Pumpkin spice latte season returns: Where to get the coveted fall flavors early
(NEW YORK) — Although the first day of fall is still over a month away on the calendar, food and beverage brands are betting big on their seasonal bestsellers early, rolling out the return of pumpkin spice lattes.
For fans of the sweet and spicy aromas of ginger, clove, cinnamon and nutmeg, the wait for autumnal flavors returning to menus is almost over.
Pumpkin spice latte season returns at Krispy Kreme
The doughnut chain announced Monday that its seasonal Pumpkin Spice Cake Doughnut and Pumpkin Spice Latte will be returning to shops for a limited time starting Aug. 12.
The pastry will be available for individual purchase or in a specialty dozen, while Krispy Kreme’s classic Pumpkin Spice Latte comes hot, iced or frozen, and gets topped with whipped cream and pumpkin spice seasoning.
Pumpkin spice pancakes and more at IHOP
The breakfast restaurant chain known for its pancakes is adding the autumn flavor on menus nationwide starting Sept. 1.
IHOP is making Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake pancakes the flavor of the month. Each stack of four will be topped with maple glaze, cheesecake mousse and whipped topping.
The restaurant is also bringing back its popular Pumpkin Spice Pancakes. IHOP said it has sold nearly one million Pumpkin Spice Pancakes per year since 2008.
The Pumpkin Spice Pancakes will be available in short and full-stack form and are made with real pumpkin and seasonal spices and finished with creamy whipped topping.
Finally, fans of the seasonal pumpkin flavor can enjoy a Pumpkin Spice Cold Foam Cold Brew to sip as well. The beverage is made with 100% Arabica Iced Cold Brew that’s sweetened with vanilla and topped with pumpkin spice creamy cold foam.
(NEW YORK) — The major stock indexes dropped significantly on Friday after a weaker-than-expected jobs report stoked worries of a possible recession.
In early trading, the S&P 500 was on pace for its worst trading day in about two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen nearly 800 points, or about 2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq had fared even worse, dropping more than 2%.
The stock decline on Friday followed unsteady performance over roughly the past month. Until then, stocks had enjoyed strong gains this year.
From the outset of 2024 through Thursday, the S&P 500 had climbed more than 15%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq had also seen double-digit increases.
The selloff is concerning since it’s rooted in a labor market cooldown that may signal a wider economic downturn, investors told ABC News. However, the solid state of the economy may very well allow it to weather the difficulty and send stocks back toward gains.
“We don’t think it’s the start of a bear market,” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, told ABC News, ruling out the possibility of an outcome in which a stock index has dropped 20% below its most recent high.
“Today’s weaker economic data is certainly concerning,” Turnquist added. “We don’t think it’s pointing to an imminent recession, but it certainly changes the narrative.”
A weaker-than-expected jobs report is fueling concern about a potential recession and calls for an interest rate cut.
Employers hired 114,000 workers last month, falling well short of economist expectations of 185,000 jobs, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.3%, the highest level since October 2021.
Still, the unemployment rate remains at a relatively low level in historical terms. Gross domestic product data last week showed that the U.S. economy grew much faster than expected over three months ending in June, according to the Commerce Department.
“The stock market is churning as investors try to figure out if current valuations are justified given the softening economic data seen in recent months,” Clark Bellin, president and chief investment officer at Nebraska-based Bellwether Wealth, told ABC News in a statement.
“Stock market volatility is very normal, and we believe the economy is still on a sound footing,” Bellin added.
The fresh jobs data extends a monthslong stretch of economic performance marked by the key conditions for a rate cut: falling inflation and slowing job gains.
In recent months, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has shifted focus to the central bank’s responsibility for maintaining a robust job market, in addition to its goal of controlling inflation.
“For a long time, since inflation arrived, it’s been right to mainly focus on inflation. But now that inflation has come down and the labor market has indeed cooled off, we’re going to be looking at both mandates,” Powell said last month at a meeting of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, Powell said the Fed may cut interest rates at its next meeting in September, though he said the central bank would like to see further evidence that inflation is heading downward.
An interest rate cut would ease borrowing costs for consumers and businesses alike, which may rekindle economic activity and boost hiring.
Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at North Carolina-based Independent Advisor Alliance, said it’s too early to tell whether the underwhelming jobs report on Friday foretells sustained losses for the stock market.
“If it turns out that this is just some noise in the labor market data and that stabilizes — similar to how we had some noise in the inflation data earlier this year before that stabilized — then this will be looked back at as a temporary period of weakness in the economy and stock market,” Zaccarelli told ABC News.
“However, if this is a beginning of a turn in the economy for the worse, then all bets are off,” Zaccarelli added.
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a half of a percentage point on Wednesday in a landmark decision that dials back its years-long fight against inflation and could deliver relief for borrowers saddled with high costs.
The central bank’s first rate cut since 2020 came after a recent stretch of data had established the key conditions for a rate cut: falling inflation and slowing job gains.
In theory, lower interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 200 points in the immediate aftermath of the announcement on Wednesday afternoon.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also climbed following the news.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell described the rate decision as a shift in policy at the central bank.
“This recalibration of our policy stance will help maintain the strength of the economy and the labor market, and enable further progress on inflation,” Powell said.
“The U.S. economy is in good shape,” Powell added. “We want to keep it there.”
The Federal Open Market Committee, a policymaking body at the Fed, on Wednesday forecast further interest rate cuts.
