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TikTok Lays Out Past Efforts to Address U.S. Concerns 2024-06-20 18:46:26+00:00 - TikTok detailed on Thursday why it thinks the new federal law that could lead to a ban of the popular video app in January is unconstitutional, calling the legislation an “extraordinary restriction on speech.” The company said that Congress did not consider the law — which would force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the popular social media app or face a ban in the United States — with nearly enough scrutiny and care. TikTok made the arguments in a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where the company sued to block the law in May. “This law is a radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open Internet, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to target a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down,” the company said Thursday’s filing.
A record-breaking number of mosquitoes are carrying West Nile virus around Las Vegas 2024-06-20 18:32:00+00:00 - The summary A record number of mosquitoes are testing positive for West Nile virus in and around Las Vegas amid a surge in the area's overall mosquito population. Local health officials are urging the public to take precautions to avoid getting bit. As climate change expands the reach of insect-borne diseases, Las Vegas' situation is offering a case study. A record-breaking number of mosquitoes in and around Las Vegas are carrying West Nile virus, sparking warnings from local health officials who say the public should take precautions to avoid getting bit. West Nile virus can cause fever, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea and is fatal in about 1 of 150 cases. There are no vaccines or medications to treat or prevent the mosquito-borne illness. In recent weeks, 169 of over 24,000 pools of mosquitoes tested for West Nile virus returned positive — meaning at least one insect in the pool carried the disease — across 25 southern Nevada ZIP codes. The number of mosquitoes recorded and the tally of positive pools this early in the season break the area’s records for both metrics, set in 2019. “These are huge numbers of mosquitoes, and we’ve already identified a concerning number of them carrying the West Nile virus,” said Vivek Raman, an environmental health supervisor for the Southern Nevada Health District. Health officials have also identified six pools in the Las Vegas area that tested positive for St. Louis encephalitis virus, a mosquito-borne disease that can cause fatal inflammation of the brain. For decades, climate scientists and public health officials have warned that climate change could expand the reach of various infectious diseases, especially those spread by mosquitoes. Las Vegas’ exploding mosquito population and the local uptick in West Nile prevalence offers an important case study on how climate could affect human health. Climate change increases average global temperatures and precipitation levels, fostering conditions that are ideal for mosquitoes, which breed in still, warm water. It also extends the length of warm periods, prolonging the active season for mosquitoes. These changes increase the risk of human exposure to diseases like West Nile virus, even in places that have never recorded cases before. The first case of West Nile virus in Las Vegas was recorded in 2004 — five years after the United States’ first case was documented in 1999 in New York City. Las Vegas’ most recent West Nile outbreak occurred five years ago, resulting in 43 human cases. District health officials are concerned that this summer could be far worse. In Nevada and much of the Southwest, springtime weather has become warmer and summertime heat waves have grown increasingly extreme over the last few decades. Las Vegas has seen average springtime temperatures rise by 6.2 F since 1970; this month, the city has already experienced a weeklong, record-breaking heat wave. Southern Nevada’s rising temperatures are creating favorable conditions for mosquitoes, said Nischay Mishra, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. What’s more, ongoing drought conditions in the state, which have led to low water table levels throughout the Colorado River Basin, including in Lake Mead, may also be counterintuitively beneficial for the insects. “Mosquitoes typically thrive in wet and hot places,” Mishra said. “But in Nevada, as smaller bodies of water dry up, they create shallow waters that are ideal for mosquito breeding.” Las Vegas’ mosquito surge has been giant: Last year, district health officials measured 6,000 mosquitos in traps across Clark County from April to June. This year, counts have already exceeded 24,000. The vast majority have been Culex mosquitoes, a primary vector for West Nile virus. But another mosquito species that does not carry the virus, Aedes aegypti, has also become more common in Las Vegas. Aedes was first spotted in the area in 2017, and Raman attributes its spread there to the impacts of climate change, as well. Along with climate, human behavior plays an important role in the spread of vector-borne diseases. Aedes and Culex mosquitoes both thrive in the backyards of many Las Vegas homes — the former breed in small pools of water such as those left from sprinklers, while the latter often breed along the surface of unmaintained swimming pools. Raman said the best way to avoid infection is to empty any open containers filled with water outside, maintain swimming pools, wear protective clothing and use bug spray to avoid getting bit. Louise Ivers, a professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of its Global Health Institute, said situations like the one in Las Vegas will become more common as climate change continues to boost infectious disease globally. “We should expect to see new infectious diseases, old infectious diseases back again and a change in the patterns of exposure of existing infectious diseases like West Nile virus,” Ivers said. “Things that we used to do freely without worrying as much about protection from vectors like mosquitoes or ticks, we might not be able to do anymore.”
Post Office investigator deleted mention of Horizon failure, inquiry hears 2024-06-20 18:29:00+00:00 - A former Post Office investigator deleted part of a draft witness statement that referred to the Horizon IT system’s failures, before the criminal prosecution of a post office operative, a public inquiry has heard. Graham Ward, a former Post Office financial investigator, was questioned before a public inquiry examining what MPs have described as one of the biggest ever miscarriages of justice. The state-owned body wrongly prosecuted hundreds of post office operatives, alleging financial shortfalls at their branches. It has since emerged that the Post Office’s Horizon IT system was not reliable as it suffered from bugs, errors and defects. Ward was asked about changes he made in 2006 to a draft witness statement from Gareth Jenkins, an IT engineer at Fujitsu, the company that developed the Horizon IT system. The Post Office had wanted to use Jenkins’ statement in the criminal prosecution of Noel Thomas, a post office operative from Anglesey, north Wales, who is one of the highest-profile victims of the scandal. Thomas was prosecuted and jailed for nine months for false accounting in 2006 but had his conviction quashed in 2021. The inquiry was shown a copy of the draft witness statement made by Jenkins to which Ward made changes highlighted in red. Ward sent an email to colleagues in March 2006 in which he said the statement needed “more work” and he attached a revised draft in which he had made changes and taken out some “potentially very damaging” words. The inquiry was told that, in the revised draft, Ward had deleted Jenkins’ assessment: “There has been some sort of system failure. Such failures are normal occurrences.” Ward had also added a note to the document that said “this is a really poor choice of words [which seems to accept that] failures in the system are normal and therefore may well support the postmasters’ claim that the system is to blame for the losses!!!!” Jason Beer, the counsel to the inquiry, put to him that he had deliberately made the changes as he knew it was evidence that could support Thomas’s defence that the Horizon IT system was to blame for the losses. “Do you accept by your conduct you removed material information from Mr Jenkins’ witness statement at a time a prosecution was afoot against Mr Thomas?” Beer asked him. Ward replied: “No I don’t. I think the decision to remove that had to have been Mr Jenkins’ decision. I made a comment and I made a review and I accept that I shouldn’t have been doing that but the final decision to make that statement – what went in there – that was for Mr Jenkins to decide.” Beer continued: “Can I suggest this was a rather sloppy attempt at covering up in criminal proceedings evidence of system faults in Horizon?” Ward replied: “No absolutely not. I’m not trying to cover up anything at all. I am just trying to get a statement correct,” he replied. 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 Ward added: “Back in 2006 Horizon [IT system] integrity wasn’t an issue for us at all ... I was trying to get a statement correct … That was my intention. I am really sorry for how it comes across, I really am but I was trying to do my job.” Ultimately, the statement was not heard in court as Thomas pleaded guilty to false accounting on the basis that he accepted that Horizon was working perfectly, and there was not a jury trial. Kay Linnell, a forensic accountant and adviser to the post office operatives, told the inquiry that the prosecutions should never have happened and the Post Office engaged in “an extreme form of self-justified bullying” akin to “shooting fish in a barrel”. “It seems to me that POL [Post Office] senior staff have perpetrated a cover-up apparently at any cost to them to hide their criminal theft of funds from SPMs [subpostmasters], possibly orchestrating a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and endorse or commit perjury in the court by themselves or others,” she said in a witness statement. She told the inquiry that she had bumped into Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, at Bonn airport on 17 September 2014 and spoke to her about speeding up dealing with the claimants. In her witness statement she said she had been “shocked by the extent of Paula Vennells’ misrepresentations” of their conversation. “Her summary is inaccurate, misleading and mainly untrue,” she said. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which regulates solicitors, said it had 20 live investigations into solicitors and law firms who were working on behalf of the Post Office or Royal Mail.
