Category: Business

• The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.94% last week, the first drop below 7% since March.
• Mortgage applications rose this week to their highest level since March, showing increased demand.
• For mortgage rates to keep falling, inflation will likely have to cool further. 

One key part of buying a home became a bit more affordable last week, and some Americans decided to take advantage.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell from 7.02% to 6.94% in the week ending June 14, according to a Bloomberg report that cited Mortgage Bankers Association data released on June 19. This was the first time the 30-year fixed mortgage had fallen below 7% since March.

In the same week, the MBA's index of mortgage applications rose 1.6% to its highest point since March — signaling an uptick in homebuyer demand.

In recent years, high home prices and mortgage rates have made homeownership feel out of reach for many Americans. Business Insider has interviewed several people who have moved in recent years in the hopes of finding lower rents or mortgage payments.

To be sure, the majority of US households own their homes — nearly 66% did so as of 2022, according to the Census Bureau. But aspiring homeowners who missed out on relatively lower home prices and significantly lower mortgage rates of recent years have been dealt a tougher hand.

Some additional relief could also be on the horizon: 30-year mortgage rates are expected to fall to between 6.5% and 7.0% this year — though this would still be much higher than the sub-3% rates seen in 2020 and 2021.

The recent decline in mortgage rates was indirectly tied to the government inflation data released last week — which showed that price growth in May was slower than expected. For mortgage rates to fall considerably further, inflation will likely have to continue to cool.

• A new Citi report says finance will be "at the forefront" of changes due to artificial intelligence.
• Banking jobs are most at risk of AI-driven displacement, the report says.
• The adoption of AI in finance, however, will be slow due to regulatory challenges and other factors.

AI has already been thought to have the potential to change jobs in every industry profoundly. But, according to a new report from Citigroup researchers, "finance will be at the forefront of the changes."

"What a bank or financial firm looks like in the mid-2020s, be it retail or wholesale finance, looks very different to the mid-1980s, or the mid-1940s," the report said. "AI will repeat this cycle, possibly speeding it up."

While general-purpose technologies, or GPTs, create new opportunities for innovation and can improve quality of life, "they also destroy existing ways of doing things," the report added. "And as such, they also create losers, especially in the short term."

With data pulled from Accenture Research and the World Economic Forum, Citi's researchers said that about 67% of banking jobs have "higher potential" to be automated or augmented by AI. That means "banking jobs" (which the report didn't narrowly define) have the highest potential for AI-led job displacement.

However, according to Citi, a decline in head count may be partially or completely offset by an increase in AI-related compliance managers and ethics and governance staff.

One upside Citi pointed out, however, is that they estimate the profit pool for the 2023 global banking sector "could increase 9% or $170 billion from the adoption of AI, rising from just over $1.7 trillion to close to $2 trillion."

AI adoption in finance will be slow

The Citi researchers believe the "pace of implementing modern AI tools in financial services, in particular, GenAI, will be relatively slow when compared to other sectors," they said in the report, in part because of the "highly regulated nature of the sector and lack of 'ready to go globally aligned rules.'"

"A regulatory landscape is evolving in some jurisdictions, but it is a challenging road ahead for financial services firms when it comes to implementation because countries are moving to different speeds, taking different approaches towards regulation and in some cases changing their position on whether to regulate," it said.

In an interview featured in the report, Shameek Kundu, the head of financial services and chief strategy officer at TruEra, weighed in on the same point.

"I would describe traditional AI adoption in financial services as: widespread, shallow, and inconsequential," said Kundu.

Kundu explains that there are "a large number of enterprises experimenting with AI across different use cases," yet "limited scale of AI adoption across use cases" and a "limited perceived impact of AI system failures on critical business operations."

He cited a 2022 Bank of England survey, which found that "72% of firms reported using or developing machine learning applications," yet the "median number of ML applications for mainstream UK financial institutions to be just 20-30" and "less than 20% of the already few AI use cases were critical to business."

• Katy Perry announced her new single, "Woman's World," will be released on July 11.
• Perry also shared a short snippet of the song on TikTok, teasing a female empowerment theme.
• The production and lyrics have already been criticized as "dated" and "cliché" on social media.

