Latest News
See the latest news and get GPT analysis of articles
U.S. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry Into Boeing 2024-03-09 22:24:05+00:00 - The Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into Boeing after a panel on one of the company’s planes blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight in early January, a person familiar with the matter said. The airline said it was cooperating with the inquiry. “In an event like this, it’s normal for the D.O.J. to be conducting an investigation,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating and do not believe we are a target of the investigation.” Boeing had no comment. On Jan. 5, a panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet operated by Alaska Airlines blew out in midair, exposing passengers to the outside air thousands of feet above ground. There were no serious injuries resulting from that incident, but it could have been catastrophic had the panel blown out minutes later, at a higher altitude. The panel is known as a “door plug” and is used to cover a gap left by an unneeded exit door. A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board suggested that the plane may have left Boeing’s factory without the plug bolted down.
Rupert Murdoch, 92, plans to marry for 5th time 2024-03-09 21:14:51+00:00 - Media magnate Rupert Murdoch, who turns 93 next week, has been married four times — and is engaged again, his representative said Saturday. He plans to marry Elena Zhukova, 67, a Russian-born retired scientist he met last year. Her ex-husband Alexander Zhukov is a billionaire energy investor and Russian politician. Their daughter Dasha was previously married to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who used to own the Premier League football club Chelsea. Last fall Murdoch stepped down as leader of both Fox News’ parent company and his News Corp. media holdings — and his son, Lachlan, took his place in a media empire that spans continents and helped to shape modern American politics. In 1952, Murdoch inherited a newspaper in his native Australia from his father. Over decades, he built a news and entertainment enterprise that became dominant in the United States and Britain, including ownership of such historic newspapers as The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal. Fox News Channel, the 24-hour network founded in 1996, has profoundly influenced television, becoming a trusted news source among many conservative U.S. audiences and politicians. It has also had very public struggles. Last year, it paid $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit related to its coverage of false claims about the 2020 presidential election results. A few months earlier, Fox had ousted prime-time host Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular TV personality, whose political theories and fiery commentaries made him an influential force in GOP politics. In addition to Fox News, Rupert Murdoch started the Fox broadcast network, the first to successfully challenge the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC, with shows like “The Simpsons.” He has also controlled the New York Post, another popular conservative outlet. Murdoch has been married four times and shares six children with three of his wives. Murdoch’s family were said to be the model for the HBO drama “ Succession.” The family’s wealth is estimated by Forbes to be about $19 billion. Murdoch’s latest marriage, to model and actor Jerry Hall, ended in divorce after six years in 2022. They had no children together. Previously, he was married to Patricia Booker, an Australian, with whom he had Prudence, and then to Scottish-born journalist Anna Torv, with whom he had Lachlan, James and Elisabeth. These four Murdoch children have the same stake in the family trust and an equal say in what happens to the trust’s voting stock upon Murdoch’s death. He later married Chinese-born Wendi Deng, whom he divorced in 2013 after having two daughters, Grace and Chloe. Last spring he was engaged to Ann Lesley Smith for about two weeks.
The DOJ has opened a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines 737 blowout, a report says 2024-03-09 19:27:13+00:00 - SEATTLE (AP) — The Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into the Boeing jetliner blowout that left a gaping hole on an Alaska Airlines plane this January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Citing documents and people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said investigators have contacted some passengers and crew — including pilots and flight attendants — who were on the Jan. 5th flight. The Boeing plane used by Alaska Airlines suffered the blowout seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing. Boeing has been under increased scrutiny since the incident, when a panel that plugged a space left for an extra emergency door blew off a Max 9 jet. There were no serious injuries. “In an event like this, it’s normal for the DOJ to be conducting an investigation,” Alaska Airlines said in a prepared statement. “We are fully cooperating and do not believe we are a target of the investigation.” Boeing declined to comment. DOJ did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The Journal reported that the investigation would assist the Department’s review of whether Boeing complied with a previous settlement that resolved a federal investigation into the safety of its 737 Max aircraft following two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, Boeing had agreed to pay $2.5 billion, including a $244 million fine, to settle an investigation into the crashes of flights operated by Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines. The company also blamed two employees for deceiving regulators about flaws in the flight-control system. Boeing has acknowledged in a letter to Congress that it cannot find records for work done on the door panel of the Alaska Airlines plane. “We have looked extensively and have not found any such documentation,” Ziad Ojakli, Boeing executive vice president and chief government lobbyist, wrote to Sen. Maria Cantwell on Friday. The company said its “working hypothesis” was that the records about the panel’s removal and reinstallation on the 737 MAX final assembly line in Renton, Washington, were never created, even though Boeing’s systems required it. FILE - A U.S. Department of Justice sign is seen, Nov. 18, 2022, in Washington. The DOJ has launched a criminal investigation into the Boeing jetliner blowout that left a gaping hole on an Alaska Airlines plane this January, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, March 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) The letter, reported earlier by The Seattle Times, followed a contentious Senate committee hearing Wednesday in which Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board argued over whether the company had cooperated with investigators. The safety board’s chair, Jennifer Homendy, testified that for two months Boeing repeatedly refused to identify employees who work on door panels on Boeing 737s and failed to provide documentation about a repair job that included removing and reinstalling the door panel. “It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that,” Homendy said. “Without that information, that raises concerns about quality assurance, quality management, safety management systems” at Boeing. Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, demanded a response from Boeing within 48 hours. Alaska Airlines aircraft sit in the airline’s hangar at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in SeaTac, Wash. Boeing has acknowledged in a letter to Congress that it cannot find records for work done on a door panel that blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon two months ago. Ziad Ojakli, Boeing executive vice president and chief government lobbyist, wrote to Sen. Maria Cantwell on Friday, March 8 saying, “We have looked extensively and have not found any such documentation.” (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Shortly after the Senate hearing, Boeing said it had given the NTSB the names of all employees who work on 737 doors — and had previously shared some of them with investigators. In the letter, Boeing said it had already made clear to the safety board that it couldn’t find the documentation. Until the hearing, it said, “Boeing was not aware of any complaints or concerns about a lack of collaboration.” In a preliminary report last month, the NTSB said four bolts that help keep the door plug in place were missing after the panel was removed so workers could repair nearby damaged rivets last September. The rivet repairs were done by contractors working for Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, but the NTSB still does not know who removed and replaced the door panel, Homendy said Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Administration recently gave Boeing 90 days to say how it will respond to quality-control issues raised by the agency and a panel of industry and government experts. The panel found problems in Boeing’s safety culture despite improvements made after two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
The US could be facing a 2008-style financial crisis. Why does Sunak want to copy it? 2024-03-09 17:00:00+00:00 - One of the consistent themes of the Conservative economic narrative is an admiration for the US and its ability to grow quickly. The way it has bounced back from the pandemic and how it has ridden out the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a blueprint. A neoliberal Conservative analysis puts the emphasis on tech, innovation and a myth-like entrepreneurial spirit that the UK would do well to emulate. What it ignores is the way the US economy zips ahead on fantastical stock market valuations and off-balance-sheet accounting reminiscent of the years before the 2008 financial crisis. And how both these habits could bite back in a big way, much as they did in 2008, and pretty soon. While Europe wrestles in a largely transparent fashion with the fallout of deindustrialisation and an ageing workforce with high levels of welfare and state subsidies (giving rightwing commentators all the ammunition they need to knock slow-moving social democratic societies), the US hides many of its problems. One of those costs is a looming insurance crisis chronicled by analysts at Bloomberg. It is an off-balance-sheet exercise that ranks alongside student loans and public service pensions for its sheer size, but outranks them for the nightmarish instability of the whole scheme. The financial data provider has documented the switch by millions of homeowners from private insurers to a “last resort” state-run insurer in areas affected by the climate crisis and the hurricanes, wildfires and floods that rising temperatures bring. Those plans have more than doubled their market share since 2018, and their liabilities crossed the $1tn threshold for the first time in 2022, according to Property Insurance Plans Service Office, a research company that tracks the programmes. Critics of the way private insurers have offloaded liabilities worry that even a modest wave of claims in any of these states will overwhelm the finances of the scheme. Still, one could argue that when this happens, it will be the US government that picks up the tab, keeping a bad problem relatively self-contained. A looming banking crisis may not be so easy to stop at the border. Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that US banks were at risk from the impact of high interest rates on the value of commercial property. Office blocks that have seen their value soar in the last 15 years are now seriously underwater, financially speaking. Analysts have been worried for some time about the huge liabilities on bank balance sheets, but the lack of demand for office space, as a result of the trend for working from home, means a crisis is now imminent. We all remember how the sub-prime residential property markets of California, Florida and many other US states became a bubble after several years of aggressive mortgage selling to people with low incomes. It burst, triggering the 2008 financial crisis, after a series of interest rate rises meant the mortgages were unaffordable and owners handed back the keys. The IMF said a “sizable subgroup” of banks were in trouble, “with fears that the failure of one institution could precipitate a broader loss of confidence in the sector”. It added: “Beyond the unrealised losses due to higher interest, the credit risk carried by some institutions, particularly their exposure to corporate real estate, is at the centre stage of investors’ fears today.” Staff at the credit rating agency S&P have also signalled concerns about high interest rates, though they make a separate point, saying rising debt bills could trigger a wave of corporate failures in the US next year. At a recent briefing, some of the agency’s analysts said thousands of companies had hedged their interest rate exposure, betting that they could refinance when rates fell back. What if rates only tick down gently? These companies will find their loans unaffordable and go bust. 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 Central bank governors in the US, eurozone and UK are expected to cut the cost of borrowing slowly this year. Possibly too slowly. Another concern is the exuberance seen in US stock markets. Could it be that increases in share values over the last two years, pushing the US S&P 500 to a record high, constitute a speculative bubble and a rout is imminent? A great admirer of the US, Rishi Sunak appears to believe the UK would be well placed sitting in Washington’s slipstream. That means loosening the constraints on financial companies and banks, letting them join the dash for profit, while running down the capacity of public services, including health. It also means becoming more dependent on foreign investment and imports of essential goods from countries that have lax health and safety laws, weaker workers’ rights and more autocratic or unstable governments. Whatever kind of potential shock you care to think about – health, financial or trade – the UK is becoming more, not less, vulnerable.
