Of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, only Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is showing a gain in Friday trading, up about 0.5% in the noon hour. Other blue-chippers are down anywhere from 5.8% (Goldman Sachs) to 0.3% (Verizon).
Wal-Mart owns U.K. low-price supermarket chain Asda with more than 500 stores in the country. It is safe to say that the performance of those stores has been disappointing at best and dismal at worst. Same-store sales tumbled 5.7% in the first quarter of this year, with store traffic down 5% and average ticket size down 0.7%. It was easily the worst performer in Wal-Marts international empire.
The good news for Asda came earlier this week with a report that Britons discretionary income was at its highest level since 2008, helped along by lower costs for food. The report, compiled by Asda and called the Asda Monthly Income Tracker, cited falling costs of essential items, a lower unemployment rate, and an increase to the countrys National Living Wage as the reason for the rise in discretionary income.
And given the sharp drop in the British pound following the Brexit vote, U.K. consumers are going to need all the spare cash they can get to pay for more expensive imported goods. Thats where Asda and competitors like Tesco come in stretching those discretionary pounds further.
In the noon hour Friday Wal-Mart stock traded up 0.55% at $72.49 in a 52-week range of $56.30 to $74.14.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. >> Pat Summitts family said Sunday that the last few days have been difficult for the former Tennessee womens basketball coach as her Alzheimers disease progresses.
Amid reports of Summitts failing health, her family issued a statement asking for prayers and saying that the 64-year-old Summitt is surrounded by the people who mean the most to her. It also asked for privacy.
Former Tennessee player Tamika Catchings was flying to Knoxville to visit the coach instead of returning to Indiana with the WNBAs Fever. Other former players and those in the University of Tennessee and the womens basketball communities were issuing support on Twitter through the PRAYFORPAT hashtag.
Summitt stepped down as Tennessees coach in 2012, one year after announcing her diagnosis of early onset dementia, Alzheimers type. She went 1,098-208 with eight national titles. She has the most career wins of any Division I mens or womens basketball coach.
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Since her diagnosis, Summitt has played a leading role in the fight against Alzheimers. She launched the Pat Summitt Foundation, which is dedicated to researching and educating people about the disease while also providing services to patients and caregivers. The Pat Summitt Alzheimers Clinic is scheduled to open at the University of Tennessee medical center in December.
When she fights this disease, what she has taught all of us is how to do it with courage, former Tennessee womens athletic director Joan Cronan said at a 2015 charity event honoring Summitt. Shes done that from Day One. Its been about (how) we can find a cure for this disease, and she has done it facing it straight-on and shes done it giving back as she always has.
Summitt continues to hold a position as head coach emeritus of the Tennessee womens basketball team. She attended nearly every home game and many practices in the first year after stepped down as coach, though she had a less visible role in subsequent seasons. She cut back on public appearances in recent years.
When she won here last year, Williams held all four of the Grand Slam singles titles. Now she holds only Wimbledons.
Djokovic, her dancing partner at last years champions dinner, is the one on the history-making roll now. Hes the first man to hold all four major titles since Rod Laver in 1969 and the player with a chance to do what Williams could not quite manage last year by completing the Grand Slam and winning all four majors in the same calendar year.
Photo Novak Djokovic practicing on Sunday in preparation for the start of Wimbledon. Credit Ben Curtis/Associated Press
I asked Williams what she might tell Djokovic after her unsuccessful chase last year, which ended two rounds short of the Grand Slam when she was stunned in the United States Open semifinals by Roberta Vinci.
You know, he has every opportunity to do it, she said. I think h**l get it easy, so he should be fine.
Easy sounds unlikely, given the pressure and fatigue that will surely build up in a year that also features the Olympics.
Less than an hour after Djokovic won the French Open this month for his first Roland Garros title, the former star Henri Leconte walked past the Djokovic camp in the players lounge and said theatrically: Two to go! Two to go! Oh, my G*d! Two to go!
Marian Vajda, one of Djokovics coaches, laughed. This was Leconte, one of tenniss class clowns, after all. Vajda, in typical fashion, then acknowledged the reality.
Real Grand Slam, now we can think about it, Vajda said. This was a real mental breakthrough for Novak, to win in Paris. And now he needs to focus on going to Wimbledon fresh and going for the U.S. Open, and theres obviously the Olympic Games in the middle, so its too many goals in a row. It makes it more complicated.
More compelling, too, and all the more so because Djokovic surely never gave the Grand Slam too much serious thought earlier in his career. He was too preoccupied with leveling the playing field with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to think about outclassing the field to this degree.
Even Djokovics biggest supporters his family were not thinking about it. Vajda said he ran into Djokovics father, Srdjan, at a restaurant in Paris during the French Open. Srdjan was with a group of friends and asked Vajda to tell the group what Srdjan had told him when they first met.
You told me he will be No. 1, Vajda replied, and I started laughing because I thought you were joking with me. And Novaks father said: No, I was not joking. I knew he was going to be No. 1, knew it, but I forgot one thing. I didnt know he would be dominating so much in the tennis world one day.
