Latest News
See the latest news and get GPT analysis of articles
Chipotle has been on a hot streak with customers 2024-07-24 20:48:00+00:00 - Chipotle Mexican Grill on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations as it saw higher traffic at its restaurants, bucking an industry slowdown. Shares of the company rose after the closing bell. As of Wednesday’s close, Chipotle’s stock had slid 17% this month, hurt by investor concerns about the health of the restaurant industry. In late June, the company executed a 50-for-1 stock split. From April: Chipotle reports big profit as diners shake off price increases The burrito chain reported second-quarter net income of $455.7 million, or 33 cents per share, up from $341.8 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier. Chipotle’s profits rose from the year-ago period due to price hikes that helped offset higher avocado prices and greater usage of oil to fry tortilla chips this quarter. Excluding items, Chipotle earned 34 cents per share. Net sales climbed 18.2% to $2.97 billion. The company’s same-store sales rose 11.1% in the quarter, topping StreetAccount estimates of 9.2%. Demand for its food peaked in April, CEO Brian Niccol said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Wednesday. Same-store sales settled around 6% higher in June. Executives said that July has been more difficult to understand, given the Fourth of July holiday, weather disruptions in Texas and a recent tech outage. Traffic to its restaurants increased 8.7%, despite backlash on social media fueled by customers who said their burrito bowls are smaller. The company has denied reducing its portion sizes. “We have focused in on those with outlier portion scores based on consumer surveys, and we are re-emphasizing training and coaching around ensuring we are consistently making bowls and burritos correctly,” Niccol told analysts on the company’s conference call. “We have also leaned in and re-emphasized generous portions across all of our restaurants, as it is a core brand equity of Chipotle.” Restaurant transactions grew across every income level, Niccol said. Other consumer companies, from PepsiCo to McDonald’s, have said in recent months that low-income customers are pulling back more, pressuring their sales. Chipotle, like many fast-casual chains, benefits from a customer base that tends to make higher incomes. The chain brought back its chicken al pastor in March as a limited-time menu item. More customers have also been ordering its barbacoa, which underwent a name change earlier this year that added “braised beef” to improve customer awareness of the option. Chipotle opened 52 new company-owned locations and one new international licensed restaurant during the quarter. The company reiterated its full-year outlook that same-store sales will grow by a mid- to high-single digit percentage. Chipotle also anticipates that it will open between 285 to 315 new restaurants this year.
The elephant not in the room for Netanyahu's speech: Kamala Harris 2024-07-24 20:43:09+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Speaking to a crowd of roughly 100 people just a stone's throw from the US Capitol complex on Wednesday morning, Linda Sarsour argued that pro-Palestinian activists were responsible for President Joe Biden's decision to forfeit a second term in the White House. "They'll never give us that credit," said Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist and former Women's March leader. "But they better know that I will never believe that one dismal performance at a debate was the reason why Joe Biden is no longer the Democratic nominee." This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Roughly 20 New York police officers streamed by on bikes. Security had been beefed up. In just a few hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would address a joint session of Congress, and Vice President Kamala Harris would not be there in her usual presiding role, traveling instead to Indianapolis to speak at the historically Black Zeta Phi Beta sorority's convention. "That's not by accident, my friends," Sarsour said. "That's just not because she happens to be in Indianapolis. That is a strategic political calculation, because she knew — and her people knew — that you will not reach the White House if you frolic with war criminals." Advertisement Sarsour's argument about Biden doesn't exactly hold water. It was, without question, Biden's disastrous debate performance that forced him from the race after three painful weeks of Democratic hand-wringing about the issue. Until the debate made questions about his age unavoidable, it was Biden's staunch support for Israel that seemed to pose the greatest threat to his candidacy. But it was also progressive lawmakers, who've generally been the most outspoken about the destruction in Gaza, who chose to remain behind Biden. But Sarsour's observation about Harris's absence, whatever the White House may say about scheduling, was shared by progressive Democratic lawmakers who would like to see the United States take a different approach toward Israel — and who are openly pining for Harris to break with Biden. Related stories "It's a pretty big symbolic statement," Rep. Ro Khanna told me, referring to Harris's absence. "I think she has an opportunity to have a clean break from the administration." With Harris absent, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland took her place. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images The California Democrat argued that Harris should look toward the example of Vice President Hubert Humphrey. After President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from the 1968 presidential race amid critics of his handling of the Vietnam War, Humphrey entered the race, eventually calling for peace talks. "When Humphrey did that, his poll numbers skyrocketed," Khanna said. "And he almost won." Advertisement 'A very tenuous feeling' If Netanyahu's speech on Wednesday was any indication, there's plenty of wiggle room for Harris to pursue a less deferential approach to Israel than Biden. Only about half of House and Senate Democrats even showed up for the speech. Dozens of progressives issued statements affirming that they were boycotting the speech, engaged in other events, or like Harris, simply came up with convenient scheduling conflicts. Part of the issue is Netanyahu himself. He's long been a polarizing figure in American politics, generally enjoying closer relationships with Republicans than Democrats. The last time he addressed Congress in 2015 — where he railed against then-President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran — dozens of Democrats also skipped the event. "We just don't agree with his policies and who he is. He's literally the Trump of Israel," Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida told me. "He wants Trump to win. He wants to undermine the President and the Vice President. [Boycotting] makes a lot of sense to me." Netanyahu is also a controversial figure at home, facing criticism for failing to stop the October 7 Hamas attacks and widespread protests last summer over his attempted judicial reform. Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, a progressive Jewish Democrat, told me she would be boycotting the speech in part because her friends in Israel felt "let down by Netanyahu." Advertisement "I feel like giving him this platform right now is the absolute wrong thing," Balint said. "He should be spending every waking moment trying to secure the release of the hostages and bringing an end to this war. This feels like just a way for him to further his own political future." Though much of the Prime Minister's speech was about topics that garner bipartisan sympathy — particularly the threat posed by Iran and the ongoing efforts to rescue Israeli hostages in Gaza — there were also aspects of the speech that were clearly aimed at ginning up the majority-Republican audience that showed up for him. "Some of these protestors hold up signs proclaiming 'Gays for Gaza,'" Netanyahu said. "They might as well hold up signs saying 'Chickens for KFC.'" Overall, the speech proceeded without any vocal disturbances. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian American member of Congress, held up a sign that blared "War Criminal." Afterward, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the speech was "by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary" invited to Congress. Advertisement Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan holds up a "War Criminal" sign during Netanyahu's address. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images As of now, it remains unclear whether Harris's approach to the conflict would differ from Biden's. After all, she's his vice president and thus shares some degree of responsibility for the actions that progressives and "uncommitted" voters have been protesting for nearly a year. Her meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday may provide some early indications of any potential policy differences. At the very least, her rhetoric on the issue appears to be tougher than Biden's. In March, she became the first member of the Biden administration to call for a cease-fire, though she was referring to a temporary one that was part of a broader framework proposed by the White House. She has generally been more willing to publicly criticize Israel. And she has expressed more sympathy for pro-Palestinian protesters than Biden often has, telling The Nation that those demonstrators are "showing exactly what the human emotion should be." "I think it's incredibly important right now that she distinguishes herself on this issue," Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania told me. "There are a lot of people who are experiencing an energy, a hopefulness that we haven't seen in a really long time in politics. And it's obviously also a very tenuous feeling."
