Stocks: 4 things to know before the open

Click chart for in-depth premarket data.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Here are four things you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:

1. No jump in July: U.S. stock futures were all declining ahead of the open, threatening to erase much (or all) of the gains made so far this month.

Stocks edged to record highs last week but haven't made a decisive move higher this month.

U.S. stocks ended mixed Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down about 32 points and the S&P 500 was flat. The Nasdaq bucked the trend, gaining 0.4%.

2. Stock market movers -- Yum! Brands, Whole Foods, Adidas, Royal Dutch Shell: Shares in Yum! Brands (YUM) plunged by about 6% premarket. The company, which owns the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands, warned Thursday that global profits could suffer this year as sales in China tumble following revelations that one of its suppliers was using tainted and expired meat.

Whole Food (WFM) shares could see heavy trading after the company issued a disappointing outlook for earnings and sales. The stock was down in extended trading.

Shares in Adidas (ADDDF) slumped by nearly 15% in Frankfurt after the sporting goods company warned that earnings may take a hit as it struggles with slumping golf sales and problems in Russia.

Shares in Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) are surging by about 4% in London after the firm reported robust second quarter earnings.

Related: Fear & Greed Index

3. Earnings and economic data: A large number of companies around the world are reporting results Thursday.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, (AHBIF) MasterCard (MA), DirecTV (DTV), Kellog (K), Exxon Mobil, (XOM) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) are among the big names reporting before the opening bell.

Tesla Motors (TSLA), LinkedIn (LNKD, Tech30) and GoPro (GPRO) will report after the close.

On the economic front, the U.S. government will post weekly jobless claims numbers at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

4. International markets overview: European markets were broadly in the red in early trading. Germany's benchmark Dax index was declining by nearly 1%.

Asian markets ended with mixed results.

There could be fireworks for Argentina's currency after the country defaulted on its debt for the second time in 13 years.

First Published: July 31, 2014: 5:44 AM ET

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Grieving parents drowning in $200,000 student loan debt receive relief

Lisa Mason (left) passed away 5 years ago, and her parents got hit with her six-figure student loan debt.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

After a CNNMoney story about the family's situation ran Tuesday, hundreds of readers reached out to offer words of encouragement -- and financial support -- to the family.

So far, people have donated more than $8,000 through the Masons' GoFundMe page.

"We've been totally blown away," said Mason. "It's so encouraging to realize there's a lot of good people out there."

His fund raising goal is set at $200,000, the amount he now owes the private student lenders. Mason says he was so desperate to help his daughter Lisa get a nursing degree that he co-signed the $100,000 in loans she took out -- never could he imagine that his daughter would pass away before the debts were paid off.

Related: Grieving parents hit with $200,000 in student loans

When Lisa died of liver failure at the age 27 all of her student loan bills were immediately sent to the Masons. On a pastor's salary, Mason couldn't afford to care for his daughter's three children and keep up with the payments. Now, as a result of interest and late penalties, the loans have since doubled to $200,000.

While federal loans are typically forgiven in situations like this, it's up to the private lenders to decide whether to offer relief to a struggling borrower.

One of Mason's lenders, Navient Corp., reached out to Mason after being contacted by CNNMoney and lowered the interest rate to 0% on three of his four loans and reduced the total amount owed to $27,000 from nearly $35,000.

Even better, Mason said a debt collection firm that had been trying to collect on another loan called him Wednesday to say they had seen the CNNMoney story and would like to forgive the entire loan balance of $15,000.

Earlier this year, Mason had considered filing for bankruptcy. But it is very difficult -- often impossible -- to get private student loan debt discharged in bankruptcy, and Mason's lawyer told him he had such a slim chance of being approved that the legal costs would only add to his debt load.

Mason has also started a petition on Change.org, urging President Obama to make it possible to discharge all types of student loan debt in bankruptcy. His petition has received more than 2,000 signatures so far.

Related: 1 in 3 U.S. adults have debt in collections

Other families who have lost a child and then become responsible for huge student loans have also created petitions on Change.org -- often aimed at getting their particular lender to offer some relief.

Angela Smith, a mother from Chesapeake, Va., filed a petition on Change.org several years ago asking private loan provider First Marblehead Corp. to forgive the $40,000 in student loans that her husband had co-signed for their son Donte, who was shot to death in 2008. The petition received more than 150,000 signatures from sympathizers but there was no action from the lenders.

There's been one other success story so far, however, where the brother of a deceased borrower petitioned a bank to stop going after his grieving father for payments, and the loan was forgiven.

For Mason, the rush of support he has received after getting his story out there is beginning to change his whole outlook.

"For the first time since our daughter's death, we have a little bit of hope," said Mason.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 7:25 PM ET

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Another food scandal? KFC just cannot win

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Parent company Yum! Brands (YUM) warned Thursday that global profits could suffer this year as sales in China tumble following revelations that one of its suppliers was using tainted and expired meat.

Yum immediately cut ties with the supplier, even while rival McDonald's (MCD) stood by the company.

A quick response by Yum, which also operates Pizza Hut restaurants in China, doesn't appear to have mattered much. Late Wednesday, the company warned investors that the scandal was going to cause major problems.

"These events triggered extensive news coverage in China that has shaken consumer confidence, impacted brand usage, and disparaged the hard work of our over 400,000 Chinese employees," Yum said in a SEC filing.

The result has been a "significant, negative impact" to same-store sales at both KFC and Pizza Hut in China over the past 10 days.

Related: Big Slabs? Nine unhealthiest restaurant meals

It took Yum the better part of a year to get back on a solid footing in China after a previous scandal broke in December 2012 when a powerful state media outlet accused local KFC suppliers of cramming extra antibiotics into their chickens.

The fallout was immediate and intense. Worried consumers swore off Colonel Sanders' chicken, sales plummeted, and Yum launched a frantic marketing campaign to convince the public that its food was safe.

Quiz: How much do you know about China?

While many American fast food operators see China as a huge growth market, Yum has placed the biggest bet on the world's second-largest economy. It operates more than 4,500 KFC restaurants in China, as well as about 1,250 Pizza Huts. It plans to build hundreds more.

In the regulatory filing, Yum did not mince words in blaming meat processor Shanghai Husi, and its Illinois-based parent company OSI Group, for its latest woes.

"Yum! Brands is outraged by the alleged illegal activity by Shanghai Husi and its violations of our standards," the company said, adding it could take legal action to recover losses once Chinese officials have completed their investigation.

Related: Big Mac shortage in China

OSI chief executive and owner Sheldon Lavin has apologized for the company's actions, saying they are "completely unacceptable."

"I will not try and defend it or explain it," he said in a statement. "It was terribly wrong, and I am appalled that it ever happened in the company that I own."

For Yum, facing yet another uphill battle to regain the trust of the Chinese public, that is little consolation. The company said in the SEC filing that it's too soon to gauge the full impact on its bottom line but profits could suffer if sales don't recover.

First Published: July 31, 2014: 5:46 AM ET

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Kim Kardashian's game makes $700,000 a day

Hitting the hottest clubs with the virtual Kim Kardashian will make you a Hollywood A-lister in no time.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" from Glu Mobil lets you create an avatar that can work to achieve virtual A-list status. Your mission: Hob-nobbing with celebrities, going to a photo shoot and wearing expensive clothes.

The game is free to download, but players spend real money on things like virtual clothes, virtual hairstyles and energy boosts for their avatars. The more your avatar does, the faster you can move up the ranks from the E List to the A List -- the objective of the game.

If sales continue at their current rate, the game will gross $200 million in its first year, according to Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen and Company. That would put "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" in the big leagues with smash-hit mobile games like Candy Crush.

Related: The 13 most WTF gadgets

Creutz estimates there are only about seven other apps in the world that are pulling in more money right now. And Kardashian's is one of the top five most downloaded apps in Apple's store.

"I don't even know what genre to call it, but people are taken with it," he said.

Shares of game maker Glu Mobil (GLUU) have soared more than 30% since the app launched in late June. Glu reported a 51% jump in sales for the second quarter late Wednesday, thanks to the Kardashian game as well as other hits such as Dino Hunter: Deadly Shores.

It's impossible to know if "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" will maintain its current growth, Creutz said. Adding new characters and levels to the game -- hello Kourtney and Khloe! -- could keep more people playing longer.

The mobile game market is expanding rapidly. The trick is to get more people comfortable with spending money on purchases within games that they downloaded for free. Right now, less than 3% of gamers do so.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 5:17 PM ET

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BofA hit with $1.3 billion mortgage penalty

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Bank of America (BAC) has been ordered to pay a nearly $1.3 billion penalty for mortgage fraud committed by Countrywide. The fraud happened years before BofA bought the struggling lender amid the financial crisis, saving it from collapsing under the weight of risky mortgages it had made.

The loans were made through a lending program it called the "High Speed Swim Lane." Some inside the company called it "The Hustle." It involved little, if any, income verification.

