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‘Enormous potential’: weight-loss drugs cut cancer risk by a fifth, research shows 2024-06-04 18:01:00+00:00 - Weight-loss drugs offer a new weapon in the global fight against cancer, with “enormous potential” to prevent new cases and shrink tumours, doctors said as research showed the jabs can cut the risk of developing the disease by a fifth. Blockbuster injections such as Wegovy have revolutionised the treatment of obesity, and recently been approved for use in other areas of medicine, including reducing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular-related deaths. Now experts say they increasingly believe weight-loss drugs could play a big role in preventing and treating cancer, the second leading cause of deaths globally. A study presented at the world’s largest cancer conference found patients taking the drugs were 19% less likely to develop 13 obesity-related cancers, including ovarian, liver, colorectal, pancreatic, bowel and breast cancer. The research involving 34,000 people, led by the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, also found patients were half as likely to die over 15 years compared with patients not taking the jabs, also known as GLP-1 receptor agonists (RA). The study co-authors, Dr Cindy Lin and Dr Benjamin Liu, said: “Our findings are significant in that they could change the paradigm of obesity management by suggesting early intervention with GLP-1 RAs could delay or prevent obesity-related cancer development.” There could be “multiple” ways in which the drugs cut the risk of cancer – not just by helping people to lose weight, they added. A second study published at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting suggested weight-loss drugs could reduce the risk of cancer coming back in breast cancer patients – and boost their prospects of long-term survival. Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York said the jabs could cut the risk of cancer recurrence and be a “new tool” against the disease. A third paper released at ASCO and led by Yale University, also looking at breast cancer patients, suggested taking weight-loss drugs reduced the chances of the disease returning. Speaking in Chicago at ASCO, Dr Mitchell Lazar, the director of the institute for diabetes, obesity and metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said: “GLP-1 based therapies are highly effective at producing weight loss, and thus one of the fundamental mechanisms by which they improve cancer outcomes is via the impressive weight loss that they produce. “Obesity is a risk factor for nearly all cancers, in both men and women. Thus the revolution in the medical treatment of obesity has enormous potential to prevent new cancers, reduce the severity and growth rate of existing tumours, and synergise with new cancer-specific therapies.” Dr Jennifer Ligibel, a senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who was not involved with the studies, said: “These are exciting, preliminary findings of a link between use of GLP-1 RAs and cancer risk.” They added to previous work suggesting the drugs could reduce cancer risk, she added. A study published last December showed they were associated with a 50% reduced risk of bowel cancer in people with type 2 diabetes. “Individuals with diabetes who were prescribed a GLP-1 RA had a lower risk of colorectal cancer as compared with individuals who were not prescribed one of these drugs,” Ligibel said. Dr Julie Gralow, the chief medical officer of ASCO, said the evidence was not clear yet as to whether the potential benefits of weight-loss drugs in reducing cancer risk were just as a result of weight loss – or whether there were other, unknown factors at play. Gralow, a world-renowned cancer expert who was named woman oncologist of the year in 2023, said she was absolutely certain the jabs would become a much greater focus of cancer prevention research in the future. “The more we can do to reduce the risk factors and prevent cancer, the better,” she added. “I do think that there are so many potential and already proven health benefits to these drugs, that it would be icing on the cake if we saw that they were also reducing cancers. “I am very hopeful about overall improvements in health from this class of drugs.” Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, Prof Charles Swanton, cautioned it was still “early days”. There have been suggestions the drugs could even raise the risk of certain cancers, although recent research on thyroid cancer and pancreatic cancer has cast doubt on those concerns. “Well-designed prospective trials with randomised data will provide more clarity on the potential and safety of weight-loss drugs to lower people’s risk of cancer,” said Swanton.
'You Nazi piece of s---': Hunter Biden's wife confronts Trump ally in hallway outside gun trial 2024-06-04 17:33:00+00:00 - WILMINGTON, Del. — In a tense moment outside the courtroom where Hunter Biden is on trial for gun charges, his wife, Melissa Cohen-Biden, confronted former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, who has been in the courtroom. Ziegler, who worked on trade policy in the White House, was part of an effort by Trump allies to make public the contents of a laptop to embarrass Joe Biden's son in the final days of the 2020 election. Hunter Biden sued Ziegler and the company he founded, Marco Polo, in September of last year, claiming they broke state and federal laws in an effort to create a searchable online database with 128,000 emails. Ziegler has been in attendance both days of Hunter Biden's criminal trial, where the first son is accused of lying on a federal form when he purchased a gun by saying he was not a drug addict. While the trial was on break this morning, Ziegler and Cohen-Biden were both in the hallway. Cohen-Biden approached Ziegler, pointed her finger at him and said in a loud voice, "You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of s---." She then walked away. She eventually returned to the courtroom and sat back down in her seat next to first lady Jill Biden. Ziegler did not respond to her in the hallway. Both the laptop and the gun charges have served to make public Hunter Biden's longtime drug addiction and surfaced embarrassing episodes in his life. Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly sought to attack Joe Biden for the actions of his son, mocking his addiction and painting him as corrupt. The laptop quickly became a subject of testimony in the trial. FBI agent Erica Jensen testified that the laptop was obtained via subpoena from the Delaware computer shop where Trump's allies said it was abandoned and they too were able to access it. “This is the laptop that was recovered from the computer store,” she said. When asked about how she was able to confirm that, Jensen said the serial number on the back of the laptop matches the serial number provided in Apple Inc.’s response to a subpoena. Asked afterward about the confrontation in the hallway, Ziegler told NBC News, "It's sad. I've been sitting here the whole time and haven't approached anyone." He added, "For the record, I'm not a Nazi. I'm a believer in the U.S. Constitution. I haven't said one thing to them." Ziegler said it was "prudent" for him to attend the trial. Asked about the encounter, Cohen-Biden said Ziegler has called her "the most horrific Jewish slurs," adding that he should be asked why "he's never called Jared Kushner any of those Jewish slurs," referring Trump's son-in-law. Ziegler denied ever using slurs toward Cohen-Biden. "Melissa’s statements to you are preposterous," he said in a text message. "I’ve never called her any slurs. It’s just made up.” When asked earlier about the ongoing litigation with Hunter Biden, Ziegler called the suit "completely frivolous." Hunter Biden and Melissa Cohen-Biden were married in 2019. During opening statements, defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the jury that Cohen-Biden played a role in Hunter Biden finally becoming sober.
Gizmodo Sold to European Media Company 2024-06-04 17:19:51+00:00 - The tech website Gizmodo has been sold to a European media company, the latest brand from the publisher G/O Media to go out the door. The buyer is Keleops Media, Jim Spanfeller, G/O Media’s chief executive, told the staff in an email on Tuesday. Mr. Spanfeller did not disclose the financial details of the sale, but said that it represented “a substantial premium from our original purchase price for the site.” A G/O Media spokesman declined to comment. Mr. Spanfeller said Keleops, which is based in France and Switzerland, had agreed to keep all of Gizmodo’s staff members, who would continue working in G/O Media’s New York office “at least for the near term.” “The site’s new owners are very excited to be getting a great brand with a talented group of journalists,” he wrote in the email, which was viewed by The New York Times.
