id stringlengths 32 32 | url stringlengths 31 1.58k | title stringlengths 0 1.02k | contents stringlengths 92 1.17M |
|---|---|---|---|
8304fed9a2c0970c91d8910a1cfe2fcb | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/jana-sheds-entire-stake-in-whole-foods.html | Activist investor Jana cashes out of Whole Foods in wake of Amazon deal | Activist investor Jana cashes out of Whole Foods in wake of Amazon deal
VIDEO0:4400:44Jana exits entire Whole Foods stakeClosing Bell
The activist hedge fund who helped drive Whole Foods into Amazon's arms is cashing out.
On Wednesday, Jana Partners said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was exiting its position of 26 million shares, or about an 8.2 percent stake in the grocery chain, making a profit of roughly $300 million.
Jana started selling its shares in Whole Foods on June 19, and then shed the remainder, 16 million shares, in a block trade at $41.66 apiece on Tuesday, the SEC filing shows.
Jana Partners in April first reported its ownership of Texas-based Whole Foods, bumping up shares of the supermarket company's stock. The hedge fund was, at the time, suggesting the struggling grocer should either accelerate its turnaround plans or consider putting itself up for sale.
In April, Jana said Whole Foods "shares are undervalued and represent an attractive investment opportunity." The investor group also pointed out it had "substantial experience" in the grocery and food sectors.
These purchases also made Jana Whole Foods' second-biggest shareholder.
The activist investor initially accumulated its stake in Whole Foods by buying stock priced between about $29 per share to about $32 per share, according to SEC filings. Considering where Whole Foods is trading today, Jana made a nice chunk of change, around $300 million, from its entire investment.
Jana's sales totaled more than $1 billion, and Jana originally paid about $794.5 million for its position in Whole Foods, the hedge fund disclosed.
A representative from Jana Partners didn't immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Whole Foods' shares hardly moved Wednesday after the news broke. The grocery stock closed the day at $41.76 per share, hovering right around Amazon's $42 per share offer price.
In early June, prior to Amazon announcing its plans to acquire Whole Foods, Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey blatantly called out Jana Partners, tagging them "greedy bastards" who are only interested in making money from a forced sale of the struggling grocer.
"They're putting a bunch of propaganda out there, trying to destroy my reputation and the reputation of Whole Foods, because it's in their self-interest to do so," Mackey said in an interview with TexasMonthly.
Mackey's interview was published online days before the Amazon deal was announced.
Back when, Jana was frustrated that Whole Foods wasn't performing better in what was proving to be a competitive grocery market. Lately, more nontraditional players have swooped in and stolen market share; Lidl, a German grocer, just opened its first stores in the U.S. in June.
To be sure, Whole Foods' same-store sales have fallen for seven consecutive quarters. The company is scheduled to report earnings next Wednesday after market close.
Jana, meanwhile, has taken a similar tack in other investments it saw as underperforming. In 2013, the activist investor gained a 6 percent stake in Safeway, and then encouraged the grocer to exit certain markets and sell off non-core assets. In 2015, Jana acquired 7.2 percent of food packager ConAgra's shares and pushed them to divest weak assets after criticizing "persistent underperformance."
— CNBC's Sarah Whitten and Jeff Daniels contributed to this report.
|
7419fc10fca1893b4187d486b0bb6d7c | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/jeffrey-katzenberg-wants-to-launch-mobile-first-new-tv-service.html | Media exec Jeffrey Katzenberg is looking for $2 billion to create a mobile-first TV service | Media exec Jeffrey Katzenberg is looking for $2 billion to create a mobile-first TV service
Jeffrey KatzenbergGetty Images
After selling DreamWorks animation to NBCUniversal for $3.8 billion, executive Jeffrey Katzenberg's next move is to create a TV service for the mobile generation.
The proposed New TV, which Katzenberg told CNBC will cost about $2 billion to launch, will feature original shows. Episodes will be no longer than 10 minutes in length, but retain the high production values and quality people expect from traditional television.
Variety first reported that shows will not have ad breaks, but instead use title sponsors and brand integrations in episodes. There is no launch date as of yet.
Top producers J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, Mark Burnett and Jerry Bruckheimer have been interested in working on projects, Katzenberg said. He also has deals to license custom content from Disney, FOX, CBS and Lionsgate.
The cost may seem high, but sources told CNBC that Katzenberg has met with Apple, Google, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Snapchat and Spotify executives for funding. Based on potential partners, there may be a free ad-supported model as well as a paid subscription service, sources added.
Additional reporting by Julia Boorstin.
NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
|
e90a2da3f179206e055af7c12c982289 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/making-china-great-again-beijing-run-media-crows-as-us-stumbles.html | 'Making China great again': Beijing-run media crows as US stumbles | 'Making China great again': Beijing-run media crows as US stumbles
VIDEO1:5001:50US-China trade talks kick offStreet Signs Asia
A Communist Party mouthpiece is crowing that malfunctioning U.S. leadership is making China "great again" on the eve of highly anticipated bilateral trade talks between the two countries.
The op-ed published in the People's Daily said the U.S. was in political chaos and suffered from a broken system, which was why Washington couldn't get anything done. It also claimed the U.S. mess was giving China an opportunity to shine.
"U.S. foreign policy is in total disarray, and world regard for the U.S. has plummeted. Indeed, America is making China 'great again,'" the op-ed said. "Once the world's model, the great American meltdown has turned the U.S. into some bizarre soap opera."
This isn't the first time China has piggybacked off an American saying — remember President Xi Jinping's "Chinese Dream" slogan? This time around, the tone is a bit sharper, with Chinese state media not backing down ahead of annual bilateral talks that have been rebranded this year as the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue.
Magazines on a rack in Dalian, China on June 30, 2017.Everett Rosenfeld | CNBC
Although both Beijing and Washington have indicated they understand the need to play nice, both sides are pushing their own agenda as expected.
The U.S. wants to reduce the more than $300 billion trade deficit with China and make good on a campaign promise from President Donald Trump to pressure China on a number of fronts, such as opening up its markets to more foreign participation and to bring jobs back to America.
China, on the other hand, has pushed back, saying Chinese investment has helped the U.S. But it's clear that as the U.S. continues to face political turmoil, China is enjoying its time in the spotlight. That is, Beijing is explicitly seeking to fill the void the U.S. left as it backed out of various multilateral talks and agreements from the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal to the Paris climate change agreement.
Regardless of the rhetoric leading up to the U.S.-China talks, experts are looking to see what agreements may have been reached at the end of the 100-day trade plan period struck by Trump and Xi earlier this year, which ended this past weekend.
The U.S. has been keen to push tangible, specific agreements, which government officials echoed again ahead of the talks. One recent success was the lifting of a 14-year ban on U.S. exports of beef to China.
"Though this is a good start, a lot of work remains," U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said. "There remain serious imbalances, which we must work to rectify. China's exports to the U.S. as we all know far exceed the exports of the U.S. to China, and the U.S. market has far fewer restrictions on Chinese investment than China has on U.S. investment."
|
5cb037809de4aa385de34c2c960803c3 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/there-is-no-existential-crisis-challenge-for-banks-from-fintech-hsbcs-digital-chief-says.html | There is no 'existential crisis' challenge for banks from fintech, HSBC's digital chief says | There is no 'existential crisis' challenge for banks from fintech, HSBC's digital chief says
Matt Cardy | Getty Images | Getty Images News
The idea that big banks are facing an "existential crisis" from financial technology (fintech) challengers is "overblown", the digital chief of HSBC told CNBC.
In response to the debate over challenger banks and other fintech players posing a serious threat to established financial services institutions, the bank's head of digital said that the trust of customers meant banks were "sufficiently primed." Some have referred to the debate as "David versus Goliath," referring to the potential for small digital start-ups to undermine the dominance of big banks.
"I think the 'David-Goliath' (debate) or the existential crisis debate is overblown," Raman Bhatia, head of digital for HSBC in the U.K. and Europe, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
"There are many players that will co-exist and there could be many models that could build on top of the bank's model and co-exist with what banks have to offer."
ipopba | Getty Images
Several digital-only "challenger banks" such as Starling, Fidor and Monzo have gained momentum, particularly in the U.K., leading to questions over whether such digital alternatives could weaken the position of traditional banks.
And regulations which would allow third-party companies the ability to provide payment services for and access the data of banking customers - something referred to in the fintech world as "open banking" - are also set to cause headaches for the banks, experts have said.
Last week Daniel Döderlein, the CEO of Norwegian start-up Auka, which helps banks to comply with such regulations, warned that institutions which refuse to change their model to adapt to new developments like open banking would trail behind others in the market.
He said at a fintech conference in London that there would be a difference between the banks that "continue to make incremental technology steps to just make their business more efficient," all the while operating "exactly the same," and banks that "strategically fight towards the force of fintechs."
VIDEO1:5701:57No Uber moment for Fintech just yet: Financial services firm
And last month former Barclays CEO Anthony Jenkins warned that banks could be faced with their own "Kodak moment" by falling into irrelevance if they failed to keep up with the pace of rapidly developing fintech technologies.
But HSBC's Bhatia, who is responsible for developing innovation at HSBC, said that he believed the bank was ready for a challenge from fintechs, and that the bank's history as a financial institution and the trust of customers would work in its favor.
"We have customers, we have the trust of customers for more than a 100 years and we are investing heavily in and learning from fintech, partnering with fintechs and developing our own digital propositions for our customers, and the customers appreciate that," he said.
|
419d3ca82156d4d501f2b8b7165a3245 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/us-china-trade-talks-could-spell-more-tension-ahead.html | More US-China trade tensions expected after disappointing talks | More US-China trade tensions expected after disappointing talks
Little action was expected at Wednesday's U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, but despite the low bar, the event still yielded lackluster results — an indication of further bilateral strains ahead.
"It was a little bit of a disappointment," said Nicholas Consonery, senior director at business advisory firm FTI Consulting.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang and US Commerce Secretary Wilber Ross at the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue in Washington, DC. on July 19, 2017.Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images
Small deliverables, potentially a new opening in the Chinese market for U.S. companies as a goodwill sign to Washington or a one-year framework for further negotiations, were anticipated, yet discussions fell short of that mark, Consonery said.
U.S. and Chinese officials concluded talks without issuing a joint statement and canceled scheduled news conferences in what many analysts took as a sign of deep-seated disagreement on trade and investment issues — key themes of the inaugural event.
"It's petty clear that something broke down at the talks," said Christopher Beddor, Asia associate at consultancy Eurasia Group. "The general feeling in Washington is that this [dialogue] was underwhelming."
At the heart of the matter are key differences between what President Donald Trump wants and what President Xi Jinping is willing to provide.
Washington seeks increased exports of American goods to the mainland in order to reduce its trade deficit. The U.S. also wants broader Chinese market access for American companies and a clean-up of Chinese industries battling excess supply. The White House is now considering steel tariffs, with Trump telling a reporter on Wednesday that it "could happen."
VIDEO3:4803:48Need to up pressure on Chinese to avoid trade war: CSIS' Scott KennedyPower Lunch
Beijing, however, already has its own campaign to reduce overcapacity, so "for Xi to accede to U.S. demands on that front, it would be one of the most blatant giveaways to the Americans," Beddor said.