But here Djokovic is, undoubtedly the worlds top player on all surfaces, with a 47-6 record against the top 10 during the past two seasons. He has done it, in part, by learning how to conserve his physical and emotional energy unplugging from the game when necessary, which he did again before Wimbledon.
Winning Roland Garros was obviously one of the most memorable and beautiful moments of my career, said Djokovic, who will face James Ward of Britain in the opening match on Centre Court on Monday. Also, it took a lot out of me. I thought that its more important for me to just rejuvenate and rest a little bit from tennis and then come back preparing for Wimbledon.
He does not plan to overplay. Defend his title at Wimbledon, and it is entirely possible that he will play only the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the United States Open in the two months that follow. But there are other temptations, including a Davis Cup quarterfinal versus Britain (and Andy Murray) in July and the Rogers Cup in Toronto, which could serve as a hardcourt warm-up for Rio.
The Grand Slam is such a rare prize that it bears sacrificing other worthy goals, as Williams is better placed than anyone to grasp. She has not been the same irresistible force since that loss to Vinci in September, and Wimbledon is full of ghosts as well as big victories for her.
Not that she remembers them all. On Sunday, she could not recall any of the details of her first appearance in 1998 (she retired in the third round versus Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain). But she surely remembers losing to Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round in 2013 and to Aliz Cornet in the third round in 2014, just as she surely remembers beating Muguruza in straight sets last year to win her sixth Wimbledon singles title.
This year, I dont feel as much tension as I usually do, she said. Well, theres some years that I havent felt any tension, either. Im feeling pretty good. I dont feel any pressure or stress.
In truth, it was a challenge to sense what Williams was feeling on Sunday, and she will now let her racket do the talking, beginning with her first-round match on Tuesday versus Amra Sadikovic of Switzerland, 27, who retired in May 2014 but is now back for more and making her Grand Slam debut.
Williams, at 34, knows too well that life is full of such surprises, and surprise has been the rule of late in the womens game, with the now-retired Flavia Pennetta, Kerber and Muguruza winning the past three major titles.
Think about how many women now know that they have an opening, said Pam Shriver, an ESPN analyst.
During most of the Serena era, the players have felt there was no opening for them, she continued, so the question is, who is big enough to walk through it, especially at Wimbledon, where theres more media and where you better have control of your breathing and know how to manage your nerves more than anywhere else? Because theres a quietness and an aura about the place, and if youre not firmly planted with two feet with your confidence, it will knock you off balance.
Desiigner takes the stage to perform his summer smash hit song Panda at the 2016 BET Awards held at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday (June 26) in Los Angeles.
The 19-year-old entertainer performed for the screaming crowd at the live show. Watch the video below!
Be sure to tune in now to catch all the action! The 2016 BET Awards are airing live on the BET network until 11:30 pm EST, and are hosted by Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross.
Click inside to watch the video for Desiingers Panda
Jesse Williams Steals the BET Awards With Impassioned Speech Calling for Justice and Equality
Its safe to say that 34-year-old Grey"s Anatomy star Jesse Williams stole the BET Awards on Sunday night with a wildly inspirational, confrontational speech that is bound to become a cornerstone ofthe Black Lives Matter movement. Later in the show, Samuel L. Jackson said he hadn"t heard a speech like it since the 1960s.
Williams has appearedin multiple films, but he was honored withBETs Humanitarian Award for his activism. In October 2014, he joined protests in Ferguson, Missouri to protest the shooting of Michael Brown. He was also an actor and executive producer of Stay Woke, a documentary about the movement that premiered in May. He has written extensively on Black Lives Matter and met with President Obama earlier this year to discuss his humanitarian work.
Watch All the Prince Tributes at the 2016 BET Awards
BET CEO Debra Lee presented his award for his continued efforts and steadfast commitment to furthering social change.
He began by thanking BET and all involved in the video that preceded his appearance, his wife and his parents for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, they made sure I learned what the schools are afraid to teach us.
This award is not for me, he continued. This is for the real organizers all over the country, the activist, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do. Its kinda basic mathematics: the more we learn about who we are and how we got here the more we will mobilize.
This award is also for the black women in particular who have spent their lives nurturing everyone before themselves -- we can and will do better for you.
Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar Open the 2016 BET Awards
Now, what weve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every day. So whats going to happen is were going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours. [Standing ovation.]
I got more, yall. Yesterday would have been young Tamir Rices 14th birthday so I dont want to hear any more about how far weve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on a 12-year-old playing alone in a park in broad daylight, killing him on television, and then going home to make a sandwich.
Tell Rekia Boyd how its so much better to live in 2012 than 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner, Sandra Bland.
The thing is though, all of us here are getting money, that alone isnt going to stop this. Dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back to put someones brand on our body -- when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies?
BET Awards Week: See All the Photos
There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There is no job we havent done, there is no tax they havent levied against us, and we have paid all of them.
But freedom is always conditional here. Youre free! they keeping telling us. But she would be alive if she hadnt acted so free. Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but the hereafter is a hustle: We want it now.
Lets get a couple of things straight. The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander -- thats not our job so lets stop with all that. If you have a critique for our resistance then youd better have an established record, a critique of our oppression.
If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do: sit down.
