TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2025: Procter & Gamble
Among consumer goods companies, P&G's recipe for success is steadiness. Instead of striving for disruption, P&G sharpens execution, strengthening its core brands by introducing more convenient Swaddlers 360 diapers for Pampers in May 2024 and partnering with Marvel's Deadpool franchise to promote Old Spice around the new movie's release in July. The maker of Crest, Tide and other staples of daily living has paid a quarterly dividend to shareholders for 135 consecutive years, and raised the amount annually for 69 consecutive years—a rare achievement that highlights P&G's strategic foresight and ability to weather economic challenges.
The strategy has led P&G to pull ahead of arch-rival Unilever, more than doubling its stock price over the past decade. From January to December 2024, P&G share prices saw a 17% spike as it invested in digital marketing in China and shored up its supply chain. In June 2025, however, the company announced it will cut 7,000 jobs over the next two years as it navigates what its executives call an 'unpredictable' geopolitical environment.
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USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Stocks usually rise by 10% a year. Those days may be over.
Americans are wise to invest in the stock market, we are told, because stocks have yielded historical gains of about 10% a year. But not, perhaps, this year. Many analysts predict that the S&P 500 index will end 2025 essentially flat, or with only meager gains. In one June 25 roundup, Yahoo Finance charts several strategists with year-end projections that put the benchmark S&P index between 5,600 and 6,100. Those figures fall below, or only slightly above, where the S&P started the year, around 5,900. Some forecasts range higher, and forecasters have been growing more bullish about American stocks in 2025. But anyone who predicts double-digit returns this year risks being branded an outlier. If big investment firms expect the stock market to finish 2025 more or less where it started, how should armchair investors react? Is the investment landscape shifting beneath our feet? First, let's explore the reasoning behind those gloomy forecasts. Stocks opened high in 2025. Maybe too high. The stock market opened strong in 2025. The broad S&P index sat near its all-time high, following two years of conspicuous growth. That growth spurt, alone, was enough to seed caution in forecasters. A surging S&P means stock prices are relatively high. Some stocks are overpriced. Bargains are fewer. The index may not have that much room to grow. 'I believe that, given the strong returns over the past two years, some lower returns are expected,' said Eric Teal, chief investment officer at Comerica Bank. Comerica's own projections call for the S&P 500 to end the year at 6,400, a number toward the high end of forecasts. Wall Street prognosticators have been bearish on stocks in 2025 because of one overarching theme: uncertainty. 'It's all the volatile actors in our current economy,' said Catherine Valega, a certified financial planner near Boston. 'It's like you don't know from one day to the next: Do we have tariffs? Do we not have tariffs?' It's hard to predict how President Trump's import taxes will affect prices, and thus, inflation. The trade war, coupled with Trump's immigration crackdown, could slow economic growth. Recession fears are heightened. The Federal Reserve may or may not ease interest rates in response. 'We're assuming that we sidestep a recession, that interest rate cuts are on the horizon, but not immediate,' Teal said, reflecting a common view on Wall Street. 'And so, there is an element of cautious optimism that I think is in the market, but a high degree of uncertainty and macro policy unknowns that will keep markets contained.' Stock forecasters don't want to be wrong There's another big reason, analysts say, why year-end forecasts for the S&P 500 are trending low: Forecasters tend to err on the conservative side. 'The analysts have historically kind of underestimated S&P 500 returns,' said Kristy Akullian, head of iShares investment strategy, Americas, at BlackRock. 'People don't want to stick their necks out with a bold prediction and be wrong.' That impulse, she said, also explains why stock forecasts tend to bunch together. No one wants to stand out. 'It's hard being an outlier,' said David Meier, a senior analyst at Motley Fool. Meier cites yet another reason why stock forecasters tend to aim low: 'Being negative, let's call it bearish, tends to get more clicks,' he said. Readers gravitate to distressing news about stocks. So, stocks are having an off year. What can I do? Now, let's move on to the practical question: If the S&P 500 might not gain much ground in 2025, what should ordinary investors do about it? The easy answer, of course, is to do nothing. Stock market projections for next month, or next year, shouldn't matter much to an investor who is in for the long haul, advisers say. And that advice applies to just about everyone: If you aren't in for the long haul, experts advise, stocks might not be for you. 