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Samsung recalls more than 1 million electric ranges after fires kill at least 7 pets 2024-08-08 19:25:00+00:00 - Samsung is recalling more than 1.1 million electric ranges sold nationwide after the products were linked with roughly 250 fires, leading to dozens of injuries and killing at least seven pets. The recall involves slide-in electric ranges with front-mounted knobs that can be turned on accidentally by people or pets, posing a fire hazard if flammable objects are left on top of the range, Samsung stated Thursday in a news release. Samsung has received more than 300 reports of such incidents, the company said in a separate notice posted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Since 2013, fires attributed to the ranges are linked with 18 instances of extensive property damage and resulted in eight injuries requiring medical attention, according to the filing. Broader risks The issue may extend beyond Samsung products. CPSC "is aware of incidents where houses burned, and people died from house fires started by range knobs accidentally turned on whether from people bumping into the knobs or pets activating the range. The issues affect both gas and electric ranges," the federal agency stated in a summary of a June 27 working group meeting. Between 2018 and May 30 of this year, CPSC data shows there were 338 incidents involving a range or cooktop accidentally being activated, involving 10 manufacturers. Two of those incidents led to fatalities, while 31 resulted in nonfatal injuries, according to the agency. "Additionally, CPSC staff have found two other fatal incidents where a range was accidentally turned on when a knob was bumped, but the manufacturer is unknown." A recent video appeared to illustrate the risks, with home security footage showing a dog jumping toward a stove briefly and turning on the burner, with its flames igniting a nearby cardboard box. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, homeowner was treated for smoke inhalation, and his family was temporarily displaced by the June 26 fire, CBS affiliate KKTV reported. Recalled Samsung electric slide-in range. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission In Samsung's recall, the ranges were made in Thailand and were sold at Best Buy, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's and other appliance stores, as well as online at Samsung.com from May 2013 through August 2024 for between $1,250 and $3,050. The model numbers involved in the recall can be found on the inside upper left corner of the oven door or inside the storage bin on the bottom of the oven (The numbers are listed below.) Consumers with the recalled ranges are urged to contact Samsung to receive a set of knob locks or covers compatible with their model of electric slide-in range to install. Range owners using them without the locks or covers should keep children and pets away from the knobs, check the range knobs to ensure they are off before leaving home or going to bed, and avoid leaving objects on the range when not in use. Those with Wi-Fi enabled ranges can turn the "cooktop on" notification on the Samsung SmartThings app to receive alerts when a burner is turned on, Samsung said in its notice. Samsung can be reached toll-free at (833) 775-0120 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday; by email at rangesupport@sea.samsung.com; or at samsung.com/us/support/range-knob-kit to request free knob locks. Recalled model numbers: NE58K9430SS/AA NE58N9430SG/AA NE58R9431SG/AA NE58R9431SS/AA NE58R9431ST/AA NE58F9500SS/AA NE58K9500SG/AA NE58F9710WS/AA NE58K9850WS/AA NE58K9850WG/AA NE58K9852WG/AA NE58H9950WS/AA NE58R9311SS/AA NE63T8111SG/AA NE63T8111SS/AA NE63T8311SG/AA NE63T8311SS/AA NE63BG8315SSAA NE63CB831512AA NE63BB851112AA NE63T8511SG/AA NE63T8511SS/AA NE63T8511ST/AA NE63A8711QN/AA NE63BB871112AA NE63T8711SG/AA NE63T8711SS/AA NE63T8711ST/AA NE63T8751SG/AA NE63T8751SS/AA

Boeing's new outsider CEO Ortberg takes the helm, this time from the factory floor 2024-08-08 19:23:00+00:00 - Aerospace veteran Robert “Kelly” Ortberg becomes Boeing’s new CEO on Thursday with a singular mission: restoring the reputation of a U.S. manufacturing icon. That enormous goal will involve thousands of daily decisions that will determine whether Boeing can earn back the trust of regulators, airlines and the public; end persistent production defects; deliver aircraft on time and consistently to customers large and small; and stop burning cash. Boeing's new CEO Robert "Kelly" Ortberg. Boeing via AFP - Getty Images That cash burn is running about $8 billion so far this year and counting. Meanwhile, Boeing shares are down some 37% so far in 2024, as of Wednesday. Ortberg’s Day 1 activity is walking the floor of Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, where it builds its bestselling but problematic 737 Max. He plans to talk with employees and review safety and quality plans, with similar visits ahead at other Boeing plants. “I can’t tell you how proud and excited I am to be a member of the Boeing team,” he said in a note to staff on Thursday. “While we clearly have a lot of work to do in restoring trust, I’m confident that working together, we will return the company to be the industry leader we all expect.” Analysts and industry insiders are cautiously upbeat, painting the 64-year-old Ortberg — a more than three-decade veteran of the industry who spent years atop commercial and defense supplier Rockwell Collins after working up the ranks there — as a good listener with an engineering background (he has a mechanical engineering degree). Perhaps most importantly, he is a Boeing outsider. “This guy has a fantastic reputation and level of experience in the industry,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory. “He has a reputation for listening and for letting people push back.” Trouble across businesses Those skills will be key as Boeing tries to stabilize its production and eliminate manufacturing flaws. Boeing’s top safety executive for commercial aerospace told a National Transportation Safety Board hearing earlier this week that the company is working on a design fix so the near-catastrophic door plug blowout it faced at the beginning of the year never happens again. The hearing was part of the NTSB’s probe of the midair blowout of a door plug from a packed, monthsold Boeing 737 Max 9 as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon. While no one was seriously injured in the accident, it put Boeing back into crisis mode just as it was trying to move on from two fatal crashes of its bestselling 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019. Worker testimony at the NTSB hearing also showed manufacturing pressure and frequent fixes on planes, putting a spotlight on Boeing’s factories. “I will be transparent with you every step of the way, sharing news on progress as well as where we must do things better,” Ortberg said in the memo. He vowed to share reports to staff, “giving you timely updates of what I’m seeing and hearing on the ground from our teammates and our stakeholders.” Boeing last month agreed to plead guilty to defrauding the U.S. government during the Max certification, a deal that will require an independent corporate monitor at the company for three years. But Ortberg will have to address issues not only in the commercial jet business, including the delayed certification of new 737 and 777 models, but also in its defense unit. That segment of the business is facing issues with two 747s that will serve as the next Air Force One aircraft but are years behind schedule. Meanwhile, Boeing’s misfiring Starliner capsule, which launched in early June, has NASA debating whether to use SpaceX instead to bring astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back from the International Space Station. And on Thursday, NASA’s Inspector General released an audit of the agency’s Space Launch System rocket program, which is being built for moon missions and counts Boeing as a leading contractor. The NASA watchdog slammed Boeing for its “ineffective quality management and inexperienced workforce, continued cost increases and schedule delays, and the delayed establishment of a cost and schedule baseline.” A decision is also looming over whether to launch a new aircraft as Boeing loses ground to rival Airbus. The first 100 days of Ortberg’s time as CEO will be crucial, said Bank of America aerospace analyst Ron Epstein. “The decisions made early in his tenure will have generational impacts on the company,” he said in a note Monday. Ortberg and his team will need to ensure Boeing’s workforce is trained, with thousands of new workers in factories after more experienced staff members took buyouts or were laid off in the pandemic. A union representing some 30,000 Boeing factory workers in Washington state and Oregon is seeking more than 40% raises and, last month, members authorized a strike if a deal isn’t reached this September. “The principles of safety and quality should be equally important as the manufacturing rates,” Jon Holden, local president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said in a statement last week. “This potential collaboration with the new CEO could be a prime opportunity for Boeing to prove its dedication to its workforce and acknowledge the exceptional manufacturing capability and capacity of skilled IAM Members on the shop floor.” Last week, alongside another quarterly loss, Boeing announced Ortberg would succeed Dave Calhoun, who had said in March he would step down by year’s end. That was part of a larger executive shake-up after the door plug blowout. Calhoun himself took over a Boeing in crisis in early 2020, replacing Dennis Muilenburg, who was ousted for his handling of the two Max crashes. While Boeing is still based in Arlington, Virginia — where it announced it would move its headquarters in 2022 from Chicago — Ortberg will be based in the Seattle area, giving him a close eye on where the majority of Boeing’s commercial jetliner production is based. “In speaking with our customers and industry partners leading up to today, I can tell you that without exception, everyone wants us to succeed,” Otberg said in his Day 1 note to employees. “In many cases, they NEED us to succeed. This is a great foundation for us to build upon.” Getting off on the right foot with customers and the hundreds of suppliers that are struggling from pandemic-demand whiplash is important for Ortberg and the company. Boeing’s relationships with its bread-and-butter customers has suffered recently, and its leadership shake-up came after airline CEOs sought a meeting with the company’s board as delays of aircraft piled up in the wake of the door plug blowout. Southwest Airlines is among Boeing’s biggest customers and, like other carriers, has scaled back its growth plans, citing delivery delays of new, more fuel-efficient jets from Boeing. The airline’s CEO hinted at the big feat Ortberg has ahead of him. “We look forward to working with Kelly Ortberg in his efforts to return Boeing to its place as the leading American aerospace company,” CEO Bob Jordan said in a written statement. “A strong Boeing is great for Southwest Airlines and it’s great for our industry.” — CNBC’s Michael Sheetz contributed to this article.