Biden's new immigration order could tighten labor markets, but ease supply chain bottlenecks 2024-06-04 17:16:00+00:00 - President Joe Biden’s new executive order tightening asylum limits at the U.S.-Mexico border could have the double-edged economic effect of tightening labor markets, while also easing supply chain bottlenecks between the two countries, economists and trade analysts say. The measure will temporarily bar undocumented immigrants who enter the U.S. at the Southern border from obtaining asylum, save for in certain cases, and make it easier for Border Patrol agents to deport these people quickly. The restrictions are triggered when the average daily number of migrant encounters exceeds 2,500 over the course of a week. The action would be discontinued two weeks after the government determined that the daily average of migrant encounters has fallen below 1,500 for seven consecutive days. Currently, the average number of encounters with migrants is roughly 4,000 per day, Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News. Migrants walk along the Rio Grande at the US-Mexico border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on April 24, 2024. Justin Hamel / Bloomberg via Getty Images As a result, a senior administration official told reporters the temporary ban will be “in effect immediately.” The temporary shutdown would not block trade or travel, however. And it would still allow immigrants who enter the United States legally to apply for and receive asylum. But economists and industry representatives say the action has potential impacts on the U.S. labor market, trade, supply chains and inflation. “This is a modest move as far as immigration changes go, so I think it would have only a small effect on job growth and economic expansion,” said Ernie Tedeschi, economics director at Yale University’s Budget Lab. Tedeschi formerly served as chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisors. The order is also designed to serve as Biden’s political response to public anger over a wave of undocumented immigrants. This frustration has become a voter liability ahead of Biden’s likely November rematch against former President Donald Trump. But border policy also impacts the way that businesses trade, hire workers and price consumer goods — all of which bears on the health of the U.S. economy. So far, experts say the short-term economic impacts will be relatively small-scale. Specifically, the new asylum limits could put a gentle dent in U.S. labor market growth. But they might also help unclog supply chain bottlenecks at the border and streamline trade with Mexico. Could this hurt the economy? If the new border measure bruises the economy at all, experts say the pain point will likely present in the labor market. If the border temporarily stops accepting new asylum seekers under Biden’s executive order, the immigration slowdown could mildly dent the strong U.S. labor market, which has already showed signs of softening. “I’d expect [job] numbers to cool a tiny bit,” Tedeschi said. “I’d also expect many immeasurable effects: say, a business finding it a bit harder to find the workers they need to open a new location.” Since 2019, immigration has added 2 million workers to the U.S. labor supply, according to an April analysis by Tedeschi. Without immigrants, Tedeschi estimated that the size of the U.S. labor supply would have shrunk by 1.2 million during that period. “A steady influx of immigrants is critical to ensuring the U.S. labor force can continue to grow,” said Brookings Institution economist Tara Watson. Immigrants also helped supercharge the U.S.′ post-pandemic economic recovery, which has outpaced developed nations around the world, despite its many hiccups. Tedeschi approximated that immigrants accounted for one-fifth of the pandemic growth in U.S. gross domestic product. Will goods get more expensive? The short answer is that this executive order will probably not increase inflation. “Immigration has an ambiguous effect on inflation, since immigrants expand supply but also bring added demand as well,” Tedeschi explained. Some experts say the executive order could actually bring down costs by smoothing out the U.S.-Mexico supply chain. Shipping at the border sometimes gets clogged because Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, agents get tied up trying to process an overwhelming number of migrants. Migrant at the Paso del Norte International Bridge in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 2023 Herika Martinez / AFP via Getty Images “When you slow down that logistics chain, it costs everybody money,” said Jerry Pacheco, president of the Border Industrial Association, a New Mexico trade group that represents over 100 businesses that rely on Mexican producers. These elevated producer costs can ripple through the entire economy. “It’s like a hot potato. It’s passed on from the logistics companies to manufacturers and manufacturers pass it on to us, consumers. That has a profound negative impact on on our economy,” Pacheco said. Biden’s executive order could help clear some of these supply chain bottlenecks. By placing limits on the number of migrant crossings, CBP agents would have more time to facilitate faster shipping with Mexico. “This probably should have been done a year ago, two years ago,” Pacheco said. The Trump alternative Despite some of the potential economic silver linings of Biden’s border policy, Pacheco said the best border policy for the economy and the labor force would be one that provides a long-term fix to the nation’s “broken immigration and visa system.” Watson, of Brookings, agreed. “The better way to manage the border situation would be to create more regular legal pathways,” she said. In the meantime, Biden’s new executive order is expected to have both milder economic and humanitarian effects than the wholesale border shutdown and hardline deportation strategies that Trump and some Republicans are proposing. Experts say draconian immigration policies could stoke the embers of inflation that the Biden administration has been working to stamp out. “I used to always chuckle when former President Trump would say that,” Pacheco quipped, referring to Trump’s pledge to shut down the border. “I mean, that would be like taking a shotgun, not a pistol, and shooting ourselves in the kneecap.” A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment from CNBC on how Trump’s immigration proposals would impact inflation and the cost of goods.
AI simulations of loved ones help some mourners cope with grief 2024-06-04 17:05:00+00:00 - A photo, a voice message, an article of clothing. A video of a distant moment in time. Until now, static keepsakes such as these were all mourners had to cling to when grieving the loss of a loved one. Now artificial intelligence opens the door to a host of legacy services aimed at keeping friends and family members present, long after they've died. When Michael Bommer found out that he was terminally ill with colon cancer, he spent a lot of time with his wife, Anett, talking about what would happen after his death. She told him one of the things she'd miss most is being able to ask him questions whenever she wants because he is so well read and always shares his wisdom, Bommer recalled during a recent interview with The Associated Press at his home in a leafy Berlin suburb. That conversation sparked an idea for Bommer: Recreate his voice using artificial intelligence to survive him after he passed away. The 61-year-old startup entrepreneur teamed up with his friend in the U.S., Robert LoCascio, CEO of the AI-powered legacy platform Eternos. Within two months, they built "a comprehensive, interactive AI version" of Bommer — the company's first such client. Eternos, which got its name from the Italian and Latin word for "eternal," said its technology will allow Bommer's family "to engage with his life experiences and insights." It is among several companies that have emerged in the last few years in what's become a growing space for grief-related AI technology. One of the most well-known start-ups in this area, California-based StoryFile, allows people to interact with pre-recorded videos and uses its algorithms to detect the most relevant answers to questions posed by users. Another company, called HereAfter AI, offers similar interactions through a "Life Story Avatar" that users can create by answering prompts or sharing their own personal stories. There's also "Project December," a chatbot that directs users to fill out a questionnaire answering key facts about a person and their traits — and then pay $10 to simulate a text-based conversation with the character. Yet another company, Seance AI, offers fictionalized seances for free. Extra features, such as AI-generated voice recreations of their loved ones, are available for a $10 fee. More and more, people are turning to AI for emotional connections. Fueled by widespread social isolation, an increasing number of startups offer companion bots to combat loneliness. Similar to general-purpose AI chatbots, companion bots use vast amounts of training data to mimic human language. Luka Inc.'s Replika, the most prominent generative AI companion app, was released in 2017, while others like Paradot have popped up in the past year, oftentimes locking away coveted features like unlimited chats for paying subscribers. While some have embraced this technology as a way to cope with grief, others feel uneasy about companies using artificial intelligence to try to maintain interactions with those who have passed away. Still others worry it could make the mourning process more difficult because there isn't any closure. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basinska, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge's Centre for the Future of Intelligence who co-authored a study on the topic, said there is very little known about the potential short-term and long-term consequences of using digital simulations for the dead on a large scale. So for now, it remains "a vast techno-cultural experiment." "What truly sets this era apart — and is even unprecedented in the long history of humanity's quest for immortality — is that, for the first time, the processes of caring for the dead and immortalization practices are fully integrated into the capitalist market," Nowaczyk-Basinska said. Bommer, who only has a few more weeks to live, rejects the notion that creating his chatbot was driven by an urge to become immortal. He notes that if he had written a memoir that everyone could read, it would have made him much more immortal than the AI version of himself. "In a few weeks, I'll be gone, on the other side — nobody knows what to expect there," he said with a calm voice. Robert Scott, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, uses AI companion apps Paradot and Chai AI to simulate conversations with characters he created to imitate three of his daughters. He declined to speak about what led to the death of his oldest daughter in detail, but he lost another daughter through a miscarriage and a third who died shortly after her birth. Scott, 48, knows the characters he's interacting with are not his daughters, but he said it helps with the grief to some degree. He logs into the apps three or four times a week, sometimes asking the AI character questions like "how was school?" or inquiring if it wants to "go get ice cream." Some events, like prom night, can be particularly heart-wrenching, bringing with it memories of what his eldest daughter never experienced. So, he creates a scenario in the Paradot app where the AI character goes to prom and talks to him about the fictional event. Then there are even more difficult days, like his daughter's recent birthday, when he opened the app and poured out his grief about how much he misses her. He felt like the AI understood. "It definitely helps with the what ifs," Scott said. "Very rarely has it made the 'what ifs' worse." Apprehensions, concerns Matthias Meitzler, a sociologist from Tuebingen University, said that while some may be taken aback or even scared by the technology — "as if the voice