A Goldman Sachs executive is warning that the US economy is losing momentum after a sharp downward revision in job creation over the past few months.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised down the job growth figures for June from 147,000 to 14,000, a 90% drop.

Figures for May were also revised down from 144,000 to 19,000, bringing the combined two-month downward revision to 258,000 jobs.

In a new CNBC interview, Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius says the jobs data suggest that the US economy is losing steam.

“Weeks ago, we wrote a report with the title ‘Stall Speed.’ We have only a little more than 1% growth in GDP in the first half and with this jobs number, I think that brings the picture to clearly stall speed image. 

I’m looking at an economy that is still growing but is growing very slowly. And the unemployment rate is drifting higher, gradually. But I do think that the downside risks in the labor market…. are definitely there.”

According to Hatzius, the Fed now has the green light to cut rates in the coming months to support the labor market.

“I think it makes it even more likely that they’re going to cut in September. We have had a series of 25 basis point cuts in September, October, December and to me that seems very likely.

And it could be more. 

It’s certainly a reasonable idea that we’re in the restrictive territory, but this sort of data suggests that maybe we should get back to neutral a little bit more quickly. We have that happening over a longer period of time, but you could accelerate the process.”

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PayPal has launched a new initiative, “Pay with Crypto,” aimed at streamlining global commerce and significantly reducing the cost of cross-border transactions, according to a July 28 statement.

According to the company, the service offers merchants a 90% reduction in international transaction fees compared to traditional credit card processors.

Pay with crypto

This is made possible by instant conversions from crypto into fiat or PayPal USD (PYUSD), its native stablecoin. The platform supports over 100 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, and is compatible with major wallets like Coinbase and MetaMask.

PayPal estimates that this move opens access to over 650 million crypto users worldwide, allowing merchants to tap into a rapidly growing digital asset economy.

Alex Chriss, PayPal’s President and CEO, emphasized the program’s potential to eliminate long-standing barriers in international commerce.

He said:

“Imagine a shopper in Guatemala buying a special gift from a merchant in Oklahoma City. Using PayPal’s open platform, the business can accept crypto for payments, increase their profit margins, pay lower transaction fees, get near instant access to proceeds, and grow funds stored as PYUSD at 4% when held on PayPal.”

“Pay with Crypto” consolidates fiat and crypto payments into a single interface, giving consumers flexible payment options while empowering merchants to reach global markets. It also aligns with PayPal’s broader efforts to expand stablecoin usage and drive financial efficiency.

The initiative follows recent developments, including PayPal’s partnership with Fiserv to promote global stablecoin adoption.

PayPal World

Meanwhile, the company recently launched “PayPal World,” a new platform designed to connect major digital wallets and simplify cross-border commerce.

The initiative will debut with interoperability between five key players, including PayPal, Venmo, Tenpay Global, NPCI International (UPI), and Mercado Pago.

According to the firm, this reinforces its commitment to simplified, low-cost digital commerce. Chriss said:

“These innovations don’t just simplify payments—they drive merchant growth, expand consumer choice, and reduce costs. This is the future of inclusive, borderless commerce, and we’re proud to lead it.”

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Intel (INTC 2.16%) launched its Arrow Lake family of desktop central processing units (CPUs), officially the Core Ultra 200 series, in late 2024. The company outsourced most of the manufacturing to TSMC, moved to a chiplet-based architecture, and managed to improve energy efficiency substantially, compared to its previous-generation chips. For productivity tasks, Arrow Lake performed well.

However, there were two problems. First, Arrow Lake’s gaming performance fell flat, losing to Intel’s last-gen chips. Some software fixes have improved the situation, but for those looking to squeeze every last frame per second out of their gaming PC, Arrow Lake isn’t the answer.

Second, pricing was on the high side. Not only were Arrow Lake CPUs expensive on their own, but they also required a new motherboard, making all upgrade paths pricier.

