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Micron Stock: Even With A 150% Gain, Analysts Want More 2024-05-24 11:40:00+00:00 - Key Points Shares of Micron have been rallying for more than a year and have even more room to run. Several of the heavyweight analysts are calling for further gains in the coming weeks. Investors should watch the share price closely to try and judge a strong entry point. 5 stocks we like better than Micron Technology Shares of Micron Technology NASDAQ: MU have been enjoying a remarkable rally, with its stock effectively doubling over the past 12 months alone. Since the start of 2023, its shares have jumped 150%. For the most part, this eye-watering rally has been driven by the company's strategic positioning in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, which has blossomed, if not exploded, in that timeframe. Micron Technology Today MU Micron Technology $129.49 +3.22 (+2.55%) 52-Week Range $60.50 ▼ $131.95 Dividend Yield 0.36% Price Target $126.92 Add to Watchlist Get Micron Technology alerts: Sign Up Bullish Calls For Micron Shares For those of us watching from the sidelines, you'd be forgiven for thinking you might have missed the boat. Just this morning, for example, the stock hit a fresh high, and it could soon find itself in blue-sky territory. Despite these impressive gains, however, several heavyweight analysts continue to call Micron a screaming buy , and readers should be excited. Take Morgan Stanley, for example. Earlier this week, the team upped its rating on Micron shares, citing its significant exposure to the AI memory market. The firm also raised its price target on Micron's stock, acknowledging the underestimated economic and narrative elements of AI memory. This echoed Mizuho's move last week when they reiterated their Buy rating and gave Micron a price target of $150. Before them, Barclays and Baird were bullish on Micron's potential, with the latter adding it to its list of top semiconductor ideas. The Baird team highlighted the "meaningful upside opportunities" ahead, especially in light of recent pullbacks, allowing shares to take a breather. They anticipate an unprecedented outlook for the memory market over the next 12-18 months, driven by stronger-than-expected Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) pricing and the potential for high gross margins from HBM3E products. Micron's Strong Fundamentals This demand for high-performance memory solutions, driven by the AI revolution, has positioned Micron as a key player in the overall market, ahead of most of its peers. All the signs are there that the company intends to take full advantage of this. Recently, they announced an increase in their capital expenditure forecast for the year, from $7.5 billion to $8 billion, primarily to support their expansion in AI-related technologies. At recent conferences, Micron executives have highlighted the company's expectations for high-bandwidth memory to become a multi-billion dollar business by 2025. It's perhaps no real surprise that Micron has a street-high price target of $150, which currently points to further upside in the region of 20%. Beyond the company-specific tailwinds driving the share price higher, Micron is also set to continue benefiting from strong industry tailwinds that are only getting stronger. The Citi team came out bullish on the sector as a whole, particularly Micron, earlier this month, citing an industry report showing that sales are well above seasonal sales figures. Getting Involved In Micron Stock According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, March sales were $50.6 billion, up more than 16% monthly and more than 15% year over year. That was above Citi's estimated $50.1 billion and the seasonal estimate for a 12% month-over-month increase and a 14% annual increase. Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) Price Chart for Sunday, May, 26, 2024 All told, investors should watch Micron closely for an entry opportunity as it feels the stars are continuing to align on its growth prospects. One way to do this might be to look for the stock to close above $130, something it has yet to do, to confirm a breakout is beginning. Alternatively, if shares continue to pull back from their latest push for a record close, look for them to consolidate above the $115 mark, supporting the technical thesis backing up the stock. Before you consider Micron Technology, 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 Micron Technology wasn't on the list. While Micron Technology currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
TD Bank Q2 Earnings: Record Highs and Regulatory Hurdles 2024-05-24 11:30:00+00:00 - Key Points TD Bank exceeded analyst expectations for Q2 2024 earnings, driven by strong Canadian and Wholesale Banking performance. U.S. Retail Banking faced headwinds due to a significant provision for AML investigations, impacting reported net income. TD Bank maintains a strong capital position and reaffirmed its commitment to shareholders with a consistent dividend payment. 5 stocks we like better than Toronto-Dominion Bank TD Bank Group NYSE: TD TSE: TD is a prominent player in the Canadian and North American financial services sector. TD Bank’s earnings report for the second quarter of 2024 was recently unveiled, revealing TD Bank’s financial performance during the quarter. This earnings report holds significant weight for investors, offering a detailed glimpse into the bank's operational resilience and strategic direction against a complex economic backdrop. TD Bank Group navigates a dynamic business environment characterized by persistent inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, and lingering recessionary concerns. How do these economic realities impact TD Bank’s bottom line, and what strategy is the company employing to navigate these choppy waters? Get Toronto-Dominion Bank alerts: Sign Up TD Bank’s Financial Scorecard and Key Metrics Toronto-Dominion Bank Today TD Toronto-Dominion Bank $56.56 +1.55 (+2.82%) 52-Week Range $54.12 ▼ $66.15 Dividend Yield 5.34% P/E Ratio 12.85 Price Target $88.00 Add to Watchlist TD Bank Group's latest earnings report showed adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.49 for Q2 2024, exceeding analyst expectations of $1.35. This figure demonstrates an increase compared to the previous quarter's adjusted EPS of $1.46 and the year-ago quarter's $1.40. On a reported basis, diluted earnings per share were $0.99, reflecting a decline from $1.23 in the same period last year. This disparity between adjusted and reported earnings stems primarily from significant items impacting the quarter, most notably a substantial provision related to ongoing investigations into the bank's anti-money laundering (AML) program. Net income, a crucial indicator of profitability, provides similar performance. TD Bank Group recorded an adjusted net income of $2.77 billion for Q2 2024, marking a modest increase from $2.71 billion in the year-ago quarter. However, the company’s reported net income decreased to $1.87 billion compared to $2.42 billion in Q2 2023. The bank's revenue for Q2 2024 reached $10.10 billion, surpassing analyst forecasts of $9.26 billion and demonstrating growth compared to the previous quarter's $10.02 billion and the year-ago quarter's $9.06 billion. This positive revenue trend is attributed to solid performance across most of the bank's business segments, driven by loan and deposit growth, expanding net interest margins in certain areas, and robust capital markets activity. Provision for credit losses, an expense reflecting the bank's expectation of potential loan defaults, increased to $781.8 million in Q2 2024 compared to $730 billion in the prior quarter and $438.4 million in the same period last year. This upward trend underscores a more cautious stance on credit risk, likely influenced by concerns about a potential economic slowdown and its impact on borrower repayment capacity. Return on equity (ROE), a key measure of financial performance and efficiency, stood at an adjusted 14.5% for Q2 2024, indicating a healthy return on shareholder investment. This figure is consistent with the prior quarter's adjusted ROE of 14.1% and slightly above the 14.0% recorded in Q2 2023. Addressing the AML Challenge The provision for AML investigations within U.S. Retail Banking raises concerns about the effectiveness of TD Bank's risk and control framework. The bank has acknowledged the need for improvements and is actively investing in strengthening its AML program across all its operations. This initiative involves a comprehensive review of existing processes, enhanced customer due diligence procedures, and increased investment in technology and specialized personnel to bolster the bank's ability to detect and prevent financial crimes. Addressing these regulatory concerns is crucial for TD Bank to maintain its reputation and ensure continued trust among its customers and investors. TD Bank Capital Strength and Dividend Stability Toronto-Dominion Bank Dividend Payments Dividend Yield 5.34% Annual