Ford 2Q net income falls 4.7% as pretax profits drop at combustion engine unit due to warranty costs 2024-07-24 20:42:27+00:00 - DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co.'s second-quarter net income fell 4.7% from a year ago as the company’s combustion engine unit posted a pretax loss due to higher warranty costs. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker said Wednesday it made $1.83 billion from April through June, compared with $1.92 billion a year ago. Excluding one-time items, Ford made 47 cents per share, short of industry analysts’ estimates of 68 cents, according to FactSet. The automaker reported $47.8 billion in revenue for the quarter, a 6.3% increase over the $44.95 billion in the second quarter of 2023. That barely beat analyst estimates of $47.79 billion. Ford has been vexed by warranty and recall costs over the past few years, but Chief Financial Officer John Lawler told reporters that the company is making progress on quality. The second-quarter costs were attributed to older vehicles from the 2021 model year and earlier. The company said its second-quarter warranty costs were $2.3 billion, $800 million higher than the first quarter and $700 million more than a year ago. Ford Blue, the company’s internal combustion engine unit, made $1.17 billion before taxes during the quarter, down $1.1 billion from a year earlier. Ford Pro, the commercial vehicle unit, made $2.56 billion, $173 million above 2023. Model e, the electric vehicle unit, lost $1.14 billion, $63 million worse than a year ago. Despite the net profit drop, Ford held its full year guidance for pretax income at $10 billion to $12 billion. Ford’s second quarter sales in the U.S., its most lucrative market, rose just under 1% to more than 532,000 vehicles. Shares of Ford, which had been up about 12% year to date, fell about 10% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the results were announced. ___ This story has been updated to correct the headline to read that Ford’s combustion engine unit’s pretax profit dropped but it did not post a loss.
Google Play Unveils New Features: Enhanced Gaming, Curated Comics And More - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) 2024-07-24 20:42:00+00:00 - Alphabet Inc‘s GOOG GOOGL Google is enhancing its Google Play Store on Android with a suite of new features aimed at enriching the user experience. Collections: A New Way To Organize App Content One of the standout features is the new “Collections” section. Unlike previous app discovery methods, Collections focus on content within apps already installed on users’ devices. See Also: Google Analysts See Upside For Alphabet Stock Following Q2 Earnings As Generative AI Drives Accelerated Search Growth This feature organizes content into categories such as shop, watch, and listen. It includes a “continue watching” row for streaming services and highlights recent deals from various retailers. Google's blog notes: "With your app content in one place, it's easier to pick up right where you left off." Enhanced Gaming Features And Play Games for PC Gaming also receives notable attention with the introduction of versatile new functionalities. Users can now apply interest filters to refine game suggestions, enhancing personalized recommendations. Additionally, Play Games on PC, which entered beta in 2022, now supports multitasking across multiple game windows. This improvement allows users to play multiple games simultaneously, such as juggling between Clash of Clans and other titles. Expanded Rewards And Prizes Google is also revamping its Play Points reward program by introducing "super weekly prizes." These rewards, available to gold, platinum, and diamond members, now include high-end Pixel devices and Razer gaming products, with prizes rotating on a weekly basis. Curated Comics Section In Japan In Japan, Google is launching a dedicated comics section within the Play store. This new space will offer a range of comics-related content, including free first chapter previews, live events, trailers, editor picks, and fan reviews. Greater Personalization Control The update also introduces enhanced personalization controls. Users can now exclude certain apps from influencing Google Play's recommendation algorithms by navigating to the "Personalization in Play" section. Read Next: Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
Venezuelans turn to odd jobs to stretch wages; hope for change after election 2024-07-24 20:40:00+00:00 - A municipal market in eastern Venezuela is teeming with weekend customers hoping to score a deal among the stalls of produce, meat, cheese and shelf-stable products. Some carry plantains, cassava crackers, corn flour or half a carton of eggs as they walk home. Middle school teacher Cruz Brito is standing across the street amid the smell of fish that clings to the hot humid air of Maturin. She has about $27 in her bank account and a single can of sardines at home. She is five days away from her next paycheck and her oldest daughter needs college supplies for the following day. So, she walks away empty handed. Maybe her neighborhood convenience store will sell her a couple of things on credit. Eleven years into her country’s complex crisis, the days of food shortages are virtually gone, but with many earning under $200 a month, getting the essentials is a constant struggle for families in rural and urban areas alike. People work second and third jobs, start little businesses, exchange services and gamble to scrape together the money, but still every decision seems to involve a calculator and a calendar. That angst-provoking math is among the reasons why the ruling party’s hold on power looks vulnerable in Sunday’s presidential election. Brito is praying for a new president — and, by extension, an end to the distress that has at times left her feeling hopeless. “I have cried because I have not had to eat,” Brito said Sunday outside the market, one week before the election. “We haven’t migrated — first, because I have my mom and dad here, and second, because I believe in God and I believe that we are going to get through this. But if not, I do have to leave unfortunately with a broken heart, like all those who have emigrated.” Venezuela’s prolonged crisis has evolved over the years. The government of President Nicolás Maduro can even point to economic growth in post-pandemic years. But wages and worker benefits have not recovered. A street seller arranges her merchandise in Caracas, Venezuela, on Tuesday. Yuri Cortez / AFP - Getty Images Each month, public employees receive the country’s minimum wage: 130 Venezuelan bolivares, or a little more based on experience, contracts and skills. That amount has not changed since March 2022, when it was equivalent to about $30. Variations in currency exchange rates have now reduced it to $3.50. Workers also earn a monthly food assistance bonus of about $40, and those who have signed up for a system of government benefits known as the Fatherland Card get an additional $90. That’s how, with 20 years of experience as an English teacher, Brito earns $143 every month. She gets $6.50 on the 10th of the month and again on the 25th, when she also receives $40 in food assistance. On the 15th of the month, she receives the Fatherland Card’s $90, a stipend the government has dubbed Economic War Bonus, in reference to what Maduro and allies consider attacks on Venezuela’s economy by the United States. Families across the South American country need at least $385 a month just to buy a basic basket of goods, which among several things includes 1 liter (quart) of vegetable oil; 1 kilogram (2 pounds) each of rice, sugar, potatoes, bananas and ground beef; half a kilo (1 pound) of beans; and at least 12 eggs. So, Brito tries to earn extra money by playing casino games on a smartphone app in the evenings, doing translations, holding raffles, and selling freezies on the streets of Maturin. She gained 1,000 bolivares — the $27 on her bank account — playing roulette. Her bets range from 33 cents to 66 cents. Brito teaches Monday through Friday, but nationwide, educators often only show up to classrooms two or three days a week because they have to scrounge for money elsewhere. “Getting to the supermarket, grabbing a cart and shopping around, I don’t know what that is anymore,” Brito, 47, said. “I used to buy a whole chicken, now I don’t even buy half a chicken. I have had to buy three eggs because I can no longer buy a carton of eggs.” Private sector workers fair better but not by much, earning an average of $231 a month. Today, 80% of the population lives in poverty. In Maturin, an oil industry hub, the signs of a once-thriving middle class are everywhere: Two-story homes sit on corner lots in disrepair with “for sale” signs; strip malls are boarded up and auto dealerships shuttered; and a mall with ample parking has marks on the walls from where store marquees once hung. The city’s long, wide roads were created for a time when virtually anyone could afford a car, and gas was effectively free. A car, however old, is a luxury these days. Israel Gimon had to sell one of his two vehicles due to the country’s crisis. He receives about $28.50 a month between his pension — which by law is set to be equal to the monthly minimum wage — and a Fatherland Card bonus. Retirees like him do not get food assistance. Gimon, 66, worked for more than four decades as a construction manager and expected to live comfortably off his pension. Instead, he sells ice from his garage and repairs home appliances. He also occasionally gets $30 from his daughter, who lives in the U.S. In a good month, he earns $50 from his repair business after deducting