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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
1 Incredible Reason to Buy This Dividend Stock Before July 29
Key Points This coffee shop giant is embarking on a turnaround plan, and there have been positive results. It reports on July 29, and the environment has become more favorable, making a positive report more likely. Its dividend has an attractive yield. 10 stocks we like better than Starbucks › Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) stock has likely minted its share of millionaires, but not with its recent performance. The coffee shop giant has had some major struggles over the past five years, and its stock trails the market's 109% gain with its own 37%. That's incredibly demoralizing for shareholders who have held on with the hopes of seeing a return to past performance levels. Fortunately, that improvement might be just around the corner. Coffee lovers are out again Starbucks has cycled through several CEOs over the past few years, ever since sales began sinking during the pandemic. It has landed on well-respected CEO Brian Niccol, and he's in the process of effecting a potential turnaround. He seems super upbeat about Starbucks' prospects and recently gave a confidence-boosting assessment of how the company is doing in the most recent earnings report. For example, in test locations with a new order sequencing algorithm, average wait times fell by two minutes, bringing 75% of orders at peak times to under four minutes. That coincides with improvements in food services data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Retail and food services sales increased 0.6% in June from the previous month, and 3.9% year over year. That was driven by an overall 6.6% increase in food service and drinking sales year over year. Niccol did not provide guidance for the 2025 fiscal third quarter (ended June 30) because he felt that there are too many unknowns as he reshapes the company's strategies and processes in a challenging economic environment. Comparable sales were down 1% in the second quarter (ended March 30), and there were major declines in operating margin and earnings per share (EPS) as the company restructures amid economic pressure. Starbucks reports third-quarter results on July 29. If the company impresses investors with improvements, which seems likely considering the better operating climate, the stock should jump. In the meantime, shareholders are enjoying the growing dividend that yields 2.6% at the current price. Should you buy stock in Starbucks right now? Before you buy stock in Starbucks, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Starbucks wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $665,092!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,050,477!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,055% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Jennifer Saibil has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 Incredible Reason to Buy This Dividend Stock Before July 29 was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
US says Department of Commerce employee subjected to exit ban in China
WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Monday a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee who was traveling to China in a personal capacity was subjected to an exit ban in the Asian country. "We can confirm that a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee, while traveling to China in a personal capacity, was made subject to an exit ban in China. We are tracking this case very closely and are engaged with Chinese officials to resolve the situation as quickly as possible," a State Department spokesperson said. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is part of the federal Department of Commerce.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fresh tomato prices could jump as tariff takes affect
The U.S. is pulling out of a three-decade-old tomato trade agreement with Mexico on Monday, while adding between a 17% to 21% tariff on most Mexican tomato imports. The Trump administration said in April it plans to withdraw from the Tomato Suspension Agreement between the two countries that has been in place since 1996. Tomatoes sold in the U.S. from Mexico are controlled by the Department of Commerce through the suspension agreement, which sets minimum pricing and regulates sales between growers and importers. 'The [Tomato Suspension Agreement] has failed to protect U.S. tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports, as Commerce has been flooded with comments from them urging its termination. This action will allow U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace,' the department said in a news release on April 14. Mexican-grown tomatoes account for nearly 70% of the U.S. market, while U.S. growers' share is currently around 30%. In 2024, the U.S. imported $3.12 billion worth of fresh tomatoes from Mexico. This accounted for the majority of the total U.S. tomato imports, which were valued at $3.63 billion, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity and Texas A&M. The Laredo customs district in South Texas — which includes Laredo's World Trade Bridge and the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in Pharr — accounts for the majority of tomato imports from Mexico, followed by the border crossing in Nogales, Arizona. Mexican tomato producers signed an agreement with President Donald Trump's first administration in 2019 to end a tariff dispute. As part of the 2019 agreement, Mexico-based growers agreed not to sell tomatoes below a reference price, a seasonably adjusted floor price at which Mexican tomatoes can't fall underneath and still be exported to the U.S. The termination of the agreement has created fierce opposition by farmers and lawmakers in Arizona and Texas versus growers in Florida. The Florida Tomato Exchange claims that Mexico's agriculture industry is dumping tomatoes at margins of up to 273% below the agreed minimums in the U.S. that continues to harm domestic farmers. 'The only way to level the playing field is to end the agreement and enforce fair trade,' Robert Guenther, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, told Fox Business. Trade stakeholders and lawmakers in Texas and Florida said any tariff being placed on imports of Mexican tomatoes will harm their state economies and provide consumers with less choice and higher prices. 'We don't want tomatoes to become the new egg crisis,' Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, said during a news conference on Friday, according to the Rio Grande Guardian. Gonzalez, along with other Texas lawmakers and the Texas International Produce Association (TIPA), are requesting a 90-day delay to withdraw from the agreement to allow more consideration and resolutions for the issue. Dante Galeazzi, CEO of TIPA, said the Tomato Suspension Agreement is crucial to South Texas. 'Terminating this agreement will undo three decades of stability and bring about a 17% duty on all Mexican tomatoes entering this country,' Galeazzi said during the same Friday news conference as Gonzalez. The post Fresh tomato prices could jump as tariff takes affect appeared first on FreightWaves. Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Inicia sesión para acceder a tu portafolio Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Se produjo un error al recuperar la información
News.com.au
09-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Trump tariff threat sends US copper price soaring – how will it impact miners?
