Good Evening! After two hiring reports revealed a slowdown in private sector job creation and a second print revealed that growth at U.S. service providers also experienced a downturn, U.S. markets were largely lower, with tech firms falling more sharply.
The Dow Jones had a small gain of 0.24% while the S&P 500 decreased by 0.25%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.07%.
UPDATE TIME
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said that it has reached an $8.9 billion settlement with regard to all cancer litigation involving its talc-based powders and that it would make a new effort to control the liability through the filing of a bankruptcy by one of its divisions.
What caused the delay? Here is a brief recap… The LTL Management division of J&J filed a new Chapter 11 case to serve as the legal foundation for the trust that specifies the conditions of the decade-long legal dispute resolution. An appeals court determined that J&J erred in invoking bankruptcy to prevent jurors from hearing lawsuits and awarding damages, so it rejected an earlier filing that did not contain a settlement in January.
Where are we now? If enough victims sign up for the agreement, J&J won’t have to fight cancer lawsuits involving asbestos-tainted baby powder and other goods. On top of that, the attorneys who created both Chapter 11 petitions for J&J contended in court papers that the new filing should satisfy requirements set forth by the appeals court that dismissed the initial complaint.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LAWSUIT
Charlie Javice, the creator of the now-defunct college financial planning website Frank, was detained and charged by federal prosecutors with four counts of fraud. Javice, who was listed as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2019, was also the subject of civil allegations from the SEC.
Quick summary: In 2021, JPMorgan paid $175 million to acquire Frank in order to gain access to its enormous email database. Yet a few months later, JPMorgan filed a lawsuit against Javice, alleging that Frank’s client list was false.
How did they figure it out? When JPMorgan attempted to email 400,000 of the purported 4.25 million customers, 70% of the emails bounced back. It was then that JPMorgan recognized the figures were fraudulent. Less than 10% of Frank’s user base, according to the bank, were actual users.
Yet… Prosecutors assert that Javice attempted to persuade a worker in their case to inflate the customer figures, which were purportedly closer to 300,000. But, Javice reassured them, “We don’t want to end up in orange jumpsuits,” when the employee voiced legal concerns. And now Javice may end up with 30 years of being in an orange suit…