Dividend $3.02 Dividend Increase Track Record 10 Years Annualized 3-Year Dividend Growth 7.28% Dividend Payout Ratio 68.64% Next Dividend Payment Jul. 31 See Full Details TD Bank Guidance During Turbulence TD Bank Group maintains a strong capital position, reporting a Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 13.4% for Q2 2024. This capital base provides a significant buffer against potential losses and reinforces the bank's financial stability. Further bolstering investor confidence, TD Bank Group’s dividend was set at $0.75 per share, payable on July 31, 2024. This sustained dividend payment underscores the bank's commitment to returning value to its shareholders and its ability to generate consistent earnings. TD Bank Group's Q2 2024 performance provided a mix of results, showcasing areas of strength, such as Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking and Wholesale Banking, while acknowledging challenges within U.S. Retail Banking. Looking ahead, the bank faces a complex economic reality characterized by ongoing inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, and the possibility of a recession. Navigating these uncertain waters requires prudent risk management, strategic cost control, and continued investment in key growth areas. The successful resolution of the AML investigations will be crucial for restoring investor confidence and unlocking the full potential of the U.S. Retail Banking segment. TD Bank's strong capital position and consistent dividend payments provide stability against ongoing economic volatility. The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) Price Chart for Sunday, May, 26, 2024 TD Bank Group's Q2 2024 earnings report highlights the bank's resilience in a challenging operating environment. The bank's diversified business model, strong capital position, and commitment to enhancing its risk and control framework provide a solid foundation for future growth. Addressing the AML-related regulatory concerns will be paramount for unlocking the full potential of the U.S. Retail Banking segment and further strengthening investor confidence. As TD Bank Group navigates the remainder of fiscal year 2024, its ability to capitalize on opportunities while mitigating risks will be essential for achieving sustained success. Before you consider Toronto-Dominion Bank, 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 Toronto-Dominion Bank wasn't on the list. While Toronto-Dominion Bank currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
Medtronic Dips: Is Now the Time to Buy? 2024-05-24 11:10:00+00:00 - Key Points Medtronic had another solid quarter, with FCF expanding to support healthy dividend growth. The guidance is favorable and includes another year of steady, stable growth. Analysts Hold this stock and see it trading near the low end of the expected range with a possible 15% upside. 5 stocks we like better than Medtronic Shares of Medtronic NYSE: MDT are falling following its FQ4 release and guidance, opening up a potential buying opportunity. The question is whether its value, yield, balance sheet and cash flow are enough to keep investors interested and if they should be. The stock is a blue-chip operator in diversified medtech and growing. The growth isn’t robust but stable and supports healthy cash flow. The cash flow supports a healthy balance sheet that leaves the business in a condition to pursue growth avenues as they arise. Add in the yield well above the broad market average, and the odds are high that the post-release decline won’t last long. Get Medtronic alerts: Sign Up Medtronic Outperforms in Q4, Offers Solid Guidance, Shares Fall Medtronic Today MDT Medtronic $82.29 +0.91 (+1.12%) 52-Week Range $68.84 ▼ $91.00 Dividend Yield 3.35% P/E Ratio 29.92 Price Target $94.00 Add to Watchlist Medtronic had a decent quarter in Q4 with revenue of $8.59 billion , up 0.6%, despite the impact of one-offs and divestitures. The revenue beat the consensus by 175 basis points on strength in all segments, and organic growth is more robust. The organic growth topped 5.4%, led by strength in Diabetes. Diabetes beat by 10.9% reported and 11% organically. Cardiovascular and Neuroscience grew in the 5% range while Medical Surgical trailed at 3.5% reported and 4.5% organic. Margin news is mixed. The company’s margin narrowed on a GAAP and adjusted basis compared to last year, but the contraction was less than feared. The adjusted earnings of $1.46 are down 7% YOY but outpaced the consensus reported by Marketbeat.com by a penny and include a negative FX impact. As tepid as the Q4 earnings may be, the cash flow news is better. Full-year cash flow is up 12%, and free cash flow is 14%. The guidance is as solid as the Q4 results, with steady growth and a widening margin. The company is guiding for 4% to 5% organic growth, 2.2% to 3.7%, including the impact of FX. Earnings are expected to grow at a slightly faster pace of 4% to 6%, and all segments are expected to contribute. Not enough to spur the market to rally but sufficient to support the market at current levels. Medtronic Targets 50% Payout Ratio for Capital Return Medtronic’s healthy, stable business sustains a nice capital return program. The company targets a 50% payout ratio relative to free cash flow, which is growing. Capital returns include dividends and repurchases, which more than offset share-based compensation. The buybacks reduced the share count by 0.5% in F2024 and are expected to continue this year. The dividend is the bulk of the return and is worth 3.25% to investors, with shares near long-term lows. Because FCF is growing and expected to grow, dividend increases are part of the package, and it will take just a few years before Medtronic becomes a Dividend King. Medtronic Dividend Payments Dividend Yield 3.35% Annual Dividend $2.76 Dividend Increase Track Record 47 Years Annualized 3-Year Dividend Growth 6.45% Dividend Payout Ratio 100.36% Next Dividend Payment Jul. 12 See Full Details Medtronic at Bottom: Reversal is Possible Analysts and institutions have helped to put a floor in the MDT market. Analysts have the sock pegged at a consensus Hold and have lifted their price targets over the last year. This is significant because the market is trading just above the low end of the range, and the midpoint implies a 15% upside. The first revision following the release includes a reduced price target, but the $84 set by Piper Sandler is still above consensus. Regarding institutional activity, institutions own about 82% of the stock and have been buying on balance for the last seven consecutive quarters, aligning with the market bottom. Medtronic’s shares are down following the Q4 release because the results, good as they are, underwhelmed investors. However, the market is near the bottom and unlikely to break critical support near $80. The more likely scenario is that the market will support the stock at $80 or higher, sending it back to the top of the trading range. In this scenario, the market may move above $90 toward the consensus $92, an event that would put the market into a complete reversal. If not, Medtronic should remain range-bound at current levels, where it has a high-yielding value for income investors. Before you consider Medtronic, 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 Medtronic wasn't on the list. While Medtronic currently has a "Hold" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
Stock market today: Stocks slide, Dow suffers worst day in a year as Nvidia fails to spur market rally 2024-05-24 04:47:00+00:00 - Stocks slid from record levels on Thursday as interest rate worries dominated investor sentiment after Nvidia's (NVDA) blockbuster earnings failed to spur a broader market rally. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell about 0.4%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped more nearly 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dipped more than 1.5%, or 600 points, for its worst day since March 2023. A 7% drop in Boeing (BA) shares following an announcement of delayed plane deliveries weighed on the Dow. Nvidia's shares popped more than 9% to top $1,000 for the first time after the AI bellwether blew past Wall Street's sky-high forecasts for first quarter earnings. The chip giant also raised its guidance, easing fears that AI demand might be losing steam. Other chipmakers and AI-related stocks rode higher on the coattails of the results, with server maker Dell (DELL) up about 4%. Stocks had slipped on Wednesday after Federal Reserve minutes reignited concerns over the path of interest rates. Economic data on Thursday furthered that narrative. The S&P Global Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for May came in at 54.4 versus 51.3 last month. The flash reading, which came in higher than economists had expected, showed business activity accelerated at the fastest pace in two years despite the Fed's efforts to quell price pressures. Stocks started their declines for the day following the report. Read more: How does the labor market affect inflation?