Donald Trump's announcement of 50% tariff on US copper imports sends Comex futures past US$5.50/lb ASX stocks were largely down on the news The massive dislocation of copper stocks creates opportunities to back US domestic miners and find opportunity in 'sold off' overseas plays, fundies say Well he's only done gone and done it. After months under a Department of Commerce s232 investigation, copper imports to the USA could be facing tariffs as high as 50% after US President Donald Trump declared it so at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday night Aussie time. The 200% tariff on pharma imports will loom as more dangerous for Aussie producers, who it appears will be given a one-year window to shift manufacturing lines to the States. Our copper exports are relatively small in the global sense, and largely service the Chinese and Asian markets. But the new placed the red metal on the lips of every investor and financial commentator after a run to over US$5.50/lb for US-based Comex futures. At the same time LME three month prices, historically the global benchmark for refined metal, fell marginally to US$9790.50/oz – around US$4.45/lb. COMEX #copper futures jumps to a 40% YTD gain after Trump called for a 50% tariff on imports. The premium paid for front month copper futures in New York now stands 25% above 3-month London benchmark, and with imports in the first six months equalling almost a full year of… â€' Ole S Hansen (@Ole_S_Hansen) July 8, 2025 Morgan Stanley estimated the tariff impost could cost importers US$5000 on each tonne of copper they try to bring to the United States, something which goes a long way to explaining the arbitrage as marketers load up ahead of any tariff shock. US traders have lifted stocks in the country 130% this year to 221,000t, while LME-stored copper stocks have sagged to less than 100,000t for the first time since 2023. The charge in the US copper price, which rose as much as 13% to US$5.65/lb at its apex on Tuesday, saw Freeport McMoran, the biggest domestic producer, run 5% initially, before ending the Nasdaq trading day around 2.5% higher. On the flipside, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), which owns one of two active primary copper smelters in the country at Kennecott in Utah as well as two-thirds of Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, a minority stake in BHP's (ASX:BHP) Escondida mine in Chile and the majority stake in the undeveloped Resolution deposit in Arizona alongside BHP. BHP separately announced a discovery in 2023 in Arizona called Ocelot. Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) fell 3.5% on Wednesday. It produces around 160,000tpa copper equivalent from the MATSA and Motheo projects in Spain and Botswana, but also owns the undeveloped Black Butte project in the US state of Montana. South32 (ASX:S32) dropped 0.66%. Its primary copper exposure is its stake in the Sierra Gorda mine in Chile, but it also has a 50% share of explorer Ambler Metals, the owner of a large copper deposit in the Fairbanks region of Alaska, and Peake, an early stage copper prospect which is part of its Hermosa package in Arizona. Understanding the US copper market The US Geological Survey's latest stats sheet shows just how significant the challenge for the US is if it really wants to reshore domestic copper production. Mines in the US produced 1.1Mt of copper metal in 2024, but just 850,000t of copper metal came from its primary refineries, 40,000t from secondary refineries and 150,000t from post-consumer scrap. With the US exporting 320,000t of metal in the form of copper concentrates and 60,000t of its refined metal, it was reliant on the import of 810,000t of refined copper to satisfy 1.6Mt of reported and 1.8Mt of apparent consumption. Despite the prominence of complaints about China's expansion of smelting capacity and dominance of supply chains in the Feb 25 direction that kicked off the DoC's s232 investigation into the imposition of copper tariffs, it's actually Chile – the world's top copper miner – that supplies 65% of America's refined copper. Canada delivers 17% and Mexico 9%, with Peru shipping 6% and 3% sourced from other nations. This poses serious questions about how tariffs will impact the flow of copper for US consumers and manufacturers, with Chile and its State owned copper miner Codelco apparently in the dark. "The copper industry has been bracing for these levies since February, which has already seen increased flows into the US. Inventories in Comex warehouses have risen more than 130% to reach more than 221kt since the start of the year," ANZ Research analysts said. "Trump is expected to move forward with the levies once the Commerce Department's formal review is concluded, although the timing remains uncertain. It's also uncertain whether there will be any country exemptions. Chile, the world's biggest producer of the metal, contributes around 70% of the 700kt of copper the US imports annually. "Chilean officials remained in the dark about the Commerce Department investigation or any formal tariffs on its copper exports to the US." The fallout What could the tariffs mean then for Australian listed copper stocks and the broader copper market? Lowell Resources Fund (ASX:LRT) CIO John Forwood told Stockhead the arbitrage between US and LME copper delivered a huge short term advantage to US-based miners. "The LME copper price is US$4.50 a pound, and the