John Lewis is back in the black, but the glory days of big bonuses seem far away 2024-03-09 13:00:00+00:00 - It is well over a decade since John Lewis staff last gathered in its cavernous Oxford Street store to cheer the announcement of a bumper annual bonus. Workers could be forgiven for booing instead this week if, as expected, the company announces the third missed bonus in four years. The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose is expected to announce that it has bounced back into the black when it unveils annual results on Thursday – but workers are unlikely to see a payout. The staff-owned company, whose 34 department stores and 329 supermarkets employ 74,000 people, is struggling to compete with a revived Marks & Spencer, Boots and Sainsbury’s as well as fast-growing, newer businesses such as Dunelm, Amazon and Home Bargains. Nick Bubb, an independent retail analyst, expects the John Lewis Partnership to report an underlying profit of about £25m, after a loss of more than £77m last year. He predicts a 2% increase in sales to almost £10.8bn after Waitrose returned to growth, partly thanks to food price inflation. He thinks sales at Waitrose rose by about 4% in the second half, which includes Christmas, but sales at the department stores are likely to have fallen by more than 2%. The group still has too many stores and too much space Nick Bubb, retail analyst The group has just announced the biggest increase in basic pay in its history, but is also banking the effects of some tough cost-cutting measures at head office, with more than 1,500 job cuts and the closure of unprofitable stores. Up to 11,000 more job cuts are expected in the coming years, but no further details on that are anticipated this week. Bubb says: “The markets they are in were pretty good two years ago but now they have obviously reversed.” The group still has “too many stores and too much space” and “until they really confront that issue it is going to be tough”. Outgoing chairman Sharon White, who clocked in just before the pandemic and is set to leave early next year, will hope the return to profit marks the beginning of an upturn so she can depart on a high. Under her, the group has taken some tough and necessary decisions: closing eight department stores and several supermarkets as well as shrinking the head office team and moving out of its expensive London headquarters. She has been criticised for focusing on projects such as building homes to rent and expanding financial services while the core retail business drifted. Both Waitrose and the department stores have been losing market share: they failed to take full advantage of Debenhams’ demise and lost out to cheaper rivals when the cost of living crisis hit. John Lewis stores appear to have lost focus in the past year, with the Anyday cut-price brand, launched to much fanfare in 2021, less visible. There is also no sign of a renewed loyalty programme or marketing gambit that is a viable alternative to the Never Knowingly Undersold promise which was ditched in 2022. View image in fullscreen Sharon White is quitting as chairman early next year. Photograph: Ken McKay/Shutterstock Zoe Mills of market research firm GlobalData said: “When Anyday launched, it had big areas that were very focused, with industrial orange. In homewares it is now just a few lines mixed in. It feels like it has not been executed consistently.” It’s not clear who could fill White’s shoes. Much-fancied replacement Katie Bickerstaffe, co-chief executive of M&S, appeared to rule herself out last week when she announced she was quitting for a “portfolio career”. Other contenders are thought to include the former Sainsbury’s boss Justin King, although he recently took a job as chairman of energy group Ovo; Mike Coupe, who succeeded King at Sainsbury’s and is on the board of fashion chain New Look; and former Co-op chair and Selfridges deputy chairman Allan Leighton. The recent hire of well-respected former John Lewis staffer Peter Ruis to head up the department stores has been well received. Now in place for almost two months, Ruis is likely to provide the first taste of his plans for the retailer this week. It’s not clear whether he will have access to a budget that might help enliven stores. John Lewis’s department stores have survived where rivals Debenhams and Beales have virtually disappeared from the high street, while House of Fraser has shrunk to 29 stores, half its size when it was bought out of administration in 2018. Nonetheless, with household budgets still under pressure, even for well-heeled shoppers, the group has plenty to do before workers can celebrate a bonus again.
MarketBeat Week in Review – 3/4 – 3/8 2024-03-09 12:00:00+00:00 - Key Points The market rally continues as the February Jobs Report is allowing the soft landing talk to start up again. However, next week's readings on inflation could stop the rally in its tracks. The MarketBeat analysts will continue to follow these stories and others; here are some of the most viewed stories from this week. 5 stocks we like better than NVIDIA The market rally continues as talk of a soft landing heats up again. The February Jobs Report added fuel to that talk, with the unemployment rate hitting 3.9%. Anything above 4%, which may be achieved next month, would signal to the Federal Reserve that rate cutting can begin. Another reason to believe in this rally is that money is beginning to flow away from some of the Magnificent 7 stocks into other sectors. This broadening out, especially if it starts to extend into small-cap stocks, is what many analysts have been waiting for. However, if next week's readings on CPI and PPI come in hot, the rally could stop in its tracks. The MarketBeat team will be following those numbers as well as corporate earnings, which have been mostly stronger than expected. Here are some of the most viewed articles from this week. Get NVIDIA alerts: Sign Up Articles by Jea Yu Artificial intelligence stocks are stirring up FOMO in the market. This is a time when Investors have to be careful as many companies try to ride the coattails of Nvidia Corporation NASDAQ: NVDA. However, Jea Yu explains why you might want to consider Pure Storage Inc. NYSE: PSTG, a company partnering with Nvidia to build the emerging AI infrastructure. Stocks of companies producing weight loss drugs are also stirring up some FOMO. As a different way to play that market, Jea Yu suggests looking at two packaged meat stocks that are positioned to capitalize on the carnivore diet craze fueled by drugs like Ozempic. And while gene editing stocks may not be at the FOMO stage yet, they may be soon. Beam Therapeutics Inc. NASDAQ: BEAM is a company on the cutting edge of this sector and surprised investors with a double beat in quarterly earnings fueled, in part, by a deal that the company has in place with Eli Lilly and Company NYSE: LLY. Articles by Thomas Hughes Apple Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL has been anything but magnificent in 2024. In addition to softening iPhone sales in China, the tech giant delivered investors more bad news this week when it announced that it was walking away from plans for its own autonomous vehicle. Thomas Hughes explains why the story of AAPL stock is about innovation outside of the Apple Car. That lack of innovation is why Hughes believes the stock may have further to fall. Membership clubs have been among the best investments in a difficult retail environment. Their business model commits consumers to a membership fee, which helps them maintain a higher share of their members' wallets. As Hughes writes, you can keep chasing Costco Wholesale Corp. NASDAQ: COST higher. However, a better play might be to buy one of the three membership club stocks that may pull back as the sector loses momentum. And as earnings season winds down, investors frequently look for stocks that analysts are upgrading. Hughes looked at MarketBeat's list of Most Upgraded Stocks to give you this list of three stocks that have been getting the most analysts' upgrades in the last 90 days. Articles by Sam Quirke Sam Quirke frequently writes about the tech sector. This week, he looked at two of the Magnificent 7 stocks that he believes still look like solid investments. Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ: GOOGL has been a poor performer recently, but Quirke shows that analysts are taking the long view, and investors should consider doing so as well. In the case of Microsoft Corp. NASDAQ: MSFT, Quirke observes that the pullback is more of a consolidation and that analysts are already bidding up the stock, including one analyst who has a $500 price target on MSFT stock. And while you may not be familiar with Paymentus Holdings, inc. NYSE: PAY, Quirke notes that you may want to start paying attention. The $2.5 billion fintech company just delivered a strong earnings report that sent the stock into overbought territory. However, Quirke explains why investors should welcome a pullback as an opportunity to get in on this emerging company among finance stocks. Articles by Chris Markoch Palantir Technologies Inc. NYSE: PLTR moved sharply this week after the company was awarded a contract from the U.S. Army. Chris Markoch wrote about the specifics of the deal and whether it should impact your decision to buy or hold PLTR stock. Markoch also wrote about a stock moving sharply in the other direction. UnitedHealth Group Inc. NYSE: UNH is reeling from a recent cyberattack as well as the announcement that the company is the subject of a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe. However, investors have to decide for themselves whether this is a buyable dip or if UNH stock is a falling knife. And whether you like Cathie Wood or not, the stocks she buys move markets. So you may be interested in learning why Wood sold her fund's shares of NVDA stock to buy shares of UiPath Inc. NYSE: PATH. Articles by Kate Stalter This week, Kate Stalter reminded investors to keep it simple by following the advice to buy low and sell high. The first half of that axiom means buying stocks that look undervalued. This means that the companies are trading below their intrinsic value based on underlying fundamentals. Stalter wrote about five undervalued stocks that have recently delivered strong earnings performance. On the other hand, Stalter also found five stocks that look overvalued. As Stalter explains, long-term investors may choose to hold these stocks if they like the long-term fundamentals. However, traders may want to take this opportunity to sell these stocks and look for better opportunities. Restaurant stocks have been surprisingly good performers despite sticky inflation. One of the best in the sector is the Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava Group Inc. NYSE: CAVA. The stock is up 60.96% in the last three months and could have further to run. Articles by Ryan Hasson Suppose you're a speculative investor looking for a way to invest in artificial intelligence stocks. In that case, you'll want to read Ryan Hasson's article about five under-the-radar AI stocks that are likely to heat up as risk-on sentiment returns to the market. Another group of stocks that risk-tolerant investors may want to consider buying are those stocks that have unusually high short interest. As Hasson explains, this can create a situation where even a small move higher could trigger a round of short covering that traders can take advantage of. And if you're still hesitant about chasing Nvidia as it approaches $900 a share, investors looking for technology stocks in the chip sector should consider Advanced Micro Devices Inc. NASDAQ: AMD. The company is providing AI chips that are a worthy competitor to Nvidia, which will be bullish for AMD's stock price. Articles by Gabriel Osorio-Mazilli Like many MarketBeat analysts, Gabriel Osorio-Mazilli also helped guide investors seeking alternatives to NVDA stock. This week, he focused on Broadcom Inc. NASDAQ: AVGO, trading at a 30% discount to Nvidia. Analysts are beginning to bid the stock higher on the belief that it can start delivering Nvidia-like growth. Investors who are looking to take a different approach to generating profits outside of AI can consider oil stocks. This week, Osorio-Mazilli explains why the price of oil is almost assuredly going up and why that makes three particular oil stocks good values. And if you're looking for stocks that can benefit from an interest rate cut, Osorio-Mazilli explains why you may want to consider Foot Locker Inc. NYSE: FL. The stock trades at a significant discount to the retail sector, setting the stage for a strong recovery. Before you consider NVIDIA, 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 NVIDIA wasn't on the list. While NVIDIA currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
Hawaii officials aim to help Lahaina rebuild after wildfires ravaged historic town 2024-03-09 10:19:00+00:00 - Covering the Maui wildfires, among the deadliest in U.S. history Local officials in Hawaii plan to open an office that will speed up Maui County's notoriously slow processing of building permits to help the town of Lahaina to recover from last year's deadly wildfire. Keanu Lau Hee, the county's deputy managing director, told a community meeting in Lahaina that a County Expedited Permitting Center will open in April. She said the county has selected a vendor to it help review applications. "If any of you have had the pleasure of filing a permit with the county - we're not that quick," she said at the meeting, which was held on Wednesday and streamed online. Hawaii's four counties, and Maui County in particular, are well-known for lengthy permit processing times. University of Hawaii researchers have found that in the last five years, the state's median wait time for a construction permit to build a multifamily project was 400 days. The Aug. 8 wildfire destroyed more than 2,000 buildings and displaced 4,500 people in Lahaina. Lau Hee said 87% of those who lost their homes were renters, and the rest were homeowners. The new permitting center will help private developers building five separate projects with a combined total of more than 500 housing units. Lau Hee said the county also wants to help property owners rebuild after workers finish cleaning toxic debris and utility infrastructure is in place. She said the county hopes properties will be cleared by early next year. "Our goal is to create opportunities for you folks to start rebuilding on your properties," she said. About 3,800 residents are still living in hotels. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is building 169 temporary housing units for displaced residents and is renting 1,300 units from landlords. The state of Hawaii is building about 450 temporary housing units, including 270 that will be ready by July or August. The state's temporary units are expected to be used for three to five years.