Why Intel Stock Was Sliding Today 2024-05-24 03:32:00+00:00 - Shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) were heading lower today, even though there was no news out on the stock. Instead, the chip stock seemed to react poorly to a strong earnings report from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), the leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, an area Intel is keen on tapping into. Additionally, Nvidia announced a 10-for-1 stock split, a move some think will lead to the company's admission into the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing Intel, the only semiconductor business currently in the Dow. Image source: Getty Images. What Nvidia's report means for Intel There wasn't any direct impact on Intel from Nvidia's update, but the report gives no hint that Intel is gaining any traction in the AI GPU market with its new Gaudi3 accelerator. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also pushed back on the notion that competition was becoming a threat to the company, arguing that performance in its business equates with the lowest total cost of ownership. He also touted other advantages of Nvidia, including that it's in every cloud, making it attractive for developers to build on as opposed to a system that a hyperscaler creates for itself. Finally, he made the case that Nvidia is more than just a chipmaker -- it's building AI factories, which is much more complicated. Additionally, with Nvidia's stock split taking effect June 10, the prospects for Nvidia replacing Intel in the Dow seem very real. Intel has been a longtime laggard at this point, with a market of $128 billion, which represents just 5% of the market cap of Nvidia. Nvidia is also the most valuable U.S. stock to not be included in the Dow. What it means for Intel It's unclear how meaningful Nvidia's results are for Intel. After all, Nvidia also noted that the data center market is huge, and it's still seeing demand outstrip supply, so Intel should be able to pick up some market share with its AI GPUs. However, the notion that Intel will pose a serious challenge to Nvidia in the GPU market seems foolish at this point, and Intel still has a lot to prove. Should you invest $1,000 in Intel right now? Before you buy stock in Intel, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Intel wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $581,764!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. Story continues See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 13, 2024 Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Intel and recommends the following options: long January 2025 $45 calls on Intel and short May 2024 $47 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Intel Stock Was Sliding Today was originally published by The Motley Fool
4 REITs With Recent Price Target Increases 2024-05-24 03:15:00+00:00 - 4 REITs With Recent Price Target Increases Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Analysts' views carry a significant weight on Wall Street. Investors often see share prices rise if an analyst upgrades a stock or maintains a previous rating while increasing the price target. Sometimes, analysts review a particular sector or subsector and then increase price targets on multiple stocks within that group. Other times, when one analyst boosts a rating on a stock, another analyst soon follows suit. Four real estate investment trusts (REITs) have just received new price targets from the Scotiabank analyst. Three have diversified portfolios, while the fourth is a retail REIT. Take a look: WP Carey WP Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) is a New York City-based diversified net-lease REIT, whose single-tenant properties include industrial, warehouse, retail and self-storage units. It was founded in 1973 and recently celebrated its 50th year of property investing. WP Carey has 1,282 net-leased properties with approximately 168 million square feet across 26 countries. Its portfolio includes 335 tenants with a weighted average lease term of 14.9 years and an excellent occupancy rate of 99.1. On April 30, WP Carey reported its Q1 2024 operating results, missing analysts' estimates for both FFO and revenue. FFO of $1.14 per share and revenue of $386.842 million fell short of the expected $1.16 per share and $397.594 million. FFO was also below $1.31 in the same period a year ago and revenue decreased from $427.350 million in Q1 2023. WP Carey also affirmed its full-year 2024 AFFO per share of $4.65 to $4.75, with a midpoint of $4.70, slightly above estimates of $4.67. Despite missing estimates for the second consecutive quarter, the forward guidance gave investors hope and WP Carey shares have rallied since the earnings announcement. On May 16, Scotiabank analyst Nicholas Yulico maintained WP Carey at Sector Perform and raised the price target by 9% from $55 to $60. However, WP Carey recently closed at $59.56, so the price target is hardly a ringing endorsement. Many investors have also lost faith in WP Carey after its September announcement of a spinoff and sale of its office properties and a surprising dividend cut. Shares have fallen over 26% since the high of $81.54 in July 2022. Ventas Ventas Inc (NYSE:VTR) is a Chicago-based diversified health care REIT with 1,368 properties including senior living communities, life science, research and innovation properties, medical offices, outpatient facilities and skilled nursing facilities. Ventas has been in business for over 20 years and is a member of the S&P 500. Story continues Ventas has been making news recently. On May 1, Ventas declared its Q1 2024 operating results. FFO of $0.78 per share beat the consensus estimate of $0.74 and Q1 2023 FFO of $0.74 per share. Revenue of $1.19 billion beat the forecast of $1.16 billion. Revenue also improved from Q1 2023 when it was $1.08 billion. On May 15, Ventas announced a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per common share, in line with its previous quarterly dividend, payable July 18 to shareholders of record on July 1. On May 16, Scotiabank analyst Nicholas Yulico maintained Ventas with a Sector Perform rating, raising the price target from $47 to $51. Ventas has had a significant run-up over the past month from $41.45 to $48.71 and could be overextended. But analyst Yulico still believes it has further to go within the next year. VICI Properties VICI Properties Inc (NYSE:VICI) is a New York-based diversified experiential REIT specializing in owning and operating gaming, hospitality and entertainment properties. Its triple-net portfolio includes well-known Las Vegas hotels such as Caesars Palace, MGM Grand and the Venetian Resort. VICI Properties was formed as a REIT in 2017 and was a spinoff from Caesars Entertainment Operating Company as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization. The IPO was held on Feb. 1, 2018. Vici Properties' portfolio of 93 properties presently includes 54 gaming and 39 nongaming facilities, with 60,300 hotel rooms and over 500 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and sportsbooks. On May 1, VICI Properties reported first quarter earnings of $0.56 per share, which met the consensus estimate. Revenue of $951.50 million beat the consensus estimate of $936.67 million and topped Q1 2023 revenue of $877.65 million. On May 16, Scotiabank analyst Nicholas Yulico maintained VICI Properties with a Sector Outperform rating and raised the price target from $32 to $34. This represents a potential 12.28% increase from its recent closing price of $30.28. This was the second analyst price target hike in the past week. Mizuho analyst Haendel St. Juste maintained a Buy rating on May 10 and increased the price target from $31 to $32. Simon Property Group Simon Property Group Inc. (NYSE:SPG) Simon Property Group is an Indianapolis-based retail REIT that owns and leases over 250 properties, consisting of shopping malls, restaurants, outlet centers and entertainment venues. It has locations in the top 25 population markets across the U.S. Simon Property Group was founded in 1960 and launched its IPO in 1993. Its occupancy rate for its U.S. malls and premium outlets at the end of Q1 2024 was 95.5%, down from 95.8% in Q4 2023, but up from 94.4% in Q1 2023. On May 6, Simon Property Group reported excellent Q1 2024 operating results. FFO of $3.56 per share trounced the consensus estimate of $2.82 and was almost 30% above FFO of $2.74 per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $1.44 billion was ahead of estimates of $1.29 billion by 11.83% and was a 6.78% increase over Q1 2023 revenue of $1.35 billion. On May 16, Scotiabank analyst Nicholas Yulico maintained Simon Property with a Sector Perform rating and raised the price target from $142 to $152. Simon recently closed at $148.66 down from a high of $157.82 in late March. 2 High-Yield Alternatives REITs are an excellent option for adding real estate to a portfolio and generating a realiable stream of passive income, but smart investors should also consider alternative investments that offer diversification outside of the stock market and an attractive yield. Two such options are the Ascent Income Fund and Basecamp Alpine Notes from EquityMultiple. The Ascent Income Fund targets stable income from senior commercial real estate debt positions, offering a compelling yield backed by real assets. With a historical distribution yield of 12.1%, payment priority, and flexible liquidity options, the Ascent Income Fund is a cornerstone investment vehicle for income-focused investors. For a limited time, first-time investors with EquityMultiple can invest in the Ascent Income Fund with a reduced minimum of just $5,000. Click here for more details about the Ascent Income Fund. Basecamp Alpine Notes from EquityMultiple provide another powerful short-term cash management tool, offering a target APY of 9.00% over a 3-month term with a minimum investment of only $1,000. These notes offer high liquidity and compelling rates with compounding interest, making them an ideal choice for investors looking to build their real estate portfolio. Click here to learn more about what makes Basecamp Alpine Notes an attractive high-yield investment. This article 4 REITs With Recent Price Target Increases originally appeared on Benzinga.com
