• McDonald’s is reaching into its past to appeal to younger customers. The company will resurrect the characters of McDonaldland, including Birdie, Hamburglar and Mayor McCheese starting Aug. 12. A grown up version of the Happy Meal will also be offered.

Grimace’s return to McDonald’s was a viral hit. Now the company is bringing back a gaggle of characters from its past.

For the first time in 20 years, McDonald’s plans to incorporate Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Birdie, Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese and the Fry Friends (aka the Fry Guys) into its marketing. Still MIA are Officer Big Mac, Captain Crook (basically a Hamburglar for the Filet-O-Fish) and Ronald’s Dog Sundae.

Starting Aug. 12, the chain will launch the McDonaldland Meal, an adult Happy Meal of sorts featuring either a Quarter Pounder with Cheese or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, fries, a collectible souvenir and the new Mt. McDonaldland Shake, which features a mystery flavor the company is encouraging diners to figure out.

It’s a marketing push that could appeal to both Gen Z and Ge X.

“Over the past few years we’ve seen how fans flock to our characters, everyone from Grimace to the Hamburglar. But many, especially the new generation, don’t know that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Jennifer “JJ” Healan, McDonald’s vice president of U.S. marketing, brand, content & culture. “It’s a chance for us to give fans a new, modern way to experience this magical world.”

The meals will include one of six collectible tins that include postcards, stickers and more, each inspired by the different characters.

The McDonaldland ad campaign dates back to 1971 and featured everything from Apple Pie Trees to Hamburger Bushes. The ads for it were … well, pure 1970s.

(Intrigued and or horrified? Here’s almost 10 minutes of the ads in a row.)

McDonald’s isn’t stopping with the meals. It’s also launching a line of McDonaldland merchandise, ranging from luggage tags to shirts and hats. The line is made in collaboration with Pacsun and will be available on Aug. 12. Another line with Away goes on sale Aug. 18.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Fujifilm is raising prices across the board on cameras and lenses. Included in the move are the X100VI, a TikTok favorite, which will cost $200 more. One camera will see an $800 price increase.

TikTok’s favorite camera is going to cost a lot more thanks to tariffs.

Fuiifilm has increased the prices on virtually all of its cameras and lenses, with prices jumping from $50 or so to $800. Included in the increase is Fuji X100VI, which has seen a big boost in popularity as TikTok influencers have talked it up. (There are more than 11,000 posts about the camera at present.)

The X100VI will now cost $1,799, a $200 increase. The company’s highest-end camera, the GFX100 II (body only) will receive the highest increase, jumping $800 to $8,299.

Fuji’s not alone. Canon has already raised prices once since the tariffs were first announced and has warned it could do so again.

Fuji is in a somewhat precarious position, though. Last year, the company moved its supply chain to China as TikTok love for the X100VI’s predecessor was just as strong, creating inventory issues. When Trump announced the first round of tariffs, however, it pivoted, bringing some manufacturing back to Japan.

Japan, subsequently, was hit with an additional 15% tariff.

The continued confusion over tariffs is causing all sorts of pricing whiplash for companies and consumers. It’s also causing economic agita. Stocks have yo-yo’d in recent weeks, with charts looking like a theme park rollercoaster track. And big financial names continue to sound warnings.

Danny Moses, founder of Moses Ventures and the subject of the book/film The Big Short, recently warned there are signs of stagflation in the market.

“There’s just so many moving parts right now that it’s really hard to decipher where you’re going to pinpoint,” Moses told Fortune. “Anyone can find a data point that says it’s inflationary, and someone can find a data point that says it’s not. So it’s just difficult. But bottom line … Is the [economy] going through a stagflationary period? It appears to me, it is.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Beverly, Massachusetts is the nation’s hottest ZIP code, according to a study by Realtor.com. Houses in the area sell in just 16 days. The Northeast boasts seven of the 10 hottest ZIP codes this year.

While the housing market, overall, has seen better days, some areas are still doing well.

Realtor.com has issued its study of the country’s hottest ZIP codes—and if you’re looking to sell and live in the Northeast, things could be a lot worse.