Salesforce's behind-the-scenes co-founder is tackling Slack as software company turns 25 2024-03-09 09:00:00+00:00 - In this article CRM Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Parker Harris, a co-founder of Salesforce, speaks during a keynote at the company's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Sept. 12, 2023. Marlena Sloss | Bloomberg | Getty Images Each year, Salesforce updates its V2MOM, a planning document laying out vision, values, methods, obstacles and measures. CEO Marc Benioff has said it's "been used to guide every decision at Salesforce" since the software company's founding 25 years ago this week. But in early 2023, there was a problem. ChatGPT was going viral, and Salesforce's strategy didn't account for it. "The V2MOM had nothing about generative AI," Parker Harris, who co-founded the company with Benioff, told CNBC in an interview. It was a first for Salesforce, which had never been caught so off-guard about an emerging technology trend. If Salesforce was to become a leader in generative artificial intelligence, the company would need to quickly revise its guiding document to redirect the company — and its 73,000 employees — toward the technology that's sweeping across Silicon Valley and making its way into every industry, from manufacturing to medicine. Salesforce would have to go to battle with tech giants Amazon , Google and Microsoft , as well as red-hot and well-capitalized startups. But following a handful of hefty acquisitions and a run-in with activist investors that led Salesforce to disband its M&A committee, a splashy deal was likely off the table. Salesforce would have to build. And that's when Benioff turns to his longtime sidekick, Harris. Well known in the software industry but largely unfamiliar outside of it, Harris has always been core to the fabric of Salesforce. In the past six years, Benioff has elevated two different top lieutenants to the role of co-CEO, but neither lasted in the job longer than 18 months. Harris, a Salesforce board member and now the technology chief of Slack, which Salesforce bought in 2021, said he'd rather avoid the limelight. "I don't like being front and center," Harris said, in an interview tied to the company's 25th anniversary, which was officially March 8. "I don't like the articles necessarily to be written about me. I like being behind the scenes." Internally, Harris is in the thick of it. After generative AI made its way into the revised V2MOM last year, Harris supervised its brisk insertion into the company's sales, customer service, marketing and commerce applications. He studied new techniques such as retrieval-augmented generation, which involves feeding information outside of an AI model's training set to yield a better answer. Questions swirled about whether Salesforce should spend billions of dollars to assemble its own general-purpose large language model for spitting out text in response to a few words of human input, Harris said. But the company started seeing clients use multiple LLMs. Salesforce slashed its investment in some areas while doubling the size of its research group, which was fleshing out its own AI models. At the same time, it started drawing on models from AI startup Anthropic, as well as GPT-4, the model powering OpenAI's ChatGPT. In September, Benioff brought OpenAI CEO Sam Altman onstage at Salesforce's annual Dreamforce conference, which takes over a chunk of downtown San Francisco. At past Dreamforce shows, Harris has appeared in superhero costumes, entertaining the audience of tens of thousands. But 2023 was not a time for jokes. Harris was busy repositioning the company. He chose a professional look: a checked blue suit that matched his glasses with thin blue frames. Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, right, and Parker Harris, co-founder of Salesforce, introduce Salesforce 1 Lightning during the company's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Oct. 14, 2014. Noah Berger | Bloomberg | Getty Images In his keynote, Harris talked about the Data Cloud, a product originally called Genie that surfaces real-time information. In about 2016 he had decided to push much of Salesforce's IT infrastructure into the public cloud, enabling tighter integration of many assets the company had acquired over the years. That helped Salesforce launch the Data Cloud. Without the Data Cloud, Harris told CNBC, "I think we would have been in a much worse place." It's such a critical part of the company that Benioff mentioned it 58 times on the company's earnings call in February. A Robin for Batman Despite his status as the most decorated technical leader at one of the world's largest software companies, Harris was an English major. He earned a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. His love of computers came early, though. He told Business Insider in 2015 that he started programming on an Apple II as a kid growing up in North Carolina. In the early 1990s, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and took a software-engineering job at a company called Metropolis Software, where he got to know developers Frank Dominguez and Dave Moellenhoff. The trio founded a Java consulting firm called Left Coast Software. They were contracting at Saba Software, an online learning company co-founded by former Oracle executive Bobby Yazdani. Benioff, who was still working at Oracle under Larry Ellison at the time, told Yazdani that he had this idea to build web-based sales software. Yazdani told Benioff he needed to meet Harris, Dominguez and Moellenhoff. "He was a very abstract thinker," Yazdani said about Harris, in an interview with CNBC. "He had clarity around capability of what's possible." In the fall of 1998, Benioff and Harris met for lunch at Kincaid's, a seafood and steak restaurant in Burlingame overlooking the San Francisco Bay. It was an uneven match. Benioff is hard to miss at 6 feet, 5 inches tall. He's loud and loves to talk. Harris is scrawny and quieter. He said he's averse to conflict. He defuses the drama, said Brett Queener, a former Salesforce executive who's now a venture capitalist. "Every Batman needs their Robin," Queener said. After the lunch meeting, Benioff had Harris, Dominguez and Moellenhoff over to his home in San Francisco's Telegraph Hill neighborhood. They were all in. Salesforce.com was born on March 8, 1999. Harris was 32. His parents, wife and young daughter came by corporate headquarters — a one-bedroom apartment next to Benioff's home — to commemorate the moment, which Harris posted to YouTube eight years later. "We are going to probably work here for six months to a year, and we're going to just really enjoy it," he told his father, who was behind the camera. Salesforce played the clip for employees this week during a celebration. watch now While Harris shared the title of co-founder with Benioff, his partner held much more of the equity after investing $6 million of his own money into the company in its early years. That's why Benioff is now worth around $11 billion, with a current stake in Salesforce that exceeds $7 billion, while Harris' holdings are worth nearly $600 million. Though he's relatively soft spoken, Harris has his indulgences. He's spent money on red wine from France and Italy, works of art by Ruth Asawa and Josef Albers, a home in Nantucket and a renovation of the family home in San Francisco's Pacific Heights. "We really shifted it to a focus on sunlight," Harris said. In his office at the top of the house, he likes to put on headphones and crank up the music. He listens to the Avett Brothers, Radiohead and Miles Davis. He plays golf and surfs. A coworker said Harris is an "enthusiastic" dancer. He belongs to Middlebury's board of trustees. At Salesforce, Harris led the development of the platform that enables companies to build on top of its software, along with an initiative to make Salesforce work well on mobile devices. There was also the push to build the next-generation Salesforce Lightning, as well as Chatter, an enterprise social network. He talked about AI way back at Dreamforce 2009, suggesting that the technology might one day help Chatter identify in-house experts on different topics. He admitted to his shortcomings. "I don't understand that area," Harris told a group of journalists, regarding AI. "I understand we have to solve it. I have hired some people in that area that do understand it." Tough time in social At the time, social was the big buzzword. Facebook was still private but taking off. A startup called Yammer was being described as the Facebook for the workplace. A few Salesforce employees started discussing the potential for information to go viral among salespeople and customer-service agents. Benioff was intrigued. He insisted that it become the top priority. After Harris allocated eight engineers to the new project, Benioff demanded he go bigger. Harris checked in with engineering leaders and secured a headcount of 75. That wasn't enough. At a briefing on the updated status, Benioff was dissatisfied, according to a meeting attendee who asked not to be named to speak candidly about the matter. Harris was silent. His face went pale. He told Benioff he'd redo the plan, the person said. Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, sits in the audience ahead of the special address by U.S. President Donald Trump on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, 2020. Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images Harris eventually got 80% of Salesforce's engineers to start working on Chatter. But the product never took off. "We didn't take it far enough," Harris said. Microsoft was also hot to get into the market, snapping up Yammer in 2012 for $1.2 billion, a huge multiple for a company with a small revenue base. Salesforce wound up buying the big prize in the space, purchasing Slack in 2021 for $27.1 billion, by far the company's priciest deal. But perhaps Harris' biggest swing in his decades at Salesforce was the push to the public cloud. It wasn't an easy choice. "Half the engineers, the brightest people, were like, 'We're going to ruin the company if we do this,'" Harris recalled. "The great fear was that we would ruin our cost model because the cost would be much more expensive on public cloud, and then we would be able to hire less salespeople or less engineers or whatever." The other half of the engineering staff, Harris said, was petrified that if Salesforce didn't move to the cloud, everyone else will "innovate faster than us.'" Benioff didn't have much to contribute for a change. "Marc was like, 'This is crazy, that these are some of the smartest people I know, and you guys can't agree,'" Harris said. Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, left, speaks as Parker Harris, co-founder of Salesforce, center, and Kara Swisher, executive editor of Re/Code, listen during a keynote address at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Sept. 17, 2015. Salesforce.com Inc. aims to cut the time its customers spend plugging data into its systems by weaving machine-learning technology from acquisition RelateIQ into its software for managing sales accounts. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Harris saw the advantage that startups gained by outsourcing data center needs to Amazon Web Services. And he knew Salesforce had failed to build a viable platform for easily developing apps while partnering with VMware. Harris concluded that not pushing Salesforce to public cloud services like AWS would be an existential threat. "That was a very lonely decision," he said. But as it became a part of the V2MOM, it rippled out to thousands. While Salesforce might have saved money when it ditched its Equinix colocation facilities, leaning more on the cloud hasn't been cheap. Last year, after activist investors called for more profitability from Salesforce, the company signed up for longer-term cloud commitments. It agreed to spend at least $16.8 billion on infrastructure service providers as of January, up from $6.5 billion in January 2023, according to regulatory filings. The biggest beneficiary of that spending is AWS, which is run by former Salesforce executive Adam Selipsky. Harris said Salesforce is looking at other providers as additional partners. "Oracle has done a great job around their platform, so technically, it's actually quite good," he said. 'Try to build something great' Harris recently gave up the CTO title at Salesforce that he'd held for seven years. The company hasn't yet named a successor. Now he's onto Slack. In 2022, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield left the company he founded in 2009. He was replaced by Lidiane Jones. She departed a year later to run dating app developer Bumble . And in January of this year, Slack co-founder and CTO Cal Henderson said he was stepping down. "I thought, 'I can have an impact there,'" Harris said. 'But I can also — I would love to do that job, I would love to go back and run some engineering teams and really try to build something great.'" Harris visited Benioff's home in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco, and the two co-founders were in agreement that it was the right call. "I'm excited for this next chapter with Parker as Slack's CTO, continuing his legacy as one of our industry's greats," Benioff said in an email. Harris flew to New York to hang out with Noah Weiss, Slack's product chief. Harris moved his desk to the Slack floor in San Francisco's Salesforce Tower, where he's near new unit CEO Denise Dresser. He comes in two to four days a week, and attends Monday meetings to review Slack metrics. "People, probably fairly, had a lot of apprehension," Weiss said. Some of Slack's employees suspected Harris would try to apply the Salesforce approach to Slack. But instead, Harris sought to understand how Slack had become successful. Weiss said that at Salesforce's new fiscal year kickoff in Las Vegas last month, Harris talked at an executive meeting about one of Slack's product principles called prototype the path. And Harris has started writing documents in Slack's collaborative Canvas tool. "He's been showing up extremely well, definitely winning hearts and minds, for sure, including mine," Weiss said. Employees sometimes add flair to Slack chats with a Parker Harris emoji, he said. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards When it comes to keeping up with Benioff, who spends a healthy amount of time at his palatial estate in Hawaii, Harris uses other services. "Marc is all mobile and all text and FaceTime," Harris said. The men talk once every few weeks. They'll be talking more frequently, as Harris said they're about to kick off weekly meetings on Slack and Salesforce integrations. Harris hopes that his presence can convince Slack employees to stay after the executive exodus. "I don't want to talk too much about myself, but I think it is helping," Harris said. WATCH: Salesforce is our top pick as a generative AI pure play, says Stefan Slowinski
Eli Lilly's new ad says weight-loss drugs shouldn't be used out of "vanity" 2024-03-08 18:03:00+00:00 - Eli Lilly has a message for people who are taking prescription medications developed for patients with Type 2 diabetes and obesity: Don't take the drugs just because you want to look good. The message, delivered in a new Hollywood-themed ad called "Big Night," will air this weekend and is timed to coincide with Sunday's broadcast of the Oscars. The spot opens with a shot of a sequined gown, suggesting that the woman voicing the campaign is preparing for a formal event. "Some people have been using medicine never meant for them. For the smaller dress or tux, for a big night, for vanity," the character in the ad says. The camera then pans to a theater resembling the one in which the Academy Awards are handed out. The point is clear: Drugs like Lilly's Mounjaro or Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy aren't intended for general weight loss. "People whose health is affected by obesity are the reason we work on these medications. It matters who gets them," the ad says. Mounjaro is used to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes. But the drug and similar medications have soared in popularity among people who aren't diabetic but who want to shed a few pounds to improve their appearance. Lilly also makes Zepbound, which is indicated for adults with obesity. This year's Oscars host, Jimmy Kimmel, opened the 2023 awards ceremony by poking fun at Ozempic. "Everybody looks so great. When I look around this room I can't help but wonder, 'Is Ozempic right for me?'" he quipped. "Part of the cultural dialogue" In a statement ahead of its new ad, Lilly underlined that people shouldn't take drugs like Mounjaro just because they want to be slimmer. The ad "addresses a topic that has been part of the cultural dialogue at recent high-profile awards ceremonies: the use of anti-obesity medications outside their FDA-approved indications," the company said. "Patient safety is Lilly's top priority, and our medicines are indicated for the treatment of serious diseases." The drugmaker also makes clear that the medications are only approved for certain uses. "They were not studied for, are not approved for, and should not be used for cosmetic weight loss, and at Lilly we believe it is important that, in consultation with their health care providers, the right people can get access to these medicines," Lilly said. In a separate open letter regarding how such drugs are use, Lilly said "stands against the use of its medicines for cosmetic weight loss."