By the end of 2024, interest rates will fall nearly another half of a percentage point from their current level of between 4.75% and 5%, according to FOMC projections. Interest rates will drop another percentage point over the course of 2025, the projections indicated.
Over time, rate cuts ease the burden on borrowers for everything from home mortgages to credit cards to cars, making it cheaper to get a loan or refinance one. The cuts also boost company valuations, potentially helping fuel returns for stockholders.
Earlier this year, mortgage rates reached their highest level in more than two decades; while the average rate for credit card holders topped anything on record at the Fed. Interest rates for car loans have soared to levels last seen at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, Edmunds found.
Interest rate cuts will bring many of those payments down, delivering gains for borrowers.
However, borrowers should not expect immediate relief from the Fed’s initial rate cut, Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, told ABC News in a statement prior to the decision.
“This initial rate cut will have little immediate impact,” Renter said. “I anticipate many consumers and business owners will take the beginning of this change in monetary policy as a sign of hope.”
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of about 9% in 2022, though it remains slightly higher than the Fed’s target of 2%.
Meanwhile, the job market has cooled. A weaker-than-expected jobs report in each of the last two months has stoked concern among some economists.
“We will do everything we can to support a strong labor market as we make further progress toward price stability,” Powell said last month.
Prior to the decision, the chances of a rate cut were are all but certain, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
Market observers, however, had been divided over whether the Fed will impose its typical cut of a quarter of a percentage point, or opt for a larger half-point cut. The tool estimated the probability of a half-point cut at 65% and the odds of a quarter-point cut at 35%.
A half-point cut risked overstimulating the economy and rekindling elevated inflation, while a quarter-point cut threatened to delay the type of economic jumpstart that may be required to avert a recession, Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, told ABC News in a statement.
“Rarely have market expectations been so torn” on the eve of a rate decision, Shah added.
The rate cut on Wednesday went into effect less than 50 days before the November election.
The decision deviated from the policy approach taken by the Fed prior to many recent presidential elections, a Reuters analysis found. Policy rates were left unchanged for six to 12 months before the 2020, 2016, 2012 and 2000 U.S. presidential elections, according to Reuters.
To be sure, the Fed says it bases its decisions on economic conditions and operates as an independent government body.
When asked about the 2024 election at a press conference in Washington, D.C., in December, Powell said, “We don’t think about politics.”
(NEW YORK) — Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines are one step closer to closing a $1.9 billion deal that would mark the largest consolidation of any U.S. carrier since 2016.
The deadline for regulatory review by the Department of Justice expired earlier this week without any interference, meaning the two companies have cleared the first major hurdle for their merger plans, which were first announced last December.
In order for the deal to move forward, it will need to pass scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Transportation — a customary closing condition — which includes an interim exemption application.
The Justice Department has already been skeptical of airline partnerships and most recently blocked the proposed merger of JetBlue and Spirit.
While it’s not immediately clear how long the approvals process could take, experts have said it can take years for the behind-the-scenes logistics to settle into place.
Pending the remaining approvals, this acquisition would be the second for Alaska Airlines within the past decade, after it beat out JetBlue in a bidding war for Virgin America.
Under the proposed Hawaiian-Alaska merger, both airlines would remain intact and continue to operate under their current names.
Alaska Airlines statement on next steps for Hawaiian merger
“This is a significant milestone in the process to join our airlines,” the SeaTac, Washington-based carrier announced in a statement this week. “During the HSR [Hart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act] time period, Alaska worked closely with the Hawai’i Attorney General to reinforce and expand upon our commitments for the future of Hawaiian Airlines and to Hawai’i consumers. These include plans to maintain the Hawaiian Airlines brand and local jobs and continue providing strong service between, to, and from the Islands.”
The airline also said that following the potential next steps, “we will complete work to close the transaction, and proceed with integrating the two companies, welcoming Hawaiian Airlines guests and employees into Alaska Air Group, and expanding benefits and choice for consumers throughout Hawai’i, the Asia-Pacific region, continental United States and globally.”
Governor of Hawaii comments on possible airline merger
After the latest details on the merger were released, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a statement that he and his staff have worked with Alaska Airlines leadership over the past few months “to carefully review the potential impacts of a consolidation, and we insisted that any changes expand travel options for our residents and preserve union jobs.”
“Alaska has reinforced commitments to our state and will maintain the Hawaiian Airlines brand, preserve and grow union jobs in our Hawai’i, as well as continue to provide crucial passenger and air cargo service to, from, and within the islands,” he said. “The merger will vastly expand the number of destinations throughout North America for Hawai’i residents that can be reached nonstop or one-stop from the islands, and HawaiianMiles members will retain the value of their miles while gaining access to more destinations around the world.”
Green added that he’s “confident” this merger would “offer more travel options for Hawai’i residents and local businesses” and “enhance competition across the U.S. airline industry.”
What a merger of Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines means for travelers
The travel experts at Going.com — formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights — weighed in on the possible deal and what it could potentially mean for customers.
“Competition between airlines is the single biggest cause of cheap flights. A merger between two airlines — whose route maps have a portion of flights that overlap — would result not in more cheap flights for consumers but, to some extent, fewer,” Katy Nastro, a spokesperson for Going, told ABC News.
Additionally, the team of experts believe that certain markets may be affected worse than others.
“The Justice Department did not require concessions, meaning that Alaska could eventually make some cuts on routes that consistently underperform, such as the inter-island routes,” she explained.
There has been no official statement from the airline about when or where any possible changes to routes would take place.