Sellafield apologises after guilty plea over string of cybersecurity failings 2024-08-08 19:20:00+00:00 - Sellafield has apologised after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to a string of cybersecurity failings at Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site, which it admitted could have threatened national security. Among the failings at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria was the discovery that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attacks, Westminster magistrates court in London heard. Information that could threaten national security was left exposed for four years, the nuclear watchdog revealed, and Sellafield said it had been performing critical IT health checks that were not, in fact, being carried out. Late last year, the Guardian’s Nuclear Leaks investigation revealed a string of IT failings at the state-owned company dating back several years, as well as radioactive contamination and toxic workplace culture. Sellafield is a sprawling rubbish dump for nuclear waste from weapons programmes and decades of atomic power generation. It has a workforce of about 11,000 people and is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a taxpayer-owned and -funded quango. The Guardian’s investigation also revealed concerns about external contractors being able to plug memory sticks into Sellafield’s system while unsupervised and that its computer servers were deemed so insecure that the problem was nicknamed Voldemort after the Harry Potter villain because it was so sensitive and dangerous. Sellafield pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) in June, which relate to information technology security offences spanning a four-year period from 2019 to 2023. The firm is now awaiting final sentencing, whichthe chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, said would happen within weeks. The ONR has said it expects sentencing to take place in September. At a sentencing hearing on Thursday, the court heard that a test had found that it was possible to download and execute malicious files on to Sellafield’s IT networks via a phishing attack “without raising any alarms”, according to Nigel Lawrence KC, representing the ONR. The site, the world’s largest store of plutonium, was left vulnerable to internal and external cyber-attacks and 75% of its servers were insecure, Lawrence said, citing a report by Atos, a subcontractor at the site. Sellafield’s own report, from the external IT company Commissum, found that any “reasonably skilled hacker or malicious insider” could access sensitive data and insert malware – computer code – that could then be used to steal information. Euan Hutton, chief executive of Sellafield, apologised for failures spanning years in a written witness statement referred to by Paul Greaney KC, representing the company. Hutton said: “I again apologise on behalf of the company for matters which led to these proceedings … I genuinely believe that the issues which led to this prosecution are in the past.” Hutton was in court but did not speak at the hearing. Greaney said the company had tried to address its cybersecurity failings by changing IT management at the site and creating a new secure datacentre. The barrister said some problems identified in recent years had been “turbo-charged” by the prosecution. Greaney said the failings were not a result of cost-cutting. “There was no penny-pinching,” he added. The court also heard that a subcontractor was sent 4,000 files by mistake, 13 of which were classed as “official/sensitive”, without any alarm being triggered. Sensitive nuclear information (SNI), the industry’s special classification system, was left vulnerable in part because of the use of “obsolete” technology including Windows 7 and Windows 2008, Lawrence said. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion SNI is a mode of categorising information that may have national security implications, and has a special status in law, like other classified materials handled by the British security services or the civil service. Details are given SNI status if they are “deemed to be of value to an adversary planning a hostile act”, according to the ONR. While all parties said the failings were very serious, the judge said he would need to balance the cost to the taxpayer with the need to deter others in the sector from committing similar offences. The sentencing would be “new territory for all of us”, Goldspring said, given that no nuclear site had been prosecuted in this way before. The National Audit Office, Britain’s public spending watchdog, launched an investigation this year into costs and risks at Sellafield. The Guardian reported last year that the site systems had been hacked by groups linked to Russia and China in December last year, embedding sleeper malware that could lurk and be used to spy or attack systems. At the time, Sellafield said it did not have evidence of a successful cyber-attack. Greaney told the court that there was no evidence found for an “effective” cyber-attack on Sellafield. The court heard that Sellafield’s operations centre was found to be “unable to adequately alarm and respond to tested attacks”. A spokesperson for the company said: “We take cybersecurity extremely seriously at Sellafield, as reflected in our guilty pleas. The charges relate to historic offences and there is no suggestion that public safety was compromised. “Sellafield has not been subjected to a successful cyber-attack or suffered any loss of sensitive nuclear information. We’ve already made significant improvements to our systems, network, and structures to ensure we are better protected and more resilient.” The ONR declined to comment. Sellafield has agreed to pay £53,000 in legal costs.

