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‘Blair Witch Project’ Cast Hasn’t Seen Financial Success From Franchise
In the summer of 1999, Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard were trapped in a strange sort of limbo. “The Blair Witch Project,” their debut feature, had exploded out of the Sundance Film Festival that January to become one of the most influential horror movies of the past 25 years — and, with a $35,000 budget, one of the most profitable independent films ever made. And yet Donahue was still puttering to her temp job in a 1984 Toyota Celica, before it broke down right underneath a billboard with her face on it. Williams’ boss kept asking him why he was still moving furniture in Westchester, N.Y., when he was on the cover of Newsweek. And Leonard found himself serving food to his agent at a catering gig days before he appeared on “The Tonight Show.”
“My agent asked me what the fuck I was doing,” Leonard says. “I said, ‘You know that I haven’t made any money.’ We were all struggling to pay the rent.”
Writer-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez had trained the actors, all in their early 20s, to operate the cameras and sound equipment and then dropped them off into the woods with a series of story prompts from which they improvised the entire film. But they couldn’t talk about it. Instead, the actors spent months laying low to preserve the fabricated conceit that “The Blair Witch Project” consists of footage shot by student filmmakers before they disappeared without a trace into the Maryland woods. Artisan Entertainment, which acquired the film at Sundance for $1.1 million, took maintaining that illusion so seriously that the actors were barred from appearing at its Cannes Film Festival premiere that May. Donahue had hired a publicist, who was then prohibited from booking interviews. After Leonard was cast in an independent film, he was admonished: He wasn’t supposed to reveal that he was an actor, let alone that he was alive.
For months, the three endured these indignities because they thought that, given how much they’d contributed to the movie’s success, the “Blair Witch” windfall would eventually arrive. Instead, to commemorate the film breaking $100 million at the domestic box office, Artisan sent each actor a fruit basket.
“That was when it became clear that, wow, we were not going to get anything,” Donahue says. “We were being cut out of something that we were intimately involved with creating.”
Even as “Blair Witch” earned $248 million worldwide, the movie’s once-in-a-generation popularity began to feel more like a chokehold. Through online abuse and humiliation, career changes and lawsuits, it’s taken a quarter century for Donahue, Williams and Leonard to loosen the bruising grip of “Blair Witch” on their lives. But they’ve never quite felt free of it.
Williams, Donahue and Leonard at Sundance in 1999
Courtesy Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard
On April 10, Lionsgate — which acquired Artisan in 2003 — revealed at CinemaCon that it was rebooting “The Blair Witch Project” with prolific horror-film factory Blumhouse to, in the words of studio chief Adam Fogelson, “reintroduce this horror classic for a new generation.” The actors felt blindsided; no one at Lionsgate gave them a heads-up that, once again, their faces and names would be all over the internet to hype a horror franchise they’d never agreed to be a part of.
“I actually was looking forward to the 25th anniversary,” Donahue says. “We had booked a couple of conventions. It’s nice to hear nice things from the fans and see the guys. It was feeling very sweet for the first time in the whole history of this thing. And then — boom — comes this announcement, and it’s like, motherfuckers.”
In response, the actors released an open letter to Lionsgate on April 20 requesting “meaningful consultation” on any future “Blair Witch”-related projects that would likely result in the use of their names and faces, and requesting retroactive and future residual payments for the movie “equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we had proper union or legal representation when the film was made.”
It’s unclear whether Donahue, Williams and Leonard will receive even a fraction of what they’re asking for. A representative for SAG-AFTRA said the union has been in communication with Lionsgate to assist the actors and is “hopeful that the performers will achieve some compensation, but when there is no union contract covering the production, the actors and the union are generally limited to appealing to fairness.” A representative for Lionsgate declined to comment for this story, and former executives at Artisan Entertainment could not be reached for comment.
Although “The Blair Witch Project” is an unrepeatable cultural phenomenon, the actors’ experience within it is, on one level, a familiar one. From “Aladdin” star Robin Williams to “Black Widow” superhero Scarlett Johansson, talent and studios have fought over profits and credit in the wake of overwhelming success for as long as there’s been a Hollywood. What Donahue, Williams and Leonard encountered, however, also speaks to how vulnerable newcomers to the industry are to the hazards of fine print and the less-regulated world of independent film.
In their interview with Variety, the actors say that, regardless of the outcome, they felt compelled to speak out.