Why Snowflake Stock Is Falling Today 2024-05-24 03:13:00+00:00 - Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) stock is losing ground in Thursday's trading. The company's share price was down 5.8% as of 3 p.m. ET, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. After the market closed on Wednesday, Snowflake published the results for the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, which ended April 30. While the company's sales came in ahead of the market's expectations, earnings for the period were lower than Wall Street had anticipated. Snowflake's sales beat is overshadowed by earnings miss Snowflake posted non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) adjusted earnings per share of $0.14 on revenue of $828.71 million in fiscal Q1. Meanwhile, the average analyst estimate had called for the business to post adjusted per-share earnings of $0.17 on revenue of roughly $828.75 million. The data-warehousing specialist's product revenue increased 34% to hit $789.6 million. Overall revenue for the period was up 32.9% compared to the prior-year period. The company closed out the period with 485 customers with trailing-12-month product revenue greater than $1 million -- up from the 461 customers that it had in the cohort in Q4 last year. Snowflake's net revenue retention rate also slipped to 128% -- down from 131% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and 151% in the first quarter of that year. When will AI-driven demand accelerate? As a leading provider of services that help organizations combine, sort, and analyze data, Snowflake looks poised to see some demand tailwinds related to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). On the other hand, the company's share price is now down roughly 14% over the last year. SNOW Chart For the second quarter of its current fiscal year, Snowflake expects product revenue to come in between $805 million and $810 million. At the midpoint of that guidance range, that would mean delivering year-over-year growth of approximately 26.5%. The company expects to post an operating income margin of roughly 3%. While the company's forward guidance isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, it looks like investors were looking for the business to see a bigger performance boost from AI. Should you invest $1,000 in Snowflake right now? Before you buy stock in Snowflake, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Snowflake wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $581,764!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. Story continues See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 13, 2024 Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Snowflake. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Snowflake Stock Is Falling Today was originally published by The Motley Fool
U.S. Supreme Court Loss for Coinbase Leaves Company with Mixed Record 2024-05-24 01:43:00+00:00 - Coinbase took a loss in its latest Supreme Court argument on a very narrow point about arbitration. Bad news for Coinbase doesn't translate directly to anything in the digital assets sector. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Coinbase Inc. (COIN) in its dispute over which legal agreement should hold sway when parties are under two distinct contracts and the first of them calls for arbitration, finding the company's case was "unpersuasive" and that the courts need to work those questions out when they arise. The matter was far removed from the company's cryptocurrency business, but arbitration issues have been increasingly important in the technology sector in general. This particular case arose over a dispute about whether an arbitration clause in an initial contract should have controlled what happened in a subsequent contract tied to a Dogecoin {{DOGE}} sweepstakes competition the exchange held in 2021 "The question whether these parties agreed to arbitrate arbitrability can be answered only by determining which contract applies," according to the Thursday opinion written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. "When we home in on the conflict between the delegation clause in the first contract and forum selection clause in the second, the question is whether the parties agreed to send the given dispute to arbitration – and, per usual, that question must be answered by a court." That wasn't what Coinbase had hoped to hear. The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. "Coinbase contends that our approach will invite chaos by facilitating challenges to delegation clauses," Jackson wrote in the court's opinion. "We do not believe that such chaos will follow." The loss in this second highly technical case leaves Coinbase with a mixed record at the Supreme Court, having won its previous dispute over another arbitration matter. "Some you win. Some you lose," its chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, said in a post on X. "We are grateful for having had the opportunity to present our case to the Court and appreciate the Court's consideration of this matter." Because the scenario outlined in this case is narrow and unusual, it "will have limited applicability in arbitration-related jurisprudence going forward," said Richard Silberberg, an arbitration lawyer with Dorsey & Whitney and a director of the New York International Arbitration Center. "The unanimous SCOTUS decision that a court, not an arbitrator, must decide whether the parties’ first agreement was superseded by the second was hardly surprising," he added, because previous rulings had pointed in that direction. Story continues Bottom line, according to Rollo Baker, a founding partner with Elsberg Baker & Maruri: "The decision makes clear that where parties have two agreements, one that calls for arbitration and a later-executed agreement that calls for court resolution, it is not ‘unmistakably’ clear that the parties intended arbitrability to be resolved in arbitration," he said in an emailed statement. While this case wasn't at the core of crypto, the Supreme Court is widely expected to eventually resolve the industry's legal battles with U.S. regulators, though it may take years for any of these cases to even appear before the high court. Read More: Coinbase Argues an Arbitration Case in U.S. Supreme Court as Crypto Makes Its Debut UPDATE (May 22, 2024, 17:50 UTC): Adds comment from Coinbase executive.
Delaware and Tennessee to provide free diapers through Medicaid 2024-05-23 22:31:00+00:00 - Free diaper distribution in McKeesport Free diaper distribution in McKeesport 01:54 Low-income parents and caregivers in Delaware and Tennessee are getting a lifeline to help curtail one of the most common medical conditions for babies: diaper rash. Both states have received federal approval to provide free diapers through their Medicaid programs, according to federal and state officials. Under TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid program, parents and legal guardians can pick up as many as 100 diapers a month for kids under age 2 at participating pharmacies beginning in August, Tennessee officials said. "For infants and toddlers, a key benefit to adequate diaper supply is preventing diaper dermatitis, otherwise known as diaper rash, and urinary tract infections," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stated last week in an approval letter to Tennessee. The federal agency also approved a similar Medicaid program in Delaware that will provide up to 80 diapers and a pack of baby wipes a week to parents for the first 12 weeks after a child is born. CMS said the state can use Medicaid funding to extend the program for an additional five years. "Access to sufficient diapers offers health benefits to the parent, as well, as diaper need is associated with maternal depression and stress," a spokesperson for the Delaware Health and Social Services told the Associated Press in an email. The cost of diapers An infant needs as many as a dozen diapers a day, at a cost of $80 to $100 or more a month, according to the National Diaper Bank Network, an advocacy group. The cost of diapers can equate to 8% of someone's income if they are earning the federal minimum wage, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has