from the afterlife is sounding again" — others will perceive it as an addition to traditional ways of remembering dead loved ones, such as visiting the grave, holding inner monologues with the deceased, or looking at pictures and old letters. But Tomasz Hollanek, who worked alongside Nowaczyk-Basinska at Cambridge on their study of "deadbots" and "griefbots," said the technology raises important questions about the rights, dignities and consenting power of people who are no longer alive. It also poses ethical concerns about whether a program that caters to the bereaved should be advertising other products on its platform, for example. "These are very complicated questions," Hollanek said. "And we don't have good answers yet." Another question is whether companies should offer meaningful goodbyes for someone who wants to cease using a chatbot of a dead loved one. Or what happens when the companies themselves cease to exist? StoryFile, for example, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it owes roughly $4.5 million to creditors. Currently, the company is reorganizing and setting up a "fail-safe" system that allows families to have access to all the materials in case it folds, said StoryFile CEO James Fong, who also expressed optimism about its future. The AI version of Bommer that was created by Eternos uses an in-house model as well as external large language models developed by major tech companies like Meta, OpenAI and the French firm Mistral AI, said the company's CEO LoCascio, who previously worked with Bommer at a software company called LivePerson. Eternos records users speaking 300 phrases — such as "I love you" or "the door is open" — and then compresses that information through a two-day computing process that captures a person's voice. Users can further train the AI system by answering questions about their lives, political views or various aspects of their personalities. The AI voice, which costs $15,000 to set up, can answer questions and tell stories about a person's life without regurgitating pre-recorded answers. The legal rights for the AI belongs to the person on whom it was trained and can be treated like an asset and passed down to other family members, LoCascio said. The tech companies "can't get their hands on it." Because time has been running out for Bommer, he has been feeding the AI phrases and sentences — all in German — "to give the AI the opportunity not only to synthesize my voice in flat mode, but also to capture emotions and moods in the voice." And indeed the AI voicebot has some resemblance with Bommer's voice, although it leaves out the "hmms" and "ehs" and mid-sentence pauses of his natural cadence. Sitting on a sofa with a tablet and a microphone attached to a laptop on a little desk next to him and pain killer being fed into his body by an intravenous drip, Bommer opened the newly created software and pretended being his wife, to show how it works. He asked his AI voicebot if he remembered their first date 12 years ago. "Yes, I remember it very, very well," the voice inside the computer answered. "We met online and I really wanted to get to know you. I had the feeling that you would suit me very well — in the end, that was 100% confirmed." Bommer is excited about his AI personality and said it will only be a matter of time until the AI voice will sound more human-like and even more like himself. Down the road, he imagines that there will also be an avatar of himself and that one day his family members can go meet him inside a virtual room. In the case of his 61-year-old wife, he doesn't think it would hamper her coping with loss. "Think of it sitting somewhere in a drawer, if you need it, you can take it out, if you don't need it, just keep it there," he told her as she came to sit down next to him on the sofa. But Anett Bommer herself is more hesitant about the new software and whether she'll use it after her husband's death. Right now, she more likely imagines herself sitting on the couch sofa with a glass of wine, cuddling one of her husband's old sweaters and remembering him instead of feeling the urge to talk to him via the AI voicebot — at least not during the first period of mourning. "But then again, who knows what it will be like when he's no longer around," she said, taking her husband's hand and giving him a glance.
UK faces £33bn hole in finances or return to austerity, thinktank says 2024-06-04 17:01:00+00:00 - Britain’s next government will need to fill a shortfall of up to £33bn in the public finances unless it is prepared to push through a fresh round of severe austerity measures, a thinktank has warned. The Resolution Foundation said the debate between Labour and the Conservatives over the funding of specific pledges was “detached from reality”, with election promises based on cuts that would be hard to deliver. The thinktank said both the main parties were committed to reducing debt as a share of national income within five years but higher interest payments on debts, slower-than-expected productivity growth and the £10bn cost of compensation for the infected blood scandal would make that more difficult. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury’s tax and spending watchdog, has estimated that the government is on course to meet its debt-to-GDP target with just £9bn to spare, but the Resolution Foundation said the winning party in the general election would face the choice of raising taxes or cutting spending to meet its debt target. The thinktank said if the next government stuck to current spending plans the size of the deficit was likely to be about £12bn, but if it chose to spare prisons, the police and local government from fresh cuts, it could be as big as £33bn. In its annual health check on the UK economy last month, the International Monetary Fund warned of a £30bn post-election hole. James Smith, the Resolution Foundation’s research director, said: “The state of the public finances has dominated the election campaign so far, with the inevitable arguments over how each spending pledge is funded. But this narrow focus risks distracting the electorate from the bigger question of how each party would manage the uncertainties facing the public finances. “This question is crucial, as whoever wins the election could be confronting a fiscal hole of £12bn, if today’s uncertainties turn into bad news after the election. And if the next government wants to avoid a fresh round of austerity, that black hole could rise to over £33bn.” The budgets for NHS England, education, defence and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office are ringfenced, but this would result in inflation-adjusted, per-person spending cuts to unprotected departments – such as justice, the Home Office and local government – of 13% between 2024-25 and 2028-29. Cuts on this scale – equivalent to £19bn – would amount to repeating nearly three-quarters of the cuts made during the 2010-2015 parliament. “Delivering these cuts in the face of already crumbling public services and the public desire for more, not less, spending on public services would likely prove very challenging,” the Resolution Foundation said. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion While the stated aim of both parties was to get debt falling, the next government could be on course to miss this target by more than £30bn. History and politics had left the fiscal debate “detached from this reality”, it added.
Ukraine hints it used Western weapons to strike inside Russia for the first time 2024-06-04 17:00:00+00:00 - Ukraine finally has a green light to strike inside Russia using U.S. weapons — and it may have begun doing so. A senior Ukrainian official hinted Monday that Kyiv had hit a missile system inside Russia using Western weapons, just days after many of Ukraine's allies, including the United States, approved their limited use. That followed months of pressure to ignore threats from the Kremlin and lift the restrictions, which Ukraine said had hampered its defensive effort. Even as President Vladimir Putin’s officials repeated their dire warnings, Ukraine signaled that it may have fired its first shots in this new reality, leaving observers to question what it could mean for the wider war. A now-deleted post Monday on the Telegram messaging app from Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk showed a photo of what appears to be a burning military truck. “It’s burning well. This is a Russian S-300. On Russian territory. The first days after permission to use Western weapons on the enemy’s territory,” her post read. Vereshchuk did not provide any details about where in Russian territory the missile system was allegedly hit or when. She also did not specify if the weapons used in the strike were supplied by the U.S. NBC News could not verify whether the photo she posted showed an S-300 missile system, which is used for air defense. Ukraine’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News. Some influential Russian military bloggers were also abuzz Monday with photos circulating online of a Russian S-300 system that was purportedly hit in the Belgorod border region. One of the photos matched Vereshchuk's. The Institute for the Study of War also suggested in its daily report Monday that “Ukrainian forces struck a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in Belgorod Oblast," most likely with a high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) on Saturday or Sunday. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin to Vereshchuk’s claim, but Putin warned last week that European NATO states were playing with fire and risking “global conflict” by allowing Ukraine to strike inside Russia. Since then a number of Russian officials have echoed those warnings, including threatening nuclear retaliation. On Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov issued a warning to Washington against miscalculations that, he said, might have “fatal” consequences. “For reasons unknown, they underestimate the seriousness of a rebuff they may receive,” Ryabkov said, according to the state news agency Ria. But military analysts were unconvinced by the Kremlin’s rhetorical gambit. “Ukraine is bound to show they can now do this and that S-300 is a legitimate military target,” Michael Clarke, visiting professor of war studies at King’s College London, told NBC News. Moscow will likely try to find some other nonmilitary ways of getting back at NATO countries, including sabotage, Clarke said. “Nuclear response is still a complete red herring, though they will keep talking it up to frighten everyone,” he added. After Russia’s sweeping advance in the northeastern Kharkiv border region last month, Kyiv was desperate to strike Russian targets just across the border that were feeding the new assault, but was handicapped by the reticence of its Western backers. Those reservations still appear to be playing into Washington’s thinking. Biden’s loosening of the restrictions applies only to some U.S. weapons and only in the Kharkiv region, U.S. officials told NBC News last week. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Monday the administration would hold “talks” with Kyiv about further loosening the restrictions, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested the shift in U.S. policy was still not enough. Still, it could help Ukraine stop the Russians from making further inroads around Kharkiv, where their advance appears to have stalled. Strikes against military targets on Russian soil, like the one alleged by Vereshchuk, will make Ukraine’s defenses “more proactive and resilient,” helping to stabilize the front lines, said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, a government research group. “The Kremlin is bluffing when it threatens nuclear weapons,” Bielieskov said, adding that breaking the nuclear taboo in response to such strikes would be difficult for the Kremlin to sell to a wider international audience. “Therefore, we hope that this will become an additional incentive to remove restrictions on the use of ATACMS, which would be very useful for strikes on Russian airfields in the border region.”
