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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is planning to release a report that will reportedly link autism and acetaminophen use in pregnancy, according to The Wall Street Journal. The department has confirmed a report is in the works, but has not revealed its conclusions. Drug maker Kenvue, which sells acetaminophen under the brand name Tylenol, saw its shares slump following the Journals report, dropping more than 10% on Friday. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ihas made investigating autism a cornerstone of his efforts at the department. According to the Journal, the report will also make a link between folate deficiency and autism. But in statements to other media outlets, an HHS spokesperson said the Journals reporting was “speculation.” “We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates, a spokesperson for the department said. What the science says about acetaminophen and autism Some studies have found correlations between taking the common painkiller in pregnancy and the risk of children developing neurodevelopmental conditions. But these studies dont prove a link, and other results suggest otherwise: A 2024 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) studythe largest on acetaminophen to datefound that there was no association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and increased risk of autism, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, or intellectual disability. The report comes months after Kennedy promised HHS would undertake a “massive testing and research effort” to find a cause for autism as soon as September. A mountain of research suggests that autism has no single cause, but is likely a combination of factors, including genetics. Kennedy has since walked that timeline back, telling CNN, “it will probably take us another six months.” No proven link Tylenols maker Kenvue told Fast Company in a statement that there is no proven link between acetaminophen and autism. “To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and leading medical organizations agree on the safety of acetaminophen, its use during pregnancy, and the information provided on the label.”“We advise expecting mothers to speak to their healthcare professionals before taking any over-the-counter medications, including acetaminophen, as they are best positioned to advise their patients on whether taking acetaminophen is appropriate based on their unique medical conditions. The FDA has not found any “clear evidence” that acetaminophen during pregnancy “causes adverse pregnancy, birth, neurobehavioral, or developmental outcomes.” It also recommends that pregnant persons talk to their care providers before using any medications. Fast Company reached out to the department of Health and Human Services for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Category:
E-Commerce
Last month, the online prediction market Kalshi filed some very dry but potentially very lucrative paperwork with the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The company, which allows users to predict real-world event outcomes that range from election winners to the annual number of U.S. cases of whooping cough, announced its intent to offer markets for football point spreads, totals, and individual touchdown scorers, too. In other words, Kalshi users would no longer be limited to predicting game results, awards winners, win totals, and end-of-season champions. Instead, they would be able to make these sportsbook-style wagers on the platform, without going through a state-licensed sportsbook to do it. Technically, Kalshi doesnt take bets or set odds itself, and the company carefully avoids referring to its business as gambling. Instead, it enables customers to trade event contracts priced between 1 and 99 cents, where the prices roughly correspond to the percentage chance that the market believes a given outcome will occur. Kalshi, which allows trading both on its own site and also through its partnership with Robinhood, makes its money on transaction fees. When the market resolves, those who hold the winning position are paid out at $1 per share. For example, if Kalshi offers a contract for whether Justin Jefferson catches a touchdown on Monday Night Football, and Jefferson promptly reels in a 77-yard bomb and then hits the Griddy, those who bought shares in the yes position would get to cash in. Those who banked on Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy struggling to throw downfield in his regular-season debut would get nothing. (As of this writing, Robinhood allows users to bet on some sports outcomes via its Kalshi partnership, but doesnt yet offer Kalshis prop bets.) Given how ubiquitous sports gambling has become since the Supreme Court struck down a near-total federal ban in 2018, the distinction between buying an event contract on Kalshi and placing a conventional bet on the DraftKings app might seem irrelevant. But there are differences that matter. Because Kalshi is regulated by the federal government, its contracts effectively enable people to skirt local regulations and place bets in states where sports betting is still illegalamong others, California, Georgia, and Texas. Unlike state-licensed sportsbooks, federally regulated exchanges like Kalshi are also not subject to state-mandated procedures for reporting suspicious sports betting patterns. Last year, Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA for tipping off bettors that he intended to fake an injury to ensure that his under bets would hit. The NBA opened an investigation after sportsbooks found that prop bets on Porter, a fringe player on a bad team, were among the biggest winners of the night. If a player were to try the same stunt on a platform like Kalshi, it might be more challenging to find out that the game is literally rigged. In most states, users must be 21 to use DraftKings