Daily Archives: October 11, 2021

Why Our Trauma-Informed Teaching Must Be More Culturally Responsive – EdSurge

Posted: October 11, 2021 at 11:01 am

Years ago, before I became an educator, I took a contemporary Native American studies course as one of my first college classes. For the final research assignment, I choose to explore the disproportionate rates of suicide among Native American youthan issue that impacts nearly all tribal communities, including my own, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

From that assignment I learned that understanding trauma can help us better address complex behavioral issues in the communities we care about, whether those communities are our tribal nations or classrooms.

That research paper was the beginning of my relationship with what most educators know as trauma-informed practices, a term used for acknowledging the widespread effects of trauma, and started me on my journey of advocating for Native youth through education. I realized that in many cases, our understanding of traumawhere it comes from and how to address itis limited. In order to truly address trauma, we must also consider both the cultural experiences and socioeconomic inequities that impact our students.

Many years later, I find myself drawing on my early understanding of trauma from an Indigenous context quite often in my current position working for an urban school district in Arizona. As a Native American student achievement teacher for a federally funded grant program, I work directly with teachers of Native American students to develop their capacity for culturally responsive practices. On any given day, you might find me performing the duties of an instructional coach, professional development facilitator or classroom teacher for the 1,300 Native American students in our district.

The Native American students I work with, like so many other Indigenous youth, experience high rates of poverty and health disparities, especially in regard to COVID-19, which has hit Native populations particularly hard. All these things contribute to a higher chance of trauma-exposure, but more importantly the Native students in my district are citizens of tribal nations with longstanding cultural traditions of valuing reciprocal relationships with all living things, including their communities, lands and waters. In my experience, teachers who have the most success with their Native students take into consideration these cultural strengths during their planning and instruction.

While research has shown school-wide trauma-informed practices benefit all students, one-size-fits-all programs dont work. Mainstream approaches to trauma-informed practices often fail to address or prevent trauma, and at worst can actually perpetuate harm. In order for trauma-informed practices to be meaningful for studentsespecially the ones I work withtheir teachers and school leaders must question whether those practices are being rolled out in a culturally responsive way.

As with trauma-informed practices, culturally responsive practices are often mentioned but rarely understood within school communities. Although there are many definitions, I frequently find myself turning to the work of educator-turned-author Zarretta Hammond for a clear and comprehensive meaning of culturally responsive teaching.

According to Hammond, culturally responsive teaching is the intentional integration of students cultural experiences, knowledge and learning processes into teaching choices. Culturally responsive teaching is more than just a surface level recognition of multiculturalism. It requires educators to affirm and leverage whatand howstudents learn in their homes and communities.

This requires teachers to raise their awareness of their students cultural background, including the sociopolitical and historical contexts of their communities. Most importantly, culturally responsive teaching recognizes that students need to feel safesocially, emotionally and intellectuallyin order to engage in rigorous learning. This last aspect is what connects culturally responsive teaching and trauma-informed practices in classrooms.

As a starting point for making trauma-informed practices more culturally responsive, educators must critically reflect on the mindsets and assumptions they carry with them. In coaching conversations and professional trainings, I often share the following suggestions with educators who wish to bring a culturally responsive lens to their trauma-informed approach.

While working on that undergraduate research paper, I found the work of Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, who coined the terms Historical Trauma and Historical Trauma Response. Historical trauma considers sources of trauma that often go unaddressed in trauma-informed conversations by bringing attention to the ways collective and massive traumatic events can impact multiple generations of individuals. When I hear discussions of trauma in schools, they are almost always limited to interpersonal instances of harmoften abuse, neglect or violence in the home. Rarely, though, do we consider collective or ongoing events, such as colonization or structural racism.

In the past, I have heard teachers claim that Native families dont like to be involved at school when discussing why we consistently see such low academic achievement among Native American students. Few think about the sociopolitical or historical reasons why Native families might be hesitant to trust schools and teachers.

Part of my job is to help teachers develop an awareness of the experiences of Native American students that may impact their academic achievement. This can be difficult because we have over 45 different tribal nations represented in my district, each with their own unique history and context. But the federal policy of forcibly removing Native children from their families to enroll them in government mandated boarding schools is one experience that has touched nearly all 570 federally recognized tribal nations in the United States.

This policy was in effect from the early nineteenth until the latter half of the twentieth century. Hundreds of thousands of Native children were placed in schools that punished any use of their traditional language or cultural practices with harsh impunity. Separated from their families, Native American students were intentionally stripped of their cultural identity. This continues to have negative impacts on Native American peoples social, emotional, physical and psychological well being. For some, trauma has become associated with schooling itself.

Learning about historical trauma as a framework for understanding how the relatively recent colonization of North America has had lasting negative impacts on Native American communities helped me understand why I was seeing first hand disproportionate health disparities, including youth suicide, in my tribal community. This cultural context through which I came to understand trauma helped me to understand the importance of going beyond individual and interpersonal instances of trauma to consider sociopolitical and historical contexts as well. When we assume the source of students trauma is individual or familial in nature, we run the risk of implying that students, their families and communities are damaged. Frequently, its something larger.

This place might be the only time they get positive attention or For those kids, you are the only caring adult in their lives. I hear statements like this tossed around often in the schools I support. This type of mindset positions students and their families in a deficit light. Too often, educators adopt a paternalistic view when they assume trauma-affected students have no strategies or safe relationships to help deal with their high levels of stress. In reality, students, families, and their communities have always had culturally specific strategies for sustaining their wellbeing, but historical injustices, such as the boarding school policy, have kept those strategies out of schools.

