- First major Manor Lords patch takes aim at enemy AI, underpowered archers, plus “overly high ale consumption” – and adds a steep tax to prevent gold hoarding Gamesradar
- Manor Lords’ medieval micromanagement means making many messes Ars Technica
- Manor Lords’ new massive patch stops your villagers from partying too hard and introduces players to the woeful world of the King’s Tax PC Gamer
- Manor Lords gets its first big patch, with new taxes, animations and changes to trading Rock Paper Shotgun
- Manor Lords’ First Major Patch Revealed and Released for Open Testing IGN
Tag Archives: steep
Discover Samsung event offers steep discounts on phones, monitors, smartwatches, and more – XDA Developers
- Discover Samsung event offers steep discounts on phones, monitors, smartwatches, and more XDA Developers
- Get exclusive early access to Samsung’s huge new sale – I’ve picked the 7 best deals TechRadar
- Discover Samsung fall sale: Early deals on Galaxy devices, Bespoke fridges, Frame TVs Reviewed
- Save on a Galaxy S23 Ultra 512GB; get one with a free storage upgrade and up to $800 extra off as instant trade-in credit PhoneArena
- Discover Samsung 2023: Early access to all the best phone deals, discounted smartwatches, and more Android Central
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Kirby and the Forgotten Land director says final boss difficulty curve was “slightly too steep” – Destructoid
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land director says final boss difficulty curve was “slightly too steep” Destructoid
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land developer says the game was a “turning point” for the series – just like Breath of the Wild was for Zelda Gamesradar
- Kirby Director Fears The Forgotten Land’s Final Boss Was Too Hard TheGamer
- Kirby director explains how Kirby and the Forgotten Land was transformative for the series My Nintendo News
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land dev says the final battle might have been too challenging GoNintendo
- View Full Coverage on Google News
The steep plunge in used car prices — what it means, and what’s ahead
New York
CNN
—
Tracking used car prices is enough to give anyone whiplash.
Since the start of the pandemic and the resulting disruptions to new car supply chains first sent prices soaring, used car prices posted their largest annual increase on record – up 45% in the 12 months ending in June 2021, according to the Consumer Price Index – before swinging to a 12-month drop of 8.8% in the most recent reading for December.
That was the biggest 12-month plunge in prices for used cars since June 2009, when General Motors and Chrysler were both in bankruptcy proceedings and the economy was hemorrhaging a half-million jobs a month.
“It was a completely wild ride,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds.com Inc., an online resources for inventory and information on cars.
Data from Edmunds shows the average price of a used car purchase in December at $29,533, down nearly $1,600 from the record high of $31,095 reached in April 2022. Today’s average used car price is about the same as the average new car price as recently as 2010.
While the prices of late model used cars are down only 5% off their peak according according to Edmunds, the price of older used cars, those five years or older, have fallen 15% or more from their peaks early in 2022.
Experts say reasons for the decline include higher interest rates that make it more expensive to finance a car purchase, limiting demand. CarMax
(KMX), the nation’s largest pure used car dealer, has warned that the combination of high prices and high interest rates is creating an affordability problem for many buyers, hurting overall demand.
But the leading reason for the drop in used car prices is the increased supply of new cars.
It was the lack of new car inventory that drove up prices. Parts shortages, especially for computer chips, had choked off production of new cars in much of 2022, causing the lowest level of full-year US new car sales since 2011.
The low supply of new cars caused an even bigger jump in the average price of used cars, as buyers who would otherwise buy new vehicles turned to the used car market.
“At one point it seemed that everyone who was going to buy new ended up buying used,” said Greg Markus, executive vice president of AutoLenders, parent company of New Jersey’s largest used car dealership chain.
That included rental car companies, which before the pandemic normally bought about 10% or more new cars per year. With limited inventory of cars to sell, automakers essentially stopped making lower-priced fleet sales, and even rental car companies were forced to turn to the used car market.
All that has started to change in recent months. Automakers are reporting more supplies of the chips they need, and are producing and selling more cars, including a return of fleet sales. Overall, sales were up 9% in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago, and nearly 6% higher than in the third quarter, according to Cox Automotive. And with more buyers finding the new cars they want, that means lower demand for used cars.