supplies and transportation. He said he sets his prices low because he otherwise would not be hired by his neighbors and acquaintances, all of whom are in similar economic conditions. He also often makes repairs for which he accepts in-kind payments. His earnings must cover the needs of his wife, his other daughter, and Princess of Carmen, his beloved poodle. “There are days we don’t have food,” he said flatly. “Sometimes we buy beef organ meats because they are more economical. We may buy half a kilo of ground beef or I buy chicken trimmings that include the neck, legs, wings. I was upper middle class!” Through his Fatherland Card, he gets access to a package of subsidized food that includes arepa flour, beans, pasta, coffee and other shelf-stable foods. The government has long been criticized for the quality of the food it distributes across the country, but Gimon said he eats it even when it is unappetizing. The cards give people access to a variety of social programs, including subsidized gasoline, medicines and food packages. Opposition leaders and international observers have accused the government of using the cards as both carrot and stick during elections. Before the crisis, government social benefits were wide-ranging, including scholarships for colleges in Europe and the U.S., free housing, and all-expenses-paid trips to Cuba for cataract surgeries. Gimon desperately needed $700 in mid-July for cataract surgery in his right eye, even though public hospitals are not supposed to charge for services. He reduced the cost by $200 when his surgeon agreed to have him repair a stand-alone freezer instead of paying his fee. The rest, including $300 for the artificial lens and $200 for the surgery equipment, was covered with help from his daughter. On Saturday, he allowed a few people to park their motorcycles while attending a nearby rally of Maduro opponents, led by opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado. He could not attend the demonstration because of his recent surgery, but he was handing out business card-size copies of the July 28 ballot, highlighting the candidate representing the main opposition coalition, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. Sweating like practically everyone else at the rally, Nilda Contreras waited patiently for Machado to arrive. She sought shade from the scorching sun under an umbrella and stood on her tiptoes to try to catch a glimpse of the opposition leader’s caravan. Contreras plans to vote for Machado-endorsed González, with the main hope of seeing an increase in wages and pensions. At 65, she thought she’d be enjoying retirement, but she has to sell cakes, ice cream and other desserts to complement the roughly $103 she receives every month. She must reach at least $200 combining all income streams to be able to afford her husband’s eye drops and the heart medication they both take. “I used to have quality of life, but the government has trampled us,” Contreras said. “My idea was to travel, visit my family. Now that is no longer possible.” For more from NBC Latino, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
CrowdStrike losses may be biggest test yet of cybersecurity insurance risk warning from Warren Buffett 2024-07-24 20:38:00+00:00 - At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual investor meeting earlier this year, Warren Buffett and his top insurance executive Ajit Jain issued a headline-grabbing warning that Berkshire would exercise caution regarding cyber insurance — in fact, it advised insurance agents to only sell cyber policies if they absolutely had to do so to satisfy a client, and to expect losses. A primary reason cited is the difficulty in assessing the scale of losses possible from a single occurrence that spreads across technology systems, with Jain giving the hypothetical example of when a primary cloud provider’s platform “comes to a standstill.” “That aggregation potential can be huge, and not being able to have a worst-case gap on it is what scares us,” he said. Jain’s hypothetical seemed prescient when a quality control issue from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused a worldwide IT outage that halted flights and freight, shuttered retail outlets, and caused hospitals to resort to charting on paper. “Insurers have been worried about something like what happened with CrowdStrike since cloud adoption happened,” said Dale Gonzales, chief innovation officer at Axio, a cyber security risk analysis company. But Gerald Glombicki, a senior director in Fitch Rating’s U.S. insurance group, believes the cyber insurance industry largely priced in the CrowdStrike meltdown correctly, and he expects it to be manageable rather than catastrophic for the cybersecurity insurance firms.. “It will have an impact because there will be losses,” said Glombicki, “but the modeling largely got it right. Mostly, we think the industry will handle it OK. There might be some issuers that mispriced policies,” he added. Fitch estimates that the number of insured losses will not exceed $10 billion, ending somewhere in the mid- to high-single billions and that the industry largely priced those in. The cybersecurity insurance market did get lucky, in some respects, with the CrowdStrike meltdown. For one, there were no significant physical damages, such as explosions at power plants, dams bursting, or fires caused by overheating equipment, which are becoming a bigger cyberterrorism risk. “Cyber events that have more of a physical consequence would be much bigger in size or scope in terms of losses,” Glombicki said. Additionally, even though CrowdStrike is widely deployed, its market share, estimated at 17% by Fitch, is large but limited in total impact. Among the companies that did use CrowdStrike, the worst impacted seemed to be on businesses that need 24/7 availability, like hospitals and airlines, Glombicki said. Another factor in holding down losses and distributing them unevenly across the globe is that the CrowdStrike failure impacted places like Australia and Pacific Asia in the middle of the business day, but other markets, including the U.S., were hit during the night or early morning and many businesses were able to get systems back up within hours. 'A bad situation' for some insurers may still be ahead Not all cyber experts are expressing as much confidence at this point. Josephine Wolff, an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at Tuft University’s Fletcher School who has been studying the evolving market for the past several years, suspects the CrowdStrike meltdown will send shock waves through the nascent cyber insurance market. “It’s still pretty early to assess the volume of claims that insurers are going to see due to CrowdStrike, but I sense that there will be a lot of business interruption claims across all industry sectors, just based on the impacts we’ve seen covered in the news, and that it will be a very bad situation for insurers,” Wolff said. Wolff says the duration of the outages will influence the claims. Some businesses were out for hours; others were still struggling days later. She compared it to the NotPetya cyberattacks launched by Russia in 2022, which halted much of the world’s freight. “It’s possible that since some of these outages were shorter than what we saw after NotPetya, the claims may be smaller, at least in some cases,” Wolff said. However, she points out that the CrowdStrike glitch significantly impacted businesses, which was not the case with NotPetya. “The U.S. is far and away the region with the highest rates of cyber insurance adoption, so I am guessing that this will be a bigger event for the cyber insurance industry both in terms of how many claims are filed and how big they are,” Wolff said. In addition to unequal impact, cyber insurance policies themselves vary widely. “Cyber insurance policies can be dramatically different. There is no standardization; terms and conditions can differ within a company depending on who wrote the policy,” Glombicki said. Expect business interruption claims, litigation Insurers are already cognizant of the unique challenges that cybersecurity poses for them, Gonzales said. As a result, the companies try to spread losses smartly by diversifying what is covered. However, the problem with cyberspace and ensuring its security is that it is still relatively unknown. But he doesn’t think it will drag down the whole insurance market. “The losses won’t be as bad as hurricanes last year,” Gonzales said, adding that the comparison isn’t quite apples to apples since far more entities are insured in hurricane zones than there are cyber insurance policies. Gonzales says the primary claims will be for business interruption, which some policies specifically exclude anyway. But he does predict the CrowdStrike incident will cause litigation. “CrowdStrike will be sued. There will be litigation,” he said. “Everyone exceedingly well understands fire insurance because it has been litigated to death,” Gonzales said. Cyber insurance, on the other hand, hasn’t yet been litigated enough to establish protocols and precedents. “The litigation will help define business interruption and define third-party culpability. The industry could use some defining, and hopefully, litigation fixes it,” Gonzales said. “Cyber events are evolving in ways that are slightly unpredictable. It creates a very dynamic environment,” he said, but he added, “I don’t think the CrowdStrike event will drastically change how people think about insurance.” Ironically, the Crowdstrike event could create more interest in cybersecurity and draw more customers into the market, Glombicki said. “Boards will be asking about it,” he said.
