The company said it would sell off Michigan’s Adventure in Muskegon, Michigan; Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston in Texas; Six Flags Great Escape in Queensbury, New York; Six Flags La Ronde in Montreal; Six Flags St. Louis in Missouri; Valleyfair in Minneapolis and Worlds of Fun in Kansas City for around $331 million. 

“Consistent with our strategy, this divestiture enables us to concentrate our capital, leadership and operational focus on the properties that we believe generate the strongest returns and offer the greatest long-term upside,” Six Flags Entertainment Corporation chief executive John Reilly said in a news release.

EPR plans to partner with Enchanted Parks to run the six US parks. La Ronde Operations will operate the Canadian park.

The parks will continue to operate on their regular schedule and all season passes sold will be recognized through the 2026 operating season. 

Six Flags will continue to operate 34 parks across 23 locations in North America for the 2026 season.

Six Flags will sell off seven parks across the US and Canada for around $331 million. MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Cash proceeds from the transactions will be used to pay down the company’s debt. AFP via Getty Images

The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of 2026. 

Collectively, the seven parks hosted about 4.5 million guests last year, generating about $260 million in net revenue, the company said. Cash proceeds, after taxes and transaction expenses, will be used to pay down debt, it said.

“This strategic acquisition represents a compelling opportunity to expand our attractions portfolio with high-quality experiential real estate assets in established regional markets,” EPR Properties CEO Gregory Silvers said.

The post Six Flags sells 7 theme parks across US, Canada in $331M move to cut debt appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The Dow fell 798 points, or 1.7% — its worst day in more than a month after notching a new record high just the day before. The S&P 500 slipped 1.9%, led downward by Disney, which fell 8% after it reported disappointing revenue.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped 2.3% as investors continued to panic over whether AI stocks have been massively overvalued, worsening a sell-off that started last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 700 points Thursday as investors continued to panic over AI spending. AP

Although the Nasdaq opened strong Thursday, investors quickly pulled back on companies that have been shelling out massive amounts of capital on pricey, power-hungry data centers.

The “Magnificent Seven” tech firms – which have pledged billions of dollars to AI efforts – were battered as shares in Nvidia, Broadcom and Tesla fell 3.6%, 4.3% and 6.6%, respectively.

Alphabet and Amazon each fell about 3%. Shares in Microsoft dipped 1.6% while Meta traded roughly flat.

Meanwhile, the US government reopened on Thursday after its longest-ever shutdown. 

The “Magnificent Seven” tech firms – which have pledged billions of dollars to AI efforts – were battered. REUTERS

“While that is a relief for markets and the economy, there is still plenty of uncertainty, particularly around the missed inflation and jobs data and how these fronts have been faring,” Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Private Wealth, said in a note Thursday.

She noted that monthly jobs and inflation data – which was almost entirely put on pause during the 43-day shutdown – is “so vital for interest rate expectations.”

Investors worried that the lack of government data could prevent the Fed from slashing interest rates. AP

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Thursday that the October jobs report will be released after a delay, though it will not include the unemployment rate.

Investors worried that the lack of data could prevent the Fed from slashing interest rates during its Dec. 10 meeting, since officials have been flying blind on guidance without government data.

Start your day with all you need to know

Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.

Thanks for signing up!

The odds of a quarter-point cut plunged to 51.9% on Thursday – a more than 10% drop from the previous day, according to CME FedWatch.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that October inflation and jobs reports may never be released, adding that the government shutdown could hit fourth-quarter GDP by as much as 2 percentage points.

“While we have always expected that many of the data points missed during the shutdown will remain dark, there are questions about what the inflation and jobs data will look like once these reports come back online,” Schleif said.

“We would not be surprised to see some market chop over the coming weeks as the government gears and economic data presses get turning again.”

The post Stocks have worst day in a month amid AI concerns, lower hopes for interest-rate cut appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Meta on Wednesday said that it plans to cut approximately 600 jobs in its artificial intelligence division, according to a memo sent to employees that was relayed to The New York Times, as the company seeks to keep pace with competitors in the furious contest over the technology.