Countrywide then sold the mortgages to the government-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A lawsuit brought by the government claimed the program was "intentionally designed to process loans at high speed and without quality checkpoints, and generated thousands of fraudulent and otherwise defective residential mortgage loans."

A jury last fall found Countrywide and former executive Rebecca Mairone liable. Mairone has been ordered to pay a $1 million penalty. Her attorney, Marc Mukasey, said in response that she is innocent and will "will fight on to clear her name."

Related: I've achieved the American Dream

The program was "a brazen fraud by the defendants, driven by a hunger for profits and oblivious to the harms thereby visited, not just on the immediate victims but on the financial system as a whole," wrote Judge Jed. S. Rakoff.

The penalties aren't intended to compensate victims but rather serve as a deterrent for wrongdoing, the judge said. He noted the whistleblower who alerted the government to the program may be eligible to receive a portion of the penalty. The case was the first tried under the whistleblower law. The office of U.S. Attorney Preet Baharara, which prosecuted the case, could not say if a payout would be made.

Baharara said in a statement the case demonstrated "that mortgage fraud cannot be viewed as simply another cost of doing business in the financial world."

Bank of America objected to the size of the penalty. Spokesman Lawrence Grayson said the company was reviewing a possible appeal.

Related: What economic rebound? 'I got left behind'

CNNMoney's James O'Toole and Ben Rooney contributed to this report.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 5:36 PM ET

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Grieving parents drowning in $200,000 student loan debt receive relief

Lisa Mason (left) passed away 5 years ago, and her parents got hit with her six-figure student loan debt.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

After a CNNMoney story about the family's situation ran Tuesday, hundreds of readers reached out to offer words of encouragement -- and financial support -- to the family.

So far, people have donated more than $8,000 through the Masons' GoFundMe page.

"We've been totally blown away," said Mason. "It's so encouraging to realize there's a lot of good people out there."

His fund raising goal is set at $200,000, the amount he now owes the private student lenders. Mason says he was so desperate to help his daughter Lisa get a nursing degree that he co-signed the $100,000 in loans she took out -- never could he imagine that his daughter would pass away before the debts were paid off.

Related: Grieving parents hit with $200,000 in student loans

When Lisa died of liver failure at the age 27 all of her student loan bills were immediately sent to the Masons. On a pastor's salary, Mason couldn't afford to care for his daughter's three children and keep up with the payments. Now, as a result of interest and late penalties, the loans have since doubled to $200,000.

While federal loans are typically forgiven in situations like this, it's up to the private lenders to decide whether to offer relief to a struggling borrower.

One of Mason's lenders, Navient Corp., reached out to Mason after being contacted by CNNMoney and lowered the interest rate to 0% on three of his four loans and reduced the total amount owed to $27,000 from nearly $35,000.

Even better, Mason said a debt collection firm that had been trying to collect on another loan called him Wednesday to say they had seen the CNNMoney story and would like to forgive the entire loan balance of $15,000.

Earlier this year, Mason had considered filing for bankruptcy. But it is very difficult -- often impossible -- to get private student loan debt discharged in bankruptcy, and Mason's lawyer told him he had such a slim chance of being approved that the legal costs would only add to his debt load.

Mason has also started a petition on Change.org, urging President Obama to make it possible to discharge all types of student loan debt in bankruptcy. His petition has received more than 2,000 signatures so far.

Related: 1 in 3 U.S. adults have debt in collections

Other families who have lost a child and then become responsible for huge student loans have also created petitions on Change.org -- often aimed at getting their particular lender to offer some relief.

Angela Smith, a mother from Chesapeake, Va., filed a petition on Change.org several years ago asking private loan provider First Marblehead Corp. to forgive the $40,000 in student loans that her husband had co-signed for their son Donte, who was shot to death in 2008. The petition received more than 150,000 signatures from sympathizers but there was no action from the lenders.

There's been one other success story so far, however, where the brother of a deceased borrower petitioned a bank to stop going after his grieving father for payments, and the loan was forgiven.

For Mason, the rush of support he has received after getting his story out there is beginning to change his whole outlook.

"For the first time since our daughter's death, we have a little bit of hope," said Mason.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 7:25 PM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Chevy Volt is insurance group's Top Safety Pick

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

That's why General Motors' (GM) Chevy Volt won top marks for safety in small cars.

The Volt was named "Top Safety Pick Plus" Wednesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, because besides earning an "acceptable" rating in an actual crash test, the hybrid electric vehicle also has an optional forward collision warning system. It was the only car out of the 12 models tested to have the crash prevention technology.

IIHS submitted twelve small vehicles through a tough crash test called the "small overlap front test." In the test, 25 percent of the vehicle's front end on the driver's side strikes a rigid barrier at 40 miles per hour. It simulates a common head-on collision, when only part of the bumper connects with another car, telephone pole, or tree.

Purely measuring crash performance and potential injury to the driver, the Mini Cooper Countryman was the winner. It earned the highest rating of "good" and was named a "Top Safety Pick." The Countryman is a larger four-door version of the two-door Mini Cooper.

Gallery: Best-loved cars in America

"The Countryman's safety cage held up reasonably well," said Joe Nolan, the Institute's senior vice president for vehicle research. "The safety belts and airbags worked together to control the test dummy's movement, and injury measures indicate a low risk of any significant injuries in a real-world crash this severe," he said.

Other "Top Safety Picks" were the Ford C-Max Hybrid, the Mitsubishi Lancer, the Scion FR-S and the Subaru BRZ. Those models earned the second highest rating of "acceptable."

The Hyundai Veloster and the Scion xB earned "marginal" ratings.

Meanwhile, four small vehicles were rated "poor." Those were the Fiat 500L, a larger four-door version of the Fiat 500, the Nissan Juke, the Nissan Leaf all-electric car and the Mazda 5.

Gallery: 21 most iconic American cars

The Mazda 5 was the worst-performing of the vehicles.

"When we tested the Mazda 5 we saw a host of structural and restraint system problems," Nolan said. "Parts of the occupant compartment essentially buckled, allowing too much intrusion," he said.

Among other issues: the steering wheel moved too far to the right causing the dummy's head to barely touch the front airbag and slide off it to the left. The seat belt allowed the dummy to move too much. Its head hit the left side of the dashboard. Also, the side curtain airbag along the driver-side window didn't deploy at all. Plus the driver door unlatched during the test, which IIHS said shouldn't happen.

But the Mazda also was the worst in the less challenging side-impact test. It was the only 2014 car IIHS evaluated to earn anything less than acceptable in that test.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 12:12 AM ET

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Meat scandal takes a bite out of McDonald's sales in Japan

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

The fast food chain's Japanese unit said Tuesday that it will fall short of profit and sales targets for the year, after a longtime meat supplier was shut down last week by authorities for unsanitary practices.

As meat from the supplier has been pulled out of circulation, McDonald's outlets in China, Hong Kong and Japan have stopped selling items such as Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets.

The scandal has led to "negative impact on sales and consumer confidence," the company's Japanese unit said in a statement. "Our sales and profit expectations have been reduced."

The meat scandal began when Chinese television showed workers at a Shanghai food plant handling expired and tainted meat with their bare hands. Workers at the Chinese subsidiary of Illinois-based OSI Group said that the meat smelled bad, and they could be seen processing meat that had fallen on the floor.

McDonald's (MCD) Japan had previously forecast sales of 250 billion yen ($2.5 billion) and net income of 6 billion yen ($59 million) for the year. The company said it isn't able to provide new targets as the scandal's full impact is still unfolding.

McDonald's shares traded in Japan fell 2.8% Wednesday morning , and have shed nearly 4% since the food safety issue began unfolding last week.

Related: Big Mac shortage in China as scandal-ridden supplier issues recall

McDonald's has had a "challenging" year thus far in Japan, even before news hit over the bad meat scandal. The Japanese unit saw net income tumble 60% to 1.9 billion yen ($19 million) in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. Sales at its directly owned stores and franchises dropped 4% after planned store closures.

Oher food chains have been caught up in the scandal, including Yum Brands (YUM), which operates KFC and Pizza Hut in China, Burger King (BKW), Papa John's (PZZA) and Starbucks (SBUX).

Many companies have cut their ties with the supplier, but McDonald's has largely stood by OSI Group.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 1:51 AM ET

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Stocks: 5 things to know before the open

Click chart for in-depth premarket data.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Wall Street is waiting on key economic data releases Wednesday and the numbers could have a major impact on trading trends.

U.S. stock futures were making modest moves higher ahead of the releases.

Here's what you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:

1. Growth, jobs and the Fed: The markets are eagerly awaiting U.S. GDP data, which comes out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney predict the economy grew at a 3% annual pace in the second quarter, after a shock 2.9% contraction in the first.

"This is seen as an important milestone for the U.S. economy, which suffered a severe retraction [in the first quarter] as a result of the incredibly harsh winter," said Angus Campbell, a senior currency analyst at FxPro.