NBA says it has signed new 11-year media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon 2024-07-24 20:36:18+00:00 - The NBA signed its 11-year media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday after saying it was not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer to continue its longtime relationship with the league. The media rights deals were approved by the league’s Board of Governors last week and will bring the league about $76 billion over those 11 years. WBD had five days to match a part of those deals and said it was exercising its right to do so, but its offer was not considered a true match by the NBA. That means the 2024-25 season will be the last for TNT after a nearly four-decade run — though not long after the NBA signing was announced, WBD said it would take “appropriate action” and said it believes the NBA has to accept its offer. “The digital opportunities with Amazon align perfectly with the global interest in the NBA,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “And Prime Video’s massive subscriber base will dramatically expand our ability to reach our fans in new and innovative ways.” Turner Sports strongly disagreed with the NBA’s move, saying it believes the league “grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights.” “We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” TNT Sports said in a statement. “In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, delivered through the full combined reach of WBD’s video-first distribution platforms. ... We will take appropriate action.” TNT said it continues looking forward to the coming season, “including our iconic ‘Inside the NBA.’” Under the provisions of the new deal, Amazon Prime Video will carry games on Friday nights, select Saturday afternoons and Thursday night doubleheaders which will begin after the conclusion of Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” schedule. Prime Video will also take over the NBA League Pass package from WBD. “Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” the league said Wednesday. “Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans. Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.” The new package on Amazon also includes at least one game on Black Friday and the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game of the NBA Cup. “Over the past few years, we have worked hard to bring the very best of sports to Prime Video and to continue to innovate on the viewing experience,” said Jay Marine, global head of sports for Prime Video. “We’re thrilled to now add the NBA to our growing sports lineup, including the NFL, UEFA Champions League, NASCAR, NHL, WNBA, NWSL, Wimbledon, and more. We are grateful to partner with the NBA, and can’t wait to tip-off in 2025.” ESPN and ABC will keep the league’s top package, which includes the NBA Finals. ABC has carried the finals since 2003. ESPN/ABC will combine for nearly 100 games during the regular season. More than 20 games will air on ABC, mainly on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, while ESPN will have up to 60 games, mostly on Wednesday nights with some Friday games. ABC and ESPN will also combine for five games on Christmas Day and have exclusive national coverage of the final day of the regular season. During the playoffs, ESPN and ABC will have approximately 18 games in the first two rounds each year and one of the two conference finals series in all but one year of the agreement. The return of NBC, which carried NBA games from 1990 through 2002, gives the NBA two broadcast network partners for the first time. NBC will have up to 100 regular-season games, including on Sunday night once the NFL season has ended. It will air games on Tuesdays throughout the regular season, while a Monday night doubleheader would be exclusively streamed on Peacock. NBC will also have the All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday Night. During the playoffs, NBC and/or Peacock will have up to 28 games the first two rounds, with at least half on NBC. NBC and Amazon will also carry one of the two conference finals series in six of the 11 years on a rotating basis. NBC will have a conference final in 2026-27 followed by Amazon the next season. “The return of NBA basketball to the NBC Sports family comes with enormous benefits and excitement for our fans,” Silver said. “And through its multiple platforms — especially NBC and Peacock — and its expansive resources, NBCUniversal promises to build on the deep tradition and history of the NBA on NBC.” ___ AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Chipotle earnings and revenue top estimates, restaurant traffic rises again 2024-07-24 20:36:00+00:00 - Chipotle Mexican Grill on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts' expectations as it saw higher traffic at its restaurants, bucking an industry slowdown. Shares of the company rose about 13% in extended trading before losing most of those gains and settling around 3% higher. As of Wednesday's close, Chipotle's stock had slid 17% this month, hurt by investor concerns about the health of the restaurant industry. In late June, the company executed a 50-for-1 stock split. Here is what the company reported for the quarter that ended in June 30 compared to what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: Earnings per share: 34 cents adjusted vs. 32 cents expected Revenue: $2.97 billion vs. $2.94 billion expected The burrito chain reported second-quarter net income of $455.7 million, or 33 cents per share, up from $341.8 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier. Chipotle's profits rose from the year-ago period due to price hikes that helped offset higher avocado prices and greater usage of oil to fry tortilla chips this quarter. Excluding items, Chipotle earned 34 cents per share. Net sales climbed 18.2% to $2.97 billion. The company's same-store sales rose 11.1% in the quarter, topping StreetAccount estimates of 9.2%. Demand for its food peaked in April, CEO Brian Niccol said on CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime" on Wednesday. Same-store sales settled around 6% higher in June. Executives said that July has been more difficult to understand, given the Fourth of July holiday, weather disruptions in Texas and a recent tech outage. Traffic to its restaurants increased 8.7% despite backlash on social media fueled by customers who said their burrito bowls are smaller. The company has denied reducing its portions but is now training its employees to ensure that customers will be happy with the size of their burrito bowls, which will put some pressure on profit margins. "We have focused in on those with outlier portion scores based on consumer surveys, and we are re-emphasizing training and coaching around ensuring we are consistently making bowls and burritos correctly," Niccol told analysts on the company's conference call. "We have also leaned in and re-emphasized generous portions across all of our restaurants, as it is a core brand equity of Chipotle." The company is also gaining market share, and restaurant transactions grew across every income level, Niccol said. Other consumer companies, from PepsiCo to McDonald's , have said in recent months that low-income customers are pulling back more, pressuring their sales. Chipotle, similar to many fast-casual chains, benefits from a customer base that tends to make higher incomes. The chain brought back its chicken al pastor in March as a limited-time menu item. More customers have also been ordering its barbacoa, which underwent a name change earlier this year that added "braised beef" to improve customer awareness of the option. Chipotle opened 52 new company-owned locations and one new international licensed restaurant during the quarter. The company reiterated its full-year outlook that same-store sales will grow by a mid- to high-single-digit percentage. Chipotle also anticipates that it will open between 285 and 315 new restaurants this year.