Experts say part of the decline in used car prices is that the price increases were not sustainable and were partly driven by buyers at used car auctions overpaying for the limited supply of used vehicles.
“There was nowhere for these prices to go but down,” said Markus.
There could be more declines in used car prices in the months ahead, as new car inventories continue to build. One thing that could put a floor under the used car prices: late model used cars will likely be in short supply given the reduced new car production over the last three years.
“The supply issue is still grim,” said Markus. Because of that, “I don’t think we’re getting down to 2019 levels,” he added.
The run-up in used car prices was a major driver in the nation’s overall inflation rate, adding about a full percentage point to the overall increase in consumer prices from April of 2021 through May of 2022. Now it’s a factor helping to bring down the pace of inflation, shaving more than a third of a point off the overall rate in December.
This is obviously good news for those wanting or needing to buy a used car, though it can have a negative effect on car buyers by reducing the value of vehicle they hope to trade in. Edmunds shows the average trade-in value in December down nearly $3,000, or 11%, to $22,605, from the record high hit in June of 2022.
That drop in the value of trade-ins could also be a headwind on car prices by reducing what buyers are able to pay.
St. Louis area hospitals at capacity with flu cases continuing steep rise
ST. LOUIS — Flu cases continue to spike across the St. Louis region, placing major stress on hospitals that are already at or near capacity.
“It’s posing significant challenges to ensure we can care for everyone in the community,” warned a report Wednesday by a task force of St. Louis-area hospitals.
While cases of respiratory syncytial virus that overwhelmed local hospitals in October have been dropping, they’re being replaced by a flu season that is coming fast and furious.
At Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, about 20 to 40 patients a day are coming to the emergency department with flu-like symptoms, and 10 to 20 are having to be admitted with flu, said Dr. Robert Poirier, a Washington University physician who serves as the emergency department’s clinical director.
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“We are seeing twice as many patients this week than we saw the week previous, and last week it was also double” the previous week, Poirier said Wednesday. “We are starting this year with a bang.”
The challenge is, Poirier said, is that the hospital is full along with the emergency department, which drives up waiting times as well as limits the ability to transfer patients to higher levels of care.
Many patients also can’t be moved out of the hospital, because of workforce challenges facing nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities and home health services.
“It backs up the whole system,” he said.
The flu season so far appears to be the worst since 2010 and 2011. Flu cases typically begin a steep climb in December and January, but this season is seeing an unusual jump in October and November.
During the week of Nov. 19, the latest data available, Missouri reported nearly 4,900 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu — almost double the number from two weeks prior and already surpassing last year’s peak that came in late December.
So far this season through Nov. 19, Missouri has reported nearly 13,700 cases and three flu-related deaths, according to state health department data. The highest rates of flu cases and hospital visits have been among children younger than 4 years old.
Dr. Rachel Orscheln, a Washington University pediatric infectious disease specialist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, said doctors are already seeing high numbers of children hospitalized for flu.
“We are way above the peak of prior years for cases; and for hospitalizations, we are a little above the peak of prior years already,” Orscheln said.
With no signs of cases leveling off, she said, “I imagine the level of hospitalizations is going to continue to climb.”
The rising numbers of flu cases have pushed Missouri into the “high” level of spread category on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flu map.
Nationwide, there have been at least 6.2 million illnesses, 53,000 hospitalizations and 2,900 deaths from flu, according the CDC.
Hospital and public health leaders say they do not know how high the numbers will climb. And while COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have remained steady over the past few months, that could also change and stress hospital capacity.
During the week leading up to Nov. 27, an average of 770 people a day were hospitalized with COVID-19 across Missouri, state data shows. Over the past two months, about 20 to 50 Missourians have died each week from COVID-19.
“Because of holiday gatherings and other indoor activity, we anticipate more cases of RSV, COVID-19 and other respiratory infections,” the St. Louis County Department of Public Health said in a warning issued Wednesday. “It is important that we do all we can to prevent the spread of disease.”
Doctors urged anyone over 6 months of age to get the flu vaccine, which is a good match against the strains that are circulating, and get an updated COVID-19 booster.
COVID-19 vaccinations are offered weekdays at the John C. Murphy Health Center in Berkeley, the South County Health Center in Sunset Hills and the North Central Community Health Center in Jennings from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Flu shots are available at the three health centers from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Also, avoid trips to emergency departments, health officials said.