The future is delayed at Ocado (again) | Nils Pratley 2024-06-20 18:27:00+00:00 - Close your eyes and you might have thought Ocado was announcing good news. Both its partners in North America, Kroger in the US and Sobeys in Canada, have announced “strong growth in digital sales” in their latest quarterly updates, the UK firm said excitedly. But, oh dear. What Thursday’s statement was really relaying was that Sobeys, like Kroger last year, has hit the pause button on opening more warehouses filled with Ocado’s robots. A fourth Canadian “customer fulfilment centre” (CFC), due to open in Vancouver next year, will be delayed, even though it is mostly built. Cue a 12% plunge in Ocado’s share price to 310p, a level not seen since 2017, the year the UK group started signing deals with overseas supermarket chains and invited investors to start thinking of it as a supplier of whizzy automated technology to the world, as opposed to a domestic online grocer struggling to make a profit. The pitch worked splendidly during the pandemic when everybody wanted shopping delivered to the door. As Ocado’s shares soared to the heights of £29, briefly making the company more valuable than Tesco, founder and chief executive Tim Steiner declared that “a dramatic and permanent shift towards online grocery shopping” was taking place. The reality was very different. Demand calmed down post-pandemic, as the hubristic Steiner should have suspected it would. The question became one of online’s progress under normal conditions. Answer: not as fast as hoped. Sobeys’ parent company, Empire, spelled it out: “Once e-commerce penetration rates in Canada increase, the company will be in a position to make a decision quickly on when it will proceed with the opening of its fourth CFC.” Delay is not cancellation, obviously. On the other hand, Sobeys is also paying a small sum to end its mutual exclusivity agreement with Ocado early, which hardly screams long-term enthusiasm. Whistling cheerfully, Ocado said its group-wide target to generate positive cashflow “in the midterm” is intact. But this latest example of delays will merely add to the impression that Ocado is a place where the medium-term seems perpetually to lie around the next corner. It feels like the company has been the future of food retailing for about 20 years already. The short-term reality is a pre-tax loss of £394m last year, after one of £501m on the previous outing. And the entertaining public row with Marks & Spencer continues to bubble away over the final payment for the purchase of one half of the Ocado Retail UK business in 2019. Whatever the financial rights and wrongs of the quarrel, the saga is terrible advertising in Ocado’s home market, the one it calls its “shop window”. Meanwhile, exit from the FTSE 100 index looms. 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 One can, of course, take the “one more heave” view and reflect that Ocado has opened 22 CFCs around the world and still has partnerships with 12 retailers. The promised land of profits, cash generation and wonderful rates of return on mature CFCs may yet materialise. The core shareholders, note, are still showing heroic levels of patience. We can, though, say that pandemic valuation was truly absurd.
The Housing Market Is Weird and Ugly. These 5 Charts Explain Why. 2024-06-20 18:12:32+00:00 - When the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022, most economists thought the housing market would be the first to suffer the consequences: Higher borrowing costs would make it more expensive to buy and to build, leading to reduced demand, less construction and lower prices. They were right — at first. Construction slowed, but then picked up. Prices hiccuped, then resumed their upward march. Higher rates made homes harder to afford, but Americans still wanted to buy them. The result is a housing market that is different, and stranger, than the one described in economics textbooks. Parts have proved surprisingly resilient. Other parts have seized up almost completely. And some seem perched on a precipice, at risk of tumbling if rates stay high too long or the economy weakens unexpectedly. It is also a market of stark divides. People who locked in low rates before 2022 have, in most cases, had their home values soar but have been insulated from higher borrowing costs. Those who didn’t already own, on the other hand, have often had to choose between unaffordable rents and unaffordable home prices.