Tenet Q2 Earnings Beat on Patient Volumes, '24 EPS View Up - HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA), Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) 2024-07-24 20:33:00+00:00 - Tenet Healthcare Corporation THC reported second-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings per share of $2.31, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 22.2% and management's expected range of $1.58-$1.98. The bottom line soared 60.4% year over year. Net operating revenues of $5.103 billion inched up 0.4% year over year and exceeded management's guided range of $4.9-$5.1 billion. The top line beat the consensus mark by 2.5%. The quarterly results witnessed robust growth in same-hospital admissions and net revenue per case, coupled with a favorable payer mix and reduced contract labor costs. Efficient divestitures also lowered operating expenses, bolstering overall profitability. An increased 2024 adjusted EPS outlook also seems noteworthy. Tenet Healthcare Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Tenet Healthcare Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Tenet Healthcare Corporation Quote Q2 Performance Adjusted net income of $226 million climbed 46.8% year over year and comfortably exceeded management's expected range of $160-$200 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $945 million, which advanced 12.1% year over year on the back of higher same-hospital admission growth, solid ambulatory net revenue per case growth, favorable payer mix and improved contract labor costs. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.5% improved 190 basis points (bps) year over year. Total operating costs fell 2.9% year over year to $4.4 billion, attributable to an increase in net gains on sale and consolidation and deconsolidation of facilities from the prior-year quarter. However, costs related to supplies and other operating expenses, net, escalated 1.9% and 2%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis. Segmental Details Hospital Operations and Services: The segment's net operating revenues tumbled 4.3% year over year to $3.96 billion in the second quarter due to the impact of the divestiture of hospitals in the previous quarter. However, the metric outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.91 billion and our estimate of $3.9 billion. On a same-hospital basis, net patient service revenues advanced 8.2% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA of $498 million improved 5.3% year over year on the back of solid growth in same-hospital admissions and revenue per adjusted admissions. The metric was higher than the consensus mark of $466.6 million and our estimate of $472.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 120 bps year over year to 12.6%. Ambulatory Care: The segment recorded net operating revenues of $1.14 billion, which rose 21.1% year over year on the back of improved net revenue per case growth, facility buyouts and expansion of service lines. The metric beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.05 billion and our estimate of $1.04 billion. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 20.8% year over year to $447 million, which outpaced the consensus mark of $383.6 million and our estimate of $365.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 39.2% deteriorated 10 bps year over year. Financial Position (as of Jun 30, 2024) Tenet Healthcare exited the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $2.9 billion, which more than doubled from the figure in 2023 end. Total assets of $29.3 billion increased 3.4% from the 2023-end level. Long-term debt, net of the current portion, amounted to $12.8 billion, down 14.2% from the figure as of Dec 31, 2023. The current portion of long-term debt totaled $102 million. Total shareholders' equity of $3.5 billion more than doubled from the figure at 2023 end. THC generated net cash from operating activities of $747 million in the quarter under review, which advanced 24.9% year over year. Free cash flows were recorded at $602 million, up 29.2% year over year. Share Repurchase Update THC bought back common shares worth $270 million in the quarter. Management approved a new share buyback program of $1.5 billion. Outlook 3Q24 Net operating revenues are anticipated to be within $5-$5.1 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is forecasted to be between $900 million and $950 million while adjusted EBITDA margin is estimated to lie in the 18-18.6% band. Adjusted net income is expected to be between $210 million and $250 million. Adjusted EPS is estimated to be between $2.16 and $2.58. 2024 Net operating revenues are currently forecasted to be between $20.6 billion and $21 billion for 2024, up from the prior guided range of $20-$20.4 billion. The midpoint of the revised guidance indicates 1.2% growth from the 2023 reported figure. Net operating revenues of the Hospital segment are presently anticipated between $16.3 billion and $16.5 billion, higher than the earlier view of $15.9-$16.1 billion. The same at the Ambulatory Care unit is likely to be between $4.325 billion and $4.475 billion, up from the previous outlook of $4.15-$4.3 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is estimated to be within the range of $3.825-$3.975 billion, up from the earlier view of $3.5-$3.7 billion. Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected in the 18.6-18.9% range. Adjusted net income is projected to lie between $1.02 billion and $1.09 billion. Adjusted EPS is anticipated to be within $10.41-$11.12, higher than the previous outlook of $8.37-$9.41. The mid-point of the revised outlook implies a 54.2% rise from the 2023 figure. Interest expense is estimated to be between $815 million and $825 million. Net cash provided by operating activities is currently forecasted between $1.9 billion and $2.25 billion. Free cash flow is estimated within $1.1-$1.35 billion. Capital expenditures are projected to be in the range of $800-$900 million. Zacks Rank Tenet Healthcare currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other Medical Sector Releases Of the Medical sector players that have reported second-quarter 2024 results so far, the bottom-line results of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated UNH, Elevance Health, Inc. ELV and HCA Healthcare, Inc. HCA beat the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. UnitedHealth Group reported second-quarter adjusted EPS of $6.80, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.3%. The bottom line rose 10.7% year over year. Revenues amounted to $98.9 billion, which improved 6.4% year over year. The top line outpaced the consensus mark of $98.7 billion The medical care ratio of UnitedHealth Group deteriorated 190 bps year over year to 85.1% . UNH's operating earnings deteriorated 2.3% year over year to $7.9 billion. The net margin deteriorated to 4.3% compared with 5.9% in the year-ago period. The health benefits business of UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare, generated revenues of $73.9 billion. The figure rose 5.3% year over year. The UnitedHealthcare business served 50.4 million people as of Jun 30, 2024, which decreased 4.6% year over year. Revenues in the Optum business line were $62.9 billion, which climbed 11.7% year over year. Elevance Health reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $10.12 per share, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.3%. The bottom line improved 12% year over year. Operating revenues of $43.2 billion dipped 0.4% year over year. However, the top line beat the consensus mark by 0.5%. Medical membership of Elevance Health was around 45.8 million as of Jun 30, 2024, which slipped 5% year over year. Premiums decreased 3.2% year over year to $35.4 billion. Product revenues of $5.5 billion advanced 13.8% year over year. The Health Benefits segment's operating revenues totaled $37.2 billion, which decreased 2.2% year over year. Operating gain remained almost flat year over year at $2.1 billion. The operating margin of 5.8% improved 20 bps year over year. The Carelon unit's operating revenues amounted to $13.3 billion, which rose 10% year over year. HCA Healthcare reported second-quarter adjusted EPS of $5.50, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 10.7%. The bottom line improved 28.2% year over year. Revenues amounted to $17.5 billion, which improved 10.3% year over year. The top line outpaced the consensus mark by 2.2%. Same-facility equivalent admissions increased 5.2% year over year while same-facility admissions grew 5.8% year over year. Same-facility revenue per equivalent admission rose 4.4% year over year. Same-facility inpatient surgeries grew 2.6% year over year while same-facility outpatient surgeries declined 2.1% year over year. Additionally, same-facility emergency room visits rose 5.5% year over year and beat our growth estimate of 4.3%. Adjusted EBITDA improved 16.2% year over year to $3.6 billion. To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
N.B.A. Announces Lucrative Rights Deals With Disney, Comcast and Amazon 2024-07-24 20:32:38.987000+00:00 - The National Basketball Association announced new rights agreements with Disney, Comcast and Amazon on Wednesday in which the companies will collectively pay $77 billion over 11 years, substantially increasing the league’s annual revenue and reflecting the continued importance of live sports programming even as streaming has reconfigured the entertainment industry. In making the announcement, the league said it had rejected Warner Bros. Discovery’s bid to match Amazon’s offer. “Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans,” the league said in a statement. “Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.” The new deals, which include both N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. games, will take effect with the 2025-26 season and are more than two and a half times the average annual value of the league’s current rights agreements.
Stock market has worst day since 2022 as Tesla, Google parent Alphabet sink 2024-07-24 20:32:00+00:00 - U.S. stocks had their worst day since 2022 on Wednesday amid a broad pullback in tech companies as Wall Street traders sought to reduce their exposure to firms that have made big bets on artificial intelligence. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed down 3.6%, while the broader S&P 500 index closed down 2.3% — both their worst performances in more than 18 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.25%. The rout was led by Tesla, whose shares fell 12.3% for its worst day since 2020, and Google parent Alphabet, which fell more than 5% for its worst day since January. Tesla reported Tuesday afternoon that its auto revenues fell 7% compared with the previous quarter, and CEO Elon Musk said in a follow-up earnings call that the company's planned robotaxi rollout would be pushed back. Although Alphabet reported earnings Tuesday that were in line with analysts' expectations, traders appeared to seize on remarks CEO Sundar Pichai made on the company's earnings call that signaled the tech world's booming investments in artificial intelligence were not going to pay off in a short time frame. "I think we are in this phase where we have to deeply work and make sure on these use cases [for AI products], on these workflows, we are driving deeper progress on unlocking value, which I’m very bullish will happen," Pichai said. "But these things take time." Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers financial group, said Wall Street took that as a signal to sell off shares that had enjoyed the frenzied growth that tech stocks have been experiencing in recent months. "We're seeing some nervous profit-taking in some of the stocks that have been leveraged to AI that a lot of investors have come to rely on as a consistent source of stock market gains," Sosnick told NBC News. Alphabet also reported weaker-than-expected ad revenue from YouTube, which Google has owned since 2006. Other major tech names having major losses Wednesday included Nvidia, the computer chip maker powering much of the AI revolution, whose shares fell more than 6% for their worst day since 2022; Facebook parent Meta was down 5%; Microsoft fell 3.5%; and Amazon lost 3%. The major indices have been on a relatively consistent and positive run. Even after Wednesday’s dip, the S&P 500 remains up 13.8% in 2024, with the Nasdaq up 15.5% and the Dow up 5.7% in that time. Wednesday's sell-off comes amid renewed expectations for an interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve in response to a slowing economy. While traders now say the Fed's first cut of the post-pandemic period is virtually guaranteed by September, former Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Bill Dudley wrote Wednesday that the Fed needs to strongly consider announcing a cut at its meeting next Wednesday. "Although it might already be too late to fend off a recession by cutting rates, dawdling now unnecessarily increases the risk," Dudley, now an executive at UBS financial group, wrote in a column for Bloomberg News. Sosnick said Wednesday's stock sell-off was not a total referendum on the broader state of the economy. Year to date, the S&P 500 has still had healthy gains of about 15%, while the Nasdaq is up about 18% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 6%. "This is much more about a little bit of vertigo in names that have climbed a lot this year," Sosnick said. But signs of a broader economic pullback continue to mount: The U.S. unemployment rate is rising, excess savings from the pandemic have been exhausted, and consumer borrowing stress is at fresh highs. "We expect relatively weak economic growth in the second half of 2024 and early 2025," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics research group, wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.