“I’m embarrassed that I let this happen to me,” Williams says via Zoom from his kitchen in Westchester County, N.Y., as Leonard and Donahue listen from their respective homes in New York’s Hudson Valley and rural Maine. In a flash, his face flushes and his eyes fill with tears. “You’ve got to put that stuff away, because you’re a fucking loser if you can’t,” Williams says. “Because everybody’s wondering what happened, and your wife is in the grocery line and she can’t pay because a check bounced. You’re in the most successful independent movie of all time, and you can’t take care of your loved ones.”
Williams stops, looking away from his screen as he composes himself. “This is so hard to talk about. I’m sorry. Jesus, I didn’t want to do this.”
The other actors jump in. “You’re amazing, Michael,” Donahue says.
“Do not apologize,” Leonard adds.
Williams sighs, then smiles wearily. “I’m very grateful for what I have now and how fucking hard I fought to get it. But it still impacts me. I buried all this,” he says. “Giant corporations don’t care that this happens to young artists. It’s bullshit. And that’s got to change somehow. Hopefully, we will help somebody to see: Don’t do what we did.”
David Lawrence for Variety Magazine
In August 1997, Haxan Films — the production company founded by Myrick and Sánchez, as well as producers Gregg Hale, Robin Cowie and Michael Monello — placed an open call in Backstage for what was then titled “The Black Hills Project,” a nonunion production offering “pay, travel and meals.” For the ever-replenishing population of young, hungry, unrepresented actors in New York City and Los Angeles, it was just one more ultralow budget film in the indie-mad 1990s to offer an opportunity to accrue on-set experience. The prospect of making any money — let alone the $500 per week eventually earmarked for “The Blair Witch Project” — seemed like a bonus.
“I did a lot of work for no pay,” Williams says. “This said ‘Paid,’ so you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe I can be a professional.’”
Before the shoot began, Haxan presented the actors with a one-and-a-half-page deal memo that they remember signing with only a cursory look, save for one clause that seemed unlikely: Should the project net Haxan over $1 million, the actors were entitled to “a one percent (1%) participation in profits in excess of $1,000,000.”
“We just thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be ridiculous?’” Williams says.
The actors also didn’t give much thought to the clause that Haxan would have the right to use their real names “for the purpose of this film,” rather than the generic ones — Jane, Bill and John — originally assigned to their characters. The filmmakers explained that the footage they were going to shoot would comprise roughly 10 minutes of a fictional documentary about their characters’ purported disappearance while seeking evidence of the fabled Blair Witch. Using their real names would make it feel that much more authentic.
At the time, these decisions seemed inconsequential. The actors thought they’d get a VHS copy of the film they could show their friends and add to their performance reels. They were more focused on pulling off the fully improvised production for which they had to not only operate the cameras and sound equipment, but justify why their characters — especially Donahue’s, the team’s uncompromising director — would keep filming as things deteriorated.
Williams and Donahue during production in 1997
Courtesy Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard
It wasn’t until roughly a year later that the cast learned that the filmmakers had changed course and made their footage into the entire movie. Yet when “The Blair Witch Project” got into Sundance, the actors paid for their own travel and lodging.
The Haxan team did put the cast up at the lodge they’d rented for the final two days of the festival. But the actors say no one from Artisan met with them at Sundance or reached out to them in the months that followed. When Donahue went to the studio’s New York office to try to talk to executives, she was sent away with some swag.
After Artisan finally dropped the “Are they really dead?” pretense following the film’s wide release on July 30, 1999, and the actors started hitting the press circuit, their sudden, all-consuming fame made their precariously slender bank accounts that much more conspicuous. “I had an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer where I said something like, I’m the poorest famous person in America right now,” Donahue says. “Artisan reached out to tell me I can’t say that.”
As the film’s lead and its sole woman, Donahue also had to endure the brunt of the often misogynist backlash. “Heather’s portrayal of a fierce and relentless artist who would not stop filming wasn’t an acceptable archetype at the time,” Leonard says. “She was fair game to be hated on, and they were using her real name.”
“It was relentless,” Donahue says. “Just that feeling of ‘Wow, this is definitely not what I signed up for, and I have no money to protect myself from the onslaught.’”
At the end of the summer of ’99, the actors received a modest “performance bump” in the low five figures — it allowed Williams to spend more on the cocktail hour for his wedding, and enabled Donahue to buy a Mitsubishi. But as the months stretched on, their careers were stagnating. Casting directors thought they’d been merely playing themselves in “Blair Witch,” and because they’d used their real names, there was zero separation between their identities and the movie.
