Douglas A. McIntyre

McDonald’s Corporation ( NYSE: MCD ) continues to battle lackluster sales, and its solutions have gotten no traction. It has announced one more push. The fast food chain calls the new initiative McValue, and it will become a key part of the menu next year.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaire list, riding Meta Platform’s ( NASDAQ: META ) surging share price, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg’s net worth is just shy of $200 billion. This moves him into fourth place on the yardstick behind Elon Musk ($348 billion), Jeff Bezos ($219 billion) and Larry Ellison ($206 billion).

According to a Department for Culture, Media and Sport report, the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla cost about $63 million, and the Home Office spent another $28 million—the second sum was for security costs. With several minor costs, the total was $91 million.

Unlike most of the world’s richest people, Steve Ballmer did not start a company or inherit money from a rich family. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he met Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder and long-time CEO Bill Gates. Ballmer was hired by Gates just after Microsoft was founded and worked his way up to the CEO’s job.

Deeply troubled EV company Lucid Group’s (NASDAQ: LCID) stock price dropped below $2. It decreased 80% in the last two years, while the S&P 500 is 48% higher. Its latest collapse began early in September.

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California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, says that the state will offer tax incentives for EV sales if the US government drops them. At this point, the industry believes President Trump will kill the federal government program. The state credits can be as high as $7,500, a significant reason for people to consider EVs over gas-powered cars. Newsome’s decision has one crucial exception: Tesla (

wallpaper - beatles & apple by gui.tavares / BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

China sales are critical for Apple Inc.’s ( NASDAQ: AAPL ) global revenue growth. It is the largest smartphone market, with about 950 million smartphone users. The number is about tripe, what it is like in America. The Chinese may block the sale of the iPhone 16 because of its AI software.

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Manufacturing plans to loan small EV company Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ: RIVN) $6.6 billion. As part of an analysis of Rivian’s finances, as the announcement was made, The Wall Street Journal put Rivian’s losses at $19 billion since it went public in 2021. It indicates how difficult it will be for the company to become profitable with unit production that remains tiny.