Trump says he wants to face Harris in 3 debates in September 2024-08-08 18:59:00+00:00 - Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would be open to debating Vice President Kamala Harris three times in September. Speaking during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump said, "I think it’s very important to have debates," and added that he accepted invitations from NBC News, Fox News and ABC News. During his announcement, Trump seemingly got some of the dates incorrect. Both ABC News and the Trump campaign later clarified that the ABC News debate would take place on Sept. 10. The Fox News debate was previously proposed for Sept. 4. A source familiar with the plans said that the NBC News one was set for Sept. 25, which was one of the options the network gave the campaigns as a date. When President Joe Biden was still running, his campaign and Trump's agreed to two debates: one with CNN on June 27 and a second with ABC News on Sept. 10. But after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, Trump began to waver on his commitment to participating. Last week, Trump said he would skip the ABC News debate because the event had "been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant." After Trump pulled out, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement, "The Vice President will be there one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience. ... We’re happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to.” Harris later Thursday confirmed she would attend the ABC debate, telling NBC News, “I am looking forward to debating Donald Trump and we have a date of September 10th. I hear he’s finally committed to it and I’m looking forward to it.” She did not respond to a question about other potential dates. Trump on Thursday also said that the campaign has agreed to a vice presidential debate on CBS News, adding that his running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance, "has really stepped up. He’s doing a fantastic job." On Tuesday, at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's first rally since being named Harris' running mate, he said of Vance, "I can't wait to debate the guy." During a campaign event Wednesday in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance wouldn't commit to debating Walz, baselessly suggesting that there was still a chance that he wouldn't be the Democratic vice presidential nominee. "We don't know who the vice presidential nominee is going to be either," Vance told reporters, adding that Democrats could "pull a bait and switch" and take him off the ticket. Harris and Walz were formally certified as the Democratic nominees for president and vice president this week. CBS News and Fox News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Liberty Media confirms Justice Department investigation over Formula 1 World Championship spat 2024-08-08 17:44:22+00:00 - Liberty Media, owner of Formula One Group, confirmed that it is under investigation by the Justice Department for denying Andretti Global entry into the Formula 1 World Championship. “We intend to fully cooperate with that investigation, including any related request for information,” Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said during a conference call Thursday. The F1 rejection in January came after a six-month review of Andretti’s application and the reasoning for the denial was taken personally by both Mario and Michael Andretti, as well as General Motors, which plans to partner with Andretti in F1 under its Cadillac brand. The bid would expand the current 10-team grid to accommodate a two-car American team. Maffei said Thursday that the company is open to new entrants applying and potentially being approved if certain requirements are met. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Among F1’s claims related to the rejection were that it did not believe Andretti would be a competitive team; that the Andretti name does not bring the value to the series that Michael Andretti believes it would; and that getting on the grid in the next two years would be a challenge Andretti has never faced before. Mario Andretti said in April that he was deeply offended by the language Formula One Management used in denying the bid to join the global motorsports series. The 1978 Formula 1 world champion posted on social media he was “devastated.” In May, six U.S. senators called on the Justice Department to look into the rejection, saying that there were concerns that Formula 1 was acting on behalf individual teams and other “key stakeholders,” including foreign automakers, and that could be a violation of antitrust laws.

Jake Paul Lends His Celebrity (Some of It) to Olympic Boxing 2024-08-08 17:39:33.784000+00:00 - On one of Jake Paul’s recent Instagram stories, he voiced displeasure to his nearly 27 million followers at a decision by a set of boxing judges at the Paris Olympics. An American boxer had lost by split decision during a semifinal bout, and Paul labeled the result an “absolute robbery.” A few slides later on Instagram, he posted a video of himself holding an Olympic medal next to a stick of deodorant from his new personal-care line. The sequence perfectly encapsulated Paul’s partnership with U.S.A. Boxing: an unpaid, loosely defined agreement between an influencer who has disrupted the sport and a program seeking to regain its luster.

U.S. Mortgage Rates Drop Sharply, With 30-Year at 6.47% 2024-08-08 17:18:56+00:00 - Mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest level in more than a year, a balm for prospective home buyers and sellers in a challenging real estate market. The average rate on 30-year mortgages, the most popular home loan in the United States, dropped to 6.47 percent this week, Freddie Mac reported on Thursday. That rate has been steadily easing since April, when it rose above 7 percent — a relief for not only buyers, but also potential sellers who have felt locked into lower rates on their existing loans and have kept their houses off the market. The decline, from 6.73 percent a week earlier, was the biggest this year. Mortgage rates stood at around 3 percent in late 2021. They began climbing when the Federal Reserve started raising its benchmark rate to combat inflation, reaching levels not seen in two decades. “The decline in mortgage rates does increase prospective home buyers’ purchasing power and should begin to pique their interest in making a move,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement.

