MetLife Inc. said Thursday that it is raising the U.S. minimum wage to $20 an hour, as the financial services and insurance company increases its investment in its employees. "By raising our minimum wage, we're offering security and confidence to our people just as we do our customers," said Chief Executive Michel Khalaf. MetLife's new minimum wage is compares with the $15 minimum wage recently instituted by many other companies in different sectors, including CVS Health Corp. and Coach-parent Tapestry Inc. , while Synchrony Financial also raised its minimum wage to $20 an hour. MetLife's stock, which fell 1.5% in morning trading, has run up 27.9% year to date, while the SPDR S&P Insurance ETF has tacked on 15.9% and the S&P 500 has gained 17.1%.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 46 billion cubic feet for the week ended Aug. 13. The EIA said the data, however, included an adjustment to the week's total to account for a reclassification of some gas stocks from base gas to working gas. Working gas is the volume of gas available in the market. The implied flow for the week is an increase of 42 bcf to working gas stocks, the EIA said. On average, analysts forecast an increase of 35 billion cubic feet, according to a poll conducted by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 2.822 trillion cubic feet, down 547 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 174 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, the government said. Following the data, September natural gas continued to trade lower, down 10.8 cents, or 2.8%, at $3.74 per million British thermal units. Prices were at $3.755 shortly before the data.