Those with mild to moderate cold-like symptoms can call their primary care doctor, use telehealth services offered by insurance or visit an urgent care.
Trips to the emergency room should be reserved for those with difficulty breathing, sudden dizziness, severe vomiting, dehydration, high fever or fever higher than 100.4 for infants younger than 8 weeks.
“We are overloaded,” Poirier said, “and if you have mild symptoms you’re going to wait a long time to be seen because we are busy treating those who are sicker.”
New cars are finally back in stock, but they come at a steep price
Vehicles are displayed for sale at an AutoNation car dealership on April 21, 2022 in Valencia, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
DETROIT — New cars are slowly becoming more widely available, as supply chain bottlenecks finally start to ease. But now, an increasing number of Americans might not want them or be able to afford them.
With the Federal Reserve aggressively hiking interest rates to fight inflation, consumers are finding that the cost of financing a new car is suddenly a lot higher than it was even earlier this year. That’s expected to cut demand and add new pressure to the auto industry, which had been struggling with depleted inventories during the pandemic.
“The irony for the auto market is that just as the industry is poised to start seeing volumes increase from supply-constrained recession-like low levels, the rapid movement in interest rates is reducing demand,” Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke wrote in a blog post Wednesday.
At the end of third quarter, Cox Automotive found the new vehicle loan rate was 7%, up 2 percentage points for the year. The loan rate in the used market was up by the same amount, to 11%, according to Cox Automotive.
The higher cost for car financing comes as household budgets are already being squeezed by decades-high inflation. That means many Americans may no longer to be able to afford the new cars that are starting to arrive on dealer lots.
And the cost of financing is expected to keep climbing. Already this year, the Fed has aggressively increased interest loan rates to 3% to 3.25%, and it has indicated it plans to continue hiking rates until the the fed funds rate hits 4.6% in 2023.
Automakers could offset costs with financing deals and discounts, but the latter is something companies have vowed not to return to amid record profits.
Recovering inventory
Automakers had been counting on pent-up consumer demand from the supply chain shortage during the pandemic to persist in the near term. But fleet and commercial sales, which aren’t as profitable, notably increased in the third quarter, indicating that consumer demand may be waning.
That’s even as inventory levels are finally rising from record lows.
Total automotive inventory increased to about 1.43 million units at the end of September, the highest level since May 2021 and up 160,000 units from the end of August, according to BofA Securities.
“We continue to believe that the sales weakness over the past year+ is a function of limited inventory,” analyst John Murphy said in a Wednesday note to investors.
But he also noted that demand could soften based on inflation, weak consumer confidence and the concerns about a recession.
Largely due to the central bank’s actions, Cox recently lowered its new vehicle sales forecast for the year to 13.7 million, down from an already lowered 14.4 million and a level not seen in a decade. At that sales pace, Smoke said lower production and profits could further stress the supply chain, which may lead to bankruptcies and further inventory disruptions.
In the meantime, however, price increases for new vehicle prices have been slowing. Average purchase prices for new cars rose 6.3% in September to a record of more than $45,000, J.D. Power estimates. Earlier in the year, prices had surged at record levels of 17.5% and 14.5%.
Prices keep climbing
To make up for lower sales, automakers have been focusing on producing their most expensive vehicles, which are also their most profitable. That, combined with rising interest rates, is pushing more car shoppers to look at used vehicles.
Edmunds reports the average amount financed for new vehicles hit a record of $41,347 during the third quarter. That’s up from $40,602 during the second quarter and $38,315 a year earlier. The average monthly payment on a new vehicle stayed above $700 during the third quarter. Of those buyers, more than 14% committed to a monthly payment of $1,000 or more for new vehicles — the highest level that Edmunds has ever recorded.
“Inventory can be a bit tenuous, but it feels like maybe it’s going to get better and not necessarily worse, which comes at an interesting time, because now it feels like there may actually be a bit of trouble on the demand because of higher prices, higher interest rates and the questions of whether we’re in a recession or not,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds.
Cox Automotive economist Charlie Chesbrough said he doesn’t expect new vehicle pricing to ease anytime soon, if ever, as automakers vow to keep leaner inventories to boost profits.