Katy Perry's new song won't be released until next month, but the pop star's much-hyped comeback may already be in jeopardy.

On Monday, Perry unveiled the cover art and title for her forthcoming single, "Woman's World," out July 11, which will serve as the lead for Perry's sixth album with Capitol Records.

"Get ready to pop off," Perry wrote.

The as-yet-unnamed album will be Perry's first since 2020's "Smile," which drew an underwhelming response from critics and fans alike. (Business Insider's music team gave the album a score of 4.6 out of 10.)

At the time, "Smile" was similarly marketed as a rebirth following backlash to the so-called "purposeful pop" of Perry's previous album, 2017's "Witness."

Since then, Perry has laid relatively low for a chart-topping, record-breaking superstar. She gave birth to her first child with Orlando Bloom, a daughter named Daisy Dove, in August 2020. The following year, she launched "Play," an 80-show Las Vegas residency. Perry has also served as a judge on "American Idol" for seven seasons, wrapping her final episode in May.

As these endeavors neared their ends, Perry began dropping hints about a splashy comeback — and the timing has not gone unnoticed.

Over a decade has elapsed since Perry released a celebrated album (2013's "Prism"). Her most recent charting hit was "Daisies," which peaked at No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020.

In the words of @mazzypopstar, a pop culture commentary account on X: "Last two albums flopped, no hits since bon appetit and swish swish, harleys in hawaii streams aren't paying the bills anymore, landlord knocking on the door, she has ONE chance…"

When Perry finally kicked off her new era this week, she paired the announcement with a short snippet of "Woman's World" on TikTok. The video shows Perry lip-synching to a set of lyrics, which seem to focus on female empowerment, individuality, and strength — themes Perry has explored many times in songs like "Firework" (2010), "Roar" (2013), and "Resilient" (2020).

"Sexy, confident / So intelligent," Perry sings. "She is heaven-sent / So soft, so strong."

However, Perry's retreat to a familiar formula has not inspired faith in the masses — at least not judging by the early reactions on social media.

"I was rooting for Katy but these lyrics are so dated," one skeptic wrote on X. "It's giving 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign material."

Some people mocked the song's production and overall sound, leaving harsh comments across TikTok.

At the time of writing, the top comment on Perry's own video reads, "Get in the studio right now and re-record this song." Another says, "Are these AI lyrics??"

In separate videos, various creators said the clip sounds like "cliché drivel" and "an ARTPOP reject track," referring to Lady Gaga's 2013 album.

Some fan accounts went so far as to claim that Perry shared the video as a prank and the snippet was generated by AI, as some kind of bait-and-switch promotional tactic. (It is true the "Woman's World" sound has been removed from TikTok, but there's no real evidence or confirmation from Perry's team to support this theory.)

Many others criticized Perry's new visual direction, accusing her of cribbing aesthetics from niche pop musicians like Charli XCX — who's enjoying a wave of positive reviews for her new album "Brat" — and the Venezuelan producer Arca.

One disapproving post on X, which has racked up over 57,000 likes, accuses Perry of manufacturing a certain look in order to appeal to "the lowest common denominator gay guys."

A significant amount of the ire directed at Perry was sparked by a rumor that "Woman's World" was coproduced by Dr. Luke (real name Łukasz Gottwald), whom Kesha publicly accused of emotional and sexual abuse.

Kesha herself added fuel to the fire, simply writing "lol" on X shortly after Perry shared her announcement.

Rolling Stone confirmed Gottwald's involvement on Wednesday. He is one of several producers who collaborated with Perry on her forthcoming album, joining hitmakers like Max Martin and Stargate, according to a label source.

"Katy knew exactly the album she wanted to make and put together the team to make it happen," a Capitol Records source told Rolling Stone.

A representative for Perry did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

• Americans' diets have remained largely unchanged since 1999, according to a new study.
• Meals remain high in processed foods that can increase a person's risk of disease.
• Ditching sugary drinks and eating two fewer processed meals a week could help.

Americans are eating healthier than in previous years, but they still have a long way to go, according to a researcher who studies food as medicine.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Boston, co-authored a study on the quality of nearly 52,000 American adults' diets between 1999 and 2020. The results were published online Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Mozaffarian and his co-author, Junxiu Liu, examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that the American diet has remained nearly the same over the past two decades.