35-year-old's income streams made her more than $500,000 last year—some are completely passive 2024-06-20 18:09:00+00:00 - Julie Berninger, 35, has had multiple online income streams for years. Berninger started her blog, Millennial Boss, in 2015, while working as an engineer manager at Amazon. That's brought in tens of thousands of dollars in passive income for years. She started her Etsy store, where she sells printables like bachelorette party activity lists, in 2017. That, too, has brought in thousands in passive income every year. In 2019, she co-founded an online course company, Gold City Ventures, with fellow side hustler Cody Berman. Their flagship course teaches users how to start an Etsy store selling printables like Berninger's. The course has grossed millions. In 2023, Berninger and Berman teamed up for another new business: Auros Agency. This one replicates the success of Gold City Ventures for creators with a sizable following. "We're doing the same business model that we do for the Etsy seller community that we have," she says, "but it's in all different niches." Here's how much she made in 2023, and what she has planned for the coming year. With Etsy, 'you can run it on autopilot' Millennial Boss covers personal finance topics such as how to monetize a blog and a list of the best budget planners on Etsy. It makes money through affiliate links and display advertising. Berninger updates it once a year, changing references from the previous year to the current one. Otherwise, "I just kind of leave that running on the side," she says. The blog made about $35,000 in 2023. Similarly, she does not spend very much time on her Etsy store, about an hour a quarter. That's not necessarily the best approach. "You can run it on autopilot," she says, "but you have to top it off every year," or add new products and update old ones if you want to keep getting attention. For her, the Etsy shop is less an income stream and more a tool to help her Gold City Ventures community. The store gets referenced in her course as an example. "It's part of the teaching method," she says. If she has a good idea for a product, she tries to share it with her community instead of creating the product for her store. Her Etsy store brought in about $3,000 in 2023. Gold City Ventures grossed more than $2 million Gold City Ventures continues to grow. The company sells its course on how to start an Etsy store for printables, as well as a membership that includes coaching from successful Etsy sellers, feedback on listings and a Facebook group where members can ask questions. The course costs $197 and the membership costs $29 per month, says Berninger. The course currently has about 4,000 members. Most recently, Berninger and Berman hired new coaches to help members succeed and implemented new community activities like 30-day challenges. Members get a template to create a new printable and have 30 days to start creating new products with it. This helps with accountability and motivates members to keep creating. "The April templates were tear-off flyers," she says, "almost like what you would see in a coffee shop" if someone was offering guitar lessons or babysitting services. They've also added a new bundle of courses called Beyond which teaches people how to sell digital products on sites like Shopify. The company's gross revenue exceeded $2 million in 2023 and Berninger's take-home pay for the year was more than $500,000. She works on the business about 10 to 15 hours per week. 'We'd be an eight-figure business'
Trump is proposing a 10% tariff. Economists say that amounts to a $1,700 tax on Americans. 2024-06-20 18:09:00+00:00 - Biden announces tariff hikes on Chinese electric cars Biden announces tariff hikes on Chinese electric cars 01:50 Former President Donald Trump is pledging to supercharge one of his signature trade policies — tariffs — if he's re-elected this November, by imposing 10% across-the-board levies on all products imported into the U.S. from overseas. The idea, he has said, is to protect American jobs as well as raise more revenue to offset an extension of his 2017 tax cuts. But that proposal would likely backfire, effectively acting as a tax on U.S. consumers, economists spanning the political spectrum say. If the tariffs are enacted — with Trump also proposing a levy of 60% or more on Chinese imports — a typical middle-class household in the U.S. would face an estimated $1,700 a year in additional costs, according to the non-partisan Peterson Institute for International Economics. Meanwhile, the left-leaning Center on American Progress has also crunched the numbers and projects roughly $1,500 per year in extra costs for the typical household. The reason, according to experts: Companies in the U.S. that import goods from abroad typically pass the cost of tariffs onto American consumers; relatedly, domestic manufacturers then often raise their own prices. Who would pay the price? The biggest impact of higher import tariffs would likely fall on low- and middle-income consumers because they spend a larger share of their income on goods and services than wealthier Americans, according to Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely of the Peterson Institute. "If you are an economist, you know right away that tariffs are taxes. If you put a tariff on imported goods, it means they become more expensive" and competitors can raise their prices, Clausing told CBS MoneyWatch. Trump is selling "snake oil," added Lovely. "It's really on steroids, and you have to speak a little louder and say, 'This is really going to affect you'." The bottom line, both Clausing and Lovely said, is that Trump's tariff proposals would likely boost consumer prices, a concern after two years of surging inflation. The typical American household would feel the biggest pinch through materials and goods bought by U.S. companies, such as lumber for construction, and which would be passed onto them through $610 in additional annual costs, the Center on American Progress analysis estimated. Middle-class households would also pay $220 more a year for cars and other vehicles, $120 more for gas and other oil products, and $90 a year in additional food costs, according to the policy analysis firm. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung didn't respond to requests for comment. Tariffs have long been used to advance U.S. trade policies by both the right and left, as well as to curry favor with labor unions. And Americans generally support tariffs because they believe they protect U.S. jobs from overseas manufacturers. In practice, policymakers tend to apply targeted tariffs that serve to protect a specific industry or product. For instance, President Joe Biden last month instituted a new tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, semiconductors, batteries, solar cells, steel and aluminum. The goal is to prevent China from undercutting U.S. companies and threatening domestic manufacturing jobs, according to the Biden administration. "The basic thing is that people view tariffs as job saving, and say, 'It'll cost me a little more and I want to do that because I want to help steelworkers'," Lovely said. But, she added, "We see a lot of misunderstanding about how trade works and what tariffs mean for people." Do tariffs protect jobs? Lovely and Clausing point to existing evidence about the impact of tariffs enacted by Trump during his presidency, when he put levies on Chinese goods as well as Mexican products. But rather than protect employment, offshoring of U.S. jobs continued during the Trump presidency, according to Reuters, citing Labor Department data. "People are being sold a bill of goods, but the data shows it's not helping them in their daily lives," Clausing said. "That's the hard thing about being an economist — everything lines up and people say, 'No, tariffs seem good'." Noted MIT economist David Autor and his co-authors said in a January research paper that Trump's 2018-2019 trade war "has not to date provided economic help to the U.S. heartland," failing to raise employment in protected sectors. In fact, retaliatory tariffs from countries targeted by the Trump administration had the effect of "clear negative employment impacts, primarily in agriculture," Autor found. The one success of Trump's trade war, Autor concluded, was political. "Residents of regions more exposed to import tariffs became less likely to identify as Democrats, more likely to vote to reelect Donald Trump in 2020 and more likely to elect Republicans to Congress," the researchers wrote. It's likely that many Americans didn't notice the price increases during the Trump 2018-19 trade war because they were more targeted than a 10% across-the-board tariff would be, Lovely and Clausing said. "If you look at set of imports targeted by Trump in his presidency, it was maybe one-tenth of trade, and companies like Walmart might have spread out some of that pricing increase across goods, so it's really non-transparent," Clausing said. "My prediction is that if the worst happens and he puts a 10% tariff on everything, people will notice that."
Democrats’ Dream of a Wealth Tax Is Alive. For Now. 2024-06-20 18:06:18+00:00 - For years, liberal Democrats have agitated for the United States to tax wealth, not just income, as a way to ensure that rich Americans who derive wealth from real estate, stocks, bonds and other assets were paying more in taxes. On Thursday, that dream survived a Supreme Court scare, but just barely. Thanks to a narrow court ruling, a raft of plans to use the tax code to address the gaping divide between the very richest Americans and everyone else appear set to live for years to come in the campaign proposals and official budgets of top Democrats. The idea of a wealth tax was not directly before the court on Thursday. Justices were considering the constitutionality of a new tax imposed under former President Donald J. Trump that applies to certain income earned by businesses overseas. But in taking the case, the court could have pre-emptively ruled federal wealth taxation unconstitutional. It did not, and liberal groups celebrated the victory. “The Supreme Court also could have taken an activist turn of the worst kind by pre-emptively ruling federal wealth taxes unconstitutional today,” Amy Hanauer, the executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which supports higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, said in a statement. “To its credit, the court did not do so.”