“I don’t know that there’s any return to normal. I think we’re just at a new normal,” he said.
Pricing in the used vehicle industry has been declining, but the interest rate increases could offset that, depending on the terms.
After peaking in January, Cox Automotive’s Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, which tracks prices of used vehicles sold at its U.S. wholesale auctions, has fallen by 13% through the middle of September. But prices remain elevated from historical levels.
The average price of a financed vehicle is over $31,000, a level closer to new vehicle prices than used cars and trucks, according to Edmunds.
“There just aren’t a lot of good options,” Caldwell said. “Used doesn’t present itself as a good option, really, unless you can find something with a lower interest rate.”
Steep Corrections Imminent for Bitcoin and Ethereum After Massive Fakeout in Stock Market: Top Crypto Analyst
A closely followed crypto strategist is issuing a dire warning to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) holders.
Crypto analyst Justin Bennett tells his 106,800 Twitter followers that the recent sell-off in the stock market suggests an imminent move to the downside for Bitcoin.
“Today’s sell-off from stocks is more than just a single red day. It confirms a massive fakeout, likely triggering an extended move lower. The 3,400 pre-COVID high is a prime target. I’ve said this since May. That’d be -16% for the S&P 500 or about -30%-40% for BTC if it happens.”
At time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $20,049. A 40% devaluation could see BTC trading at the $12,000 price level.
Looking closer at Bitcoin, Bennett says that BTC is in danger of breaking below a diagonal support that has buoyed the top crypto since 2015.
“BTC is once again testing the 2015 trend line. Anyone telling you this looks healthy is either clueless or lying. Notice the two long lower wicks from 2015 and 2020. That indicates strong demand. We’re seeing the complete opposite of that this time.”
As for Ethereum, Bennett highlights that ETH is forming a head and shoulders top on the four-hour chart with a downside target of $1,000.
“The right shoulder of this potential ETH head and shoulders is starting to form. Confirmation below $1,500.”
At time of writing, Ethereum is swapping hands for $1,498, below the neckline of the pattern and Bennett’s confirmation level.
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Featured Image: Shutterstock/gonin
Steep water cuts loom as Colorado River shrinks and Lake Mead level plummets
Two major announcements could come Tuesday. The first is a forecast from the US Bureau of Reclamation that could trigger the first-ever Tier 2 water shortage for the Lower Colorado River Basin. The second is the bureau’s next step in its a demand that the seven states in the river basin come up with a way to voluntarily cut up to 25% of their water usage, or the federal government will do it for them.
It was just a year ago that the Department of Interior declared the first shortage on the Colorado River — a Tier 1. But the past 12 months did not bring enough rain and snow. A report from July shows Lake Mead, which the agency uses to determine shortage conditions, is hovering around 1,040 feet above sea level, after having dropped 10 feet in just two, dry months.
Tuesday’s report is all but certain to show Lake Mead will be below 1,050 feet come January — the threshold required to declare a Tier 2 shortage beginning in 2023. The question is how far below that threshold it will be. If the forecast is below 1,045 feet, which recent forecasts would suggest it will be, then mandatory water cuts will expand beyond Arizona, Nevada and Mexico and into California for the first time.
But the growing concern is that the mandatory cuts — a system that was updated as recently as 2019 — aren’t enough to save the river in the face of a historic, climate change-driven drought. States, water managers and tribes are now back at the negotiating table to figure out how to solve the West’s water crisis.
“We thought we were good, but the last few years have been so dry that we realized those tier reductions weren’t enough and aren’t enough,” Bill Hasencamp, the Colorado River resources manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, told CNN. “So the two things we’re focused on is how do we get through the next three years without the system crashing, and then how do we develop a long term plan to sustain the Colorado River.”
‘There’s only so much water’
The Colorado River’s water was divvied up among seven states in the West a century ago. The pact gave half of the river’s water to the Upper Basin states (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico) and half to the Lower Basin (California, Arizona and Nevada). Mexico — through which the river flows before it reaches the Gulf of California — was also guaranteed an allotment.
There was one major problem: Having been written in the 1920s, at a time when precipitation was higher than normal, the pact overestimated how much water the Colorado River carries. It also did not account for the West’s booming population growth and its hotter and drier future in the face of the climate crisis.