The layoffs will be in Meta’s so-called Superintelligence Labs, which is the umbrella name for the company’s A.I. efforts. The division has a few thousand employees, though the exact number of workers was unclear.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, has been on a hiring spree to stack his company with top A.I. researchers, including a new chief A.I. officer, Alexandr Wang, earlier this year. The cuts on Wednesday do not affect these newest hires, who have been empowered to develop “superintelligence,” or artificial intelligence that exceeds the human brain.

Instead, the job cuts are aimed at cleaning up the organizational bloat that resulted from three years of building up Meta’s A.I. efforts too quickly, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The layoffs aim to help Meta develop A.I. products more quickly, they said.

“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Mr. Wang wrote in the memo circulated to employees.

The cuts, which were earlier reported by Axios, come at an intensely competitive time for Meta, which has spent the past three years dealing with the rapid onset of A.I. After ChatGPT burst onto the scene in 2022, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft began hiring furiously to build the next generation of A.I. chatbots and other products.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, struggled to keep up with the pack. After early success developing its open-source A.I. model, called Llama, its progress stagnated. The company went on a fresh hiring spree and made strategic errors, leading to product development issues over the past 18 months.

After a rocky first half of this year, Mr. Zuckerberg moved to restart the A.I. efforts. In June, he invested $14.3 billion in ScaleAI, an artificial intelligence start-up that was co-founded by Mr. Wang. Mr. Zuckerberg then brought ScaleAI’s top talent to Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, including Mr. Wang.

Mr. Zuckerberg has since also spent billions recruiting top researchers from other A.I. labs and companies, including OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. Meta has dangled pay packages to some that number well into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

In August, Mr. Zuckerberg split Meta Superintelligence into four groups. One is called FAIR, which is focused on A.I. research; a second is working on superintelligence; another on products; and a fourth on infrastructure, such as data centers and other A.I. hardware.

The planned cuts will affect employees at FAIR and in the product division, according to Mr. Wang’s memo. Employees who are laid off were set to receive emails by 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and the company plans to try to find other positions internally for those affected.

No cuts will be made to TBD, the team building superintelligence and managing Meta’s large language models, which drive chatbots and other A.I. products, the people with knowledge of the situation said. The company is still hiring A.I. researchers in the TBD unit, which is managed by Mr. Wang, the people said.

Meta executives have emphasized that the cuts do not mean they are retrenching on A.I. efforts, and that superintelligence remains among Mr. Zuckerberg’s top priorities for the company.

The post Meta Plans to Cut 600 Jobs at A.I. Superintelligence Labs appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The earnings snapshot from the largest US oil producer is closely watched for clues on how the broader oil sector will fare when companies begin releasing quarterly results in a few weeks.

Benchmark Brent crude prices averaged $66.71 per barrel during the April to June quarter, an 11% decline from the previous quarter, as more crude supply from the OPEC+ group of producers weighed on prices. US natural gas prices declined 9% from the first quarter.

Benchmark Brent crude prices averaged $66.71 per barrel during the April to June quarter, an 11% decline from the previous quarter. Exxon Mobil will release second quarter earnings on Aug. 1. Getty Images

Exxon said in the regulatory filing that it will release the final quarterly results on Aug. 1.

Wall Street expects Exxon to report adjusted earnings of $1.53 per share for the second quarter, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.

The company had posted $6.8 billion in upstream earnings for the first quarter. Its total profit in that quarter was $7.71 billion.

The post Exxon Mobil warns lower oil, gas prices could cut profit by over $1B appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Her comments align with those of fellow Governor Christopher Waller, who said Friday that the Fed should not delay rate cuts until labor market weakness becomes more pronounced.

Waller, another Trump appointee, downplayed the long-term inflationary risk of tariffs and suggested that monetary easing could begin as early as next month.