or FanDuel. Kalshi users, however, need only to be 18. Studies show that problem gamblers are disproportionately young men, who now have the ability to gamble away paychecks, inheritances, and student loan money via smartphone app. In my view, the nationwide availability of a lightly regulated platform that functionally lowers the gambling age from 21 to 18 is troubling, to say the least. Like all exchanges, Kalshi is subject to CFTC-required integrity and surveillance requirements. It also works with a third-party service to monitor for suspicious sports betting-related activity, and recently debuted responsible risk management tools, like those in use at sportsbooks, that allow users to cap their deposits, take breaks, and opt out of market access. That said, when asked about consumer protection concerns earlier this year, a lawyer for Kalshi said, People are adults, and theyre allowed to spend their money however they want it, and if they lose their shirt, thats on thema response that does not suggest that the company is terribly concerned with some of the bigger-picture issues here. To date, a few state regulators have sent the company cease-and-desist letters, but with limited success. Federal district courts in Nevada and New Jersey have found that the CFTCs jurisdiction over exchanges like Kalshi is likely exclusive, which means states would not have the legal authority to regulate themor, critically, to tax them. Robinhood quickly filed lawsuits of its own in both states, arguing that Kalshis victories clear the way for Robinhood to offer sports contracts on its platform, too. Those leery of using events contracts as a backdoor form of sports betting have what might, on paper, sound like a pretty good argument: CFTC regulations bar exchanges like Kalshi from listing contracts related to gaming, which, at least in the colloquial sense of the word, would seem to cover point spreads and player props. And as ESPNs David Purdum and Shwetha Surendran reported earlier this year, in early 2024, Kalshis own lawyers argued that this gaming language bars the sports-related contracts that the company is now rolling out. Why? At the time, the company wanted to list contracts for election outcomes, and asserted that regulators intended gaming to refer to sports, and thus not to politics. A federal court eventually greenlit Kalshis offerings in time for the 2024 elections, and the company says it posted around $1 billion in trading volume on the results. With the election behind it, though, Kalshi has spent 2025 pushing further into sports, notwithstanding its lawyers earlier arguments. And under President Donald Trump, Kalshi has good reasons to be optimistic about its chances of clearing whatever regulatory hurdles might stand in its way. In January, the company announced that Trumps son, Donald, Jr., would serve as a strategic advisor, touting his ability to help push prediction markets into the mainstream. Trumps nominee to serve as the new CFTC chair, Brian Quintenz, is a Kalshi shareholder who sits on Kalshis board of directors. Quintenz plans to resign and sell his stock if confirmed; even so, if a recently departed board member takes over as the head of its primary regulator, Kalshi is probably going to feel pretty good about that relationship going forward. Already, Kalshi has scored a major legal victory since Trump took office: Shortly after that federal court allowed the company to list contracts related to the 2024 elections, the Biden administration appealed. But under new leadership, the CFTC voluntarily dropped its appeal in May, leaving users free to take long positions on whether JD Vance, Gavin Newsom, or someone else wins the White House in 2028. Kalshi has promised a slow rollout of its contracts on NFL props, and told InGame, a publication that covers the sports betting industry, that it has no immediate plans to offer college football props. But the success of its initial filings seems to have further emboldened the company: This week, Kalshi submitted additional paperwork to the CFTC to allow users to more or less construct parlayspopular sportsbook bets that require multiple events, or legs, to occur in order to pay out. One contracta market for predicting whether the Dallas Cowboys would beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday, and the teams would combine to score at least 48 points, and Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb would score a touchdownwent live shortly before kickoff. (It did not hit.) To date, traditional sportsbooks have been publicly critical of exchanges like Kalshia position that makes sense, given that they have 70 billion reasons and counting to maintain their oligopoly on the market. But under an administration that has adopted a lax, industry-friendly stance to prediction markets regulation, sportsbooks are increasingly looking to get in on the action themselves: If they can persuade at least some customers to make basically the same wagers, but on a platform that isnt subject to state regulation or state taxes, they are going to get over their initial skepticism in a hurry. Sure enough, Underdog recently partnered with Crypto.com, which rolled out a sports event contract business in December. FanDuel has announced that it will offer event contracts with the CME Group, a derivatives marketplace; DraftKings says it is evaluating its prediction market-adjacent options, too. The growth of prediction market-based sports betting doesnt mean that traditional sports betting will disappear. But it does mean that the problems created by legal sports gamblingthe addiction epidemic, the embarrassing scandals, an increasingly captured sports media ecosystem that is seemingly incapable of covering games without incorporating an officially sponsored betting angleare going to get worse. The companies that take bets (by any name) care about making money. This is just one more way for them to do it.
