“My team is magnificent,” she said. “I believe that you hire people that are good at what they do, and you hire people that are smarter than you … At the beginning, you may not be able to hire the best because of money. But you hire somebody that compliments your personality so you all can work together as a team.”

Gaines also said it was important to hire workers who are multifaceted and can grow and develop skills within one’s company.

“You don’t want to get somebody that can only do one thing,” Gaines said. “That’s an AI. You want to get somebody who can operate an AI, [who] is open minded [and] works well with your particular culture of the company.”

Rig on Wheels’ Faces of the Road Initiative started in 2024 to celebrate the diversity of America’s truck drivers with a product line that showcases drivers’ unique journeys and contributions in the industry.

“A lot of times when you see paraphernalia of things with truck drivers, it’s only an older white male,” Gaines said. “But those days are gone. Our truck drivers are white, Black, Hispanic and Asian … It’s more than just that, but typically they’re going to fall into those four categories.”

This year, Rig on Wheels has developed a calendar where every month different drivers from various backgrounds and ethnicities will share their trucking industry experiences.

“Rig on Wheels is very driver centric,” Gaines said. “We needed drivers to see themselves, and that is part of retention. I believe retention starts with recruiting, it’s not a separate thing.”

She said that truck drivers and society at large need to view trucking as a respectable career for all people. Being an African American woman and business leader, Gaines said she herself faces occasional “issues” rooted in discrimination.

“What I do is try my best all the time,” Gaines said. “And I do tell my staff that [they] are working with and for a Black woman in this industry, and we cannot afford to make mistakes. We don’t get a second chance.”

Gaines spoke about the changes she’s seen in driver recruitment over the last 15 years.

“The driver has changed because the industry is not as respected,” she said. “There was a time when being a truck driver was more respected … It becomes a little more challenging [because of that.] Now, I do see we are changing that.”

She said over the last 18 months, carriers have started enforcing more discipline for drivers who don’t show up to orientation or lack work ethic.

“That culture has been in this industry and has just started spreading like a bad rash for years and years,” Gaines said. “But now there are carriers that are putting their foot down. Like, ‘If you’re doing this, then you can’t be hired with us for a year.’ They’re really putting their foot down and being strict about it.”

Gaines said that this change has been driven by shippers putting pressure on the carriers to present a different type of driver in the market.

“Carriers were having to compete on levels for these accounts that they haven’t had to compete on in a very, very long time,” Gaines said. “If you were at a 98.2% on time rate, you were failing.”

She said this changed the hiring discussion from “not hiring drivers with safety issues” to also “not hiring drivers that left their last company or got terminated because of attendance.”

“That is bringing some respect back into the industry,” Gaines said. “And I think truck drivers need to be respected just as much as pilots. It’s the same thing.”

The post Rig on Wheels celebrates 15 years of driver recruitment appeared first on FreightWaves.

“What a difference a week makes,” said Steve Sosnick at Interactive Brokers. “At this time last Friday stocks were selling off sharply thanks to a better-than-expected jobs report. It revealed the equity market’s somewhat seemingly obvious preference for rate cuts over a solid economy.”

From a technical perspective, Dan Wantrobski at Janney Montgomery Scott, says the setup was “nearly perfect for oversold conditions to collide with positive news and trigger the rally we are currently experiencing.”

When Trump takes his oath as the next US president on Monday, stock investors will have one big reason to breathe a sigh of relief. History shows the performance of the equities benchmark over a three-month period usually improves after inauguration day.

History shows that the average three-month performance of the S&P 500 going into the ceremony is just about 1%, compared to a 3.7% rise on the way out, according to Jefferies’ analysis of data going back to 1929.

The index “typically trades lumpy around inaugurations,” the firm’s strategists said, but things start to improve a few months in. In fact, on average the S&P gains 8.3% six months into an inauguration and about 9.5% 12 months in, according to Jefferies.

Trump’s return to the White House will likely shield US stocks from a big selloff, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists, as investors focus on his protectionist agenda and proposals for lower corporate taxes.

US stocks are “protected by Trump” from downside, strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a note, although he doesn’t expect sharp gains either due to risks including high concentration in mega-cap technology stocks, valuations and investor positioning.

“We continue to view US equities as attractive, forecasting that 9% earnings growth this year will drive the S&P 500 to 6,600 by the end of the year,” said Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Large-caps should outperform mid- and small-caps given their greater AI exposure, better earnings trends, and less dependency on Fed rate cuts.

Sector-wise, he likes information technology, financials, utilities, communication services, and consumer discretionary.

“When you’ve had so many years should significant outperformance of US equities, it’s very difficult to then look at opportunities outside the US and think that they’re going to be any more attractive,” said Zehrid Osmani at Martin Currie Investment Management. “But valuation discipline has to be an important angle for investors. We would need to see a broadening of the earnings momentum at the moment.”

