Nike is planning to cut off thousands of online distributors in China beginning in January as the sneaker giant looks to clean up what’s become a messy digital marketplace and get the region back to growth, the company said Tuesday. 

Starting next year, Nike’s online footprint will shift primarily to the retailer’s official website and app, and the storefronts it operates on Tmall, JD.com and Douyin, some of China’s largest online marketplaces and social platforms. 

Currently, consumers can shop Nike through all of those channels as well as thousands of other online storefronts powered by Nike’s brick-and-mortar partners in the region and a network of secondary distributors. While the vast digital network has led to widespread consumer access to Nike’s products, it’s also created an inconsistent branding and pricing experience and hampered the company’s efforts to reverse a sales decline in the region. 

“These new flagships will serve as the single, elevated destination for Nike within these ecosystems, with clearer product presentation, stronger storytelling and more connected consumer journeys,” Cathy Sparks, Nike’s new vice president and general manager of Greater China, wrote in a letter. “This is about strengthening the platforms where consumers already begin and end their shopping journey, making sure those experiences are direct, consistent and unmistakably Nike.”

“This is not about reducing access. It is about reducing fragmentation and strengthening the consumer journey,” she said. “When the experience is consistent, the brand becomes stronger.” 

Nike made clear that it’s not fully severing the relationships it has with the entities that operate the online storefronts that are set to go dark. Instead, it’s working with them to reduce their online footprints while bolstering their brick-and-mortar presence.

Nike’s plans to pare back its online footprint are designed to create a better, more consistent experience for the consumer and allow it to take back pricing control online. However, there are also concerns it could lead to a material drop in revenue in a region that’s already shrunk about 30% in the last five years. 

News about Nike’s plans to cut off online distributors first came to light late last month in a local Chinese media report. It prompted a note from BNP Paribas equity analyst Laurent Vasilescu, who wrote the move is reminiscent of Nike’s ill-fated decision to cut off wholesalers in North America, which contributed to its collapse of market dominance in the region, as well as steep declines in sales and margins. 

“This strategy opened up shelf space for competitors and the strategy ended poorly for Nike. We believe the same could happen if it takes the same approach in China,” Vasilescu wrote last month, adding that BNP was sticking with its underperform rating for the company. “We don’t think Nike has a distributor problem but rather a product problem which also applies in other markets.” 

The change is also expected…

A fresh coat of paint could help homeowners draw higher offers when it comes time to sell.

Buyers are showing growing interest in warm, comfortable colors over plain white walls, according to Zillow’s 2026 Paint Color Analysis. The highest-value interior paint choice was chocolate brown in a bedroom, which could add an estimated $2,277 to a home’s offer price.

“When it comes to getting the most out of your home before selling, paint is one of the easiest and most affordable places to start,” Charlie Lankston, executive editor at Realtor.com, told FOX Business in an email. “A fresh coat can instantly boost the appeal of a home the moment a buyer walks in the door.”

Other high-performing colors included pale blue in the living room, which could add about $1,723 to an offer price compared with white, and charcoal gray in the living room, which could add about $1,509, the study found.

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In bedrooms, charcoal gray could add about $1,240, while sage green could add about $1,035.

Sage green was one of the safest choices for sellers. The color ranked near the top in every room studied, including bathrooms, living rooms and bedrooms, according to Zillow. 

Darker kitchen colors also performed well. Homes with charcoal gray kitchens could receive about $1,373 more, while dark plum kitchens could bring in about $867 more.

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms for paint choices. The difference between the best and worst kitchen colors was nearly $8,000, the study found.

Meanwhile, some paint colors may lower a home’s sale price. 

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Ochre yellow was the worst-performing color in the study. Using the dark gold color in the kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom could lower a home’s offer price by about $18,164.

A fire-hydrant red bathroom could reduce offers by nearly $8,000, while pale pink also performed poorly in every room studied, according to Zillow.

Lankston said paint can be a good starting point for sellers looking to improve their return on investment (ROI), but it should be part of a broader strategy. 

“Kitchens and bathrooms remain the foundational investments, and for sellers who want to go further, outdoor living spaces are delivering serious returns,” Lankston added. 