Beverly, Mass. is the country’s hottest area, particularly houses in the 01915 ZIP code, with houses only staying on the market for an average of 16 days (and selling for an average of $746,000). The Boston suburb has commuter rail access, appealing livability and its houses, while $250,000 higher than the national norm are 16% cheaper than the rest of the Boston metro area.

Seven of the 10 ZIP codes is in the Northeast, in fact. And none of the ZIP codes featured has a median days on market over 3.5 weeks.

Here’s how the 2025 list lines up.

1. Beverly, Mass. (01915)
2. Marlton, NJ (08053)
3. Leominster, Mass. (01453)
4. Ballwin, Mo. (63021)
5. Wayne, NJ (07470)
6. Strongsville, Ohio (44149)
7. Trumbull, Conn. (06611)
8. Cumberland, R.I. (02864)
9. South Windsor, Conn. (06074)
10. Bexley, Ohio (43209)

National housing inventory was 28.9% higher year-over-year in June of this year, but even with that boost, listings were 12.9% below where they were before the pandemic. In the hottest ZIPs, however, inventory averaged 58.9% below the 2019 levels.

This year marks the third consecutive year that the South and West did not make the list. The addition of Strongsville marks the first time a Cleveland suburb has made the list.

“Buyers are moving fast, thinking big, and choosing communities that offer the right blend of value, access, and quality of life,” wrote Realtor.com. “As mortgage rates remain high and inventory levels gradually recover, expect these kinds of high-performing, value-driven suburban areas to remain at the forefront of market activity.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• OpenAI has removed a feature allowing ChatGPT conversations to be indexed by the Google search engine. The action comes following a growing number of complaints about user privacy. The company called it a “short-lived experiment.”

OpenAI’s “short-lived experiment” with letting people share their ChatGPT conversations with Google’s search engine has come to a close.

The company has removed the feature after a report in Fast Company found thousands of conversations with the chatbot in search results on Google. While those did not have directly identifiable information, several did contain specific details that would aid in discovering who the human half of the conversation was.

OpenAI’s chief information security officer, Dane Stuckey, in a post on Twitter/X announced the feature’s removal last week.

“This was a short-lived experiment to help people discover useful conversations,” he wrote. “Ultimately we think this feature introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to, so we’re removing the option. We’re also working to remove indexed content from the relevant search engines…Security and privacy are paramount for us, and we’ll keep working to maximally reflect that in our products and features.”

While users had to choose to make the chatbot chats shareable via a pop-up window, and OpenAI initially said it felt the labeling on the feature was “sufficiently clear,” there were some concerns raised in the Fast Company story that people could have made the information sharable in order to forward it only to friends or loved ones.

The change in discoverability comes as OpenAI says ChatGPT is set to hit 700 million weekly active users this week. That’s up from 500 million in March and quadruple what its usage was just one year ago.

OpenAI secured $8.3 billion in funding last week and is expecting revenues to top $20 billion by the end of 2025.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Trump Media & Technology Group lost $20 million in the second quarter. The parent company of Trump’s Truth Social saw share prices rise, however, in large part because of its broad Bitcoin holdings. Trump’s holding in the company is currently worth $2 billion.

Typically, if a publicly traded company announced sales of less than $1 million and a quarterly loss of $20 million, that might spook investors. At Trump Media & Technology Group, it’s giving the stock a slight boost.

The parent company of Trump’s Truth Social, in its quarterly earnings, reported $883,300 in net sales for the second quarter. That’s 5.5% higher than a year ago. The $19.7 million net loss compared to a $16.4 million loss in the second quarter of 2024.

Despite that, the stock was up 1.5% in mid-morning trading on Monday.

What gives? Despite the lackluster sales and notable loss, Trump Media is still a cash-rich company thanks to its significant Bitcoin holdings. The 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission lists financial assets of roughly $3.1 billion, an 800% year-over-year increase. Of that amount, $2.4 billion is in Bitcoin, which it bought in July.

