Thursday’s business headlines

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

Nike launches maternity clothing line

Nike is launching a new maternity clothing line for sporty moms.

It features a stretchy sports bra, tank top, tights and jacket priced up to $85.

Macy’s CEO calls for drawn-out holiday season

Macy’s CEO is calling for a more drawn-out holiday season this year, with sales kicking off prior to Thanksgiving Day.

With fewer activities to do and events to attend, Macy’s also expects consumers won’t be exchanging experiential gifts like tickets or trips.

Instead, he expects categories like beauty and home to be trending for gift-giving.

Vera Bradley stock soars

Vera Bradley’s stock is soaring with surprise quarterly profits.

Strong e-commerce sales and the addition of jewelry brand Pura Vida for the full quarter proved to be the crown jewels.

The Fort Wayne-based company says e-commerce sales doubled and partially offset a decline in store revenue as COVID-19 shuttered stores for part of the quarter.

Changes to jobless claim count

The Labor Department is switching to a new method to seasonally adjust its weekly jobless claims figures that could result in a sharply lower claims totals.

Initial claims, a rough measure of layoffs, that have hovered around one million each of the past few weeks could come in closer to about 800,000 for the week ending August 29.

The government routinely seasonally adjusts its economic numbers to account for events that occur at certain times every year and are likely to inflate or deflate the data, like the holidays or back to school.