Payroll processing firm ADP (ADP) is due to release July employment data at 8:15 a.m.

At 2 p.m., the Federal Reserve will release a statement outlining its latest monetary policies. It's widely believed that the central bank will announce another $10 billion pullback in monthly bond purchases, but investors will be scrutinizing every word of the statement for clues as to when the Fed plans to raise interest rates.

2. Stock market movers -- Twitter, Amgen, Barclays: Expect Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) shares to soar when the opening bell rings. The stock is up by just over 26% premarket after it posted surprisingly strong second-quarter sales.

Shares in Amgen (AMGN) were rising by about 3.5% premarket after the company announced it was cutting up to 2,900 jobs, or about 12-15% of its workforce.

In London, investors pushed up Barclays (BCS) shares by about 3.5% after the bank's first half earnings were well received.

Related: Fear & Greed Index

3. Earnings focus: Sprint (S) is among the big name companies posting earnings before the opening bell. Kraft Foods (KRFT) and Whole Foods (WFM) will report after the close.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

4. International markets overview: Russia's benchmark stock index was rising by about 2%, with investors relieved that new European and U.S. sanctions against Russia were not as bad as feared.

European markets were all edging lower in early trading, and shares in French energy giant Total fell by 2.5% as investors worried about its ties with Russia's Novatek, which is facing U.S. sanctions. Asian markets mostly closed with small gains.

5. Tuesday market recap: U.S. stocks closed modestly lower Tuesday. The Dow was down 70 points while the S&P 500 fell about 0.5% and the Nasdaq dipped slightly.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 5:22 AM ET

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McDonald's may be liable for worker lawsuits

A government ruling could make McDonald's liable for labor lawsuits.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The National Labor Relations Board's top lawyer on Tuesday determined that McDonald's (MCD) is a "joint employer," along with thousands of independent franchise owners.

The ruling, if upheld, would mean that McDonald's could be held liable for labor violations at its more than 12,000 franchisee-owned restaurants.

"McDonald's can try to hide behind its franchisees, but today's determination by the NLRB shows there's no two ways about it: The Golden Arches is an employer, plain and simple," said Micah Wissinger in a statement issued by a public relations firm representing fast food workers. Wissinger is an attorney who brought the case on behalf of McDonald's workers in New York City.

In March, McDonald's workers filed seven class-action lawsuits in New York, California and Michigan over wage theft violations. The suits allege that McDonald's has forced employees to work off the clock, not paid them overtime and struck hours off their time cards.

Related: The real budgets of McDonald's workers

McDonald's has contended that franchisees operate as independent businesses and that therefore, it's not liable, but the N.L.R.B. ruling contradicts that claim. Other fast-food operators like Burger King could feel the repercussions.

The decision was hailed by low wage workers who have recently staged protests across the country seeking a $15 an hour wage.

"McDonald's clearly uses its vast powers to control franchisees in just about every way possible," Kendall Fells, organizing director of Fast Food Forward, said in a statement. "It's time the company put those same powers to work to do something about the fact that its workers are living in poverty."

The average fast food worker makes a little over $9 an hour.

Related: I work in fast food and I'm not a teenager

But a trade group representing the franchise lobby called the ruling a "seismic change" that could destroy jobs.

"Millions of jobs and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of independent franchise small businesses are now at risk due to the radical and unprecedented nature of this decision," Steve Caldeira , President & CEO of the International Franchise Association, said in a statement.

Caldeira added that franchise job growth and new business formation, which have outpaced non-franchise growth for the last five years, will undoubtedly come to a screeching halt if this decision is affirmed by the N.L.R.B.

McDonald's did not respond to a request for comment.

First Published: July 29, 2014: 7:16 PM ET

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Chevy Volt is insurance group's Top Safety Pick

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

That's why General Motors' (GM) Chevy Volt won top marks for safety in small cars.

The Volt was named "Top Safety Pick Plus" Wednesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, because besides earning an "acceptable" rating in an actual crash test, the hybrid electric vehicle also has an optional forward collision warning system. It was the only car out of the 12 models tested to have the crash prevention technology.

IIHS submitted twelve small vehicles through a tough crash test called the "small overlap front test." In the test, 25 percent of the vehicle's front end on the driver's side strikes a rigid barrier at 40 miles per hour. It simulates a common head-on collision, when only part of the bumper connects with another car, telephone pole, or tree.

Purely measuring crash performance and potential injury to the driver, the Mini Cooper Countryman was the winner. It earned the highest rating of "good" and was named a "Top Safety Pick." The Countryman is a larger four-door version of the two-door Mini Cooper.

Gallery: Best-loved cars in America

"The Countryman's safety cage held up reasonably well," said Joe Nolan, the Institute's senior vice president for vehicle research. "The safety belts and airbags worked together to control the test dummy's movement, and injury measures indicate a low risk of any significant injuries in a real-world crash this severe," he said.

Other "Top Safety Picks" were the Ford C-Max Hybrid, the Mitsubishi Lancer, the Scion FR-S and the Subaru BRZ. Those models earned the second highest rating of "acceptable."

The Hyundai Veloster and the Scion xB earned "marginal" ratings.

Meanwhile, four small vehicles were rated "poor." Those were the Fiat 500L, a larger four-door version of the Fiat 500, the Nissan Juke, the Nissan Leaf all-electric car and the Mazda 5.

Gallery: 21 most iconic American cars

The Mazda 5 was the worst-performing of the vehicles.

"When we tested the Mazda 5 we saw a host of structural and restraint system problems," Nolan said. "Parts of the occupant compartment essentially buckled, allowing too much intrusion," he said.

Among other issues: the steering wheel moved too far to the right causing the dummy's head to barely touch the front airbag and slide off it to the left. The seat belt allowed the dummy to move too much. Its head hit the left side of the dashboard. Also, the side curtain airbag along the driver-side window didn't deploy at all. Plus the driver door unlatched during the test, which IIHS said shouldn't happen.

But the Mazda also was the worst in the less challenging side-impact test. It was the only 2014 car IIHS evaluated to earn anything less than acceptable in that test.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 12:12 AM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Meat scandal takes a bite out of McDonald's sales in Japan

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

The fast food chain's Japanese unit said Tuesday that it will fall short of profit and sales targets for the year, after a longtime meat supplier was shut down last week by authorities for unsanitary practices.

As meat from the supplier has been pulled out of circulation, McDonald's outlets in China, Hong Kong and Japan have stopped selling items such as Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets.

The scandal has led to "negative impact on sales and consumer confidence," the company's Japanese unit said in a statement. "Our sales and profit expectations have been reduced."

The meat scandal began when Chinese television showed workers at a Shanghai food plant handling expired and tainted meat with their bare hands. Workers at the Chinese subsidiary of Illinois-based OSI Group said that the meat smelled bad, and they could be seen processing meat that had fallen on the floor.

McDonald's (MCD) Japan had previously forecast sales of 250 billion yen ($2.5 billion) and net income of 6 billion yen ($59 million) for the year. The company said it isn't able to provide new targets as the scandal's full impact is still unfolding.

McDonald's shares traded in Japan fell 2.8% Wednesday morning , and have shed nearly 4% since the food safety issue began unfolding last week.

Related: Big Mac shortage in China as scandal-ridden supplier issues recall

McDonald's has had a "challenging" year thus far in Japan, even before news hit over the bad meat scandal. The Japanese unit saw net income tumble 60% to 1.9 billion yen ($19 million) in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. Sales at its directly owned stores and franchises dropped 4% after planned store closures.

Oher food chains have been caught up in the scandal, including Yum Brands (YUM), which operates KFC and Pizza Hut in China, Burger King (BKW), Papa John's (PZZA) and Starbucks (SBUX).

Many companies have cut their ties with the supplier, but McDonald's has largely stood by OSI Group.

First Published: July 30, 2014: 1:51 AM ET

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Grieving parents hit with $200,000 in student loans

Steve Mason and his wife Darnelle not only took in their daughter's three children when she passed away, they also inherited her $100,000 student loan bill.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

He and his wife Darnelle immediately took in Lisa's three children -- ages 4, 7 and 9 at the time -- even though they knew it would be a huge struggle to support them. Steve earns less than $75,000 per year as a pastor, while Darnelle earns even less as a director at the same church.

Then the student loan bills started coming.

Mason had co-signed on the $100,000 in private student loans that his daughter took out for nursing school, and the lenders wanted their money.

Unable to keep up with the monthly payments on top of all of the other mounting expenses, the $100,000 balance ballooned into $200,000 as a result of late penalties and interest rates of as high as 12%.

"It's just impossible on a pastor's salary raising three kids to pay $2,000 a month on loans," said Mason, who has been searching for a second job.

Related: Drowning in student loan debt

If these had been federal student loans, Mason could have had the loans discharged or at least received some sort of financial assistance. But since they are private loans, he has little to no recourse.

He called each lender to explain his situation and beg for help, and while they sympathized with him, they told him they weren't required to do anything.