Investigator says ‘fraudulent’ gift to Florida’s only public historically Black university is void 2024-08-08 17:08:10+00:00 - A record multi-million dollar gift to Florida’s only public historically Black university has been void for months, an independent investigator said Thursday, as a third-party report determined school officials failed to vet a “fraudulent” contribution and that the donor’s self-valuation of his fledgling hemp company was “baseless.” Little-known entrepreneur Gregory Gerami’s donation of more than $237 million was “invalidated” ten days after its big reveal at Florida A&M University’s graduation ceremony because of procedural missteps, investigator Michael McLaughlin told trustees. Gerami violated his equity management account’s terms by improperly transferring 15 million stock shares in the first place, according to an Aug. 5 report by the law office of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, PC. When the company terminated Gerami’s contract on May 14, McLaughlin said, any stock certificates in FAMU Foundation’s possession were cancelled. What’s more, the foundation never countersigned the gift agreement after both parties signed an incorrect version on the day of commencement. Thursday’s meeting came three months after that celebratory affair. The university president posed onstage with a jumbo check alongside Gerami, who was invited to speak despite a documented history of dubious business ventures and failed higher education giving. Things soon fell apart. After almost immediate public outcry, the school paused the gift and a vice president left her position. President Larry Robinson submitted his resignation last month. Gerami, who founded Batterson Farms Corp in 2021, told The Associated Press that he had not read the full report. He agreed that his internal valuation “doesn’t carry any weight,” but said he obtained a third-party valuation after the debacle. According to investigators, Gerami provided a FAMU Foundation official on June 28 with the first two pages of a valuation by Stonebridge Advisors Inc. The appraisal suggests Batterson Farms Corp is worth $9.93 per share — well below the $15.85 figure from the initial gift agreement. Gerami declined to provide AP with any documents supporting this conclusion, saying, “You don’t need the full report.” He also denied that he improperly transferred company shares to the FAMU Foundation. He said he used “the process I have always followed.” Millions intended for scholarships, athletics facilities, the nursing school and a student business incubator will not be realized. In their place are reputational damage and halted contributions from previous donors who assumed the university’s financial windfall made additional gifts unnecessary, according to the report. The investigation blames administrators’ lack of due diligence on their overzealous pursuit of such a transformative gift and flawed understanding of private stock donations. Robinson repeatedly told staffers “not to mess this up,” according to investigators. Ignored warning signs alleged by the report include: — An April 12 message from financial services company Raymond James revoking its previous verification of Gerami’s assets. In an email to two administrators, the firm’s vice president said that “we do not believe the pricing of certain securities was accurate.” — “Derogatory” information discovered by the communications director as he drafted Gerami’s commencement speech. That included a failed $95 million donation to Coastal Carolina University in 2020. The report said the official “chose to ignore these concerns and did not report them to anyone else, assuming that others were responsible for due diligence.” — An anonymous April 29 ethics hotline tip that the Texas Department of Agriculture could back up claims that Gerami is a fraud. The Office of Compliance and Ethics reviewed the tip but did not take action because the gift’s secrecy meant that the office was unaware of Gerami. Senior leadership “were deceived by, and allowed themselves to be deceived by, the Donor — Mr. Gregory Gerami,” the report concluded. “Neither Batterson Farms Corporation nor any of its affiliated companies had the resources available to meet the promises made in the Gift Agreement,” the authors wrote. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Veterans and Lawmakers Lobby in Bipartisan Push for MDMA Therapy 2024-08-08 16:55:12+00:00 - More than a half century after federal regulators banned most psychedelic compounds, the Food and Drug Administration is nearing a decision on a novel treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder that pairs talk therapy with MDMA, the club drug commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly. The decision, which is expected in the coming days, has generated a groundswell of lobbying by veterans groups, researchers and members of Congress from both parties. Eighty lawmakers signed letters to the Biden administration this week, urging the F.D.A. to approve the application by the drug company Lykos Therapeutics. The campaign was prompted in part by an expert panel’s unanimous rejection in June of Lykos’s application, because of what participants said were flaws in the company’s clinical trials and insufficient data. “We have a mental health crisis and a suicide epidemic, with thousands of military veterans taking their own lives every year,” said Representative Jack Bergman, Republican of Michigan and a former Marine Corps general who helped organize the letter’s 60 backers in the House. “I would just ask the F.D.A. to consider the negative ramifications of them not taking action, which means more veterans will die needlessly.”

Barclays becomes first UK bank to lift cap on bonuses 2024-08-08 16:50:00+00:00 - Barclays has become the first UK bank to formally lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses originally imposed by the EU, opening the door for staff to receive 10 times their salaries in payouts. The announcement was made through an internal memo to staff on Thursday, four months after shareholders at Barclays’ AGM approved the move to drop the measure, which previously limited bonuses to two times bankers’ salaries. All the major UK lenders, including Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC, are in the process of lifting the cap – one of the key reforms introduced by the EU following the 2007-08 financial crisis – after Britain’s financial regulators scrapped the restriction last year. They had already put the change to shareholder votes at their AGMs in April and May, but have been deciding on the maximum ratios to offer staff. Barclays has followed the US bank JP Morgan by allowingup to 10 times salary. However, Barclays said bankers should not raise their hopes. “At an individual level, total compensation will continue to be performance based and market informed,” the memo seen by the Guardian said. “Generally, the revised bonus cap should not change colleague expectations around total compensation. But it will give additional flexibility in how we use variable pay to recognise individual performance … supporting Barclays to attract and retain the best talent globally in a competitive market.” The cap was originally aimed at stamping out a bonus culture blamed for laying the ground for the financial crisis by encouraging short-term profits over longer-term stability. The hope was that, with less of an individual’s pay riding on performance, there would be a lower incentive for risky behaviour. But UK politicians and regulators broadly opposed the rules, arguing that the clampdown would make it harder to attract skilled bankers, who would instead flee to rival hubs in New York, Singapore or Zurich. George Osborne, then chancellor, tried to overturn the measure at the European court of justice in 2014. Plans to scrap the banker bonus cap were initially announced by the an Osborne successor, Kwasi Kwarteng, during the Liz Truss government’s disastrous mini-budget in September 2022, though most big UK lenders indicated that they were not consulted on the proposals. They were later approved last autumn by Jeremy Hunt, then chancellor, and by UK regulators, including the Bank of England. 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 Labour has ruled out reversing the decision. A Barclays spokesperson said: “The revised bonus cap will not alter the way Barclays sets its incentive pool, which is based on overall group performance. It will allow us greater flexibility to differentiate individual bonuses within a small and defined group of colleagues, enabling Barclays to continue to compete effectively to retain and attract the best talent globally.”

Delta passengers file class-action lawsuit against airline over CrowdStrike tech outage 2024-08-08 16:29:00+00:00 - Delta says airline operations should return to normal after mass cancellations and delays Delta Air Lines passengers whose flights were affected by the CrowdStrike tech outage last month filed a lawsuit against the airline this week over its alleged failure to quickly restore flight operations. Delta canceled thousands of flights in the days following the July 19 outage, with its woes dragging on for much longer than other airlines'. On July 22, Delta canceled more than 1,250 flights — far more than any other airline and accounting for roughly 70% of all flights within, into or from the U.S., according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. Even Delta CEO Ed Bastian himself acknowledged in a memo that the airline's efforts to restore operations "were difficult and frustratingly slow and complex." The chaos at Delta only eased six days after the outage, whereas other airlines were operating normally again within a couple of days. The lawsuit, filed by Sauder Schelkopf and Webb, Klase & Lemond on behalf of Delta passengers whose flights were canceled, alleges that "no other U.S. airline had canceled one-tenth as many flights." It also claims Delta failed to properly compensate passengers for the scheduling snarls by awarding them automatic refunds for canceled flights. Instead the airline offered only partial reimbursements and asked passengers so sign waivers releasing Delta of all legal claims against it, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in a district court in Atlanta. "While nearly every other airline recovered quickly from the July 19th 'Tech Outage,' Delta's passengers remained stranded, waiting in lines for days trying to get to their destinations. When our clients sought refunds, Delta again failed to deliver. We look forward to litigating the case on their behalf," Joe Sauder of Sauder Schelkopf, an attorney for the passengers, said in a statement. Many airlines rely on Microsoft's Office365 for scheduling purposes, including getting crews and passengers and their luggage to the right places. The CrowdStrike outage crashed these systems, forcing airlines to resort to manual scheduling. Delta attributed its own delay in restoring operations to its "disproportionate reliance on Windows software" according to the lawsuit. Because it couldn't schedule flight crews easily, it wasn't able to assign pilots and flight attendants to planes. Delta, meanwhile, has hired famed attorney David Boies' law firm to pursue damages from the CrowdStrike outage that grounded flights. CrowdStrike hit back, saying it isn't at fault, and accused the carrier of trying to blame the cybersecurity firm for its own response to the outage.