MORTGAGE RATES TICK HIGHER, BUT BUYERS SHOW SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE

“Deck additions can see a high ROI for buyers who want those creature comforts of the indoors brought outside. Sellers who think strategically about…

SpaceX’s record-setting IPO is creating a financial windfall for thousands of the company’s current and former employees who received stock as part of their compensation.

Workers who hold stock in non-public companies are subject to restrictions that can keep them from selling those shares under most circumstances before an IPO occurs. Once the stock goes public, it starts a timeline under which they can begin to sell some of those shares as so-called “lock-up periods” gradually allow employees to sell shares in tranches that expand over time.

The ranks of SpaceX workers who will see an influx of wealth as a result of the IPO include not only those who design the rockets and satellites that have made the company famous, but also baristas, janitors and other workers who helped keep the company running.

FOX Business spoke with workers outside of SpaceX’s facility in Hawthorne, California, about their plans for the monumental IPO turning into a reality.

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One SpaceX employee, who said that he’s a process planner, said that he wants to “try to stay healthy” and that the IPO is “a beautiful thing… I mean, Elon is the best. Go Elon!”

Another SpaceX employee said that, “I’ve been a millionaire for a while, but it’s always nice to have money. It’ll be great when the lock-up period is out, of course, and we can actually sell some of it and that’ll feel a little more into the wealth, but it’s a great day.”

Juan Hernandez, who previously worked as a welder at SpaceX, told CBS News that when he was first hired by the company in 2015 he was offered $10,000 in stock. He explained that it “wasn’t a big deal” to him at the time and, “I didn’t know it was gonna be this big, at this point.”

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
SPCX	SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP.	160.95	+25.95	+19.22%

Hernandez, who now works at Blue Origin after a 10-year stint at SpaceX, told CBS that he has around 6,500 SpaceX shares that would represent a nearly $880,000 windfall based on the IPO listing price of $135 a share. He added that giving employees stock options encourages them to “perform a lot better because, I mean… it’s their company as well.” 

He went on to tell the outlet that he wants to maintain a strong work ethic after the IPO and plans to keep working, and expressed gratitude to Musk for “making all these lives much better and meaningful for their families as well.”

SPACEX SET A NEW RECORD FOR IPOS: THESE ARE…

Meta is laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, the company said Thursday as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires.

The company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled.

While an alternative to the sudden layoffs removing tech workers from peers like Meta and Oracle, the savings are likely tied to a similar industry upheaval that is requiring huge spending on the costs of artificial intelligence. Meta has already warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to the range of $162 billion US to $169 billion US — driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the artificial intelligence experts it’s been hiring at eye-popping pay levels.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives welcomed Meta’s cuts in a note to investors Thursday. He said he sees it as part of a strategy of using AI tools to “automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining productivity driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure.”

It’s not clear where the job reductions will occur. Meta has Canadian offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

7% of Microsoft workforce could get offers

Also Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees. The software giant plans to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or seven per cent of its U.S. workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak about it publicly.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., has spent billions of dollars operating an ever-expanding global network of data centres powering cloud computing services, AI systems and its own suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.

CNBC reported earlier Thursday on a memo from Microsoft’s chief people officer, Amy Coleman, announcing the voluntary retirement plan.

“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” Coleman wrote, according to CNBC, which chararterized the buyouts as the first in the…

Oracle on Monday announced it hired a new chief financial officer after the software giant moved forward with layoffs last week.

The company announced that Hilary Maxson will serve as the new CFO, joining Oracle from French industrial conglomerate Schneider Electric where she served in the same role. Oracle said her appointment to the rule is effective immediately.

Maxson, 48, will receive an annual base salary of $950,000 and will be eligible for a performance-based bonus with a target of $2.5 million, Oracle said in a regulatory filing.

The move comes on the heels of Oracle reportedly moving forward with a round of layoffs last week, with CNBC reporting the layoffs will affected thousands of workers at the tech company, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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Oracle’s most recent 10-K filing noted the company had about 162,000 full-time employees in May 2025.

The company said in a March filing that it expects the total costs associated with its restructuring plan in fiscal year 2026 to be as high as $2.1 billion, most of which would go to employee severance and related expenses.