Category:
E-Commerce
Labor Day usually marks the slowdown. Not this year. From corner offices to checkout lines, businesses are scrambling as shaky markets test prices, patience, and loyalty. Tech is still the flashpointAI is fueling record demand while doubling as cover for layoffs and financial gymnastics. IPOs are slowly coming back, but only for companies that can prove theyve got the growth to back it up. Meanwhile, D.C. drama over tariffs and the Fed is shaking currencies, commodities, and investor confidence. On the consumer side of things, it was all about value this week. Retailers and restaurants are leaning on old tricks to keep shoppers spending. Housing is caught between too many unsold homes and buyers who cant afford them. And gold? It just smashed a record, flashing a warning about the nerves running through the economy. Heres your week in business: Oracle lays off thousandsor moreglobally amid rapid AI shifts A freh wave of cuts came this week at Oracle. The cuts expanded beyond 101 Seattle layoffs disclosed in state filings, with posts from Kansas, Massachusetts, and Texas suggesting a broader reduction. Anonymous boards noted that thousands were exiting company Slack, though Oracle hasnt confirmed totals. The belt-tightening contrasts with record stock highs and astronomical cloud/AI demand Larry Ellison touted. Translation: Oracle is racing to fund capacity while reshaping talent for its AI-first road map. Amazon ends Prime Invitee; household-only Family sharing begins Oct. 1 Amazon is sunsetting the Invitee program that let members share shipping perks beyond their household. The replacement, Amazon Family, limits benefits to one co-adult plus up to four kids (and legacy teen accounts), consolidating broader Prime perks under one roof. The move mirrors streamings crackdown on out-of-home sharing as Amazon chases higher paid conversion. Expect some churnand clearer attribution on whos paying for what. Frozen veggies recall: Endico peas, carrots, and mixes flagged for listeria Check your veggies! Endico Potatoes voluntarily recalled 2.5-lb bags of peas & carrots and mixed vegetables sold in six states and D.C. this week due to listeria concerns. No illnesses have been reported yet, but consumers should check lot codes and return affected bags for refunds. Listeria can be severe for pregnant people, seniors, and immunocompromised individuals. Retailers will be watching inventory pulls and shrink; brands will be revisiting QA and supplier audits. Homebuilder inventory hits 2009 levelscreating room for deals Completed but unsold single-family homes rose to 121,000 in July, the highest since 2009. While the Finished Homes Supply Index shows slack growing, its nowhere near the 200708 extremes. Pressure is sharpest in Sun Belt markets like Florida and Texas, where resale listings run hot. Expect incentives, price trims, and rate buydowns in oversupplied metros as builders protect pace. Gold sets a record above $3,551safe-haven bid returns Gold hit a record high this week. The surge caps a year of +36% gains, fueled by macro jitters, a softer dollar outlook, and expectations for a near-term Fed cut. Legal uncertainty around tariffs and escalating pressure on Fed independence add to haven demand. Non-yielding assets typically shine in lower-rate regimesand traders are positioning accordingly. For portfolios, the move is both a hedge and a sentiment signal. Trump to seek expedited Supreme Court ruling to save emergency tariffs After a 74 appeals court decision found broad IEEPA-based tariffs illegal, the administration is planning a fast-track appeal. If the Supreme Court curtails tariff power, the government could face duty refunds while pivoting to other authorities (e.g., Section 232, Smoot-Hawley §338). The case tests the major questions doctrine against executive trade leeway. Markets are bracing for policy whiplash into 2026. Lucids 1-for-10 reverse split fails to stop the slide LCID executed a reverse split to maintain Nasdaq compliance this week, consolidating shares ten-to-one. The stock still fell double digits post-action and remains down sharply YTD amid missed revenue expectations and steep losses. Reverse splits dont fix fundamentals; they buy time. Investors want delivery scale, cost control, and clearer demand signals beyond flagship models. Klarna sets $35$37 IPO range, eyeing a ~$14B valuation The BNPL pioneer filed to sell ~34.3M shares on the NYSE under KLAR, aiming to raise up to $1.27B. The valuation is well below the 2021 peak but reflects renewed IPO risk appetite for profitable (or near-profit) fintechs with durable top-line. Klarna posted 2024 profitability on rising revenuenow it must show operating discipline at public-market scrutiny. Execution post-listing will determine multiple expansion. Via Transportation files to go public at up to $44 a share The transit-tech operator, heavily tied to government contracts, is targeting a valuation up to ~$3.5B. Company revenue more than tripled since 2021, though losses persist with a narrowing trendline. The pitch: software-led, dynamically routed transit that augments aging bus networks. Investors will parse contract durability, unit economics, and path to profit across cities and rural deployments. Stocks notch worst day in a month as AI leaders drag Nvidia, Broadcom, and other AI beneficiaries led declines, with the S&P 500 off ~1.2% and yields climbing. Rising long rates, debt sustainability concerns, and political pressure on the Fed weighed on multiples. Tariff-lgal uncertainty added noise to Treasury trading. Defensive pockets (hello, gold) outperformed as investors rotated and trimmed froth. McDonalds revives Extra Value Mealsfor now Starting Sept. 8, the chain brings back bundled Extra Value Meals about 15% cheaper than la carte, part of a broader value push alongside $5 deals and nostalgic promos. The goal is traffic: meet cost-conscious diners where they are without deep margin erosion. Expect mix shifts toward bundles and potential competitive responses from rivals. Limited-time framing creates urgencyif it works, dont be surprised by an encore.
Category:
E-Commerce
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