Comex copper price is US$5.50 a pound as of last night, so there's a massive difference and benefit of producing copper in the US," he said. "Having said that obviously there's a significant stockpile that's been built up moving copper into the U.S. To try and get ahead of this potential tariff. "It's obviously not certain. Trump will change his mind multiple times between now and the first of August no doubt, but it's probably looking more likely." It's an 'uneven playing field', that has benefitted long term Arizona-focused developer New World Resources (ASX:NWC). Its high-grade Antler mine, which could be returned to production for the first time since the 1970s by 2027, is at the centre of a bidding war between two international players. Both London-listed Central Asia Metals and US private equity firm Kinterra Capital have floated 6.2c per share offers in different forms, well above the company's 2.7c share price before CAML's initial 5c per share takeover offer. Some brokers continue to hold price targets even higher – Argonaut's George Ross for instance has maintained a 6.5c PT – with arbitrage insto Harvest Lane, which brands itself as Australia's only pure play M&A focused fund manager, upping its stake to over 9% with a series of on-market purchases completed at a price as high as 6.4c per share. Neither bidder has declared their offer "best and final", Forwood noted. "New World, that's one we've been in for quite some time. They're potentially inside 12 months to commencing development at a really high grade copper equivalent opportunity with very good exploration potential," he said. " I think there's still some significant upside there. It's got a huge amount to like and has benefitted from the fast track of mine permitting in the US under this current administration." Copper prices remain well above historic levels, even using the LME benchmark, and Forwood continues to like explorers in Australia with large, low grade, low strip ratio deposits in Australia like Alma Metals (ASX:ALM) and Caravel Minerals (ASX:CVV). While US assets look more attractive in the immediate aftermath of the Trump tariff announcement, some fundies are stocking up on non-US plays after they were sold off in the aftermath of the news. "(The tariff announcement) creates uncertainty, which creates opportunity," Precision Funds Management's Dermot Woods told Stockhead. At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While New World Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article. The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interviews in this article are solely those of the interviewees and do not represent the views of Stockhead.
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Grants available to help small-town grocers, tourism in North Dakota
The town of Munich, North Dakota, has a self-service grocery store. Grants are available to help small-town groceries. (contributed) Small communities in North Dakota can soon apply for grant money to support their grocery stores. Lawmakers set aside $1 million for the grant during the 2025 legislative session out of concern for rural North Dakota towns that struggle to attract or sustain businesses that sell high-quality food. Successful applicants can receive up to $150,000. The program is open to local governments — including tribal governments — with populations of 4,500 people or fewer. Applicants must be able to match the grant money by 20%. Projects have to be completed within a year-and-a-half. The Department of Commerce says it's looking for proposals that show cooperation between 'food providers, schools, restaurants and other local entities' to improve food access and support economic development in rural communities. In testimony submitted in support of the grant earlier this year, North Dakota Grocers Association President John Dyste said food deserts are growing across the state. 'What rural grocers need is access to funding that will allow them to upgrade their facilities and equipment,' Dyste said. 'They also need reliable, affordable access to groceries and perishable products.' He added that people looking to buy independent rural grocery stores often have trouble securing financing. The program follows a pilot rural food sustainability grant established during the 2023 legislative session. The application window for the rural grocery store grant opens at 3 p.m. Wednesday and closes Sept. 3 at 5 p.m. For more information, visit the link program's webpage. A separate Department of Commerce grant puts a total $15 million up for grabs to support North Dakota tourism. The idea is to support projects that will draw out-of-state visitors to North Dakota recreational locations that reflect the state's 'culture, identity or landscape.' Individual awards can range from $25,000 to $5 million. The grant is for projects that are shovel-ready, according to the Department of Commerce. Matching funds are also required. Previous recipients of Department of Commerce tourism grants include: Shores Event Center in Devils Lake Thrill Hills, a ski hill in Fort Ransom Indian Hills Resort, a hunting and fishing resort in Garrison The Legislature approved the grant during the 2025 legislative session to support the state's tourism industry. Applications opened earlier this week and will close July 31 at 5 p.m. Visit the grant's webpage for more information. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