noted. Meanwhile, parents who do not have enough diapers are unable drop their kids off at childcare, hindering their ability to work. The Tennessee request to the federal agency came from an initiative supported by Gov. Bill Lee in 2023 that had lawmakers approving $30 million in TennCare funding for the free diapers. "We are the first state in the nation to cover the cost of diapers for mothers in the first two years of a child's life, and we hope this is a model for others," Lee, a Republican, said in a statement on Wednesday. Tennessee has built a track record over the years for its willingness to reject federal funding for those struggling or who live in poverty. The state in January announced it would rebuff nearly $9 million in federal funding to prevent and treat HIV, with Lee saying Tennessee did not want to contend with the strings attached to accepting federal funds. —The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SEC approves rule change to allow creation of ether ETFs 2024-05-23 22:28:00+00:00 - A representation of cryptocurrency Ethereum is placed on a PC motherboard in this illustration taken on June 16, 2023. The SEC has approved a rule change Thursday that would pave the way for ETFs that buy and hold ether , one of the world's largest cryptocurrencies. The decision comes less than six months after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved bitcoin ETFs. Those funds have proven to be a big success for the industry, with net inflows already surpassing $12 billion, according to FactSet. Late May had long been pegged as a potential decision date for the ether funds since it coincided with a deadline for the SEC to decide whether the VanEck Ethereum ETF could proceed. Many of the companies that sponsor bitcoin ETFs — including BlackRock, Bitwise and Galaxy Digital — have also started the process of the launching an ether fund. The price of ether rose just 2%, although it follows a 20% surge from earlier in the week in anticipation of Thursday's decision. Some investors may also be on pause, as the SEC's rule change approval does not guarantee that all the funds will launch. Specifically, the SEC's order approves applications from various exchanges to list eight different ether funds. The order technically does not approve the funds themselves or set a date for the ETFs to begin trading. Ether ETFs are expected to be smaller, at least initially, than their bitcoin counterparts. The Grayscale Ethereum Trust currently has about $11 billion in assets, much smaller than what the firm's bitcoin fund was before its conversion. The approval of the ether ETFs is a sign that the SEC's stance toward crypto may be softening after a series of legal fights. The agency lost a lawsuit against Grayscale in 2023 that spurred the approval for the bitcoin products. The SEC's push to regulate crypto has also come under scrutiny by politicians. The Senate last week passed a resolution to withdraw an SEC staff bulletin about accounting rules for digital assets. Ether is the second largest crypto asset and has become something of a blue chip coin along with bitcoin, although its value proposition is distinctly different. While bitcoin is seen primarily as a long-term store of value, an investment in ether is considered more akin to an investment in early stage technology. The ether token fuels the Ethereum network, which powers different applications, like decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or the tokenization of real world assets like commodities, securities, art, real estate and more. The applications approved Thursday do not apply to other crypto projects on the Ethereum network, said Richard Kerr, a partner in the law firm K&L Gates. "If and when an ether product is approved, it won't mean that a similar product for other digital assets on the Ethereum platform would be approved," Kerr said. Ethereum also provides opportunities for staking, which is a way for investors to earn interest on their ether holdings by locking up tokens on the network for a period of time — although ether ETFs in the U.S. may not participate. The SEC has alleged in lawsuits against Coinbase and Kraken that staking-as-a-service offerings are unregistered securities. Ark, Fidelity and Grayscale updated their filings this month to remove staking from their proposals. The lack of staking in the ETF products is another reason why ether ETFs may see less demand than their bitcoin counterparts, said Steven Lubka, managing director at Swan Bitcoin and head of Swan Private. "These numbers are not going to match the bitcoin ETF inflows, and there are some structural differences in the product that just make it less attractive overall," Lubka said.
Here's why summer travel vacations will cost more this year 2024-05-23 22:27:00+00:00 - Summer vacations, a big-ticket purchase for most Americans, will be even costlier this year despite airfares, rental car costs and other travel-related expenses dropping. The reason? Elevated prices on things like checked bags, restaurants and recreational experiences. While hotel prices are down 4%, airfares down 6% and rental car costs have dipped 10%, according to a NerdWallet survey, vacationing this summer will cost 15% more than it did before the pandemic. That's because airline extras like seat selection fees, as well as dining out and entertainment costs, are making a bigger dent on Americans' wallets. "Inflation is no joke. Americans are feeling the impact," said CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. "What they're going to find when that bill comes, it's going to look a lot like it did last year, but there are some real pain points," he added. One of those pain points is airline baggage fees. "That could be $5 and then multiply that times two for your roundtrip, multiply that by four for your family of four, and you're seeing that the cost of travel does feel like it's going up even if individual prices are going down," Sally French, who tracks vacation inflation for NerdWallet, told CBS News. Vacation activity costs, such as visiting amusement parks or other sites, have risen 3.4% since 2019, according to NerdWallet. As far as eating out goes, restaurant dining is up nearly 30% compared with 2019. That could amount to a significant expense for vacationers, many of whom don't include food in their budget. "A lot of people won't budget restaurant prices when they're making that initial vacation plan," French said. "They're budgeting out the price of their hotel and airfare." Indeed airfares can appear artificially low when only the base fare is advertised which doesn't take into account the cost of extras like choosing a seat. Ways to save on summer travel Despite inflation and concerns about the state of the economy weighing on Americans' psyches and wallets, roughly 70% still say they will take a trip this summer. Van Cleave offers these tips for consumers looking to cut costs when taking trips. It always pays to travel at off-peak times, when airfares tend to be cheaper. Over Memorial Day Weekend Being flexible on where you travel can also help your wallet. Avoiding particularly popular or congested areas can lead to significant savings. "If you just want a beach, you maybe go to a less popular, less in-demand destination," Van Cleave suggests. "You get the sun, you get the sand, you get the surf and maybe you get a smaller bill." Lastly, spend your travel rewards and credit card points as you accumulate them, as opposed to stockpiling them for some point in the future, when they may be worth less. "Use them as you get them to cut travel costs. The only guarantee with those points is they become less valuable as time goes on," Van Cleave said.
Frontier Airlines CEO urges crackdown of 'rampant abuse' of airport wheelchair service 2024-05-23 22:05:00+00:00 - Frontier Airlines plane seen at Cancun International Airport. On Wednesday, December 08, 2021, in Cancun International Airport, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide a wheelchair to passengers with disabilities at the airport. The problem: Many travelers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle says. "There is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don't need it at all," Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon on Thursday in New York. He said he had seen Frontier flights where 20 people were brought to the plane with wheelchairs, but only three wheelchairs were used upon arrival. "We are healing so many people," he joked. Biffle wasn't talking about travelers' personal wheelchairs but rather the service airlines provide when travelers arrive at the airport. It costs the airline between $30 and $35 each time a customer requests a wheelchair, Biffle said, and abuse of the service leads to delays for travelers with genuine need for assistance. "Everyone should be entitled to it who needs it, but you park in a handicapped space they will tow your car and fine you," he told CNBC. "There should be the same penalty for abusing these services." Earlier this year, the Transportation Department proposed stricter rules aimed at preventing wheelchair damage by airport ground handlers and ensuring "prompt assistance" to travelers with disabilities when getting on and off the plane.
