs.2Ban / Getty Images

Employers blame AI for job cutsSometimes employers blame one reason for layoffs when other causes may be more pressing. But regardless of whether they are being completely truthful, most are blaming AI for job cuts.AI led all reasons for job cuts in Challenger’s data for the third consecutive month, but the 38,579 AI-related job cuts in May were the highest monthly total ever recorded for the reason since the firm began tracking it in 2023. AI accounted for 40% of all job cuts announced in May, up from just 7% in January, 25% in March, and 26% in April.So far in 2026, employers have cited AI in 87,714 job cuts, or 22% of total job cuts. That total is already well ahead of the 54,836 that were attributed to the reason all last year.But it’s not all doom and gloom, especially in the tech sector. While May’s job cuts were deepest in tech, the industry also led all others in hires. Technology led May hiring by a large margin with 11,250 announced positions. Electronics was the next-largest hirer, adding just 3,158 jobs.Related: The AI honeymoon appears over amid stock sell-off

With Disneyland in California opening in 1955 as the first of what would eventually grow into today’s theme park and entertainment empire, the original resort in Anaheim has a total of 52 attractions of which 49 are rides and the other three are various shows or exhibits.The 70-year anniversary celebrations of the opening took place over nearly 15 months since May 2025 and included both the return of historic parades and shows like “Paint the Night” and various thematic decorations on certain rides that have been a part of the park since its early days.With the official end of the anniversary theme set for Aug. 9, Disneyland is preparing to close eight attractions to transition them to the next seasonal period: Halloween.Disneyland closes six rides to decorate them for HalloweenThe closures first reported by local press include Storybook Land Canal Boats, the Casey Jr. Circus Train, Chip ‘n’ Dale’s GADGETcoaster, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, and the Sorcerer’s Workshop.All will be closed to visitors while they are being adorned with seasonal overlays and spooky character décor for the Halloween Time period running from Aug. 21 to Oct. 31. While Disney did not confirm the date when the rides will start running again, it is highly likely that they will either be ready for the first day of the Halloween Time at Disneyland season or join the available rides shortly after opening.Related: 36-year-old theme park closing down after summer season”Look for Oogie Boogie atop the Main Gate marquee, black bats circling Carthay Circle Theatre’s bell tower and more eerie touches,” Disneyland writes of the seasonal period at both Disneyland Park and California Adventure parks.Seasonal closures also allow the resort to use the time they are shut for seasonal decorations to conduct routine maintenance and upgrades to the rides. The most Halloween-appropriate ride at the park, Haunted Mansion in New Orleans Square, will also be closing at the start of August for the usual seasonal transformation.

Haunted Mansion always shuts down for a few weeks in August to give Disneyland employees time to decorate it for the Halloween period.Disneyland

What is happening with Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in 2026While some of the other rides have been marked for seasonal décor for the first time, Haunted Mansion has been used as part of Disneyland’s Halloween celebrations since the ride first opened to the public in 1969.More Travel News:Airline to launch unusual new flight to Cayman Islands from the U.S.There is a very cool Irish version of swimming pigs in the BahamasUnexpected country is most luxurious travel destination for 2026Low-cost airline launches easier way to get to Sri LankaUnlike the other rides, Haunted Mansion is not returned to its regular state once the Halloween Time period is over but decorated for a combined Halloween-holiday theme inspired by the 1993 Disney film “The Nightmare Before Christmas” that remains until the park’s holiday period ends in early January.The Main Street Cinema theatre will also close on Aug. 10 for seasonal decorations; along with streaming spooky films from Disney history instead of the regular “Steamboat Willie” for the season, the iconic Disneyland cinema has traditionally been decorated with pumpkins and seasonal harvest garlands.For those planning their visit around being able to experience a specific ride, Disneyland has not officially confirmed the opening date of any ride other than Haunted Mansion.Related: Disney World shuts down part of legendary resort