Waller and Bowman’s remarks signal a shift within the central bank and highlight growing internal tension over whether the Fed should move quickly to ease policy.

Bowman told a gathering in Prague that recent economic indicators have “not shown clear signs of material impacts from tariffs and other policies” and that the inflationary effects of trade measures “may take longer, be more delayed, and have a smaller effect than initially expected.”

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said Monday she would support cutting interest rates in July. Bloomberg via Getty Images

Inflation rose 2.4% year-over-year last month, with the Consumer Price Index increasing 0.1% for the month. Core inflation also rose 0.1% monthly and 2.8% annually, driven largely by shelter and food costs.

While current inflation remains moderate and within the Fed’s target range, rising input prices tied to Trump-era tariffs have raised concerns about potential acceleration later in the year.

But Bowman believes conditions are ripe for a rate cut.

“All considered, ongoing progress on trade and tariff negotiations has led to an economic environment that is now demonstrably less risky,” she added.

“As we think about the path forward, it is time to consider adjusting the policy rate.”

Bowman, a Trump appointee who joined the Fed’s Board of Governors earlier this month, also warned of growing vulnerabilities in the labor market.

Her comments align with those of fellow Governor Christopher Waller, who said Friday that the Fed should not delay rate cuts. Bloomberg via Getty Images

“We should put more weight on downside risks to our employment mandate going forward,” she said, noting “signs of fragility in the labor market.”

Looking ahead to the Fed’s next policy meeting, she emphasized that upcoming data would be key to guiding the decision.

“If upcoming data show inflation continuing to evolve favorably… or if we see signs that softer spending is spilling over into weaker labour market conditions, such developments should be addressed in our policy discussions and reflected in our deliberations.”

However, not all Fed officials are on board.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin pushed back on the need for immediate action, telling Reuters: “I don’t think the data gives us any rush to cut…I am very conscious that we’ve not been at our inflation target for four years.”

Barkin said firms in his district still expect prices to rise later this year as tariffs kick in and warned against ignoring the potential for a renewed inflation spike.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has come under pressure from President Trump to lower interest rates. AP

“Nothing is burning on either side such that it suggests there’s a rush to act,” he said.

“Spending is holding up fine. It’s not frothy. It’s not weak.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has also taken a more cautious stance, urging patience while the central bank assesses the full economic impact of Trump’s trade measures.

He has said that while rate cuts are possible later this year, the Fed must first see how inflation evolves in response to tariffs.

The Fed has held interest rates steady at 4.25% to 4.5% since December after cutting them by a full percentage point last year. Its most recent projections revealed a split: seven officials expect rates to remain on hold through the end of 2025, while ten foresee two or more cuts.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin pushed back on the need for immediate action. Bloomberg via Getty Images

Trump has launched a series of personal attacks on Powell, calling him a “moron,” “numbskull” and “obvious Trump Hater” while demanding immediate and aggressive interest rate cuts.

Trump has floated firing Powell and questioned why the Fed’s Board of Governors hasn’t overruled him. He argues the Fed should slash rates now to boost the economy and raise them later if needed, a stance that sharply contrasts with the central bank’s cautious, data-driven approach.

“The Administration has consistently maintained that tariffs will ultimately be borne by foreign exporters who rely on doing business with the United States, the biggest and best consumer market economy in the world,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told The Post.

“Despite endless fearmongering by the media, Democrats, and so-called ‘experts’, that’s what has played out: Americans have now seen four consecutive expectation-beating inflation reports.”

The Fed declined to comment.

The post Fed’s Bowman backs July rate cut citing weak inflation, labor fragility appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Temu decided to slash ad spending in the US and shift its order fulfillment strategy after the White House on May 2 ended the practice known as “de minimis” — which allowed Chinese companies to ship low-value packages to the United States tariff-free.

Temu, along with fast-fashion giant Shein, had utilized that provision for years to drop-ship items directly from suppliers in China to consumers in the US, keeping prices low.