‘Traditional TV is dying’: can networks pivot and survive? 2024-08-08 16:23:00+00:00 - Warner Bros Discovery’s announcement this week of a $9bn (£7bn) writedown in the value of its TV networks is a stark acknowledgment of the damage the streaming wars are inflicting on traditional broadcasting models. The astonishing figure, which pushed the US entertainment group to a quarterly net loss of $10bn (£7.9bn) and sent shares sliding 12% in early trading on Thursday, lays bare how channels such as CNN, TLC and the Food Network can no longer rely on a captive cable subscriber base. The rapid consumer shift away from high-priced TV packages, coupled with the inexorable decline in advertising, has forced traditional TV companies to invest billions in low-cost streaming services to catch up with first movers such as Netflix. The question is now whether companies such as WBD – home to TV and film content including Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, The Big Bang Theory, Succession, Friends and all Olympics events – can build the scale and make significant profits from their streaming operations before the death of linear television delivered by cable, satellite or aerial. View image in fullscreen Warner Bros Discovery makes hits shows and films, such as the recent Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). Photograph: BFA/Alamy “Traditional TV is dying, or at least in zombie mode,” says Alex Degroote, a media analyst. “It is being replaced by a combination of services such as short-form video players like YouTube and TikTok, and the top streamers such as Netflix. WBD’s $9bn impairment is a real hammer blow and will reverberate across all traditional media assets.” The market value of WBD, home to assets including the Warner Bros film studio, HBO and CNN, has plunged almost 70% in the two years since the group was formed in a $40bn (£31.5bn) merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery intended to help both businesses survive the transition to a streaming future. “Unfortunately, the stock performance is a clear indication that investors see little optimism that the tides may soon start to turn,” says Robert Fishman, senior analyst at MoffettNathanson. Earlier this week, Disney disclosed that its streaming operations – which include the global Disney+ service, Hulu and ESPN+ in the US and Hotstar in India – achieved profitability for the first time in the quarter to the end of June. However, the milestone of $447m (£352m) in operating profit, which was above management projections, has come at a huge cost, with its streaming services running up $11bn (£9.2bn) in losses since Disney+ was launched in 2019. View image in fullscreen Discovery+ has become the UK’s fastest-growing paid streaming service, with its parent company wresting control of the Olympics from the BBC. Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Disney has more than 200 million global streaming subscribers, and WBD exceeds 100 million globally, with Discovery+ now the fastest-growing service in the UK thanks to winning the rights to show every Olympic discipline. But the battle is not just to continue to drive scale. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to What's On Free weekly newsletter Get the best TV reviews, news and exclusive features in your inbox every Monday 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 Boosting revenue and profits per subscriber has become critical through strategies including rapid rounds of price increases – Disney has just announced a set of price rises for later this year – as well as driving slightly cheaper ad-funded tiers to pull in cost-conscious consumers. While traditional TV companies struggle with managing the decline in their legacy businesses, with drastic rounds of cost-cutting after a decade of profligate spending on content in the first decade of the streaming wars, Netflix points to a viable future. The streaming giant, which once struggled with mounting losses running into tens of billions of dollars, has seen its market value surge by more than 50% over the past year after turning the profitability corner while continuing to see significant growth in subscribers. View image in fullscreen CEO of Warner Bros Discovery David Zaslav and actor Tom Cruise watching the Olympics. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters WBD’s chief executive, David Zaslav, who has considered breaking up the company but concluded that is not currently the best option, said the market was being hit by a “generational disruption” that requires traditional TV companies to take “bold, necessary steps”. Richard Broughton, director at Ampere Analysis, said: “Legacy TV businesses are in decline but the shift is not so rapid that it can’t be managed. There are still a lot of broadcast TV viewers, they have the time to pivot to profitability in the streaming world.”