One of the posters for “The Blair Witch Project”
Artisan Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection
Friends and family kept telling them about new “Blair Witch” merch they’d seen — like the character journal Donahue wrote during filming, or comic books with all the actors’ names and likenesses. And then they learned that Artisan was using their identities in a sequel called “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.”
“It became obvious that the uses were going to be constant,” Donahue says. “At that point I thought to myself, ‘If this is what success looks like, I would like to get out of this business.’”
On the eve of the October 2000 release of “Blair Witch 2,” Donahue rallied Williams and Leonard to sue Artisan. Three years later, in February 2004, they arrived at a roughly $300,000 settlement that would be paid to each of them over several years. By comparison, The New York Times reported that year that Haxan and its investors earned “an estimated $35 million to $40 million” from “The Blair Witch Project.”
Due in part to their own financial settlement, the “Blair Witch” directors and producers declined to comment for this story beyond this joint statement: “25 years later, who would have thought we’d still be talking about ‘The Blair Witch Project,’ a film made by a group of total Hollywood outsiders? We’re hopeful Heather, Joshua and Mike find a satisfying conclusion to their conversations with Lionsgate. For us, this anniversary provides an exciting opportunity to celebrate the movie and its legacy with fans.”
More than the money, the actors say the big victory from their settlement was that Artisan — and now Lionsgate — “can’t use our names and images to make money for themselves anymore,” Leonard says.
Donahue jumps in: “But they keep doing it anyway.”
For example, in 2016, Lionsgate made a sequel, titled simply “Blair Witch,” that follows a character written to be the fictional Heather Donahue’s younger brother. When Lionsgate first approached her about the movie, Donahue says, “they made it clear” they planned to use her full identity until she invoked the settlement and forced them to remove her face and last name.
She endorsed the 2016 “Blair Witch” in the press when it opened and spoke warmly of Lionsgate’s willingness to accommodate her. But Donahue had long since walked away from the entertainment industry, hoping to remain as much of a private citizen as possible; she sees the project now as just another example of how little she’s felt considered. “I didn’t want to be any part of it in any way whatsoever,” she says of the 2016 “Blair Witch.” “I pushed back quite hard.”
Donahue says that when she subsequently informed Lionsgate of the unauthorized use of her screaming from the climax of “The Blair Witch Project” in the 2022 film “Tár,” the studio pursued a settlement without her, forcing her to seek her own financial agreement. A representative for Focus Features, which released “Tár,” declined to comment.
After taking odd jobs, Williams also stepped away from acting in the late 2000s to become a high school guidance counselor. He’s recently started acting again, but at the time that Lionsgate approached him about using his image in the 2016 “Blair Witch” film, he and his family were temporarily living out of a one-bedroom apartment after their home was ruined during a flood. Any money coming his way felt like a godsend.
David Lawrence for Variety Magazine
Unlike his co-stars, Leonard was able to maintain a career as an actor and a filmmaker — from Lynn Shelton’s 2009 mumblecore comedy “Humpday” to his 2020 indie “Fully Realized Humans” — but he has no regrets about going public with his grievances.
“I don’t need Lionsgate to like me. I don’t care that they know that I think their behavior has been reprehensible,” he says. “I don’t want my daughter to ever feel like anything is more valuable than her self-worth.”
They all stress that they remain proud of “The Blair Witch Project” and their work in it; they just never consented to giving up their identities for free. For them, the financial equation is a simple one.
“Is there value there or not?” Donahue says. “If there’s value, compensate us accordingly, and if there’s no value, then just stop using us.”
RENO, Nev., August 1, 2024–(BUSINESS THREAD)–Modiv Industrial, Inc. (“Modiv” or the “Company”) (NYSE:MDV), the only public REIT focused exclusively on the acquisition of industrial real estate properties, today announced that it will release second quarter 2024 financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 before the market opens on Tuesday, August 6, 2024. Management will host a conference call the same day at 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time (10:30 a.m. Eastern Time) to discuss the results.
Live conference call: 1-877-407-0789 or 1-201-689-8562 at 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday, August 6.
Internet broadcast: To listen to the webcast, live or archived, use this link https://callme.viavid.com/viavid/?callme=true&passcode=13740174&h=true&info=company&r=true&B=6 or visit the investor relations page of the Modiv website at www.modiv.com.