And they're right: private lenders aren't bound by any federal requirements to help borrowers -- or co-signers -- facing financial hardship, even when it's a parent whose child has passed away, says Deanne Loonin, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. Any loan forgiveness is up to the discretion of an individual lender.

Navient Corp., which manages several of Mason's loans, said it has reduced the balance and lowered interest rates and payments for Mason in the past, and provides relief to customers on a case-by-case basis.

Lisa Mason, left, with her mother, Darnelle, in 2007.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to the Mason family on the loss of their daughter," the company said in a statement to CNNMoney. "We're reaching out to Mr. Mason to offer further assistance as appropriate."

After being contacted by CNNMoney, Mason said Navient lowered his interest rate to 0% on three of four loans and reduced the total amount owed to $27,000 from nearly $35,000.

American Education Services, which handles the bulk of Mason's other loans, said as a loan servicer it's in charge of collecting payments and doesn't make the rules about forgiveness. Mason would therefore need to contact the original lender, National Collegiate Trust, directly. He did this, and says the lender refused to provide him with any relief. NCT could not be reached for comment.

Mason has considered declaring bankruptcy, but student loans are the only type of debt that generally can't be discharged through bankruptcy.

"People with other debt from splurging -- they can discharge that," he said. "Student loans should really be the one type of debt they do discharge because it's done to further an education and career. But somehow getting [my daughter] an education has encumbered me for the rest of my life."

Related: Colleges with the best bang for your buck

Similar financial nightmares are haunting other grieving families.

Angela Smith, a mother from Chesapeake, Va., filed a petition on Change.org several years ago asking private loan provider First Marblehead Corp. to forgive the $40,000 in student loans that her husband had co-signed for their son Donte, who was shot to death in 2008.

"Shortly after Donte died, that's when the collection calls started. It was like a punch in the gut -- we didn't know what hit us," Smith wrote in the petition. "All of a sudden we not only had to deal with the police and attorneys investigating his murder, but we also had to deal with collectors constantly calling and reminding us of our son's death in the worst way."

The petition received more than 150,000 signatures from sympathizers but no action from the lenders. First Marblehead didn't respond to a request for comment, and Smith says the loan was recently sold to another company.

Related: Hungry, tired and stressed out

At least four other petitions from families in this situation have been started on Change.org. There's been one success story so far, where the brother of a deceased borrower petitioned a bank to stop going after his grieving father for payments, and the loan was forgiven.

Legislation aiming to help people in these situations, including recent bills that would allow student loan debt to be discharged in bankruptcy, have been introduced over the years but have yet to pass in Congress.

For now, the only option parents really have is to propose a payment plan with the lender or try to prove undue financial hardship to the courts in order to get the debts discharged in bankruptcy -- which is rarely approved, said Loonin. And for anyone not already in this terrible situation, be very wary of taking out private loans -- always try to get as much federal aid as possible first.

As he approaches 60, Mason's dreams of retirement have been shattered. He's done the math, and he will have dependent children living under his roof until he is almost 70 years old. He hasn't taken a vacation with his wife since his daughter died, and doesn't realistically see that happening for many years to come.

"We've pretty much gone through our retirement [funds] already -- we didn't have a lot saved to begin with and now any extra money goes to the kids, as it should, and then whatever we can pay on the loans, we do," said Mason. "At my stage of life, I should have a very different lifestyle than I do."

First Published: July 28, 2014: 6:08 PM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

1 in 3 U.S. adults have 'debt in collections'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

An estimated 1 in 3 adults with a credit history -- or 77 million people -- are so far behind on some of their debt payments that their account has been put "in collections."

That's a key finding from a new Urban Institute study.

It examined non-mortgage debt, including credit card bills, car loans, medical bills, child support payments and even parking tickets.

The debt in collections ranged from as little as $25 to a whopping $125,000. But the average amount owed was $5,200.

Geographically, no area of the country is untouched.

Among the states, Nevada had the highest percentage of residents with debt in collections -- 47% - as well as the highest average amount owed - $7,198. That was helped in part by the Las Vegas metro area, where 49% of residents had debt in collections.

By contrast, North Dakota had the lowest percentage of residents with debt in collections at just 19%, while the District of Columbia had the lowest average dollar amount owed per person at $3,547.

Related: Credit score killers

Regionally, the South had the highest percentage of people -- as high as 44% in some parts; while the Northeast had the lowest at less than 30%.

And among the 100 largest metropolitan areas, Minneapolis-St. Paul had the lowest percentage of residents with debt in collections at 20%, while McAllen, Texas claimed the highest percentage at 51%.

At least with credit cards, debt won't go into collections unless it's more than 6 months past due. But time frames can differ from place to place when talking about debt like parking tickets and medical bills.

Once it is categorized as in collections, however, it can follow one of three courses, according to the Urban Institute report. The creditor can charge it off and sell it to a debt buyer, put the account into default, or seek to collect what's owed through an in-house department or a third-party debt collector.

In any of those cases, however, the cost to the consumer is high and long-lasting.

"[It] can harm credit scores, which can tip employers' hiring decisions, restrict access to mortgages, and even increase insurance costs," said Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

Related: 'Bad credit cost me a job'

Indeed, the case can stay on your credit report for up to 7 years even if you've paid off the debt. And it will lower your credit score for years - most dramatically when it first goes into collections status and then less so as time goes on, said a spokesman for the credit-score software company FICO.

Of course, you also do your credit score no favors when your payment is merely "past due" by 30 to 180 days. An estimated 5.3% of adults -- or 1 out of 20 with a credit file - were in this predicament in 2013, according to the Urban Institute report.

The study, conducted with Encore Capital Group, is based on a random sample of 7 million people's TransUnion credit files in 2013.

First Published: July 29, 2014: 3:25 AM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stocks: 5 things to know before the open

Click chart for in-depth premarket data.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Here are the five things you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:

1. U.S. earnings: Major companies including UPS (UPS), Reynolds American (RAI) and Pfizer (PFE) are slated to report earnings before the opening bell.

Twitter (TWTR, Tech30), American Express (AXP) and Sturm Ruger (RGR) will report after the close.

Shares in Herbalife (HLF) are declining by more than 10% premarket after the company posted earnings that missed analysts' forecasts.

2. European earnings: Shares in two major European banks -- UBS (UBS) and Deutsche Bank (DB) -- were under pressure after both reported earnings and flagged new litigation risks.

Shares in BP (BP) were down 1% after the oil giant reported its latest set of results. BP, which owns a big stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, has warned that it could suffer if Western nations slap more sanctions on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.

3. More sanctions coming? European officials continue to work Tuesday on details of new sanctions that could restrict Russia's access to European financial markets, arms and energy technology. Western nations have upped their pressure on Russia since flight MH17 was brought down in the region.

Japan introduced its own sanctions on Russia, largely reflecting previous measures adopted by the EU.

Russia's main Micex index was dipping into the red, alongside most of Europe's major stock markets.

U.S. stock futures were also in negative territory.

Related: Fear & Greed Index

4. Economic insights: Various important economic data points are set for release Tuesday.

S&P/Case-Shiller's home price index for May will be released at 9 a.m. ET. This index gives deep insight into the health of America's vast housing market.

Then the Conference Board will release its monthly consumer confidence index at 10 a.m.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

5. Monday market recap: U.S. stocks ended the day mixed Monday. The Dow eked out a slight gain while the S&P 500 barely budged and the Nasdaq dipped into negative territory.

First Published: July 29, 2014: 5:11 AM ET

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Herbalife stock tumbles on earnings miss

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The controversial maker of diet shakes and supplements said it earned $1.55 per share in the second quarter, short of analysts' expectations of $1.57 per share. Herbalife also lowered its earnings targets for the rest of the year.

Herbalife (HLF) shares fell more than 5% in after-hours trading.

The results come less than a week after activist investor Bill Ackman launched another assault on Herbalife, renewing his argument that the company is a pyramid scheme. Ackman's Pershing Square hedge fund stands to gain at least $1 billion if Herbalife's stock price collapsed.

Herbalife sells diet shakes and other supplements worldwide through a vast network of independent distributors. Last week, Ackman gave a three-hour presentation accusing the company of exploiting the poor and immigrants.

He argues that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme because it makes more money by recruiting new distributors than it does selling products to consumers.

Herbalife has repeatedly denied that it operates as a pyramid scheme, saying its business model is no different from marketing at other companies that uses sales representatives, such as Avon (AVP). The company has said Ackman's attacks are baseless and that he is trying to manipulate Herbalife's stock price.

Related: Herbalife tanks after senator calls for probe

However, Herbalife disclosed in March that it is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

Until now, Herbalife had reported strong results for several quarters in a row. Carl Icahn, another high-profile activist investor, is the company's largest shareholder.

Herbalife executives will discuss the results on a conference call with analysts Tuesday morning.