It looks like Kevin Warsh may have to put his money where his mouth is.The hawks circling over Wall Street suggest the Federal Reserve needs to raise short-term interest rates this week to stave off steeper inflation rates.  And while consensus suggests the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee will hold benchmark short-term rates steady July 28, there are Fed watchers who claim a rate hike is needed now to reduce inflation risk from the impact of energy shocks, tariffs, and rising artificial intelligence supply costs. Citadel Securities, in a note obtained by Bloomberg, said it expects the Fed to surprise markets and households with a rate hike this week to strengthen Warsh’s credibility in his battle with inflation — a repeated pledge from the new Fed chair.A surprise quarter-point hike to the Federal Funds Rate on July 28 would also show that policymakers no longer rely on signaling every policy move well in advance, Citadel Securities Head of Macro Strategy Frank Flight wrote to clients.“The market may once again be underestimating the extent of the hawkish shift at the Fed,” Flight said. A hike this week “would emphatically end the forward guidance era” while underscoring the Fed’s independence, he said. July Fed interest-rate hike could cool inflation Since inflation risks remain elevated and the labor market is stable with the U.S. midterm elections less than 100 days away, affordability and the economy are top concerns for Americans of all political backgrounds and therefore critical to races in both chambers of Congress. So the question becomes: Will a quarter-point hike to the Federal Funds Rate stave off more acute pain to wallets and portfolios in the months ahead?The answer is yes, according to Rex Financial Managing Director Bill Birmingham.A small, explicitly one-and-done increase could ultimately be a more dovish outcome for financial markets, Birmingham told TheStreet in an email. “By acting preemptively, the Fed would validate the hike already embedded into its own year-end projections, reinforce its inflation credibility well ahead of the November midterm elections, and reduce the risk that investors price a prolonged tightening cycle into longer-term Treasury yields, which looks like it is happening already,’’ he said.In effect, a July rate hike would “exchange some modest amount of front-end cost to stabilize term premium on longer dated instruments that matter more to housing, corporate finance, and equity valuations,’’ Birmingham said.

Fed’s Warsh doubles down on inflation risk Warsh repeatedly told Congress earlier this month that the central bank is committed to the price stability side of its mandate, although he was mum on how that would be achieved. The Fed’s twice-yearly Monetary Policy Report to Congress said the outlook of the future path of interest rates “is subject to considerable uncertainty.” It also described the U.S. economy as overall “expanding at a solid pace despite elevated uncertainty that owes, in part, to the conflict in the Middle East.’’  Here’s the tricky part:Lower interest rates support hiring but can fuel inflation. This risks fueling further inflation, potentially leading to an inflationary spiral.Higher rates cool prices but can weaken the job market. This increases the cost of borrowing and further stifles economic activity.Fed holds interest rates steady thus far this year The rate-setting FOMC voted unanimously in June to hold its benchmark Federal Funds Rate target in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. But the minutes of the June FOMC meeting showed policymakers splitting their views on inflation risk and the impact on interest rates with a rising hawkish tinge to the “dot plot.”Related: Inflation sparks Fed interest-rate debate as July decision loomsFed Governor Christopher Waller and several additional voting members of the FOMC — including New York Fed President John Williams, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, and Dallas Fed President Lorie K. Logan — have expressed hawkish concerns since the June FOMC meeting, citing rising prices and the potential for inflation to intensify price pressures.Former Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart told CNBC that a July rate hike would be “backing up their rhetoric with some action.’’ “I wouldn’t rule it out,’’ Lockhart said.Inflation prompts traders to reset Fed interest-rate betsAs of July 28, the widely watched CME Group FedWatch Tool shows traders are pricing in higher probabilities of interest-rate hikes for the final months of this year, while expecting a 70.1% probability that rates will remain steady and a 29.9% chance of a quarter-point rate hike this week. This is a marked change from a few weeks ago, when there was a near 90% chance of July rates holding steady.September shift: Traders now price in a 74.9% cumulative chance of at least one quarter-point rate hike happening by or during the September FOMC meeting.December tightening: By the end of the year, the CME Group FedWatch Tool leans heavily toward a half-point hike with a 37.5% probability of a 4.00% to 4.25% target rate, reflecting sustained inflation concerns.Markets will focus on signals for September interest-rate decisionGenerali Investments Senior Economist Paolo Zanghieri told TheStreet in an email that the FOMC will “most likely leave” the fund rate unchanged at its July meeting and extend the current pause in policy tightening.  “We see a growing risk of dissenting votes in favour of a rate increase, deepening the divisions within the Committee and keeping the possibility of further tightening later this year on the table,’’ Zanghieri said.“Markets will focus less on the rate decision itself and more on the Fed’s guidance, particularly any signals regarding September and the balance between inflation risks and economic growth,’’ he added.Related: Rising inflation turns July Fed meeting into rate-hike showdown