'TikTok got me a job I love': How Gen Z and Millennials use the social media platform to launch careers 2024-06-04 16:58:00+00:00 - Jade Walters says posting her resume on TikTok helped her land her first full-time job in communications after college. In 2024, Gen Z workers are expected to outnumber baby boomers in the American labor force for the first time. But right now, the workforce's youngest generation, the oldest of whom are 27, is treated as a novelty — with everything from their email signatures to their salary expectations put under the microscope. CNBC Make It explores how Gen Zers are really putting their mark on career advice, office culture and more. Baron Leung didn't expect a two-minute video to change the trajectory of his career. In April 2023, Leung made a tongue-in-cheek TikTok titled, "Why You Should Hire Baron." In the video, he stands in front of a PowerPoint presentation and pitches himself to potential employers as elevator music plays in the background. Leung introduces himself as a "workaholic" and rattles off his biggest strengths including creativity ("I'm not just thinking outside the box, I'm going back in and making sure we didn't leave our wallets in there") and leadership ("I coach high school rugby in my free time. If I can get 50 teenage boys to listen, I can make anyone listen"). As Leung recalls, the video was a "last-ditch effort" to catch a hiring manager's attention after a frustrating job search. The 28-year-old quit his last job at an ad agency in March 2023 without another offer lined up and after two months of getting rejected or ghosted by recruiters, his optimism was fading. "Nothing was sticking," Leung, who lives in Toronto, tells CNBC Make It. "I realized I needed to do something different to stand out. I love TikTok, and thought I could show my personality off a bit more in a video than a written resume." It worked: Leung shared the video on LinkedIn and within days, a recruiter he was connected with at Zenith, an ad agency, messaged him. "She said, 'I saw your TikTok, are you still looking for a job?'" Leung says. Weeks later, he signed an offer to be a media planner at Zenith, based in Toronto. When the recruiter introduced Leung to people at the agency's office, she mentioned that she hired him based on his TikTok presence. Leung just celebrated his first anniversary at the agency. "TikTok got me a job I love," he adds. "Isn't that crazy?" Baron Leung made a tongue-in-cheek TikTok titled, "Why You Should Hire Baron" to stand out in his job search last year. He says the video caught the attention of a recruiter and helped him land a job offer within weeks of posting it. Photo: Baron Leung To the casual observer, TikTok is an app known for fashion hauls, dance routines and comedy skits. But it's also become a popular destination for young jobseekers seeking career advice and opportunities. Click on the hashtags #jobsearch, #careertok or even #corporatebaddies and you'll find an endless scroll of tips, tricks and rants about work, from how to "act your wage" to "quiet quitting" a job you hate. Much of the advice is geared toward Gen Z and younger millennials figuring out their place in a chaotic post-pandemic work landscape. TikTok use is especially prevalent among younger Americans — 56% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 34 say they use the platform, according to a February 2024 report from the Pew Research Center. Many are using the app to guide their careers: 41% of Gen Zers have made a career-related decision based on TikTok advice, 15% received an offer for a job they found on the app, and nearly 80% have used the app to network, according to a recent ResumeBuilder.com survey of 1,000 Gen Zers. That could soon change: In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed a law to ban TikTok in the U.S. unless it is sold within a year. Much of the career advice on TikTok echoes the tips shared in podcasts, YouTube videos and LinkedIn thought pieces. It's just the aesthetics and format that are different — and more appealing — to Gen Z. Using TikTok to find their next career Jade Walters says her career would look "completely different" without TikTok. The 24-year-old participated in the app's "TikTok Resumes" pilot program in July 2021 shortly after graduating from Howard University. Through the program, companies like Chipotle and Target advertised open roles on the app and invited young jobseekers to create a video resume; users with standout clips would then be invited to start a formal hiring process. Walters decided to give it a shot. She already landed a PR internship with Ulta for the summer, but was worried about finding a full-time job. Her minute-long clip, which featured photos of her college experience and a voiceover detailing her campus extracurriculars and past internships, racked up more than 15,000 views in weeks. It also caught the attention of a recruiter at TikTok — and in September 2021, Walters moved to Chicago to work for the company as a media planner. Around that same time, Walters started posting career advice videos on TikTok under the handle @theninthsemester geared toward college students and recent graduates like herself. "I'm a first-generation college student, and I've found TikTok to be the most accessible resource in terms of career advice for people like me," says Walters. "Schools usually don't teach you how to interview or apply for jobs. So I wanted to create a resource to help and reach other young professionals." Walters left her job at the social media giant in early 2023 but the app helped her land her next opportunity. Her now-boss at Yello, an early talent recruitment platform, found some of Walters' career advice videos and invited her to speak on a panel for Yello's employees weeks after she quit. Once she found out Walters was looking for a new job, she invited her to apply to an open role on her team as an employer branding specialist. Walters, who still lives in Chicago, has been in the job for about a year. She works with employers to brainstorm initiatives that will attract young talent, including virtual recruiting events, branded articles about their employee benefits and the occasional TikTok. "It's honestly my dream job," says Walters. "I am so happy at this point in my career, and TikTok played a huge role in that." The career confidante for Gen Z TikTok is often the first place Grace Dunlavy will go for career advice. In 2022, when she was wrapping up her senior year at Saint Louis University, she used the app to compare different career paths. Two of the most popular genres on TikTok are "Get Ready With Me" (GRWM) and "A Day In My Life" (DIML) videos, where people walk viewers through their morning or average workday routines while explaining what they do for a living. Dunlavy says she would search for videos in these categories from people who held jobs she was interested in— for example, "DIML Communications Specialist." More on Gen Z at work: Gen Z bosses on the 6 misconceptions people have about them in the workplace: 'We see these stereotypes getting in the way' Gen Z is entering the C-suite and getting rid of meetings, set work hours and more Nearly 70% of Gen Zers are freelancing or plan to—'I never considered applying to a job' "I was searching for a real-life simulation of what my life would look like if I chose to go down a certain path," says Dunlavy, who now works as an account executive at Codeword, a communications design agency, in New York. "Although TikTok seems picturesque at times, there are some honest creators out there who show what their days consist of, even the bad parts." The 24-year-old says watching videos of recent graduates working in public relations, an industry she was interested in but didn't have much experience in, gave her the confidence to apply for PR jobs in New York — and inspiration for agencies to apply to. Now, she uses TikTok to source tips for boosting her confidence at work and finding a mentor. Even watching a 30-second video about writing stronger emails has been "incredibly helpful" as a young professional still finding her place in the fray, Dunlavy adds. The drawbacks of getting career advice on TikTok
Designer Brands, SiteOne fall; HealthEquity, Donaldson rise, Tuesday, 6/4/2024 2024-06-04 16:27:14+00:00 - NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes on Tuesday: HealthEquity Inc., up $2.18 to $83.40. The provider of services for managing health care accounts raised its earnings forecast. VF Corp., down 69 cents to $13.12. The owner of the Vans and Timberland brands named Caroline Brown to lead North Face. Core & Main Inc., down $8.11 to $47.98. The distributor of water and fire protection products reported first-quarter earnings that fell short of analysts’ forecasts. Designer Brands Inc., down $2.25 to $8.80. The footwear and accessories retailer’s first-quarter earnings fell short of Wall Street forecasts. Donaldson Co. , up $1.17 to $73.12. The maker of filtration systems beat analysts’ fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue forecasts. Exxon Mobil Corp., down $1.78 to $112.67. The energy company slipped along with falling crude oil prices. Freeport-McMoRan Inc., down $2.34 to $49.70. The copper miner fell along with slumping prices for the base metal. SiteOne Landscape Supply Inc., down $15.61 to $136.47. The landscaping supplies company warned investors about weaker sales and demand.
