Wal-Mart Cuts Health Insurance for Some 30K Part-Time Workers

Your heating bill will likely be less this winter, but how much you save depends on how you heat your home.  If you use propane, expect to save about $800. If you use heating oil, the savings are around $360. About half the nation uses natural gas, and the Energy Department expects those bills to drop about $30. You know how much to pay your utility, now Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) can remind you to pay up. That's because it can scan your Gmail account and tell you when your bills are due. To initiate the reminders, you first have to turn on the Google Now feature which gives Google permission to send you an alert based on your inbox. There’s bad news for some 30,000 part-time workers at Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT). The retailer announced early Tuesday it is no longer providing those 30-hour-per-week employees with health insurance. The company cites the ballooning cost of health care as the reason for cutting benefits. But, while Wal-Mart is nixing coverage for part-timers, Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), and Lands’ End (NASDAQ:LE) do offer health coverage to some of their part-time employees. Let's take a look at Wall Street. The Dow closed more than 270 points lower on Tuesday following a major selloff. Sentiment wasn’t much different Wednesday as markets wavered ahead of FOMC minutes and the kickoff to third-quarter earnings season.

This October is acting more like ‘shock-tober’, tricking investors more than treating them. They may be hoping corporate America’s third-quarter earnings season helps ease fears of slowing global growth.