'If you need funds soon, don't have it invested,' said Randy Bruns, a certified financial planner in Naperville, Illinois. 'If you don't need the funds for 15 years, stop looking at the volatility.' Market downturns tend to be brief. Recessions are shorter than they seem. Anyone who is saving for retirement, or for other long-term goals, can generally ride them out. 'If you have the luxury of being a long-term investor, be one,' Akullian said. There is, however, a longer and more nuanced answer to the question of how to respond to those conservative projections for stocks in 2025. A gloomy forecast for 2025 -- and for 2035 It involves this complicating factor: Stock market forecasts are also surprisingly conservative for 2035. Vanguard, the investment firm, predicts the U.S. stock market as a whole will rise by an underwhelming 3.8% to 5.8% a year over the next 10 years. 'Growth' stocks, the likes of Nvidia and Amazon, are projected to rise by only 2.5% to 4.5%: not much faster than inflation. Those forecasts are based on the idea that many U.S. stocks are overpriced, in essence, and trading above their real value. In Vanguard's analysis, everyday investors who want the gaudy returns they have come to expect from American growth stocks would do well to look elsewhere: Global stocks. Small-cap American stocks, in companies with a lower market value. 'Value' stocks, trading below their intrinsic worth. 'I would say it's time to have a more balanced allocation,' said Teal of Comerica. Bruns, the financial planner, suggests average investors should 'diversify across all the broad asset classes that should comprise a textbook portfolio.' That doesn't mean you should sell all of your Alphabet stocks, experts say. But the time might be right to scrutinize your portfolio. Does it include foreign stocks? Small-cap stocks? Bonds? If not, then you might consider rebalancing your portfolio to make it more diverse. 'The easiest way to do that, if you are a 401(k) contributor, is to change your future allocations,' Valega said. That way, you don't have to tinker with your current investments. Not sure how to rebalance? 'Reach out to your adviser,' Valega said. 'That's what we're there for.'
CBS News
13 hours ago
- CBS News
11 charged in major Medicare fraud bust, including Brooklyn business owner
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have now charged 11 people in one of the largest Medicare fraud busts in history, including the owner of a local business. CBS News New York first reported on the man and a slew of connected Medicare fraud complaints last year. Brooklyn business collects taxpayer dollars through alleged Medicare fraud In February 2024, CBS News New York investigative reporter Tim McNicholas went looking for the owner of G&I Ortho Supply in Gravesend. Dozens of Better Business Bureau complaints revealed G&I was collecting taxpayer dollars for catheters under the names of Medicare members who never requested them. The search led McNicholas to Staten Island, where one man said he'd recently sold the company to another man who was allegedly using a fake Texas ID. However, prosecutors said the name the buyer used was real: Kevin Valdhans. A second man — Jonathan Vaz, of Fort Lauderdale — said Valdhans also bought his company, but didn't remove him from their billing system after the sale. Vaz said at the time, he saw that Valdhans had billed about $7 million worth of catheters in just one week. Suspects received $41 million from Medicare, investigators say A federal indictment unsealed Thursday says Valdhans was part of a criminal organization based in Eastern Europe that bought more than 30 legitimate companies, then used them for Medicare fraud. Prosecutors say the group's leader was based in "Russia and elsewhere." Eight of the people charged are Estonian citizens, one is a United States citizen, and Valdhans is from the Czech Republic. The indictment accuses the group of "stealing the identities and personal identifying information of more than 1 million Americans." Investigators say the group submitted $10 billion worth of bogus Medicare claims and actually received $41 million from Medicare, plus $900 million from Medicare Supplemental Insurers. Prosecutors say the operation lasted until September. Similar fraud complaints at Queens-based business A Queens business has also been connected to Medicare fraud complaints, but that medical supply shop is not mentioned in the indictment. Some of the claims connected to that business were submitted as recently as this month. As far as we know, there is no direct connection between that business and the Russia-based organization, but it is a similar pattern in the sense that a man said he recently sold the Queens business and then started learning of fraud complaints.