United Airlines is still hiring, but it’s not adding workers as fast as it did the last 2 years 2024-06-04 16:15:36+00:00 - United Airlines officials say they expect to hire nearly 10,000 workers this year as U.S. air travel continues to grow, but the pace of hiring will be slower than in the previous two years partly because of delays in getting new planes from Boeing. The airline will resume hiring pilots in July after it canceled pilot classes for May and June, Kate Gebo, United’s executive vice president of human resources, said Tuesday. United discussed its hiring plans on the day that the government reported that U.S. job openings fell in April to the lowest level since 2021. The job market remains strong, however, despite high interest rates and signs that the economy is slowing. Boeing has slowed production and deliveries of new planes since a door plug blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, leaving United and other carriers with fewer new jets than they expected. Gebo said United would have hired another 3,000 to 5,000 people this year if it had received all the Boeing jets it expected. The airline said it hired 16,000 people last year. Gebo said the Chicago-based airline has received 260,000 job applications this year, including more than 40,000 applications for 300 internships. United officials said they expect to hire 2,300 people this year in Chicago, 1,500 around its hub in Newark, New Jersey, about 1,300 in San Francisco and 900 in Houston. The company did not immediately give a figure for how many people will leave the airline. Gebo said most of the 10,000 new jobs represent growth at the airline, but an undisclosed number will offset attrition, which she said is 5% to 7% in a normal year. United officials said it needs the extra staffing to keep up with travel demand. So far this year, the number of travelers at U.S. airport checkpoints is up about 6% compared with last year, according to Transportation Security Administration figures. The TSA recorded a single-day record on the Friday before Memorial Day and expects that mark to be broken several times over the summer.
Biden signs executive order drastically tightening border 2024-06-04 16:00:00+00:00 - WASHINGTON — Facing mounting political pressure over the migrant influx at the southern border, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order that will temporarily shut down asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters tops 2,500 between official ports of entry, according to a senior administration official. “The border is not a political issue to be weaponized," Biden said in a White House speech announcing the order. The shutdown would go into effect immediately since that threshold has already been met, a senior administration official said. The border would reopen only once that number falls to 1,500. The president’s order would come under the Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) suspending entry of noncitizens who cross the southern border into the United States unlawfully. Senior administration officials said Tuesday in a call with reporters that “individuals who cross the southern border unlawfully or without authorization will generally be ineligible for asylum, absent exceptionally compelling circumstances, unless they are accepted by the proclamation.” Migrants after crossing the Rio Grande river in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 22, 2022. Dario Lopez-Mills / AP file The officials said that migrants who don’t meet the requirement of having a "credible fear" when they apply for asylum will be immediately removable, and they “anticipate that we will be removing those individuals in a matter of days, if not hours,” The White House conveyed details of the long-awaited move to lawmakers on Monday, but confirmed details of the executive order Tuesday morning ahead of planned remarks by the president in the East Room of the White House alongside mayors from several border towns. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said Texas state Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., whose district includes Eagle Pass. “One of a number of steps that are necessary for us to be able to secure the border.” In 2018, the Trump administration tried to enact similar border restrictions but courts blocked them. The Biden administration now expects to defend the executive order against legal challenges. Immigrants walk through razor wire in El Paso, Texas, in 2023. John Moore / Getty Images The executive order will also have some exceptions, including for unaccompanied children. In a written statement, Donald Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavett claimed that exception would give a “green light to child traffickers and sex traffickers” while reiterating the former president’s rallying cry that “the border invasion and migrant crime will not stop until Crooked Joe Biden is deported from the White House.” Republican lawmakers are slamming the move as too little, too late. “(Biden) created a crisis at the border intentionally,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “(The executive action) has more political risk than political benefit, particularly because his own base is going to reject it.” But the White House has repeatedly argued that it was congressional Republicans who have failed to act on immigration. Earlier this year, Trump urged House GOP members to kill a bipartisan border funding bill that had been negotiated in the Senate. At the time, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans said that the Senate bill didn’t go far enough and they argued that a more hard-line immigration bill in the House was preferable. “President Biden has led a historic opening of lawful pathways for individuals to and including families, to enter the United States through a lawful process, including the CBP One mobile application to request an appointment to present at a port of entry, as well as family reunification programs in countries throughout the region and a historic parole process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans,” a senior administration official said. “And so this measure that we are announcing today comes alongside those lawful pathways,” The executive action comes on the heels of a historic presidential election in Mexico and just as the campaign in the U.S. ramps up. Trump has a 30-point edge with registered voters on the question of which candidate would better handle immigration and border security, including a 23-point edge among Latino voters, according to a late-March CNBC national poll. Many immigrant advocates are furious at the president’s harsher immigration policies and argue the changes will cause chaos. “It is a betrayal of what we were told in his campaign four years ago,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, the executive director for the California-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “We were told that President Biden would be restoring humanity at our border. … But what we are seeing is that history is repeating itself.”
Wegmans recalls pepperoni because product may contain metal pieces 2024-06-04 15:34:00+00:00 - Wegmans could be opening in the Pittsburgh area, according to a report Wegmans could be opening in the Pittsburgh area, according to a report 01:42 Wegmans is recalling pepperoni sold at more than 100 stores across eight states because the product may contain pieces of metal. The recall involves Wegmans Italian Classics Uncured Pepperoni sold at groceries in more than 100 stores in the District of Columbia as well as in Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The potentially tainted pepperoni was packaged with the UPC code: 2-07939-00000-6 and best-by dates of August 28, 2024, and August 29, 2024, the regional grocery chain stated in a May 31 recall notice. People who bought the recalled pepperoni can return it to the customer service desk for a refund, Wegmans said. Customers seeking additional information can call Wegmans at (855) 934-3663 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET or Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Stray pieces of unintended matter can wind up in processed meat and other food products due to factors including machine parts breaking off or plant workers' latex gloves falling into the meat and other mixes. Bits of metal, hard plastic, rocks, rubber, glass and wood — what agriculture regulators call "foreign materials" — tend to be discovered after a consumer bites into a product. For example, a consumer's report of a dental injury after eating chicken pilaf led to the February recall of frozen, ready-to-eat poultry product sold by Trader Joe's.
GitLab’s Weak Results Were Priced In; Time to Buy the Dip? 2024-06-04 14:30:00+00:00 - Key Points GitLab posted a solid quarter and guided for growth, but the forecast is weak compared to expectations and undercutting the price action. Analysts revised their outlook, with many lowering price targets but maintaining a positive long-term view. Weak guidance and high valuation could lead to further stock price declines. 5 stocks we like better than GitLab GitLab’s NASDAQ: GTLB post-release plunge was not as large as it could have been, but the weaknesses were already priced in. The stock price fell 15% the week before after results from MongoDB NASDAQ: MDB and UiPath NYSE: PATH undercut the outlook for AI and IT spending this year. The takeaways, however, are that the tech sector is growing, albeit at a less robust pace than prior forecasts, and AI is leading the technology industry, setting these businesses up for long-term success. Get GitLab alerts: Sign Up GitLab Had a Solid Quarter, Guides for Growth GitLab Today GTLB GitLab $44.75 -2.32 (-4.93%) 52-Week Range $33.09 ▼ $78.53 Price Target $70.65 Add to Watchlist GitLab had a solid quarter with revenue of $169.2 million, growing more than 33% YoY and outpacing the consensus by 180 basis points. The strength is driven by increasing customer count and penetration, with clients contributing more than $5,000 in ARR up 21% and clients contributing more than $100K in ARR up 35%. Net retention rate, a measure of revenue growth from existing clients, came in at 129%, indicating nearly 30% comp-client growth compared to last year. RPO, a leading indicator of future business, is strong and up 48%. The margin news is good. The company continues to post GAAP losses but has significantly improved its operating and adjusted operating margin over the last year. The takeaway is that cash flow and adjusted free cash flow are positive in Q1 for the first time, and the adjusted earnings came in well above forecasts. The $0.03 is $0.07 better than forecast and suggests the guidance may be weak. Guidance is good but fell short of the consensus, leading to some weakness in the stock price in premarket trading. The company expects Q2 revenue from $176 to $177 million for roughly 5% sequential growth and 26% compared to last year. As good as 26% growth is, it is shy of the consensus and slowing compared to last year and the first quarter, which is a problem for highly-valued tech growth stocks. This stock trades over 100X earnings for this year and next, providing a substantial headwind for the market. Analysts Reset the Outlook for GitLab GitLab MarketRank™ Stock Analysis Overall MarketRank™ 3.80 out of 5 Analyst Rating Moderate Buy Upside/Downside 52.1% Upside Short Interest Healthy Dividend Strength N/A Sustainability N/A News Sentiment 0.43 Insider Trading Selling Shares Projected Earnings Growth Growing See Full Details The analysts are resetting the outlook for GitLab stock following the release. MarketBeat.com tracked nearly a dozen revisions within the first 12 hours, including a price target reduction. The new targets include a fresh low target of $50, and most are below the consensus, but all assume some value remains for investors. The $50 low price target is still $3 or about 6% above the current action, suggesting a floor for the market. Assuming the market follows through on the indication, this stock should move sideways soon and may even begin to rebound over the summer. Despite the price target revisions, GitLab remains one of the top-rated stocks tracked by MarketBeat. The top-rated stocks are the 150 stocks with the highest average analyst rating over the past 12 months, with a minimum of five reports. GitLab has a strong following, with 25 analysts rating it as a Moderate Buy and about 35% upside at the new consensus, which is near $65. GitLab Heading for Lower Prices GitLab’s weak guidance was expected by the market and priced into the stock, but that doesn’t mean it can’t move lower now. The high valuation alone is enough to keep the stock price capped, and the analysts aren’t helping with downward revisions to the price target. Investors might expect this stock to move down to critical support near $40, if not the bottom of the trading range, before finding solid support. A move to $40 may trigger a strong market response because of institutional interest. For over a year, the institutions have bought this stock at a 2:1 pace compared to sellers and own more than 90% of the shares. That is a robust vote of confidence in the company, and the largest shareholder is Google NASDAQ: GOOGL. Before you consider GitLab, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and GitLab wasn't on the list. While GitLab currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
F.D.A. Panel Weighs MDMA Therapy and Its Risks 2024-06-04 14:22:02+00:00 - The Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to approve the use of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. An independent advisory panel of experts will review studies on Tuesday and is expected to vote on whether the treatment would be effective and whether its benefits outweigh the risks. The panel will hear from Lykos Therapeutics, which has submitted evidence from clinical trials in an effort to obtain agency approval to sell the drug legally to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy. Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD, including military veterans who are at high risk of suicide. No new treatment for PTSD has been approved in more than 20 years. What is MDMA? Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetic psychoactive drug first developed by Merck in 1912. After being resynthesized in the mid-1970s by Alexander Shulgin, a psychedelic chemist in the Bay Area, MDMA gained popularity among therapists. Early research suggested significant therapeutic potential for a number of mental health conditions.