“Among other benefits, the Bitcoin treasury strategy allows Trump Media to give its investors indirect exposure to cryptocurrencies, creates investment income, helps position the Company for expansion, and solidifies the Company’s financial freedom, including enhancing security against debanking and other acts of political discrimination,” TMTG said.

Trump owns 114.75 million of the company’s outstanding shares through a revocable trust. That works out to 52% of the company’s total outstanding shares, according to the company’s 2025 proxy statement.

As of Monday morning, that holding was worth $2 billion. That’s considerably less than the $4 billion it was worth on Jan. 1. Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group are down 50% year to date.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Sales of the Nintendo Switch 2 are outpacing the original Switch. The company has sold 5.8 million units since launch and expects to hit the 15 million mark by the end of March. Software sales were strong as well. The original Switch is the best-selling console in the company’s history, beating the Wii, NES and SNES.

Demand for Nintendo’s Switch 2 is not slowing down.

The Kyoto-based company says it has sold 5.82 million units since the system went on sale in early June and demand continues to outpace supply in most locations. Nintendo says it’s on track to sell 15 million units by the end of its fiscal year (in March of 2026).

Should it achieve that goal, that will make the Switch 2 a faster seller than the original Switch, which went on to become Nintendo’s best-selling console system. (The original took a full calendar year to hit the 15 million mark.)

That led to a strong quarter for the company. Revenues more than doubled compared to a year ago, coming in at $3.8 billion. Profits topped $378 million. Officials say Nintendo is on track to early $12.6 billion this fiscal year.

To make up for Switch 2 shortages, Nintendo plans to boost production – as many people who have ordered one have yet to receive theirs.

It’s not just game systems that are selling well. Switch 2 software sold 8.67 million units in the quarter, with Mario Kart World and the highly-rated Donkey Kong Bananza both leading the charge.

The Switch 2 is backwards compatible with the original Switch, so software sales for that older system were even higher. Nintendo says it sold 24.4 million Switch games in the quarter – along with nearly 1 million of the older consoles.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Miller Lite is celebrating its 50^th anniversary by giving away 50,000 beers in 500 bars around the country. The company is also offering free beer on its website to people that can’t make it to a bar in time. The giveaways will take place between 4:50 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time.

Aug. 1 is international beer day—and if your beer fridge happens to be empty, one major beer brand is happy to offer you a freebie today.

Miller Lite is giving away 50,000 beers at 500 bars around the country on Friday. (This also happens to be the beer brand’s 50^th anniversary.) Can’t get to a bar? The brand will also be offering a sweepstakes on its Website that’ll pick up the tab for fans.

To find which bars near you are handing out the free beers, head to millerlite.com/find-celebration. There’s no reason to plan on a liquid lunch, though, which should make HR departments happy. The giveaways will take place between 4:50 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time.

Alternatively, you can visit MillerLite.com, starting at 3:00 p.m. CT (4:00 p.m. ET) to enter a sweepstakes for free beers.

“The 50th anniversary is just more than a milestone for Miller Lite, it’s a celebration of our fans and the five decades we’ve spent together enjoying Miller Time,” said Ann Legan, vice president of marketing for the Miller family of brands.

To culminate the celebration, Miller will host a Beer Drop at its brewery in Milwaukee, much like the Times Square ball drop on New Year’s Eve. Only, in this case, it will be a larger-than-life six pack that descends, rather than a crystal-encrusted ball.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Stocks fell in after a weak jobs report and the rollout of Trump’s new tariff rates. July’s figures fell short of expectations, and the Labor Department drastically reduced the number of new jobs for June and May. Trump, meanwhile, made last-minute changes to tariff rates ahead of his self-imposed deadline.

More last-minute modifications to tariff rates and a disappointing July jobs report weighed heavily on investors on Friday.

At the close of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 542 points (-1.23%). The Nasdaq sank 2.24%, and the S&P 500 plunged -1.6%.