Arrow Lake CPUs have been selling below Intel’s original suggested retail pricing for a while, but the company is now officially slashing prices on one of its chips. The 265K, a mid-range part that was originally priced at $399, now has a suggested retail price of $299. Suggested retail prices for the higher end 285K and the lower end 245K are staying put, although actual retail prices vary.

While Intel’s price cutting is limited, the 265K is in the sweet spot for many potential customers, with most of the performance of the 285K for much less money. Featuring eight performance cores and 12 efficiency cores, the 265K is a solid all-arounder that falls a bit short in gaming and makes a lot more sense at $299 than it did at $399.

Image source: Getty Images.

A sign of things to come?

Intel replaced its CEO in March with Lip-Bu Tan, a veteran of the semiconductor industry and a critic of Intel’s sluggish pace and bureaucratic nature. Tan’s strategy revolves around cutting a bloated cost structure, putting out better products faster, and listening to customers. More aggressive pricing could be part of the equation as Intel looks to make Arrow Lake more competitive.

AMD‘s latest Ryzen 9000 series CPUs didn’t get great reviews, and retail pricing quickly dropped to reflect muted demand. But the Ryzen 9000 series looks a lot better relative to Arrow Lake, especially with Arrow Lake’s sky-high initial pricing.

AMD’s gaming-centric X3D variants, which feature ultra-fast cache memory capable of boosting gaming performance, are the undisputed kings of gaming CPUs. AMD noted in its first-quarter report that there was strong demand for its newest Ryzen chips, likely at the expense of Intel.

Intel also cut the prices of its Granite Rapids server CPUs in January, although there was no official announcement. The Granite Rapids family is the best set of server CPUs that Intel has put out in years, and it largely caught up to AMD in terms of core counts, performance, and efficiency. But like Arrow Lake, pricing skewed high.

There was a time not long ago, before AMD’s comeback, when Intel faced no real competition in either the PC or server CPU markets. The company’s dominance afforded it the ability to price its products high and generate impressive profit margins. With AMD now highly competitive and stealing market share, that era is over. With price cuts for Granite Rapids and Arrow Lake, Intel appears to finally recognize that it needs to compete on price to win back market share.

Intel has a long road ahead as it attempts to turn itself around. If recent price cuts are any indication, more aggressive pricing will likely be part of Tan’s strategy as he looks to stop the bleeding and regain some lost market share from AMD.

PepsiCo (PEP -0.27%) kicked off its 2025 reporting year with weak results and cut its full-year guidance — pushing shares down to a new 52-week low. In fact, Pepsi is down over 24% in the past year and is knocking on the door of a five-year low.

The sell-off has pole-vaulted Pepsi’s yield up to 4.1%. And with 53 consecutive years of dividend increases, the beverage and snack giant has an extensive track record of delivering reliable passive income to shareholders.

Here’s why the fizz has evaporated from Pepsi stock and whether the Dividend King is worth buying now.

Image source: Getty Images.

Pepsi’s dividend is intact despite its guidance cut

Pepsi reported a 1.8% decline in revenue and a 4% decline in constant currency earnings per share (EPS). Constant currency adjusts for changes in currency conversions between reporting periods, making it a more accurate way to measure operating results.

The owner of several beverage brands as well as Frito-Lay and Quaker Oats saw flat beverage volume growth and a 3% decline in convenient foods — illustrating strain on consumer demand. The opening quote from CEO Ramon Laguarta in Pepsi’s earnings release was bleak:

Our businesses remained resilient in the midst of increasingly dynamic and complex geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions in the first quarter. As we look ahead, we expect more volatility and uncertainty, particularly related to global trade developments, which we expect will increase our supply chain costs. At the same time, consumer conditions in many markets remain subdued and similarly have an uncertain outlook.

In 2025, Pepsi is now guiding for a low-single-digit organic revenue increase, $7.6 billion in dividends, and $1 billion in buybacks. It expects flat year-over-year core constant currency EPS compared to prior guidance of mid-single-digit growth. Core EPS excludes restructuring, acquisition, and one-time costs. All told, Pepsi expects 2025 core EPS to decline by 3% compared to previous guidance for a slight increase.