More than 63,000 infant swings recalled due to suffocation risk 2024-03-08 16:57:00+00:00 - The importance of following safe sleep steps with infants The importance of following safe sleep steps with infants 04:45 Jool Baby is recalling more than 63,000 infant swings sold at Walmart stores and online because they pose a suffocation risk. The swings violate federal law as they were designed and marketed for infant sleep while having an incline angle exceeding 10 degrees, Jool Products said in a recall notice posted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The swing also doesn't include a mandatory warning regarding sleep, the Lakewood, N.J., importer stated. The recall involves Jool Baby's Nova Baby infant swings with a manufacture date from June 2022 through September 2023, which can be found on the sewn-in warming label on the back of the swing's seat. Gray and about 28 inches long by 19 inches wide and 24 inches high, the swings have a round aluminum base with music buttons on the front, a metal seat frame, a cloth seat with restraints and a headrest. The product also has a canopy with hanging toys (yellow moon, blue cloud and pink star.) Recalled Jool Baby Nova Baby Infant Swing. Consumer Product Safety Commission The swings were sold at Walmart stores and the retailer's website, as well as online at www.JoolBaby.com, www.amazon.com, www.babylist.com, www.target.com and other sites, from November 2022 through November 2023 for about $150. Consumers who have the swings should immediately stop using them for sleep and contact the company for a free repair kit, including new written instructions, updated on-product warnings, a new remote control and new hanging plush toys with non-sleep themes (sun, cloud and rain drop.) Register at www.JoolBaby.com/recall. Although no injuries or deaths related to the Jool Baby swings have been reported, they fall under the general product category of inclined sleepers for infants that were banned more than a year ago after dozens of infant deaths. Production of the recalled Jool Baby swings, which are made in China, began the month after President Joe Biden signed The Safe Sleep for Babies Act, but before it took effect in November of 2022. The legislation prohibits the sale, manufacture or distribution of inclined sleepers for infants and crib bumpers. Infants should sleep on their backs in cribs or bassinets and not with blankets, stuffed toys, pillows or bumpers, public health officials have long emphasized. In June of last year, the CPSC disclosed that a popular baby pillow had been linked to at least 10 deaths, with two of those infant fatalities reported after the Boppy's Newborn Lounger was taken off the market in 2021. In early 2023, the agency said roughly 100 infant deaths over the prior 13 years had been linked to a Fisher-Price Rock'n Play Sleeper recalled in 2019, reiterating its warning to parents to stop using the product.
How to Invest in Cannabis in 8 Easy Steps 2024-03-08 16:43:00+00:00 - Learning how to invest in cannabis is not for risk-averse investors. If you were investing in cannabis in 2017 and 2018, you know how far and how fast these stocks can rise and fall. Still, the potential for this industry remains tantalizing. Get Lear alerts: Sign Up Before you invest your hard-earned capital in this sector, you need to understand the different types of cannabis investments, the risks of investing in cannabis and the eight steps you can take to invest in cannabis. Key Takeaway Investing in cannabis can be highly volatile yet rewarding. Different investments include cannabis stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and direct investments in cannabis companies. To mitigate risks, consider diversifying your portfolio. Research shows that the global legal marijuana market should reach $55 billion by 2027. Basics of the Cannabis Industry The size and scope of the cannabis industry can take your breath away — it's not just about farmers growing marijuana plants or your local dispensary. The cannabis industry ties in growers, dispensaries, pharmaceutical companies and companies that help provide the infrastructure. It's a complex industry of intertwined interests and made even more complicated because cannabis remains a banned substance by the federal government. That hasn't stopped individual states from taking up the question of cannabis regulation, but that creates another obstacle. There is no uniform status regarding the legal status of cannabis. The good news if you're interested in cannabis investing is that as of January 2023, only six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho and Wyoming) have not legalized cannabis at any level. You may be equally surprised to find that 22 states have made cannabis fully legal, meaning you can use it for recreational and medicinal purposes. Now, the bad news. Investors looking to invest in weed face an uphill climb. Even in states where cannabis is no longer decriminalized, some restrictions tie into how much individuals can possess and grow. The remaining 23 states have varying legal standards that make cannabis regulation a crazy quilt for cannabis companies to navigate, as the chart below shows. Status of Cannabis Legalization by State This chart provides a broad overview of the status of cannabis legalization in the USA today. There are nuances in many states that you can research by state. Fully Legal (Recreational and Medical Use Legal for Medical Use Only Legal for CBD Oil Only Not Legal Alaska Arkansas Georgia Idaho Arizona Alabama Indiana Kansas California Florida Iowa Nebraska** Colorado Oklahoma Kentucky North Carolina*** Connecticut Pennsylvania Tennessee South Carolina Delaware South Dakota Texas Wyoming District of Columbia Utah Wisconsin Hawaii* West Virginia Illinois Louisiana* Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi* Missouri Montana New Hampshire* New Mexico New Jersey New York Nevada North Dakota* Ohio* Oregon Rhode Island Vermont Virginia Washington *Although technically considered not fully legal, these states have passed laws that allow for the use of cannabis for medical and recreational purposes with heavy restrictions. **Although officially illegal, Nebraska has passed laws decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana. ***North Carolina allows CBD oil for patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy and has passed laws decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana. Overview of Cannabis Stocks If you're considering investing in cannabis stocks, the chart above shows both the short-term risk and the long-term opportunity. Taking advantage of this opportunity starts by considering what kind of cannabis stocks you want to buy. But first, a word of caution. Cannabis investments are inherently risky. Many of these companies are small-cap companies (meaning they have a market cap of less than $2 billion). The risk is that small-cap stocks frequently have less liquidity than their large-cap counterparts. That means sending the prices moving in either direction doesn't take much. And when the stock price makes a sharp move, you can lose a lot of money if you're on the wrong side of the trade. The other risk comes from the financial situation of many cannabis companies. Even when the cannabis bubble blew up in 2018 and early 2019, many companies were not profitable. Many of these stocks are trading as penny stocks, meaning they trade for $5 or less. Be sure to learn about penny stocks before investing. The takeaway is that investing in cannabis in 2023 is not like choosing from a list of FAANG stocks. And it's nothing like blue-chip investing. This sector is only for risk-tolerant investors. With that in mind, let's look at the type of cannabis investments. Types of Cannabis Investments When it comes to cannabis investments, you have various options available. One of the most common ways to invest in cannabis is by directly buying stocks of marijuana companies. These can range from large-scale producers to biotech firms developing new cannabis-based medications. Investing in cannabis stocks can offer significant potential for growth, especially as more states and countries move towards legalization. But remember that these stock prices can be highly volatile, given the industry's regulatory uncertainties. Conduct thorough research and stay informed about changing laws and market trends. ETFs Another avenue for cannabis investing is through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These funds pool together investments from many people to purchase a diversified portfolio of cannabis-related assets. This can help spread out the risk of investing in any cannabis company. Mutual Funds If you're looking for a more hands-off approach to cannabis investing, you may also want to consider mutual funds focused on the industry. Financial professionals manage these funds, deciding whether or not to buy stock in cannabis on your behalf. Stocks If you're interested in investing in cannabis companies directly, one option is to look for stocks in publicly traded companies involved in ancillary businesses that support the industry. It could include companies that provide packaging solutions, hydroponic equipment or technology services to cannabis producers. REITs Another option for investing in the cannabis industry is through real estate investment trusts (REITs) that specialize in properties used by cannabis companies. These REITs purchase and manage properties such as cultivation facilities, dispensaries and processing centers, providing a way to profit from the industry's growth without directly owning cannabis stocks. Private Equity Funds There are also opportunities to invest in private equity funds focused on cannabis. These funds invest in private companies within the industry, offering the potential for high returns but also carrying significant risks due to the lack of liquidity and transparency compared to publicly traded stocks. Other Opportunities If you want to diversify your portfolio with cannabis investments, exploring options like hemp production companies and technology firms specializing in cannabis delivery systems can offer unique opportunities. The emerging market of CBD products is also worth considering, with companies focusing on research and development of new applications for cannabidiol. Investing in international cannabis markets could provide further diversification as countries around the world continue to legalize and regulate cannabis. Monitor regulatory changes and political developments impacting the industry. Types of Cannabis Investments As mentioned earlier, several types of companies make up the cannabis industry. This list includes growers, retailers (dispensaries), pharmaceutical companies and companies that help provide the cannabis industry with infrastructure. Here's a brief overview of each type of cannabis investment. Growers Also known as cultivation, this is the sector where companies breed and produce a variety of cannabis strains. These companies employ individuals who have extensively worked in botany and plant science. This area covers areas like hydroponics, vertical farming and automation in the cannabis industry. Investing in growers was popular in 2017 and 2018 for a good reason. Investors believed that the companies with the largest supply would be the winners. However, as the industry failed to launch as expected, many companies became oversupplied. If and when the cannabis industry begins to fire on all cylinders, this supply-demand dynamic should change, and these pot stocks will move higher first. Retailers Retailers are the customer-facing side of the marijuana business. In many cases, retailers must be familiar with the effects of different marijuana strains and the impact of varying consumption methods. In the case of medical marijuana, staff members may even have pharmacy training. At this time, many of these businesses are not publicly traded. However, this is an area to watch, as consolidation will likely occur as many growers try to control the entire purchase cycle. Manufacturers Manufacturers include companies in a field known as cannatech. These tech companies bring their expertise to the cannabis industry. Currently, they help producers with a digital presence by supplying innovative services and solutions that improve the product and customer experience while at the same time complying with federal and state regulations. This area also includes companies that help provide the infrastructure for cannabis companies, such as greenhouses. Investing in this sector may include investing in real estate investment trusts (REITs) that own cannabis-related properties. Drugmakers The first thing many investors may consider in this section is CBD oil, one of the first genuinely mainstream products. More effort will go into discovering ways to make cannabis more accessible for medicinal purposes. "How to invest in CBD oil stocks?" is a different question. Many of these companies are private companies and are likely to stay that way as long as cannabis continues to be a banned substance at the federal level. Conduct Due Diligence When it comes to investing in cannabis companies, due diligence is crucial. When examining a company, look into various factors such as its financial health, the management team's expertise, regulatory compliance and potential for growth in the industry. Financial Health Analyzing the financial statements of a cannabis company can help you understand its current financial position and future prospects. Look at key metrics such as revenue growth, profitability, cash flow and debt levels. Assess whether the company has a sustainable business model and a clear path to profitability. Management Team The management team plays a critical role in the success of a cannabis company. Evaluate the experience and leadership of the executives, their track record in the industry and their ability to navigate the complex regulatory landscape. Strong leadership can drive innovation, growth and operational efficiency within a cannabis company. Regulatory Compliance Given the legal uncertainties surrounding the cannabis industry, regulatory compliance is paramount. Ensure the company operates within local and federal laws, obtains the right licenses and permits and adheres to best practices for quality control and safety. Growth Potential Assessing the growth potential of a cannabis company involves evaluating market trends, competition, expansion opportunities and product innovation. Look for companies with a strong market position, unique offerings, and a clear strategy for growth in the evolving cannabis market. 