Nonfarm payrolls were up by 73,000 last month, which was far less than the 100,000 economists were expecting. In addition, the Labor Department revised previous months downward, saying June job growth, which was previously reported at 147,000, was actually just 14,000. May’s count was also changed from 144,000 to 19,000.

That indicated the job market has been weak for quite a while now, something many Americans suspected, despite the bullish jobs numbers. The only possible bright side to that is it could give the Federal Reserve a reason to cut interest rates sooner than expected.

“Today’s data signals labor market conditions continue to cool and while the softer conditions don’t warrant a warning signal for investors, it should put market participants including the Fed on notice that economic conditions are shifting,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management.

Before the jobs report came out, tariffs weighed on stocks, though. Overnight, Trump updated the levies, which now range from 10% to 41%. Even goods that were transshipped to avoid the tariffs will face a 40% tariff now. And Canada will now have a 35% levy, up from 25%.

Macquarie strategists Thierry Wizman and Gareth Berry, in a note to investors, wrote trading at the start of the month was beginning “with a bit of panic.”

Amidst all this, Trump resumed his public criticisms of Fed chair Jerome Powell, seemingly encouraging the Fed Board to launch a coup.

“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, a stubborn MORON, must substantially lower interest rates, NOW,” Trump wrote. “IF HE CONTINUES TO REFUSE, THE BOARD SHOULD ASSUME CONTROL, AND DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!”

The weak market open comes after three consecutive days of losses for the S&P 500. So far this year, the S&P 500 has increased 6.6%. The Dow is up 2.45% and the Nasdaq has rallied 6.9%.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Microsoft has listed the jobs least likely to be impacted by artificial intelligence. Healthcare and blue collar jobs are the safest, while those in the communication field are most at risk.

For all the doomsaying about the effect of artificial intelligence on the job market, there are some positions that are, for now at least, relatively safe.

While people in the communications field have good reason to be worried, Microsoft has unveiled a study showing which careers are most and least likely to be affected by generative AI. What it avoided saying directly, though, was whether those careers would vanish in the coming years.

To determine the risk factor, Microsoft analyzed a “dataset of 200k anonymized and privacy-scrubbed conversations between users and Microsoft Bing Copilot” to assess an AI applicability score. The jobs that appear to be most at risk, were those that involve “providing information and assistance, writing, teaching, and advising.”

That said, Microsoft cautioned that a high (or low) AI adaptability was not a sure sign that a job would or wouldn’t become obsolete.

“It is tempting to conclude that occupations that have high overlap with activities AI performs will be automated and thus experience job or wage loss, and that occupations with activities AI assists with will be augmented and raise wages,” the company wrote in the report. “This would be a mistake, as our data do not include the downstream business impacts of new technology, which are very hard to predict and often counterintuitive.”

The study’s not the first to send up a flare about creative positions. What it did that really stood out was look at the jobs where AI seems to have the lowest applicability – and healthcare and blue-collar jobs seem positioned to best withstanding an AI assault.

Here’s a ranked look at the 20 careers that posted the lowest AI applicability score:

• Dredge operators
• Bridge and lock tenders
• Water treatment plant and system operators
• Foundry mold and coremakers
• Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators
• Pile driver operators
• Floor sanders and finishers
• Orderlies
• Motorboat operators
• Logging equipment operators
• Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators
• Maids and housekeeping cleaners
• Roustabouts (oil and gas)
• Roofers
• Gas compressor and gas pumping station operators
• Helpers–roofers
• Tire builders
• Surgical assistants
• Massage therapists
• Ophthalmic medical technicians

Other jobs that are in the safety zone include industrial truck and tractor operators, highway maintenance workers, dishwashers, automotive glass installers, embalmers and phlebotomists.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• TikTok and Instagram are reportedly working on apps designed for television viewing. The move follows the success of YouTube’s TV app. At present, however, neither social network is reportedly courting a partnership with broadcasters.

While streaming services are seeing more customer churn lately due to escalating prices, two of the biggest names in social media are reportedly planning to throw their hats in the ring and launch television-streaming offerings.

