A shot at his ‘dream job’
Big fans of Trader Joe’s among those applying to new Halfmoon location
Daniel Cilberti sat on a glossy wooden bench among several others patiently waiting with hiring forms or resumes in hand as smiling Trader Joe’s employees called them over one by one in their floral shirts for an interview.
The 62-year-old man was one of the first dozen or so to appear at the Trader Joe’s hiring fair in Halfmoon Tuesday morning. The national chain recently announced the addition of a store at 3 Halfmoon Crossing, which it hopes to have running by midseptember, store manager Tommy Witte said.
The store hosted a hiring event last week — as Trader Joe’s does for every new store — and is still looking to hire about 50 more employees. Trader Joe’s is offering starting pay between $17 and $19 an hour and other benefits including health and retirement plans and a store discount, according to its website.
The roughly 12,500-square-foot store offers more parking — about 116 spots in total — than its sister store in Colonie, but looks like your traditional Trader Joe’s with wooden shelves and yellow walls covered with brightly painted clouds and grass. And people were jumping at the chance to join the crew.
“Our best crew members usually start out as customers,” Witte said, noting that he was expecting to have
shifted money to less risky investments. Treasury yields edged higher.
The selling kicked off after a government report showed U.S. retail sales fell sharply last month. The report followed an unexpectedly bad consumer sentiment survey on Friday that was almost entirely due to the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, which has caused hospitals to fill up with unvaccinated patients across the U.S.
Those downbeat reports and the rise of the delta variant gave investors an opening to take some profits after a five-day run of all-time highs by the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.
The S&P 500 fell 31.63 points to 4,448.08. The Dow lost 282.12 points, or 0.8 percent, to 35,343.28. The blue-chip index was briefly down 505 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 137.58 points, or 0.9 percent, to 14,656.18.
Nearly three times as many stocks fell on the NYSE than rose. Small company stocks bore some of the heaviest selling. The Russell 2000 index slid 26.24 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,177.17.
Bonds were little changed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 1.26 percent.
Americans cut back on their spending last month as a surge in COVID -19 cases kept people away from stores. Retail sales fell a seasonal adjusted 1.1 percent in July from the month before, the U.S. Commerce Department said Tuesday. It was a much larger drop than the 0.3 percent decline Wall Street analysts had expected.
According to Tuesday’s report, spending fell at stores selling clothing, furniture and sporting goods. At restaurants and bars, spending rose nearly 2 percent, but the rate of growth has slowed from recent months as the delta variant spread and people worried about dining with others.
The weak sales report dragged down companies that rely on discretionary spending from consumers. Ralph Lauren fell 2.7 percent and Whirlpool dropped 3.9 percent.
Travel-related companies, including airlines, cruise line and hotel operators, fell broadly. American Airlines lost 2.1 percent, Royal Caribbean Group slid 3.1 percent and Marriott International closed 2.1 percent lower.
“It doesn’t surprise me that we’re seeing a bit of an acrossthe-board sell-off, we’re a bit overdue,” said Mike Stritch, chief investment officer of BMO Wealth Management.
Major indexes had been trading at record highs on a mix of confidence from investors and friendly monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. Analysts still expect economic growth to continue through the year, but sentiment on Wall Street is becoming a bit more cautious on the pace.
Markets also digested news that Chinese factory output, consumer spending and investment grew more slowly in July than expected. The government blamed flooding in central China and controls on travel and business to fight outbreaks of the coronavirus’ delta variant.
Shares of Home Depot fell 4.3 percent after the company told investors that sales were slowing compared to last year, when millions of locked-down Americans undertook home improvement projects.
Homebuilders fell broadly following a disappointing report from the National Association of Home Builders.
The organization said that builder confidence hit a 13month low in July as companies worry about supply shortages and high costs. KB Home fell 4 percent.