Between 1999 and 2020, 10.5% of study participants transitioned from "poor" diets to healthier diets with more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and less sodium, processed meat, and saturated fat.

But only 1% of study participants ate an "ideal" diet — 4 to 5 cups of fruits and vegetables daily, plus beans, whole grains, and nuts — during that same time period.

"People often ask me, 'Well, if the diet's slowly improving, why is obesity and diabetes still going up?' It's still going up because only 1.58% of Americans have an ideal diet. We still have a long way to go," Mozaffarian told CNN.

"We have stalled as a nation — and that does not bode well for our health. If I was grading America on its diet, I'd give it a D—just up from an F," Mozaffarian said.

Why are Americans failing in the diet department?

Typically, the American diet consists of ultra-processed foods and foods high in salt and sugar. These foods can increase a person's risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and early deathAccordingng to Heidi Silver, a registered dietitian and director of the Vanderbilt Diet, Body Composition, and Human Metabolism Core at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashvil, factors like food insecurity and poverty have contributed to the overall lack of improvement in peoples' diets over the last two decadesle.

"Food insecurity affects diet quality via lower consumption of healthier foods, especially those that are more expensive, don't have a long shelf life and don't provide enough volume to fill a hungry child," Silver told Yahoo.

These systemic limitations can make it difficult for food-insecure populations like Black people, older people, and low-income people to make lasting diet changes.

Simple diet tweaks could help reduce health risks

For those seeking simple and inexpensive ways to improve their diets, removing sugary drinks is a good first step, according to Dr. Gregory Katz, a cardiologist at NYU Langone.

"Drinking calories and drinking alcohol are the biggest modifiable risk factors. The number of people I see drinking 500 calories a day blows my mind," Katz told Business Insider's Gabby Landsverk. "Just because it's simple doesn't make it easy."

Katz suggested doing away with soda, juice, sugar-laden coffee drinks, and cocktails and replacing them with unsweetened tea or water flavored with a splash of juice or flavored with citrus.

Aiming to swap out two servings of processed foods each week is another strategy that doesn't involve overhauling your entire diet, according to Dr. W. Taylor Kimberly. Kimberly, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the senior author of a recent study linking ultra-processed foods to health risks like dementia and stroke.

You could, for example, swap French fries for a baked sweet potato or nosh on nuts and carrots instead of cookies and crackers.

Kimberly said that a good rule of thumb is to prepare meals at home as much as possible.

"If you look at it and think, that could be made in my kitchen, that's a good indicator," he said.

• Dollar Tree failed to remove lead-contaminated apple sauce from some of its stores, the FDA said.
• Products linked to child illnesses were said to still be on shelves months after they were recalled.
• The FDA said it could take further legal action if its concerns were not addressed. 

Dollar Tree failed for months to remove lead-contaminated apple sauce products from some of its stores, officials from the US Food and Drug Administration said in a letter to the retailer on June 11. The FDA warned it could take further legal action if Dollar Tree did not properly address the violations.

Several products — including WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches, Schnucks cinnamon-flavored apple sauce pouches, and Weis cinnamon apple sauce pouches — were recalled in October after consumption was linked to elevated levels of lead. As of March, the pouches were tied to reports of more than 500 illnesses among children in 44 states.

In its letter to Dollar Tree, the FDA said that the WanaBana pouches were still on shelves at stores in some states through December 19, two months after the recall. The agency wrote that although store employees did not allow customers to purchase the pouches at checkout, it was not an effective recall measure because at least one parent in Washington had allowed their child to eat a pouch off the shelf before they completed the purchase.

"This letter notifies you of our concerns and provides you an opportunity to address them," the FDA's letter read. "Failure to adequately address this matter may result in legal action, including, without limitation, seizure and injunction."

It asked the company to provide written documentation of the steps it is taking to prevent future violations within 15 business days.

A Dollar Tree spokesperson said the retailer is on a "journey to transform our business" under its new management team and will "continue to take steps to significantly enhance and strengthen our compliance and safety programs and capabilities, including our process for quickly and effectively executing product recalls."

"We continue to cooperate with FDA on this matter," they said.