At a June Senate hearing, Bureau of Reclamation chief Camille Touton laid out a stark warning. In order to stabilize the Colorado River Basin, states and water districts must come up with a plan by August 15 to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water usage by next year. (An acre-foot is the amount of water that would fill one acre a foot deep — roughly 326,000 gallons.)
Touton’s proposed cut is a massive amount — the high end of the target is about 25% less water than states currently receive. And the low end of the target represents the vast majority of Arizona’s yearly allotment of Colorado River water.
Touton also made clear in June that if the states cannot come up with a plan, the federal government will act.
“It is in our authorities to act unilaterally to protect the system, and we will protect the system,” she said at the time. “We need to see the work. We need to see the action. Let’s get to the table and let’s figure this out by August.”
But inter-state negotiations are not going well.
John Entsminger, the general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, told CNN that so far not enough of the stakeholders have put forth proposals that would get the basin to Touton’s target. He said he hopes the federal government proposes “some pretty strong measures” that could be acted on immediately.
“Frankly, I’m frustrated because the overwhelming sense I’ve gotten from the negotiations is there aren’t enough people taking this seriously enough and understanding this is about adapting to less water in this river,” Entsminger said.
Nevada has already moved to cut its metropolitan water usage, banning non-functional turf and paying people for years to remove water-intensive lawns, Entsminger said. But agriculture, which takes up a lot of the water from the river, must be part of the equation as well.
“You have to have a contribution from the sector that uses 80% of the water,” he said. “That’s not law, politics, it’s just math.”
Entsminger said other stakeholders that are hesitant to give up their water allotments need to accept a new reality: The river is running dry, and sacrifices must be made.
“It doesn’t matter what can be agreed to because there’s only so much water, and mother nature will figure this out at some point,” he said. “At some point, there’s just not water in the river channel.”
The federal government has not often stepped in and taken control of water management plans from the states, but it has the authority to do so in the Lower Colorado River Basin — which includes Arizona, southern Nevada and southern California. And experts told CNN the threat of federal action is something states will respond to.
“We kind of need the federal government to make some threats to spur action,” John Fleck, a Western water expert and professor at the University of New Mexico, told CNN earlier this year. “Progress seems to happen when the federal government comes in and says to states, you need to do this or we’re going to do something you don’t like.”
At Tour de France Femmes, It’s a Steep Climb to Equality
MEAUX, France — After winning Stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes, the Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos pulled on the Tour leader’s yellow jersey for the first time and explained that no, actually, this special moment was not something that had always been a dream for her.
As a child, Vos had attended the Tour de France every summer and camped with her family along the course for the entire three weeks, shouting encouragement as the riders sped across flat roads, pedaled up curvy mountain passes and flew down steep slopes. That was where Vos, an Olympic gold medalist and winner of numerous world championships, fell in love with cycling. But the race was only for men, so it was never her goal to win it.
Over time, though, as she became one of the most accomplished women’s cyclists in history, it dawned on her: Why should men get all the media attention, fan adulation and money that only the Tour de France can bring?
This realization was partly how the Tour de France Femmes was revived this week after a 33-year absence. Vos was a major force in lobbying to bring back the women’s race, which was held once in 1955, then again from 1984 to 1989, before it disappeared again for a generation.
Not until Sunday, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and under a searing summer sun, did the women — 144 racers from 24 teams — get back on their bikes for a race associated with the Tour, the most prestigious race in cycling.
“Of course, you can say maybe it has taken too long, but yeah, but I’m just happy it’s here,” said Vos, who kept the yellow jersey on Tuesday after finishing second in Stage 3. It was her second runner-up finish in three days. “I think the time is right.”
For some cyclists and women’s rights advocates like Vos, the time has been right for at least a decade.
In 2013, Vos and three other cyclists — the American Kathryn Bertine, a women’s cycling advocate from Bronxville, N.Y.; the British former time-trial champion Emma Pooley; and the four-time Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington — were so sure it was the right time for a women’s Tour that they formed a group called Le Tour Entier (French for The Whole Tour) to rally public support for holding one.
Their efforts to convince the Amaury Sport Organisation, or A.S.O. — the company that runs the Tour — worked, but only to a point.