Renewable energy demand could triple as electricity consumption surges 2024-07-24 20:29:00+00:00 - Renewable energy demand will triple over the next seven years as data center growth accelerates to facilitate the proliferation of artificial intelligence, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum said Wednesday. NextEra added 3,000 megawatts of renewable and storage projects to its order backlog in the second quarter. Of those, 860 megawatts — or 28% — come from agreements with Google to power the tech company’s data centers. “This marks our second best origination quarter ever,” Ketchum told analysts on the company’s earnings call Wednesday. “These results support our belief that the bulk of the growth demand will be met by a combination of renewables and battery storage.” NextEra’s business with tech and data center customers currently stands at seven gigawatts of renewable assets in operation and in backlog, said Brian Bolster, NextEra’s chief financial officer. NextEra stock was up 3.5% in early afternoon trading. It is the largest power company in the S&P utilities sector by market capitalization and operates the largest renewable portfolio in the U.S. Shares have gained 24% year to date and 12% over the last three months, as investor enthusiasm over the company’s position to meet growing U.S. power demand. Surging power demand NextEra expects power demand to grow four times faster over the next decades compared to the prior 20 years on demand from data center, manufacturing and the electrification of the economy, Ketchum said. Consulting firm Rystad Energy recently forecast that data centers and the adoption of electric vehicles alone will result in additional 290 terawatt hours of electricity demand in the U.S. by 2030. That’s equivalent to the entire power demand of Turkey, according to Rystad. Executives at some of the biggest utilities in the U.S. have warned that failure to meet this demand will jeopardize the nation’s economic growth. Rebecca Kujawa, CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, a subsidiary NextEra Energy, said it will take time to nail down concrete numbers on exactly how much demand is coming from data centers in particular. “But there is no escaping the fact that these are very large numbers and numbers that I don’t think any utility across the industry has seen before,” Kujawa said Wednesday. “From a practical standpoint, it’s going to take a couple of years for this really to materialize and utilities to be able to absorb it and serve it.” Renewables cheaper, faster than gas Natural gas is also expected to play a key role in meeting power demand, though there is an ongoing debate about how the power mix will break down between gas and renewables. Producers and pipeline operators have argued that renewables, which are dependent on sun and wind conditions, will need gas as backup to ensure reliable power. Alan Armstrong, CEO of pipeline operator Williams Companies, told CNBC last week the U.S. risks falling behind in the AI race if it doesn’t embrace natural gas as a power source. Ketchum said natural gas has an important role to play as a bridge fuel during the energy transition. NextEra owns and operates a natural gas fleet in Florida. But the CEO said renewables come at a lower cost and are faster to deploy. Building new natural gas generation is “more expensive in most states, is subject to fuel price volatility, and takes considerable time to deploy given the need to get gas delivered to the generating unit and the three- to four-year waiting period for gas turbines,” Ketchum said. With power demand expected to surge, there is growing interest in nuclear energy as a source of reliable, carbon free energy. Ketchum indicated Wednesday that NextEra is considering restarting the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Palo, Iowa, though it would require a thorough assessment. The plant ceased operations in 2020. “We would only do it if we could do it in a way that is is essentially risk free with plenty of mitigants around the approach,” Ketchum said Wednesday. “There are a few things that we would have to work through but yes — we are we are looking at it.” NextEra is rated as a buy equivalent by 70% of Wall Street analysts, with an average price target of $79.12 per share, suggesting nearly 10% upside from Tuesday’s close of $72.11.
Kathy Willens, Photojournalist Seemingly Everywhere, Is Dead at 74 2024-07-24 20:21:51+00:00 - The best news photographers know it’s not enough to be in the right place at the right time. They also must know precisely how to frame a shot and when to click. Kathy Willens, who was a photographer for The Associated Press for nearly 45 years, covering politics, war, sports and many other subjects, understood both aspects of timing. She also understood one other: She began her career when there were very few women in photojournalism, in the 1970s, but exactly at the moment when the field was soon to crack open for them, bowing to changing times and pressure from pioneering figures like herself. Ms. Willens died at her home in Brooklyn on July 16. The cause was ovarian cancer, which was diagnosed just after her retirement in 2021, The A.P. reported. She was 74.
Newly-Listed Psoriasis-Focused Alumis Attracts Analysts' Attention With Promising Lead Program And Modest Valuation - Alumis (NASDAQ:ALMS) 2024-07-24 20:14:00+00:00 - Guggenheim Partners initiated coverage on Alumis Inc. ALMS, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing oral therapies for immune-mediated diseases. The investment thesis centers around a positive view of its lead asset ESK-001, a next-gen TYK2 inhibitor currently in development for plaque psoriasis and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The company’s management expects to initiate a Phase 3 trial for plaque psoriasis in the second half of 2024, and data from the SLE study are expected in 2026. The analyst writes that favorable safety (with no risk of JAK class black box warning) and potential BIC efficacy make ESK-001 a potentially competitive alternative to available oral therapies in moderate, severe plaque psoriasis, where according to Guggenheim’s KOLs, there is a large unmet need for more effective orals that require no lab monitoring. Among orals in development, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited’s TAK TAK-279, Bristol-Myers Squibb & Co’s BMY BMS-322, and Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ JNJ-2113 are ESK-001’s direct competitors in advanced clinical stage. The Guggenheim analyst initiates with a Buy rating, with a price target of $32. Cantor Fitzgerald also initiated coverage of Alumis with an Overweight rating. It writes that the company’s ESK-001 and brain-penetrant TYK2 inhibitor A-005 (in Phase 1) have over $1 billion in commercial potential in relation to Alumis’ modest valuation, with an enterprise value of around $200 million. Cantor expects shares to substantially outperform the market as these candidates advance. Just a month ago, Alumis priced its initial public offering at $16.00 per share and a concurrent private placement, raising $250 million in gross proceeds. The analyst notes that despite initial frustrations, Alumis’ market debut is now in the past. The company has the necessary resources to progress its pipeline and the chance to reshape its story moving forward. “Meanwhile, Alumis’ share price provides what we think is a very attractive entry point for investors willing to take a fresh look,” the Cantor analyst writes. Price Action: ALMS stock is up 0.48% at $12.66 at last check Wednesday. Photo via Shutterstock Read Next:
A US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber helped sink an old warship in the Pacific with new anti-ship QUICKSINK bombs 2024-07-24 20:02:18+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview A US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber used a new anti-ship munition to sink a decommissioned warship during a series of recent live-fire drills with partner forces in the Pacific Ocean, the US Navy said this week. The US military earlier this month held two sinking exercises, known as SINKEXs, off the coast of Hawaii to practice targeting vessels at sea and train on different weapons systems. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. The B-2 aircraft released an experimental weapon called QUICKSINK during the second of the two drills, which took place on Friday and involved the decommissioned amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa. The bomber "proved a low-cost, air-delivered method for defeating surface vessels through a QUICKSINK demonstration, as part of the second SINKEX," the Navy's Third Fleet said in a statement Monday. Advertisement The QUICKSINK experiment, which is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, "aims to provide options to neutralize surface maritime threats while demonstrating the inherent flexibility of the joint force," the fleet said. A US F-15E Strike Eagle with modified 2,000-pound munitions during a 2022 QUICKSINK test. US Air Force photo / 1st Lt Lindsey Heflin "This capability is an answer to an urgent need to quickly neutralize maritime threats over massive expanses of ocean around the world at minimal costs," it added. The QUICKSINK experimental weapon, which was first tested several years ago, essentially pairs existing Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits with new seeker technology that allows the munition to home in on a stationary or moving target at sea with precision. Such a weapon would give the US and partner forces more strike options in the maritime domain, especially in a fight in the Pacific where combat might take place across large stretches of open ocean. Over the years, the various elements