That is, agreeing to Washington's quantitative targets when Beijing has already set a benchmark elsewhere in the system would be difficult, he said.
"This is coming at a time when Xi's preparing for the 19th Party Congress so this is a very politically sensitive time for him," Beddor added.
Given Trump's willingness to press on overcapacity, more trade tensions are now likely in the second half, said Consonery.
Due to the fundamental differences between both administrations and the outcome of Wednesday's meeting, "some sort of trade action is increasingly likely," said Beddor.
|
d7853e35f1378be8c56c8eda213ed49d | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/with-amazon-going-after-whole-foods-the-cashier-job-is-in-question.html | Shoppers want cashier-free checkout and they expect Amazon will give it to them | Shoppers want cashier-free checkout and they expect Amazon will give it to them
VIDEO1:0701:07With Amazon going after Whole Foods, the cashier job is being called into questionNews Videos
Amazon announcing plans to acquire Whole Foods had everyone buzzing about the immediate impact on the grocery industry.
But one also has to wonder what will happen to the nearly 1 million Americans who work in supermarkets, ringing up purchases and bagging groceries, across the country.
When more than 900 shoppers were asked what Amazon should add or change at Whole Foods locations, the top response was adding "cashier-free checkout," according to a poll conducted by ChargeItSpot, a leading provider of cell-phone charging stations for retailers, including Nordstrom, Under Armour and Neiman Marcus.
Also of interest were "lower prices" and "in-store pickup for Amazon purchases," the survey found.
To be sure, Amazon has said it has no current plans to automate the jobs of cashiers in Whole Foods' stores after it finishes acquiring the grocery chain. It also isn't planning any layoffs, according to an Amazon spokesperson. But speculation continues to build. Especially when there are reports claiming that half of all American jobs are at risk from automation. "When Amazon announced they would be expanding into the grocery space, shoppers were interested to see what new features would be implemented in these stores," ChargeItSpot's CEO Doug Baldasare said.
"Our survey found that shoppers want the Amazon-Whole Foods merger to upgrade the grocery store experience with additions of useful technology."
The deal between Amazon and Whole Foods, should it pan out, will advance the process of replacing people with technology, Ian Siegel, CEO of job marketplace ZipRecruiter, told CNBC.
"We already have self-checkout stations, and Amazon has demonstrated that even more advanced 'check-out' technology is possible."
The internet giant has even released a video showing what a futuristic store concept, called Amazon Go, looks like — no lines, no registers, only "just walk out" technology. Amazon Go is currently open for the company's employees at a test location in Seattle.
ZipRecruiter's Siegel said that a gradual shift in supermarkets' employment structure will also open up opportunities in new types of retail jobs, such as consultative sales, distribution and logistics within the grocery chains. So, cashiers shouldn't fear being out of a paycheck altogether, but instead looking to employ their service skills elsewhere.
The latest count from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows there were 867,920 grocery cashiers in the U.S. in 2016. Since the start of the year, the U.S. economy has shed roughly 71,000 total retail jobs, the BLS said. "Advances in technology, such as self-service checkout stands in retail stores and increasing online sales, will continue to limit the need for cashiers."
ZipRecruiter further found that job postings for grocery positions, which would include cashiers, were down 24 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to last year. Demand is evidently waning.
VIDEO2:4502:45There's no 'appetite' in the Senate for border tax: NRF's Matthew ShaySquawk Box
"I think what we're seeing here is one more chapter in a rapid transformation of the industry," National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday, discussing technology's impact on retail jobs.
"As we become more productive as human beings, and we divide labor properly ... the low-skill repetitive kinds of things that can be done by machines are done, [and] that frees up human beings to do the higher things."
This trend "ought to make [retail employees] more productive and ought to create better jobs," Shay said.
Grocery stores and big-box chains like Kroger and Target, for example, aren't going to "turn back the clock" on artificial intelligence and machine learning, but they're investing "massive" amounts of money in these new technologies as they develop, the NRF CEO added. "They're going to create more jobs in other parts of the business that should be good for everybody."
A cashier-less checkout process in grocery stores is not a new idea — many supermarket chains had already installed self-checkout kiosks in stores, before the Amazon-Whole Foods announcement. But the problem remains there are still kinks in the concept — in many instances, a human being must be called over to assist in the checkout process. The kiosk can be slow, and the procedure can become confusing, especially for those who aren't used to interacting with so much technology.
Amazon now has the opportunity to fix a broken system — or at least make some much-needed upgrades.
"There's a reason why cashiers continue to have substantial employment," Mark Hamrick, an economic analyst at Bankrate, told CNBC in an interview. "Because other technology is not ready for prime time, [and] it doesn't feel as if efforts to make it better have been successful."
"It's incumbent on Amazon to innovate ... things that would be along the lines of being able to monitor your grocery bill in real time."
Like many others, Hamrick agreed that cashier jobs will not be eliminated entirely but will be moved to other areas of the grocery store — handing out samples of food and interacting with shoppers, he suggested.
The cashier-free concept is growing in popularity due to high consumer acceptance and the benefits it offers — mainly saving time, financial services firm Cornerstone Capital wrote in a recent report.
"Amazon is likely to invest [in] major productivity gains in the entire supply chain and look across its businesses, in contrast to a pure retailer that is trying to reduce costs and generate 'smallish' productivity gains through automating staff," Sebastian Vanderzeil, an analyst with Cornerstone Capital, said.
One major investment could be in expanding Amazon Go.
It remains to be seen when Amazon will roll out Amazon Go locations across the U.S., should the trial run prove successful. Or, Amazon might choose to utilize the "just walk out" technology in Whole Foods — another strategy being floated around.
"Among the reasons why the Amazon-Whole Foods deal was stunning, was that prospect for innovation," Bankrate's Hamrick said.
A representative from Amazon didn't respond to CNBC's request for comment.
VIDEO1:1301:13Check out Amazon's latest concept: A store without lines or registersFood Retail
|
5bfb7f93072f62d5f7fa5821eac2046f | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/a-60-year-old-entrepreneur-took-her-business-from-zero-to-500-million.html | It’s never too late to succeed: How this 60-year-old founder took her business from zero to $500 million in 6 years | It’s never too late to succeed: How this 60-year-old founder took her business from zero to $500 million in 6 years
|
344206ab224446342632b0aecd01eb38 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/china-clamping-down-on-use-of-vpns-to-evade-great-firewall.html | China clamping down on use of VPNs to evade Great Firewall | China clamping down on use of VPNs to evade Great Firewall
A journalist works in front of a live feed of China's President Xi Jinping speaking at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum, on a screen in the media center of the China National Convention Center, the forum's venue, in Beijing on May 14, 2017.GREG BAKER | AFP | Getty Images
China is tightening control over foreign companies' internet use in a move some worry might disrupt their operations or jeopardize trade secrets as part of a crackdown on technology that allows web surfers to evade Beijing's online censorship.
In a letter to corporate customers seen by The Associated Press, the biggest Chinese internet service provider says virtual private networks, which create encrypted links between computers and can be used to see sites blocked by Beijing's web filters, will be permitted only to connect to a company's headquarters abroad. The letter from state-owned China Telecom Ltd. says VPN users are barred from linking to other sites outside China, a change that might block access to news, social media or business services that are obscured by its "Great Firewall."The letter repeats an announcement from January that only VPNs approved by Chinese authorities are allowed. That has prompted fears of possible loss of trade secrets or information about customers or employees among companies that question the reliability of Chinese encryption services and whether authorities might read messages.
Regulators announced a crackdown in January to stamp out use of VPNs to circumvent web censorship.
Authorities have tried to reassure companies they won't be affected, but if the rules in the China Telecom letter are enforced, they could hamper activity ranging from gathering information for business deals to employees working on business trips.
The crackdown reflects President Xi Jinping's vision of "internet sovereignty," or Beijing's absolute right to control what people can do and see online.
Control over information is especially sensitive ahead of a party congress late this year at which Xi is due to be appointed to a second five-year term as leader.
The ruling Communist Party encourages web use for business and education but rejects the notion of a borderless internet and the free flow of information. It controls internet traffic across China's borders and tries to keep its public from seeing thousands of websites abroad including Google and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as news outlets and human rights groups.
This week, the Beijing municipal internet regulator announced it ordered website operators including Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to remove material that was "distorting the history of China and the Party" and "promoting abnormal values" or had other problems.
Also this week, a letter issued by the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Beijing to guests that circulated on social media says the hotel can no longer provide VPN service "due to legal issues" as of last Friday.
In June, the Hong Kong-based operator of a popular service, Green VPN, announced Chinese regulators had ordered it to close.
Beijing has repeatedly pressured foreign companies to hand over technology, encryption know-how and other trade secrets in exchange for access to its huge and growing market.
Companies cite internet controls as among the biggest obstacles to doing business in China.
In a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China last year, 79 percent of companies that responded said web filters hurt them by blocking access to information and business tools.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in April he would temporarily set aside disputes with Beijing over market barriers and currency while the two sides cooperated over North Korea's nuclear program. But Trump has expressed frustration with lack of progress on that and has resumed criticizing China's trade surplus with the United States.
It was unclear how many companies received China Telecom's letter. The American and European Chambers of Commerce in Beijing said their members had not reported receiving it.
The letter, which bears no date, says VPNs are for "internal office use only" and only can connect to a company's headquarters abroad, not to any other websites. That would block users from seeing business news or other information sources that are shielded by the filters.
Companies are required to provide the identities of every employee who uses a VPN, according to the letter.
Lester Ross, a lawyer in Beijing for the firm WilmerHale, said he had not heard of the China Telecom letter. But he said the conditions in it described to him by a reporter would be disruptive if enforced.
Without VPNs to bypass web filters, "then it is just impossible to do business under the constraints that apply officially," said Ross. "You're either making it unenforceable or they are damaging business to an extraordinary extent."
A Western diplomat who asked not to be identified further due to the sensitivity of the issue said companies have told his government they worry the controls might lead to weaker data security and trade secrets being leaked to Chinese competitors. The diplomat said some are hesitant to invest more in China due to that.
China Telecom and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which announced the January crackdown, did not respond to requests for information about the letter.
Authorities have never disclosed whether they read communications sent over Chinese VPN providers.
"Despite the fact that people get used to the system, protection of confidentiality is always a concern," said Ross. "They've never guaranteed privacy of communications."
Beijing has announced restrictions on VPN use over the past decade but did little to enforce them, possibly to avoid disrupting business or access to information for scientists and academics.
The VPN crackdown coincides with a Cybersecurity Law that took effect on June 1 and tightens control over data. It limits use of foreign security technology and requires companies to store information about Chinese citizens within this country.
On Tuesday, users of Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service, which normally operates freely in China, were no longer able to send images without using a VPN. That coincided with official efforts to suppress mention of Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate who died last week and whom social media users have commemorated by exchanging images of him.
Already, companies increasingly limit VPN access to employees such as media managers "with a critical business need" to see a banned website, according to Jake Parker, vice president of China operations for the U.S.-China Business Council.