First Published: July 28, 2014: 5:16 PM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Grieving parents hit with $200,000 in student loans

Steve Mason and his wife Darnelle not only took in their daughter's three children when she passed away, they also inherited her $100,000 student loan bill.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

He and his wife Darnelle immediately took in Lisa's three children -- ages 4, 7 and 9 at the time -- even though they knew it would be a huge struggle to support them. Steve earns less than $75,000 per year as a pastor, while Darnelle earns even less as a director at the same church.

Then the student loan bills started coming.

Mason had co-signed on the $100,000 in private student loans that his daughter took out for nursing school, and the lenders wanted their money.

Unable to keep up with the monthly payments on top of all of the other mounting expenses, the $100,000 balance ballooned into $200,000 as a result of late penalties and interest rates of as high as 12%.

"It's just impossible on a pastor's salary raising three kids to pay $2,000 a month on loans," said Mason, who has been searching for a second job.

Related: Drowning in student loan debt

If these had been federal student loans, Mason could have had the loans discharged or at least received some sort of financial assistance. But since they are private loans, he has little to no recourse.

He called each lender to explain his situation and beg for help, and while they sympathized with him, they told him they weren't required to do anything.

And they're right: private lenders aren't bound by any federal requirements to help borrowers -- or co-signers -- facing financial hardship, even when it's a parent whose child has passed away, says Deanne Loonin, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. Any loan forgiveness is up to the discretion of an individual lender.

Navient Corp., which manages several of Mason's loans, said it has reduced the balance and lowered interest rates and payments for Mason in the past, and provides relief to customers on a case-by-case basis.

Lisa Mason, left, with her mother, Darnelle, in 2007.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to the Mason family on the loss of their daughter," the company said in a statement to CNNMoney. "We're reaching out to Mr. Mason to offer further assistance as appropriate."

After being contacted by CNNMoney, Mason said Navient lowered his interest rate to 0% on three of four loans and reduced the total amount owed to $27,000 from nearly $35,000.

American Education Services, which handles the bulk of Mason's other loans, said as a loan servicer it's in charge of collecting payments and doesn't make the rules about forgiveness. Mason would therefore need to contact the original lender, National Collegiate Trust, directly. He did this, and says the lender refused to provide him with any relief. NCT could not be reached for comment.

Mason has considered declaring bankruptcy, but student loans are the only type of debt that generally can't be discharged through bankruptcy.

"People with other debt from splurging -- they can discharge that," he said. "Student loans should really be the one type of debt they do discharge because it's done to further an education and career. But somehow getting [my daughter] an education has encumbered me for the rest of my life."

Related: Colleges with the best bang for your buck

Similar financial nightmares are haunting other grieving families.

Angela Smith, a mother from Chesapeake, Va., filed a petition on Change.org several years ago asking private loan provider First Marblehead Corp. to forgive the $40,000 in student loans that her husband had co-signed for their son Donte, who was shot to death in 2008.

"Shortly after Donte died, that's when the collection calls started. It was like a punch in the gut -- we didn't know what hit us," Smith wrote in the petition. "All of a sudden we not only had to deal with the police and attorneys investigating his murder, but we also had to deal with collectors constantly calling and reminding us of our son's death in the worst way."

The petition received more than 150,000 signatures from sympathizers but no action from the lenders. First Marblehead didn't respond to a request for comment, and Smith says the loan was recently sold to another company.

Related: Hungry, tired and stressed out

At least four other petitions from families in this situation have been started on Change.org. There's been one success story so far, where the brother of a deceased borrower petitioned a bank to stop going after his grieving father for payments, and the loan was forgiven.

Legislation aiming to help people in these situations, including recent bills that would allow student loan debt to be discharged in bankruptcy, have been introduced over the years but have yet to pass in Congress.

For now, the only option parents really have is to propose a payment plan with the lender or try to prove undue financial hardship to the courts in order to get the debts discharged in bankruptcy -- which is rarely approved, said Loonin. And for anyone not already in this terrible situation, be very wary of taking out private loans -- always try to get as much federal aid as possible first.

As he approaches 60, Mason's dreams of retirement have been shattered. He's done the math, and he will have dependent children living under his roof until he is almost 70 years old. He hasn't taken a vacation with his wife since his daughter died, and doesn't realistically see that happening for many years to come.

"We've pretty much gone through our retirement [funds] already -- we didn't have a lot saved to begin with and now any extra money goes to the kids, as it should, and then whatever we can pay on the loans, we do," said Mason. "At my stage of life, I should have a very different lifestyle than I do."

First Published: July 28, 2014: 6:08 PM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

1 in 3 U.S. adults have 'debt in collections'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

An estimated 1 in 3 adults with a credit history -- or 77 million people -- are so far behind on some of their debt payments that their account has been put "in collections."

That's a key finding from a new Urban Institute study.

It examined non-mortgage debt, including credit card bills, car loans, medical bills, child support payments and even parking tickets.

The debt in collections ranged from as little as $25 to a whopping $125,000. But the average amount owed was $5,200.

Geographically, no area of the country is untouched.

Among the states, Nevada had the highest percentage of residents with debt in collections -- 47% - as well as the highest average amount owed - $7,198. That was helped in part by the Las Vegas metro area, where 49% of residents had debt in collections.

By contrast, North Dakota had the lowest percentage of residents with debt in collections at just 19%, while the District of Columbia had the lowest average dollar amount owed per person at $3,547.

Related: Credit score killers

Regionally, the South had the highest percentage of people -- as high as 44% in some parts; while the Northeast had the lowest at less than 30%.

And among the 100 largest metropolitan areas, Minneapolis-St. Paul had the lowest percentage of residents with debt in collections at 20%, while McAllen, Texas claimed the highest percentage at 51%.

At least with credit cards, debt won't go into collections unless it's more than 6 months past due. But time frames can differ from place to place when talking about debt like parking tickets and medical bills.

Once it is categorized as in collections, however, it can follow one of three courses, according to the Urban Institute report. The creditor can charge it off and sell it to a debt buyer, put the account into default, or seek to collect what's owed through an in-house department or a third-party debt collector.

In any of those cases, however, the cost to the consumer is high and long-lasting.

"[It] can harm credit scores, which can tip employers' hiring decisions, restrict access to mortgages, and even increase insurance costs," said Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

Related: 'Bad credit cost me a job'

Indeed, the case can stay on your credit report for up to 7 years even if you've paid off the debt. And it will lower your credit score for years - most dramatically when it first goes into collections status and then less so as time goes on, said a spokesman for the credit-score software company FICO.

Of course, you also do your credit score no favors when your payment is merely "past due" by 30 to 180 days. An estimated 5.3% of adults -- or 1 out of 20 with a credit file - were in this predicament in 2013, according to the Urban Institute report.

The study, conducted with Encore Capital Group, is based on a random sample of 7 million people's TransUnion credit files in 2013.

First Published: July 29, 2014: 3:25 AM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

China will soon be the world's top business travel market

Per capita business travel spending in China still under $200 -- far less than the $800 U.S. average.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Business travel spending in China hit $225 billion last year -- or 23% of the $1.1 trillion global total. That's second only to the U.S., where spending reached $274 billion, a report from the Global Business Travel Association said.

The pace of business travel growth in China is remarkable. Since 2000, spending has expanded by about 16% each year on average, compared to 1% in the U.S.

"Despite stronger growth, the U.S. continues to lose with China, which is poised to take over as the #1 business travel market in the world by 2016," the report said.

For decades, the Chinese economy experienced double-digit growth -- an expansion that has been reflected in the country's business travel industry.

As Beijing built the world's second-largest economy, it also developed extensive transportation infrastructure. China now boasts top-flight transportation options, including a high-speed rail network, that make it easier for both leisure and business travelers to get around.

Yet there are some signs that the blockbuster industry growth might start to slow. China's economy has entered a period of more moderate growth, and business travel spending will likely also take a hit.

The GBTA also expects spending restrictions that are part of government's anti-corruption campaign to weigh on the industry. The group predicts 13% annual growth over the next five years.

Related: Chinese tourists boost U.S. businesses

"Despite slowing growth, China remains in a league of its own in terms of market potential," the GBTA's report said.

One big reason for all that potential: Per capita business travel spending in China still under $200 -- far less than $800 U.S. average.

First Published: July 28, 2014: 1:39 AM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Big Mac shortage in China as scandal-ridden supplier issues recall

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

At one Beijing location, no burgers or chicken items of any kind were available. Instead, staffers were reduced to offering only pies, hash browns, fries, drinks and ice cream.

"Some restaurants across [China] might be out of stock on certain products," the company said in a statement. "We sincerely apology to customers for the inconvenience and hope to have their understanding."

The Big Mac shortage is the latest twist in a food scare that has tarnished the reputations of fast food giants including McDonald's, Starbucks and Yum Brands in China.

Shanghai Husi, a subsidiary of Illinois-based OSI Group, said Saturday that it would suspend sales and recall all food processed at its Shanghai facility.

