CEOs are having their worst year in decades

Analysis by Nicole Goodkind, CNN

New York (CNN) — It’s been a bad year for CEOs.

Chief executives have left their posts at an alarming rate as their performance — and their behavior — come under increased scrutiny by corporate boards.

What’s happening: Well over 1,000 CEOs have left their companies this year, according to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas report. That’s 33% more than last year and the highest total in the first seven months of the year since the staffing research company began tracking exits in 2002.

The average CEO tenure has significantly decreased from an average of 12 years to between 5 and 7 years now, according to analysts who focus on CEO succession for talent management company Ferguson Partners.

“While specific details regarding these exits are typically undisclosed, it is evident that more CEOs are exiting due to the new pressures of their roles, the relentless pace of change, and, in some cases, their own actions,” they wrote.

The role of the CEO is changing rapidly, they said, and executive boards have been struggling to keep shareholders happy.

September’s exits: At least three major CEOs have stepped down in the first two weeks of September alone.

BP CEO Bernard Looney resigned on Tuesday “effective immediately” after admitting that he had not been “fully transparent” about “historical relationships with colleagues,” according to a statement from the oil giant.

Looney had spent less than four years on the job but was a company man through and through — he was a BP lifer, joining the company in 1991 at the age of 21 as a drilling engineer and working his way up to the top position.

But ethical infractions aside, investors were disappointed with his performance well before his resignation.

On Looney’s watch, BP became the only major oil company with goals to reduce oil and gas output this decade. Shareholders weren’t too happy with the decision -— or with BP’s share price (BP), which has lagged that of its competitors.

Looney recently trimmed BP’s emission reduction goals and increased spending on crude oil and natural gas. Still, BP missed profit expectations last quarter. Shares of the company fell 1.3% on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, clothing company Express announced on Saturday that former Tyson Foods executive Stewart Glendinning would become its next CEO, replacing Timothy Baxter, effective September 15.

Baxter’s resignation was announced just one day after the company released its second-quarter results, with net sales of its Express brand and its lifestyle line UpWest decreasing 15% compared to last year. The company’s sales in retail stores were down 21%, and its e-commerce sales were down 1%. Express reported a net loss of $44.1 million, compared to a net income of $7 million in the same quarter of 2022.

Express said Baxter’s departure was not related to the company’s financial performance. Still, shares of the company are down by about 85% since Baxter joined Express in June 2019 after spending 11 years with Macy’s.

Earlier in September, Walgreens Boots Alliance said that CEO Rosalind Brewer stepped down less than three years after taking the helm at the pharmacy chain.

Brewer’s expertise is in retail, and her exit comes as Walgreens aims to focus more on health care, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. Retail, he said, hasn’t been a driver of growth for the company.

Shares of Walgreens are down 32% so far this year. Walgreens slashed its full-year profit guidance in June, warning of softening consumer spending and a pullback in demand for Covid vaccines.

Oil prices hit 10-month high

Global oil prices climbed above $92 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 10 months, reports my colleague Matt Egan. The climb came as the energy market feared for supply disruptions caused by catastrophic flooding in Libya.

Brent crude, the world benchmark, jumped nearly 2% to an intraday high of $92.38 a barrel. That’s the highest price since November 17, 2022. US oil prices popped 2.3% to as much as $89.29 a barrel, also the highest level since November.

The latest rally for oil prices will continue to push up prices at the pump for consumers and add to inflation across the US economy.

Analysts blamed the price surge on the deadly flooding in Libya, which will temporarily disrupt oil exports from that OPEC nation. It produced about 1 million barrels of oil per day in August, according to OPEC.

“Libya has a number of ports that are not able to export,” said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler. “It’s one more thing adding to the bullish side of the ledger for crude.”

The Libyan flooding comes just a week after Russia and Saudi Arabia sent oil prices climbing by announcing plans to extend their aggressive supply cuts.

Gasoline prices, which lag oil prices, have edged higher this week as a result of that announcement.

The national average for regular gasoline hit $3.84 a gallon on Tuesday, up from $3.81 a week ago, according to AAA. Gas prices are now 12 cents higher than at the same point last year.

Takeaways from Apple’s iPhone 15 event

Tuesday was a big day for Apple as the tech titan unveiled its iPhone 15 lineup along with other major updates during its September keynote event.

So what did we learn? My colleagues Clare Duffy and Samantha Murphy Kelly have the breakdown here.

Among the highlights: The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max now feature a titanium casing, allowing the design to be slimmer and thinner than before. Meanwhile, the basic iPhone 15 phones now include updated image stabilization for taking photos and videos, 2x optimization and updated portraits with richer color and better low-light performance.

The iPhone 15 comes in 5 colors (white, black, pink, green and yellow) and in two sizes: A 6.1-inch screen for the iPhone 15 and 6.7 inches for iPhone 15 Pro.

The iPhone 15 will start at $799, and iPhone 15 Pro will start at $999. The iPhone 15 models will be available for pre-order on Friday and for sale in stores on Friday, September 22.

But perhaps the biggest change coming to the iPhone 15 models is that they will now use a USB-C charging cord, ending an 11-year run with Apple’s proprietary Lightning charging cable.

Now Apple customers can use the same USB-C chargers to power their iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

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