A.S.O. agreed to host a race in 2014 that was clearly not The Whole Tour, considering that the first edition of the race was about 2 percent as long as the men’s race. The event, called La Course by Le Tour de France, was a one-day circuit race held on the final day of the men’s Tour, in Paris. Vos won that day, and then won again in 2019.
A.S.O. was supposed to add three to five race days to that one-day race until the women’s race reached parity with the 21-day men’s race, Bertine said in a telephone interview on Monday, but that never happened. La Course was replaced altogether this year by the eight-day Tour de France Femmes — longer than the La Course, but not nearly as long as the men’s Tour.
“I do believe that the social pressure put on A.S.O. was the reason they finally, after eight years, decided to finally augment the women’s race,” said Bertine, who made a documentary called “Half the Road” that discussed the gender inequities in cycling. “My biggest fear is that this race will stay eight days long for another eight years because it’s frightening to look at the A.S.O.’s track record on this. They are dinosaurs who resisted this for a long, long time.”
Bertine lamented that women’s cycling went backward not long after the women’s Tour was held in 1984.
Six women’s teams raced that Tour at the same time as the men, with the women starting 35 to 45 miles out front each day. They rode 18 of the 21 stages, including climbing the intimidating Alpe d’Huez, and all but one of the women finished. Marianne Martin, of Boulder, Colo., became the first American — female or male — to win the Tour de France.
On Sunday in Paris, wearing a sleeveless yellow dress the same color as the Tour leader’s jersey, Martin, 64, was at the start of the Tour de France Femmes to cheer the women’s racers. She recalled riding past thousands of fans at the 1984 Tour, just hours before the men’s race came into the city, and feeling the thrill the men had experienced annually since the race began in 1903.
People shouting. Flags waving. Cowbells ringing. She had never seen anything like it. On Sunday, the atmosphere felt the same — and that was exhilarating, she said.
One night at that 1984 Tour, she joined a men’s team for dinner and noticed that their hotel was much nicer and their food was much better than that of the women. Yet she was unfazed.
“I didn’t care because we were at the Tour de France and I got a massage every day and we were fed and got to race our bikes every day in France,” Martin said. “I didn’t have expectations for more.”
She recalled winning about $1,000 and a trophy. The men’s winner, France’s Laurent Fignon, won more than $100,000. This year, there is also a yawning disparity between men’s and women’s prize money.
The women will get about $250,000, with the overall race winner receiving about $50,000. On the men’s side, the purse was more than $2 million, with Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard winning more than $500,000 for finishing first.
There’s still a long way to go for women to achieve parity in the sport. The international cycling federation, for example, caps how far they can ride in one day, a distance that is much shorter than the men’s maximum. (The women’s Olympic road course, in another example, is 60 miles shorter than the men’s.) The men’s minimum salary on the WorldTour is higher than the women’s, and the budgets for women’s teams are often a pittance compared to the men’s.
Linda Jackson, owner of EF Education-TIBCO-SVB women’s cycling team, said the road to the top of the sport — and to equality — will take both time and a calculated plan for success, especially when building something sustainable.
Jackson, a former investment banker, started her team in 2004, with the goal to someday race in Europe. Her squad is competing on the women’s WorldTour and also in the Tour de France Femmes this year.
There are many signs that the sport is on the upswing for women, she said, including more races, more TV coverage and higher minimum salaries that help riders focus solely on their training (which means a higher level of competition).
It also was crucial that Zwift, a fitness technology company, signed a four-year contract as the marquee sponsor of the Tour de France Femmes. In 2020, the company paired with A.S.O. to host a virtual Tour de France during the pandemic, and viewership numbers for the women’s events were so high that Zwift eventually made a commitment to help A.S.O. bring the women’s Tour back to life.
“A.S.O., in particular, doesn’t do this because, ‘Equality for women, wow, wouldn’t it be good to have?’” Jackson said. “They are doing it because they see the growing momentum in the sport.”
She added: “They aren’t going to have a women’s Tour in 20 years if they lose money for three to four years. A.S.O. has to break even at least.”