Instead, I often suggest a shift to a strengths-based approach, which values the rich knowledge and experiences students bring into the classroom, instead of viewing it as the source of their trauma. When applied to trauma-informed practices, this can look like honoring students and families cultural and community-specific strategies for coping and maintaining well-being.

Teachers can create the time and space in their classrooms for students to share and practice those strategies in authentic situations, but they also need to develop opportunities for families to have input in trauma-informed policies and practices. Creating authentic partnerships with families requires two-way communication. Offering office hours, sending home surveys, and attending community events are a few ways that I have learned about the funds of knowledge, and specific wellness strategies, that my students bring into the classroom.

When I think about those wellness strategies already in place in my students home lives, my mind often turns to ceremonies, which play a pivotal role in maintaining overall wellbeing in Native American communities. However, I know from personal experience as a Native American person who lived and attended school in a predominantly non-Native city that urban Indigenous students may be less likely to engage in these formative experiences. Yet many of the urban Native youth I work with now share stories of returning home to their reservations for coming of age and other culturally significant ceremonies. This diversity of experiences speaks to the need for educators to be willing to take more of an inquiry-based approach that treats students and families as the experts in their own wellbeing.

We are all adjusting to teaching and learning in the time of an ongoing global pandemic, and it is critical that we resist one-size fits all approaches that are limited in their understanding of where trauma comes from and position students and families as damaged. Instead, we must consider how we can shift trauma-informed teaching to become more culturally responsive to the students and communities we wish to serve. Only when we take the time to learn about the socioeconomic and historical backgrounds of our students and leverage their cultural strengths and knowledge, will our schools become spaces for healing from trauma.

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UMD hosts Mental Health Awareness Week, emphasizes well-being amid in-person transition – The Diamondback

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By Mythili DevarakondaFor The Diamondback

As the foliage slowly changes colors and masked students hustle to their classes, the University of Maryland almost feels normal. But, some at the university say the transition from online back to in-person classes has caused mental strain for students.

To aid in handling such a drastic change, this universitys Counseling Center held its annual Mental Health Awareness Week. The Counseling Center held events on Oct. 4-8, in line with the national recognition dates.

Mental health has absolutely been affected by the pandemic. And so, certainly, if a persons mental health has been affected, we want them to be addressing that, said Dr. Allison Asarch, staff psychologist and the coordinator of consultation and outreach services at the Counseling Center.

The Counseling Center teamed up with various mental health and student groups on the campus to organize a weeklong program of mental health events focused on self care and different communities.

Good mental health is essential for us to be able to live successful, enjoyable, meaningful lives, Asarch said. We offer many different services for students, but we also want to get out there into the community and not just be reaching the students who come to see us.

On top of engaging students in meaningful and intentional ways about different aspects of their mental health, Asarch said she would like for the students to realize the place theyre at mentally and seek out resources, such as the Counseling Center, to improve their mental health if needed.

[UMD School of Medicine professors conducts COVID-19 booster research, presents to FDA]

Nathan Blanken, a sophomore computer science major and the president of the Active Minds chapter at this university, said he was excited to collaborate with the Counseling Center and other organizations to tackle conversations surrounding mental health.

Mental health is the common theme between all of us, Blanken said. Just letting people know the options that they have is a huge thing.

Blanken shared that before this semester, even he was not aware of all the mental health resources available at the university, and was excited to help students with similar issues.

If we can help even just one person, its leagues of impact that we can make on other people, Blanken said.

Ashley Deng, a sophomore neuroscience major and director of health and wellness of the Student Government Association, helped plan some events for Mental Health Awareness Week, including Mondays Planting Healthy Roots event, where students could decorate and take home a potted succulent.

[Asian Latinx students, professors at UMD say they often feel ignored and underrepresented]

We estimated it would take three hours to hand out 300 plants but in reality, we actually gave out all of them in under an hour, Deng said.

Deng emphasized the importance of events like these, especially in light of the tough transition back to in-person classes.

Students really engaged with it, way more than we expected, which was awesome, Deng said. I think its so amazing that the Counseling Center really made such an effort to put together such an amazing event, all week for students to promote mental health, coming out of COVID, coming back to campus.

Beyond the events of the week, Asarch emphasized the importance of taking care of your mental health.

Wed like you to take a moment to think about, How can I do something thats good for my mental health? Asarch said. And if a student is able to take this with them so that they can have intentional moments of checking in on their mental health throughout the month, throughout the semester, or throughout their lives, that is wonderful.

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this storys photo caption misstated Rachael Lous name. The caption has been updated.

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The state that works has keys to thriving businesses – ECM Publishers

Posted: at 11:01 am

No doubt, our state has had great success over the years.

There are currently a half million businesses operating in Minnesota and about 300,000 of them employ only the owner/operator.

Some 94% of Minnesota companies have fewer than 50 workers.

That is not to ignore large employers. With 18 Fortune 500 publicly owned companies, Minnesota ranks ninth nationwide.

More impressive, the Twin Cities ranks first among the 30 largest metropolitan areas nationwide and our state ranks third in Fortune 500 companies per 1 million people.

In addition, Minnesota ranks 11th among the states and is home to six of Forbess largest private companies, including Cargill, ranked first in the nation at $134.4 billion in annual revenues. The state also is ninth in the number of private companies per 1 million people.