Corporate Highlights:

• Microsoft Corp.’s $13 billion investment in OpenAI raises concerns that the tech giant could extend its dominance in cloud computing into the nascent artificial intelligence market, the Federal Trade Commission said in a report released Friday.

• The Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law that threatens to shut down the wildly popular TikTok social media platform in the US as soon as Sunday, ruling that free speech rights must yield to concerns that Chinese control of the app creates a national-security risk.

• US auto safety regulators are probing General Motors Co. over concerns that more than 870,000 of its full-size pickup trucks and SUVs face the risk of engine failure.

• Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. were raised to overweight from sector weight at KeyBanc Capital Markets as the broker repositions semicap coverage toward immediate growth drivers.

• J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings trailed expectations and it warned about first-quarter results, as well as cost pressures in 2025.

• JetBlue Airways Corp. and Southwest Airlines Co. were downgraded to underperform from neutral at Bank of America Corp., which citied their lower exposure to corporate, premium and international routes.

• Novo Nordisk A/S’s blockbuster drug Wegovy was targeted for price cuts by the US government and suffered a setback in a new trial, adding to growing threats to the Danish company’s early dominance in the surging market for new weight-loss treatments.

• Bumble Inc. founder Whitney Wolfe Herd will return to the dating-app firm as chief executive officer, a year after she handed over the reins to a Slack Technologies Inc. executive.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 rose 1% as of 4 p.m. New York time

• The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.7%

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%

• The MSCI World Index rose 0.8%

• Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 1.8%

• The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.4%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%

• The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0275

• The British pound fell 0.6% to $1.2170

• The Japanese yen fell 0.6% to 156.15 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin rose 4.9% to $105,064.59

• Ether rose 5.9% to $3,514.99

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.61%

• Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 2.54%

• Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.66%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.9% to $77.95 a barrel

• Spot gold fell 0.5% to $2,701.21 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Sujata Rao, Margaryta Kirakosian and John Viljoen.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

“I was a real money nerd,” he said. “I was really focused on the numbers.”

However, once he determined that his finances were secure and he retired, the time he spent focusing on money completely flipped.

“As that transition happens, you find yourself thinking less about the money because you’ve kind of worked through the kinks, and you know what you have to spend,” he said. “And you start thinking about, what am I going to do with my life? What’s going to get me that fulfillment and that excitement every day? And it’s not the money. Money is a means to an end. But as you get into retirement, you start looking for the end and not just the means.”

And that shift came as a surprise to Gilbert. “It’s a mental shift that I was not expecting,” he said. “It was one of my bigger surprises. It’s a pretty common reality that you do worry about (money) a lot less after you settle in.”

Gilbert explained how work often provides people with the “big five”: identity, structure, purpose, a sense of accomplishment, and relationships.

Retirees have to find a way to replace those. How might they go about doing that? First and foremost, it’s vital to recognize the importance of replacing the big five since they disappear once a retiree leaves work.

Many struggle early in retirement to find structure, purpose, or relationships, Gilbert said. “That’s when you’re starting to recognize that [you’ve] lost these things. Suddenly you have no structure in your life.”

In his case, Gilbert began replacing the “big five” by starting his blog three years before retiring. “I was looking for things that could potentially develop into things that give me fulfillment in retirement,” he said. “So I pursued it … and what does that give me now?”

In short, it’s given him a sense of identity, purpose, and structure.

That’s why he encourages both prospective and current retirees to replace the “big five” by actively exploring their curiosities.

“Pursuing your curiosity is not a skillset that we’ve exercised for a long time,” Gilbert said. “So it’s rebuilding that muscle and learning to explore and just have fun with it and recognize you’re going to try a lot of things that aren’t going to work … it’s a serendipitous process. It’s not a spreadsheet. But if you get better with it in time.”

Retirement isn’t just an individual decision — it also affects the entire household.

Gilbert emphasized the importance of discussing expectations before retirement. In his own experience, he and his wife conducted a “test retirement,” spending 10 days together to talk about their goals, the balance between “me time” and “we time,” and their travel preferences.

It also helped to do regular check-ins post-retirement to address changing needs and expectations, he said.

Despite all his planning and preparation, retirement did come with several unexpected surprises and challenges for Gilbert.

Transitioning from a saving mindset to a spending one was harder than anticipated.

“It’s tough to shift from building your nest egg to using it, knowing it has to last a lifetime,” he said. And that’s especially the case for retirees who are worried about running out of money. “It’s a very common tendency to continue to be conservative [and] underspend.”

In 2024, 67% of retiree respondents in a Goldman Sachs survey indicated they had too many monthly expenses, while 55% reported credit card debt.

Gilbert suggested using the bucket approach to creating a retirement income plan as one way to address the fear of running out of money. The bucket approach involves dividing your assets into separate “buckets,” each designated for a specific time horizon or purpose.