Catalyst calendar: Here's a look at major events that could propel these 7 stocks higher 2024-06-20 17:58:00+00:00 - On Wall Street lately, it has seemingly been all artificial intelligence, all the time. That's pushed tech heavyweights and Club names such as Apple , Nvidia , Microsoft and Broadcom higher and the S & P 500 to record highs along with them. That's also left large swaths of the market in the dust. The market-cap weighted S & P 500, which we report on all time, has gained more than 4% since May 30. But, a version of the index that assigns each company the same influence, known as the S & P 500 Equal-Weight , has advanced only around 1%. The divergence helps explain why our trusted momentum indicator, the S & P Short Range Oscillator , has been closer to oversold territory than overbought during the run higher. No matter how you slice it, the participation in the rally has been limited in scope, though it improved in the first two sessions of this week. .SPX .SPXEW 1M mountain S & P 500 market-cap weighted vs S & P 500 equal-weighted We've taken a hard look at our portfolio throughout this period of concentration, booking profits in AI winner Broadcom on Tuesday to ensure we didn't give back gains in a stock that's doubled since we bought it in August 2023. We deployed some of that cash into our newest holding Dover . This industrial stock stands to benefit as a second-order AI pick on the data center infrastructure investment cycle. With the fork in the market still in place, we wanted to shine a light on Club stocks outside the large-cap tech winners' circle, which have potential upside catalysts playing out now and in the future. The following is not intended to be an exhaustive list but a high-level look at key events to watch across the portfolio. This month Best Buy: The launch of artificial intelligence personal computers Microsof t's new lineup of AI-infused PCs hit Best Buy stores this week – allowing the electronics retailer to start ringing up sales of the products after preorders exceeded expectations. This is a big step forward in our broader Best Buy thesis, which has been echoed by a couple of Wall Street analysts in recent weeks . Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo: Results from 2024 stress tests The results of the Federal Reserve's annual stress tests are due out later this month, which could clear the way for the Club's two financial holdings to adjust their dividend and buyback programs. Banks typically wait a few days before announcing those updates. After performing well on last year's stress tests, which were disclosed on June 28, 2023, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley upped their quarterly dividend payouts by nearly 17% and 10%, respectively. This summer Abbott Laboratories: Baby formula trial and product launch Next month, Abbott Labs is set to head to court in Missouri over allegations that it failed to properly disclose the risks its baby formula presented to developing a serious intestinal disease in premature newborns. Abbott has denied the allegations and said its product has the support of the medical community. Still, the company faces hundreds of lawsuits across the U.S. However, the decision in the upcoming Missouri trial has been identified by Mizuho Securities analysts as a possible clearing event that could shift sentiment on the stock back in Abbott's favor. We've been building our position in Abbott in recent months, believing the billions in lost stock market value exceeds the possible payouts the company may have to make to plaintiffs. Another catalyst on the horizon is the U.S. launch of Abbott's over-the-counter glucose monitor Lingo. U.S. health regulators cleared Lingo on June 10 . The product, which is geared toward a health-conscious consumer who doesn't have diabetes, went on sale in the U.K. earlier this year. Abbott executives have been upbeat on Lingo in the past, viewing it as a key growth driver for the company. Later this year Stanley Black & Decker: Fed rate cuts While a number of portfolio holdings stand to benefit from a potential Federal Reserve interest rate cut this year, there is arguably no company with more to gain than Stanley Black & Decker . Lower interest rates will make it more affordable to build homes, spurring demand from the toolmaker's professional customers. At the same time, lower mortgage rates can spark the existing home market, too, which should drive demand from do-it-yourself customers who are trying to fix up their house before listing it, or buyers who make improvements upon moving in. Craftsman, DeWalt and namesake Black & Decker products may be required in both scenarios. Right now, the market expects the Fed to cut rates by a quarter percentage point in September. The Fed's current target range between 5.25% and 5.5% is the highest in more than two decades. Longer term DuPont: Breakup plan DuPont 's three-way breakup plan announced in May is expected to take between 18 and 24 months to be completed. In other words, the shareholder value we expect to be created isn't going to happen overnight. But it is possible that DuPont — led by now-Executive Chairman Ed Breen and CEO Lori Koch — can find a way to tap into that trapped value sooner than the previously stated breakup timeline. For example, that could include a sale of a business unit instead of spinning it off, such as its water operations. Honeywell: Potential for transformation Honeywell 's spot on this catalyst calendar is a bit higher level than the others, but we still felt it was worth including due to our expectation that CEO Vimal Kapur will shake up the industrial conglomerate's portfolio. Indeed, Jim Cramer has been urging the company's top boss, who took over from Darius Adamczyk last year, to make some major moves. This could include more transformative acquisitions along with divestitures of sluggish units that turn Honeywell into a more streamlined organization with clear growth priorities. In general, we like Honeywell's announcement Thursday that it is buying CAES Systems for $1.9 billion because it bolsters its aerospace and defense business, which is the crown jewel of its sprawling portfolio. However, we still want them to shed more of their non-core, slower-growing units, which would benefit Honeywell shareholders over the long term. Recent years haven't been so kind to them, with the stock underperforming the S & P 500 considerably over the past three years. To be sure, Honeywell shares have found some traction lately, hitting a fresh 52-week high in Tuesday's session. (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. A trader works during the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 17, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City. Johannes Eisele | Afp | Getty Images
Donald Sutherland, revered actor from 'M*A*S*H' movie and 'The Hunger Games,' dies at 88 2024-06-20 17:32:00+00:00 - But his career has spanned so many beloved projects that he became a household name for multiple generations. His cinematic legacy covers a breadth of genre, from dramatic roles in "JFK" and "Backdraft" to comedies like "Fool's Gold," the 2008 romance caper starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. He also famously revealed his cheekier side in the 1978 comedy classic "Animal House." In "The Hunger Games" franchise, he portrayed the villainous Panem President Coriolanus Snow, facing off against Jennifer Lawrence as young heroine Katniss Everdeen. He also played the role of loving father in the 2005 adaptation of "Pride & Prejudice," which starred Keira Knightley. A franchise based on a young adult book series, "The Hunger Games" may have seemed an unlikely role for Sutherland. But the actor told the BBC in 2015 that he hoped the blockbuster hit would encourage young people to be more politically involved. Donald Sutherland stars as 'President Snow' in "The Hunger Games." Murray Close He described the passion of young fans who showed up to premieres as "extraordinary." "I have been convinced for the last 30 years that they weren't thinking politically at all," he told the BBC. "The purpose of everybody involved in this was try to get them engaged." Sutherland also took on roles for the smaller screen, winning an Emmy for HBO's "Citizen X." The 1995 made-for-television movie depicted the hunt for a serial killer in the Soviet Union, based on a real-life criminal case. His television work in recent years included shows such as "Lawmen: Bass Reeves," "Commander in Chief" and "Crossing Lines." Donald Sutherland and his wife Canadian actress Francine Racette attend the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 22, 1975. AFP - Getty Images file Although Sutherland was never nominated for an Academy Award, he’s been nominated for nine Golden Globes — including for Best Actor in 1980’s acclaimed Robert Redford directed film, “Ordinary People” — and won twice, for “Citizen X” and 2002’s HBO original movie “Path to War.” Rob Lowe, who co-starred with Sutherland in the mini-series "Salem's Lot," offered condolences to the actor's family. He wrote in a post on X that society lost "one of our greatest actors." "It was my honor to work with him many years ago, and I will never forget his charisma and ability," Lowe wrote. "If you want a master class in acting, watch him in 'Ordinary People'." Sutherland has five children, daughter Rachel and sons Roeg, Rossif, Angus, and Kiefer. He starred alongside Kiefer — an accomplished actor in his own right as the star of the "24" TV franchise and movies such as "The Lost Boys" and "Young Guns" — in the film “Forsaken,” a western that centered around the relationship between a father and son. In a 2016 interview with NBC's "TODAY" show, he said that when they looked at each other during their scenes they each saw behind the eyes of an actor and into the eyes of father and son. "It informs the situation and it's supposed to," he said. "It's what we wanted." Actor Donald Sutherland is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, Calif., on Jan. 26, 2011. Robyn Beck / AFP - Getty Images file Kiefer only had praise for his father, saying it was almost like "cheating" rather than acting. "I have always felt that not only is my father one of the most prolific actors in the English language, but he's also one of the most important," he told the "TODAY" show. "He's someone I have wanted to work with for my whole career." Sutherland never won an Oscar for any of his roles, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did bestow an honorary award upon the actor in 2017. Stars such as Colin Farrell, Jennifer Lawrence and Whoopi Goldberg delivered speeches paying tribute to his impact on them personally as well as the industry. Farrell described Sutherland's characters as "distinctive, unforgettable and absolutely unique."