All businesses, of course, want to succeed for the benefit of their communities, employees and owners.

Among thriving businesses, certain common qualities deserve mention as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to economically challenge employers, employees and the public in getting back to full speed.

A business plan is not the only element in achieving success, but it certainly helps when crafted wisely and understood by internal and external audiences. Execution of the plan is 90% of the challenge. The mantra plan your work and work your plan has long been accepted practice among companies, organizations and governments at all levels.

A positive attitude, accountability for results and consistently high-quality customer service will help ensure companies maintain current workers and attract future ones.

Another key to prosperity is finding the right people to trust in making decisions. Larger companies hire such talent and smaller ones create ways in which non-paid advisors and outside board members effectively offer their insights in confidence.

Business leaders must frequently take calculated risks with clear outcomes in mind. As our nation and world have learned, doing so is required as economic climates have significantly changed over the last two years.

Effectively responding to challenges to America the Great Depression of the 1930s, various world wars, and the current pandemic can be successful over time.

Lastly, work-life balance is a goal for many thoughtful employers, allowing workers ample non-scheduled free time in their personal lives. For example, Psychology Today magazine interviewed scientists who had found that a creative personal hobby can lead to worker excellence; Nobel Prize winners almost always reveal that they had such outside interests.

Former five-year Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, in writing for Bloomberg about employee burn-out, said that understanding worker resentment was necessary and you beat it by knowing what it is youre giving up and makes you resentful. I tell people to find your rhythm. Mayer, a native of Wisconsin, left Yahoo to start her own company in 2017.

Workplaces operating wisely as a team are possible when being intentional about it. Indeed, Minnesota continues to face serious challenges. However, we wouldnt bet against the state that works. Chuck Slocum (Chuck@WillistonGroup.com) is president of The Williston Group, a management consulting firm. He serves on the editorial board of APG of East Central Minnesota.

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More than 1 in 3 rural Black southerners lack home internet access, a new study finds – NPR

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A Viasat internet satellite dish is seen in the yard of a house in Madison, Va., on March 31. Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images hide caption

A Viasat internet satellite dish is seen in the yard of a house in Madison, Va., on March 31.

Black residents in the rural South are nearly twice as likely as their white counterparts to lack home internet access, according to a new study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

The study, published Wednesday, examined 152 counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia where at least 35% of residents are Black. Researchers found that 38% of Black residents in those counties do not have access to internet in their homes, compared to 23% of white residents in the same regions.

The study also found that nearly one in four Black residents in the rural South don't even have the option to subscribe to high speed broadband, compared to just 3.8% of Americans nationwide.

The research offers a stark snapshot of how the inability to access affordable broadband can be felt most acutely for Black Americans in the rural South, a region of the country where they account for nearly half of the total population.

For adults, having strong access to the internet impacts the kinds of jobs that are available to them, and is essential for tele-health appointments, especially in areas where many hospitals have shut down. During the pandemic, when many students were learning from home, children without internet access face even higher hurdles to learning.

The study was conducted by Dominique Harrison, director of technology policy at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank that focuses on public policy issues and how they impact Black Americans. Harrison told NPR that her research differs from other data sets because Black rural residents are often overlooked in research about broadband access. Past studies, she says, encompass all rural residents, rather than specifically breaking down the data by race.

"Black residents in the rural South are rarely looked at in terms of research to understand the challenges they face in terms of access to broadband," Harrison said.

She also noted that the data helps provide more context for things like poverty rates, employment, education and health care. Harrison says in her study that 60.8% of residents in the Black rural South have incomes less than $35,000. Approximately 49% of Black children in the rural South live in poverty.

This new data comes as a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package remains stalled in the House as Democrats in Congress remain locked in negotiations over broader legislation geared toward climate and the social safety net. The infrastructure bill doles out approximately $65 billion for broadband investments.

Harrison says her research helps paint a picture for how policy impacts certain communities.

"To isolate this specific community and really get to the details of what's going on I think paints a very clear picture to policy makers about the ways in which this infrastructure package, for example, can really have a targeted and intentional impact on these folks," she said.

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Nonconsensual Condom Removal/Stealthing Bill Signed By Governor Newsom – EastCountyToday

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Sacramento, CA Governor Newsom signed trailblazing legislation that would include nonconsensual condom removal or stealthing in the CA Civil Code.

This new law is the first in the nation and confirms that stealthing is an illegal act that causes long term physical and emotional harm to its victims and those guilty of stealthing will now be held accountable under California law.

Stealthing is the nonconsensual and intentional removal or tampering with the condom during sexual intercourse. A study by Yale University (Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2017) calls stealthing a grave violation of dignity and autonomy and reports that cases of stealthing are on the rise among women and gay men. The article also encourages new Torts against the practice to allow victims to establish a cause of action. Stealthing has also been called rape-adjacent.

I have been working on the issue of stealthing since 2017 and I am elated that there is now some accountability for those who perpetrate the act. Sexual assaults, especially those on women of color, are perpetually swept under the rug. So much stigma is attached to this issue, that even after every critic lauded Micheala Coels, I May Destroy You for its compelling depiction of the horrors of sexual abuse including of stealthing, it got zero Golden Globe nominations. That doesnt seem like an accident or coincidence to me, stated Assemblymember Garcia.

Its disgusting that there are online communities that defend and encourage stealthing and give advice on how to get away with removing the condom without the consent of their partner. It is now clear in California law that this is a crime. This law is the first of its kind in the nation, but I urge other states to follow in Californias direction and make it clear that stealthing is not just immoral but illegal. More importantly, I encourage us all to not shy away from important conversations about consent in order to ensure we reduce the number of victims, concluded Garcia.