F-35s are going to be a 'game-changer' for US Navy amphibious assault ship and former 'Harrier carrier' USS Bataan, senior officer says 2024-05-23 21:42:20+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview USS Bataan just finished a lengthy deployment in Middle Eastern waters that took it into the ongoing Red Sea fight, but it'll soon be headed to the shipyard for a major overhaul. The amphibious assault ship, currently docked in New York City for Fleet Week 2024, will undergo work to carry F-35B Lightning II fighter jets. The upgrade will be "game-changer" for the capabilities and future operations of the ship, a senior officer said. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Envisioned as an option to project US power in a more distributed force, namely across the Pacific, the lightning carrier doesn't carry as many fighters as an aircraft carrier like the USS Gerald R. Ford — at most 20 compared to more than 50 — but it's less expensive than building an entirely new aircraft carrier and flexes a better versatility thanks to its other capabilities. Such a conversion process, though, will keep the Bataan in the shipyard for more than 600 days. "We have to completely revamp the flight deck," Capt. Trace Head, the ship's executive officer, told Business Insider this week, explaining that "the electrical demand is different from any aircraft that we have on board." Advertisement An F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft sits on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chandler Harrell "As we transition from the Harrier to the F-35 on these ships, there's certain maintenance things that have to be done, and that's all planned and programmed," Marine Forces Command leader Lt. Gen. Brian Cavanaugh said. Perhaps the largest rework will involve making sure that the Bataan can withstand the F-35B's unique vertical takeoff process, which produces intense heat that can damage the flight deck. The B variant of the F-35 is designed for short takeoffs and vertical landings, eliminating the need for catapult launch systems like those on US Navy Nimitz- and Ford-class aircraft carriers. The upgrade will allow the Bataan to bring a limited force of fifth-generation F-35s into a fight while also maintaining key amphibious assault capabilities. These ships are smaller and more versatile in their missions. Related stories Once the Bataan is effectively set up to carry F-35s, "the capability that we will bring, especially from an air-to-air standpoint with the F-35s, will be incredibly advanced," Head said. "It's something that will be a game-changer." Advertisement Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter prepares to make a vertical landing aboard Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., March 21, 2013. Cpl. Ken Kalemkarian/released The idea of a lightning carrier has roots in the "Harrier carrier" concept, which the Bataan notably employed in Iraq in 2003. Experts have debated how useful a lightning carrier would be in a conflict against a great power, such as China, but certain US allies, such as Australia, Japan, and South Korea, are moving full-steam ahead with similar concepts. Those programs are in various stages. One major benefit of a lightning carrier is the F-35B's array of sensors, which allow the jet to act as a battlefield hub and relay information to friendly forces across a wide area. Two U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft operate alongside amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) and guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) in the Gulf of Oman, Aug. 17, 2023. US Navy The transition to the F-35 fighter jets from the older Harrier jump jets could change which missions the Bataan goes out on and potentially for how long. The big-deck amphib was in the Red Sea this past fall, deterring threats and projecting US power in the area as the US and its partners engaged with Houthi forces in the area. At that time, the Bataan didn't bring as much applicable combat power to the fight. Advertisement "There's absolutely no question about" whether the F-35 would've completely changed how the Bataan entered that conflict, Head said. "We might still be there if we had F-35s on board." Cavanaugh noted that the F-35 upgrade will be a "significant jump" from other aircraft, presenting new capabilities and challenges for the force. "As we get increased technologies" and incorporate them, he said, "it's a stronger deterrent all across the globe." An F-35B begins its short takeoff from the USS America with an external weapons load. Lockheed Martin It remains to be seen where the Bataan will go once it returns to the force, suspected to be around May 2026. But for Head, thinking about what the ship, with its new capabilities, will bring to the force is an exciting prospect. "The next deployment, we will be the most advanced amphibious warship in the Navy coming out of the shipyard," he said.
American Airlines walks back defense blaming 9-year-old for being secretly recorded in plane bathroom 2024-05-23 21:16:17+00:00 - American Airlines made headlines this week for blaming a 9-year-old for negligence after she was secretly filmed by a flight attendant in an airplane bathroom. Now the company is saying that that line of argument, made by its lawyers in a court filing, is "not representative" of its position and will be corrected. "Our outside legal counsel retained with our insurance company made an error in this filing," the airline said in a statement on Wednesday. "The included defense is not representative of our airline and we have directed it be amended this morning. We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously." Estes Carter Thompson III, an American Airlines flight attendant, was arrested in January for allegedly trying to record a 14-year-old girl while she used the bathroom on a flight in September. When law enforcement agents searched his phone, they found other videos of children using the bathroom and artificial intelligence-generated images of child sexual abuse, federal prosecutors said. American Airlines said at the time that Thompson was no longer employed by the company and that it was cooperating with law enforcement. The family of the 14-year-old sued the airline in December. The 9-year-old girl's family also filed a civil lawsuit in February, saying that they were notified by the FBI that it had found videos and photos of the girl, from a flight that the family took in January 2023, on Thompson's phone. In response to the second lawsuit, lawyers for the company said in a filing on Tuesday that any damages to the girl were caused by her "own fault and negligence" as she used a bathroom that she "knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device." That defense, which was widely covered by the media, was met with public outrage. The attorney representing the family, Paul Llewellyn, called the airline's legal strategy "depraved" and "shocking," saying in a statement that the airline's claim that it was an error "is simply not credible." Thompson this week pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.
Colorado is first in nation to pass legislation tackling threat of AI bias in pivotal decisions 2024-05-23 21:15:00+00:00 - The first attempts to regulate artificial intelligence programs that play a hidden role in hiring, housing and medical decisions for millions of Americans are facing pressure from all sides and floundering in statehouses nationwide. Only one of seven bills aimed at preventing AI's penchant to discriminate when making consequential decisions — including who gets hired, money for a home or medical care — has passed. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis hesitantly signed the bill on Friday. Colorado's bill and those that faltered in Washington, Connecticut and elsewhere faced battles on many fronts, including between civil rights groups and the tech industry, and lawmakers wary of wading into a technology few yet understand and governors worried about being the odd-state-out and spooking AI startups. Polis signed Colorado's bill "with reservations," saying in an statement he was wary of regulations dousing AI innovation. The bill has a two-year runway and can be altered before it becomes law. "I encourage (lawmakers) to significantly improve on this before it takes effect," Polis wrote. Colorado's proposal, along with six sister bills, are complex, but will broadly require companies to assess the risk of discrimination from their AI and inform customers when AI was used to help make a consequential decision for them. The bills are separate from more than 400 AI-related bills that have been debated this year. Most are aimed at slices of AI, such as the use of deepfakes in elections or to make pornography. The seven bills are more ambitious, applying across major industries and targeting discrimination, one of the technology's most perverse and complex problems. "We actually have no visibility into the algorithms that are used, whether they work or they don't, or whether we're discriminated against," said Rumman Chowdhury, AI envoy for the U.S. Department of State who previously led Twitter's AI ethics team. Different beast While anti-discrimination laws are already on the books, those who study AI discrimination say it's a different beast, which the U.S. is already behind in regulating. "The computers are making biased decisions at scale," said Christine Webber, a civil rights attorney who has worked on class action lawsuits over discrimination including against Boeing and Tyson Foods. Now, Webber is nearing final approval on one of the first-in-the-nation settlements in a class action over AI discrimination. "Not, I should say, that the old systems were perfectly free from bias either," said Webber. But "any one person could only look at so many resumes in the day. So you