She asked 50 strangers to figure out how she should spend her $27 million inheritance. Here's what they came up with. 2024-06-20 16:50:00+00:00 - Last year, heiress Marlene Engelhorn presented a question to her fellow Austrians: "How should I spend my 25 million euro inheritance?" Engelhorn, who comes from a European business dynasty, said she would choose 50 strangers from different demographics to brainstorm ways for her to use her money – and now, their spending plan has been released. Englehorn sent invitations to 10,000 randomly-selected Austrians, asking them to complete a survey. She narrowed the survey participants to 50 council members and tasked them with distributing 25 million euros — more than $27 million — to those who need it, since Austria doesn't impose taxes on wealth and inheritance. The diverse council included people from different ages, incomes, education levels and even attitudes on wealth distribution. They were moderated by a team of eight and were also advised by academics and experts. After meeting over six weekends, the team of 50 people, called "Guter Rat" or Good Council, decided to distribute the inheritance to 77 initiatives, including Tax Justice Network, Attac Austria, the Momentum Institute and the World Inequality Lab. They decided to use the money to fight against poverty-related illness as well as protect women from violence. "Poor makes you sick and sick makes you poor," said council member Dietmar Feurstein, quoting from the council's deliberations. They are donating some of Englehorn's inheritance to women's shelters, the deaf association and inclusive soccer clubs. Another area of focus – housing, integration and education – was brought to the table by 17-year-old council member Kyrillos Gadall. They chose to donate to organizations that work to obtain affordable housing for those in need. They also wanted to focus on migrants and refugees by supporting language and other educational courses as well as organizations that advocate for better access to health care and working conditions. "In summary, the result is as diverse as the council itself," said project manager Alexandra Wang. "Initiatives that directly support those affected or tackle the causes of the problem were supported. Both small and large organizations were considered, as well as young initiatives and long-established organizations." She said all the decisions had one thing in common: "They want a fairer society. They want everyone to live well together. And they want to support those who are discriminated against."
Royal Mail owner faces £900m class action claim for ‘abusing dominant position’ 2024-06-20 16:42:00+00:00 - The owner of Royal Mail is facing a near £900m class action claim over accusations it abused its “dominant position” in the market for sending out bulk mail, including bank statements and weekly magazines. International Distribution Services (IDS) has been served with an £878m action by a newly formed company that said it represents an estimated 290,000 customers who claim they were overcharged as a result of Royal Mail’s behaviour. Bulk mail is typically sent by businesses and organisations including retailers, utility companies, charities and publishers. It includes council tax and bank statements, charity fundraising appeals, weekly magazines and energy bills. The action, brought by Bulk Mail Claim Limited, argues that businesses and organisations that bought bulk mail services after 2014 suffered owing to “anti-competitive” behaviour by Royal Mail. It argues that Royal Mail prevented competition, pushing up prices for the collection, sorting and delivery of letters in bulk. The class action comes as the billionaire Czech energy tycoon Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group attempts to buy IDS in a £3.57bn deal. In 2018, the industry regulator, Ofcom, fined Royal Mail £50m after it found the company “broke the law by abusing its dominant position in bulk mail delivery”. Ofcom said “Royal Mail’s behaviour was unacceptable and it denied postal users the potential benefits that come from effective competition”. Royal Mail has unsuccessfully attempted to appeal against Ofcom’s decision. It faces a £600m claim, separate from the class action, brought by Whistl, which scaled back its operations in 2015 with the loss of 2,000 jobs. That case is expected to reach the high court next year. Robin Aaronson of Bulk Mail Claim Ltd said: “Where there has been an abuse of dominant position, as has occurred in this case, it is important that those suffering loss are able to obtain redress. “A collective claim is the only fair and efficient form of redress in this case, given that there are hundreds of thousands of affected customers and it would be commercially unviable for them to bring individual proceedings.” Andrew Wanambwa, a partner at Lewis Silkin, the law firm aiding the claimants, said: “Royal Mail abused its dominant position, resulting in hundreds of thousands of bulk mail customers being overcharged. The purpose of this claim is to hold Royal Mail accountable for its actions and secure compensation for affected customers.” 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 Royal Mail said: “We confirm that we have received an application for a collective proceedings order from an entity called Bulk Mail Claim Ltd which we consider to be without merit and we will defend it robustly.” The class action claim has been filed with the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal.
McDonald's set to roll out $5 value meal. Here's what that buys you. 2024-06-20 16:38:00+00:00 - Survey finds nearly 80% of Americans view fast food as luxury Survey finds nearly 80% of Americans view fast food as luxury 05:01 McDonald's on Thursday revealed what's on the menu for customers who go for its $5 value meal when the fast-food giant launches the limited-time promotion next week. With sales numbers this year showing that inflation-weary consumers are cutting back on eating out, McDonald's and other restaurant chains are competing to roll out even cheaper eats. McDonald's announced the promotion after reporting slower growth in foot traffic at its restaurants. "We heard our fans loud and clear — they're looking for even more great value from us, and this summer that's exactly what they'll get," McDonald's USA President Joe Erlinger said in a statement. Here's what $5 will buy you when the promotion, which is expected to last roughly a month, debuts at McDonald's restaurants nationwide on June 25: Choice of a McDouble burger or a McChicken sandwich Small fries 4-piece Chicken McNuggets Small soft drink McDonald's also announced a "Free Fries Friday" promo in which customers can get a free medium french fry with any $1 minimum purchase. At McDonald's, the average cost of a Big Mac is now $5.29, up 21% from $4.39 in 2019, according to company data. The average price of a Quarter Pounder with cheese is $5.39, up 20% from $4.49 in 2019. Fast-food chains blame rising labor and food costs as the key factors driving up prices. McDonald's is the nation's largest fast-food chain, with more 13,500 restaurants. A January poll by consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions found that about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food, pointing to cost as a concern. A recent LendingTree survey found that 78% of consumers now view fast food as a luxury item that's becoming expensive.