About Modiv Industrial
Modiv Industrial, Inc. is an internally managed REIT focused on single-tenant net-leased industrial manufacturing real estate. The company actively acquires critical industrial manufacturing properties with long-term leases to tenants that fuel the national economy and strengthen the nation’s supply chains. For more information, visit: www.modiv.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240731628803/en/
Contacts
Investor Inquiries:
management@modiv.com
Volta Finance Limited
Volta Finance Limited (VTA/VTAS)
Notification of transactions by directors, persons exercising managerial functions
responsibilities and people closely associated with them
NOT FOR DISCLOSURE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN THE UNITED STATES
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Guernsey, 1 August 2024
Pursuant to announcements made on 5 April 2019 and 26 June 2020 relating to changes to the payment of directors’ fees, Volta Finance Limited (the “Company” or “Volta”) purchased 3,380 no par value ordinary shares of the Company (“Ordinary Shares”) at an average price of €5.2 per share.
Each director receives 30% of his or her director’s fee for any year in the form of shares, which he or she is required to hold for a period of not less than one year from the respective date of issue.
The shares will be issued to the Directors, who for the purposes of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on Market Abuse (“March“) are “people who exercise managerial responsibilities” (a “PDMR“).
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Dagmar Kershaw, Chairman and MDMR for purposes of MAR, has acquired an additional 1,040 Common Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Ms. Kershaw will have an interest in 12,838 Common Shares, representing 0.03% of the Company’s issued shares;
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Stephen Le Page, a Director and a PDMR for MAR purposes, has acquired an additional 728 Ordinary Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Mr. Le Page will have an interest in 50,562 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.14% of the issued shares of the Company;
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Yedau Ogoundele, Director and a PDMR for the purposes of MAR has acquired an additional 728 Ordinary Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Ms. Ogoundele will have an interest in 6,862 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.02% of the issued shares of the Company; and
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Joanne Peacegood, Director and PDMR for MAR purposes has acquired an additional 884 Ordinary Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Ms. Peacegood will have an interest in 3,505 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.01% of the issued shares of the Company;
The notifications below, made in accordance with the requirements of the MAR, provide further details in relation to the above transactions:
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a) Dagmar Kershaw |
b) Stephen LePage |
c) Yedau Ogoundele |
e) Joanne Pazgood |
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a. Position/status |
Director |
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b. Initial Notification/Amendment |
Initial notification |
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a name |
Volta Finance Limited |
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b. LAW |
2138004N6QDNAZ2V3W80 |
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a. Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument |
Ordinary actions |
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b. Identification code |
GG00B1GHHH78 |
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c. Nature of the transaction |
Acquisition and Allocation of Common Shares in Relation to Partial Payment of Directors’ Fees for the Quarter Ended July 31, 2024 |
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d. Price(s) |
€5.2 per share |
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e. Volume(s) |
Total: 3380 |
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f. Transaction date |
August 1, 2024 |
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g. Location of transaction |
At the Market – London |
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It is) |
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CONTACTS
For the investment manager
AXA Investment Managers Paris
Francois Touati
francois.touati@axa-im.com
+33 (0) 1 44 45 80 22
Olivier Pons
Olivier.pons@axa-im.com
+33 (0) 1 44 45 87 30
Company Secretary and Administrator
BNP Paribas SA, Guernsey branch
guernsey.bp2s.volta.cosec@bnpparibas.com
+44 (0) 1481 750 853
Corporate Broker
Cavendish Securities plc
Andre Worn Out
Daniel Balabanoff
+44 (0) 20 7397 8900
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ABOUT VOLTA FINANCE LIMITED
Volta Finance Limited is incorporated in Guernsey under the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) and listed on Euronext Amsterdam and the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange for listed securities. Volta’s home member state for the purposes of the EU Transparency Directive is the Netherlands. As such, Volta is subject to the regulation and supervision of the AFM, which is the regulator of the financial markets in the Netherlands.
Volta’s investment objectives are to preserve its capital throughout the credit cycle and to provide a stable income stream to its shareholders through dividends that it expects to distribute quarterly. The company currently seeks to achieve its investment objectives by seeking exposure predominantly to CLOs and similar asset classes. A more diversified investment strategy in structured finance assets may be pursued opportunistically. The company has appointed AXA Investment Managers Paris, an investment management firm with a division specializing in structured credit, to manage the investment portfolio of all of its assets.
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ABOUT AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS
AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-specialist asset management firm within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with 2,700 professionals and €844 billion in assets under management at the end of December 2023.
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This press release is issued by AXA Investment Managers Paris (“AXA IM”) in its capacity as alternative investment fund manager (within the meaning of Directive 2011/61/EU, the “AIFM Directive”) of Volta Finance Limited (“Volta Finance”), the portfolio of which is managed by AXA IM.