Husi did not specify how much food it will recall but promised an internal investigation and new management at the plant. The company also pledged to cooperate with authorities, who have ordered the facility closed and detained five people as part of their own inquires.

The scandal began when Chinese television showed workers at Husi Shanghai handling expired and tainted meat with their bare hands. Workers could be seen processing meat that had fallen on the floor, for example.

It widened as the extent of the company's distribution came to light. Many well-known fast food chains use the plant to supply their Asian operations.

Related: China's incredible high-speed rail system

Most have ended their relationship with the company or stopped selling its products. Among them are Yum Brands (YUM) (owner of KFC and Pizza Hut), Burger King (BKW), Papa John's (PZZA) and Starbucks (SBUX).

While many of its fast food rivals have rushed to cut ties with OSI, McDonald's (MCD) said it will continue to do business with the supplier. The American fast food chain will shift its sourcing to a Husi plant in Hebei, before fully transitioning to a new facility in Henan.

The scandal forced McDonald's to pull food from its restaurants in China, Japan and Hong Kong.

-- CNN's Dayu Zhang and CNNMoney's Sophia Yan contributed to this report

First Published: July 27, 2014: 1:01 PM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stocks: 4 things to know before the open

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Here are the four things you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:

U.S. stock futures were slightly lower.

1. Monday earnings: Tyson Foods (TSN) will post earnings before the opening bell and Herbalife (HLF) will report after the close.

Related: Fear & Greed Index

2. Stocks to watch: McDonald's (MCD) continues to be embroiled in a rotten meat scandal in China. Shares of the fast food chain have dropped 3.3% in the week since a longtime McDonald's meat supplier was accused of processing expired meat.

Keep an eye on another American fast food chain, El Pollo Loco (LOCO), to see if it continues to fly high -- shares surged more than 60% in its first day of trading Friday.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

3. International markets: Most European markets were higher in early trading, with France's CAC 40 up 0.5.%.

Russia's Micex index was 0.8% lower after an arbitration panel in the Hague ruled against the state, finding the government had illegally sold off the assets of oil company Yukos. Former major shareholders were awarded $50 billion in damages.

Most Asian markets advanced Monday, led by a 2.4% surge on China's benchmark Shanghai Composite. Stocks in Mumbai fell 0.8% in afternoon trading.

4. Friday U.S. markets recap: U.S. stocks fell Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down almost 130 points while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished the day off about 0.5%. The three major indexes ended the week little changed.

First Published: July 28, 2014: 5:04 AM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Big Mac shortage in China as scandal-ridden supplier issues recall

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

At one Beijing location, no burgers or chicken items of any kind were available. Instead, staffers were reduced to offering only pies, hash browns, fries, drinks and ice cream.

"Some restaurants across [China] might be out of stock on certain products," the company said in a statement. "We sincerely apology to customers for the inconvenience and hope to have their understanding."

The Big Mac shortage is the latest twist in a food scare that has tarnished the reputations of fast food giants including McDonald's, Starbucks and Yum Brands in China.

Shanghai Husi, a subsidiary of Illinois-based OSI Group, said Saturday that it would suspend sales and recall all food processed at its Shanghai facility.

Husi did not specify how much food it will recall but promised an internal investigation and new management at the plant. The company also pledged to cooperate with authorities, who have ordered the facility closed and detained five people as part of their own inquires.

The scandal began when Chinese television showed workers at Husi Shanghai handling expired and tainted meat with their bare hands. Workers could be seen processing meat that had fallen on the floor, for example.

It widened as the extent of the company's distribution came to light. Many well-known fast food chains use the plant to supply their Asian operations.

Related: China's incredible high-speed rail system

Most have ended their relationship with the company or stopped selling its products. Among them are Yum Brands (YUM) (owner of KFC and Pizza Hut), Burger King (BKW), Papa John's (PZZA) and Starbucks (SBUX).

While many of its fast food rivals have rushed to cut ties with OSI, McDonald's (MCD) said it will continue to do business with the supplier. The American fast food chain will shift its sourcing to a Husi plant in Hebei, before fully transitioning to a new facility in Henan.

The scandal forced McDonald's to pull food from its restaurants in China, Japan and Hong Kong.

-- CNN's Dayu Zhang and CNNMoney's Sophia Yan contributed to this report

First Published: July 27, 2014: 1:01 PM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

There's no place like the economy

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The curtain is about to be pulled back to reveal some key economic data. Here's what you need to know.

It's the economy, stupid: Investors will have to wait until Friday for the main event of the week: the all-important July jobs report.

The key thing to watch is whether robust jobs growth is continuing into the second half of the year. In June, the government said 288,000 jobs were added, bringing the total number of jobs added in the first six months of 2014 to 1.4 million. That was the strongest six months for job growth since 2006.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rates stands at 6.1%, which isn't far off from what many economists consider full employment.

But before the jobs report, Wall Street will get a first read on second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) Wednesday morning. GDP is the most comprehensive gauge of how the economy is doing, and a majority of GDP comes from consumer spending.

Analysts mostly believe that the first quarter's 2.9% contraction was a blip due primarily to unusually harsh weather, but this week's GDP report should provide more clarity on how the economy is faring.

Related: Global economy still limping along — and you can blame the U.S.

Then there's the Federal Reserve. The central bank will release a statement outlining its latest monetary policies on Wednesday afternoon.

It's widely believed that the Fed will announce another $10 billion pullback in monthly bond purchases, but investors will be scrutinizing every word of the statement for clues as to when the Fed plans to raise interest rates.

Summertime earnings vibes: A slew of corporate earnings reports may also provide some hints about how the economy is doing.

Investors will pay close attention to earnings from UPS (UPS) on Tuesday. The shipping giant and FedEx (FDX) rival blamed its poor first quarter performance on that nasty winter weather, but market strategists are expecting the company's earnings picked up steam last quarter along with the economy.

Procter & Gamble (PG) earnings, also considered a good gauge of economic health because it owns big consumer brands like Tide, Gillette, Crest and Pampers, will come out Friday.

Related: Smart people buy generic brands

Momentum stocks will also be in focus when Linkedin (LNKD, Tech30) and Tesla (TSLA) report results after the closing bell on Thursday.

Tesla's stock is up 50% this year as investors continue to be excited about Elon Musk's electric car company.

Linkedin is a more complicated story. Shares of the social career network are down almost 20% in 2014, but jumped over 10% this week on news that it acquired ad marketing platform Bizo for $175 million. Strong earnings from Facebook (FB, Tech30)also helped.

Big oil earnings are also in the pipeline. Chevron (CVX) and Exxon (XOM) release earnings Thursday and Friday, respectively. While it's probably still too early to tell what, if any, effects the geopolitical turmoil in Ukraine and the Middle East are having on their finances, investors will be looking for guidance about their profits and oil prices.

First Published: July 27, 2014: 9:22 AM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

China will soon be the world's top business travel market

Per capita business travel spending in China still under $200 -- far less than the $800 U.S. average.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Business travel spending in China hit $225 billion last year -- or 23% of the $1.1 trillion global total. That's second only to the U.S., where spending reached $274 billion, a report from the Global Business Travel Association said.

The pace of business travel growth in China is remarkable. Since 2000, spending has expanded by about 16% each year on average, compared to 1% in the U.S.

"Despite stronger growth, the U.S. continues to lose with China, which is poised to take over as the #1 business travel market in the world by 2016," the report said.

For decades, the Chinese economy experienced double-digit growth -- an expansion that has been reflected in the country's business travel industry.

As Beijing built the world's second-largest economy, it also developed extensive transportation infrastructure. China now boasts top-flight transportation options, including a high-speed rail network, that make it easier for both leisure and business travelers to get around.

Yet there are some signs that the blockbuster industry growth might start to slow. China's economy has entered a period of more moderate growth, and business travel spending will likely also take a hit.

The GBTA also expects spending restrictions that are part of government's anti-corruption campaign to weigh on the industry. The group predicts 13% annual growth over the next five years.

Related: Chinese tourists boost U.S. businesses

"Despite slowing growth, China remains in a league of its own in terms of market potential," the GBTA's report said.

One big reason for all that potential: Per capita business travel spending in China still under $200 -- far less than $800 U.S. average.

First Published: July 28, 2014: 1:39 AM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Would-be giant in online house hunting has brokers scared

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The rumored deal -- the companies won't confirm it -- sent the companies' stocks soaring Friday as the chatter gathered steam.

The companies don't charge for publishing these listings of homes for sale, but they do charge real estate agents fees to appear on their listing pages.

Should the two sites merge, they could have the leverage to charge more, said Steve Murray, editor at Real Trends a real estate communications and consulting company.

Already, some agent teams spend $20,000 a month with Zillow, Trulia, or both, said Murray.

For now, the agents are generally satisfied with the fees because the exposure generates so much business. Zillow and Trulia together attract 130 million visitors a month.

The ultimate fear: Zillow and Trulia could make brokers irrelevant.