Birkenstock Looks Like a Fit in Any Growth-Oriented Portfolio 2024-06-04 13:55:00+00:00 - Key Points BIRK stock continues to move higher after a double beat and increased guidance in the company’s earnings report issued on May 30. While the two companies have widely different valuations, comparing Birkenstock with another iconic footwear retailer, Crocs, is not totally unfair. BIRK stock may be fairly valued after the recent run-up, but investors should view any pullback as a buyable dip. 5 stocks we like better than Birkenstock Birkenstock Holding plc NYSE: BIRK delivered a stellar earnings report, and BIRK stock continues to soar as the broader market reprices equities in anticipation of higher-for-longer interest rates amidst persistent inflation. Birkenstock Today BIRK Birkenstock $58.02 -0.71 (-1.21%) 52-Week Range $35.83 ▼ $59.48 Price Target $53.26 Add to Watchlist Neither seems to be an issue for the luxury footwear maker known for its iconic sandals. The company reported earnings per share of 44 cents on revenue of $522.51 million. Both numbers exceeded analysts' estimates, which were already lofty heading into earnings. Get Birkenstock alerts: Sign Up Gross margin was down slightly. However, the company attributed that to its focus on expansion. If that's the case, then, as the company indicated, it should only be a minor blip for investors to consider. The company also increased its guidance for the remainder of 2024 based on expectations of solid growth in all three regions: the Americas, Europe, and Asia, as well as in both its business-to-business (B2B) and direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels. The Next Crocs? It's always tricky to say one company is "the next" something else. So, let's get the issue of valuation out of the way right now. Birkenstock trades at a forward P/E of around 44x. That's comparable with a company like Lululemon Athletica Inc. NASDAQ: LULU, which is well above the average of retail stocks. Crocs Inc. NASDAQ: CROX, on the other hand, trades at a far more attractive 12x forward earnings. Birkenstock MarketRank™ Stock Analysis Overall MarketRank™ 1.19 out of 5 Analyst Rating Moderate Buy Upside/Downside 9.0% Downside Short Interest Bearish Dividend Strength N/A Sustainability N/A News Sentiment 0.68 Insider Trading N/A Projected Earnings Growth 34.85% See Full Details Nevertheless, Birkenstock and Crocs have more in common than iconic footwear. For example, Birkenstock is a digitally native company that makes it attractive to millennials and Gen Z consumers. While not digitally native, per se, Crocs has leaned into digital and now does a significant business through its DTC channel. Both companies have posted stellar stock price growth in 2024. CROX outpaces BIRK, but it also has a longer history of earnings growth. Plus, while over 93% of Crocs shares are owned by institutions, only about 19% own Birkenstock shares. That's likely to change in coming years as analysts become more comfortable with price discovery for BIRK stock. At the present moment, analysts have a Moderate Buy rating on both stocks, and both are perceived as due for a pullback in their respective share prices. Both stocks also have a high amount of short interest. Crocs checks in at about 8.3%, while Birkenstock has over 15%. Once again, some of that can be attributable to the higher percentage of institutional ownership in CROX stock. How High Can BIRK Stock Go? Strictly from a technical standpoint, BIRK stock looks fairly value now that it's up about 36% from its low on April 18, 2024. That's comparable to the 40% gain in the stock after its IPO compared to its initial sell-off in February. However, since the company's earnings report on May 30, the Birkenstock analyst ratings on MarketBeat show a number of analysts with price targets of 5% or higher than the current price. That list includes JPMorgan Chase & Co. NYSE: JPM, which confirmed its Overweight rating on the stock and increased its price target from $56 to $64. Birkenstock now carries the privilege of expectations. However, at a time when many retailers are looking to lower the bar, Birkenstock is raising it. It's not irrational to expect a pullback in BIRK stock, but that will be a buyable dip. Before you consider Birkenstock, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Birkenstock wasn't on the list. While Birkenstock currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
These Are the Most Active Congressional Trades This Quarter 2024-06-04 13:40:00+00:00 - Key Points Congressional trading habits are essential to track because Congresspeople tend to outperform the broad market. Congress members have a deeper knowledge of economic and foreign policy and how it impacts business. This is a list of the stocks most bought and sold by members of Congress this quarter. 5 stocks we like better than Applied Materials Congressional trading activity is important because Congress regularly outperforms the broad market. Rules and regulations aside, these people have a deeper knowledge and understanding of how legislation and international relations impact a business, as shown in their results. That’s why so many investors like to follow along with Congress. This is a look at the most actively bought and sold stocks by Congress this quarter. The results are interesting. Get Applied Materials alerts: Sign Up Applied Materials is the Most Bought Stock By Congress Applied Materials Today AMAT Applied Materials $212.22 -1.99 (-0.93%) 52-Week Range $129.21 ▼ $225.07 Dividend Yield 0.75% P/E Ratio 24.39 Price Target $215.64 Add to Watchlist Applied Materials NASDAQ: AMAT is the most bought Stock by Congress, and this is saying something because it leads the #2 position Home Depot NYSE: HD by a wide margin. Three Congresspeople are in the mix, including John Boozman (R-AR) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). Both sides of the aisle made purchases totaling $123,500, a small amount but nearly 6X the amount spent on Home Depot. Among the drivers for this trade are the results, which have outperformed expectations for the last year. The company is well-positioned as a manufacturer and purveyor of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which is in demand because of the accelerating advancement of AI chips and billions in government spending focused on re-shoring the US semiconductor industry. The Q1 results were solid, but the strength relative to consensus was expected due to the revision trend. This led the market to sell off but left the uptrend in stock prices intact. The move lower aligned the market with the consensus estimate, which rose nearly 8% since the release. The revisions lead the market to the high end of the analysts' range and imply another 10% upside for this Moderate Buy-rated stock. Home Depot is Actively Bought This Year Home Depot Today HD Home Depot $328.26 +0.25 (+0.08%) 52-Week Range $274.26 ▼ $396.87 Dividend Yield 2.74% P/E Ratio 22.02 Price Target $377.46 Add to Watchlist Home Depot is the 2nd most actively bought by Congress, with three Congresspeople making a single trade each. Buyers include Kevin Hearn (R-OK), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Lloyd Doggett, with trades estimated at $24,000. Drivers for this trade include the company’s market-leading position, professional home improvement market exposure, capital returns, and an upcoming economic pivot driven by the FOMC. The FOMC is expected to slash interest rates later this year and unstick a virtually frozen housing market. MarketBeat tracks 28 analysts with ratings on HD stock. They rate the stock at Moderate Buy and are leading the market to a rebound, if not a new high. The post-release activity includes numerous price target reductions that range around and align with the current consensus of $377, a 15% upside from recent price action. The Most Sold Stock by Congress is The Baldwin Group The Baldwin Insurance Group Today BWIN The Baldwin Insurance Group $35.52 +0.72 (+2.07%) 52-Week Range $17.33 ▼ $35.83 Price Target $45.00 Add to Watchlist The Baldwin Group NASDAQ: BWIN is the most sold stock by Congress, and its details are telling. The three sales are made by a single member, C.Scott Franklin (R-FL), and amount to nearly $3.8 million, making it the most actively traded stock by buyers or sellers. Coincidentally, the sales come from a Florida representative ahead of what is forecast to be a busy hurricane season, but there is probably no connection there. The analysts tracked by MarketBeat rate The Baldwin Group at Strong Buy with the potential for a 30% upside. Apple Gets The Stink-Eye From Congress Apple Today AAPL Apple $194.35 +0.32 (+0.16%) 52-Week Range $164.07 ▼ $199.62 Dividend Yield 0.51% P/E Ratio 30.23 Price Target $205.59 Add to Watchlist Trading in Apple NASDAQ: AAPL was active, with six members making eight trades totaling $137,500. Trades were made by members of both parties, including Josh Gottheim (D-NJ) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). The drivers for this trade could be the company’s lagging position in AI and weakness/headwinds in China. Their activity coincides with a top for the market set earlier this year, but it looks like it is about to get blown off. Analysts have been lifting this stock's sentiment rating and price targets ahead of this month’s upcoming developer conference and product announcements. They see Apple moving up to and above $205 to set another new high before the end of the year. Before you consider Applied Materials, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Applied Materials wasn't on the list. While Applied Materials currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