There have been several changes to Dollar Tree's leadership team in the last 18 months. Rick Dreiling replaced Mike Witynski as CEO in January 2023, and Jason Nordin joined as senior vice president and chief of stores for Dollar Tree in September.

• A task force of more than a dozen doctors warned against prescribing children weight-loss drugs like Ozempic.
• In 2023, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested drug treatments for children with obesity in addition to lifestyle interventions.
• Health professionals continue to debate the safety and effectiveness of these drugs for adolescents.

With weight-loss drugs like WeGovy and Ozempic dominating many of today's consumer healthcare conversations, there's a mounting concern for a particularly vulnerable group: children.

Pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have been running clinical trials on children with obesity who are as young as 6 to understand how this class of drugs, called GLP-1s, could affect their health, Business Insider's Hilary Brueck previously reported.

In January 2023, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that healthcare providers offer weight-loss medications, in addition to lifestyle adjustments, to treat obesity in children 12 and older. However, not all health professionals agree with the AAP's recommendation.

The US Preventive Services Task Force — a panel of more than a dozen doctors and public health experts from various academic institutions — issued a statement pushing for drug-free weight-loss interventions for children who are 6 and older on Tuesday.

"We believe we need more evidence to be able to make a recommendation for or against medications in children and adolescents," Wanda Nicholson, the task force's chair and senior associate dean of diversity and inclusion at the George Washington University School of Public Health, told STAT.

"While there were trials evaluating the effectiveness of FDA-approved medications, there was a limited number of trials per medication from our review. And in addition, there was limited evidence on weight loss maintenance after medications were discontinued in children," Nicholson said.

Lifestyle interventions are still preferred by doctors over drugs

GLP-1 drugs like WeGovy and Ozempic contain semaglutide, a substance that increases a person's insulin, the natural hormone that regulates blood sugar and tells the body when it's full.

These injectable drugs have proven successful as weight-loss interventions for adults with obesity, early research shows.

However, this class of drugs has its limitations. Many GLP-1 users have reported weight gain after ceasing GLP-1 use, while others have mentioned side effects like diarrhea, "paralyzed" stomachs, hair loss, and nausea.

The US Preventive Services Task Force voiced concern for these potential side effects in children, as well as an excessive focus on weight instead of health.

Nicholson said clinicians have used lifestyle interventions, like nutrition and exercise plans, to help children with obesity lose weight and reduce risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, and liver disease.

However, the AAP's and the US Preventive Services Task Force's recommendations overlap, according to Amanda Staiano, an associate professor of pediatric obesity and health behavior at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University.

"The AAP explicitly states that drugs should not be a monotherapy. They are an adjunct to be used in combination with intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment," Staino, who was on the AAP's clinical practice guideline authorship committee, told STAT.

• IVF is under increasing scrutiny by conservative groups after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
• They take particular issue with the treatment's destruction of embryos.
• One author and fertility expert explains why these views won't work in practice.

In 2020, a hospital patient in Alabama wandered into a storage room, removed embryos from tanks of liquid nitrogen, and dropped them on the floor. Couples sued over wrongful death.

In February, the Alabama Supreme Court sided with the couples, ruling that the frozen embryos could legally be considered children.

"Even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory," Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in a concurring opinion.

The ruling not only created chaos for the state's fertility doctors — it kicked off a national debate over access to IVF.

The treatment helps women get pregnant by combining eggs and sperm in a lab setting. The goal is to create multiple embryos, with the hope of creating just one successful pregnancy. The rest might be thrown away or stored for future use.

But in a world without the protections afforded by Roe v. Wade, many fear "fetal personhood" laws, which give fetuses and potentially embryos the legal rights of a person, could complicate the IVF process for patients by raising the question: does throwing away excess embryos constitute murder?

Solutions like making one embryo at a time, for example, won't work, Leslie Schrock, an investor, author, and fertility expert, told BI in an interview. IVF requires making several embryos at once, as it mimics the very inefficiency that takes place naturally in our own bodies.

Natural human biology isn't perfect

Last week, Senate Republicans voted against a bill that would protect IVF access. At the same time, Southern Baptists, at their national conference, voted to oppose the use of IVF, but the resolution didn't explicitly oppose the creation of embryos that way — just their destruction.