Companies can avoid the need for a VPN by leasing a circuit from China Telecom or other state-owned providers that connects directly to their headquarters abroad. Prices start at more than $1,000 per month.
The information ministry tried to reassure commercial users in a statement reported last week in a Shanghai newspaper, The Paper.
"Foreign trade enterprises and multinational companies that need a cross-border line for their own office use can lease one from an authorized telecoms enterprise," said the statement. It said the January notice "will not affect normal operations."
|
981cd25c4c8598c0bf732ff016048696 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/elon-musk-says-he-got-verbal-govt-approval-for-hyperloop-between-ny-and-dc.html | Elon Musk says he got 'verbal govt' approval for Hyperloop between NY and DC | Elon Musk says he got 'verbal govt' approval for Hyperloop between NY and DC
VIDEO0:5400:54Elon Musk says he got 'verbal govt' approval for Hyperloop between NY and DCNews Videos
The beleaguered transit system in the Northeast may receive a boost from one of the most ambitious entrepreneurs in the world.
Elon Musk tweeted Thursday that The Boring Co. received "verbal" government approval to begin building an underground Hyperloop, saying it would take 29 minutes to go from New York to Washington, D.C.
"Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop," Musk said.
@elonmusk tweet.
The proposed Hyperloop would connect the city centers of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, as Musk tweeted in a follow-up.
@elonmusk tweet.
While Musk did not say the source of his verbal approval, a White House spokesperson told CNBC that Musk has spoken to the Trump administration before.
"We have had promising conversations to date, are committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector," the White House spokesperson said.
Musk cautioned that there is "still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval," even while he is optimistic that a regulatory green light will be given quickly.
@elonmusk tweet.
An Amtrak ride on the Northeast Regional line from Washington to New York currently takes three hours and 20 minutes, according to the passenger railroad company's website. Deteriorating rail infrastructure in the Northeast has been highlighted recently by emergency repairs at New York's Pennsylvania Station after a series of derailments. Penn Station is owned and operated by Amtrak. At the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington on Wednesday, Musk said another one of his plans, to dig tunnels under Los Angeles, is a "low stress activity" because "everyone expects it to fail." Musk has said previously he has had "promising conversations" with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti about moving forward with the project, but has yet to receive a permit from the city.
Musk plans to start digging the New York to Washington route at the same time as the Los Angeles urban congestion project. Asked whether Texas might receive a Hyperloop system, Musk tweeted "for sure" before enumerating on his plans.
@elonmusk tweet.
A Los Angeles to San Francisco route would be the third Hyperloop project proposed by Musk, as he continues to plot connections between major U.S. cities.
Philadelphia city government spokesman Mike Dunn, told CNBC that Musk has not contacted Philadelphia officials about his plan.
"We do not know what he means when he says he received 'government approval,'" Dunn said. "There are numerous hurdles for this unproven 'hyperloop' technology before it can become reality."
The press secretary for New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio responded to Musk's tweet, saying "this is news to City Hall."
@EricFPhillips tweet.
Eric Phillips said he has "no clue" what Musk's reference to "verbal approval" means.
A New York City community board chairman also denied knowledge of a plan to tunnel on the eastern seaboard.
"This is my first time hearing this; none of this has come to the community boards," Anthony Notaro Jr. said, chair of Community Board 1 in Manhattan.
Mayor's offices in Washington and Baltimore were not immediately available for comment.
— Kelly Song contributed to this report.
VIDEO0:5200:52Elon Musk's boring machine completes the first section of an LA tunnelDigital Original
|
7da3d030dfd1c62f578d1a2fc21f7a3c | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/if-you-sold-this-etf-because-youre-scared-of-amazon-you-made-a-big-mistake-strategist-says.html | If you sold this ETF because you’re scared of Amazon, you made a big mistake, strategist says | If you sold this ETF because you’re scared of Amazon, you made a big mistake, strategist says
VIDEO1:2401:24This is what investors should watch in the homebuilder sector (Hint: it's not Amazon)Trading Nation
Homebuilder stocks could see further upside, according to one strategist who sees a strong environment for the homebuilders despite a rough trading day on Thursday.
Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, is watching homebuilder stocks closely following Wednesday's U.S. housing starts data, showing that housing starts rose 8.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million units, versus 1.16 million units expected.
Homebuilder stocks look poised to rise based upon this strong housing data, low-interest rates and a key homebuilder exchange-traded fund's strong performance this year. The iShares U.S. Homebuilders ETF, the ITB, has risen nearly 24 percent year to date. Homebuilder stocks are often used as a gauge of the broader economy's health.
The group took a hit on Thursday after Sears announced it would sell Alexa-enabled appliances on Amazon. Shares of some retail names like Home Depot and Lowe's fell sharply on Thursday following the announcement.
This announcement alone shouldn't serve as a huge challenge for these stocks, Maley said Thursday on CNBC's "Trading Nation," hours after the announcement was released.
"Let's face it. People nowadays, whenever Amazon does something, they shoot first and ask questions later, and that's what we seem to be doing in Home Depot and Lowe's this week. As those stocks bounce back, so will the rest of the housing group," he said.
Home Depot makes up 4.2 percent of the ITB, while Lowe's accounts for about 3 percent.
"As we move forward, it's going to be really important that people look at the important numbers in the housing sector, whether it be housing starts, existing homes and interest rates, and not look about what's going on with Amazon. Amazon's an important company and what they do is very important, but it's not the entire world," he added.
Shares of Amazon rose slightly in Thursday trading. The ITB fell a bit more than 1 percent.
|
2303d11f798a56070169a1ea3c47376a | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/paul-ryan-says-tax-reform-will-get-done-because-gop-is-much-more-unified-on-issue.html | Paul Ryan says tax reform will get done because GOP is 'much more unified' on issue | Paul Ryan says tax reform will get done because GOP is 'much more unified' on issue
VIDEO1:2901:29Ryan talks tax reform on the roadClosing Bell
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he feels more confident that tax reform can get done this year than a health-care overhaul because Republicans are "wired the same way" on the issue.
"Obviously, as you can see in the Senate, there is a difference of opinions on how to do health-care reform. We are so much more unified on tax reform, on what it looks like, and how to do it and the need to do it," the Wisconsin Republican told reporters Thursday.
His comments come as the Senate has struggled to push health-care reform through. Support for both a revised Senate bill and a separate bill that would repeal Obamacare without an immediate replacement quickly lost GOP support earlier this week.
Ryan said the GOP knows overhauling the tax system "needs to get done" because it is essential to boosting economic growth. Because of this consensus, Ryan said he is "very confident" that his party can get it done this year.
When asked about the corporate tax rate, Ryan said 20 percent is "very realistic." He said he's confident that the tax-writing committees will be able to lower rates because there's many ways of achieving those levels.
But he deferred to the tax-writing committees when asked about the details of other measures that may end up in a reform package.
VIDEO1:2101:21Ryan: 20 percent corporate tax rate 'very realistic'Closing Bell
|
b09ddabb41e925733c40e59e2e976f50 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/stop-quitting-apps-on-your-iphone-and-ipad-its-making-things-worse.html | Stop quitting apps on your iPhone and iPad ... it's making things worse | Stop quitting apps on your iPhone and iPad ... it's making things worse
VIDEO0:4300:43Stop quitting apps on your iPhone and iPad ... it's making things worseNews Videos
Somewhere along the way, someone told you to force quit apps on your iPhone and iPad to improve performance and save battery life.
Stop doing that.
We've all done this at one point or another because we learned it's a good idea to close applications that are hogging system resources on slow-running computers. When too many apps are running at once, it can make a perfectly good system feel like it's trudging through thick mud.
Apple's iOS, which powers iPhones and iPads, doesn't work like a traditional computer operating system. Closing apps doesn't help your performance or improve battery life.
In fact, according to the developer and Apple watcher John Gruber, it's doing the opposite.
Gruber recently explained that apps running on an iPhone or iPad are frozen in state when they're not being used, which means they aren't taking up system resources as much as, say, an app on a computer might be if it were just minimized to your system tray. The apps stay frozen and don't suck battery life.
The act of closing and reopening takes up more resources, he said:
[IOS] is so good at this that unfreezing a frozen app takes up way less CPU (and energy) than relaunching an app that had been force quit. Not only does force quitting your apps not help, it actually hurts. Your battery life will be worse and it will take much longer to switch apps if you force quit apps in the background.
Gruber points to an email to an Apple customer from Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi, who said he doesn't close apps and that doing so doesn't save battery life.
There you go, myth busted.
VIDEO2:0802:08Apple's Siri vs. Google Assistant: We picked a clear winnerDigital Original
|
676d6410a7a51be5e94a579a99717d7a | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/the-rising-cost-of-care-in-america.html | Camille Pitzer, 3, bites into a freshly sliced orange at MaineLy Childcare -- one of several local daycares working to improve the food it serves.Ben McCanna | Portland Press Herald | Getty Images
Baby-sitters, day-care, nannies. Parents are spending bucket loads of money on child care, and it's not getting any cheaper.
Nearly one in three families spend 20 percent or more of their annual household income on child care, according to the latest survey by Care.com. The report interviewed 1,000 parents nationwide.
Here are some of the highlights:
Nearly 1 in 3 parents would put themselves in debt to pay for child care, up from 25% in 2016.72% of parents budget for child care. However, 30% are not able to stay within their monthly budget.40% of parents say child care costs have caused tension in their relationship.20% of families say they had fewer children than they would have liked because of the high cost of child care.63% say child care costs influenced their career decisions.73% of working parents say their job has been affected because of child care plans falling through at the last minute68% of families say the current tax deduction they receive from the Dependent Care FSA isn't enough to have a meaningful impact on their child care expenses.
The average cost of day-care for infants is about $10,468 a year, but prices ranged from $6,605 to $20,209 a year, according to Care.com.
The average cost of day-care for toddlers is about $9,733, but prices ranged from $8,043 to $18,815 a year. On the other hand, the average cost of a nanny who cares for one child is about $28,905. However, prices ranged from $27,019 to $32,677.
Where you live can make a big difference. According to the survey, Mississippi, New Mexico and Arkansas are the least affordable states for a nanny. District of Columbia, Oregon and California are the least affordable states for day-care.
Which are the most affordable states? New Hampshire, New Jersey and Maryland are the most affordable states for a nanny. North Dakota, Utah and Delaware are the most affordable for daycare.
| |
e9b3bb72c43837902a49725d1543373d | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/universities-hoping-to-sway-millennials-are-now-opening-innovation-hubs-for-undergraduates.html | Universities, hoping to sway millennials, are now opening innovation hubs for undergraduates | Universities, hoping to sway millennials, are now opening innovation hubs for undergraduates
The Georgia Institute of Technology campus in Atlanta, Georgia.Philip Mccollum | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A few years ago, Raghupathy Sivakumar, an engineering professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, realized he had a problem.
An undergraduate student had just won a prestigious invention competition, but the student had no idea how to advance his idea from concept to product, a major roadblock for most undergraduates.
So, in 2014, Sivakumar was tapped to start CREATE-X, an umbrella of entrepreneurial support programs catered specifically to Georgia Tech undergraduates. Part of the program's objective was to tap into a previously ignored segment of the population: The undergraduates who form the lion's share of the school's more than 26,000-strong enrollment.