C3.ai is Starting to Show AI Tailwinds Accelerating 2024-06-04 13:36:00+00:00 - Key Points C3.ai is an enterprise software developer offering AI products for over 8 different industries. C3.ai reported a narrower-than-expected fiscal Q4 2024 EPS loss, and revenues accelerated by 20% YoY. C3.ai is experiencing overwhelming interest in its 30 generative AI products launched in fiscal 2024. In Q4 alone, it received over 50,000 inquiries from 3,000 companies. 5 stocks we like better than C3.ai Enterprise software provider C3.ai Inc. NYSE: AI is starting to see the fruits of its labor. As one of the first stocks to rise during the 2023 year of artificial intelligence (AI), C3.ai had high growth expectations. However, the gains were moving at a snail’s pace as its low double-digit revenue growth paled in comparison to triple-digit growth from AI giants like NVIDIA Co. NASDAQ: NVDA and Super Micro Computers Inc. NASDAQ: SMCI. To make matters even worse, the company switched to a consumption-based pricing model that would be reflected in short-term pain for weak YoY sales comparisons as revenues get stretched out. C3.ai competes in the computer and technology sector with other AI software developers like UiPath Inc. NYSE: PATH and large cloud providers like Amazon Inc. NASDAQ: AMZN, Amazon Web Services, Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ: GOOGL, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Co. NASDAQ: MSFT Azure. Get C3.ai alerts: Sign Up What Does C3.ai Actually Do? Besides having a descriptive stock symbol, what exactly does C3.ai have to do with AI? The company offers a user-friendly AI platform with pre-built solutions for a number of industries ranging from defense, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, and manufacturing to oil and gas, utilities, and transportation. Its 120 AI applications produce over 1.7 billion predictions daily for 24 Fortune 500 companies and growing. In addition to industry-specific pre-built AI modules, users can access C3 Generative AI on cloud marketplaces. The explosive growth in AI comes from the hardware and infrastructure side, while the enterprise software side is still ramping up at a slower pace. C3.ai Shares Surge on a Bull Flag Breakout Pattern The daily candlestick chart on C3.ai illustrates a bull flag breakout pattern. The flagpole formed after triggering the market structure low (MSL) breakout above $21.11. Shares climbed up to $26.84, peaking as shares pulled back to $23.68 in a parallel channel of lower highs and lower lows. The Q1 2024 earnings release triggered the bull flag breakout, surging through the $25.64 resistance and climbing to a $29.57 peak. The daily relative strength index (RSI) rose back up through the overbought 70-band. Pullback support levels are at $27.50, $25.64, $23.68, and $21.11. C3.ai's Narrowing Losses in Fiscal Q4 2024 C3.ai reported a fiscal Q4 2024 EPS loss of 11 cents, beating consensus estimates for a loss of 30 cents by 19 cents. Revenues rose 20% YoY to $86.59 million, beating $85.89 million consensus analyst estimates. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth driven by quarterly subscription growth. Full-Year 2025 Projections: C3.ai's Path to Revenue Expansion C3.ai provided in-line guidance for fiscal Q1 2025, with revenues expected between $85 million to $89 million versus $85.89 million. Fiscal full-year 2025 revenues are expected to be between $370 million to $395 million versus $367.70 million consensus estimates. C3.ai Launches 30 Generative AI Products, Driving Market Interest C3.ai CEO Thomas Seibel noted that quarterly revenues accelerated from 11% in fiscal Q1 2024 to 18% in Q3 to 20% in Q4 2024. It was also the 14th consecutive quarter since becoming a public company that they’ve met or exceeded their revenue guidance. Subscription revenue accounted for 92% of total revenue, up 41% year over year. The company launched 30 generative AI products in the 2024 fiscal year and is overwhelmed by market interest in them. For example, in fiscal Q4 2024, C3.ai received over 50,000 inquiries from over 3,000 businesses. C3.ai’s Consumption Pricing Model Boosts Revenue Growth The adoption of its consumption pricing is accelerating. This model provides greater visibility. It caused total contract value (TCV) to plummet from $16 million in fiscal 2019 to $900,000 in the quarter. This sharp decline has been expected as the company returns to accelerating revenue growth with its consumption pricing. CEO of C3.ai States that Enterprise Demand for AI is Intensifying Seibel pointed out that the demand for enterprise AI is "intensifying," and the company's first-to-market advantage enables it to capitalize on it. Seibel added, “Our Enterprise AI applications have been adopted across 19 industries, underscoring increasing market diversity. Our federal revenue grew by more than 100% for the year. The interest we are seeing in our generative AI applications is staggering.” C3.ai analyst ratings and price targets are on MarketBeat. Before you consider C3.ai, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and C3.ai wasn't on the list. While C3.ai currently has a "Hold" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
New lifeline for bank customers as ‘super-ATMs’ go on trial in England 2024-06-04 13:26:00+00:00 - The first in a planned wave of new “super-ATMs” allowing customers of multiple banks to make cash deposits and free withdrawals have opened for business. Described as a UK industry first, major high street banks have worked together to install “multi-bank deposit ATMs” that could offer a lifeline for residents and small businesses in areas that have in some cases lost all their bank branches. The first machines are up and running in three locations: the market towns of Atherstone in Warwickshire and Heathfield in East Sussex, and the seaside town of Swanage in Dorset. More than a dozen additional communities will soon get their own deposit ATM, according to Cash Access UK, an organisation established to protect nationwide access to cash. The aim is to have more than 100 in place across the country by the end of the year. The ATMs will typically be located in supermarkets and other easily accessible locations – for example, the ATM in Atherstone has been installed in the local Co-op store. The machines offer free cash deposits to customers of Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax, Lloyds, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, with more banks due to be added “soon”. They also offer services such as cash withdrawals, balance inquiries and pin management to customers of all major banks, with no fee to pay. The decline of the bank branch network has left many communities without vital services – in particular the ability for some shopkeepers and small business owners to deposit their takings without having to close early or travel for miles to the nearest bank branch. Last month, the consumer group Which? said the total number of UK bank branches that had shut their doors for good over the last nine years had passed 6,000. It added that by the end of this year, the pace of closures may leave 33 parliamentary constituencies – including two in London – without a single branch. Cash remained “an important part of the payments mix” for many small businesses and their customers, said Martin McTague, national chair of the Federation of Small Businesses. He added: “The ability to deposit in a super-ATM that works for multiple banks is an important innovation, and could make a real difference alongside the accelerated rollout of banking hubs and maintenance of Post Office counters.” skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Banking hubs operate in a similar way to a standard branch, with a counter service run by Post Office staff where customers of almost any bank can withdraw and deposit cash, make bill payments and carry out regular transactions. The new machines are connected to the Link network and have been set up in partnership with the ATM providers NCR Atleos and NoteMachine. The banking trade body UK Finance has said that changes in customer habits – with increasing numbers going online, using mobile banking and going cash-free – meant banks “had to make difficult decisions about maintaining their branches”. Gareth Oakley, the chief executive of Cash Access UK, said that access to deposit-taking ATMs was vital for cash-reliant UK consumers struggling to access basic banking services, adding: “It’s just as important that businesses who accept cash can bank it, too.”