The 58th Assembly District includes the cities of Montebello, Pico Rivera, Commerce, Bell Gardens, Downey, Norwalk, Bellflower, Cerritos and Artesia.

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Inflation is here. It’s ugly. It stings. But it could make you money: Morning Brief – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 11:00 am

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Monday, October 11, 2021

Funny (or sad, depending on how you look at it) short story from this past week that will inspire you to (hopefully) scrutinize your portfolio as we head into 2022.

I enjoy grocery shopping, really ever since I raised hell down the canned-goods aisles with my mom as a kid. The thrill of finding that perfect looking steak or fish or lemon is somewhat therapeutic. A true moment of relaxation away from the addictive hue of the iPhone and in my world, the alluring laptop.

Last week, while on a 10-minute break around 7:00 p.m. ET I picked up a slab of heaven from the butcher inside the local supermarket (no, not from "Whole Paycheck"): a two-inch thick ribeye steak. Yum. I put the steak in my basket, didn't think too much about it seeing as I buy the same cut of steak once a week. The cashier rings up the steak and I almost fall on the floor: $45. Too late to put the steak back, I didn't want to be that person in line.

After I paid, I went back into the store and took a look around at the prices for "stuff" as if I was still a stock analyst doing channel checks. Down each aisle it was like I was being hit in the head by little dancing sticker prices, each seemingly 35% higher than a week earlier. All of these little dancing sticker prices were laughing at me, of course.

In light of this expedition (a bizarre one at that), I can confidently share with you this dose of wisdom to kick off the week. Inflation ain't goin' nowhere baby. In fact, you are about to be smacked in the head with laughing sticker prices for food, gas, heating oil, jeans, Red Bull and maybe even clean air if you haven't already been.

All year the Federal Reserve has shoved down Mr. Market's throat that inflation is transitory. I would encourage all of these government workers in their gilded offices to spend a week touring grocery stores and maybe do some real on the ground work because they have set investors up to fail.

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Oil prices are at seven-year highs. Natural gas prices have nearly doubled in six months. Gas prices along the West Coast are north of $4 a gallon, according to AAA. Cotton prices are up 25% since Sept. 20 (stat complements of NYSE analyst Michael Reinking).

Start saving up so you can splurge on some inflationary meat.

Having digested this impressive deep dive into the shipping crisis by Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer and my latest shopping trip it's clear all sorts of price inflation will be here to stay. In other words, this notion of inflation being transitory is a cruel sick joke by a Fed trying to cover their own rear-ends.

Should one not be inclined to embrace the stats above, then take a gander at what top executives recently told me about inflation on Yahoo Finance Live:

"The reality is everything has got some inflation. I agree with your point that it [inflation] doesn't feel very transitory at the moment. The reality is we came off the pandemic, where basically most of the industrial economy and the consumer economy shut down and now the demand has snapped back much faster than pretty much everybody has predicted." Dow CFO Howard Ungerleider. He added he is "working to raise prices" to compensate for higher costs.

"We have been able to lock in the price of cotton for the first half of next year at very, very low single-digit [percentage] inflation. We are negotiating for the second half [of 2022] and we think we can offset inflationary prices." Levi Strauss CFO Harmit Singh

"There is really no company that is immune to what has been happening in terms of commodity as well as operation expense inflation. Everyone's prices are up a little bit in a world where prices are increasing." PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnston

Inflation is appearing so sticky that "stagflation" a slowing economic growth backdrop and high levels of inflation has become the topic de jure among clients at Goldman Sachs.

"Stagflation was the most common word in client conversations this week as equity market volatility remained elevated," said David Kostin, Goldman Sachs U.S. equity strategist.

Markets have historically hated stagflation, per Goldman's research.

"During the last 60 years, the S&P 500 has generated a median real total return of +2.5% per quarter, but that quarterly return fell to -2.1% in stagflationary environments, worse than the median returns in environments characterized solely by weak economic growth or high inflation," Kostin added.

Brawny paper towels = increasingly brawny price.

So what's the play for investors in a world where inflation isn't going anywhere anytime soon? Well, it could be multi-faceted, depending on your level of investing expertise. Here's what several market veterans told me on how to invest amid pesky inflation:

"As cost inflation accelerates, we recommend dividend growth stocks that benefit from inflation. We also like small caps, which are more tethered to U.S. GDP, benefit more from capex cycles (highly correlated with commodity inflation) and trade at a historical discount vs. large caps. The equity market offers far more attractive inflation-protected yield than TIPS [Treasury Inflation Protected Securities]." Savita Subramanian, Bank of America equity and quant strategist

"From a sector perspective, higher energy prices are often associated with rising inflation, and we are currently overweight the energy sector which is a beneficiary of higher oil prices. Also, if there is inflation, that is typically associated with higher rates, which would benefit financials; we are also overweight. We are also overweight REITs the index is a diverse mix of industries, but given we are seeing a rise in rents and a shortage of supply in housing and areas such as cell towers have pricing power, this is another area that should benefit. Outside of sectors, commodities in general should be a beneficiary of supply disruptions and the Bloomberg commodity index just hit a cycle high. Within a portfolio context, you would generally want to be underweight fixed income in a rising rate inflation environment. Within fixed income, investors would want to be short duration and generally overweight areas such as leveraged loans, which would provide a hedge against the Fed tightening policy quicker than current market expectations to deal with inflations, and TIPS which are indexed to inflation." Keith Lerner, Truist Wealth co-chief investment officer/chief market strategist