UK parties ignoring food shortage risks, say farming and retail bodies 2024-06-20 16:14:00+00:00 - Farmers and supermarkets have accused the main political parties of ignoring the risk of severe food shortages in Britain, calling the issue a “worrying blind spot” in their general election campaigns. The UK’s main farming and food and drink bodies have joined forces to voice their frustration at the lack of focus on food security by politicians as the attempt to gain votes, despite the headwinds faced by producers. A letter signed by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to leaders of the Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrat parties said: “The basic responsibility of any government is to ensure its citizens are safe and properly fed. “But while we have heard much about defence and energy security in recent weeks, we have heard very little about food security. “The lack of focus on food in the political narrative during the campaigns demonstrates a worrying blind spot for those that would govern us.” The other signatories to the letter included the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) and UK Hospitality. Farmers have faced multiple recent challenges including extreme weather and escalating production costs that have limited their ability to grow crops. Between October 2022 and March 2024, England experienced its wettest 18-month period since records began in 1836, which left many farms under water and farmers unable to plant crops. Analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit estimates that production of key crops like wheat, barley and oats could fall by a fifth this year because of the wet weather. The NFU’s annual farmer confidence survey recorded that the majority of farmers would decrease production next year. The letter said that, while the UK food system had remained efficient and resilient in recent years in the face of Covid, the Ukraine war and Britain’s exit from the EU, supply chains had come under strain, leaving gaps on some shop shelves. The bodies wrote: “It would be foolhardy to assume that our food system will always withstand shocks, especially against the backdrop of increased geopolitical instability and climate change.” Tom Bradshaw, president of the NFU, said that the signatories of the letter were concerned that food security had not been on the agenda of any of the parties in the first few weeks of campaigning for the 4 July general election. He said that while there were good elements in all the manifestos, the letter’s signatories agreed that stronger commitments were needed if food production was to be protected. 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 The Conservative party has vowed to increase the UK-wide farming budget by £1bn over the parliament if elected, as well as introduce a legally binding food security target for the country. The Liberal Democrats committed to injecting £1bn a year into the farming budget, while also promising more consultation with the sector on trade deals. Labour has failed to put a figure on its farming budget but has promised to publish a trade strategy to promote the highest standards in food production. Bradshaw said there were some “gaping holes” in Labour’s manifesto, which concerned the NFU, in particular not specifying its farming budget if it gained power. He said: “They have written in their manifesto that food security is national security, which we welcome, but we now need to make sure that is underpinned by policies that are going to enable the delivery of that ambition.” The letter from the food groups calls for all parties to commit to an agricultural budget that enables the delivery of environmental objectives, as well as a planning system that allows investment into modern buildings and an approach to trade that reduces friction and tariffs.
Amazon's ditching the plastic air pillows in its boxes 2024-06-20 16:08:00+00:00 - Amazon said Thursday it has removed 95% of the plastic air pillows from its packaging in North America and will replace them with paper fillers made from 100% recycled content. It marks Amazon's largest plastic-packaging reduction effort and will help it remove nearly 15 billion plastic pillows annually. "We are working towards full removal in North America by end of year and will continue to innovate, test, and scale in order to prioritize curbside recyclable materials," VP of Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging Pat Lindner said in the announcement. The e-commerce company began transitioning away from plastic filler in October 2023 when it announced its first U.S. automated fulfillment center to eliminate plastic-delivery packaging. Amazon collaborated with suppliers to instead source paper fillers that are also curbside recyclable. This is not the first step that Amazon has taken to reduce its packaging waste. In 2015, the company launched the Ships in Product Packaging program, an initiative designed to reduce the use of Amazon's signature brown box and instead ship products in their original packaging.
Kim Jong Un takes his relationship with Putin — and maybe his nuclear program — to a new level 2024-06-20 16:00:00+00:00 - Putin also said that Russia had not ruled out developing military and technical cooperation with North Korea under the deal. U.S. officials have told NBC News that in exchange for military assistance in Ukraine, Russia might provide North Korea with the technology it needs to evade missile defenses or launch a nuclear missile from a submarine. The U.S. and its allies condemned the visit to North Korea by Putin, who continued his travels Thursday in Vietnam. “This should concern any country that cares about maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, abiding by U.N. Security Council resolutions, and supporting the people of Ukraine,” a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council told NBC News on Wednesday. South Korea and Japan also expressed concern about the impact of such military-technical cooperation on regional security. Their response to the deepening Russia-North Korea relationship could also have implications outside the region: On Thursday, South Korea’s presidential office said it was considering a change in policy that would allow for the provision of lethal military aid to Ukraine. The agreement between Russia and North Korea says that if either country is invaded or pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance,” raising the possibility that a U.S. strike on North Korea could draw a Russian response. But what the language means exactly is unclear, Cha said. “I think what it really means right now is material assistance, as North Korea is now providing to Russia and as Russia is most likely providing to North Korea, in the form of military technology,” he said. As for whether the two countries would actually go to war for each other, that is hard to say and “would depend on the circumstances,” he said. More immediately, Putin’s visit to Pyongyang also underscores the failure of international efforts to stop North Korea’s nuclear advances, said John Delury, a China and North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul. “The United States and the Biden administration need to come to grips with the fact that North Korea policy is not working and hasn’t been working for a very long time,” he said. “Obviously, we know the North Korean nuclear and missile programs have been moving ahead in leaps and bounds despite all the sanctions,” Delury continued. “And now you’re seeing North Korea make these strategic moves.”