Zillow, for instance, has its own home value algorithm called Zestimates. Trulia offers extensive rankings on crime, public transit and schools.

"Combined, [Zillow and Trulia] could further erode the leadership of the National Association of Realtors," said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York based appraisal firm.

Related: 10 mansions for under $1 million

Related: Best places for vacation home deals

First Published: July 25, 2014: 6:31 PM ET

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Math nerds are taking over Wall Street

Quant trader Elie Galam at the Panorama Partners' New York City office. He is not a Wolf of Wall Street.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But guess what? They are rapidly being replaced by "quants" -- soft-spoken super nerds armed with high-tech software to help them beat the market.

Elie Galam is one of them.

Every day, the 30-year old runs 35,000 different trading strategies through software he designed to find a handful of trading ideas with a high statistical probability of making him money.

"It's like seismic imaging," said the Parisian-born Galam, comparing his investing approach to the process used to find pockets of oil.

"I want to have a high degree of confidence that when I drill, I'm going to find oil."

So how did a Harvard math Ph.D dropout end up working on Wall Street?

Not your basic multiplication tables: From an early age, Galam was obsessed with math. After high school, he studied at the École Centrale Paris, a prestigious French engineering university. After that, came Harvard, where he enrolled in an applied mathematics doctoral program. Galam jokes that life at Harvard was like Matt Damon's character in the film Good Will Hunting.

Related: Graduate student loans are ballooning

In one class, he built a computer algorithm that successfully identified the writer of an article based on programmed characteristics such as style and voice. It was the kind of work that would lay the foundation for his career in finance.

'The Street' was calling: Soon enough, Wall Street recruiters began knocking on Galam's door. Money, prestige and the chance to work on cutting edge quantitative finance systems all appealed to him. So he cut his Ph.D program short after one year and settled for a master's degree instead. At the age of 22, he accepted a job at Blue Mountain Capital, a credit trading hedge fund in New York.

When he got there, he surprisingly felt right at home.

"The firm had a lot of smart people, it wasn't a stereotypical Wolf of Wall Street firm," Galam said. "I wasn't the only quant guy there."

It's all about the data: After a few years, his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in, and Galam went into business with James Greenberg, a veteran Wall Street dealmaker. The duo went on to launch Panorama Partners in late 2011.

At the core of their strategy: a quantitative software program built from scratch by Galam that uses historical data and analysis to predict price movements in various assets.

"We get as much data as we can, we shock it, test it, do back tests, historical analysis," Galam explains. "That's where I come in, where the science comes in."

Related: The unglamorous life of hedge fund startups

But Greenberg insists that Galam isn't your average Wall Street quant, and that he possesses the rare combination of computer skills along with raw trading instinct.

"He has a rigid approach to math but he also has creativity," Greenberg says.

Quant invasion: Galam is constantly looking to grow his firm, and to do that he needs more quants that think like him. Potential hires don't need to know much about finance, but they should be top notch when it comes to applied mathematics. Complex brain teasers are standard interview questions.

Galam's employees often come from Russia, China, and his native France. He keeps in close contact with his old math professors in Paris, and calls them frequently to ask about promising talent in the classroom.

"Who's the best guy? I want him," is what he tells them.

First Published: July 26, 2014: 11:23 AM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

BuzzFeed fires viral politics editor for plagiarizing

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith said he and his colleagues had identified "41 instances of sentences or phrases copied, word for word, from other sites, many of them inappropriate sources in the first place," during a review of about 500 posts by Johnson.

"This pattern is not a minor slip," Smith wrote in a memorandum to BuzzFeed staff on Friday night. "This is a breach of faith with our readers; a violation of a basic rule of writing; and the reflection of an unserious attitude to our work that is wildly out of line with both our standards and our ambition."

Smith also published an editors' note that apologized to readers. He said corrections had been made to each of the 41 posts where plagiarism and attribution issues were found.

Many of the posts consisted of creative lists ("The 17 Best Swag Gifts Obama Has Received From Foreign Leaders") and regurgitated content from other sources ("FDR Had The Greatest Childhood Ever"). One image-heavy post, "The Story Of Egypt's Revolution In 'Jurassic Park' Gifs," plagiarized wording from Wikipedia; another, "7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them," copied phrasing from The Hill newspaper.

On Saturday morning, Johnson wrote on Twitter, "To the writers who were not properly attributed and anyone who ever read my byline, I am sincerely sorry." He then shared a link to Smith's editors note.

As websites grow up, their standards go up. And Smith, who was hired at the end of 2011 to turn the viral site into a bonafide news source, acknowledged as much in his editors' note.

"BuzzFeed started seven years ago as a laboratory for content," Smith wrote. "Our writers didn't have journalistic backgrounds and weren't held to traditional journalistic standards, because we weren't doing journalism. But that started changing a long time ago."

He cited the "high standards" of BuzzFeed's journalists and the "increasingly careful attribution" practices of "the people who produce our immensely popular entertainment."

For years, BuzzFeed has been scrutinized for its attribution practices, since some of its most popular material originates on Reddit and other social networks.

Partly thanks to its aggressive aggregation techniques, the venture capital-backed website has grown incredibly quickly; it now has 150 million unique visitors a month around the world. A story that emerges on Reddit one day can be picked up by BuzzFeed the next day and make it onto a network morning show or CNN the next.

Nowadays, though, BuzzFeed also breaks news stories on its own, and those exclusives live right alongside sponsored posts from advertisers and lists like "29 Essentials For Throwing The Perfect 'Harry Potter' Party."

The decision to dismiss Johnson is likely to trigger more scrutiny of the site's practices.

Accusations of plagiarism by Johnson first surfaced online on Wednesday. When Gawker wrote about several examples of copied language on Thursday, Smith called them "serious failures," but also expressed support for Johnson, calling him "one of the web's deeply original writers, as is clear from his body of work."

After Friday's more thorough review of Johnson's work by BuzzFeed editors, however, Smith said, "We had no choice other than letting him go."

Matthew Ingram, a GigaOm senior writer who closely follows digital journalism, commented on Twitter that BuzzFeed's apology felt "like a stake in the ground, showing they are serious about getting serious."

In Smith's more detailed memo to his staff on Friday night (which was provided by a BuzzFeed spokeswoman), he said BuzzFeed would change its orientation procedures for new employees to "make sure that the high standards of training that come with our fellowship program extend to everyone who arrives at BuzzFeed -- and particularly to those without a background in traditional journalism."

He concluded his memo by saying, "We have more responsibility now than ever now to keep raising our standards and our ambitions, and to continue getting better."

First Published: July 26, 2014: 1:02 PM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Math nerds are taking over Wall Street

Quant trader Elie Galam at the Panorama Partners' New York City office. He is not a Wolf of Wall Street.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But guess what? They are rapidly being replaced by "quants" -- soft-spoken super nerds armed with high-tech software to help them beat the market.

Elie Galam is one of them.

Every day, the 30-year old runs 35,000 different trading strategies through software he designed to find a handful of trading ideas with a high statistical probability of making him money.

"It's like seismic imaging," said the Parisian-born Galam, comparing his investing approach to the process used to find pockets of oil.

"I want to have a high degree of confidence that when I drill, I'm going to find oil."

So how did a Harvard math Ph.D dropout end up working on Wall Street?

Not your basic multiplication tables: From an early age, Galam was obsessed with math. After high school, he studied at the École Centrale Paris, a prestigious French engineering university. After that, came Harvard, where he enrolled in an applied mathematics doctoral program. Galam jokes that life at Harvard was like Matt Damon's character in the film Good Will Hunting.

Related: Graduate student loans are ballooning

In one class, he built a computer algorithm that successfully identified the writer of an article based on programmed characteristics such as style and voice. It was the kind of work that would lay the foundation for his career in finance.

'The Street' was calling: Soon enough, Wall Street recruiters began knocking on Galam's door. Money, prestige and the chance to work on cutting edge quantitative finance systems all appealed to him. So he cut his Ph.D program short after one year and settled for a master's degree instead. At the age of 22, he accepted a job at Blue Mountain Capital, a credit trading hedge fund in New York.

When he got there, he surprisingly felt right at home.

"The firm had a lot of smart people, it wasn't a stereotypical Wolf of Wall Street firm," Galam said. "I wasn't the only quant guy there."

It's all about the data: After a few years, his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in, and Galam went into business with James Greenberg, a veteran Wall Street dealmaker. The duo went on to launch Panorama Partners in late 2011.

At the core of their strategy: a quantitative software program built from scratch by Galam that uses historical data and analysis to predict price movements in various assets.

"We get as much data as we can, we shock it, test it, do back tests, historical analysis," Galam explains. "That's where I come in, where the science comes in."

Related: The unglamorous life of hedge fund startups

But Greenberg insists that Galam isn't your average Wall Street quant, and that he possesses the rare combination of computer skills along with raw trading instinct.