Sivakumar's experience is part of a trend in which schools are crafting entrepreneurial programs with an eye toward undergrads. As colleges look to keep pace with a competitive job market being shaped by automation and globalization, many are opening entrepreneur centers designed to entice millennials.
"The reality is most of the people at a university are generally the undergraduates," said Keith McGreggor, the director of Georgia Tech's VentureLab, another entrepreneurship hub at the school.
"New ideas could really come from anywhere," he told CNBC recently. "So to ignore the largest population of people on your campus is kind of a nutty idea, but we certainly did for a long time."
They are very interested and understand it's more likely they'll create their own job than have a job from someone else for a long period of time. Christy Wyskiel, head of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures
Science, technology, engineering and math —otherwise known as STEM education—is becoming increasingly coveted by potential employers and students alike. It's prompted academia to adjust its offerings in a way that prepares graduates for the challenges of the modern workforce.
"We have students who come in and have been programming and coding for years," said Troy D'Ambrosio, executive director of the University of Utah's Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, the school's hub for student innovation. "It's very different than even five years ago. They grew up with a smartphone in their hands."
The benefits work both ways. For instance, universities can use these centers as a way to reach beyond the campus walls and connect with local startup communities, said Tejus Kothari, principal at the Boston Consulting Group's education division.
A shiny, new, multi-million dollar facility dedicated to innovation can also be a selling point for recruiting students in the hotly competitive arms race among colleges for top students.
"There is a significant segment [of students] looking at what type of support will [they] have as a hypothetical entrepreneur?" Kothari told CNBC. "Will I be out there on my own? Or can I tap into the resources and infrastructure the university has. For a segment of the students, that can tip the scales one way or another."
Hinterhaus Productions | Getty Images
Meanwhile, students understand the labor market—and career progression—will look much different for them than it did for their parents. It's not uncommon for entrepreneurs to job-hop early in their careers, in a way that helps foster professional development and refine their interests.
"They are very interested and understand it's more likely they'll create their own job than have a job from someone else for a long period of time," said Christy Wyskiel, the head of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, the university's startup incubator.
Another factor is what Georgia Tech's McGreggor called the rise in resiliency, an outgrowth of the post-financial crisis recession.
"The 2008 housing collapse … really did send a big, strong signal throughout the economy to say 'things can fail,' and when things fail, people lose jobs," McGreggor said.
"When they lose jobs, they still need to keep on living. How do you safeguard against that?" he asked. "Being able to create your own job is a huge safeguard against that."
Meanwhile, the level of interest at places like the University of Utah—where the Lassonde Institute had 5,000 students last take part in some activity involving the center—suggest the numbers speak for themselves.
Since its inception a few years ago, Georgia Tech's CREATE-X has yielded 81 startups from students across its six academic divisions and 26 majors, and earning more than $2 million in follow on investments in just three years.Separately, John Hopkins had seven applications three years ago; this year it had 40.
"Demand is multiples of where it was a couple years ago," Wyskiel said.
Although the hubs themselves are relatively new, some have birthed technology with real-world impact. Sunrise Health, an artificial intelligence messaging app, was co-founded by Shrenik Jain and Ravi Shah out of JHTV. It's designed to fill the gaps left by traditional therapy for patients seeking mental health treatment. Sunrise Health has pilot programs in Denver and Alaska, with Boston and Baltimore next on its expansion list.
Another that has come to market is FIXD, which originally started as an app designed to make self-breast exams easier, but now operates as a way to help drivers understand maintenance issues with their car.
Co-founded by John Gattuso and others at CREATE-X, the app connects via Bluetooth to a car, monitors its vitals and gives the driver helpful instructions.
For Gattuso, working on a startup means getting more responsibility quickly. At big companies, he said, he was frustrated when he was told he couldn't handle something.
"If you can prove yourself, you can get any responsibility really, really quickly," he told CNBC. "It's been great with FIXD. It's like drinking from a firehose, but I'm responsible for the well-being of the company and it's fantastic."
|
cd2c76460055841ce1e1b3aae8542086 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/21/google-oath-others-ad-fraud-widespread-problem.html | Online ad fraud is a 'widespread' problem, Google and other big ad platforms admit | Online ad fraud is a 'widespread' problem, Google and other big ad platforms admit
Selimaksan | E+ | Getty Images
Online ad fraud is a growing problem, and even huge platform companies like Google and Verizon's Oath are not immune.
Google-run tests found fraudulent companies selling ad space on premium websites they did not have access to, or on fake versions of real websites, as first reported by Business Insider. The fraudulent ad space was sold through programmatic ad exchanges — automated ad sales platforms — including Google's AdX, AppNexus, Oath's Brightroll, and PubMatic. (Oath is the new umbrella brand for more than 50 media and technology brands previously owned by AOL and Yahoo.)
"Some of our publisher partners have asked us for help with understanding how their brand is impacted by counterfeit inventory and the scope of the issue across the ads ecosystem," a Google spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. "These tests have confirmed how widespread of an issue this is for publishers."
Ad fraud will cost companies around the globe $16.4 billion this year, according to ad verification company Adloox. There are a variety of ways it can occur, including fake "bot" traffic to websites meant to mimic human activity or ads so tiny that they can't be seen by the human eye.
How to combat "spoofing"
The type of ad fraud Google's test was looking at is called "spoofing."
The method is used to trick ad buyers into purchasing advertising space on websites that don't exist, or that the sellers don't have access to. Because of the speed and volume of advertising online when bought programmatically, it's virtually impossible to check if an ad ran where sellers say it was supposed to run.
VIDEO0:5900:59Beware of schemes that could drain your bank accountNews Videos
Google, AppNexus, Oath and PubMatic say they are actively working to fight ad fraud. One of the main initiatives they're involved in is called ads.txt, which directly fights spoofing.
Ads.txt, which is led by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab, is a text file where publishers list approved ad sellers. Companies can then use it to create programs to make sure they don't buy unauthorized ad space.
Spoofing and unauthorized selling is "pervasive," and ads.text can help, IAB Tech Lab general manager Alanna Gombert explained. But it must be an industry-wide effort to help defeat ad fraud, she said.
"Everyone has an equal part in cleaning the fraud," Gombert said. "The publishers have to be aware where their inventory is showing up, or their 'fake inventory.' The buyers can't take deals. If it's too good to be true, it probably is."
Programmatic platforms also say companies need to invest in their own internal technology.
"Oath has invested in proprietary technology on our buying platforms, including BrightRoll and ONE by AOL, that aims to enforce supply transparency and prevent domain spoofing across the majority of supply partners," Oath said in a statement.
"In fact, our technology blocks hundreds of millions of spoofed bid requests on a daily basis. Combined with our longtime partnership with the IAB, industry-leading third-party fraud measurement across our platforms and human review safeguards, we're fully committed to a safe, transparent supply chain for our advertiser partners."
AppNexus vice president of corporate communications Josh Zeitz told CNBC ad fraud is an "industry-wide challenge."
"We've invested heavily in detection technology that enables us to find and shut down such bad activity; ads.txt, which we are avidly promoting, is also an important technology development that will help all exchanges, including Google's AdX and AppNexus, clamp down on this type of activity," Zeitz said.
Pubmatic chief marketing officer Jeffrey K. Hirsch said the company was trying to understand where Google's data on the "spoofing" cases came from, and declined to comment on the report. However, Pubmatic is actively working on ad fraud issues, including through the ads.txt program.
"Having the IAB support this is important for the industry and we support the effort," Hirsch said. "We have many internal and third party technology solutions for monitoring fraud and a solution such as ads.txt will surely provide additional value as the transparent connection between buyers and sellers is, based on increased brand spend in digital, perhaps more important than ever."
VIDEO1:0501:05Pindrop CEO battles phone fraudSoftware
|
a787b0a814dba7e1b2607e7a78674f43 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/21/martin-shkreli-trial-could-go-to-jury-next-week.html | Martin Shkreli fraud trial could go to jury next week; judge slams lawyers for arguing 'like two little children' | Martin Shkreli fraud trial could go to jury next week; judge slams lawyers for arguing 'like two little children'
Martin Shkreli arrives to federal court in Brooklyn on July 21st, 2017.Dan Mangan | CNBC
Jurors in the Martin Shkreli securities fraud trial could begin considering his fate late next week, as prosecutors indicated Friday that their case is winding down.
If jurors do begin deliberations, it might be just in time given the fraying nerves that have become evident among prosecutors and defense attorneys during the long trial of the notorious "pharma bro" Shkreli.
The trial judge twice in the past two days has reprimanded lawyers on both sides for making snarky comments about one other.
"Look, this is like two little children arguing," Judge Kiyo Matsumoto snapped Friday in Brooklyn, New York, federal court, where one of Shkreli's lawyers, Marc Agnifilo, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra Smith had exchanged verbal digs.
"You can be the adult in the room," Agnifilo replied, trying to make light of the moment.
"You be the adult in the room," Matsumoto shot back.
"It doesn't do anything good," Matsumoto said of the lawyers' bickering.
The judge added that she found "some of the language" in legal filings both sides made on Thursday was "in my mind ... really unacceptable."
Prosecutors and defense lawyers have squabbled in recent days over the prosecution's bid to introduce multiple documents into evidence without having to call witnesses to explain the relevance of those documents.
Shkreli's lawyers have said in legal papers that the prosecution is "deathly afraid" of calling those witnesses to testify because, "like its earlier witnesses, their credibility will not withstand cross examination."
Prosecutors indicated they might rest their case on Monday, or Tuesday at the latest.
The defense, in turn, implied it may just call several witnesses, at the most.
VIDEO0:4900:49Martin Shkreli wrote a woman to say he would work hard 'to see you and your four children homeless' after husband refused to sell stockNews Videos
That would set the stage for closing arguments to be held by the latter part of next week.
Although the defense did not say Shkreli will not testify, it seems very unlikely that the 34-year-old former pharmaceuticals executive will take the witness stand in his own defense.
Shkreli's trial began the last week of June, almost two years after he first came to public light and sparked widespread outrage for raising the price of an anti-parasite drug by more than 5,000 percent. The price hike, at his former drug company Turing Pharmaceuticals, is not related to the current case.
Shkreli is accused of defrauding multiple investors at two hedge funds he ran in New York City by misleading them about the performance of those funds.
Prosecutors claim that when Shkreli was issuing glowing financial statements to investors, the funds were actually running on fumes, at best.
Shkreli also is accused of siphoning off stock and cash from the drug company he subsequently founded, Retrophin, to pay the hedge fund investors back their money, despite the fact Retrophin had no such legal obligation to do so.
Shkreli's defense team, in cross-examining the hedge fund investors, has repeatedly highlighted the fact that those investors actually ended up earning a profit compared with what they initially invested.
The profits largely came in the form of the value of Retrophin stock, as opposed to cash redemptions from the funds that Shkreli had promised them, and then failed to make.
The judge has told defense lawyers they cannot argue to jurors that there was no fraud by Shkreli on the investors just because they happened to make a profit, in the end.