"From a market standpoint its banks and materials/resources. Banks benefit from rising rates. Resource stocks (miners, energy companies, agricultural companies) benefit from rising commodity prices. Mix in commodity exposure but not too much. Just some as its volatile (and most investors should just use ETFs). More broadly, go value over growth. In the fixed income realm look for floating rate debt or short duration. Bank loans or senior secured debt that reprices frequently will outperform as rates rise. Finally, watch for the exits. At some point the Fed will kill inflation and markets will drop. But were likely years from that now." Tom Essaye, Sevens Report Research founder

Now go forth and slay the inflationary beast coming for your portfolio. As for me, I am off to find a cheaper cut of steak or to open a crypto trading account so I can afford the ribeye I have been eating for the past 20 years.

Bank earnings: Speaking of things rising in price, bank stocks have been on fire into earnings this week, from JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (preview here from Yahoo Finance's Emily McCormick). The KBW Bank Index is up a cool 40% on the year (Wells Fargo up the most among the big banks, go figure, +59%) as traders bet on rising rates (positive for bank margins) in 2022 and a supportive economy for loan growth. Since the Fed's last policy decision on Sept. 22 where it signaled a bond tapering plan was nearing the KBW Bank Index has added 6.5%. I would say the backdrop for bank stocks is ripe for a sell the news event bank profit margins could disappoint elevated expectations due to rising costs for talent, among other inflationary expense lines. A couple items to be on the lookout for in these reports: 1) trading revenue in light of the pickup in activity late in the quarter in stocks and bonds; 2) debit and credit card spending by customers inside a slowing growth environment; 3) hints of new year-end expense cutting programs to counteract inflationary costs; 4) efforts on the crypto front.

Hasbro: I send my best wishes to Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner. Hasbro disclosed yesterday its long-time CEO will take a medical leave of absence to focus on his health. Goldner disclosed in August 2020 that he was undergoing ongoing medical care following treatment for cancer in 2014. Full transparency, Goldner gave me one of my first "CEO interviews" when I was starting out in this crazy news business. He has led the public company for 13-plus years. I wish him a speedy full recovery.

By Brian Sozzi, editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and anchor for Yahoo Finance Live. Follow him at @BrianSozzi

Try Yahoo Finance Plus now.

Economy

Earnings

Politics

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are both out of session until Oct. 18.

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) kick off their annual meetings in Washington D.C. They will release the World Economic Outlook tomorrow morning.

European markets suffer sluggish start amid interest rate concerns [Yahoo Finance UK]

Lenovo stock drops 17% after withdrawing Shanghai listing application [Reuters]

Southwest cancels many flights, blames weather and air traffic control issues [Reuters]

China tech stocks extend rebound on relief over Meituan fine [Bloomberg]

Federal Student Aid's Cordray details increased oversight over student loans

Child care woes leave small biz 'struggling to get people in' as job growth fizzles

Natty Light introduces flavored vodka as domestic beer sales slump: 'Nothing is off the table'

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Snowden: Deflationary Fed-Controlled CBDC Will Cause Annihilation of Savings – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 11:00 am

BeInCrypto

Edward Snowden recently took to Twitter to weigh in on the hypothetical central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the US Federal Reserve Bank (Fed). In the tweet, Snowden commented on and gave criticisms against CBDCs.

Edward Snowdens (@Snowden) original post was a link to an article that he published about CBDCs on Oct 9, 2021. In this post, Snowden delivers a comprehensive description of his position and arguments on the state of CBDCs and how they might be implemented by the US Federal government. Importantly, he stated that he is hoping for the article to specifically to influence the Feds much-heralded and still-forthcoming discussion paper, a group-authored text on the topic of the costs and benefits of creating a CBDC.

In the reply which Snowden later responded to @adasound_io (the Twitter handle of the Cardano-based NFT platform for musicians), sharing an excerpt of an opinion piece written by Dr. Prasad which was published in the New York Times in July 2021. In the excerpt, Dr. Prasad presents his arguments, which appear to paint the so-called digital dollar in a positive light.

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Theaters in Bond-like No Time to Die’ survival mode as Hollywood banks on return – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 11:00 am

From first dates to family outings, a night at the movies used to be a huge pre-pandemic draw. However, one of societys biggest rituals is struggling to recover, even as COVID-19 capacity limits are lifted.

Like many other sectors, the longer-term survival of movie theaters is a huge open question, especially among small and independent operators. Many theaters across the country were shuttered for over a year as Hollywood drastically curtailed the number of new releases, or narrowed the theatrical windows before making them available on video.

This weekend, Daniel Craigs final turn as James Bond in No Time to Die will be a big test of the publics willingness to turn out in the same numbers as before the virus dramatically changed life around the world.

Even though U.S. movie theaters have now fully reopened and people are finally returning to the cinemas, an ever-expanding glut of streaming options make some observers doubt that cinemas golden era will return soon if ever.

People were going to movie theaters less frequently [and] the pandemic has served as an accelerant to those trends, Paul Hardart, director of entertainment, media and technology program at New York Universitys Stern School of Business, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

The pandemic also changed certain aspects of consumers at-home viewing habits, which shows no signs of slowing down. According to a June 2020 study by Statista, 14% of adults surveyed strongly preferred seeing a movie for the first time in a theater, but 36% said that they would much rather stream at home.