of the US armed forces have been pursuing more and more anti-ship capabilities. Advertisement "Torpedoes, such as the heavyweight MK-48, are still the primary method used to sink enemy ships," the Air Force Research Laboratory has said of this type of combat, but "new methods explored through QUICKSINK may be able to achieve the same kind of anti-ship lethality with air-launched weapons, including modified 2,000-pound class precision-guided bombs." That opens the doors to bomber aircraft and other platforms that might prove less vulnerable than submarines and possibly more effective. "A Navy submarine has the ability to launch and destroy a ship with a single torpedo at any time, but by launching that weapon, it gives away its location and becomes a target," the Air Force said. The service added that QUICKSINK "aims to develop a low-cost method of achieving torpedo-like seaworthy kills from the air at a much higher pace and over a much larger area than covered by a lumbering submarine." Advertisement In addition to B-2s dropping QUICKSINK bombs, a US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet used a Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, to help sink the Tarawa. This relatively new weapon is a "precise, stealthy, and survivable cruise missile" that is capable of offensive anti-surface warfare, Third Fleet said. The first SINKEX event, which involved the sinking of the decommissioned amphibious transport dock USS Dubuque, took place on July 11. Both the Tarawa and the Dubuque were sunk in 15,000-foot-deep water dozens of miles off the coast of Hawaii. Related stories The SINKEXs included American, South Korean, Dutch, Australian, and Malaysian forces and were held during the Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2024, the world's largest international maritime exercise. Royal Netherlands Navy De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate HNLMS Tromp fires a Harpoon missile during a long-planned live-fire sinking exercise as part of Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024. Royal Netherlands Navy photo by Cristian Schrik "Sinking exercises give us a chance to sharpen our skills, learn from one another, and get real-world experience," said US Navy Vice Adm. John Wade, the RIMPAC 2024 Combined Task Force Commander. Advertisement "Using advanced weapons and seeing the professionalism of our teams during these drills shows our commitment to keeping the Indo-Pacific region safe and open," he added.
Cameo was once valued at $1 billion. Now it's so broke it can't pay a $600,000 fine. 2024-07-24 19:58:23+00:00 - Cameo was once a tech unicorn, valued at over $1 billion just three years ago. Now it can't pay a $600,000 fine, according to a recent settlement document. The company violated FTC rules for celebrity endorsement disclosures. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Advertisement Cameo was once a tech darling. In 2021, the company reached a $1 billion valuation following a $100 million investment after the app — which allows people to pay celebrities for short video messages — became a phenomenon during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, Cameo can't even pay a $600,000 fine. Cameo's dire cash straits were disclosed in a settlement agreement made public Wednesday by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .
Why an indicator that has foretold almost every recession doesn't seem to be working anymore 2024-07-24 19:56:00+00:00 - Wall Street’s favorite recession signal started flashing red in 2022 and hasn’t stopped — and thus far has been wrong every step of the way. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has been lower than most of its shorter-dated counterparts since that time — a phenomenon known as an inverted yield curve which has preceded nearly every recession going back to the 1950s. However, while conventional thinking holds that a downturn is supposed to occur within a year, or at most two years, of an inverted curve, not only did one not occur but there’s also nary a red number in sight for U.S. economic growth. The situation has many on Wall Street scratching their heads about why the inverted curve — both a signal and, in some respects, a cause of recessions — has been so wrong this time, and whether it’s a continuing sign of economic danger. “So far, yeah, it’s been a bald-faced liar,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said half-jokingly. “It’s the first time it’s inverted and a recession didn’t follow. But having said that, I don’t think we can feel very comfortable with the continued inversion. It’s been wrong so far, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be wrong forever.” Depending on which duration point you think is most relevant, the curve has been inverted either since July 2022, as gauged against the 2-year yield, or October of the same year, as measured against the 3-month note. Some even prefer to use the federal funds rate, which banks charge each other for overnight lending. That would take the inversion to November 2022. Whichever point you pick, a recession should have arrived by now. The inversion had been wrong only once, in the mid-1960s, and has foretold every retrenchment since. According to the New York Federal Reserve, which uses the 10-year/3-month curve, a recession should happen about 12 months later. In fact, the central bank still assigns about a 56% probability of a recession by June 2025 as indicated by the current gap. “It’s been such a long time, you have to start to wonder about its usefulness,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist SMBC Nikko Securities. “I just don’t see how a curve can be this wrong for this long. I’m leaning toward it being broken, but I haven’t fully capitulated yet.” The inversion is not alone Making the situation even more complicated is that the yield curve isn’t the only indicator showing reason for caution about how long the post-Covid recovery can last. Gross domestic product, a tally of all the goods and services produced across the sprawling U.S. economy, has averaged about 2.7% annualized real quarterly growth since the third quarter of 2022, a fairly robust pace well above what is considered trend gains of around 2%. Prior to that, GDP was negative for two straight quarters, meeting a technical definition though few expect the National Bureau of Economic Research to declare an official recession. The Commerce Department on Thursday is expected to report that GDP accelerated 2.1% in the second quarter of 2024. However, economists have been watching several negative trends. The so-called Sahm Rule, a fail-safe gauge that posits that recessions happen when the unemployment rate averaged across three months is half a percentage point higher than its 12-month low, is close to being triggered. On top of that, money supply has been on a steady downward trajectory since peaking in April 2022, and the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has long been negative, suggesting substantial headwinds to growth. “So many of these measures are being questioned,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial. “At some point, we’re going to be in recession.” Yet no recession has appeared on the horizon. What's different this time “We’ve got a number of different indicators that just haven’t panned out,” said Jim Paulsen, a veteran economist and strategist who has worked at Wells Fargo among other firms. “We’ve had a number of things that were recession-like.” Paulsen, who now writes a Substack blog called Paulsen Perspectives, points out some anomalous occurrences over the past few years that could account for the disparities. For one, he and others note that the economy actually experienced that technical recession prior to the inversion. For another, he cites the unusual behavior by the Federal Reserve during the current cycle. Faced with runaway inflation at its highest rate in more than 40 years, the Fed started raising rates gradually in March 2022, then much more aggressively by the middle part of that year — after the inflation peak of June 2022. That’s counter to the way central banks have operated in the past. Historically, the Fed has raised rates early in the inflation cycle then started cutting later. “They waited until inflation peaked, and then they tightened all the way down. So the Fed’s been completely out of synch,” Paulsen said. But the rate dynamics have helped companies escape what usually happens in an inverted curve. One reason why inverted curves can contribute to a recession as well as signal that one is occurring is that they make shorter-term money more expensive. That’s hard on banks, for instance, that borrow short and lend long. With an inverted curve hitting their net interest margins, banks may opt to lend less, causing a pullback in consumer spending that can lead to recession. But companies this time around were able to lock in at low long-term rates before the central bank starting hiking, providing a buffer against the higher short-term rates. However, the trend raises the stakes for the Fed, as much of that financing is about to come due. Companies needing to roll over their debt could face a much harder time if the prevailing high rates stay in effect. This could provide something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for the yield curve. The Fed has been on hold for a year, with its benchmark rate at a 23-year high. “So it could very well be the case that the curve’s been lying to us up until now. But it could decide to start telling the truth here pretty soon,” said Zandi, the Moody’s economist. “It makes me really uncomfortable that the curve is inverted. This is one more reason why the Fed should be lowering interest rates. They’re taking a chance here.”