Media exposure is the most important component for the race’s success, Jackson said, and with 2 1/2 hours of live television coverage a day at this women’s Tour, “this one race has the potential to change our sport forever.” Kathrin Hammes, who rides for Jackson’s team, said: “People pay attention when they hear about the Tour de France. It’s the one race that everybody knows.”
Many of the women racing the Tour said an eight-day event was a good start, but that they already are hoping for more. The Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten, a race favorite, said she is ready for a three-week challenge, just like the test the men endure. She added that she would be “super excited” for an epic climb like the one up Alpe d’Huez because that would be another milestone for women’s cycling.
For now, the racers have several days left before reaching the final stages, which will be held in the Vosges Mountains and will end with a painful climb up La Super Planche des Belles Filles, a summit that is at times included in the men’s Tour.
And Vos — who has done nearly everything there is to do in cycling — has a few days left before she can look back and appreciate her roles as a racer and an advocate who helped make the entire event happen.
Maybe she will remember young girls cheering her name as they lined up along the course and watched the peloton take off on Stage 2. Or the group of men from a Brie-making society wearing creamy yellow cloaks and matching flat-topped hats who asked her for a selfie.
But early in the race, Vos said she could not think of anything but the many miles ahead.
“I’m so grateful for everybody who put their energy into making this race happen,” she said. “But I’m also focused on racing now. I will let it sink in and think about what happened maybe in the end, after the season, or in a couple of years even.”
Riding away, she said, “All I know now is that the Tour de France is bigger than sports.”
Wall St ends down as hot inflation data raises odds of steep Fed rate hike
NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday after investors digested hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data, which fueled fears that the Federal Reserve could raise key interest rates by as much as 100 basis points later this month.
While all three major U.S. equity indexes bounced off lows reached early in the day, and occasionally edged into positive territory throughout the session, they were all red by the closing bell.
Year-on-year consumer price growth accelerated to a scorching 9.1%, the hottest reading since November 1981, driven by an 11.2% monthly spike in gasoline prices. read more
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Stripping away volatile food and energy prices, which have abated since the report’s survey period, core CPI cooled down to an annual rate of 5.9%.
“You would expect the CPI (report) that we saw would be a big risk-off event, but the market has shrugged,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. “(Investors) were already expecting a very hawkish Fed and I don’t think this affects much except uncertainty and that has something to do with why markets aren’t selling off today.”
The report raised odds that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates even more than the 75 basis points previously expected. Traders of futures tied to the Fed funds target rate have now priced in the probability of a larger, 100 basis point, hike at the conclusion of its policy meeting later this month. read more
“If the Fed looks past the headline number, they’ll see commodity prices have already begun to soften a bit” since the CPI survey period, Mayfield said, adding that a 100-basis-point rate hike based on the June CPI report could put central bank policy “behind the curve.”
As seen in the graphic below, core CPI appears to confirm that inflation continues to ease from the March peak, but still has a long way to go before approaching the central bank’s average annual 2% inflation target:
The question over whether the Fed’s policy tightening could rein in inflation without tipping the economy into recession appears to be shifting to how severe the downturn is likely to be.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 208.54 points, or 0.67%, to 30,772.79, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 17.02 points, or 0.45%, at 3,801.78 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 17.15 points, or 0.15%, to 11,247.58.
Nine of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 lost ground, with industrials (.SPLRCI) and communications services (.SPLRCL) suffering the largest percentage drop, while consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) enjoyed the biggest gain.
The second-quarter earnings season will hit full stride on Thursday, when JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley are due to post results, followed by Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co on Friday.
As of last Friday, analysts saw aggregate annual S&P earnings growth of 5.7% for the April to June period, down from the 6.8% forecast at the beginning of the quarter, according to Refinitiv.
Shares of Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) slid 4.5% after the carrier’s second-quarter earnings missed expectations, although Chief Executive Ed Bastian said strong travel demand will result in “meaningful” full-year profit. read more
The broader S&P 1500 Airlines index (.SPCOMAIR) fell 1.7%.
Tesla Inc advanced 1.7%, while chipmakers (.SOX) also gained ground.
Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) jumped 7.9% after Hindenburg Research said it had taken a significant long position in company’s stock. read more
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.37-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.08-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and 41 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 16 new highs and 231 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.66 billion shares, compared with the 12.56 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
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Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang
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