Meanwhile, at home options are booming. About 20% of time was spent on streaming last year, according to Nielsen data recently cited by The New York Times, and may hit 33% by the end of the year, the report added.

Another challenge has been inflation: Ticket prices have been on the rise, with the average ticket price in the US jumping from $5.39 in 2000 to $9.16 in 2020, which even before COVID-19 was cited by consumers as a negative.

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We can all expect the ticket price to go up and the type of movies that we go see will start to change, Hardart said.

People wear face masks as they walk by a movie theater during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Newport, New Jersey, U.S., April 2, 2021. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

However, recent months have given some theaters cause for optimism.

Over Labor Day weekend, Classic Cinemas locations in Illinois and Wisconsin saw more visitors than in 2019 to see the release of Marvels (DIS) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which bowed to a debut of over $70 million.

It was the first time attendance at the family-owned chain surpassed pre-coronavirus numbers since reopening in April, coing after a year-long shutdown.

The guests are absolutely willing, able, and coming back when there are movies they want to see, said Chris Johnson, CEO of Classic Cinemas.

As the first Marvel film to be shown exclusively in cinemas since the pandemic began, Shang-Chi cleared a huge bar for moviegoers willingness to come back to theaters Julys Black Widow was a simultaneous Disney+/ theater release, and earned more on streaming than on screens).

During the pandemic, studios like HBO/Warner (T) (DISCA) followed a similar hybrid strategy, hoping it would buy time until mass vaccinations would curb COVID-19s spread.

We need consistent supply. We could build some momentum this year but its all reliant on the studio product.Chris Johnson, CEO of Classic Cinemas

However, the Delta variant surge unsettled many moviegoers, and the dual release strategy was a perverse incentive of sorts. When given the option, many consumers just decided to watch from home.

Monthly data from Datex Property Solutions shows that national chains paid 95% of owed rent in August as receipts rebounded. Collections from movie theaters have skyrocketed 81% from 48.9% a year ago, but sales are down by 48% since 2019, Datex found.

However, occupancy costs are up a staggering 96% relative to 2019 one reason why chains like ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres have closed many of their Los Angeles locations permanently.

The closures have flooded the LA market with movie theater real estate an opportunity major chains such as Regal, AMC and Cinemark will likely capitalize on as the three make up nearly 70% of the regional cinema market, CBRE Group Inc. said in a recent report.

We need consistent supply, Classic Cinemas Johnson told Yahoo Finance. We could build some momentum this year but its all reliant on the studio product.

Like many of its cohorts, Classic Cinemas was decimated by the pandemic. After its long closure, the movie theater installed a new air filtration system, hired extra cleaning staff to attract more customers, and paid more for just about everything.

The challenge is when you're trying to spread that out amongst a small movie going audience, everything gets sort of taken care of when you have the appropriate number of people, Johnson said.

The chain got Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) money, which helped cover labor and overhead through the pandemics worst days.

Still, the box office is limping back to normal as people slowly head back to the movie theaters. The global box office is expected to reel in $20.2 billion in 2021, down 52 percent from the record-breaking 2019, but 68 percent above last year according to a new study from London-based data firm Gower Street Analytics.

I am absolutely confident that if we're supplied with movies that we're going to be fine, Johnson added. Movie theaters will be back.

A moviegoer shops at concession stands retrofitted with plexiglass partitions before the movie "Raya and the Last Dragon" on the reopening day of El Capitan theatre during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Yet signs are emerging that movie lovers are more eager to fill seats again.

Sonys Venom: Let There Be Carnage blasted past all expectations with an estimated $90.1M opening on over 4,000 screens , the best opening weekend previously set by Disney Black Widow at $80.73M.

While cinemas are showing signs of recovery from last year, it's been a wild ride for the film industry. Big players like Disney, HBO and more recently Comcasts (CMCSA) Peacock platform opted to make many of its new films available in cinemas and streaming, either for free or for a $30 fee (Disney+).

For its part, Disney seems to be confident that consumers are ready to return to cinemas and the future of blockbuster features are on the big screen. After Shang-Chi defied expectations, the company announced the rest of its 2021 schedule will be shown in theaters exclusively.

Everyone acknowledges the fact that film distribution fails to become profitable without the theatrical presence, said Cory Jacobson, president and owner of Michigan-based Phoenix Theatres. If you do not have the theatrical window in place, it's just lost money.

Amid the anticipated arrival of No Time to Die, which earned $22 million in global ticket sales in its first two days of release, the jury is still out on whether movies will be viable again.

Meanwhile, new headwinds could emerge as moviegoers in big cities like New York will now have to show proof of vaccination status and wear a mask in order to attend screenings.

According to NYUs Hardart, the Delta variants prevalence will make movie goers reconsider going to the cinemas and wait to watch it at home.

I am not worried about wearing a mask for two hours. I'm not worried about getting sick, Hardart said.

A recent Deloitte study underscores the pandemic-era challenges for movies, with 57% of respondents saying watching TV and movies at home continues to be the overall favorite entertainment options.

Although box-office receipts suggest that movie theaters are heading for a recovery, bigger chains have been the main beneficiaries.

AMC (AMC), which made a number of bold moves to lay the groundwork for its renaissance, is banking on consumers coming back to theaters. Riding the wave of the meme stock trading phenomenon, the company has raised more than $1.8 billion in cash, mostly from stock sales.