UPI
14 hours ago
- UPI
S&P 500, Nasdaq set records in dramatic 3-month turnaround
The Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq Index on Friday rose to records nearly three months after plunging amid tariff wars. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo June 27 (UPI) -- The Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq Composite on Friday rose to record highs nearly three months after plunging to bearish stock prices amid tariff wars. The S&P finished at 6,173, an increase of 32.05, or 0.52% at the close of trading at 4 p.m. EDT. The previous all-time high closing price was 6,144 on Feb. 19. The index dropped to 4,982.77 on April 8, six days after Donald Trump announced trading tariffs on virtually all U.S. trading partners. That low point was 19% off the record with a bear market considered to be 20%. Tech-heavy Nasdaq finished at 20,273, a rise of 105.55, or .52%. The last all-time high was 20,173.89 on Dec. 16. The year's low was April 8 at 15,267, a decline of 24.5% from the record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day at 43,819.27, a rise of 431.43 or 1%. DJIA hit a record of 45,014.04 on Dec. 4 and was down to 37,645.59 on April 8. The high this year was 44,882.13 on Jan. 30th, 10 days after Donald Trump became president. All but two of CNBC's 11 sectors declined. Energy dropped 0.5% and health 0.17%. The biggest increases were consumer discretionary at 1.78% and communications services at 1.55%. Stocks had been trading higher Friday until Trump posted on Truth Social that trade talks with Canada were terminated. "We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with, including the fact that they have charged our Farmers as much as 400% Tariffs, for years, on Dairy Products, has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country," Trump posted. "Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately," he said. "We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period." The United States has imposed a 25% tariff on non-compliant Canadian goods, including vehicles, with energy products subject to a 10% tariff. Also, Canada was hit by the 50% tariff on steel and aluminum imports like other nations. Canada has retaliated with its own tariffs. Products involved in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are exempted. Investors were buoyed after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said a trade framework with China had been finalized. At one time, Trump imposed a 134% tariff but it has since been cut to $30. Lutnick said he expects deals with 10 trading partners soon. On "Liberation Day" on April 2, Trump said he would impose a baseline 10% tariffs on most trading partners and stiffer ones for big violators. A week later, he paused them until July 7 and that date might be extended. "I can see where the risks are here -- if the trade [progress] is just hype from the White House and no deals are really forthcoming, then this market is going to roll over," Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie Group, told CNBS. "Ultimately, this all comes back to growth in the U.S. economy and growth of earnings." "We think the recovery makes sense, considering that most large-cap companies should weather the tariffs reasonably well," David Lefkowitz, head of U.S. equities at UBS Global Wealth Management, told investors in a note. "In fact, we think the upcoming [second-quarter] earnings season will once again highlight the resilience of corporate profits." Vital Knowledge analyst Adam Crisafulli sees possibly bumpy times. "We think there's a dangerous amount of complacency on trade/tariffs, a view underscored by the fact markets this morning are celebrating the China 'deal' for a third time," Crisafulli said in a report. The records come days after Trump brokered a cease-fire between Israel and Iran. Oil prices surged before the U.S. bombed three nuclear targets in Iran. West Test Intermediate crude climbed to $74.14 a barrel after being as low as $57.13 on May 13. On Friday, crude oil settled at 65.07, up 17 cents from the day before. One year ago, it reached nearly $84. The average price for unleaded gas in the United States is $3.207, a penny down from last week and $3.503 one year ago, according to AAA. Investors are also pleased with good economic data. Inflation rose 2.4% in May over one year. The unemployment rate 4.2% and has been at this level since May 2024. The Federal Reserve has not raised interest rates since Dec. 18. The Federal Funds Rate is 4.25% to 4.50%. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has described a "wait-and-see" approach to interest rate adjustments, describing the need for more data. The next meeting is July 29 and 30.