This press release is for information only and does not constitute an invitation or inducement to purchase shares of Volta Finance. Its circulation may be prohibited in certain jurisdictions and no recipient may circulate copies of this document in violation of such limitations or restrictions. This document is not an offer to sell the securities referred to herein in the United States or to persons who are “U.S. persons” for purposes of Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or otherwise in circumstances where such an offering would be restricted by applicable law. Such securities may not be sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Volta Finance does not intend to register any part of the offering of such securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of such securities in the United States.
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This communication is being distributed to, and is directed only at, (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the “Order”) or (iii) high net worth companies and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as “relevant persons”). The securities referred to herein are available only to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe for, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be made only to, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act on or rely on this document or any of its contents. Past performance should not be relied upon as a guide to future performance.
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This press release contains statements that are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements”. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words “believes”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “intends”, “is/are expected”, “may”, “will” or “should”. They include statements about the level of the dividend, the current market environment and its impact on the long-term return on Volta Finance’s investments. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results, portfolio composition and performance of Volta Finance may differ materially from the impression created by the forward-looking statements. AXA IM undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements.
Any target information is based on certain assumptions as to future events that may not materialize. Due to the uncertainty surrounding these future events, targets are not intended to be and should not be considered to be profits or earnings or any other type of forecast. There can be no assurance that any of these targets will be achieved. Furthermore, no assurance can be given that the investment objective will be achieved.
Figures provided which relate to past months or years and past performance cannot be considered as a guide to future performance or construed as a reliable indicator as to future performance. Throughout this review, the citation of specific trades or strategies is intended to illustrate some of Volta Finance’s investment methodologies and philosophies as implemented by AXA IM. The historical success or AXA IM’s belief in the future success of any such trade or strategy is not indicative of, and has no bearing on, future results.
The valuation of financial assets may vary significantly from the prices that AXA IM could obtain if it sought to liquidate the positions on Volta Finance’s behalf due to market conditions and the general economic environment. Such valuations do not constitute a fairness or similar opinion and should not be relied upon as such.
Publisher: AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS PARIS, a company incorporated under the laws of France, with registered office at Tour Majunga, 6, Place de la Pyramide – 92800 Puteaux. AXA IMP is authorized by Autorité des Marchés Financiers under registration number GP92008 as an alternative investment fund manager within the meaning of the AIFM Directive.
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Litter (AAPL) is set to report its fiscal third-quarter earnings after the market closes on Thursday, and unlike the rest of its tech peers, the main story won’t be about the rise of AI.
Instead, analysts and investors will be keeping a close eye on iPhone sales in China and whether Apple has managed to stem the tide of users switching to domestic rivals including Huawei.
For the quarter, analysts expect Apple to report earnings per share (EPS) of $1.35 on revenue of $84.4 billion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Apple saw EPS of $1.26 on revenue of $81.7 billion in the same period last year.
Apple shares are up about 18.6% year to date despite a rocky start to the year, thanks in part to the impact of the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in May, where showed off its Apple Intelligence software.
But the big question on investors’ minds is whether iPhone sales have risen or fallen in China. Apple has struggled with slowing phone sales in the region, with the company noting an 8% decline in sales in the second quarter as local rivals including Huawei and Xiaomi gain market share.
Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers remarks at the start of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Justin Sullivan via Getty Images)
And while some analysts, such as JPMorgan’s Samik Chatterjee, believe sales in Greater China, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, rose in the third quarter, others, including David Vogt of UBS Global Research, say sales likely fell about 6%.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg say Apple will report revenue of $15.2 billion in Greater China, down 3.1% from the same quarter last year, when Apple reported revenue of $15.7 billion in China. Overall iPhone sales are expected to reach $38.9 billion, down 1.8% year over year from the $39.6 billion Apple saw in the third quarter of 2023.
But Apple is expected to make up for those declines in other areas, including Services and iPad sales. Services revenue is expected to reach $23.9 billion in the quarter, up from $21.2 billion in the third quarter of 2023, while iPad sales are expected to reach $6.6 billion, up from the $5.7 billion the segment brought in in the same period last year. Those iPad sales projections come after Apple launched its latest iPad models this year, including a new iPad Pro lineup powered by the company’s M4 chip.
Mac revenue is also expected to grow modestly in the quarter, versus a 7.3% decline last year. Sales of wearables, which include the Apple Watch and AirPods, however, are expected to decline 5.9% year over year.
