Media Navel Gaze: May 5, 2014
The Week Unpeeled
The US employment picture on the surface seemed to brighten, with the April payroll number exceeding expectations and adding some 288,000 and prior months revised upward for a pretty fast clip this recovery. The overall jobless rate declined to 6.3 percent. However, analysts were quick to analyze that the participation rate was troubling, showing that workers were leaving the labor force and wages remained weak, highlighting income divides.
Elsewhere:
- Merger Mania: Pfizer and AstraZeneca continued talks about a merger, while GE's bid for Alstom, the French power company, was accepted;
- The Texas utility Energy Futures filed for bankruptcy, the PE world's largest buyout ever;
- The Dow briefly hit a record last week and finished up 0.9 percent to close Friday at 16,512;
- Ackman and Icahn apparently make up on phone huddle;
- Fast Company won Magazine of the Year award, the industry's top award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, while The New Yorker led overall with four individual awards;
- PR Newswire is recommending that releases issued at close cross the wire at 4:01 after market trading in an apparent bid to keep data from high-frequency traders;
- Yahoo plans to offer two comedy series on the Web;
- The NBA banned LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life following alleged racist comments; bidders lining up for the team;
- California Chrome wins the Derby; and
- Jack Bauer returns!