Owens-Corning Stock: Good Value or Recession Red Flag? 2024-08-08 16:15:00+00:00 - A quarterly earnings beat hasn’t been enough to reverse the slide in Owens Corning NYSE: OC stock. In mid-morning trading the day after the maker of builder and construction materials delivered its second quarter earnings the stock is down just over 10% for the week. Undoubtedly much of this is due to the sharp, market-wide sell-off to start the week. But is this a case of an oversold stock creating a buying opportunity or a red flag for an industry that is highly susceptible to recession pressures? Get Royal Bank of Canada alerts: Sign Up Why Revenue May Not Have Blown the Doors Off Expectations Owens Corning Today OC Owens Corning $155.12 +1.10 (+0.71%) 52-Week Range $109.95 ▼ $191.13 Dividend Yield 1.55% P/E Ratio 12.56 Price Target $184.23 Add to Watchlist Owens Corning delivered revenue of $2.79 billion. That missed analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. But it was higher than the $2.56 billion it reported in the same quarter in 2023. However, this was the first quarter that Owens Corning realized revenue from its acquisition of Masonite, the manufacturer of “Doors That Do More.” Revenue from Doors accounted for net sales of $311 million. That’s statistically significant because without that revenue the company’s revenue would have been an even larger miss from analysts’ expectations as well aa a YOY miss. On the one hand, this is like a pointless sports bar debate about what would have happened if something else hadn’t happened. The fact is the company did have those sales and that is likely to be a solid source of revenue and earnings moving forward. As confirmation of that, the company issued a forecast for net sales growth and EBITDA margin in the low 20-percent range for the coming quarter. However, it’s also a data point that has to be looked at in context of the broader economy. Owens Corning is heavily reliant on a healthy market for new home construction as well as for remodeling activity. Investors are Weighing the Company's Cautious Guidance Looking forward, Owens Corning expects to see healthy demand for its non-discretionary items like roofing products and insulation in North America. However, it is projecting discretionary repair and remodeling activity (e.g. Doors) to remain soft in the near term. This is similar to what investors have been hearing from other construction stocks this earnings season. That is, consumers are prioritizing must-have purchases (i.e. a leaky roof) over cosmetic remodels that they might otherwise do. Those concerns are being heightened when JPMorgan Chase & Co. NYSE: JPM CEO Jamie Dimon spoke of the likelihood of a h The Fundamentals Speak to Solid Value Owens Corning Stock Forecast Today 12-Month Stock Price Forecast: $184.23 18.19% Upside Moderate Buy Based on 14 Analyst Ratings High Forecast $215.00 Average Forecast $184.23 Low Forecast $143.00 Owens Corning Stock Forecast Details Owens Corning continues to execute a capital allocation strategy that focuses on delivering value to shareholders. In the quarter, the company generated $336 million of free cash flow and returned $52 million of that to shareholders via its dividend. The company also prioritized paying down the debt it took on as a result of the Masonite acquisition and ended the quarter with a debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ration of 2.2x1 which is at the low end of its target range of 2x to 3x. And the company’s forward P/E ratio of 9.8x is significantly lower than the average of companies in the Construction Materials sector. History Suggests That This is Buyable Dip This isn’t the first time that OC stock has had a sharp sell-off in the last 12 months. For example, from September 1 to October 23, 2023, Owens Corning stock dropped approximately 24% from peak to trough. And in 2024 there have been three separate drops between 8% and 12%. In each case, the stock has recovered to make higher highs. When it comes to technical analysis, it’s important not to talk in absolute terms. However, it’s also important to follow obvious patterns. In this case, the trend suggests that this could be a buyable dip in OC stock. And analysts continue to be generally bullish on OC stock since the earnings report. The Owens Corning analyst ratings on MarketBeat have a Moderate Buy rating on the stock with a consensus price target of $184.23. However, The Royal Bank of Canada NYSE: RY raised its price target from $211 to $213. If you’re looking to trade OC stock, be aware that short interest spiked 11% in the last month. While the percentage of the stock being shorted remains very low, a spike like that suggests that many traders will keep pressure on the stock. That's reflected in the Options Chain for OC stock which is showing significantly more interest in Put options as a hedge with strike prices at $170 and $175. Before you consider Royal Bank of Canada, 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 Royal Bank of Canada wasn't on the list. While Royal Bank of Canada currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here

Average consumer now carries $6,329 in credit card debt. 'People are stretched,' expert says. 2024-08-08 16:10:00+00:00 - Credit card debt is on the rise. Americans now owe a record $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday. The average balance per consumer stands at $6,329, up 4.8% year over year, according to a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion. Credit card delinquency rates are also higher across the board, the New York Fed and TransUnion found. Over the last year, roughly 9.1% of credit card balances transitioned into delinquency, the New York Fed reported. Borrowers with revolving debt “are maxing out their credit cards,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion, “that’s usually a pretty good indicator that people are stretched.” Time to 'reassess' revenge spending “Credit card balances briefly fell in 2020 and early 2021 due to pandemic-related factors,” said Ted Rossman, Bankrate’s senior industry analyst, which included government-supplied stimulus checks and fewer opportunities for spending. “But since early 2021, credit card balances have rocketed upward by 48%, fueled by a post-pandemic boom in services spending as well as high inflation and high interest rates,” he said. Consumers have showed a remarkable willingness to splurge on travel and entertainment, a recent report by Bankrate also shows, to recapture the experiences they lost during the Covid years. “Maybe people can reassess that now,” Raneri said. The surge in “revenge spending” has now lasted several years, she added. “Maybe there is a way to position it that they can check off some of the things that they feel like they missed and get back to normal.” Credit cards are one of the most expensive ways to borrow money. The average credit card charges more than 20% — near an all-time high. “With credit card balances at an all-time high and the average credit card rate hovering near record territory, it’s more important than ever to pay down this debt as soon as possible,” Rossman said. If you’re carrying a balance, try consolidating and paying off high-interest credit cards with a lower interest personal loan or switch to an interest-free balance transfer credit card, he advised.

Average rate on a 30-year mortgage falls to 6.47%, lowest level in more than a year 2024-08-08 16:02:31+00:00 - The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in more than a year, a welcome affordability boost for prospective home shoppers and homeowners looking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate. The rate fell to 6.47% from 6.73% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.96%. This is the second straight weekly drop in the average rate. It’s now the lowest it’s been since mid-May last year, when it was 6.39%. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week, pulling the average rate down to 5.63% from 5.99% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.34%, Freddie Mac said. “The decline in mortgage rates does increase prospective homebuyers’ purchasing power and should begin to pique their interest in making a move,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Additionally, this drop in rates is already providing some existing homeowners the opportunity to refinance.” After jumping to a 23-year high of 7.79% in October, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has mostly hovered around 7% this year — more than double what it was just three years ago. The elevated mortgage rates, which can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, have discouraged home shoppers, extending the nation’s housing slump into its third year. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in June for the fourth month in a row. And sales of new single-family homes fell last month to the slowest annual pace since November. Rates have mostly eased in recent weeks as signs of waning inflation and a cooling job market have raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate next month for the first time in four years. Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the central bank’s interest rate policy decisions. That can move the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. This week’s drop in mortgage rates follows a pullback in the 10-year Treasury yield, which briefly slid last week to around 3.7% after worse-than-expected labor market data rattled investors, pushing up demand for bonds. The yield, which topped 4.7% in late April, was at 4% in afternoon trading in the bond market on Thursday. If bond yields continue to decline in anticipation of the Fed lowering rates this fall, that could lead mortgage rates to ease further, though most economists expect the average rate on a 30-year home loan to remain above 6% this year. Even so, the recent pullback in mortgage rates has already spurred a surge in homeowners seeking to refinance. Applications for mortgage refinance loans jumped last week to their highest level in two years. Rates may have to come down more before many would-be homebuyers facing record-high housing prices and a chronic shortage of properties on the market can afford to buy a home. “Buyers are biding their time, waiting for rates to fall further and for more inventory to come onto the market,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.