All of these organizations have signaled that they believe life begins when "sperm meets egg," Schrock said. If you look at IVF through that lens alone, you would naturally believe that discarding embryos isn't okay. "There's no way around that," she said.

But our natural biology discards embryos all the time.

Most embryos conceived naturally don't survive in the human body. Among those that become successful pregnancies, one in four end in miscarriage.

"The biology of creating humans is fundamentally flawed," Schrock said. "It's not perfect. It's not like every time a sperm and egg meets, you get a viable pregnancy, much less a live birth."

IVF mimics this natural funnel. Not every fertilized egg will turn into an embryo; not every embryo will show up normal in genetic testing; and even the embryos that make it that far don't always transfer into the uterus successfully, Schrock said.

Making one embryo at a time would decrease success rates, extend wait times, and put further demands on IVF's lab workers, which are already in short supply, per Schrock and BI's reporting.

"There's a lot of loss along the way," she said. "It's not purposeful loss, it's not wasteful, it's not on purpose."

People aren't really choosing IVF

In the US, the treatment, which usually isn't covered by insurance, costs more than a Toyota Corolla. Meaning most IVF patients are either wealthy or taking out loans. (Yes, we live in a society in which your ability to have a baby can depend on your credit score.)

Women usually have to undergo two or three cycles to become pregnant, extending the financial and emotional costs of being a fertility patient.

Conservative groups can misunderstand that people who take this treatment on, per Schrock, are doing so because it's medically necessary to start a family — not because they want to.

Schrock herself nearly pursued IVF after suffering a miscarriage and medically necessary abortion. In the latter case, the fetus had stopped growing at around twelve weeks. At that point, she hadn't had children yet, and the choice — or lack thereof, rather — blew her mind.

"It was not something I wanted, it was not something I had ever even imagined was possible, and it was the hardest experience of my life," she said. "It's still visceral to this day, but medically speaking, I didn't have another option."

Deeply personal challenges are often where the IVF journey begins — and, sadly, ends.

Earlier this year, one patient, who asked not to be named, described her experience with fertility care to BI as a never-ending series of arbitrary choices, marked by a miscarriage and the end of her relationship.

"People don't just go into the process because it's fun," Schrock told BI, adding: "It's hard, it's disruptive, it's emotional. It is painful in many cases. And it does not always end with a healthy pregnancy."

Schrock, who has written about her experiences in books, felt shame for years, wondering where she went wrong.

"But you know what, it's just biology at the end of the day," she said. "It's taken me years to get to that. But it wasn't my fault, though. It wasn't my fault that it happened."

• Owners of the popular cafe chain Maman brought in about $50 million last year
• They risked everything — including all their savings — to do it
• In a recent CNBC article, the couple explained how they did it 

What was once a pipe dream of opening a café has become a multimillion-dollar business and brand for a New York couple.

Maman — a café touted for its pastries, French-style dishes, and Instagram-worthy aesthetics — has opened 34 locations across the US and Canada since opening its first Manhattan location in 2014.

"It was a small little dream that we had to open one cute, quaint, cozy coffee shop and café," owner Elisa Marshall told CNBC.

According to CNBC, Maman made about $47.2 million in sales last year and hopes to bring in $65 million in total revenue by the end of 2024. But it wasn't an easy start — from draining their savings to expanding the brand, co-founders Marshall and her husband, Benjamin Sormonte, gave up a lot to get the business where it is today.

In an interview with CNBC Make It, they described how they spent the last decade making their Parisian fantasy into a lucrative reality.

Big sacrifices at the onset

As with many small businesses, starting up was not easy. Marshall and Sormonte gave up a lot — including money, jobs, and sleep — to pursue their dream of running a successful café in New York.

Even before opening, they took their first leap of faith by uprooting their lives to relocate. Marshall and Sormonte moved to New York in 2012 from Spain after running a beach club in Ibiza. Before that, they had corporate jobs in law and marketing.

When it came time to bring the cafe to life physically, Sormonte and Marshall became not only business owners but also painters, bakers, and waiters. When Maman opened its doors in October 2014, they spent upwards of 80 hours a week working at the downtown Manhattan spot.

It was "a lot of sacrifice," Sormonte told CNBC, and "a lot of sweat and tears and love."