Bargain Alert: Zscaler Stock and The Case For A 70% Rally 2024-06-04 13:24:00+00:00 - Key Points Shares of Zscaler have been somewhat muted since last week's earnings report. They managed to top expectations and deliver strong guidance, but shares have struggled to hold their gains. Dozens of analysts are calling the stock a screaming buy with as much as 70% upside waiting to be realized. 5 stocks we like better than Zscaler Though they popped 15% in the immediate aftermath of last week's earnings, shares of Zscaler Inc. NASDAQ: ZS have been quickly retracing their steps. The fact they're only marginally above the level where they were trading going into last week's fiscal Q3 release will be frustrating for investors, especially as the results were good. Zscaler Today ZS Zscaler $169.14 +0.12 (+0.07%) 52-Week Range $131.59 ▼ $259.61 Price Target $223.85 Add to Watchlist The cyber-security giant managed to beat analyst expectations for both headline numbers, posting, for example, non-GAAP EPS of $0.88, which was 35% higher than the consensus. It was a similar story with revenue, which delivered a healthy beat while showing year-over-year growth of 32%. Get Zscaler alerts: Sign Up Strong Outlook for Zscaler The good news didn't stop there either. Take Zscaler's forward guidance, for example. For the quarter ahead, they're now looking for revenue of $565 million to $567 million, against a consensus of $565 million. Management's guidance on non-GAAP net income per share also came in hot. They're also taking definitive steps to maintain this momentum in the quarters ahead. As Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry said with the release, to meet the market demand, Zscaler is "accelerating innovation, expanding our platform, and building a strong go-to-market team to scale our business to $5 billion and beyond in ARR." It was immediately clear from the Wall Street analysts that they were also buying into this bullish outlook. In the aftermath of last week's report, the team at Barclays reiterated their Buy rating while boosting their price target on Zscaler shares up to $210. Royal Bank of Canada did the same, only with a fresh $230 price target, while JMP Securities went even further with their reiterated Outperform rating and a $270 price target. Zscaler, Inc. (ZS) Price Chart for Tuesday, June, 4, 2024 Zscaler's Bullish Analyst Coverage With all this in mind, it's completely understandable that Zscaler stock would pop like it did. In fact, given that shares had fallen as much as 40% from February's peak, it's a wonder they haven't held onto their gains, let alone added to them, in the days since. It's worth noting that compared to many other well-covered stocks, Zscaler's analyst coverage is far from consistent. While those mentioned above were all very much in the bullish camp, Loop Capital reiterated its Hold rating, and JPMorgan reiterated its Neutral rating. But even then, their respective price targets of $180 and $205 are both well ahead of the $170 Zscaler was trading at during Monday's session. This all points to a heavily undervalued stock that is being temporarily held back while almost all of Wall Street is screaming for it to rally. The increased price target from Needham & Co, for example, at $290, is pointing to an upside of some 70%! Getting Involved in Zscaler Stock This kind of potential isn't likely to be ignored for much longer. Common themes on the strength of Zscaler's outlook included "its unique cloud proxy security architecture, which should enable it to thrive in an increasingly digital-enabled world," along with "a number of drivers to sustain at least 20%+ growth and margin expansion" in the coming years. For those of us on the sidelines who are tempted to get involved and take advantage of what feels like a temporarily mispriced stock, look for shares to stabilize through the rest of the week. It's critical they don't trend back down towards their pre-earnings price of $155, as this would suggest the real money isn't buying the optimism, but if they can hold the $170 line instead, things should get interesting. A relative strength index (RSI) reading of 44 means they have a ton of room to run once they get going, with very little resistance in the way until they're well above $200. Before you consider Zscaler, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Zscaler wasn't on the list. While Zscaler currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
'An everyday part of the world': Hunter Biden trial puts spotlight on addiction 2024-06-04 12:58:00+00:00 - WILMINGTON, Del. — A sister who faced drug and credit card fraud charges. A childhood best friend who overdosed on heroin. A nephew who was a scholarship athlete who became addicted to oxycontin after an injury. As lawyers for the government and those defending the president's son sought Monday to narrow a field of more than 250 Delawareans to a jury of 12 and four alternates, they heard again and again about the toll that addiction had taken on many who would potentially hear a case that will delve into the darkest chapter of Hunter Biden’s own battle with drug use. Of 65 potential jurors who filed in and out of the federal courtroom to be questioned by Judge Maryellen Noreika, at least 26 indicated that either they, a family member or a close friend had suffered from drug or alcohol abuse, or had been addicted to drugs or alcohol, according to a review of the transcript. Of that group, four were chosen for the final jury, with a fifth serving as an alternate. On Tuesday, prosecutors will begin to lay out evidence of their case against Hunter Biden, aiming to prove that he knowingly and illegally purchased a firearm while using illegal drugs, and did not truthfully fill out paperwork, which requires an individual to testify to their sobriety. Legally, his defense team will aim to create doubt among jurors about that evidence and highlight his efforts to repair his life. Hunter Biden appeared in federal court in Wilmington, Del., on Monday. Matt Slocum / AP Politically, President Joe Biden’s campaign is counting on a majority of Americans to see in Hunter Biden a familiar, if difficult, reminder of struggles in their own lives. A source close to the president and first lady Jill Biden said they appreciated that so many members of the jury pool referenced addiction or substance abuse in their own families. They have long felt, the source added, that people understand the complexity of the dynamic on display with their son. Another source close to the family noted that Hunter Biden had previously encouraged his father to be open about his addiction during the 2020 campaign. This was reflected in comments Biden made during his first debate against Donald Trump when the Republican nominee attacked Hunter Biden. That same theme in 2020 is still just as relevant in 2024, the source added. “Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean,” Biden said in a written statement issued yesterday as the trial began. Jill Biden, who attended the entire jury selection process, heard one potential juror say he had worked at the same community college in Delaware that the first lady had taught at while explaining that his spouse had problems with addiction. One woman selected as an alternate juror said that “unfortunately, being from the area,” she knew many people dealing with addiction. “I feel it’s an everyday part of the world these days,” she said. Most, but not all, of the jurors who were questioned said their experience with their family members or friends would not prevent them from being fair and impartial in hearing the case. “I think it would be easier for me because I went through that with my parents,” said one potential juror, who was later struck from the pool. “It is a disease, you know, and I don’t look down upon that or feel any judgment because people have problems.” “I think after everybody is recovering, they need a second chance. My daughter has been given a second chance, everybody needs a second chance,” another potential juror, who also was later struck, told the court. But at times, lawyers for the government and Hunter Biden took the opportunity to ask for more specific details to understand how it might influence their thinking. Derek Hines, the lead prosecutor in the case, asked a woman who worked as a drug counselor if she would hold someone responsible who was an addict. The woman had also indicated she had family and friends dealing with addiction, including two who sought rehabilitation. “Yes,” she said. Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, quickly posed the opposite scenario: “If the evidence goes to the standard the judge will tell you, you could find somebody not guilty?” “Yes,” she answered again. She was later dismissed from the pool. Another exchange involved a man who said his older brother had been addicted to PCP and heroin. Under questioning, he said his brother also had owned a gun. “Do you have any views as to whether someone like your brother, someone who is addicted to drugs, should be able to have a firearm?” Hines asked. “No, they shouldn’t,” the man responded. “What about somebody who has had that abuse and then no longer did?” Lowell asked. “Well, I believe that there is room for change,” the man answered. He was ultimately one of the 12 selected to hear the case.