8 Steps for Investing in Cannabis So, how to invest in marijuana? First, let's consider the opportunity. According to Grand View Market Research, the value of the worldwide legal cannabis market may reach $91.5 billion by 2028. That would mean a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.3%. But like investing in any segment, investing in cannabis requires due diligence. Here are some steps to ensure you understand the opportunities in cannabis investment. Step 1: Know what you’re investing in. The medical marijuana market is further ahead of the recreational market in terms of being legal in all 50 states. Still, as the chart shows, all states have different regulations. Step 2: Decide on what type of cannabis company you want to invest in. As we listed earlier, there are opportunities to invest in various stages of the cannabis process. Step 3: Perform fundamental analysis. In addition to universal stock research, like looking at a company's management team, understanding its marketing plan and reviewing financial statements, you'll have to become familiar with some specific metrics for the cannabis industry: All-in cost of sales per gram: A company's total per-gram cost of producing cannabis. Cash cost per gram: A company's total per-gram cost of producing cannabis, excluding the costs associated with amortization, packaging and inventory adjustments. Step 4: Choose individual stocks or ETFs. As you might expect, there are a variety of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest in the cannabis industry. These can allow less risk-tolerant investors to gain exposure to this sector. Step 5: Invest your money. For most investors, it's best to build a position slowly, which means picking one or two stocks or a single fund to start. You can use simple dollar-cost averaging to increase your position over time. Step 6: Continually monitor industry events. Like any other company you invest in, you have to set aside time to keep track of the stocks you own. MarketBeat makes this easy by sending real-time alerts for stocks in your portfolio or watchlist. Step 7: Understand the risks. The cannabis sector has many risks (see below). Some are unique to this industry, and others are similar to what you expect from any penny stock. Step 8: Let MarketBeat help. If you haven't done so already, subscribe to MarketBeat All Access to give you immediate free access to our premium reports, such investing in marijuana stocks for beginners. MarketBeat can also be your go-to research for guidance on how to invest in the tech sector. Risks of Investing in Cannabis There are several risks for those who are investing in marijuana. First, without full legalization at the federal level, it's difficult, if not impossible, for businesses to operate across state borders. That means cannabis companies have to be licensed in several states (known as multistate operators). These companies are having some success, and they are multiplying. But you'll have to invest in more than one of these companies if you want full coverage of the cannabis market. The second issue has to do with banking. Because marijuana is not legal in every state, many marijuana-related businesses (MRBs) have difficulty accessing traditional banking products. As of September 30, 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reported that 563 banks and 160 credit unions provided banking services to MRBs. This number is growing but still represents only a small fraction of the industry. The report doesn't give insight into what financial products these companies were able to access. And even for publicly traded stocks, concerns about supply and demand imbalances will continue to plague the industry. Another risk is that many of these stocks trade as over-the-counter (OTC) stocks, which means they may have different liquidity than other publicly traded stocks. These companies are also subject to different levels of accountability regarding providing shareholders with financial information. Finally, as investors saw in 2018, many of these companies still operate without much cash on their balance sheet, which can lead to the companies having to take actions that can dilute shareholder value. Future of Investing in Cannabis The cannabis sector has tremendous potential. But it also has plenty of risk. If you're considering investing in this space, you have to be comfortable with investing in an opaque industry that will face high regulation in the future. Is Investing in Cannabis Stocks Right for You? The legalization of cannabis at the federal level still feels like a question of "when," not "if." With virtually every state legalizing cannabis for medicinal purposes, at the very least, pressure will likely come to bear on Congress at some point. FAQs Still curious about investing in cannabis? Let's look at a few more. Which cannabis is best to invest in? Do your research so you know the type of cannabis to invest in. Whether you're looking for a direct investment or one that is a bit of a less direct investment, you can consider many types of cannabis investments for your needs. Can you make money in the cannabis industry? Yes, you can make money in the cannabis industry. However, there's a risk of fraud and a certain level of uncertainty of investing in the cannabis industry, so do your research so you know exactly what to expect when you invest.
Bloomin' Brands' Stock Breakout: New Rally Budding? 2024-03-08 16:20:00+00:00 - Key Points Bloomin' Brands cleared a cup-with-handle base, with recent price momentum supported by higher-than-average trading volume. Activist Investor Starboard Value took a significant stake in the company and named two board members. The recent rally followed the company's announcement that it would close 41 underperforming locations, with plans to open as many new locations this year. 5 stocks we like better than Bloomin' Brands Bloomin’ Brands Inc. NASDAQ: BLMN is among the latest in a series of companies to be getting attention from activist investors who want to see change that would make their shares grow in value. The stock is currently out of buy range, following a strong rally, but a moving-average pullback could offer the next buy opportunity. Get Bloomin' Brands alerts: Sign Up Bloomin’ is the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Aussie Grill by Outback. Small-Cap Dividend Payer The stock has some unusual characteristics: It’s a small cap, with a market capitalization just shy of $2.6 billion, and it pays a dividend. The Bloomin’ Brands dividend yield is 3.21%. It’s not very common for a small U.S.-based company to pay a dividend; the practice is more common outside the U.S., where cultural expectations are different when it comes to shareholder return. Stateside, small-cap stocks often prioritize reinvesting profits for growth rather than distributing dividends. With limited resources and growth potential, smaller companies typically prefer to allocate earnings towards expansion and development as a way of maximizing shareholder value over the long haul. Activist Investor Gets Two Board Seats Activist investor Starboard Value has made it clear that it’s interested in maximizing value, perhaps sooner rather than later. Activist investors are investment groups or firms that purchase significant stakes in companies to influence corporate decisions, often advocating for changes to boost shareholder value or improve governance practices. Starboard has taken a 9.7% stake in Bloomin’ Brands, and made a deal to name two board members, Starboard partner Jonathan Sagal and former Darden Restaurants Inc. NYSE: DRI chief operating officer David George. Bloomin’ Brands has also formed a new operating committee, of which Sagal is a member and George chairs. Activist investors have made themselves known recently at The Walt Disney Co. NYSE: DIS and Etsy Inc. NASDAQ: ETSY, among others. Breakout From Cup-With-Handle Base On the Bloomin’ Brands chart, you can see the stock breaking out of a six-week cup-with-handle base on February 12. It pulled back, finding support in the area of its 50-day moving average. The stock then rebounded, once again clearing the handle buy point above $27.62, and is up 10.23% in the past week. In fact, the recent breakout was an addition to a broader uptrend that began in mid-November. Bloomin’ Brands Stock is up 6.43% in 2024. The pace of buying has picked up in recent sessions, as upside trading volume has been significantly higher than average. Bloomin’ stock is showing technical strength, with the chart pattern and heavy upside volume suggesting that upward momentum is likely to continue. Stock Rallies After Restaurant Closures A catalyst for the buying was Bloomin’ Brands' announcement that it was closing 41 restaurants throughout its portfolio. The closures comprised underperforming locations. Bloomin’ Brands CEO David Deno said the company plans to open 40 to 45 new restaurants this year, offsetting the closures. The company's non-U.S. business has been growing faster than domestic sales. Earnings were up 17% in 2023, its best net income performance since 2018. Traffic at the company’s U.S. Outback Steakhouse locations was down in the fourth quarter and the full year of 2023, although 2023 revenue grew by 5.7% to $4.67 billion. Price increases were responsible for that revenue growth. Restaurant Stocks Outperforming Broad Market The Bloomin’ Brands earnings data show the company topping earnings views in the most recent quarter, while revenue came up a bit short. As a group, restaurant stocks have been outperforming the broader market, led by standouts including Wingstop Inc. NASDAQ: WING, Cava Group Inc. NYSE: CAVA and Shake Shack Inc. NYSE: SHAK. Bloomin’ Brands stock is currently trading above its consensus price target of $27.90, but following the most recent earnings report, some analysts boosted their view. For example, Citigroup increased its target from $25 to $29. Before you consider Bloomin' Brands, 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 Bloomin' Brands wasn't on the list. While Bloomin' Brands currently has a "Hold" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
MongoDB Stock's AI Bubble Burst: Is Now the Time to Buy? 2024-03-08 16:03:00+00:00 - Key Points MongoDB had a solid quarter, with growth sustaining above 25% for another quarter, but guidance was weak. MongoDB Atlas is gaining traction and has grown to 68% of revenue. Analysts are resetting their targets but remain bullish and see a 15% upside at the consensus. 5 stocks we like better than Adobe Results from MongoDB Inc. NASDAQ: MDB and GitLab Inc. NASDAQ: GTLB suggest a bubble is bursting in the AI market that could impact names like Oracle Corp. NYSE: ORCL, Adobe Inc. NASDAQ: ADBE and Microsoft Inc. NASDAQ: MSFT. However, a bubble bursting does not mean the end of AI; it is only a reset of expectations. The results from both software companies reveal strength in their offerings, but guidance undercuts price action and valuation. Get Adobe alerts: Sign Up Both guided for growth, only less than what the analysts were forecasting. It's not either company's fault it couldn't live up to what the most optimistic analysts expected; high double-digit growth and broader margins are good. It may take time for the market to regain confidence, but will likely set new highs. We are still in the earliest innings of the AI revolution, and there is a solid outlook for growth, cash flow and profits. MongoDB core database product is gaining traction as a must-have application for cloud users because of Atlas and will grow with the industry. Atlas is a fully managed database that manages and deploys MongoDB across cloud borders. The latest news includes numerous deployments across Google Cloud, Amazon.com Inc. NASDAQ: AMZN, AWS and Microsoft Azure, bringing the total to 117 cloud regions and providing more leverage for future results. MongoDB has a Solid Quarter: Guidance is Cautious MongoDB had a solid Q4, with revenue up 26.8% over last year. The top line beat the consensus by 500 basis points and is on top of a 36% increase last year. Customer growth drives strength and the widening availability of Atlas. MongoDB Atlas accounts for 68% of the revenue and is gaining ground. Subscriptions led and are up 28% year-over-year (YoY), offset by a 1% decline in services. Margin news is an area of strength. The gross margin held flat at 75% GAAP and 77% adjusted, but the operating margin widened. The operating margin widened by 500 basis points on improving revenue leverage despite increased spending and left adjusted net income and free cash flow well above expectations. The adjusted earnings came in at $0.86 or up 50% and nearly double consensus, with FCF doubling to $50.5 million. Guidance is the weak spot in the news, although revenue is expected to grow by 15% this year. The bad news is that Q1 and FY results are well below the consensus, leading the market to reset its expectations. Given the outlook for cloud spending this year, the opportunity is that guidance is likely cautious. Cloud spending is expected to accelerate to +20%, with growth led by the top three players, Azure, AWS and Google. MongoDB is perfectly positioned to benefit from that growth. Analysts Revise Targets for MongoDB: See Double-Digit Upside The analysts' activity is hot following the Q4 release and guidance update, with more than a dozen of the twenty-five analysts tracked by Marketbeat issuing revisions. The activity is mixed with several lowered-priced targets and some increased, but the takeaway is bullish. The sentiment is firming from "moderate buy" to "buy" with an upgrade issued by D.A. Davidson, raising its price target to $430 and near consensus. The consensus target implies a 15% upside and is trending higher, and it is in a position to lead the market now that the price action has corrected. MongoDB's price fell as much as 20% in after-hours trading but recovered much of the loss before the open. The stock opened with a loss of only 7% and showed some support at the open. If the market follows through on this opportunity, investors should expect volatility over the next few days, but the market should rebound quickly. If not, MongoDB could fall to firmer support levels near $360 before making a significant rebound later in the year. Before you consider Adobe, 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 Adobe wasn't on the list. While Adobe currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
