BUSINESS

Iowa Church Clears $5 Million of Medical Debt for Christmas, and Aims for Millions More

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Some Iowans may receive an unexpected holiday gift this year: the freedom from medical debt.



a person sitting at a table using a laptop computer: A Lutheran church in Iowa partnered with a non-profit organization to wipe out $5 million in medical debt across the state.

© iStock/Getty
A Lutheran church in Iowa partnered with a non-profit organization to wipe out $5 million in medical debt across the state.

By partnering with a debt-forgiveness charity called RIP Medical Debt, the Capitol Hill Lutheran Church in Des Moines purchased $5 million dollars in medical debt within the state. Reverend Minna Bothwell told the Des Moines Register on Thursday that the idea of making the gesture came from members of her congregation. RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit organization, abolishes large amounts of medical debt after purchasing it at a discount from collection agencies.

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Bothwell said she asked RIP Medical Debt “how much money it would take to forgive all the medical debt in Polk County. They responded, ‘With what you have, you could forgive debt in all of Iowa.'”

In a

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CEOs Pledge One Million Jobs for Black Americans

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A coalition of more than 30 chief executive officers from companies including

Merck


MRK -0.58%

& Co., International Business Machines Corp. and

Nike Inc.


NKE -0.87%

are backing a startup that will connect employers with Black workers.

The startup, called OneTen, aims to create one million jobs for Black Americans over the next 10 years and has so far recruited over 35 company backers and raised more than $100 million in seed funding.

Merck CEO

Ken Frazier,

one of the startup’s founders, said the nonprofit organization will focus on helping Black Americans without four-year college degrees, but with high school diplomas and other certifications, find and retain “family-sustaining jobs,” or those earning $40,000 or more depending on the region.

Nonprofits, community colleges and credentialing organizations will provide training to help them be successful in business, and the CEOs who have joined the effort are committing to hiring these workers.

The

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Airbnb Follows DoorDash Debut With $68 Surge Pricing IPO

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Airbnb Inc.  (ABNB) – Get Report began trading with a $100 billion market value Thursday after pricing its initial public offering more than 50% higher than its original target as the appetite for new tech shares accelerates amid a year-end rush to raise equity capital.

Airbnb offered around 52 million shares for sale at a final price of $68 each, well ahead of their December 1 target of between $44 and $50 each and the biggest IPO of the year for a U.S. company. The shares began trading on the Nasdaq at $146 per share under the ticker symbol ABNB and quickly rose to $160 per share, a level that would value San Francisco, California-based group at more than $110 billion.

Around $800 billion in new IPOs have hit the market this year, including Snowflake  (SNOW) – Get Report, Palantir Technologies  (PLTR) –

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Why Goldman Sachs strategists say a near-term ‘sizable correction’ isn’t coming

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The market rally in the past month that pushed the Dow
DJIA,
-0.12%
above 30,000 points may have just set the stage for investors’ bullish expectations into next year.

As investors cycled out of outperforming technology stocks on Wednesday, they piled into cyclicals and downtrodden sectors like energy, financials, and real estate. This coincided with a frenzied enthusiasm that pushed DoorDash
DASH,
-7.46%
shares 86% higher in the food-delivery company’s public trading debut.

These shifts are indicative of the investor bullishness described in our call of the day from a group of strategists at Goldman Sachs, who say that “more moderate risky asset returns are likely from here, rather than an imminent risk of a sizable correction.”

Alessio Rizzi and his team at Goldman wrote that a number of positioning indicators at very bullish levels suggest a noticeable improvement in growth expectations and reduced uncertainty around a recovery in 2021.

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San Francisco’s Japantown battles to survive

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2020 feels like the year of fallen icons. From the 83-year-old Coca Cola sign on Fifth and Bryant to the amber-lit O’Farrell Theatre strip club, COVID-19 has robbed San Francisco of its many historic institutions. Now, following the permanent closure of more than 2,000 businesses in the San Francisco and Oakland metro areas, Japantown’s family-owned shops and restaurants are fighting to survive the pandemic’s iron grip.

In Japantown, small businesses represent more than just commerce — they symbolize economic agency and reflect cultural identity. “It’s self-determination for immigrants and folks of color,” says Eryn Kimura, a fifth-generation Japanese and Chinese American resident. From her great-great-grandmother’s Valencia Street laundromat in the 1870s to her brother’s 21st-century “print club,” her family’s businesses created safe spaces for the city’s Japanese and Chinese communities.

The pandemic, along with corporate landlords, threaten these physical spaces. However, Kimura says that the neighborhood’s small business owners feared

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Huntsman Lifts Q4 Adj. EBITDA Guidance – Quick Facts

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(RTTNews) – Huntsman Corp.(HUN) said it now expects its fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA to be better than its prior guidance and above the prior year by between 20% and 25%. The increase compared to the previous guidance is being driven by stronger than expected overall demand as well as higher MDI component margins, most notably in Asia.

For the Polyurethanes segment, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be better than third quarter 2020 adjusted EBITDA by at least 20%.

For the Performance Products segment, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA is currently expected to be better than third quarter 2020 by nearly 15%.

For the Advanced Materials segment, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be about in-line with the third quarter 2020.

For the Textile Effects segment, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be approximately flat with the prior year fourth quarter.

The company said it

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With green battery standards, EU seeks a competitive edge

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By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Electric car and industrial batteries sold in Europe will soon face legally binding environmental standards, the European Commission said on Thursday, as it seeks to give local producers an edge in a rapidly growing global market.

Europe’s battery demand is set to soar this decade, spurred by the 30 million electric vehicles the EU says Europeans will be driving by 2030.

The Commission on Thursday proposed regulations to ensure that demand is met by greener batteries with lower emissions, produced using recycled materials. The proposals need approval from EU member states and the European Parliament.

“Batteries placed on our market, regardless of their origin, they will be sustainable,” Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said.

Under the proposals, rechargeable electric vehicle (EV) and industrial batteries sold in Europe must disclose their carbon footprint from 2024, and comply with a CO2 emissions limit from

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Tesla Just Lost a Long-Time Supporter on Wall Street. What It Means for the Stock.

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Text size

Tesla solar roof home


Courtesy of Tesla


Tesla

lost a bull Wednesday evening.

Longtime Tesla (ticker: TSLA) bull and New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu downgraded Tesla stock to Hold from Buy. He thinks it’s a good time to take some profits ahead of Tesla’s inclusion into the

S&P 500.

Ferragu, however, still believes in the long-term outlook and recommends investors buy Tesla stock on any weakness.

The downgrade appears to be about valuation. Ferragu upgraded shares to Buy on Oct. 7 when Tesla stock was about $425. He also took his price target to $578 which, at the time, was the highest target price on the Street.

Since then, Tesla stock has gained 42%, far better than the 6% and 7% respective gains of the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

and S&P 500 over the same span. His price target is still $578 even though he sees shares

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