 |
|
|
|||||
Investors in reigning cryptocurrency champ Bitcoin are having a pretty good week. As of the time of this writing, the crypto is up over 8% this week and over 6% in the last day alone. The token is now within reach of the psychologically important $120,000 threshold, which would be an all-time high. Here is a possible reason for Bitcoin’s recent all-time highs. Bitcoins rise to $120,000 As of the time of this writing, BTC is sitting at just above $118,000 per coin after hitting an earlier all-time high of $118,780. At $118,000, Bitcoin is within striking distance of hitting $120,000 per coin, which would mark the first time in history that Bitcoin has reached that level. That threshold would represent a psychologically important barrier and could serve as a launchpad for Bitcoin to rise further in the months ahead. Todays all-time high price is also notable because it is a reversal of fortune for the coin, which saw its value plummet to nearly $76,000 in April. Over the past year, the coin had gone even lower, falling to nearly $49,000 in August. But since its April 2025 lows, Bitcoin has been steadily climbing, and in the past week alone, the coin has jumped nearly 8%. But whats behind its most recent gains? Institutional demand for Bitcoin is up Its never possible to say with 100% certainty why Bitcoin rises or falls. So much of Bitcoin trading, like most asset trading, is based on fear or greedpowerful emotions fueled by myriad real-world factors. However, one of the reasons Bitcoin may be surging this week is due to institutional investors, notes Reuters. Institutional investors are group entities and differ from what are known as retail investorsindividuals who invest in the stock market. Institutional investors include banks, hedge funds, pension funds, and other organizations that have tremendous buying power. And as Reuters notes, institutional demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been surging lately as the digital tokens gain legitimacy as another arm of the economy, particularly after President Trump signed an executive order in March establishing a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. Legitimacy increases demand for an asset, and so institutional investors are snapping the tokens up, leading to an increase in their value, based on the assumption that the coins will become a more important part of the financial sector going forward. As for where Bitcoin goes from hereno one knows for sure. Bitcoin, like most crypto assets, is highly volatile. The price can fluctuate widely over just a few days. Some Bitcoin proponents believe passing the $120,000 threshold could mean that the token is on its way to hitting $150,000. But whether that happens, or whether Bitcoin falls from here, is anyone’s guess.
Category:
E-Commerce
Even as AI becomes a common workplace tool, its use in hiring raises serious concerns that employers cant afford to ignore. Recent research suggests companies are being overwhelmed by AI-generated résumés. LinkedIn reports 11,000 applications per minute submitted through its platform, a 45% increase over the past year. The temptation for hiring managers to rely on off-the-shelf generative AI tools like ChatGPT is strong, but a new study published on Cornell Universitys preprint server arXiv warns that doing so could open companies to claims of bias if a rejected candidate challenges the decision. The study evaluated several state-of-the-art large language models (LLMs) from tech giants including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta, analyzing both their predictive accuracy and fairness using impact ratio analysis across declared gender, race, and intersectional subgroups. These AI systems were tested on around 10,000 real-world job applications, revealing that the off-the-shelf tools most businesses would likely use to sift through résumés show significant bias. While some LLMs, such as GPT-4o, showed near-perfect gender parity in candidate assessments, they demonstrated racial bias. When both gender and race were considered together, none of the models succeeded in achieving fair hiring outcomes, according to the researchers own evaluations. (The researchers did not respond to Fast Company‘s requests for comment.) The models impact ratiosa metric that highlights potential disparate impact between groups, critical to fair hiring practicesfell as low as 0.809 for race and 0.773 for intersectional groups. These figures are at least 20% below the threshold typically considered impartial. The findings offer little comfort to those who study organizational behavior and workplace dynamics. The jobs market is chilly enough at the moment, so inflicting too much inhuman AI on job seekers seems like a cruel blow, says Stefan Stern, visiting professor in management practice at Bayes Business School. (Stern was not involved in the study.) There is a case for efficiency but there should also be humanity, especially if we are still interested in hiring human beings. Beyond legal risk, relying on AI in hiring can also alienate successful applicants, fostering a sense of distrust that can hurt the organization in the long run. Stern argues that candidates might reconsider joining a company that uses AI to screen them. Why work for a firm that isn’t interested enough in you to get a fellow human to interview and assess you? he asks. In a world where artificial intelligence is becoming the norm, Stern believes that emotional intelligencethoughtfully applied by hiring managers and leadershipcan significantly improve employee well-being and retention. It can also shape a companys culture and business practices moving forward. Too much heavy-handed use of AI would be a red flag to me as a job hunter, he says. I want to work for and with other humans, not for and with machines.
Category:
E-Commerce
When it’s our birthdays, were the ones who get gifts. But when it’s a companys birthday, sometimes they are the ones giving gifts away. Thats the case with convenience store chain 7-Eleven, which is celebrating its 98th birthday today. The chain, along with its Speedway and Stripes stores, is giving away free Slurpees on what it calls Slurpee Day. Heres what you need to know. What is Slurpee Day? Slurpee Day is the name that 7-Eleven gives to its annual birthday celebration, which it holds on July 11 every year. (The seventh month and eleventh dayget it?) While we think of convenience stores as modern-day conveniences, 7-Eleven has actually been around for nearly a century now. The chain was founded in 1927 as the Southland Ice Company, before becoming known as Tote’m Stores through 1946, after which the chain was bestowed with the name we know it by today. The Slurpee is, of course, 7-Elevens most iconic offering. It was invented in 1966, making it 59 years old this year. The slushy-type drink is currently sold at 7-Eleven stores as well as at Speedway and Stripes convenience stores, which are also owned by 7-Eleven’s parent company, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. In celebration of Slurpee Day, 7-Eleven gives away free Slurpees to customers. How to get your free Slurpee on Slurpee Day All you have to do to get your free Slurpee on Slurpee Day is go to a participating 7-Eleven, Speedway, or Stripes store today, July 11, 2025. There, youll be able to grab a free small Slurpeeno other purchase necessary. But today isnt the only day that you can get a free Slurpee How to get a second free Slurpee 7-Eleven is actually giving people the chance to get another free Slurpee this month. In order to get a second free Slurpee, youll need to go into a store today and scan your rewards information. Youll then get a coupon for a free Slurpee that you can redeem anytime between July 12 – July 31, 2025. Full details of 7-Elevens free Slurpee offers can be found here. 7-Eleven parent company stock up 24% over the past year 7-Eleven is owned by Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (OTC Markets OTCPK: SVNDY), based in Tokyo. The company just reported its first-quarter results on July 10, in which it posted a profit of 65.1 billion yen ($445.19 million). This profit was mainly due to the performance of its overseas locations, particularly those in the United States, notes RetailNews Asia. SVNDY shares are currently hovering just below $15 as of the time of this writing, with the stock down about 4.7% since the beginning of the year. However, over the past 12 months, Seven & i Holdings has seen its share price surge by over 24%, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||