Appeals judges rule against fund used to provide phone services for rural and low-income people 2024-07-24 19:48:48+00:00 - NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Calling it a “misbegotten tax,” a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled Wednesday that a method the Federal Communications Commission uses to fund telephone service for rural and low-income people and broadband services for schools and libraries is unconstitutional. The immediate implications of the 9-7 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were unclear. Dissenting judges said it conflicts with three other circuit courts around the nation. The ruling by the full 5th Circuit reverses an earlier ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court and sends the matter back to the FCC for further consideration. A Supreme Court appeal was likely by advocates for media access. “The majority’s hostility to the policies underlying the Universal Service Fund is palpable. That, plus the bipartisan group of seven dissenters, makes it almost certain that the Supreme Court will agree to hear the issue,” said Andrew Schwartzman, an attorney representing advocacy groups including the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. At issue in the case is the Universal Service Fund, which the FCC collects from telecommunications providers, who then pass the cost on to their customers. A conservative advocacy group, Consumer Research, challenged the practice. Programs funded through the USF provide phone service to low-income users and rural healthcare providers and broadband service to schools and libraries. “Each program has a laudable objective,” Judge Andrew Oldham, nominated to the 5th Circuit by former President Donald Trump, wrote for the majority. The 17-member court is dominated by members nominated by Republican presidents. Two Republican nominees joined five nominees of Democratic administrations in dissent. Oldham said the USF funding method unconstitutionally delegates congressional taxing authority to the FCC and a private entity tapped by the agency, the Universal Service Administrative Company, to determine how much to charge telecommunications companies. Oldham wrote that “the combination of Congress’s broad delegation to FCC and FCC’s subdelegation to private entities certainly amounts to a constitutional violation.” Judge Carl Stewart, nominated to the court by former President Bill Clinton, was among 5th Circuit judges writing strong dissents, saying the opinion conflicts with three other circuit courts, rejects precedents, “blurs the distinction between taxes and fees,” and creates new doctrine. The Universal Service Administrative Company referred a request for comment to the FCC, which did not immediately respond to phone and emailed queries.
Tech stocks tank as profit-taking persists. Here's why Abbott stands out among the wreckage 2024-07-24 19:41:00+00:00 - Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets slide: Wall Street is in sell-off mode Wednesday, with about three decliners for every advancer on the NYSE. The session mirrors what happened last week, with tech stocks and other year-to-date winners pulling back in favor of a broadening out to other areas of the market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down more than 3%, on track for its worst day since December 2022. The S & P 500 is sliding nearly 2%, while the Dow is down roughly 370 points, or 0.9%. Strong earnings in artificial intelligence-linked companies were mostly met with profit-taking, as the likes of Club name Alphabet and data center power firm Vertiv saw their stocks fall despite better-than-expected results. The prevailing theme we are hearing to explain the selling: Companies are shelling out billions of dollars on AI and not seeing much of a return, so it's time to lock in gains and look elsewhere in the market. We would never argue with someone who wants to take a profit, but we don't think these stocks should be abandoned because companies cannot afford to fall behind in this technological arms race. In recent days, we've mentioned our hesitancy to buy the dips anywhere until the S & P Short Range Oscillator exited overbought condition. Even though the S & P 500 fell Tuesday, the Oscillator moved in the wrong direction, ticking up to 6.36% from 5.86% a day earlier. Anything about 4% is considered overbought. We'll be monitoring our emails after the close to see if this stubborn overbought condition has finally worked its way off. 'Imagine that': Our colleagues at CNBC.com on Tuesday published an enlightening story on how Club holding Best Buy plans to capitalize on the recent AI innovations in consumer technology to drive sales. A big part of Best Buy's push is education, with staff helping customers understand new features and supporting them if they have questions. The tagline for its marketing campaign: "Imagine that." The story captured exactly what we want to see from Best Buy. Leaning into experiential shopping and personalization can help Best Buy fend off competition from retail heavyweights Amazon and Walmart . With a replacement cycle and new AI-enabled devices rolling out, we expect Best Buy to finally break its streak of declining quarterly comparable sales toward the end of this year. Greener pastures : Abbott Laboratories shares were on a four-session winning streak ahead of an important verdict in a lawsuit over its specialized formula for premature babies. On Tuesday night, The Wall Street Journal's editorial board called these lawsuits a "shakedown of Abbott Laboratories and Reckitt Benckiser for producing life-sustaining formula for pre-term infants, which could force the companies to pull their products from the market." The Journal op-ed also mentioned the outsized decline in Abbott's market cap since investor concerns about the legal risks surfaced in March. "Abbott's market valuation has fallen by some $30 billion since March," the Journal's editorial board wrote. "It makes only $9 million in revenue annually from the specialized formula, about 0.02% of its total sales last year." We'll have to just wait and see what happens next with the case in St. Louis and then after that. But we think it's a good sign that Abbott's rally the past four sessions — especially in an ugly tape across the market — has completely erased its post-earnings sell-off last week . It could be a sign that investors are warming up to the idea that this litigation risk is manageable. Or perhaps people are starting to focus again on Abbott's fundamentals, which have been strong after two straight beat and raise quarters. Either way, the move is encouraging. Up next: Ford reports after the close and what we'll be monitoring is Ford Pro's profitability, comments on improving quality and capital allocation decisions. A few other big earning releases later are Chipotle , IBM , Las Vegas Sands , WM , and Whirlpool . Some of the notable releases Thursday morning are Honeywell , Dover , AbbVie , RTX , Keurig Dr. Pepper and Carrier . Honeywell and Dover are Club holdings. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street.
Woman dies in West Virginia’s second reported coal mining fatality of 2024 2024-07-24 19:30:40+00:00 - CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia woman died Wednesday more than a week after an accident at a southern West Virginia coal mine, Gov. Jim Justice said. Ashley Cogar, 33, of Erbacon, was injured at the Wyco Surface Mine, near the border of Raleigh and Wyoming counties, Justice said in a news release. “Our miners are true heroes, providing the essential work needed to energize and power steel-making in our country and worldwide,” Justice said. “Without them, we wouldn’t be able to live as we do, and their efforts deserve our utmost respect. Unfortunately, this tragic loss highlights the daily risks our fearless miners face.” The July 12 accident involved power haulage, which is equipment such as shuttle cars, scoops, locomotives and front end loaders, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Further details of the accident, which is under investigation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the state Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training, were unavailable, said Andy Malinoski, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security. According to MSHA, the mine is operated by Pocahontas Coal Co. LLC and controlled by Metinvest, a worldwide supplier of raw materials and steel products based in The Netherlands. It was the second reported coal fatality of the year in West Virginia and the fourth nationally, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. There were nine such U.S. deaths last year. The employment of women in the mining industry in general is rare. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an estimated 15% of the industry’s workers were women in 2021, the latest year available. It didn’t provide a breakdown of employment by gender in coal mining.