Prosecutors have underscored how long it took for those investors to obtain the return of their funds. In some cases, it took investors years to get their money back.
Prosecutors have shown how Shkreli had Retrophin stock and cash distributed to the investors in his hedge funds at the time they were repeatedly asking for their money.
As evidence of that, prosecutors have introduced a series of settlement agreements reached with the investors and Shkreli, as well as several consulting agreements with some of those investors.
Prosecutors contend that those consulting agreements, which call for the investors to provide services to Retrophin, were shams, and were created to provide the illusion that the payments were proper.
Shkreli's lead lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told Matsumoto on Friday that prosecutors "have not established in the trial evidence the notion that Mr. Shkreli did anything wrong."
"He may have done some things they don't like," Brafman added.
Brafman argued there is evidence that shows that Shkreli's settlement and consulting agreements reached with investors were approved by Retrophin's board of directors.
Prosecutors argue otherwise.
In testimony earlier Friday, the manager of a stock transfer company said that on several occasions she was asked to transfer Retrophin shares to investors in Shkreli's funds, and that the request included a copy of the consulting agreement the investors had with Retrophin.
"Did you receive any Retrophin board resolutions confirming this consulting agreement," prosecutor G. Karthik Srinivasan asked the manager, Amy Merrill, about one of those transfer requests.
VIDEO1:0501:05Accountant for Martin Shkreli's drug company had 'WTF' moment when reviewing firm's 'chaotic' booksNews Videos
"No," Merrill replied.
She gave the same answer when asked about another transfer linked to a Retrophin consulting agreement.
Merrill also detailed multiple instances involving Retrophin stock, or that of that the shell company that it used to complete a reverse merger, being transferred or issued to investors in Shkreli's hedge funds.
Most of those investors have testified that they were told by Shklreli that they could get their investments in the funds redeemed in cash when he decided to close them in late 2012.
They have said they only later learned from him, after being stonewalled for months, that their investments had supposedly been rolled over into Retrophin.
Merrill said that her transfer company's records show that when Retrophin completed its merger with the shell company, Shkreli personally owned 2,557,755 shares as of Dec. 13, 2012.
He officially owned the exact same number of shares more than a year later, on Jan. 15, 2014, Merrill said.
She wasn't asked the significance of that fact by the prosecutor. But the implication for jurors was that Shkreli did not use any of his own shares to satisfy the claims of multiple investors whose money he had either lost at his hedge funds without their knowledge, or had rolled over into capitalizing Retrophin.
Merrill also testified about several transfers of Retrophin stock to investors from people other than Shkreli.
Prosecutors claim that despite those shares being held in the names of other people, Shkreli secretly controlled them without disclosing that fact as required, and used the shares to pay back defrauded investors.
VIDEO0:5300:53Martin Shkreli worker called him 'mentally unstable,' and a 'scam artist' as she threatened to expose his lies to investorsNews Videos
|
477875cacf22791a4b8e68a38cab7383 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/21/tax-reform-reagan-style-may-be-a-tougher-fit-for-trump.html | Tax reform, Reagan style, may be a tougher fit for Trump | Tax reform, Reagan style, may be a tougher fit for Trump
Donald TrumpGetty Images
With efforts to reshape health care seemingly in shambles, Congress now confronts an issue that business-minded Republicans (and many Democrats) really care about: tax reform.
As Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, put it this week, "We've got to move on to tax reform so we have a competitive tax system," and do it "pretty quickly." The House Ways and Means Committee continued hearings on tax legislation on Wednesday.
The stakes couldn't be higher for Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration, all anxious to demonstrate that a party that controls the White House and both houses of Congress can accomplish something significant and deliver on at least one major campaign promise.
More from The New York Times:Health Care Has G.O.P. Down. Tax Cuts May Be the Cure.White House Scaling Back Goals for Business Tax CutsTrump's Industry, Real Estate, Poses Hurdle to Tax Overhaul
So what would be the elements of a tax reform plan that is fair and simple and will stimulate growth — not to mention attract at least 50 Republican votes in the Senate?
A good place to start, say many Republicans and Democrats, is the Tax Reform Act of 1986, enacted under President Ronald Reagan with bipartisan support.
Almost everyone, it now seems, loves it.
Those behind the House Republicans' tax plan — including the speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, and the Ways and Means chairman, Kevin Brady of Texas — went to great lengths to praise Reagan's accomplishment in their tax reform manifesto, "A Better Way."
"President Reagan was willing to lead on tax reform," they wrote. "As a result of that leadership and three years of difficult work in Congress, the United States emerged with one of the most modern, fair and competitive tax systems in the developed world — one that laid the foundation for decades of American job growth."
Byron Dorgan, a former Democratic senator and representative from North Dakota, and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee that approved the 1986 bill, wrote in The Hill this year: "It was widely celebrated as a major success. We eliminated many deductions and special deals in the tax code, used the savings to substantially lower the top tax rate to 28 percent, and also simplified the tax code."
The 1986 reform also achieved the elusive goal of being "revenue neutral" (meaning it neither expanded the deficit nor entailed an overall tax increase) even as it cut the top individual rate from 50 percent to 28 percent. The top corporate rate declined to 34 percent, at the time the lowest corporate rate in the developed world, from 46 percent. The legislation offset the loss of revenue by broadening the base — eliminating a host of deductions, exemptions and credits, including many abusive tax shelters. It also greatly simplified returns for millions of taxpayers.
Legislators sold the bill to voters as a fair, efficient, simple spur to economic growth, and it proved enormously popular, one of Reagan's enduring accomplishments. The economy (and the stock market) soared. But over the years, much of it was undone as lobbyists and special interests pushed new preferences into the tax code.
As Mr. Brady said this week: "America now has one of the most costly, unfair, and uncompetitive tax systems in the world. The need for pro-growth tax reform is urgent."
So why not go back to 1986 and simply restore the principle that worked so well then — lower tax rates, along with a broader base that avoids increasing the deficit?
It turns out that many people have tried. The most recent example came in 2014, with tax reform legislation drafted by the Ways and Means Committee, led at the time by Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, a Republican who retired from politics in 2015. The legislation followed 30 congressional hearings dedicated to tax reform and 11 separate bipartisan tax reform working groups led by Mr. Camp and Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, then the ranking Democrat on the committee.
The Camp reform proposal cut rates and closed loopholes. The bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated it would lead to the creation of 1.8 million jobs and add up to $3.4 trillion to the gross domestic product without adding to the deficit. The committee estimated that the bill would save an average middle-class family of four $1,300 per year in federal taxes.
"I took as inspiration the 1986 act," Mr. Camp told me this week. "We adopted the same structure and approach. We reduced rates and broadened the base. I felt good about that."
Mr. Camp's effort drew bipartisan praise. "I applaud it," said C. Eugene Steuerle, a co-founder and fellow of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a key architect of the 1986 reform act and former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for tax policy. While it needed a few amendments, he said, over all "it was rigorous, based on clear principles, and didn't rely on magic money" to avoid expanding the deficit.
The Camp bill never even made it to the House floor.
"You can't just go back to 1986 today," said Michael J. Graetz, a professor and tax specialist at Columbia and Yale law schools who has written extensively about the 1986 act. Then, there were numerous tax shelters, loopholes and other sources of revenue. Today, "there's no pot of gold to pay for the cuts, the way there was back in 1986," Mr. Graetz said.
Even though it nominally cut corporate rates, the 1986 act actually shifted much of the tax burden from individuals to corporations. That's not feasible today, where lowering the tax burden on corporations is a major goal.
That was a reality that Mr. Camp had to confront. "The Camp plan turned out to be a reality test," Mr. Graetz said. "There was a lot of pain in the Camp bill in terms of eliminating tax deductions and credits. And that only got you to a 25 percent corporate rate. President Obama used to say he could get us to 28 percent, also with a lot of pain. But it's hard to get the business community excited about 28 percent or 25 percent, especially now that the U.K. is moving to 17 percent and Canada is close to that."
And Mr. Camp's plan wasn't able to lower individual rates much at all — devising three brackets, taxed at 10 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent. But it phased out certain deductions and exemptions for people making over $400,000 a year. The Tax Foundation calculated that some taxpayers making more than $400,000 would pay a marginal rate as high as 43.8 percent, in effect a tax increase on the wealthy. It also hit rich taxpayers by lowering the cap on mortgage deductions to $500,000, from $1 million.
And the Camp plan actually raised the top effective rate on capital gains and dividends to 24.8 percent, from 23.8 percent, according to the Tax Foundation.
That was anathema to many Republicans.
Some of the "pain" inflicted by the Camp plan also hits especially close to the Trump White House, since it proposed closing some of the biggest loopholes for real estate developers. Mr. Camp's plan eliminated the break for so-called like-kind exchanges, which many real estate developers use to delay or avoid capital gains tax.
And the Camp plan proposed longer depreciation schedules, reducing the deductions that businesses can take for capital investment and thus increasing taxes for most real estate developers. The Trump plan calls for immediate expensing of 100 percent of capital costs, eliminating depreciation altogether — an enormous windfall for real estate interests.
It should probably come as no surprise that one person who didn't like the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was Mr. Trump. "One of the worst ideas in recent history," was how he described it in a 1986 op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal.
Suffice it to say that anything resembling the 1986 act would appear to be dead on arrival with this administration and Congress, even though many tax experts support such an approach.
"Camp's approach is what responsible tax reform should look like, and he garnered no support from either Republicans or Democrats," Mr. Graetz said.
That doesn't mean people are giving up hope. "I'm still optimistic we can conclude tax reform this year," said Mr. Camp, now a senior policy adviser at the tax, accounting and consulting firm PwC. He's been encouraged that Trump administration officials have recently reached out to him.
"The issues are difficult but it's not nearly as partisan as health care," he said. "There's been a lot of work done on tax policy over the years, and I think we can build on that. Most people agree there's an urgent need for tax reform, and I see this as a tremendous opportunity."
|
c6bb7bbec353f463666ab702528541cf | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/22/defy-ventures-helps-inmates-make-the-shift-from-prison-to-small-business-owners.html | VIDEO3:1503:15Defy VenturesOn the Money
On one morning late this spring, dozens of inmates at Solano State Prison in Northern California scurried around the penitentiary's gym, ready for a life-changing day.
They were about to pitch their business ideas to a squad of Silicon Valley's elite tech leaders and venture capitalists.
The prisoners were part of an entrepreneurship program by a nonprofit company called Defy Ventures. The inmates, or entrepreneurs-in-training (EIT for short), take courses for an average of six months that teach them how to turn their small business ideas into reality.
Some of the classes teach them about business, some about life; they range from MBA-style instruction to character and parent education. Defy's program has created 166 businesses and 350 jobs for graduates.
All are geared to build self-esteem and awareness in a group of people that Catherine Hoke, Defy Ventures' founder, told CNBC's "On the Money" are often forgotten. Hoke's personal stake in the company comes from her own rise and fall: She had been a successful venture capitalist but several years ago, she lost her job and had to start over.
"I founded Defy as my second chance to give second chances," said Hoke. "I'm the chief operating officer for Defy Ventures, and I work with these people to tell them why second chances are so important."