Biden says he would sign TikTok bill that could ban app 2024-03-08 15:50:00+00:00 - Washington — President Biden said Friday he would sign legislation that could lead to a ban of TikTok, an immensely popular video-sharing app that is owned by the China-based company ByteDance. "If they pass it, I'll sign it," Mr. Biden, whose 2024 campaign recently joined the app, told reporters. The bill, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would require ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or be banned from U.S. app stores and web-hosting services if it does not cut ties. It's slated to get a vote on the House floor next week, according to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, who called the measure a "critical national security bill." House lawmakers have moved quickly on the legislation. It was introduced on Tuesday and advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday. In a one-page memo to members of Congress that was obtained by CBS News, the Justice Department laid out the dangers it says TikTok poses, including the "tremendous amounts of sensitive data" it collects, and the potential for the Chinese government to carry out an influence campaign. The Justice Department said the legislation would be on more stable legal ground if it gave the government the authority to force ByteDance to divest from TikTok, rather than to impose an outright ban on the app if ByteDance doesn't sell. Earlier this week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested the legislation may not yet stand up to legal scrutiny. "Once it gets to a place where we think … it's on legal standing, and it's in a place where it can get out of Congress, then the president would sign it. But we need to continue to work on it," she said during Wednesday's press briefing. National security officials and lawmakers have warned of the potential risks the app poses for years, saying it could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or spread misinformation or propaganda. TikTok unleashed a flood of calls to lawmakers on Thursday after it urged users to contact their representatives to tell them to vote against the bill. "Stop a TikTok shutdown," a notice sent to users in the app said. It sent another notice Friday that said, "The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a TikTok ban. This means your content, your right to express yourself and your income will be shut down, too." TikTok has had faster user growth in recent years compared to other social media platforms, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last year. The study said about a third of U.S. adults use the app, but other platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, were more dominant.
Tax day is underway. Here are some tips to navigate it 2024-03-08 15:49:52+00:00 - NEW YORK (AP) — April 15 is the last day to submit tax returns for 2023. If you left your tax filing to the last minute, you’re not alone. The IRS says it has received more than 100 million tax returns, with tens of millions more expected. If you need more time, today is also the deadline to file an extension, which will give you until Oct. 15 to file your taxes. Whether it’s your first time filing or you’ve been doing it for years, here are some key things to know about tax season: WHEN IS THE DEADLINE TO FILE TAXES? Taxpayers have until April 15 to submit their returns from 2023. HOW DO I FILE FOR AN EXTENSION? If you run out of time to file your tax return, you can file for an extension. However, it is important to remember that the extension is only to file your taxes, not to pay them. If you owe taxes, you should pay an estimated amount before the deadline so you avoid paying penalties and interest. If you expect to receive a refund, you will still receive your money when you file your taxes. You can file for an extension to Oct. 15 through your tax software or preparer of preference, the IRS Free File tool or via mail. WHAT DO I NEED TO FILE MY TAX RETURN? While the required documents might depend on your individual case, here is a general list of what everyone needs: —Social Security number —W-2 forms, if you are employed —1099-G, if you are unemployed —1099 forms, if you are self-employed —Savings and investment records —Any eligible deduction, such as educational expenses, medical bills, charitable donations, etc. —Tax credits, such as child tax credit, retirement savings contributions credit, etc. To find a more detailed document list, visit the IRS website. Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals, recommends gathering all of your documents in one place before you start your tax return and also having your documents from last year if your financial situation has drastically changed. O’Saben also recommends taxpayers create an identity protection PIN number with the IRS to guard against identity theft. Once you create a number, the IRS will require it to file your tax return. HOW DO I FILE MY TAXES? You can either file your taxes online or on paper. However, there is a big time difference between the two options. Paper filing can take up to six months for the IRS to process, while electronic filing cuts it down to three weeks. WHAT IS DIRECT FILE? The IRS is piloting a program where you can file your federal taxes online for free called Direct File. This program is now available in 12 states, which include California and New York, and for people who have very simple W-2s, an employee’s wage and tax statement. Aside from Direct File, IRS offers free guided tax preparation that does the math for you. This is available for people who make $79,000 or less per year. If you have questions while working on your tax forms, the IRS also offers an interactive tax assistant tool that can provide answers based on your information. Beyond the popular companies such as TurboTax and H&R Block, taxpayers can also hire licensed professionals, such as certified public accountants. The IRS offers a directory of tax preparers across the United States. The IRS also funds two types of programs that offer free tax help: VITA and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program (TCE). People who earn $64,000 or less a year, have disabilities or are limited English speakers, qualify for the VITA program. Those who are 60 or older, qualify for the TCE program. The IRS has a site for locating organizations hosting VITA and TCE clinics. If you have a tax problem, there are clinics around the country that can help you resolve these issues. Generally, these tax clinics also offer services in other languages such as Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. HOW CAN I AVOID MISTAKES IN MY TAX RETURN? Many people fear getting in trouble with the IRS if they make a mistake. Here’s how to avoid some of the most common ones: —Double check your name on your Social Security card. When working with clients, O’Saben always asks them to bring their Social Security card to double-check their number and their legal name, which can change when when people get married. “You may have changed your name but you didn’t change it with Social Security,” O’Saben said. “If the Social Security number doesn’t match to the first four letters of the last name, the return will be rejected and that will delay processing.” —Search for tax statements when you have opted out of paper mail. Many people like to opt out of snail mail but when you do, it can also include your tax documents. “If you didn’t get anything in the mail doesn’t mean that there isn’t an information document out there that you need to be aware of and report accordingly,” O’Saben said. —Make sure you report all of your income. If you had more than one job in 2023, you need the W-2 forms for each. WHAT IF I MAKE A MISTAKE? Mistakes happen, and the IRS takes different approaches depending on each case. In general, if you make a mistake or you’re missing something in your tax records, the IRS will audit you, said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma. An audit means that the IRS will ask you for more documentation. “Generally, they are very understanding and willing to work with folks. You’re not going to get arrested if you type in the wrong field,” Alev said. WHAT IF I HAVEN’T FILED FOR YEARS? You can file taxes late and, if you were supposed to get a refund, you might still get it. If you haven’t filed for years and you owe money to the IRS, you may be hit with penalties but the agency will can work with you to manage payment plans. HOW CAN I AVOID SCAMS? Tax season is prime time for tax scams, said O’Saben. These scams can come via phone, text, email and social media. The IRS uses none of those means to contact taxpayers. Sometimes scams are even operated by tax preparers so it’s important to ask lots of questions. If a tax preparer says you will get a refund that is larger than what you’ve received in previous years, for example, that may be a red flag, O’Saben said. If you can’t see what your tax preparer is working on, get a copy of the tax return and ask questions about each of the entries. HOW LONG SHOULD I KEEP COPIES OF MY TAX RETURNS? It’s always good practice to keep a record of your tax returns, just in case the IRS audits you for an item you reported years ago. O’Saben recommend keeping copies of your tax return documents for up to seven years. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU FILE TAXES LATE? If you missed the tax deadline and you don’t file for an extension, there are several penalties that you might receive. If you missed the deadline you might receive a failure-to-file penalty. This penalty will be 5% of the unpaid taxes for each month the tax return is late, according to the IRS. If you owe taxes and you didn’t pay them prior to the tax deadline, you will receive a failure-to-pay penalty. Interest will also be charged on both taxes and penalties owed. If you are due for a refund, you will not receive a penalty and you will receive your tax return payment. If you had special circumstances that meant you were unable to file or pay your taxes on time, you might be able to remove or reduce your penalty. If the amount of taxes you owe becomes too large, you can apply for a payment plan. Payment plans will allow you to pay off over time. ___ A version of this story moved in March. This story has been updated with new details and comment. ___ The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