Cybersecurity Stock Surges, Promising Double-Digit Gains 2024-08-08 15:02:00+00:00 - Fortinet Today FTNT Fortinet $68.68 -1.25 (-1.79%) 52-Week Range $44.12 ▼ $73.91 P/E Ratio 44.89 Price Target $70.97 Add to Watchlist Fortinet NASDAQ: FTNT stock surged more than 25% following its Q2 release because it reached an inflection point. The company's lean into unified SASE and Security Ops resonates with businesses, providing a simpler approach to cloud-based cybersecurity. It is developing into a market leader, as evidenced by its ranking in Gartner Magic Quadrant reports. The company is the #1 single-source vendor and the only cybersecurity vendor mentioned in all the available half-dozen Magic Quadrant cybersecurity reports. The takeaway for investors is that business is growing, the moat is widening, profits are robust, cash flow is sound, and shareholder value is rapidly improving. Among the pertinent details from the report is the balance sheet. The company’s positive cash flow quarter and free cash flow allowed for a substantial build-up in cash and equivalents, improving its net cash position and increasing assets, while liabilities and debts remained flat. The critical detail is that shareholder equity inverted from deficit to $288.2 million and is expected to continue growing as the year and years progress. Get Fortinet alerts: Sign Up Fortinet Has Beat and Raise Quarter Fortinet had a solid quarter, with revenue rising 11% to $1.43 billion compared to last year. The revenue beat the consensus estimate reported by MarketBeat on strength in the critical, higher-margin services segment. Services grew by 20%, offset by a 4.4% decline in products, leading to a substantial improvement in systemwide margin. The only area of concern is the billings, which are flat compared to last year and indicate tighter cash flow. Offsetting that is a 15% increase in deferred revenue, suggesting cash flow will improve with time. The margin is impressive. The company widened its gross and adjusted operating margins, with the adjusted margin up 820 basis points. The net result is $0.57 in adjusted EPS or about 4000 basis points of outperformance. Again, the cash flow is a concern because it is down YoY but sufficient to sustain the outlook while allowing the company to reinvest and develop newer technologies. Still, cash flows are sufficient to produce a cash-flow-positive quarter, setting it up to resume share buybacks. The company hasn’t bought back any shares for two quarters but has more than $1 billion available under the current authorization. Guidance is the best news in the report. Billings are expected to remain flattish for the quarter, but revenue will grow sequentially and year-over-year to $1.475 billion at the midpoint of guidance. That is above the consensus midpoint and compounded by an expectation for margin strength to continue. Margin will contract from the record level set in Q2 but remain strong at 31% adjusted, producing an expected $0.56 to $0.58 in adjusted earnings. That is more than a dime above consensus, and strength is expected to carry through the year’s end: the full-year guidance was improved at the top and bottom line, putting the low end of the new range above the high-end of the previous. Analysts Raise Targets and Lift Sentiment for Fortinet Stock Fortinet Stock Forecast Today 12-Month Stock Price Forecast: $71.31 3.11% Upside Hold Based on 33 Analyst Ratings High Forecast $85.00 Average Forecast $71.31 Low Forecast $59.00 Fortinet Stock Forecast Details The analyst response to Fortinet’s news is overwhelmingly bullish. Nearly half of the 33 analysts tracked by MarketBeat issued a revision, including an increased rating, price target, or both. No reduced price targets or sentiment reductions have been recorded, leaving the sentiment at Hold but firming and the range of price targets rising. The consensus assumes a low-single-digit advance from the $70 level but a new all-time high at the range high end. Because more than half the fresh targets are above $75, investors may expect this stock to move into the high end of its trading range with a growing probability for a new all-time high. The technical details suggest that this cybersecurity stock will rocket higher. The 25% gain sparked by the Q2 results confirms support at the cluster of moving averages and is compounded by a strong Buy signal in the indicators. The stochastic and MACD converge with the price action and outlook, showing bullish crossovers low in their ranges, leaving ample room for this market to run. The critical resistance targets are near $71 and $80; a move above $70 will likely result in a quick move to $80. A move above $80 will set a fresh all-time high and could lead to a sustained uptrend. The stock price could advance another $30 in that scenario. Before you consider Fortinet, 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 Fortinet wasn't on the list. While Fortinet currently has a "Hold" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here

Riots contribute to 4.8% drop in footfall on UK high streets 2024-08-08 15:00:00+00:00 - Shoppers have avoided high streets in recent days after rioting across England and Belfast led to shops being vandalised and looted, hitting footfall for retailers and neighbouring businesses, figures show. Footfall on UK high streets declined by an average 4.8% between Sunday and Wednesday from the same period the week before, according to the real estate software firm MRI Software. This compares with a smaller fall of 2.7% in all UK retail destinations, including shopping centres and out-of-town retail parks. On Wednesday, the number of people on high streets dropped by 7.5% as shoppers were deterred by an expected new wave of rioting and counter-protests planned for the day. Northern England and Yorkshire felt the impact of the disorder the most, with footfall down by 12.9% between Sunday and Wednesday, and in the West Midlands footfall was down by 10.6% on the previous week. Shops and other businesses boarded up or closed early on Wednesday amid fears about potential violence after police warned of unrest from more than 100 far right-led rallies across England on Wednesday night. Instead, thousands of counter-protesters took to the streets of Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton and London to protect their communities. At this time of the year, the number of people visiting the UK’s towns and cities would usually rise as the school summer holidays get under way and families take day trips. However, footfall remains significantly lower both week on week and year on year. This comes after a strong start to the summer for shops, leisure and hospitality, which have benefited from the Euro 2024 football tournament, Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and the Olympic Games in Paris, which finish on Sunday. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) held a meeting on Wednesday with about 190 representatives from a range of retailers – small shops, big chains and takeaway food outlets – to discuss the safety of shop staff. Retailers are monitoring the situation in different locations and may close some shops early. 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 Helen Dickinson, the BRC’s chief executive, said: “Many retail workers have been heading to work fearing their stores and their safety could be compromised by the looting and vandalism that has taken grip in various parts of the country.” She called for the “full force of the law” to be brought to bear on those committing criminal damage and theft against retailers. Some supermarkets, shoe shops and other retailers have been looted. The Association of British Insurers trade body said on Monday that “insurers appreciate this is an incredibly stressful time and will be on hand to do everything they can to help customers as quickly as possible”.