Typically, it includes a short-term bucket, which holds cash or low-risk investments to cover immediate expenses (e.g., 1–3 years); a mid-term bucket, which contains moderately conservative investments for expenses in the next 3–10 years; and a long-term bucket, which includes growth-oriented investments, like stocks, intended for use 10-plus years into retirement.

In terms of mindset, Gilbert’s retirement turned out just as he imagined: He pursued his curiosity and explored new interests as he planned.

However, where that mindset has taken him has been completely unexpected. For instance, he never thought he’d have a woodworking shop or a dedicated writing studio, but those came about through unexpected opportunities, like charity work.

“The biggest surprises — and the greatest excitement — have come from following where my curiosity has led me,” Gilbert said.

He also discovered that he could find fulfillment in retirement by focusing on others. Retirement, he said, is an excellent time to give back, whether through mentoring, volunteering, or charitable work.

“Start looking at people that maybe haven’t made it yet,” he said. “And find a way to use your time to benefit those in need.”

Each Tuesday, retirement expert and financial educator Robert Powell gives you the tools to plan for your future on Decoding Retirement. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service.

In the letter to Howard Hughes, Ackman writes: “Put simply, we are all in, and we intend for Pershing Square Holdco’s investment in HHH to be a permanent holding. In other words, we intend to hold HHH stock forever.”

Howard Hughes runs one of the largest portfolios of master planned communities (MPCs). It covers 101,000 acres across six states spread out across the U.S., from New York to Hawaii. MPCs are communities customized to meet the needs of their residents and include a mix of retail, residential, and commercial developments, designed to deliver a mini-town feel with extensive amenities.

Up until recently, Howard Hughes also owned other unique real estate assets, including the Las Vegas Aviators Triple-A minor league baseball team, the associated ballpark, and an 80% stake in the air rights above the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas. These assets were operated in the company’s Seaport Segment.

Recently, Howard Hughes spun the Seaport assets off into the Seaport Entertainment Group. Pershing received and maintained shares of the spin-off and noted its approval of the transaction in its recent letter to shareholders. Ackman said he sees “significant embedded upside potential in its unique collection of assets.” He also said the move better positions Howard Hughes as a pure-play MPC company with decades of growth ahead.

Management at Howard Hughes believes the company has been significantly undervalued and has previously laid out a sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) analysis. It values the company at $118 per share, with the MPC assets making up the bulk of the value. SOTP valuations, while compelling, can take a while for the market to fully appreciate, so the spin-off of the Seaport assets looks like a good move to create shareholder value. With Ackman going all in, it may be time for investors to give this one another look, if they are not invested already.

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $357,084!*

• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $43,554!*

• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $462,766!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See 3 “Double Down” stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of January 13, 2025

Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Howard Hughes and Seaport Entertainment Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Billionaire Investor Bill Ackman Just Went All In On One of His Favorite Stocks: He Plans to Hold It “Forever” was originally published by The Motley Fool

PayPal faces lots of competition, even though it’s a leader in online shopping. Popular digital wallets, like Apple Pay, and personal finance apps, like Block‘s Cash App, attract consumers. It becomes harder for PayPal to differentiate itself in a crowded field.

Merchants have compelling payment services they can choose from, too. Consequently, it’s more difficult to predict what PayPal’s position in the industry will look like five or 10 years from now. This adds uncertainty.

I still think PayPal is the better stock to buy in 2025, particularly given its more attractive valuation. It does face competitive threats on all fronts. So, you can argue that it’s a riskier business to own.

That’s especially true when compared to Visa, which is the safer and higher-quality company, although it trades at a more expensive valuation that can certainly be a headwind to achieving strong portfolio gains. Investors should keep Visa on their watch lists until there’s a sizable pullback that warrants making a purchasing decision.

In my opinion, there’s a greater probability that PayPal will generate market-beating returns over the next five years.

When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 884% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% for the S&P 500.*

They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and PayPal made the list — but there are 9 other stocks you may be overlooking.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of January 13, 2025

Neil Patel and his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Block, PayPal, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal and short March 2025 $85 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Better Fintech Stock to Buy in 2025: PayPal or Visa? was originally published by The Motley Fool

The big takeaway here is that Nucor’s business is definitely struggling right now, but that’s just how the steel industry works. Management is aware of the cyclicality of the industry in which it operates and is prepared for it.

In fact, it is once again attempting to take advantage of the weak patch by investing in its business. This is not a company that’s in a position of weakness; it is just as strong as it has ever been.

Thus, if you want to buy a Dividend King that has proved it knows how to grow its business over time, no matter what the world throws at it, you might want to put Nucor on your buy list today.

And if you do, you’ll probably want to hold on forever, even though there will be periods when the stock gets crushed. The thing is, if history is any guide, big stock declines are buying opportunities when it comes to this Dividend King.

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $357,084!*

• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $43,554!*

• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $462,766!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See 3 “Double Down” stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of January 13, 2025

Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Nucor. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

1 Magnificent Dividend King Down 33% to Buy and Hold Forever was originally published by The Motley Fool