Catherine Hoke, Defy Ventures Founder and CEO congratulates the finalists in the Defy's Business Pitch Competition.Ann Hermes | The Christian Science Monitor | Getty Images
Hoke's message seems to resonate with EITs like Wayne Burleson, who said he entered prison in 1997 for murder at 20 years old.
"Prison worked for me," Burleson said. "It got my attention and it caused me to look at the bigger issues of life. I think long-term. I never thought long term before. I didn't see my life existing past 25."
The EITs at Solano State engaged in a boisterous welcome of their visitors, a show Hoke said was meant to break the ice and alleviate any tension between the prisoners and volunteers. The two groups paired off in a speed-dating format to discuss the business ideas of the budding entrepreneurs. In one pairing, an EIT describes his business idea for an Uber-style app for barbers to a volunteer who actually does work for Uber.
"It's got to get going," said the inmate, "and make some money."
There's a whole holistic side of it, like building the relationship with your family, building the relationship with yourself. The exercises that I went through in that program, you can't beat it. It was just so real.Coss Marte fitness studio founder
Some of the ice-breaking exercises are revealing and deeply personal, underscoring the vast gulf between the worlds that divide volunteers and EITs. Many at Solano had either a mother or father — or both — who were also incarcerated.
"In our country, one of the statistics that makes me the saddest is that incarceration is a generational legacy that is handed down from one to another," Hoke said. "Seventy percent of the children of the incarcerated end up going behind bars."
The ice-breakers between volunteers and EITs "create empathy," Hoke told CNBC. "When they can appreciate and respect their differences, but still bond in their humanity, and realize yes, we all make mistakes, then great things can come of that."
One of Defy's biggest success stories is Coss Marte, a convicted drug kingpin who at one time made $2 million dollars a year running one of the New York City's largest drug rings.
Marte, who lost 70 pounds while in prison after a doctor told him his weight could be life-threatening, decided to turn his weight loss into a business opportunity. He founded ConBody, a fitness studio that now has nearly 1,400 members, and just opened a location at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Marte has already hired 15 graduates of Defy's programs, something he told CNBC he hoped was just the beginning.
"My dream one day is to create a direct pipeline from the inside out so that we can hire directly from the program," he said. "We feel like we could disrupt the fitness industry" — much like Defy has "disrupted" his own life.
"There's a whole holistic side of it, like building the relationship with your family, building the relationship with yourself," Marte added. "The exercises that I went through in that program, you can't beat it. It was just so real."
Correction: This story was revised to remove an incorrect assertion about Hoke's background. She did not serve time in prison.
"On the Money" airs on CNBC Saturdays at 5:30 am ET, or check listings for air times in local markets.
| |
2fb04adb78a3f5fa34018a87e596f618 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/22/seventh-sense-painless-blood-draw-review.html | Seventh Sense promises a painless way to draw blood — we tried it, and barely felt a thing | Seventh Sense promises a painless way to draw blood — we tried it, and barely felt a thing
VIDEO1:0501:05A new device promised a painless way to draw blood — we gave it a tryDigital Original
Finding less painful and more efficient ways to draw blood is a holy grail for medical entrepreneurs.
Seventh Sense Biosystems, a start-up based in Massachusetts, is among the furthest along in this quest. This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its TAP device for use in hemoglobin A1C testing.
The company claims that its device is virtually painless, so I opted to give it a try at the CNBC offices.
The company's chief business officer Stuart Blitz placed the device my upper arm. After he hit a green button, 30 microneedles pierced the outer layers of my skin and quickly retracted. I didn't feel a thing until the device starting sucking up about 100 microliters of my blood, and even then I barely noticed it.
After a button on the device turned red, Blitz peeled it off and fit me with a small band-aid to prevent any errant drips from staining my clothes.
All told, it was about the easiest and least painful blood collection experience that I've ever experienced. And soon, I might be able to try it on my own. The company is hoping that it can get approval in the coming months for anyone to take their own blood at home. In Arizona, consumers can order their own tests without a doctor's note.
So how is Seventh Sense any different than Theranos, the disgraced start-up that promised to be able diagnose hundreds of diseases with a few drops of blood? (That claim has now been debunked).
Blitz stressed the many differences between his company and Theranos. For starters, Seventh Sense collects far more blood than a couple of drops from a fingerstick test. And it doesn't perform any diagnostic tests, focusing instead on novel approaches to blood collection.
That's still a worthwhile goal, said Blitz, given that millions of people — children, infants, those on certain medications — still have an aversion to traditional venous blood draws.
Moreover, the market for direct-to-consumer lab testing is on the rise and expected to surpass $350 million by 2010, according to a 2016 report. Seventh Sense has raised $33 million in financing to date.
In the coming months, Seventh Sense is hoping that the FDA will green-light its technology for other common tests. And it is also developing a new device to collect a larger volume — some 250 microliters — for tests that require more blood. That's still far less than a traditional blood sample.
For labs, less blood means potential cost-savings on supplies and human labor. "At least 60 to 70% of blood is discarded from a venous blood draw," said Blitz.
|
0223d7a4b833a9f34788e8b308227d24 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/investors-have-dumped-the-majority-of-trump-trades.html | Investors have dumped majority of 'Trump trades,' no longer longer banking on president's agenda | Investors have dumped majority of 'Trump trades,' no longer longer banking on president's agenda
VIDEO0:4600:46Investors have dumped majority of 'Trump trades'News Videos
The "Trump trade," which propelled stocks to record highs after President Donald Trump's election victory, has been flipped upside down.
Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, said in a note Monday that "skeptical investors have reversed between 50-75% of their Trump trades, according to our calculations."
Stocks surged after the election on the prospects for tax reform, deregulation and fiscal stimulus. More specifically, investors flocked into financials and industrials between Nov. 8 and Jan. 20, with the sectors rising 15.8 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.
Wall Street was betting that the administration would be able to easily move forward with its agenda since both the House and the Senate are Republican controlled. However, the administration has been bogged down by failed attempts at health-care reform and an ongoing investigation into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election outcome.
VIDEO0:4100:41Investor confidence and America's status as the world's economic leader are at risk under TrumpNews Videos
"The likelihood of President Trump's pro-growth agenda getting signed into law is fading as the Administration fends off a constant barrage of headlines," Ablin said.
Analysts at Bespoke Investment Group also found there has been a swift reversal in the Trump trade. They said in a Friday note that the best-performing Russell 1000 index stocks between Election Day and Inauguration Day have been the laggards since Jan. 20. They also found that some of the worst postelection performers are now outperforming.
The chart below lays out the reversal:
Source: Bespoke Investment Group
"It's a classic 'Buy the Rumor, Sell the News' situation," Bespoke said.
VIDEO1:5701:57Citi: Equity markets have priced in inaction in WashingtonWorldwide Exchange
|
9709591c06bf20ce7997134a6add2c11 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/polands-judiciary-reform-is-europes-biggest-headache--heres-why.html | Poland’s judiciary reform is Europe’s biggest headache – Here’s why | Poland’s judiciary reform is Europe’s biggest headache – Here’s why
Sean Gallup | Getty Images
Poland could lose its voting rights in the European Union if it presses ahead with reforms to the judiciary.
The country has become a headache for the EU since the right-wing conservative government won the general election in 2015 and began implementing several laws deemed risky for democracy.
The European Commission, which is responsible for ensuring that member states follow European law, could announce Wednesday that it is stepping up procedures against Poland as Warsaw tries to reform its judiciary.
"Given the actions of the Polish government, the chances of the EU triggering Article 7 are increasing," Janis Emmanouilidis, political analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels, told CNBC on Monday.
The EU's Article 7 stipulates that the European Commission can warn member states to change policy directions when these obstruct the so-called rule of law. If no action is taken by the member states, the European Commission can propose removing certain rights, as a way of sanction, until the country is no longer seen as in breach of the EU's common values. This could ultimately mean that Poland will lose its voting rights at European summits, though that would need a consensus decision between all European countries.
Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission, warned last week that the Polish government's decision to push through four reforms that would put the judiciary under government control were pushing Brussels "very close" to triggering Article 7.
Last year, the same government tried to constrain media freedom, but protests across the country didn't allow it to pursue the plan.
"It could be a trap," Emmanouilidis from EPC warned. "The President of the PiS party (the ruling party) would love nothing more than seeing the Polish people becoming more critical of the EU," he said.
The ruling PiS party is slightly Eurosceptic whereas the Polish people are vastly pro-European. Emmanouilidis explained that the constant attempts by the Polish government to increase its control could be a tactic to make Poland less EU-friendly.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Poland carrying Polish and EU flags demonstrating against the most recent government's proposals.
As a result, the country's president Andrzej Duda, a member from the ruling party, decided Monday to veto the judiciary reforms, arguing they did not strengthen the sense of justice in society and needed to be amended.
The ongoing battle between Polish institutions, street protestors and the EU will in the meantime impact the image of one of the fastest growing EU economies.
"The ensuing demonstrations, the clash with the EU, and negative prospects for business environment will erode Poland's image as an investment market," Otilia Dhand, senior vice president at Teneo Intelligence, said in a research note last Friday.
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
|
29db2ed200f906e3fd2ccb57478d9e8f | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/why-investors-are-watching-this-giant-state-owned-firm.html | Why investors are watching this giant state-owned firm | Why investors are watching this giant state-owned firm
Giant state-owned telecom China Unicom said Sunday that talks with potential strategic investors are ongoing and that no binding agreements have yet been reached.
That follows reports last week that a number of private tech giants, including Baidu and Tencent, would jointly invest $12 billion into the company. That would represent much more than just a simple round of investment into a telecom: Domestic and international investors are watching the company closely for what it says about the future of the Chinese economy.
An office worker talks on a mobile phone in front of a China Unicom logo in Beijing, China on January 5, 2012.Liu Jin | AFP | Getty Images
China Unicom is on a list with a handful of other state-owned firms that Beijing is trying to reform by attracting private capital, employing a mixed ownership structure. What Unicom eventually does could serve as a model for reforming China's 150,000 state-owned enterprises, which hold more than 100 trillion yuan in assets, according to the State Council.
Cleaning up China's inefficient, wasteful state-owned enterprises (SOEs) "is the most important reform for the long-run health of China's economy," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics. "It's the state sector that is holding back the economy, and [adding] to the crazy build-up of debt."
Although debt has plenty of economists worried, institutions have continued to lend to state-owned firms. Because they're government-backed, "'we don't have to worry they're safe,'" Evans-Pritchard said. "That's the key assumption ... China is in an unusual situation — in most countries, you would have had a crisis by now."
Speculation over policy to revitalize and bail SOEs out has affected investor sentiment much more than traditional fundamentals like company earnings performance, he said. In fact, at those firms the "profit margin has declined further while global peers have improved," wrote Denis Prouteau and Alicia Garcia Herrero of Natixis in a recent note.
The SSE 50 index, which tracks the 50 largest state firms traded in Shanghai, is up about 13 percent so far this year, according to Reuters data. That easily tops the performance of non-governmental tech firms — the ChiNext price index, a tech-heavy board filled with start-ups in Shenzhen, has tumbled nearly 14 percent this year.