TikTok and Instagram are both looking to follow the path YouTube charted with its YouTube TV service, which currently has an estimated 9.4 million subscribers. The two social-media companies are reportedly building apps that are designed for TV viewing.

The services, which were first reported by The Information, won’t be quite the same as what YouTube offers, however. Meta’s entry in the field would reportedly be populated with Reels. As yet, no other deals with broadcasters have been signed.

TikTok, however, is said to have spent the past six months working on the best way to approach the app, which seems to be with higher production-value videos. (TikTok previously had a TV app in 2021, but didn’t promote it heavily and it was pulled earlier this year.)

While there has been no official comment from either Meta or TikTok about the reported apps, TikTok’s Global Head of Product Operations and Solutions, David Kaufman, told Cannes Lions attendees last week that “the living room is definitely a new frontier for us that we’re taking very seriously.”

Beyond the capital earned from those subscription fees, YouTube’s streaming TV service has kept eyes on the app, increasing viewership of native short videos.

“These social networks are seeing how well YouTube has done in the living room and how they’ve really cemented themselves as one of the top streamers,” eMarketer analyst Minda Smiley said on a recent episode of the Behind the Numbers podcast. “I’m surprised it took this long.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• After having her newly purchased car repossessed, an Ohio woman found that the dealer had failed to renew the registration of its name. She took possession of the name. A legal fight is proceeding, with an appeals court showing her some support.

An Ohio woman, whose car was repossessed by the dealership just one month after she bought it, has pulled off a revenge move for the ages.

Tiah McCreary discovered, as she explored legal options against the company, that the dealer has failed to renew the registration on the company’s name with the Ohio Secretary of State, so she registered it in her name—then hit the dealer with a cease-and-desist order, ordering them to no longer use the name they’ve used since 2012.

As you might guess, a legal battle is underway..

To back up: McCreary, according to court documents, received preliminary approval for a loan when buying a used Kia K5 at Taylor Kia of Lima. The lender later determined the information regarding McCreary’s income was not sufficient for final approval and the car was repossessed while she was at work.

Once she responded in court, with the demand that the owner cease using the name, the dealer argued that an arbitration clause in her agreement to buy the K5 made the court case invalid. A judge agreed.

That could have been that, but the Third District appeals court ruled that while McCreary signed the arbitration agreement and that would apply to the matter of the repossession, the claim over the use of the name “Taylor Kia of Lima” was not subject to arbitration, as it had nothing to do with the Kia purchase.

The court reversed the previous decision, writing “this claim is a separate matter that could be pursued independently of the other claims in the complaint that address the consumer transaction at issue.  Since this claim does not fall within the scope of the arbitration agreement, this claim should not have been dismissed and sent to arbitration.”

The case is now headed back to lower courts for additional legal proceedings.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• John Hess, CEO of the Hess Corp., has struck a deal to keep the gas company’s toy line in the family following its buyout by Chevron. Hess will also join the Chevron board of directors. The Hess trucks have been a holiday offering since 1964.

The Hess gas-station chain’s acquisition by Chevron may have wrapped up earlier this month, but when it comes to the Hess toy trucks that are a regular presence each holiday season, those are going to stay in the hands of the family.

John Hess, CEO of the Hess Corp, plans to buy back the toy-truck business from Chevron. The price has yet to be determined, but the deal is expected to close next year.

News of the return of Hess trucks to the Hess family came in a filing with the SEC on Wednesday. John Hess was also appointed to the Chevron board, the company announced in that filing.

Hess and the toy trucks have been linked together for decades—and they’re popular enough that when the merger was Chevron was announced, Mike Wirth, the CEO of that company, felt the need to announce the truck sales would continue when the merger closed.

It’s not just trucks. All Hess-themed toys, which have included helicopters, rescue vehicles, airplanes and even space shuttles, will revert to the Hess family. Hess also has struck a deal to retain the trademarks associated with his family name.

Independent appraisers will determine the value of the toy business, the filing said.

Hess toys have been sold since 1964 and have a rabid fan based. Some collectors have spend as much as $2,500 for past models.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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