Weve been floating this country on credit for centuries, and were done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil -- black gold! -- ghettoizing and demeaning our creations and stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.
Just because were magic doesnt mean were not real. Thank you.
SINGER JILL SCOTT MARRIES MIKE DOBSON, BIG DADDY KANE PERFORMS
Shares of Pandora Radio rose 2 percent on Friday and are now up 32 percent in the past three weeks as rumors swirl that the streaming-music firm is on the auction block.
Pandora is popular, with 100 million unique listeners each month, but it is losing money, and two months ago, Brian McAndrews stepped down as CEO and was replaced by co-founder Tim Westergren.
Pandora"s Biggest Shareholder Urges Sale of Company
Some investors are calling for a sale of the company, and SiriusXM Radio is often mentioned as a viable suitor, though there"s no indication the satellite firm is interested in such an acquisition.
In its most recent quarter, Pandora revenue came in at $297 million, mostly from selling ads, but it lost $57 million. While revenue rose 29 percent, the loss was three times greater than it was in the same quarter a year ago.
Despite the stock"s recent rally, shares were 39 percent lower on Friday than they were a year ago. The company"s market capitalization is $2.6 billion.
Billy Hurley III and Ernie Els’ slo-mo swing is analyzed at Quicken Loans
Billy Hurley III held the club in his left hand and fist pumped with his right. The ball disappeared into the hole in front of him as the crowd roared, and Hurley let loose the emotion he"d been holding in.
"That"s probably like the most emotion I"ve ever shown in my life," Hurley said.
An hour later, not far from his Annapolis home and the Naval Academy he graduated from 12 years ago, Hurley became a champion. He shot a 2-under 69 on Sunday to win his hometown Quicken Loans National at Congressional for his first PGA Tour victory.
"Couldn"t be a better tournament to win from all the facets of it," Hurley said with the trophy in front of him. "From just being close to home, being close to the Academy, close to where I grew up. It"s just perfect."
The 607th-ranked player in the world finished at 17 under in Tiger Woods" annual tournament, three strokes ahead of three-time major champion Vijay Singh, who said it was nice to see Hurley play well and not lose it at the end.
Hurley didn"t lose it. He only got better as it went along.
To beat Singh, Ernie Els and 21-year-old Jon Rahm, Hurley showed the poise he developed at the Naval Academy and during his five years of service. Mental toughness and focus he said help with adversity on the course, and that showed through in his 104th PGA Tour start.
With the 53-year-old Singh closing on him, Hurley was at his best. He holed out from 35 yards on the fairway for birdie on the 15th, a shot worthy of celebration and one Woods himself called "impressive, really impressive."
As if that wasn"t enough, Hurley made a 27-foot putt on the 16th to seal the tournament and wrap up the $1,242,000 first-place prize and a spot in the British Open. Hurley the family man said it wasn"t a foregone conclusion he"d go to Royal Troon because his sister is getting married that weekend in Leesburg, Virginia, where they grew up.
Open or no Open, this is a career-altering victory for Hurley, who served five years in the Navy and showed he could master drives off the tee as well as he mastered driving ships through the Suez Canal. Before now, he had never finished higher than a tie for fourth in a PGA Tour event.
Hurley celebrated on the 18th green with wife Heather, daughter Madison and sons Will and Jacob. His children held miniature American flags as they watched their father win.
"To have a serviceman actually win the event, it doesn"t get any better than that," Woods said. He"s actually truly one that did serve his country, and for him to win an event that honors the military more than any other event, it"s very apropos that he did it here."
Singh closed with a 65. Rahm, the former Arizona State star from Spain, wrapped up his professional debut with a 70 to tie for third with Bill Haas (68) at 13 under. Els was fifth at 12 under after an eventful 72 that included five bogeys and one double.
Hurley, Singh, Rahm and Harold Varner III qualified for the British Open as a result of the tournament and Smylie Kaufman got in through FedEx Cup points.
Future tournaments weren"t on his mind this week, but his father was. Willard Hurley Jr. died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound 10 months ago.
Hurley thought of his dad, a police officer, when he saw officers following his group Saturday.
"It"s been a hard year," Hurley said Sunday. "It"s been a really hard year, so it"s nice to have something go well."
Hurley maintained his focus in the final round with Woods watching in his trademark Sunday red and with galleries full of fans supporting the local boy who proudly sports Navy colors including a club head cover of the academy"s goat mascot.
All week, Hurley heard chants of "Maryland" and "21412," the zip code for the Naval Academy. The honorary starters on the first hole Sunday were Naval officers Georges Labaki and Matthew Cook, who both had met and talked to Hurley about golf and service.
"He served, for one," Labaki said. "He did his time and he"s also representing the Navy. I"ve had a talk with him, personally, also, a few years ago. He said it"s been an honor to serve, but he wanted to follow his passion, golf."
Memories of his time at the Naval Academy came back amid the birdies that peppered his round. They came flooding back once Hurley won the tournament.
"This is the stuff I remember being in plebe summer at the Naval Academy telling one of my teammates I was going to play on the PGA Tour and he kind of chuckled at me," he said. "And now to have won on the PGA Tour, unbelievable."
