Marketplace Music

Playlist: Philly cheese steaks and urban prospectors

Katharine Crnko Jun 21, 2011

Posted by Katharine Crnko

For Marketplace Morning Report, Tuesday June 21, 2011

Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.

The Federal Reserve begins its two-day meeting today. Analysts will be looking at how optimistic the Fed is for the rest of the year.

The Greek Prime Minister faces a confidence vote tonight in Parliament. Some analysts say if he gets a vote of confidence he’ll be able to pass the budget cutting measures needed to get more bailout money from Europe.

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell less than expected in May and prices dropped 4.6 percent from a year ago, a trade group said on Tuesday.

SAB Miller said it would keep talking to Foster’s beer after Australia’s largest brewer rejected the global giant’s $10 billion cash takeover offer as too low.

Carnival’s profit dropped 18 percent as the cruise operator dealt with escalating fuel costs, unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and nuclear disaster.

June auto sales are on track to at least meet and perhaps exceed May levels, a top Ford executive told reporters Tuesday. Chrysler, meanwhile, scored well in new Consumer Reports reviews.

Barnes & Noble is reporting a bigger fourth-quarter loss than analysts expected as the bookseller invested heavily in its e-book reader Nook and as liquidation sales by rival Borders hurt its revenue.

The National Labor Relations Board has just proposed new rules designed to speed up the voting process for workers who want to unionize.

Today the Food and Drug Administration is unveiling nine new graphic warning labels that’ll start appearing on cigarette packs next year. One will be a picture of a smoker’s corpse.

Walgreen’s is tangling with another major pharmacy benefits manager, saying Tuesday it will end a $5.3-billion-per-year relationship with Express Scripts.

Cheap chic retailer H&M will report earnings today. Analysts expect the company will report a loss because of higher labor costs in Asia where it makes many of those $5 t-shirts.

To 47th Street in Manhattan where a guy is using a Styrofoam cup, tweezers and a butter knife to look for tiny fragments of jewelry hidden in the sidewalk’s of the city’s diamond district. According to the New York Post the urban prospector nets more than $800 a week — and a fair amount of used chewing gum.

You could have a tough time getting a cheese steak today in the city that’s famous for ’em. Philadelphia. It’s not a beef about beef, or even cheese the company that makes sandwich rolls used in many shops has been hit by a strike. While a federal injunction has drivers going back to work today, the backlog could affect deliveries. Meaning your cheese steak could become low-carb.

You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.

Here are the songs we played:

  • Transformers — Gnarls BarkleyBuy
  • K is for Kelson — BibioBuy
  • A Blade Won’t Cut Another Blade — The Funk ArkBuy
  • Pure Jam — Yellow Magic Orchestra
  • Confetti — Cold CaveBuy

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