Oracle has recently ramped up capital spending to build artificial intelligence (AI) data centers as the company looks to incorporate those tools into its business software services. The company has projected $50 billion in capital expenditures for its fiscal year that ends in May, more than double its spending in the previous fiscal year.

HSBC WEIGHS DEEP JOB CUTS AS AI OVERHAUL UNFOLDS: REPORT

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
ORCL	ORACLE CORP.	145.54	-0.84	-0.57%

The cloud computing company said in February it planned to raise as much as $50 billion this year through a combination of debt and equity sales.

The company’s stock has been volatile over the last year amid the AI buildout, with shares up about 14% in the last year despite declines of 50% in the last six months and 25% year to date amid concerns that AI presents a competitive threat to software providers.

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Oracle’s move to hire Maxson as CFO will reinstate a position that was eliminated after Safra Catz became the company’s co-CEO and principal financial officer in 2014.

Maxson will report to Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk in her new role and said in a press release announcing her hiring that she is “excited to join at this pivotal moment.” 

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She added that she looks forward to partnering with the company’s…

Hyundai Motor Company said on Friday it is stopping sales of some new Palisade SUVs in ‌Canada and the United States and will recall tens of thousands of the vehicles over an issue with power seats, following a recent incident in which a two-year-old girl was killed in Ohio.

The automaker said sales of its ​2026 Hyundai Palisade Limited and Calligraphy trims were halted because the second- and third-row power seats may not ​detect contact with an occupant or object as intended. ⁠It gave no ⁠details about the March 7 ‌fatality.

The recall ⁠includes approximately 68,500 ⁠vehicles, including about 8,000 in Canada, the company said.

Hyundai said it expressed its deepest sympathies to the family of the child who died and added it “does not yet have the full details and the incident is still under investigation.”

It said it is working on a recall fix and offering customers a rental vehicle until a full remedy is available if they want alternative ‌transportation.

The automaker urged caution when operating second- and third-row power seat functions and told people to ensure no person or object is in the seat or seat-folding ​area before operating the power seat.

Hyundai says it ⁠is developing an interim over-the-air software update, expected to be available by the end of March, that will enhance the system’s response to contact with occupants or objects, introduce additional operating safeguards and enhance overall system ⁠safety.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did ⁠not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new year will bring some big changes to the rules on in-office work for many employees across the country — including tens of thousands of provincial government staff in Ontario and Alberta, who will soon be required back in the office full time.

As of Jan. 5, Ontario provincial government employees will be expected to work in the office five days per week.

Alberta’s public service is also returning to full-time, in-office work in February to “strengthen collaboration, accountability and service delivery for Albertans,” a spokesperson for the Alberta government said.

While several provinces, including Manitoba, British Columbia and New Brunswick, retain more flexible hybrid work rules, others are reviewing their policies.

A spokesperson for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador said the province is looking at its remote work policy.

The government of the Northwest Territories is also reviewing its remote work policy, though a spokesperson said there are no plans to require employees to return to the workplace on-site five days a week.

Plan to come in ‘sharper view’

It’s still not clear when federal public servants will have to increase their office presence, or by how much. Prime Minister Mark Carney promised last month that a plan would soon come into “sharper view.”

Carney said his government will be “engaging with the public sector unions on the modalities” of the back-to-office policy, with details about the plan to be made public “over the course of the next several weeks.”

Carney provided few clues about his thinking on the issue. He did say the amount of time public servants will be expected to spend in the office will depend on individual roles and seniority.

The current rule, in place since September 2024, requires federal public servants to work a minimum of three days a week in-office, with executives in the office four days per week.

Treasury Board president Shafqat Ali told The Canadian Press in December that the federal government hasn’t worked out details of its promised return-to-office plan. He said conversations have been taking place within government, but “nothing has been finalized.”

A return to the cubicle

Several banks — including BMO, Scotiabank and RBC — have already told their staff to increase their office presence to four days per week.

Other private-sector companies are also making changes to their policies. Amazon, for example, is requiring its corporate staff to be in the office five days per week as of Jan. 2.

Provincial and federal public sector unions have pushed back against return-to-office mandates.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents about 40,000 public servants, said in a news release in August that the provincial government decided to order all its workers back to the office full time “without consideration for the realities front-line public service workers face.”

In a statement, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Canada’s largest federal union, said Ottawa’s push to get…