Prime Day No. 2. Amazon will host a deal bonanza next month, marking the first time it will hold two such events in the same year. The event, which Amazon is calling the “Prime Early Access Sale,” will take place Oct. 11-12. It’s only open to Amazon Prime members and will feature “hundreds of thousands” of holiday deals. By setting a deal event for October, Amazon is playing into a trend that’s gained momentum in recent years - major retailers announcing promotions well ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Oil prices have slipped to the weakest levels since January following a week of central bank interest-rate hikes that refreshed worries about the strength of the world economy. The Fed’s faster pace of rate increases has boosted the dollar against its peers. That tends to push down on oil prices by making the dollar-denominated futures more expensive for foreign buyers. Crude oil is trading this morning around $78.32 a barrel.
Futures are mixed after stocks slid again on Friday. The Dow Industrials dropped 486, the Nasdaq lost 199 and the S&P 500 fell 64.