could only make so many biased decisions in one day and the computer can do it rapidly across large numbers of people." When you apply for a job, an apartment or a home loan, there's a good chance AI is assessing your application: sending it up the line, assigning it a score or filtering it out. It's estimated as many as 83% of employers use algorithms to help in hiring, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. AI itself doesn't know what to look for in a job application, so it's taught based on past resumes. The historical data that is used to train algorithms can smuggle in bias. Amazon, for example, worked on a hiring algorithm that was trained on old resumes: largely male applicants. When assessing new applicants, it downgraded resumes with the word "women's" or that listed women's colleges because they were not represented in the historical data — the resumes — it had learned from. The project was scuttled. Webber's class action lawsuit alleges that an AI system that scores rental applications disproportionately assigned lower scores to Black or Hispanic applicants. A study found that an AI system built to assess medical needs passed over Black patients for special care. Studies and lawsuits have allowed a glimpse under the hood of AI systems, but most algorithms remain veiled. Americans are largely unaware that these tools are being used, polling from Pew Research shows. Companies generally aren't required to explicitly disclose that an AI was used. "Just pulling back the curtain so that we can see who's really doing the assessing and what tool is being used is a huge, huge first step," said Webber. "The existing laws don't work if we can't get at least some basic information." That's what Colorado's bill, along with another surviving bill in California, are trying to change. The bills, including a flagship proposal in Connecticut that was killed under opposition from the governor, are largely similar. Colorado's bill will require companies using AI to help make consequential decisions for Americans to annually assess their AI for potential bias; implement an oversight program within the company; tell the state attorney general if discrimination was found; and inform to customers when an AI was used to help make a decision for them, including an option to appeal. Labor unions and academics fear that a reliance on companies overseeing themselves means it'll be hard to proactively address discrimination in an AI system before it's done damage. Companies are fearful that forced transparency could reveal trade secrets, including in potential litigation, in this hyper-competitive new field. AI companies also pushed for, and generally received, a provision that only allows the attorney general, not citizens, to file lawsuits under the new law. Enforcement details have been left up to the attorney general. While larger AI companies have more or less been on board with these proposals, a group of smaller Colorado-based AI companies said the requirements might be manageable by behemoth AI companies, but not by budding startups. "We are in a brand new era of primordial soup," said Logan Cerkovnik, founder of Thumper.ai, referring to the field of AI. "Having overly restrictive legislation that forces us into definitions and restricts our use of technology while this is forming is just going to be detrimental to innovation." All agreed, along with many AI companies, that what's formally called "algorithmic discrimination" is critical to tackle. But they said the bill as written falls short of that goal. Instead, they proposed beefing up existing anti-discrimination laws. Chowdhury worries that lawsuits are too costly and time consuming to be an effective enforcement tool, and laws should instead go beyond what even Colorado is proposing. Instead, Chowdhury and academics have proposed accredited, independent organization that can explicitly test for potential bias in an AI algorithm. "You can understand and deal with a single person who is discriminatory or biased," said Chowdhury. "What do we do when it's embedded into the entire institution?" ___ Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Boeing expects a 2024 cash burn, slow recovery of airplane deliveries amid crisis, CFO says 2024-05-23 21:15:00+00:00 - Boeing will burn through cash this year and deliveries of new planes won’t improve in the second quarter from the first, as the manufacturer deals with a host of production challenges tied to its bestselling planes, the company’s CFO, Brian West, said Thursday. A month ago, West forecast Boeing would generate free cash flow “in the low single-digit billions.” The new forecast shows the mounting costs of the plane maker’s latest crises. Boeing burned through nearly $4 billion in cash in the first quarter and West said that figure could be similar or “possibly a little worse” in the second quarter, but that the company would likely return to generating cash in the second half of 2024. The company’s aircraft deliveries in the first quarter fell to the lowest level since the pandemic. The bulk of a plane’s price is paid when it’s handed over to a customer. Boeing’s shares lost more than 7% on Thursday after West’s comments at a Wolfe Research industry conference, a slide that weighed down the Dow Jones Industrial Average. “We have frustrated and disappointed our customers because of some of the production supply chain issues that we’re up against,” West said at the conference. “And while I understand that frustration, the most important thing we can do for our customers and the supply chain in the industry is to focus on the actions that are underway as we speak so that we could stabilize this production system, improve quality, and get more predictable.” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun in March said he would step down by the end of the year, and the company replaced the chairman and chief executive of its commercial airplane unit. Leading up to the shake-up, CEOs of major airline customers complained about delivery delays and difficulty planning flights because of surprise disruptions. Boeing’s latest production issues surfaced after a door plug blew out midair from a nearly new 737 Max 9 at the start of the year, just as the company was trying to repair years of reputational damage from two fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. The accident increased federal scrutiny of the company, whose executives have vowed to stamp out production flaws and regain the trust of regulators, airline customers and the public. Next Thursday, Boeing leaders are set to meet with the Federal Aviation Administration to present the company’s plan to improve its quality control, the FAA said. The agency gave Boeing 90 days to complete the plan starting in late February. Other problems have also sprung up, including a pause on deliveries of 737 Max planes to China to review batteries for the cockpit voice recorder. Boeing said in a statement that it is working with “our Chinese customers on the timing of their deliveries as the Civil Aviation Administration of China completes its review of batteries contained within the 25-hour cockpit voice recorder assembly unit.” Earlier this month, the FAA said it opened a new probe into the 787 Dreamliner inspections after the company disclosed “misconduct” by some employees. The agency said it was looking into whether employees falsified records. Parts shortages have also slowed deliveries of Dreamliners, Boeing has said. American Airlines last month said it would cut some international flights because of delays of the wide-body jets. Other carriers, including United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, said they had to scale back growth and hiring plans because of delayed Boeing jets.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he favors 'no tariffs' on Chinese EVs 2024-05-23 21:13:00+00:00 - Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he doesn’t support President Biden’s recent announcement of a tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles. “Neither Tesla nor I asked for these tariffs,” Musk said in response to a question from CNBC’s Karen Tso during a question and answer session at the VivaTech conference here on Thursday. “In fact, I was surprised when they were announced.” The Biden administration last week said it was placing a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicle imports to the U.S. in a bid to stop cheap Chinese EVs from flooding the U.S. market. The White House says Beijing’s subsidies are helping companies overproduce cheap clean energy products like solar panels and EVs that outpace domestic demand. Tesla has been struggling this year due to an aging fleet of EVs, weaker consumer demand for its vehicles and increased global competition, most notably in China. Revenue slumped in the first quarter by the most since 2012, and the stock price is down almost 30% in 2024. “Tesla competes quite well in the market in China with no tariffs and no deferential support,” Musk said on Thursday. “I’m in favor of no tariffs.” Musk added that he doesn’t agree with tax incentives for EVs, either. “I’m in favor of no tariffs and no incentives for electric vehicles, or for oil and gas,” the Tesla CEO said. Musk’s remarks Thursday come after he suggested earlier this year that Chinese EV companies will crush competitors elsewhere in the absence of trade restrictions. “Frankly, I think, if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other companies in the world,” Musk said on the company’s earnings call in January. Earlier, when asked for his views on whether Biden’s 100% tariffs would give him to the green light to bring a lower-priced car to market, Musk’s line cut out and the audience were left for several minutes waiting for him to come back online. Some attendees left the dome where the Q&A session was being livestreamed.