Here's Why Shake Shack’s Recovery Builds Momentum 2024-03-08 15:46:00+00:00 - Key Points Shares of Shake Shack have rallied since the summer of 2022 but have yet to reclaim previous highs. However, with several key tailwinds in place, it's in a powerful position to retry. This week's comments from TD Cowen should be enough to drive the stock to further gains in the near term. 5 stocks we like better than Microsoft With so much talk around tech stocks lately, it can be refreshing to hear about a stock from a completely different industry. Shake Shack Inc. NYSE: SHAK, whose shares have been rallying since the summer of 2022, was singled out by the team at TD Cowen yesterday. It's an interesting stock to consider. Shake Shack has yet to complete the feat that Nvidia Corporation NASDAQ: NVDA or Microsoft Inc. NASDAQ: MSFT share highs set in 2021. Get Microsoft alerts: Sign Up Even with a 170% rally under its belt since bottoming out almost two years ago, the stock, at its current share price of $105, is still far from its $140 high. That's not to say it isn't worthy of our consideration. There's a strong argument that Shake Shack has flown somewhat under the radar because it has not yet reclaimed previous highs. Increasingly Bullish Outlook The team at TD Cowen spoke to this yesterday when it upped its rating on the stock from "market perform" to "outperform." Analyst Andrew Charles is looking for large revisions to the upside of the stock's EBITDA due to improved margin expectations and better spending control. It's also bullish on the prospects of a new CEO joining this year, as the 20-year veteran Randy Garutti is due to retire. TD Cowen's $125 price target is a street high and points to an upside of some 20% in the near term. This would have Shake Shack shares trading right near their 2021 peak, meaning the stock would have rallied 225% from its low - not bad for a fast-food restaurant. There are concerns about how one direction has been used so much in recent trading, as it has built up the stock's relative strength index (RSI) to a boiling point. A reading of anything above 70 indicates overbought conditions, and Shake Shack's is currently right there, having been above 80 just last week. There's an argument to be made that being a little patient here with an entry could be beneficial, especially as the stock was starting to soften this week before TD Cowen's comments yesterday. As we've seen with many companies, who've enjoyed a bumper couple of months of trading, some consolidation after a solid run is not bad. What the Stock Needs to Do For Shake Shack, that would mean holding the line above $100 and trading flat or sideways for a little bit. This would reinforce the $100 mark as a serious line of support that would be well-defended during any future bout of volatility. It also forms a strong base from which the stock can start the next stage of the rally, the one that should take it to $125. The worst thing that could happen right now is for Shake Shack to give back its recent gains and fall towards the $70-$80 range, where it spent the first half of February. However, if it were to do that, the upside potential would simply have increased by a sizable amount, and the entry opportunity would be nearly too good to miss. It's an unlikely scenario anyway, at least in this writer's view, as Shake Shack simply has too many things going in its favor right now. A strong earnings report last month topped analyst expectations, with 20% year-on-year revenue growth, improving margins and bullish analyst comments. What's not to like? Look for shares to hold the $100 line through next week, with some fresh forward momentum then likely to set the scene for a march towards TD Cowen's $125 price target. Before you consider Microsoft, 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 Microsoft wasn't on the list. While Microsoft currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
Homeowners in these 10 states are seeing the biggest gains in home equity 2024-03-08 13:50:00+00:00 - What to consider before refinancing your mortgage Rising home prices have made it tougher for many Americans to buy a home, but there's an upside for the roughly two-thirds of adults who are already homeowners: a spike in their home equity. Homeowners with mortgages saw the equity in their homes climb by 8.6% — or an average of $24,000 — in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with a year earlier, according to new data from CoreLogic. Homeowners in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Massachusetts saw even greater gains during that time period, registering growth of $62,000, $55,000 and $53,000, respectively. Those three states led the nation in home value appreciation last year, which helped fuel gains in equity, CoreLogic said. All told, homeowners garnered $1.3 trillion in equity in 2023. Because home equity represents the difference between the value of your home and your mortgage, rising home values typically result in equity gains for homeowners. The national median asking price for homes reached $415,500 in February, according to Realtor.com, while the total value of U.S. homes grew 5.3% between December 2022 and December 2023, according to a Redfin estimate of 90 million properties. The gains likely comes as welcome news for U.S. homeowners, many of whom borrow against their home equity to pay for repairs on their property, fund their kids' college educations or make pricey purchases. Some Americans even use the equity in their home to purchase another house. In many instances, home ownership represents the main wealth-building source for U.S. families. Below are the 10 states where homeowners saw the biggest jumps in home equity last year, according to CoreLogic: Rhode Island: $62,000 New Jersey: $55,000 Massachusetts: $53,000 California: $49,000 New Hampshire: $46,000 Connecticut: $45,000 Maine: $39,000 Florida and Virginia: $32,000 Washington: $30,000 Texas was the only state where homes lost equity, with an average loss of $6,000. Selma Hepp, chief economist for CoreLogic, said the nation's rising home equity "suggests that the typical homeowner has notable home equity reserves that can be tapped if needed." U.S. homeowners saw their equity rise 8.6% between Q4 2022 and Q4 2023. Homeowners in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Massachusetts led the nation in most growth during that time period. CoreLogic Hepp also noted that rising home equity has helped tens of thousands of homeowners who were underwater on their mortgage, meaning their loan balances were greater than their homes were worth. "Now, slightly more than 1 million borrowers are underwater, the lowest number recorded in CoreLogic historic data and significantly below the 12 million seen coming out of the Great Recession," she said. Americans are struggling to purchase a home as mortgage rates and asking prices have soared in recent years but wage growth hasn't kept pace. The typical home buyer needs to earn more than $106,000 a year to comfortably afford a home, which is about 80% more in earnings compared to four years ago, a Zillow analysis published last week found.
Recalls have been issued for Tide Pods, Starbucks mugs, Trader Joe's cashews and more — see the latest list 2024-03-08 12:00:00+00:00 - Product recalls are becoming more common in the United States: The number of recalled products reached a five-year high last year, according to a recent report, with around 3,300 recalls reported across the automotive, consumer product, food and drink, medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Companies generally issue voluntary recalls after they learn that a batch of products has been contaminated or poses a safety risk. For consumers, it can be difficult to keep track of the various recalls issued on popular products — and determine whether any items they bought are affected. The list below rounds up some of the biggest recalls affecting the public right now. Laundry detergent packets Procter and Gamble, the maker of Tide Pods, recalled 8.2 million bags of laundry detergent packets April 5 because they may be defective, with a risk of splitting open. If the contents are ingested or touch the skin or eyes, they pose a serious risk of injury. No injuries have been reported, however. According to an announcement posted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the recall applies to Tide Pods, Gain Flings, Ace Pods and Ariel Pods manufactured between September and February. Consumers can contact Procter and Gamble for a refund and a new, child-resistant bag in which to store the pods, as well as a free cabinet lock. “This is a packaging issue not a product quality or safety issue,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. Garment steamers In an expansion of a recall initiated in November 2022, about 1.6 million additional Black+Decker handheld fabric steamers were recalled April 4, following reports of burns caused by hot water spewing from the nozzle. According to the CPSC, 82 burns have been linked to the steamers, seven of which were second-degree burns. Consumers should contact Empower Brands for a refund. In an unrelated recall, 2 million handheld fabric steamers were recalled in February for the same reason. Those steamers were sold by the brands Steamfast, Vornado and Sharper Image. According to the CPSC, Vornado received at least 23 reports of burns related to the issue. Starbucks mugs Nestlé USA recalled more than 440,000 Starbucks-branded mugs in March, following customer reports of burns and cuts after the products broke or overheated. The recall applies to four types of gift sets containing a ceramic mug with metallic coating, which were sold during the 2023 holiday season. The mugs pose a risk when microwaved or filled with hot liquid. According to the CPSC, nine cases of severe burns or blisters and one cut have been reported. The mugs were sold online and at Target and Walmart stores between November and January. Customers should return the mugs for a refund or contact Nestlé USA for a check. Trader Joe’s cashews Some cashews sold at Trader Joe’s were recalled March 17 because of potential contamination with salmonella bacteria. The maker, Wenders LLC, initiated the recall, which affects Trader Joe’s “50% Less Sodium Roasted & Salted Whole Cashews.” The issue was identified through routine testing by the Food and Drug Administration. No illnesses have been reported. The nuts were sold at Trader Joe’s stores in 16 states; consumers can return them for a refund. Yamaha power adapters Yamaha Corp. of America, best known for manufacturing musical instruments, initiated a recall of more than 34,000 power adapters last month because of a risk that the product could shock or electrocute users. According to an announcement posted by the CPSC, the recall applies to Yamaha PA-10 AC power adapters sold between June 2021 and November 2023. A crack between the adapter’s upper and lower cases can expose electrical wiring, though no injuries have been reported. The adapter was sold on its own and in bundles with certain models of Yamaha analog mixing consoles. The company said that consumers should contact Yamaha for a free replacement. Ground cinnamon The FDA in March warned about elevated lead levels in six ground cinnamon products. The list includes La Fiesta, from La Superior SuperMercados; Marcum, from Save A Lot; MK, from SF Supermarket; Swad, from Patel Brothers; Supreme Tradition, from Dollar Tree & Family Dollar; and Eli Chilar, from La Joya Morelense. A Dollar Tree spokesperson said the company had removed affected products from its stores. An FDA spokesperson said that there was no known link to a recall of lead-tainted cinnamon applesauce pouches last year. Johnsonville Polish kielbasa turkey sausages A distributor of Johnsonville meat products has recalled 35,430 pounds of Polish kielbasa turkey sausages after consumers reported finding pieces of rubber in the products. There have been no reports of health issues. In a statement on its website, Johnsonville said it had told retail partners to remove the affected sausages, which have best-by dates of May 2024, from store shelves. Trader Joe’s soup dumplings A California manufacturer is recalling almost 62,000 pounds of frozen chicken soup dumplings sold at Trader Joe’s stores after consumers reported finding hard plastic in the food. The U.S. Agriculture Department said that the dumplings may have been contaminated by a permanent marker pen. No illnesses have been reported. “We voluntarily take action quickly, aggressively investigating potential problems and removing the product from sale if there is any doubt about its safety or quality,” a Trader Joe’s spokesperson said. Cinnamon applesauce pouches As of March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had received more than 500 reports of confirmed, suspected and probable cases of lead poisoning linked to cinnamon applesauce pouches. The source of the lead contamination is likely cinnamon from a processor in Ecuador, according to the FDA. The agency said that the cinnamon contained lead chromate, a pigment illegally added to spices to increase their weight or enhance their color. Three brands have recalled the children’s snack. WanaBana pulled its Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree Pouches from stores in October, followed by Weis and the supermarket brand Schnucks. Jeep Grand Cherokees Chrysler recalled more than 338,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees because of potentially faulty steering components. The affected models include the 2021-2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee LS and the 2022-2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee. In a letter dated Feb. 24 on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website, Chrysler said the steering knuckles and part of the upper control arms — which are supposed to attach together — may separate, which could cause the vehicles to lose control. Chrysler said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the affected models. Eye ointments Four types of eye ointments were recalled in February because of concerns that they were manufactured in an unsanitary facility. The products — Equate Lubricant Eye Ointment, Equate Stye Lubricant Eye Ointment, CVS Health Lubricant Eye Ointment and AACE Pharmaceuticals’ Lubricant PM Ointment — were sold nationwide at Walmart and CVS stores. They have expiration dates from February 2024 to September 2025. Brassica Pharma Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer, said in a statement that the potential contamination could lead to eye infections, though no such issues had been reported as of Feb. 16. The recall is separate from