E-tailer Temu is facing many headwinds amid the US-China trade war. A Temu factory in southern China, above. AFP via Getty Images

Both Temu and Shein have suffered a sharp drop in sales growth and customer growth rates since US President Trump announced sweeping trade tariffs, according to data collected by consultancy Bain & Company, but Temu’s trends have been worse than its rival.

Tariffs forced both platforms to raise prices, but Shein has been able to increase the amount of money spent per customer compared to a year ago, the data showed, while Temu has struggled.

Temu did not respond to a request for comment on the drop in US daily users or the headwinds it faces in the US market.

Engagement on Temu has dropped significantly following the end of the exemption, Morgan Stanley equity analyst Simeon Gutman said in a May note.

“While the tariff environment is uncertain, if the status quo remains for an extended period, we believe Temu’s competitive threat will continue to weaken,” Gutman said.

The US ended “de minimis” – which allowed Chinese companies to ship low-value packages tariff-free. REUTERS

Last week, PDD’s first-quarter earnings fell short of growth estimates and executives told analysts on a post-earnings call that tariffs had created significant pressure for its merchants.

They reiterated Temu’s earlier pledge to keep prices stable and work with merchants across regions, referring to a shift to a local fulfillment model announced at the start of May.

Temu’s previous business model gave merchants responsibility for ordering and supplying their products while the China-based company managed most of the logistics, pricing and marketing.

Last week, PDD’s first-quarter earnings fell short of growth estimates and executives told analysts on a post-earnings call that tariffs had created significant pressure for its merchants. AA+W – stock.adobe.com

Now, Temu’s merchants “can ship individual orders from China to Temu-partnered US warehouses but they would need to address tariffs and customs charges and paper work,” according to a note from analysts at HSBC. Temu continues to handle fulfilling orders close to shoppers, setting prices and online operations.

In last week’s note, HSBC said that Temu’s growth in non-US markets has picked up, with non-US users rising to 90% of its 405 million global monthly active users in the second quarter.

“New user uptick grew swiftest in less affluent markets,” analysts wrote.

The post Temu’s daily US users cut in half following end of ‘de minimis’ loophole appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner and Walmart Global Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar said in a memo to employees on Wednesday that the company is reshaping some teams in its global tech and Walmart U.S. organizations where it has found “opportunities to remove layers and complexity, speed up decision-making, and help associates innovate rapidly.”

“The world of technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and reshaping our structure allows us to accelerate how we deliver and adapt to the changing environment around us,” the executives wrote in the memo.

In the U.S., the cuts are specifically “mainly focused on driving efficiency” within the company’s end-to-end operations teams and evolving the structure of its Walmart Connect marketing organization for long-term viability. 

Walmart has decided to scrap over 1,000 corporate jobs as the nation’s largest private employer plans to lower expenses. REUTERS

However, Walmart said that while the company is eliminating some roles, it is also “opening some new roles aligned with our business priorities and growth strategy.”

This comes as executives across the retail industry, including at Walmart, have been warning about the impact of tariffs on the sector, even meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this year. 

The retailer, which economists use as a gauge to understand consumer health, reported strong first-quarter earnings, but warned that price hikes were imminent given the magnitude of the levies placed on imported goods. 

Even though Trump earlier this month reduced the duties placed on Chinese imports, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company can’t “absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins.”

The cuts across the U.S. are “mainly focused on driving efficiency.” Getty Images

The comment sparked backlash from Trump, who posted on Truth Social that the retailer should “EAT THE TARIFFS.”

Later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Walmart agreed to absorb some of the tariffs while some costs will get passed on to consumers.

Nearly two-thirds of Walmart’s U.S. spending goes toward products made, assembled or grown domestically, but the remaining third comes from around the world, with China and Mexico being the largest contributors.

The post Walmart to cut about 1,500 corporate jobs appeared first on Our Story Insight.