Darden Stock Up After Q4 Earnings Beat, Cautious FY25 Outlook 2024-06-20 15:53:00+00:00 - Darden Restaurants, Inc. NYSE: DRI is a dominant player in the full-service dining sector. Darden operates a diverse portfolio of restaurant brands familiar to many Americans. From the iconic Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse to specialty brands like The Capital Grille and Seasons 52, Darden's restaurants hold significant market share in various casual and upscale dining segments. Darden Restaurants’ earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2024 was released, offering investors valuable insights into the company's current performance and ability to navigate the challenges and opportunities in the ever-evolving restaurant industry. Get Darden Restaurants alerts: Sign Up Darden's Q4 2024: A Blend of Resilience and Adjustment Darden Restaurants Today DRI Darden Restaurants $154.29 +2.33 (+1.53%) 52-Week Range $133.36 ▼ $176.84 Dividend Yield 3.40% P/E Ratio 18.09 Price Target $173.81 Add to Watchlist Darden Restaurants concluded its fiscal year with a Q4 2024 report reflecting resilience and strategic adjustments in response to evolving market dynamics. Darden’s financial report showed adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.65 for the quarter, slightly surpassing Darden’s analyst community estimate of $2.61. This earnings beat, however marginal, demonstrates Darden's ability to manage costs and maintain profitability despite inflationary pressures and shifts in consumer behavior. However, total revenue for Q4 2024 came in at $2.96 billion, falling short of analyst expectations of $2.97 billion. This minor revenue miss suggests that Darden, like many companies in the consumer discretionary space, is grappling with changing consumer spending patterns as inflationary pressures persist. Examining Darden's same-store sales growth provides a clearer picture of the company's performance relative to its established restaurant base. For Q4 2024, Darden reported flat same-store sales growth overall. Olive Garden, the company's largest brand, experienced a 1.5% decline in same-store sales. This dip reflects the challenges casual dining chains face as consumers become more value-conscious amid rising costs. In contrast, LongHorn Steakhouse continued its positive trajectory, reporting strong same-store sales growth of 4%. This performance highlights the brand's appeal to a more affluent customer base that remains resilient despite economic fluctuations. Darden's fine-dining segment, which includes The Capital Grille and Eddie V’s, saw same-store sales shrink 2.6%, indicating a potential softening in higher-end dining. Several factors influenced Darden's Q4 2024 results. Persistent inflation impacted Darden's operational costs and consumers' discretionary spending, compressing its margins. The company has been implementing strategic price increases to mitigate cost pressures, but these actions must be balanced with maintaining value propositions to avoid alienating price-sensitive consumers. Additionally, Darden navigates a competitive landscape with increased discounting and promotional activity. While the company aims to protect its profit margins, it must also strategically respond to rivals' aggressive tactics to maintain market share. Darden's FY25 Forecast: Navigating a Fluid Economic Environment Looking ahead, Darden provided financial guidance for FY25 that projects continued growth but acknowledged the need for adaptability in a fluid economic environment. The company anticipates total revenue for FY25 to fall within the range of $11.8 billion to $11.9 billion, slightly below analyst expectations of $11.94 billion. While this suggests potential headwinds, Darden's projected EPS for FY25, ranging from $9.40 to $9.60, aligns with analyst consensus estimates of $9.55. This alignment reflects the company's focus on cost management and efficiency to protect earnings in the face of potential revenue challenges. Darden projects same-store sales growth of 1% to 2% for FY25, indicating a cautiously optimistic outlook for attracting diners to its restaurants. To combat inflation, the company plans to implement a 2% to 3% price increase across its brands, aiming to strike a delicate balance between offsetting costs and retaining price-sensitive consumers. Additionally, Darden plans to open 45 to 50 new restaurants, demonstrating a commitment to expansion as a long-term growth driver. Market Analysts Assess Darden's Stock Trajectory Market analysts hold a range of views on Darden's future prospects. Several firms have adjusted their price targets and ratings for Darden Restaurants’ stock, reflecting optimism and cautious observation. Darden's stock performance reflects this blend of market sentiment. While the company's share price has experienced some volatility in recent months, reflecting broader market fluctuations and industry-specific challenges, its year-to-date performance has remained relatively stable. Darden Restaurants Dividend Payments Dividend Yield 3.40% Annual Dividend $5.24 Annualized 3-Year Dividend Growth 62.25% Dividend Payout Ratio 61.43% Next Dividend Payment Aug. 15 See Full Details Darden's Financial Moves: Share Repurchases and Dividend Increases Darden has recently taken several actions to demonstrate its commitment to enhancing shareholder value. The company authorized a substantial $1 billion share repurchase program, signaling confidence in its long-term prospects and offering a potential avenue to return value to shareholders. Additionally, Darden’s dividend was set at $1.29 per share, representing a 3.40% annualized dividend yield. This consistent dividend payout with an annualized dividend growth of 62% further underscores the company's appeal to income-oriented investors. Proactive Strategies: Darden's Plans for FY25 Growth Darden Restaurants' Q4 2024 results and FY25 guidance reflect a company operating in a dynamic environment marked by opportunities and challenges. The company's ability to consistently exceed earnings expectations despite revenue challenges underscores its operational efficiency and strong brand portfolio. Darden's strategic initiatives for FY25, including targeted price increases, new restaurant openings, and a focus on cost optimization, demonstrate a proactive approach to navigating the evolving dynamics of the restaurant industry. While macroeconomic headwinds and shifts in consumer behavior may pose challenges, Darden's established market position, diverse brand portfolio, and proactive management team position it to navigate the evolving landscape and deliver long-term value for investors. Before you consider Darden Restaurants, 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 Darden Restaurants wasn't on the list. While Darden Restaurants currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
Trump Media plummets 15% as DJT stock sell-off deepens 2024-06-20 15:34:00+00:00 - A weekslong sell-off of Trump Media picked up speed Thursday, with shares of former President Donald Trump’s company closing nearly 15% lower in another volatile trading session. The stock price of the company behind the conservative social media app Truth Social, which appears on the Nasdaq as DJT, ended the trading day at $26.75 per share. That price is more than 40% lower than it stood at the start of June, when Trump Media stock cost just over $49 a share. The company’s declining price came during a period of massive trading activity. More than 13.2 million shares of Trump Media changed hands on Thursday, a figure that is more than three times its average volume and highly unusual for a company that generates very little revenue. The stock’s slide also represents a massive on-paper loss for Trump, the majority owner of Trump Media. Trump’s 114,750,000 shares in the company, worth more than $5.6 billion at the beginning of the month, would be worth around $3.2 billion based on Thursday’s stock moves. Trump Media has been in a slump since May 30, when a New York jury convicted the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. That downward trend accelerated Tuesday, dovetailing with a company deadline related to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s expected approval of its registration statement. The stock fell nearly 10% in Tuesday’s session, on more than double the average trading volume. After the bell, Trump Media revealed that the SEC had declared its registration statement effective. The stock plunged more than 17% in post-market trading following the announcement. The development authorized early investors in Trump Media to exercise warrants they hold in the company, and it allowed stockholders to publicly resell securities covered by the registration statement. Markets were closed Wednesday.