The retail investors provided AMC a lifeline, Alicia Reese, equity research analyst, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

They have the cash to reinvest in the company to expand their footprint with some of the theaters that are coming up for sale because they didn't make it through the pandemic, Reese added.

The company will also pay down some of its $5 billion in debt, reducing interest costs and paying millions in unpaid rent.

AMC barely escaped bankruptcy this year. But small, local theaters lacking the same resources may not be so lucky, especially as operating costs climb.

We spent $10,000 on hand sanitizer, which is a lot of hand sanitizer, said Jacobson, who also got PPP and SVOG assistance.

In December, the Small Business Administration set up a $16.1 billion fund to provide eligible movie theaters, live venues operators and performing arts organizations with grants that could help save their businesses.

The people that are in it for the long haul seem to be pretty happy and bullish about the future and where they're going with this, Jacobson said.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

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Theaters in Bond-like No Time to Die' survival mode as Hollywood banks on return - Yahoo Finance

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Tom Brady silences any doubts with five-touchdown victory – Yahoo Sports

Posted: at 11:00 am

Admit it. You were starting to wonder. After a loss to the Rams and a less-than-inspiring zero-touchdown effort against the Patriots, two crucial games, the tiniest spark of doubt about Tom Brady flickered to life in your mind. We've been writing his professional obituary for what seems like a decade now, but he's got to slow down sometime, right?

Not yet. Playing at home for the first time in three weeks, and in the early-game slot for the first time all season, Brady eviscerated the Dolphins. He threw for 411 yards and five touchdowns in the 45-17 victory, a sterling effort that ranks among his finest statistical performances ever.

This marked Brady's ninth career five-touchdown game, three of which have come with Tampa Bay, and 11th career 400-yard game, second with Tampa Bay. In all of Brady's career, he's never once thrown for 400+ yards and 5+ touchdowns in a single game, until now.

Brady spread the love around the field, connecting with 10 different receivers. The finest play of the game was his 62-yard touchdown strike to Antonio Brown, but Brady had no trouble distributing the ball to two full basketball teams' worth of receivers.

"He's got a lot of weapons," Bucs head coach Bruce Arians said after the game. "There's a contribution from everybody. And he really trusts guys ... he still can throw that deep ball as good as anybody."

It's impossible to overestimate the value that Brady has brought to the Bucs organization. Per The Athletic, Tampa Bay has scored 44 points or more six times in Brady's 25 games. They had scored that total six times in 44 seasons before Brady arrived.

Brady draws the Eagles this coming Thursday night, then the Bears and Saints. While he may not post magnificent stats against any of those three, he's ended any premature burials of his career. Again.

TAMPA, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 10: Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looks to pass during the third quarter against the Miami Dolphins at Raymond James Stadium on October 10, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.

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Tom Brady silences any doubts with five-touchdown victory - Yahoo Sports

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Big banks kick off Q3 earnings season, CPI inflation data: What to know this week – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 11:00 am

Third-quarter earnings season ramps up in earnest this week with a packed schedule of major financial companies poised to report results. Key economic data will include the U.S. consumer price index for September, in the latest print on the state of inflation in the U.S. economy.

Investors have been anxiously awaiting the start of the latest earnings season and bracing for a deceleration in corporate profit growth after a strong second quarter.

S&P 500 earnings are expected to grow by 27.6% in aggregate for the third quarter, slowing sharply from the second quarter's nearly 90% growth rate, according to data from FactSet. Still, last quarter's results had been aided by easy comparisons to the pandemic-depressed profit levels of mid-2020. And at nearly 30%, the expected earnings growth rate for the third quarter would still be the third-fastest pace for the index since 2010.

Traders are especially looking to see that supply-side challenges and rising input and labor costs weighed heavily on corporate profits for the latest quarter. Nearly two dozen S&P 500 companies including major names like FedEx (FDX) and Nike (NKE) have already reported third-quarter results, giving hints about the magnitude of the margin pressure being exerted by supply-side challenges.

"Supply chain disruptions and costs have been cited by the highest number companies in the index to date as a factor that either had a negative impact on earnings or revenues in Q3, or is expected to have a negative impact on earnings or revenues in future quarters," FactSet's John Butters wrote in a note on Friday. Of the 21 S&P 500 component companies that have reported results so far, 15 of them have discussed negative impacts from these factors, Butters added.

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"After supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and costs (14), COVID costs and impacts (11), and transportation and freight costs (11) have been discussed by the highest number of S&P 500 companies," he added.

For many companies, the specter of eventual interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and the present inflationary environment has presented a slew of concerns over higher input and borrowing costs. But for the Big Banks, a higher interest-rate environment generally translates into stronger profits in their key lending businesses, allowing them to command higher rates on loans.

CHINA - 2021/04/23: In this photo illustration the Goldman Sachs logo seen on an Android mobile device screen with the currency of the United States in the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The major U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) are each set to report quarterly results this week. Heading into these results, many analysts have said they expect to see net interest margins expand alongside the creep higher in benchmark interest rates this year. And as the economic recovery chugs along, banks may further release loan loss reserves they set aside to protect against potential defaults and nonpayments over the course of the pandemic.

"We expect 3Q21 EPS [earnings per share] results to be stronger on a year-over-year basis as loan loss reserves continue to be released albeit at a lower level than 1Q/2Q21 and the group posts positive revenue growth," RBC Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy wrote in a note last week.