Value is top of mind for consumers

Pepsi cited three factors for its guidance cut: tariffs, macroeconomic uncertainty, and consumer weakness. On past earnings calls, Pepsi has discussed balancing quantity and price by offering more chips per bag to drive value and boost demand. However, pressure on consumers has intensified. Laguarta said the following on the call:

What we’re seeing is that consumers are giving a lot of value to absolute dollars now. So clearly, entry price points and absolute outlay of money per unit is a very important relevant metric. And so, we’re putting more emphasis on those entry price points and making sure that we’re not asking for a large amount of money for participating in our brands … that’s why smaller, single-serve, smaller multi-packs, those are all tools for us to keep the consumers in the brand.

In sum, tariffs are far from Pepsi’s only challenge. Consumer demand continues to deteriorate, which is pressuring Pepsi to make changes just to keep buyers engaged. Pepsi’s struggling snack business is relying on single-serve options below the $2 price point. When buyers spend more, they often gravitate toward multipacks. Pepsi has lowered the price of its 10-count multipacks to increase consumer frequency and shift its focus to a price-per-pack mindset.

In other words, if consumers can think of a low cost per pack rather than a higher cost for a larger quantity in a single bag, then it could make the purchase more appealing.

Adjusting to changing consumer preferences

Despite years of challenges and slowing growth, it may come as a surprise that Pepsi has continued to invest in product innovation and acquire new brands. In the last six months, Pepsi has become the sole owner of Sabra and Obela snack and dip products, completed its acquisition of the Mexican-American food brand Siete Foods, and announced its intention to acquire the prebiotic soda brand Poppi.

Together, these acquisitions diversify Pepsi’s convenient food and beverage lineup, making it less centered on chips and high-sugar soda, more adaptable to health-conscious consumers, and featuring ready-to-eat meal replacements.

These deals are too small on their own to move the needle in the near term. However, they reveal an element of self-awareness, suggesting that Pepsi is overly reliant on unhealthy snacks and beverages and recognizes the need to diversify to adapt to shifting consumer preferences.

However, Pepsi has been having some noteworthy successes with its core bands. The Pepsi brand has been gaining market share and focusing on the zero-sugar category. Gatorade and Propel have helped Pepsi maintain its leadership in the sports drink category. Pepsi believes it can improve its value chain by optimizing the processes of making, moving, and selling products, which can drive long-term margin growth.

Pepsi’s valuation has gone from inexpensive to bargain bin

Tariff turmoil adds another layer of complexity to what has already been a challenging few years for Pepsi. However, Pepsi has simply become too cheap to ignore. A 3% decline implies 2025 core EPS of $7.92 — giving Pepsi a price-to-earnings ratio based on its core EPS forecast of just 16.8. That’s a dirt cheap valuation for a high-yield Dividend King stock.

What’s more, Pepsi can continue supporting its capital return program even during this period of slowing growth. The company remains highly profitable, so its challenges are not severe enough to threaten a dividend cut.

However, Pepsi’s acquisition spree, paired with slowing growth, has added debt to its balance sheet. Its leverage ratios remain in decent shape, but investors should monitor Pepsi’s net debt position to see if it can decrease over time as the company leverages its global supply chain, distribution, and marketing to maximize the benefits of its recently acquired brands.

A reliable income stock that’s worth buying and holding

Entering 2025, Pepsi was not at the top of its game. And now that tariffs are expected to add further cost pressure, short-term investors may feel compelled to sell the stock.

Management’s lack of enthusiasm for Pepsi’s 2025 outlook is palpable, but the stock is simply too cheap to ignore. With expectations down, Pepsi doesn’t have to do much to surprise to the upside. In the meantime, the 4.1% dividend yield offers a worthwhile incentive to hold the stock during this period.

Add it all up, and Pepsi stands out as a high-conviction buy for value investors with at least a three to five year investment time horizon to boost their passive income stream.