Shoplifting numbers, who’s stealing, and why they’re stealing have become hot-button talk-show topics, so it’s no surprise that retailers have reported an increase in theft.”Retailers report increases across various methods of external theft (cargo/supply chaintheft, shoplifting, and walkout/pushout theft) as well as digital and online fraud (phonescams, ecommerce fraud, and repeat offender theft). The survey showed a combined19% increase in external shoplifting and merchandise theft incidents from 2023 to 2024,” according to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2025 Impact of Retail Theft & Violence Report.The NRF does not break out shoplifting from other types of theft, such as internal loss and organized retail crime (ORC), but it indicates that shoplifting has trended upward in the past few years.”Retailers reported a 93% increase in average annual shoplifting incidents in 2023 compared with pre-pandemic 2019 levels,” the NRF reported in its 2024 report.One retailer, Walmart, appears to be facing a bigger problem than its rivals, according to a new Lending Tree report.More Americans say they are shopliftingMore Americans are shoplifting, according to Lending Tree’s survey.”30% of Americans say they’ve shoplifted, up significantly from 23% in 2024. The behavior is most common among younger consumers, with 39% of Gen Zers and 38% of millennials reporting they’ve shoplifted. Among those who’ve shoplifted, 37% say they did so within the past year, up from 23% in 2024,” the report showed.The state of the economy has been the key factor explaining why more people are stealing from retailers.”Among those who say they shoplifted in the past year, 90% cite inflation and the broader economy as contributing factors. Across all respondents who say they’ve shoplifted, the most commonly cited reasons include financial struggles (28%) and items being too expensive to afford (19%),” according to Lending Tree.More Walmart:Walmart’s 7,200 price cuts land heaviest in one categoryWalmart makes another move to win higher-income shoppersWalmart makes unusual nuclear power betDietrich Oberwittler, a criminologist and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, believes the economic situation, especially inflation, has played a major role in the rise in shoplifting.”People want to maintain their standard of living, and when they see the enormous price increases of recent years, some people think: ‘I’m not going to pay that,'” according to a report from the Institute.LendingTree commissioned QuestionPro to conduct an online survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 80 from June 2 to 11, 2026. The survey used a nonprobability-based sample, with quotas applied to help reflect the overall population. Researchers also reviewed responses for quality control.

Walmart ranked as the retailer respondents said was easiest to shoplift from.Shutterstock

Walmart has a shoplifting problemWalmart does not mention shrink, which would include shoplifting, in its earnings call very often.CFO John David Rainey did mention it during the chain’s second-quarter earnings call, and his comments suggest the numbers have improved.”A couple of years ago, we encountered a higher level of shrink in the business. We demonstrated that we navigated that really well,” he said.Consumers, however, see Walmart as a target for theft.”When asked which retailers are easiest to shoplift from, respondents most frequently identify Walmart (47%), followed by Family Dollar (21%), Amazon Fresh (14%), Kroger (11%) and Costco (10%). Another 14% say they aren’t sure which retailers are the easiest to shoplift from,” LendingTree reported.Walmart shares the consequences of theftFormer Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who stepped down at the end of January 2026, talked about rising theft and its consequences.“It’s higher than what it has historically been,” he told CNBC.He was clear about the potential impact of rising theft.“Prices will be higher and/or stores will close if authorities not being strict about prosecuting theft isn’t corrected over time,” he said.Walmart did not return a request from TheStreet to comment on the survey results.Related: McDonald’s decided you are not worth helping anymore

A decline in public consumption of alcoholic drinks has been a major factor in declining revenue in the beer, wine, and spirits sectors, leading certain companies to file for bankruptcy protection.128-year-old beer, wine, and spirits distributor, Republic National Distributing Company, was a major company affected as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, seeking going-concern sales of its remaining assets, a wind down of operations, completion of transition services agreements, and approval of its equity holder settlement.National Distributing Company Inc. is not a part of the Chapter 11 filing, the company said in a statement on its website.A company spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Republic National Distributing Company has been selling off its operations across the nation this year.Shutterstock