"He has a rigid approach to math but he also has creativity," Greenberg says.

Quant invasion: Galam is constantly looking to grow his firm, and to do that he needs more quants that think like him. Potential hires don't need to know much about finance, but they should be top notch when it comes to applied mathematics. Complex brain teasers are standard interview questions.

Galam's employees often come from Russia, China, and his native France. He keeps in close contact with his old math professors in Paris, and calls them frequently to ask about promising talent in the classroom.

"Who's the best guy? I want him," is what he tells them.

First Published: July 26, 2014: 11:23 AM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Would-be giant in online house hunting has brokers scared

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The rumored deal -- the companies won't confirm it -- sent the companies' stocks soaring Friday as the chatter gathered steam.

The companies don't charge for publishing these listings of homes for sale, but they do charge real estate agents fees to appear on their listing pages.

Should the two sites merge, they could have the leverage to charge more, said Steve Murray, editor at Real Trends a real estate communications and consulting company.

Already, some agent teams spend $20,000 a month with Zillow, Trulia, or both, said Murray.

For now, the agents are generally satisfied with the fees because the exposure generates so much business. Zillow and Trulia together attract 130 million visitors a month.

The ultimate fear: Zillow and Trulia could make brokers irrelevant.

Zillow, for instance, has its own home value algorithm called Zestimates. Trulia offers extensive rankings on crime, public transit and schools.

"Combined, [Zillow and Trulia] could further erode the leadership of the National Association of Realtors," said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York based appraisal firm.

Related: 10 mansions for under $1 million

Related: Best places for vacation home deals

First Published: July 25, 2014: 6:31 PM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

BuzzFeed fires viral politics editor for plagiarizing

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith said he and his colleagues had identified "41 instances of sentences or phrases copied, word for word, from other sites, many of them inappropriate sources in the first place," during a review of about 500 posts by Johnson.

"This pattern is not a minor slip," Smith wrote in a memorandum to BuzzFeed staff on Friday night. "This is a breach of faith with our readers; a violation of a basic rule of writing; and the reflection of an unserious attitude to our work that is wildly out of line with both our standards and our ambition."

Smith also published an editors' note that apologized to readers. He said corrections had been made to each of the 41 posts where plagiarism and attribution issues were found.

Many of the posts consisted of creative lists ("The 17 Best Swag Gifts Obama Has Received From Foreign Leaders") and regurgitated content from other sources ("FDR Had The Greatest Childhood Ever"). One image-heavy post, "The Story Of Egypt's Revolution In 'Jurassic Park' Gifs," plagiarized wording from Wikipedia; another, "7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them," copied phrasing from The Hill newspaper.

On Saturday morning, Johnson wrote on Twitter, "To the writers who were not properly attributed and anyone who ever read my byline, I am sincerely sorry." He then shared a link to Smith's editors note.

As websites grow up, their standards go up. And Smith, who was hired at the end of 2011 to turn the viral site into a bonafide news source, acknowledged as much in his editors' note.

"BuzzFeed started seven years ago as a laboratory for content," Smith wrote. "Our writers didn't have journalistic backgrounds and weren't held to traditional journalistic standards, because we weren't doing journalism. But that started changing a long time ago."

He cited the "high standards" of BuzzFeed's journalists and the "increasingly careful attribution" practices of "the people who produce our immensely popular entertainment."

For years, BuzzFeed has been scrutinized for its attribution practices, since some of its most popular material originates on Reddit and other social networks.

Partly thanks to its aggressive aggregation techniques, the venture capital-backed website has grown incredibly quickly; it now has 150 million unique visitors a month around the world. A story that emerges on Reddit one day can be picked up by BuzzFeed the next day and make it onto a network morning show or CNN the next.

Nowadays, though, BuzzFeed also breaks news stories on its own, and those exclusives live right alongside sponsored posts from advertisers and lists like "29 Essentials For Throwing The Perfect 'Harry Potter' Party."

The decision to dismiss Johnson is likely to trigger more scrutiny of the site's practices.

Accusations of plagiarism by Johnson first surfaced online on Wednesday. When Gawker wrote about several examples of copied language on Thursday, Smith called them "serious failures," but also expressed support for Johnson, calling him "one of the web's deeply original writers, as is clear from his body of work."

After Friday's more thorough review of Johnson's work by BuzzFeed editors, however, Smith said, "We had no choice other than letting him go."

Matthew Ingram, a GigaOm senior writer who closely follows digital journalism, commented on Twitter that BuzzFeed's apology felt "like a stake in the ground, showing they are serious about getting serious."

In Smith's more detailed memo to his staff on Friday night (which was provided by a BuzzFeed spokeswoman), he said BuzzFeed would change its orientation procedures for new employees to "make sure that the high standards of training that come with our fellowship program extend to everyone who arrives at BuzzFeed -- and particularly to those without a background in traditional journalism."

He concluded his memo by saying, "We have more responsibility now than ever now to keep raising our standards and our ambitions, and to continue getting better."

First Published: July 26, 2014: 1:02 PM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mary Poppins won't work for minimum wage

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But in a parody from Funny or Die, the Disney character (played by Kristin Bell) is quitting her job because that's all the Banks family will pay her.

She struggles to make ends meet while making $7.25, the federal minimum wage, pleading for a $3 raise.

"In every job that must be done, you must be paid in more than fun," she sings, a play on an original Mary Poppins song.

Related: LA hotel workers could get highest minimum wage in the U.S.

Plenty of people in the real world agree. 71% of people surveyed by CNNMoney favor an unspecified hike in the federal minimum wage. Meanwhile, 36% said it should be increased to $10.10 an hour, which is what Senate Democrats and President Obama have proposed.

A number of states and major cities aren't waiting for Congress to act and are passing minimum wage increases on their own. This year, five states and Washington D.C. passed legislation to gradually increase their wages to $10.10 or higher; other states passed smaller increases. In June, the Seattle city council approved an eventual increase to $15 an hour, making it the nation's highest so far.

But critics contend that a higher minimum wage will hurt jobs and consumers. A report released by the Congressional Budget Office in April said that a federal hike to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty, but also cut 500,000 jobs.

First Published: July 25, 2014: 4:32 PM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lyft gets the green light in New York City

Rideshare app Lyft, known for the pink mustaches on car grills, will launch in New York on Friday

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

After two weeks of sparring with New York City taxi regulators, rideshare app Lyft can start serving the five boroughs -- provided its drivers go through city licensing.

Lyft, known for the fuzzy pink mustaches on drivers' car grills, connects users with drivers, many of whom drive their own cars rather than a dispatcher's taxi. (The company said it will use smaller, dashboard mustaches in New York, as opposed to a big 'stache mounted on the front bumper.)

New York City's taxi regulator, the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC), has said it has the right to regulate so-called rideshare apps like Lyft. The commission sought a temporary restraining order against the app as recently as July 11, when Lyft planned to launch in Brooklyn, because it had not secured licenses.

Related story: 24 hours with Lyft CEO Logan Green

Today's agreement suggests that the commission might be accepting technology with the potential to upend how it does business.

As part of the new agreement, Lyft drivers will meet a host of requirements. They'll submit to annual drug testing, attend a state-certified driving course every three years and get fingerprinted.

Around the country, regulators have shown skepticism -- and outright hostility -- to transportation apps like Uber and Lyft, which help users get taxis using their smartphones. They have laid down fines and court orders. Friday's agreement seemed to signal recognition in the highly regulated New York market that the apps are here to stay.

Commission chair Meera Joshi said in a statement that working with Lyft has helped regulators gain insight into the apps and how they serve passengers.

"As long as we ensure that public safety and consumer protection is at the forefront of these efforts, the city will benefit," said Joshi.

That's a far cry from the battle that Lyft's competitor Uber fought. It launched in New York in May 2011, according to its website, but it wrangled with the commission for two years before it was officially recognized.

First Published: July 25, 2014: 5:02 PM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Would-be giant in online house hunting has brokers scared

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The rumored deal -- the companies won't confirm it -- sent the companies' stocks soaring Friday as the chatter gathered steam.

The companies don't charge for publishing these listings of homes for sale, but they do charge real estate agents fees to appear on their listing pages.

Should the two sites merge, they could have the leverage to charge more, said Steve Murray, editor at Real Trends a real estate communications and consulting company.

Already, some agent teams spend $20,000 a month with Zillow, Trulia, or both, said Murray.

For now, the agents are generally satisfied with the fees because the exposure generates so much business. Zillow and Trulia together attract 130 million visitors a month.

The ultimate fear: Zillow and Trulia could make brokers irrelevant.

Zillow, for instance, has its own home value algorithm called Zestimates. Trulia offers extensive rankings on crime, public transit and schools.

"Combined, [Zillow and Trulia] could further erode the leadership of the National Association of Realtors," said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York based appraisal firm.

Related: 10 mansions for under $1 million

Related: Best places for vacation home deals

First Published: July 25, 2014: 6:31 PM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More