The idea of mixed ownership reform is that private money and expertise can help a company turn things around. But private firms getting into mixed ownership schemes also need to make sure SOE debt doesn't taint their own balance sheets. They're going be looking at how to justify the investment with projected returns and setting an exit strategy to deploy at some point, said Alex Ng, vice president at China Merchants Securities.
Beijing has also been engineering giant mergers to allow only the strongest firms to remain. It has even considered putting SOEs under government financial holding companies and aiming to maximize returns — much like what Singapore currently does
Still, experts remain skeptical and say the government is avoiding the necessary, but painful step: letting underperforming state firms default in order to allow resources to move to more productive functions.
That's because the government likely doesn't want to lose its grip over certain industries. China "probably wouldn't have been able to achieve the growth they had in the first half of this year, for example, without the degree of control they have over the state sector," said Evans-Pritchard, noting that it's getting harder to push for economic growth that way.
Also, with more than 30 million people employed by China's SOEs, there are concerns about retraining them and finding new jobs to prevent social unrest.
Japan was in a similar situation, but the main difference is that it "was much richer when it reached this point," Evans-Pritchard said.
"That's the scary thing about China — it's heading in a similar trajectory, but at a much earlier stage in terms of its economic development, in terms of income levels," he said. "If they don't deal with this problem, they [risk] falling into the so-called middle-income trap, where growth becomes very sluggish before they reach high income levels."
China Unicom stock was up about 0.5 percent in Hong Kong morning trading on Monday.
|
d04fc0b03949fe505462717402611951 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/you-may-soon-be-able-to-trade-options-on-bitcoin-ethereum.html | You may soon be able to trade options on bitcoin, ethereum | You may soon be able to trade options on bitcoin, ethereum
Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Monday it unanimously approved digital currency-trading platform LedgerX for clearing derivatives.
LedgerX initially plans to clear options, the release said.
"A U.S. federally-regulated venue for derivative contracts settling in digital currencies opens the market to a much larger customer base," Paul L. Chou, LedgerX CEO, said in a separate release from the trading firm.
"We are seeing strong demand from institutions that previously could not participate in the bitcoin market due to compliance restrictions against unregulated venues," Chou said, noting a desire for assets that aren't correlated with the broader stock market.
The firm plans to launch bitcoin options in early fall, and ethereum options "within a few months," Chou told CNBC in a phone interview. That will mark the first federally supervised options venue for bitcoin.
VIDEO0:4700:47The case for investors sticking out the volatility in bitcoin and ethereumNews Videos
We're "really excited to welcome a whole host of parties that traditionally have been very retail-oriented," Chou said, noting he expects "very large asset managers to enter the space" as a result of the CFTC's approval.
LedgerX received an order of registration as a Swap Execution Facility on July 6.
The firm primarily operates in New York and said in May it raised $11.4 million in a Series B round of financing led by Miami International Holdings and Huiyin Blockchain Venture Investments.
The CFTC noted that its Division of Clearing and Risk also issued Monday a letter "exempting LedgerX from complying with certain Commission regulations due to LedgerX's fully-collateralized clearing model."
Chou said the exemption was due to LedgerX's plan to "not allow very leveraged trading."
The authorization "does not constitute or imply a Commission endorsement of the use of digital currency generally, or bitcoin specifically," the CFTC said in a release.
Bitcoin traded Monday afternoon about two-thirds of a percent higher, near $2,780, while ethereum traded about half a percent lower, near $225, according to CoinDesk.
"The demand for institutional grade investment products in this space is off the charts," said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and founder of BKCM. "Funds like my digital asset fund are experiencing unprecedented demand from institutional investors, and we need institutional-grade infrastructure."
Hedge-fund managers such as Kelly will be able to hedge their positions in the one- to six-month bitcoin options contracts offered by the LedgerX platform.
LedgerX told CNBC the contracts are limited to professional traders and institutions, but those firms could potentially in turn offer their own products for retail investors.
VIDEO0:5400:54These pictures show how ethereum is taking over the digital currency worldNews Videos
|
16f47b6eae50b0a0a35ab7d18f15861c | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/25/former-homeland-security-chief-on-russia-probe-im-worried-about-2018-and-2020.html | Former Homeland Security chief on Russia probe: I'm worried about 2018 and 2020 | Former Homeland Security chief on Russia probe: I'm worried about 2018 and 2020
VIDEO0:5100:51Former Homeland Security chief on Russia probe
The investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia is a "serious issue," but there may be more worrying matters to focus on, former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told CNBC on Tuesday.
"I'm worried about 2018. I'm worried about 2020. Do the Russians try to interfere with our election or our kind of civic discourse going forward?" he said in an interview with "Power Lunch."
Both the Senate and a special counsel are investigating what may have occurred between members of the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election.
On Monday, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, denied he colluded with Russia and said his actions while serving on the campaign were "proper." His comments came after he met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff on the matter.
Meanwhile, special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly also looking into a broad range of transactions involving Trump's businesses as part of its probe, Bloomberg reported last week.
His investigation is also looking into a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. According to Reuters, Mueller has asked the White House to preserve any records of that meeting.
Chertoff, also a former U.S. assistant attorney general, called that request routine.
"I was a prosecutor for many years. Every prosecutor says that. That's like saying the sun rises in the East."
Trump and his team have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
— CNBC's Jacob Pramuk and Everett Rosenfeld contributed to this report.
|
aa77e203d8a3a1ea1d7f92f3def537f8 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/25/from-doklam-to-indian-ocean-new-delhi-and-china-tensions-grow.html | As India and China face off in the mountains, a new confrontation is growing in the ocean | As India and China face off in the mountains, a new confrontation is growing in the ocean
VIDEO0:4100:41As India and China face off in the mountains, a new confrontation is growing in the oceanNews Videos
The rivalry between India and China is heating up as the heavyweight economies face territorial tensions on both land and sea.
A fierce border standoff in Bhutan's Doklam region — triggered by a Chinese road construction project in a disputed area and a Bhutanese request for Indian help — is now entering its second month with soldiers from both sides engaged in skirmishes. But a new confrontation in the relationship is arising as New Delhi is growing concerned about a Chinese naval presence in its own backyard: the Indian Ocean.
"As the [Doklam] crisis stretches on, China is likely to seek ways to pressure India, both on the border and elsewhere, and this will compound the cycle of competition that is already well underway," Shashank Joshi, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said in a recent note published by the Lowy Institute.
Indeed, the recent joint naval drills between the U.S., India and Japan — known as the Malabar exercises — were widely interpreted as a coordinated response to perceived Chinese expansion in the Indian Ocean.
July 11, 2017 - Ships carrying Chinese military personnel depart Zhanjiang for a support base in Djibouti. The establishment of the People's Liberation Army Djibouti base was a decision made by the two countries after friendly negotiations, and accords with the common interest of the people from both sides, according to the PLA navy.Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
In the run-up to Malabar, Indian media reported a surge in Chinese naval vessels around the area, noting sightings of 13 to 14 units in two months. Those included Luyang III class destroyers, hydrographic research vessels, an intelligence-gathering ship and a submarine.
Beijing does operate in the area for its "Belt and Road" initiative, an infrastructure program that involves developing port facilities in the Indian Ocean with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. India isn't a member of the initiative and has repeatedly indirectly criticized the program for violating Indian sovereignty.
"China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean is showing signs of a qualitative shift," Joshi said, noting the mainland's growing patrols and the July 12 dispatch of Chinese troops to a military base in Djibouti — Beijing's first long-term foreign military deployment in almost 60 years.
"This Chinese facility is not just a platform from which China can project initially modest power into the western Indian Ocean, but will also justify and support a greater volume and pace of other patrols through the eastern and central Indian Ocean," Joshi added.
New Delhi is certainly paying close attention to those developments, as reflected by the Malabar drills.
"With over 20 ships, including two submarines and over 100 aircraft and helicopters involved in complex maneuvers, [India's] strategic messaging to China seemed more than clear," Abhijit Singh, head of the Maritime Policy Initiative at think tank Observer Research Foundation, wrote in a note.
"Indian commentators cast Malabar as a strategic precursor to a more proactive sea-denial strategy aimed at challenging People's Liberation Army Navy ships in the Indian Ocean."
The situation draws parallels with Beijing's behavior in a different body of water. The world's second-largest economy has been creating artificial islands in contested sections of the South China Sea. But unlike that international waterway, the Indian Ocean isn't a site of overlapping sovereign rights, meaning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to counter the mainland on his home turf may not be sustainable.
"There is something essentially flawed about the idea that Indian naval power can prevent Chinese warships and submarines from accessing India's near-seas. Modern-day trading nations regard the oceans as a shared global common, with equal opportunity rights for all user states," said Singh.
VIDEO1:2901:29Will Chinese companies dominate One Belt, One Road projects?Street Signs Asia
|
68a2efacb0beea8458ffa74459678ddf | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/25/low-cost-carrier-scoot-aims-to-double-fleet-size-in-five-years.html | Low-cost carrier Scoot aims to double fleet size in five years | Low-cost carrier Scoot aims to double fleet size in five years
VIDEO1:5401:54Scoot CEO: Tigerair merger allows airline to become a significant playerCapital Connection
Budget airline Scoot has vowed to be "aggressive" with its growth ambitions, unveiling five new destinations and a plan to double its fleet, following an official merger with Tigerair.
Just months after announcing their intentions to pursue a tie-up under the single Scoot brand, the two Singapore Airlines-backed low-cost carriers are becoming one under a single operating license.
"The two companies were brought under a single holding company last year in May, and within the short span of just a little over a year, we've managed to achieve full integration into a single airline," Scoot CEO Lee Lik Hsin told CNBC's "Capital Connection."
The new Scoot plans to expand its network by adding five new destinations by June 2018. Among them are Honolulu, Scoot's maiden U.S. destination, and Harbin in northeast China.
Scoot will also take over two routes from sister carrier SilkAir for Malaysia and Indonesia, as parent Singapore Airlines undertakes a wide-ranging review to slash costs and improve efficiency after announcing a fourth-quarter loss.
"I think the merger is a baseline platform that allows us to be in the space and to be a significant player in the space. Previously, both airlines were sort of small-to-medium size. Now we have the ability to scale up very dramatically," said Lee.
The group has been working to integrate reservation systems, flight schedules and connections as part of the efficiency drive. It's also rationalizing its conditions of carriage, check-in counters and call centers to save costs.
"The completion of the merger unlocks synergies, reduces unit costs and enables the group to optimize aircraft resources," said Brendan Sobie, chief analyst at CAPA - Centre for Aviation.
"The SIA Group is now better positioned to compete and expand in the bottom end of the market," he added.
As the capital-intensive aviation sector battles the rising regional headwinds such as thin margins and intense pricing competition, Scoot aims to differentiate itself in the market by elevating the low-cost carrier experience for travelers.
The medium-to-long haul operator is taking on rivals such as AirAsia by offering premium services, with on-board internet connectivity and in-seat power available in some of its aircraft.
"While we have never given very firm numbers on our growth plans, I think I would be happy to share that it is certainly aggressive," Lee said.
Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images
"A ballpark figure would be that in five years-time, we would expect to double our fleet size."
