Friday’s business headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Here’s a look at Friday’s business headlines.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is scheduling its annual Prime Day shopping event for September.

It’s usually held in mid-July.

The Wall Street Journal says the company is concerned about being able to meet all of the shipping deadlines while it’s still recovering from an onslaught of online shopping during the pandemic.

Tourism

Sheltering Americans could put a record chill in tourism this summer.

The U.S. Travel Association says travel spending for the holiday weekend will plunge by nearly two-thirds to $4.2 billion.

Those who do venture out are looking for less expensive experiences like camping.

Twitter bots

Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans.

The researchers didn’t conclude who exactly was behind the bot accounts but said the volume and sophistication hinted that it could be Russia or China.

Debt payments

Millions of Americans are missing payments on credit cards and car loans as the coronavirus pandemic squeezes consumers’ wallets.

Transunion says nearly 15 million credit cards, or about 3.2% of the nation’s accounts, were in “financial hardship” status in April.

Three million car payments weren’t made either.