a cluster of bacterial infections linked to contaminated eyedrops, which led to the recall of two brands — EzriCare Artificial Tears and Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears — last year. The FDA has also warned people not to use 28 additional eyedrop products after investigators found unsanitary conditions in a manufacturing facility. Certain Volkswagen Group models Volkswagen Group, which makes Volkswagen and Audi vehicles, among others, recalled approximately 261,000 vehicles over potentially faulty fuel tank suction pumps. A host of models are affected, including some Audi A3, VW Jetta and VW Golf vehicles with model years 2015 to 2020. Volkswagen warned last month that due to issues with a suction jet pump seal, “fuel may flow into a separate evaporative (EVAP) emissions system and possibly leak out of the charcoal canister.” A fuel leak can increase fire risks and potentially damage a vehicle or harm its occupants. Queso fresco and cotija cheese The FDA has warned people not to eat dairy products including queso fresco and cotija cheese that were manufactured by Rizo López Foods. The CDC has linked 26 listeria infections to the products, with cases reported as recently as December. The agencies reopened an investigation in January after new illnesses were reported and a cotija cheese sample tested positive for listeria. Listeria bacteria can cause serious illness; of the people who got infections, 23 were hospitalized and two died. To date, more than 115 products made by Rizo López Foods or that contain the manufacturer’s dairy products have been recalled, including taco kits, wraps and meals sold at Albertsons, Costco and Safeway. “We regret the impact this has had on our loyal customers who have had to recall their products containing cheese we supplied to them,” Edwin Rizo, CEO of Rizo López Foods, said in a statement. “We have always aimed to provide safe, high-quality products.” Gun safes Four companies have collectively recalled more than 120,000 biometric gun safes sold by Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers. The safes unlock by scanning a part of the owner’s body such as a fingerprint. But the CPSC is aware of 91 reports of unauthorized users opening the safes. The recall, issued in February, includes safes from the brands Awesafe, Bulldog and Machir safes. BBRKIN also recalled gun safes sold on Amazon after a report of a 6-year-old boy opening the product. CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric told NBC News that the commission heightened its scrutiny of gun safes after a lawsuit filed in August alleged that a 12-year-old boy died from a firearm obtained from a biometric safe. The CPSC recalled those safes in October. Brandon Rutledge, Bulldog’s vice president, said in a statement that “the problems have stemmed from people not programming the safes at all, or not programming them properly.” Toshiba laptop adapters Dynabook — formerly known as Toshiba — recalled 15.5 million AC laptop adapters in February over concerns about burn and fire risks. Information posted to the CPSC website showed Dynabook had received 679 reports of the affected adapters overheating, catching fire, melting or burning over a period of more than a decade. This included 43 reports of minor burns. The recalled products were included in the purchase of Toshiba laptops and also sold separately, and have date codes from April 2008 to December 2012. 'Gas station heroin' Two distributors have recalled Neptune’s Fix supplements amid reports that the products may cause seizures, loss of consciousness and death. The supplements contain tianeptine, a substance nicknamed “gas station heroin,” and are sold with false claims of improving brain function and helping with anxiety, depression, pain or opioid use disorder. Tianeptine has not been approved by the FDA for any use. A Jan. 11 letter the agency sent to gas stations, convenience stores and other retailers asked them to stop selling Neptune’s Fix and other tianeptine products. Since then, Neptune Resources, LLC has recalled Neptune’s Fix elixirs and tablets, and Super Chill Products — another distributor — has recalled its elixirs, as well. Philips breathing machines Since the medical technology giant Philips recalled some of its breathing machines in 2021, more than 560 deaths have been reported that may be linked to them. The FDA received 111 reports of deaths from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2023. The recalled machines include certain ventilators, as well as BiPAP and CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnea. The foam used in the machines can break down, leading users to breathe chemicals or foam particles into their airways, the FDA said. Philips announced in January that it would not sell new devices for sleep apnea in the U.S. A Philips representative said the company has not found conclusive data linking the devices to the deaths reported. Quaker Oats products More than 60 Quaker products have been recalled since Dec. 15 because of potential contamination with salmonella bacteria. The products include certain flavors of Cap’n Crunch and Oatmeal Squares cereals, some Gatorade protein bars and some batches of Quaker Chewy granola bars and Quaker granola cereals. PepsiCo, Quaker's parent company, said that a facility where the affected products were manufactured will close permanently in June.
Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed after Wall St pulls back after a shaky day 2024-03-08 06:55:45+00:00 - HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday after Wall Street pulled back from its record following a shaky day of trading, putting at least a temporary halt to its huge rally since Halloween. Hong Kong gained 2.3% to 16,912.24. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.3% to 3,069.09. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was unchanged at 39,796.65. Revised figures released on Monday showed that Japan’s economy expanded by 0.4% in the final quarter of 2023, compared to the provisional data of a 0.4% contraction in the previous month. Favorable economic data may potentially serve as a positive signal for Japan to consider ending its negative interest rate policy. “The prevailing sentiment is leaning towards the notion that when the Bank of Japan eventually departs from its negative rate policy, it is anticipated to convey an air of confidence that deflation is in the rearview window,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management. “ And this interest rate hike will not be an isolated occurrence, potentially bolstering the Japanese Yen further.” In February, China’s consumer price index rebounded by 0.7% compared to the same period last year, driven by a surge in consumption during the holiday season, while the producer price index experienced a 2.7% year-on-year decline, suggesting persistent deflationary pressures. Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.1% higher to 2,749.36 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia gave up 0.1% to 7,887.90. On Monday, the S&P 500 fell 0.7% from its all-time high set a day before. It initially climbed after mixed data on the U.S. job market bolstered hopes that easier interest rates will arrive later this year. Later, it swung to a loss after one of its most influential stocks, Nvidia, took a rare stumble following a jaw-dropping surge that critics called overdone. Friday’s dip also sent the S&P 500 to a rare losing week, just its third in the last 19. The weakness for Nvidia and other technology stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite to a market-leading loss of 1.2%, ended at 16,085.11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less of an emphasis on tech, held up better. It slipped 0.2% to 38.722.69. In the bond market, Treasury yields eased following the mixed data on the U.S. job market, which economists described as “all over the place.” The jobs report showed employers hired more workers last month than expected, but wages for workers rose by less than forecast. It also said job growth in January was not nearly as hot as earlier thought. The job market and overall economy are in a delicate spot, where Wall Street wants them to continue growing, but not so much that they raise pressure on inflation. The ultimate goal is for inflation to cool enough to convince the Federal Reserve to lower its main interest rate from its highest level since 2001. Such a move would release pressure on the financial system and the economy, which has so far remained out of a recession despite high interest rates. In the meantime, the hope on Wall Street is that the remarkably resilient economy will drive growth in profits for companies. Gap climbed 8.2% after the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer said an important sales trend returned to growth at both its Old Navy and Gap stores. The owner of Banana Republic and Athleta also gave a forecast for upcoming sales this year that was a touch higher than analysts’ estimates. Gun maker Smith & Wesson Brands leaped 29.4% after likewise reporting stronger profit than expected for the latest quarter. It said its shipments grew faster than the overall firearms market. But Nvidia was the main stock in the spotlight as it tumbled 5.5% for its worst day since May. It’s a rare blip for the stock that has shot up nearly 77% this year after more than tripling last year. In other trading U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 39 cents to $84.10 per barrel. Brent crude oil also was up 39 cents, at $87.81 per barrel. The dollar rose to 151.72 Japanese yen from 151.68 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0730 from $1.0745.
Rivian Pausing New Georgia Factory, Offers New R2 and R3 2024-03-08 05:26:00+00:00 - (Bloomberg) -- Rivian Automotive Inc. is halting plans to build a new multibillion-dollar factory in Georgia, an abrupt reversal aimed at cutting costs while the company prepares to launch a cheaper electric vehicle. Most Read from Bloomberg The decision will save the automaker more than $2.25 billion in capital expenditures, the company said in a filing Thursday. Shifting planned production of the forthcoming R2 model to an existing facility in Illinois will allow Rivian to begin deliveries in the first half of 2026, earlier than expected. The surprise announcement plunges the high-profile factory project into uncertainty, but Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said it remains important to the company. Shares of the automaker jumped after the announcement and closed up 13% on the day for their biggest gain since December. The stock had fallen more than 50% this year through Wednesday on concerns over Rivian’s cash and consumer demand for its products. Rivian in 2022 secured a $1.5 billion package of state and local incentives — the biggest in Georgia’s history — to build the massive plant outside Atlanta. The company pledged at the time to create 7,500 jobs by the end of 2028, winning praise from local lawmakers. Read More: Rivian to Issue Up to $15 Billion of Debt for Georgia Plant The retreat comes two weeks after Rivian announced job cuts and said it would keep production flat this year, falling well short of expectations and triggering a heavy selloff in the shares. The company has struggled to transition to mass production since going public in 2021, and the high prices of its models have been a hard sell as overall demand for EVs fades. Rivian has never made a profit and it lost more than $40,000 on every vehicle it delivered in last three months of 2023. Story continues The new model helps fortify Rivian’s “unique brand identity,” but the financial implications of a lower-priced EV remain murky for the company, Tom Narayan, an RBC Capital Markets analyst, said in a note. “Currently, R1 is losing money,” he said. “The critical question is how will Rivian be able to produce R2 profitably at the $45,000 price point?” Also on Thursday, Scaringe unveiled the long-anticipated R2, a mid-sized electric sport utility vehicle that will start at around $45,000. That’s about $30,000 less than Rivian’s existing SUV and just under the US average new car sticker price of more than $48,000. The two-row SUV will be available in two battery pack sizes, with the larger option offering a range of more than 300 miles on a single charge. Customers can chose from one, two or three motor variants of the SUV. Rivian’s also giving the vehicle more advanced autonomous technology with a sensor suite made up of 11 cameras and five radars. Read More: Rivian Aims to Recreate Tesla’s Model 3 Magic With New R2: BNEF Rivian, one of the few pure-play EV makers manufacturing in America, is trying to grab market share from Tesla Inc. with the new model, its first aimed at the mass market. The effort highlights a push by automakers to bring down costs in an environment of slowing demand for EVs, with manufacturers from Tesla to Ford Motor Co. to China’s BYD Co. cutting prices. Scaringe also surprised investors with a prototype of a future crossover EV called R3. Rivian said this model would be priced lower than the R2, without giving a dollar amount or timeline for when it might be built. Rivian currently makes two consumer plug-in EVs, the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, and a commercial van primarily for Amazon.com Inc., its biggest shareholder. All are built at the plant in Normal, Illinois. (Updates for closing share price and chart from the third paragraph.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek ©2024 Bloomberg L.P.