Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports December Sales Results

News site ARLnow is discontinuing a daily newsletter that was created with generative AI. The closure will occur this week as ARLnow launches a new email format for its Afternoon Update. But it could return as it irons out the wrinkles. ARLnow’s morning newsletter was produced with an automated process that provided AI summaries of the previous day’s articles. The morning summaries were generated via ChatGPT APIs “in a writing style somewhat similar to that of Morning Brew,” ARLnow writes.

S&P Global eported second quarter 2021 results with revenue of $2,106 million, an increase of 8% compared to the same period last year with every segment delivering revenue growth. Net income increased 1% to $798 million. Diluted earnings per share increased 1% to $3.30 primarily due to revenue growth partially offset by increased compensation-related expenses. Merger Update: S&P Global and IHS Markit continue to progress with merger integration planning. In addition, work with global regulators remains underway and we anticipate closing the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2021. Profit Margin: The Company's operating profit margin decreased 210 basis points to 54.8% primarily due to a challenging expense comparison to the second quarter of 2020 and increased compensation-related expenses, and costs related to the pending merger with IHS Markit in 2021.

Quarter-to-date service performance data for July 1 through August 20 included: *First-Class Mail: Delivered 88.8 percent of First-Class Mail on time against the USPS service performance standard, an improvement of 1.3 percentage points from the third quarter. *Marketing Mail: Delivered 92.7 percent of Marketing Mail on time against the USPS service performance standard, an improvement of 1.7 percentage points from the third quarter. *Periodicals: Delivered 82.1 percent of Periodicals on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 2.9 percentage points from the third quarter. Additionally, for the week of August 14-20, the Postal Service achieved its highest level of service performance recorded for the Marketing Mail category in five years, matching a previous high (93.9%) recorded in August 2016.