Republic National’s business declineRepublic National Distributing Company filed its petition as its business’s financial position deteriorated after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided in late 2022 and demand for off-premises alcohol consumption plummeted.The company and other distributors had accumulated a significant amount of alcohol product during the pandemic and were left with excess inventory as alcohol demand returned to pre-pandemic levels.Macroeconomic and industry headwinds, such as high interest rates and rising inflation, contributed to the economic issues. Distributors also faced an unexpected shift in consumer alcohol drinking, as adults either curtailed drinking alcohol or stopped altogether, according to court papers.Alcohol consumption lowest in 90 yearsSince 2022, alcohol consumption plummeted and the percentage of adults in the U.S. that report themselves as regular consumers of alcohol reached its lowest level in nearly 90 years, according to court papers.The downturn impacted alcohol distributors’ revenue, as spirits supplier sales decreased by 2.2% to $36.4 billion in 2025, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.Spirits company executives, however, are confident that the industry will persevere despite the economic decline.“While total U.S. spirits sales edged down 2.2% in 2025, the spirits industry remains resilient, driven by innovative products that continue to spark consumer interest,” said Chris Swonger, CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council.Company lost key suppliersCompounding the company’s problems, from 2022 to 2025, Republic National Distributing lost several key suppliers that collectively generated more than $3 billion of the distributor’s annual revenue.Despite establishing about 10 new or expanded supplier partnerships since 2023, macroeconomic factors and industry dynamics became insurmountable.In addition to these problems, in early 2025, several of Republic National Distributing’s key suppliers switched to the company’s competitors, including Tito’s, Brown-Forman, and Gallo’s High Noon moving to Reyes Beverage Group.”This decision was not made lightly. Over time, our industry has evolved, consumer preferences have shifted and the wholesale environment has grown increasingly challenging,” the company said in a statement.”Over the last several months, we have taken deliberate steps to transition our operations across certain markets. We pursued and closed sales that preserved over 5,000 jobs and allowed our businesses in those markets to continue serving their customers and suppliers.Where the company sold operationsOregon sold to Columbia Distributing.Washington sold to Columbia Distributing.Arizona sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Colorado sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Florida sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Louisiana sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Maryland sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Oklahoma sold to Reyes Beverage Group.South Carolina sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Texas sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Virginia sold to Reyes Beverage Group.Washington, D.C., Reyes Beverage Group.Source: Court declaration.”Ultimately, RNDC’s financial position required us to pursue an in-court process,” the statement said.The Atlanta-based alcoholic beverage distributor and 17 affiliates filed their petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston on July 26, listing $500 million to $1 billion in assets and $1 billion to $10 billion in debts.Republic National Distributing’s largest unsecured creditors include Proximo Spirits, owed over $93.9 million; Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America, owed over $62 million; First American Commercial Bancorp, owed over $47 million; Delicato Family Wines, owed over $14 million; Park Street Imports, owed over $13 million; and Meridian Park South Building, owed over $10 million.Distributors buy rights in statesRepublic National Distributing Company on June 30 closed on the sale of its Oregon and Washington state distribution rights to Columbia Distributing. The company on May 29 also closed on the sale of its Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., distribution operations to Reyes Beverage Group. The closing of a sale of its Hawaii operations is subject to certain regulatory approvals.Republic National Distributing Company was founded in 1898 as N. Goldring Corporation in Pensacola, Fla., becoming the first licensed beer distributor in the state. The company eventually grew over the years to distributorships in 40 states and $12 billion in annual revenue.The company’s overall sales were strong until 2023, when overall alcohol sales declined for the first year in almost three decades, according to a bankruptcy declaration by Chief Restructuring Officer John R. Castellano.The downturn in the alcoholic beverage industry devastated another distributor as well as Colorado’s Eagle Rock Distributing Company shut down all operations on June 5, 2026, after selling its operation in that state to huge alcoholic beverage distributor Southern Glazer Wine & Spirits.Related: 46-year-old casual dining chain closes underperforming locations