The couple burned about $250,000 to open, including emptying their savings accounts and turning to friends and family to pitch in.

"It was one of the biggest financial risks we could ever take," said Marshall to CNBC. "We really took quite a risk in pouring not only all of our money into it but also all of our time and energy."

Finding their 'it' factor

Coffee shops are a dime a dozen these days — one 2023 report said there are now more than 40,000 in the US. But Maman and its owners have made it a standout by honing in on a few distinct factors.

Inspiration for Maman — the French word for "mother" — and its menu was born from the foods they ate as kids. Sormonte grew up in Southern France and Marshall in Toronto.

Marshall told CNBC that they chose the name with the intent to create "the feeling of warmth and home."

"When we asked ourselves, 'Who is your favorite chef?' We both said "Maman," in the sense that we both grew up in a kitchen with our mom," Sormonte said.

The aesthetic inside its locations matches, with its blue and white china, country wood furniture, and floral touches.

"You're coming here for the ambiance [and] for the vibe, for the beauty of the space," she said, adding: "Good food and coffee is easy to find in a lot of places. So you need that little something more."

A standout menu item

While they had breakfast dishes, coffee drinks, and Instagram-worthy aesthetics down, one item in their pasty case put Maman on the map in its early days: their "nutty chocolate chip cookie."

In their first month of being open, Maman was featured in a New York Magazine article that said it had "NYC's most impressive new chocolate-chip cookie."

The attention catapulted them into the spotlight and spread the word fast about their existence. In its first year, Maman made about $2 million in revenue, according to CNBC.

Diversifying the brand

By 2015, Sormonte and Marshall were "close to burnout" from their hectic schedules as new business owners. So, CNBC reported, they looked outward for help, hiring more staff members and attracting the attention of outside investors, including a $1.5 million investment from Sormonte's brother.

They struck a deal in 2020 with a private equity firm for "between $10 million and $20 million," CNBC reported.

They have also rolled out Maman-themed merchandise and related products for sale. It's all part of a larger plan to make themselves more than a café.

In 2021, they published a cookbook called "Maman: All Day Recipes to Warm Your Heart." They also do catering and rent their café spaces for events — which together account for about 20% of Maman's yearly revenue, Marshall told CNBC. And there are plans for more in the future, like candles and dishware.

"My vision for Maman is much more than just a brick-and-mortar, four-wall restaurant," Marshall told CNBC. "I really see us turning into a multifaceted lifestyle brand."

• Best Buy is hoping Microsoft's Copilot+ will help end its 10 quarters of declining comparable sales.
• More than 30,000 employees have been trained to help sell the new AI-enabled PCs.
• The company also created a new "AI skillset" for Geek Squad agents in a retooling of the team.

The last few years haven't been kind to Best Buy.

With 10 consecutive quarters of declining comparable sales in the rearview, the electronics retailer is hoping a partnership with Microsoft will help end the slump.

On Tuesday, Best Buy began selling the tech company's AI-enabled Copilot+ PCs in stores and online. The computers are touted as the "fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever."

In February, CEO Corrie Barrie blamed companies like Apple and Microsoft for Best Buy's sales struggles.

"Right now there isn't any massive current innovation that would spur you to go buy a new laptop," she said before hinting that next-gen offerings (like the one launching this week) were in the works.

Now, to help move product, Best Buy says it has up-skilled more than 30,000 employees to demonstrate the capabilities of these new AI-enabled Copilot+ PCs.

"When tech this groundbreaking is introduced, it's our job to bring it to life for you," the company said in a press release.

Among the 30,000-and-counting experts are a cohort of over 1,000 Geek Squad agents, for whom the company created a new "AI skillset."

As the business unit is retooled from support to sales, these agents will handle training sessions and showcases in hundreds of stores across the US.

Best Buy has laid off large numbers of Geek Squad workers in recent months, primarily in the unit's in-home tech installation and support division, as the company emphasizes enhancing the in-store customer experience.

• I tried making Ina Garten's five-star-rated simple steak recipe at home.
• Garten's recipe called for only five ingredients: filet mignon, oil, butter, salt, and pepper.
• The recipe was simple to execute and resulted in perfectly cooked filet mignon.