"Key themes that we expect to see in the results include: (1) more signs of net interest margin (NIM) stabilization; (2) growth in the consumer loan, residential mortgage and commercial real estate mortgage portfolios; and (3) positive outlook guidance on credit, loan growth (especially commercial & industrial loans,) and NIM," he added. "Lastly, commentary on core operating expenses should be listened to carefully to see if the banks are starting to feel non-incentive compensation wage pressure."

According to Matt O'Connor, Deutsche Bank managing director of U.S. banks equity research, banks still have considerable room for loan growth with the economic recovery under way. Total industry loans are still 1% below pre-pandemic levels from the fourth quarter of 2019, he said, and are down by an even more significant mid-single-digits percentage when excluding loans made via the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.

We remain positive on bank stocks given a likely multi-year positive backdrop for credit, interest rates and loan growth, O'Connor wrote in a note. Its hard to be too negative on the banks given a generally favorable macroeconomic outlook among most (despite some slower activity more recently) and the prospect for higher rates and faster loan growth, though was weve noted before the timing/magnitude of this remains unclear.

For the year-to-date, the financials sector remains the second-best performer in the S&P 500 after the energy sector, climbing more than 30% so far in 2021.

One of the most closely watched economic reports this week will be the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index, due for release on Wednesday.

The report is expected to show consumer prices rose at roughly the same month-on-month and annual rate in September as in August, reinforcing the persistent inflationary pressures present even as the economic recovery rolls on.

Consensus economists are looking for the consumer price index to jump by 0.3% in September over the previous month and by 5.3% over the prior year.

At least some of that increase will likely come as a result of jumping energy prices, with crude oil and natural gas prices spiking amid elevated demand and tight supply over the past month. However, even excluding more volatile food and energy prices, the CPI likely still rose at a 4.0% annual pace.

The so-called core measure of CPI has moderated from June's 4.5% annual clip, or the fastest rate since 1991, but has still held markedly higher compared to pre-pandemic standards. Some of the categories mostly closely associated with the economic reopening have seen prices pull back after initial surges in the spring and early summer but not by enough to bring down the overall level of CPI.

The key takeaway from the upcoming consumer price index will be how broadly across categories we are seeing price increases," Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate, said in an email on Friday. "While used car prices, airfares, and lodging have all pulled back a bit, underscoring the idea that higher inflation might indeed be transitory, increases in others like shelter costs might just be heating up.

Other areas of the economy have also begun to show persistently heightened levels of inflation, with U.S. crude oil futures skyrocketing to their highest level since 2014 last week and commodity prices across the board moving higher. And last week's September jobs report also reflected a number of inflationary pressures in the labor market, with average hourly wages accelerating to the fastest year-over-year pace since February, and rise in the workweek taking place alongside a drop in labor force participation.

"We expect reopening effects to continue to fade, but the risk from supply constraints is likely to be longer-lasting than previously expected," High Frequency Economics' Rubeela Farooqi wrote in a note. "That should provide ongoing support to goods prices, even as services inflation continues to revert to more typical trends on a normalization of activity."

Monday: No notable reports scheduled for release

Tuesday: NFIB Small Business Optimism, September (99.5 expected, 100.1 during prior month); JOLTS Job Openings, August (10.938 million expected, 10.934 million during prior month)

Wednesday: MBA Mortgage Applications, week ended Oct. 8 (-6.9% during prior week); Consumer price index, month-over-month, September (0.3% expected, 0.3% during prior month); CPI excluding food and energy, month-over-month, September (0.2% expected, 0.1% during prior month); CPI year-over-year, September (5.3% expected, 5.3% during prior month); CPI excluding food and energy, year-over-year, September (4.0% expected, 4.0% during prior month); Real Average Hourly earnings, year-over-year, September (-1.1% during prior month); Real Average Weekly earnings, year-over-year, September (-1.4% during prior month); FOMC meeting minutes

Thursday: Initial jobless claims, week ended Oct. 9 (325,000 expected, 326,000 during prior week); Continuing claims, week ended Oct. 2 (2.696 million expected, 2.714 million during prior week); Producer price index, month-over-month, September (0.6% expected, 0.7% during prior month); PPI excluding food and energy, month-over-month, September (0.5% expected, 0.6% during prior month); PPI, year-over-year, September (8.7% expected, 8.3% during prior month); PPI excluding food and energy, year-over-year. September (7.1% expected, 6.7% during prior month)

Friday: Empire Manufacturing, October (25.0 expected, 34.3 during prior month); Retail sales, month-over-month, September (-0.2% expected, 0.7% during prior month); Retail sales excluding autos and gas, month-over-month, September (0.6% expected, 1.8% during prior month); Import price index, month-over-month, September (0.6% expected, -0.3% during prior month); University of Michigan sentiment, October preliminary (73.5 expected, 72.8 during prior month)

Monday: No notable reports scheduled for release

Tuesday: No notable reports scheduled for release

Wednesday: JPMorgan Chase (JPM), BlackRock (BLK), First Republic Bank (FRC), Delta Air Lines (DAL) before market open

Thursday: Bank of America (BAC), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), The Progressive Corp. (PGR), UnitedHealth Group (UNH), US Bancorp (USB), Wells Fargo (WFC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C) before market open; Alcoa (AA) after market close

Friday: PNC Financial Services (PNC), Truist Financial Corp. (TFC), Coinbase Global (COIN), The Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW), Goldman Sachs (GS) before market open

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck

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Big banks kick off Q3 earnings season, CPI inflation data: What to know this week - Yahoo Finance

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