Celsius Stock: Why Piper Sandler Forecasts a 50% Surge 2024-06-20 15:22:00+00:00 - Because of how inflation in the U.S. economy has been headed lately, it isn’t consumer discretionary stocks that tend to call on the market’s attention, but rather the artificial intelligence-drunk technology names, the likes of NVIDIA Co. NASDAQ: NVDA and others. However, there are a few gems to be picked by those who are brave enough to consider them. Celsius Today CELH Celsius $61.90 -1.38 (-2.18%) 52-Week Range $45.03 ▼ $99.62 P/E Ratio 68.02 Price Target $84.64 Add to Watchlist One such gem can be potentially found in energy drink Celsius Holdings Inc. NASDAQ: CELH, which has rallied by over 10% in the past week on news of a respected Wall Street firm boosting the company’s stock price higher from previous ratings. Wall Street analysts don’t often stick their necks out when valuing and rating stocks, as their reputations could take a hit if they are wrong. Get PepsiCo alerts: Sign Up This is why the recent boost matters more for investors, as shares of Celsius have traded down to only 64% of their 52-week highs, even with the recent double-digit rally. Do not worry; this means good news for investors looking to buy at a discount. But before blindly purchasing a beaten-down stock on an analyst boost, here’s why Celsius could be worth a second look. Celsius Stock Leadership Available at a Discount for Investors Despite its recent decline, Celsius remains a top stock in the beverage industry, especially in the key metric investors prioritize. Celsius MarketRank™ Stock Analysis Overall MarketRank™ 4.33 out of 5 Analyst Rating Moderate Buy Upside/Downside 36.7% Upside Short Interest Healthy Dividend Strength N/A Sustainability N/A News Sentiment 0.31 Insider Trading Selling Shares Projected Earnings Growth 30.84% See Full Details Compared to peers like Monster Beverage Co. NASDAQ: MNST and others in the caffeinated drinks space like Starbucks Co. NASDAQ: SBUX, Celsius takes the top spot. Wall Street expects Celsius stock’s earnings per share (EPS) to grow by as much as 29.6% in the next 12 months, a rate above Monster’s projections for 14.8%. Regarding Starbucks’ 12.5% expectations, Celsius also takes the lead. Because EPS is still looking to grow above the industry average, and considering today’s discounts relative to the stock’s previous highs, analysts at Piper Sandler saw it fit to slap a $90 price target on Celsius stock, daring it to rally by nearly 50% from where it sits today. Even though going bullish on a beaten-down stock can be an eventual successful call, there must be another reason behind these analysts' willingness to take the contrarian view; here are a few. Celsius's Potential to Double Market Share Excites Investors According to research done by Jefferies Financial Group, Celsius stock could double its current market share by the end of 2025. Celsius currently holds 4.9% of the U.S. energy drink market, but that share could increase to 8% to 9% in the next 12 months. These predictions are supported by the fact that Celsius landed a deal with PepsiCo Inc. NASDAQ: PEP, creating a path for the brand to start achieving further economies of scale, which is likely to translate into better-than-expected EPS growth. Digging into the company's latest quarterly earnings results, Jefferies's predictions start to take on water. Revenues grew by an astonishing 36.8%, a rate that discredits how cheap the stock has become in recent months. But that’s not all; earnings per share doubled to $0.28 from where they were just a year ago. Double and triple-digit EPS growth is nothing new for Celsius, so current analyst projections for future EPS growth beg the question of whether they are on the more conservative end of the spectrum. More importantly, free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capital expenditures) stood above breakeven in the quarter, closing in at a rate of $130.1 million. Suppose Celsius can remain a positive free cash flow business. In that case, it is a matter of time before investors start reaping the benefits of buying a company in its early stages. Celsius Holdings, Inc. (CELH) Price Chart for Thursday, June, 20, 2024 Strong Market Confidence in Future Upside for Celsius Stock Markets agree with this stance, as they are willing to pay a premium for future earnings over all other peers in the beverage sector. A forward P/E ratio of 43.3x puts Celsius roughly 80% above Monster’s 24.0x valuation today. However, premiums don’t stop there as Celsius stock trades at a 55.4x price-to-book (P/B) multiple, significantly above the rest of the beverage industry’s average valuation of 28.0x. Stocks don’t usually trade at such high valuations unless markets have a good reason to believe their future financials to be anything but expanding, and investors now have several reasons to justify these premiums today. Before you consider PepsiCo, 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 PepsiCo wasn't on the list. While PepsiCo currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
'Novo Nordisk is ripping off the American people,' Bernie Sanders says of Ozempic and Wegovy costs 2024-06-20 14:36:00+00:00 - Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., says the first question he is going to ask Novo Nordisk's CEO at a Senate committee hearing in September is why the drugmaker charges up to 10 or 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States, compared to other countries. “This is absurd,” Sanders told NBC News in an interview late Tuesday. “It is clear that Novo Nordisk is ripping off the American people.” Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen has agreed to testify in September over the pricing of the drugmaker’s hugely popular weight loss drugs, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions announced Friday. It came three days after Sanders, who chairs the committee, threatened to hold a vote to subpoena Novo Nordisk President Doug Langa to provide testimony. In a separate statement, a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said that Jørgensen agreed after he and Sanders had "a productive call and agreed to find a mutually acceptable date for a hearing." Sanders said Tuesday that he is still working with Novo Nordisk to set an exact date for the hearing, but he expects it will be during the second week of September. He said his strategy for getting Novo Nordisk to reduce the cost of the drugs is simple: Put the company in the spotlight. “I think enough public pressure may result in them lowering their prices substantially, which is obviously what my goal is,” the senator said. “This is a huge issue because it is likely that Ozempic and Wegovy may end up being the most lucrative product that the pharmaceutical industry has ever developed.” In April, the committee launched an investigation into Novo Nordisk’s pricing practices. It cited a report that found that Novo Nordisk charges around $1,300 a month for Wegovy in the U.S., even though the drug can be purchased for $186 a month in Denmark, $137 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom. Some patients in the U.S. have said that the higher prices of Ozempic and Wegovy have pushed them to unregulated, copycat drugs for weight loss. In reality, there’s little Congress can do about the high cost of the weight loss drugs in the U.S. Novo Nordisk charging higher prices is partly a function of how the American patent system works. Drugmakers who develop new medications get to exclusively sell them on the U.S. market for a set period of time — typically 20 years. During this time, other companies can’t make generic versions of the drug, severely limiting competition. And unlike other countries, there is generally no direct pricing regulation on the drug by the federal government. The patent for semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, isn’t expected to expire until around 2031 at the earliest. When asked about prescription drug pricing in the U.S., Sanders responded, “This is the system, it’s a corrupt system.” “It’s a system controlled by a large pharmaceutical industry, who makes massive amounts of campaign contributions,” he said. “And it’s a system which enables the drug companies to make huge profits, while 1 out of 4 Americans cannot afford to buy the prescription drugs that doctors prescribe.” Sanders said he knows Novo Nordisk likely isn’t the only one responsible for the high cost of the drugs. He said so-called pharmacy benefit managers, also known as middlemen, likely also make the cost of the drugs more expensive for people in the U.S. Sanders said Novo Nordisk had wanted other companies, including pharmacy benefit managers, on the panel in September, but he declined. “None of that negates the fact that they are charging us far, far more for the exact same product than they charge people in other countries,” he said. Novo Nordisk declined to provide an additional comment on Sanders' remarks.