My family and I love going out to restaurants like The Capital Grille and Ruth's Chris for a steak dinner.

But, as a family of four, we know going out to eat can be pricey — the average monthly cost of dining out is nearly $170 per person. When my husband, two teenagers, and I go out to eat, we usually spend more than that each month.

To save some cash and try to replicate a high-end meal on my own, I made Ina Garten's recipe for restaurant-quality steaks, which requires filet mignon and a few simple ingredients.

Here's what it was like to make the simple filet-mignon recipe in my kitchen.

Garten's steak recipe uses just five ingredients.

The ingredient list for Garten's restaurant-quality steak recipe was simple: four pieces of filet mignon, four tablespoons of butter, and two tablespoons each of vegetable oil, fleur de sel, and black pepper.

For this recipe, I purchased two filets weighing about half a pound each. I couldn't find fleur de sel at my local grocery store, so I used flaky Maldon sea salt.

The difference? Fleur de sel is a type of sea salt that's hand-harvested in France, and Maldon sea salt is harvested in England. Both types of salt are light and flaky, so I figured this substitution would work well.

I tied my filet mignon to help the meat keep its shape.

Garten's recipe called for tying each filet mignon around its perimeter to keep the steaks in a traditional oval shape.

After some research online, I discovered tying filet-mignon steaks promotes even cooking and keeps all cuts the same size for an aesthetically pleasing presentation. I used butcher's twine to tie the steaks into an oval shape.

Next, I prepared to cook the steaks in a skillet.

A cast-iron pan is one of my favorite kitchen tools, so I was excited to bring it out for this meal. Though I was cooking only two filets, I thought my relatively large cast-iron pan would give each piece of meat plenty of room to cook.

While the skillet heated up, I patted the steaks dry and coated them with oil, salt, and pepper.

I preheated my cast-iron skillet over high heat for about five minutes. While the skillet was heating up, I patted the tied filet mignon dry and coated it in a thin layer of vegetable oil.

Using tongs to prevent my hands from getting messy, I dipped each steak in a salt-and-pepper mixture to add flavor.

Next, I seared the steaks on all sides.

I added the steaks once my pan was hot enough for water droplets to instantly evaporate. I seared them for about two minutes on each side, including the meat's outer edges.

The instructions said to keep the house well-ventilated, and I can see why.

Searing oiled cuts of steak at high heat created lots of smoke, so I was sure to open my patio door and use a portable fan to blow some of it out of the kitchen.

By taking these measures, my house didn't smell like smoky, cooked steak for days, and the air in my home was clear.

Once the steaks were seared, it was time to cook them in the oven with some butter.

After searing, it was time to put the steaks in the oven, which I'd preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I topped each filet with a tablespoon of butter, per Garten's recipe, and added fresh rosemary from my garden.

The recipe said to leave the steaks in the oven until they reached an internal temperature of 120 degrees (for rare) or 125 degrees (for medium-rare). My steaks took about 10 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 125 degrees.

When the filets were at the right temperature, I took them out of the oven to rest.

Once they were done, I removed the steaks from the oven, placed them on a cutting board, and covered them in aluminum foil.

I let the steaks rest for 10 minutes so the juices had time to evenly distribute through each cut of meat. Then, it was time to remove the butcher's twine, slice the filets, and serve.

The steaks came out perfectly medium-rare and were easy to slice.

The filets came out perfectly, slicing easily and appearing just as beautiful and pink as medium-rare filets I've ordered at steak houses. I served them alongside baked potatoes.

Besides the recipe's simplicity, I was most impressed with how tender each filet came out. The meat was flavorful and juicy, and each steak's salty exterior was savory and delicious.

Most filet mignons I've had at restaurants had similar crispy exteriors and buttery-soft centers. These homemade steaks provided restaurant-quality yumminess.

I'd follow Garten's method for cooking steak again.

Based on my experience trying Garten's recipe for restaurant-quality steaks, I'd definitely use this method again.

This process was quick and easy to follow, and the ingredients were so simple that I already had almost everything in my pantry and refrigerator.

I thought the finished steaks were truly as delicious as those I've had at restaurants. Paired with a good baked potato, I'd have thought I was dining at a steak house, not in my own home.