In addition to Apple’s revenue numbers, analysts and investors will be listening closely for any commentary on the company’s software launches. Apple Intelligence beta for developers earlier this week.
The story continues
The software, which is powered by Apple’s generative AI technology, is expected to arrive on iPhones, iPads and Macs later this fall, though according to Bloomberg’s Marc GurmanIt won’t arrive alongside the new iPhone in September. Instead, it’s expected to arrive on Apple devices sometime in October.
Analysts are divided on the potential impact of Apple Intelligence on iPhone sales next year, with some saying the software will kick off a new iPhone sales supercycle and others offering more pessimistic expectations about the technology’s effect on Apple’s profits.
It’s important to note that Apple Intelligence is only compatible with the iPhone 15 Pro and newer phones, ensuring that all users desperate to get their hands on the tech will have to upgrade to a newer, more powerful phone as soon as it is available.
Either way, if Apple wants to make Apple Intelligence a success, it will need to ensure it has the features that will make customers excited to take advantage of the offering.
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Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits hit its highest level in a year last week, even as the job market remains surprisingly healthy in an era of high interest rates.
Jobless claims for the week ending July 27 rose 14,000 to 249,000 from 235,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It’s the highest number since the first week of August last year and the 10th straight week that claims have been above 220,000. Before that period, claims had remained below that level in all but three weeks this year.
Weekly jobless claims are widely considered representative of layoffs, and while they have been slightly higher in recent months, they remain at historically healthy levels.
Strong consumer demand and a resilient labor market helped avert a recession that many economists predicted during the Federal Reserve’s prolonged wave of rate hikes that began in March 2022.
As inflation continues to declinethe Fed’s goal of a soft landing — reducing inflation without causing a recession and mass layoffs — appears to be within reach.
On Wednesday, the Fed left your reference rate aloneBut officials have strongly suggested a cut could come in September if the data stays on its recent trajectory. And recent labor market data suggests some weakening.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in June, despite the fact that American employers added 206,000 jobs. U.S. job openings also fell slightly last month. Add that to the rise in layoffs, and the Fed could be poised to cut interest rates next month, as most analysts expect.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out some of the weekly ups and downs, rose by 2,500 to 238,000.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits in the week of July 20 jumped by 33,000 to 1.88 million. The four-week average for continuing claims rose to 1,857,000, the highest since December 2021.
Continuing claims have been rising in recent months, suggesting that some Americans receiving unemployment benefits are finding it harder to get jobs.
There have been job cuts across a range of sectors this year, from agricultural manufacturing Deerefor media such as CNNIt is in another place.
“You have been deceived! This is the agenda hidden against Bitcoin in 2025” – Whitney Webb
Raoul Pal – Prepare! This triggers phase 2 of the banana area and is starting very soon
Lyn Alden – What nobody is telling you about a strategic BTC reserve of the United States!
Michael Saylor – “A bitcoin revolution has started! Many lives will change forever”
“Buy the fucking DIP! That’s why this accident is all noise ” – Planb & Raoul Pal
Leeds hospitals trust says finances are “critical” amid £110m deficit
Modiv Industrial to release Q2 2024 financial results on August 6
Volta Finance Limited – Director/PDMR Shareholding
Inventiva reports 2024 First Quarter Financial Information¹ and provides a corporate update
🏴☠️ Pump.Fun operated by Insider Exploit
“You have been deceived! This is the agenda hidden against Bitcoin in 2025” – Whitney Webb
Raoul Pal – Prepare! This triggers phase 2 of the banana area and is starting very soon
Lyn Alden – What nobody is telling you about a strategic BTC reserve of the United States!
Michael Saylor – “A bitcoin revolution has started! Many lives will change forever”
“Buy the fucking DIP! That’s why this accident is all noise ” – Planb & Raoul Pal
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Videos9 months ago“We will enter the ‘banana zone’ in 2 WEEKS! Cryptocurrency prices will quadruple!” – Raoul Pal
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Tech9 months agoBitcoin’s Correlation With Tech Stocks Is At Its Highest Since August 2023: Bloomberg ⋆ ZyCrypto
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Tech9 months agoEverything you need to know
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Markets8 months agoWhale Investments in Bitcoin Hit $100 Billion in 2024, Fueling Insane Investor Optimism ⋆ ZyCrypto
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Markets8 months agoCrazy $3 Trillion XRP Market Cap Course Charted as Ripple CEO Calls XRP ETF “Inevitable” ⋆ ZyCrypto