Why Nikki Haley said she's voting for Trump 2024-05-23 21:04:45+00:00 - Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s criticisms of former President Donald Trump during her presidential run were pointed. She called him "totally unhinged" and decried his thirst for “revenge.” She warned that he is “declining” cognitively and that he “surrounds himself in chaos.” She took aim at one of his most overtly authoritarian rhetorical tactics and said America doesn’t “rig elections.” She denounced his threats against opponents and his use of campaign funds to fund lawyers' fees. If you were somehow still clinging to the illusion that Haley is a moderate at heart, allow her promise to vote for Trump in November disabuse you of that notion. But in her first public appearance since dropping out of the presidential race, Haley said she’ll be “voting for Trump.” If you were somehow still clinging to the illusion that Haley is a moderate at heart, allow her promise to vote for Trump in November disabuse you of that notion. Haley’s explanation for why she’ll vote for Trump illustrates how flimsy her commitment is to at least some of her stated ideals. Asked on Wednesday at the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think tank in Washington, who would do a better job in the White House, Haley said: As a voter, I’d put my priorities on a president who is going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account; who would secure the border, no more excuses; a president who would support capitalism and freedom; a president who understands we need less debt, not more debt; Trump has not been perfect on these policies — I have made that clear many, many times — but Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump. The idea that Trump is the superior alternative to Biden based on those criteria has some flaws. On the issue of allies and enemies, Haley recently pointed out the danger of Trump actively encouraging Russia to attack NATO allies. Having served as an ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, Haley is intimately aware of the rifts Trump caused with allies not just over NATO but also on issues that include his unilateral withdrawal from multilateral agreements like the Paris Agreement on climate and the Iran nuclear deal. He was also dovish on Russia and North Korea, geopolitical adversaries Haley is hawkish on. Meanwhile Biden has a far more conventional outlook on approaching longtime U.S. allies and adversaries. Regarding some of Haley's other stated issues of concern, it’s not clear how Biden is catastrophic compared to Trump. If Haley is a debt hawk, then why would she favor Trump, given his exceptional record on accumulating debt? Haley’s apparent commitment to free market capitalism should probably cause her to question why the trade war-loving Trump is clearly better than Biden. But Haley’s political trajectory makes clear that she wants to be a major player in GOP politics, and her future within the party would be imperiled if she didn’t pledge to support the most powerful and popular Republican ahead of the election. A promise not to vote for Trump could have nudged the millions of Republicans who voted for her to sit out Election Day or defect to another party. And Haley is far from a Never Trumper. She served in his administration and ran a campaign heavily influenced by MAGA ideology. Despite some substantial criticism of Trump, Haley declined to confront him head-on the way former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did (albeit ineffectively). Haley’s rancorous rivalry with Trump during the presidential primaries makes it doubtful he would invite her back into his Cabinet if he’s elected, but Haley is likely contemplating how she can position herself for a 2028 run. Haley’s even-keeled temperament, her sometimes spirited criticism of Trump and her strategically vague calls for “consensus” on abortion policy led some Republicans and liberals to see her as a moderate alternative to Trump, and maybe even a part of “the resistance” against him. But Haley has repeatedly made it clear that she wants to adapt to the new GOP. The deal-breaker for her isn’t a presidential candidate advocating openly for dictatorship. It’s any candidate running as a Democrat.
Here's where the last $6 billion in CHIPS Act semiconductor award money is going 2024-05-23 21:04:00+00:00 - The rollout of the Biden administration's CHIPS Act award money has so far focused on providing major awards for major companies, with just four leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers receiving the lion's share of the $33 billion that has been allocated to this point. Now, with $6 billion remaining, the focus is shifting to sending smaller awards to smaller companies—dozens of them, up and down the supply chain. The goal, government officials and industry experts say, is to leverage the remaining grant money to lure in as much private investment as possible, while boosting supply chain resilience and economic security by funding U.S.-based facilities in areas like materials and packaging. "We are really focused on investing across the semiconductor ecosystem," Michael Schmidt, director of the CHIPS Program Office at the Commerce Department, told CNBC. That means funneling investments to both upstream suppliers – companies providing materials and equipment, for example – and downstream players, such as those involved in the advanced packaging that takes place after a semiconductor is produced. Schmidt said some current mature technologies, also known as legacy chipmakers, will likely be in line for a piece of the remaining funds as well. "Once we begin to rebuild that ecosystem in this country, once we begin to rebuild the scale that we expect to see in this country, I think that will create ongoing investments, investment dynamics and continue to make it attractive for companies to invest in the future," he said. The question of where the remaining CHIPS Act award money will be headed is looming large now that the Commerce Department has announced recipients for nearly 85% of its grant money and has committed to allocating the remaining funding by the end of the calendar year. Hundreds of companies are still vying for a piece of the money that remains: More than 600 initially submitted statements of interest, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in February, but only nine have received awards so far. Intel , Taiwan Semiconductor , Samsung and Micron combined will receive nearly $28 billion, while GlobalFoundries received $1.5 billion and four smaller companies – BAE Systems, Microchip , Polar Semiconductor and Absolics – received a combined $392 million. Another $3.5 billion has been set aside for the "secure enclave" program, which will produce semiconductors for military use.
What the Ticketmaster-Live Nation lawsuit could mean for fans of live music 2024-05-23 21:04:00+00:00 - Many live music fans likely met the news that the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to break up Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation with glee. Long the subject of consumer complaints, angst toward the two companies reached a crescendo in 2022 when Bruce Springsteen fans were confronted with so-called “dynamic pricing” that saw face-value ticket costs rise to hundreds of dollars. Later that same year, demand for tickets to Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” caused Ticketmaster’s website to crash when seats first went on sale. While experts say it will take some time before fans see relief stemming from the DOJ’s actions, assuming they are successful, the results should ultimately benefit consumers and artists alike. The Biden administration is accusing Live Nation of exercising monopoly power over the live entertainment space, alleging the company controls some 60% of concert promotions at major venues and about 80% of ticketing operations through Ticketmaster — figures Live Nation has disputed. For fans, according to the Justice Department, that has meant higher face-value ticket prices — plus higher fees — as well as diminished competition that inherently reduces innovation and makes the ticket-buying experience worse. Live Nation has said other factors are to blame for these issues. If past antitrust enforcement is any guide, it could take years for those lower prices to arrive, even if the DOJ ultimately succeeds in breaking up Live Nation. The benchmark case for large antimonopoly suits is the one the U.S. brought against Microsoft. The Justice Department first charged the tech giant with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1998. Between a trial, an appeal by Microsoft and ultimately a settlement, the case was not resolved until 2004. A similar set of events is likely to play out as Live Nation has vowed to fight the DOJ’s lawsuit. “It’s going to be a battle in the courts for some time,” said Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, a consumer advocacy group that has called for the breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Even after the suit, Microsoft maintained a dominant position in personal computing. But Harper said the suit helped pave the way for many of today’s tech power players, like Google and Apple, to take on greater market share and ultimately usher in more consumer choices. Harper said breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster would ideally foster more competition by allowing new firms into the market, giving consumers, artists and venues more choice in who they work with — and in turn driving down costs across the board. “You could see venues testing out and shopping around for different ticketing platforms and not having to stick with just one like Ticketmaster,” Harper said. “And that could lead to lower prices for fans, because of the fees Ticketmaster adds on their site.” Roger Alford, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said a post breakup world in live events could look more like the European model, where so-called open ticketing allows multiple ticketing companies to have access to a promoter’s tickets for a given tour. Alford pointed out that many Taylor Swift fans have found it cheaper to fly abroad to see the pop star on tour than pay the prices found in the U.S. “Breakups for antitrust reasons are unusual; courts are reluctant to do that,” Alford said. “But this is one of those situations where it might be necessary.” Others are less optimistic. Bob Lefsetz, an influential music industry analyst and publisher of the Lefsetz Letter newsletter, wrote in a blog post that the DOJ’s suit, assuming it succeeds, will not be able to overcome the structural and market forces, including demands for greater returns from artists, that have driven the overall price of live events higher. “Ticket prices have nothing to do with Ticketmaster,” Lefsetz wrote, adding: “If you think any change is going to trickle down to the consumer, you’re delusional.” He argued venues will be reluctant to give up the guaranteed money that has come with signing long-term contracts with Live Nation. “The money’s just going to be shifted around, but it will all be behind the scenes, and you’ll end up paying the same,” Lefsetz wrote, arguing: “They’re going to have to get [that money] somewhere else, after all it’s a business.” Mark Meador, president of the Fan Fairness Coalition, a group that has sought to raise awareness of Live Nation’s alleged monopoly, is nevertheless confident that a breakup will occur. If that happens, he said in an interview with NBC News, fans of live entertainment should ultimately enjoy lower costs and a better experience when they go to buy tickets. “I think this will be a boon for consumers,” Meador said. “If we can separate [Live Nation and Ticketmaster] and create space for competition, we can expect to see lower fees and more innovation, and avoid problems associated with tickets not being sold in easy ways.” he said. He continued: “The sticker shock we get when we see those fees — those are things we expect to go away as competition is allowed and opportunities are created for other entrants.”