Energy Provider's Stock Skyrockets on Huge Q2 Earnings Beat 2024-08-08 14:42:00+00:00 - Duke Energy Today DUK Duke Energy $112.43 -1.08 (-0.95%) 52-Week Range $83.06 ▼ $116.67 Dividend Yield 3.72% P/E Ratio 28.25 Price Target $106.75 Add to Watchlist Duke Energy NYSE: DUK is in the utilities sector and is the third-largest electric utility company in the United States and Canada by market capitalization. The firm has outperformed its sector and the market in 2024, with a total return of 19%. The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund NYSEARCA: XLU has returned 18%. The firm reported its Q2 2024 financial results on Aug. 6, 2024, with shares rising 1.7% on the day of the release. Let's break down the firm's operations using its annual report, review the earnings, and analyze Duke's long-term strategy. Get XLU alerts: Sign Up Duke’s Operations: Supplying Electricity and Natural Gas Duke Energy’s operations are conducted primarily through its publicly regulated utility subsidiaries. It divides the business into two segments: Electric Utilities and Infrastructure (EU&I) and Gas Utilities and Infrastructure (GU&I). EU&I provides electricity to over 8 million customers in the Southeast and Midwest. Retail sources purchased 89% of the total energy sold in 2023, while wholesale sources purchased 11%. Wholesale revenue comes from large enterprises or municipalities that need a dedicated energy supply. Fossil fuel sources, including natural gas, oil, and coal, account for 46% of the company’s electricity generation. Nuclear accounts for 28%, and other renewable sources account for less than 2%. They buy the rest of the power supplied from other sources. GU&I supplies natural gas to 1.7 million retail and wholesale customers in the same regions. EU&I brought in the vast majority of revenue, accounting for 92%. Seasonality affects the company’s electricity business, with revenues being higher in the summer and winter. But, the natural gas business is largely unaffected due to regulatory protections. Duke Beats Handily on Adjusted EPS Duke reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) significantly above analysts' expectations. The number came in at $1.18. This represents an earnings surprise of 16% and an increase of 30% from last year. Revenue also beat expectations, coming in at $7.17 billion versus $6.56 billion expected. This was a surprise of 9% and a growth of 9% from Q2 2023. The company reaffirmed its full-year adjusted EPS guidance midpoint of $5.98. The EPS increases were mostly due to gains in the EU&I segment. Rate increases, extra charges, volume growth, and improved weather contributed to this. Duke Energy Co. (DUK) Price Chart for Thursday, August, 8, 2024 Duke Wants Data Center Growth But on Its Terms Like other power generators, Duke is working to grow its ties with data center operators. They want to be the energy providers for these facilities. In 2023, Duke invested $22 billion in new projects to supply data centers and EV manufacturing/battery facilities. Duke has data center deals with some of the world's largest tech firms, including Amazon NASDAQ: AMZN, Google NASDAQ: GOOG, Microsoft NASDAQ: MSFT, and Meta NASDAQ: META. Currently, data centers account for around 2% of the firm's power generation; it hopes to grow that number to 8% by 2030. By 2028, Duke expects data centers to account for 25% of its electricity demand growth. Duke is attempting to exert power against these companies in several ways. First, it is working to establish “take-or-pay” clauses in its data center contracts. These would set a floor on the amount of energy the companies must buy, even if they don’t use it all. It also wants these companies to contribute to the upfront costs of developing the power grid. Pros and Cons of Duke’s High CAPEX Over the next five years, the company plans to invest $73 billion in capital expenditure (CAPEX). Of this, 40% will be used to expand and update the company’s grid, allowing power to travel further and more reliably. Zero-carbon energy generation investments will make up 26% of spending. Duke Energy Stock Forecast Today 12-Month Stock Price Forecast: $106.75 -5.65% Downside Moderate Buy Based on 11 Analyst Ratings High Forecast $122.00 Average Forecast $106.75 Low Forecast $93.00 Duke Energy Stock Forecast Details Duke Energy’s high level of capital expenditures is both positive and negative. The company will expand its capabilities more than firms like Constellation Energy NASDAQ: CEG, which also wants to profit from data center growth. Duke’s forecasted capital expenditure is over six times higher than Constellation’s over the next five years, even though Duke’s current total capacity is only about 40% higher than Constellation’s. This should give the firm a greater ability to increase its capacity and take on higher future demand. However, Duke is somewhat overextending itself, with its level of CAPEX being higher than its cash from operations. This has resulted in negative free cash flow. With relatively low cash levels on its balance sheet, the firm will have to keep issuing new debt to meet its goal of paying out a dividend yield of 3.7%. Before you consider Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund, 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 Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund wasn't on the list. While Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund currently has a "hold" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here

The New A.I. Deal: Buy Everything but the Company 2024-08-08 14:40:39+00:00 - In 2022, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas left their jobs developing artificial intelligence at Google. They said the tech giant moved too slowly. So they created Character.AI, a chatbot start-up, and raised nearly $200 million. Last week, Mr. Shazeer and Mr. De Freitas announced that they were returning to Google. They had struck a deal to rejoin its A.I. research arm, along with roughly 20 percent of Character.AI’s employees, and provide their start-up’s technology, they said. But even though Google was getting all that, it was not buying Character.AI. Instead, Google agreed to pay $3 billion to license the technology, two people with knowledge of the deal said. About $2.5 billion of that sum will then be used to buy out Character.AI’s shareholders, including Mr. Shazeer, who owns 30 percent to 40 percent of the company and stands to net $750 million to $1 billion, the people said. What remains of Character.AI will continue operating without its founders and investors. The deal was one of several unusual transactions that have recently emerged in Silicon Valley. While big tech companies typically buy start-ups outright, they have turned to a more complicated deal structure for young A.I. companies. It involves licensing the technology and hiring the top employees — effectively swallowing the start-up and its main assets — without becoming the owner of the firm.

UK regulator to examine $4bn Amazon investment in AI startup Anthropic 2024-08-08 14:37:00+00:00 - Amazon’s $4bn investment into US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is to be examined in the latest investigation into technology tie-ups by the UK’s competition watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Thursday that it was launching a preliminary investigation into the deal, before deciding whether to refer it for an in-depth review. The deal, announced in March, included a $4bn (£3.16bn) investment in Anthropic from Amazon, and a commitment from Anthropic to use Amazon Web Services “as its primary cloud provider for mission critical workloads, including safety research and future foundation model development”. The regulator said it was “considering whether it is or may be the case that Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic has resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation”. An Anthropic spokesperson said: “We are an independent company. Our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others. “Amazon does not have a seat on Anthropic’s board, nor does it have any board observer rights. We intend to cooperate with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s investment and our commercial collaboration.” An Amazon spokesperson said: “We’re disappointed that the UK’s CMA has not ended its probe yet. Amazon’s collaboration with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns or meet the CMA’s own threshold for review. “The early days of generative AI have largely seen one successful option available for customers. Anthropic has worked hard to become an emerging viable alternative. But, building models is expensive, and companies like Anthropic need access to a substantial amount of capital to train these models.” Amazon said its investment would help increase competition in the emerging sector and that Anthropic was “free to work with any other provider (and indeed has multiple partners)”. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to TechScape Free weekly newsletter Alex Hern's weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives 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 Last week, the CMA announced an almost identical inquiry into Google’s partnership with Anthropic. It is also investigating Microsoft’s unusually structured tie-ups with AI lab Inflection and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. An investigation by the CMA into a deal between Microsoft and the French AI startup Mistral was dropped in May.