The group saw an average passenger load factor of 82.4 percent for the 2016-17 fiscal year and posted an operating profit of 67 million Singapore dollars (about $49 million) in the same period.
By combining the Tigerair network and the SilkAir routes, the total destination count now stands at 65 across 18 countries. Lee said low-cost long-haul flights are a key part of the Scoot strategy.
"We have entered into long haul in a big way," he said. "We intend to grow to at least three to four long-haul destinations in the next two to three years."
The combined group will operate 14 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with six more on the way.
"It was not so well publicized that in Singapore Airlines' recent order of wide-body airplanes, there were options within that order to convert it to Scoot configuration, so we can have definitely more airplanes even beyond the current 20," said Lee.
"We don't have to do that straight away because we have enough aircraft to grow for the next two to three years, and then we will make a decision later on," he added.
A new uniform was also revealed for the airline's crew members alongside a new marketing campaign. The current Tigerair fleet will be repainted and the complete livery change is targeted for completion by mid-2018.
|
5563e84bab8d163a7129b26581b2756c | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/25/trump-administration-may-freeze-fuel-economy-standards.html | Trump administration may freeze fuel economy standards | Trump administration may freeze fuel economy standards
A worker installs tires on a Jeep Wrangler at the Chrysler Toledo North Assembly Plant in Toledo, Ohio.Getty Images
Six months after the Obama administration tried to lock in fuel efficiency standards that would require new vehicles to average 49.7 miles per gallon by 2025, the Trump administration is considering much lower fuel efficiency targets. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it will review the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards for the model years 2022-2025.
One option being considered is freezing the fleetwide average fuel economy at 2021 levels instead of increasing them every year through 2025. If that happens, it could lead to far lower fuel economy targets for newer vehicles sold early next decade. The current targets, which were established in 2011, call for 2021 models to average 41 miles per gallon, while 2025 models would be required to average 49.7 mpg. As part of its analysis to determine what type of mileage future models should achieve, NHTSA said it is considering "a rule that would continue the current CAFE standards for MY 2021 indefinitely."
NHTSA told CNBC the notice is one step in the process to determine the scope of environmental factors the agency should analyze prior to proposing CAFE standards for model year 2022-2025 vehicles in the future. The agency stressed it will consider a range of alternatives and has not proposed those future standards yet. In March, President Donald Trump ordered a review of the fuel efficiency standards for model year 2022-2025 vehicles. Those targets were established in 2011 by the Obama Administration. At the time, the auto industry was still struggling with extremely weak sales and two of the Big 3, General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler, were just coming out of structured bankruptcies overseen by the federal government. In short, the industry had little power to stop the Obama Administration from pushing automakers to build steadily more fuel efficient vehicles. Since then the CAFE standards have risen from 25.3 mpg in 2010 to 35.4 mpg in 2016. While automakers have argued that developing more fuel efficient engines would cost the industry billions of dollars and ultimately hurt demand for new vehicles by driving up prices, sales have climbed for seven straight years to an all-time of 17.6 million vehicles in 2016. But with the review of CAFE standards for 2022-2025 vehicles scheduled to take place before April of 2018, NHTSA is making it clear we may see fuel efficiency standards freeze after 2021. The Sierra Club is fighting to stop NHTSA from rolling back the mpg targets.
"Even hinting at freezing these popular standards is a bad idea, so of course Trump is proposing to pump the breaks at the expense of the American people just to pad the pockets of big oil and auto executives," said the environmental organization.
VIDEO1:4801:48General Motors earnings: No change in full-year guidancePower Lunch
|
29df9c43a6348d12a71281636b692cb3 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/25/us-stocks-earnings-fed-caterpillar-mcdonalds.html | S&P 500 closes at record high as earnings beat the Street | S&P 500 closes at record high as earnings beat the Street
VIDEO0:5500:55S&P 500 closes with record high after another day of strong earningsTrading Nation
U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday after a slew of major companies reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
The rose 0.3 percent to hit intraday and closing records, with financials, materials and energy rising more than 1 percent to lead advancers. The index closed at 2,477.08
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 100.26 points to close at 21,613.43, with Caterpillar and McDonald's contributing the most gains.
Major U.S. Indexes
The Nasdaq composite rose just 0.02 percent but managed intraday and closing records. The index finished the session at 6,412.17.
Caterpillar posted bottom-line results that topped estimates, sending its shares higher.
"This is what the market needs to hear from industrial names coming in strong," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. "This is the earnings week."
General Motors and McDonald's also saw their shares climb after reporting quarterly results. However, 3M posted weaker-than-expected results, sending the stock down 6 percent. Shares of 3M shaved off 73 points from the Dow.
This is the busiest week of the earnings season, with approximately 180 S&P 500 components scheduled to report. Boeing, Coca-Cola, Facebook and Amazon are set to report later this week.
Traders celebrate on the main trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the Dow Jones Industrial Average passes the 20,000 mark shortly after the opening of the trading session in New York, U.S., January 25, 2017.Brendan McDermid | Reuters
"The majority of companies that have reported have beaten" the Street, said Nick Raich, CEO of The Earnings Scout. "If there is a negative in these numbers, and this was expected, is that the earnings growth rate has declined from the first quarter."
Wall Street also set its sights on the Federal Reserve, as the central bank kicked off a two-day monetary policy meeting. Investors will parse their statement for clues about the unwinding of their $4.5 trillion balance sheet and what the Fed thinks about U.S. inflation.
"Stocks should keep pushing upward until the FOMC makes the unprecedented decision to pare its balance sheet, but the pace of the ascent should slow," said Jeremy Klein, chief market strategist at FBN Securities.
"Those investors who have the ability to capture short term market movements should position themselves in anticipation of an extension of the rally while those who can only shift their portfolios in a manner similar to a tanker turning around in the Hudson River should start to tread more cautiously," Klein said.
The Fed, however, is largely expected to keep monetary policy unchanged. Market expectations for a rate hike Wednesday were just 3.1 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
"This is kind of the Jersey Shore version of the Fed meeting," said Matt Toms, chief investment officer of fixed income at Voya Investment Management. "The market has looked past this almost in its entirety ... as people get ready to go to the beach."
In economic news, major metro area home prices rose 5.7 percent in May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index. Consumer confidence data for July analyst expectations.
The benchmark 10-year note yield rose to trade at 2.32 percent, while the two-year yield hovered around 1.382 percent.
"The focus is on earnings because there isn't much more to focus on. I think the market is discounting the fact that the Fed won't raise rates tomorrow," said Bob Phillips, managing principal at Spectrum Management Group. "They might raise once more this year, but ... the economy hasn't really met growth expectations since the first quarter."
|
763b8f8533cf1dfde0e0ed865a411e93 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/amazon-sees-grail-as-a-special-opportunity-for-its-cloud-business.html | Why Amazon invested in this cancer-testing startup founded by a Google exec | Why Amazon invested in this cancer-testing startup founded by a Google exec
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.Getty Images
A health start-up called Grail is developing one of the most ambitious technologies in Silicon Valley.
And Amazon wants a piece of it.
According to two sources familiar, Amazon invested in Grail as a very special kind of future customer for its cloud business.
Grail is hoping that its can use deep sequencing technology to detect the earliest signs of cancer in the blood, while it's still treatable. That requires a huge amount of data processing and storage.
That's potentially a huge business for Amazon Web Services.
Reuters reported that the market to store human genetic data is expected to be worth $1 billion by 2018. By 2025, an anticipated 100 million and 2 billion human genomics could be sequenced, according to a 2015 report. Biologists have long-anticipated that the computing resources to handle all that data would outweigh Twitter and YouTube.
Grail's test will not be commercialized in the U.S. for years -- it is aiming for 2019 -- but it will be dabbling in huge data-sets well before then.
It needs to run large-scale clinical studies to demonstrate to industry stakeholders that its technology is both sensitive and accurate. Hundreds of thousands of people will need to be sequenced for each of these studies. And the genomes will need to be securely stored somewhere.
Amazon's investment, initially reported earlier this year, was a little surprising. The e-commerce and cloud services leader doesn't typically bet on start-ups in the regulated life sciences sector. Moreover, Grail CEO Jeff Huber, was a long-time executive at Google, an Amazon rival. (Google also invested in an earlier fund-raising round for Grail through GV, its venture arm, now a division of Google holding company Alphabet.)
But these companies are "positioning themselves for something they think will be big," said Zamin Iqbal, who leads a computational genomics research group at the European Bioinformatics Institute.
Iqbal doesn't expect revenues to be significant yet, in part due to privacy concerns and lack of uptick for whole genome analysis from health providers.
But that could all change in the coming years. "The future of genomics is likely to involve the cloud heavily," he continued.
Another factor that drew Amazon into the deal was Grail's presence in Asia, the people said. In March, the company merged with a blood diagnostics company in China. Amazon Web Services has announced it plans to open a new data center "region" in Hong Kong in 2018.
VIDEO0:5700:57Amazon is showing interest in health care, and it's making industry players 'nervous,' says investorNews Videos
Correction: Amazon Web Services has had regional data centers in the Asia-Pacific area since 2010, when it launched its Singapore region.
|
cfe7a29a62b3f66816d9224e76d492cd | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/boeing-stock-jumps-7-percent-on-second-quarter-earnings-beat-and-improved-forecast.html | Boeing stock jumps 8% on second-quarter earnings beat and improved forecast | Boeing stock jumps 8% on second-quarter earnings beat and improved forecast
VIDEO1:3001:30Boeing post second-quarter earnings beat, raises full-year forecastSquawk Box
Boeing on Wednesday reported second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates and hiked its forecast for 2017, sending shares of the stock up around 8 percent and making it the biggest mover on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
As the Dow hit a fresh intraday all-time high, Boeing was trading at levels not seen since at least 1948. The stock was last adding more than 100 points on the Dow shortly after market open, trading at $229.59 per share.
Though its total sales came in less than expected, profitability of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner aided in creating stronger cash flow during the second quarter. Boeing's cash from operations, near $5 billion in the quarter, was roughly double analysts' estimates of about $2.5 billion.
Boeing also said it remains focused on trimming capital expenditures — something analysts have been monitoring closely, with many of Boeing's biggest investments for 2017 already out of the way.
The cost reductions are "remarkable," Jefferies analyst Howard Rubel told CNBC Wednesday.
"It's speed, it's quality, it's all the things you want with a company. ... It makes us feel like [2018] and [2019] revenues will be better than [2017]," Rubel added.
Boeing said it will cut full-year capital expenditures by $300 million. The company added that it still expects to deliver between 760 to 765 commercial aircraft in 2017.
Though it's great to see Boeing squeezing costs further, the company must continue to sell its product, Jefferies' Rubel said. Demand must remain healthy, and Wall Street expects to see robust backlog.
"In the second quarter, we added to our large and diverse order backlog with key wins in commercial airplanes, defense, space and services, while achieving important milestones such as delivering the first 737 MAX airplane, flying the second production-ready T-X trainer aircraft, and conducting a successful Ground-based Midcourse Defense intercept test," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement.
"As we look to the second half of the year, our teams are focused on accelerating productivity, quality and safety improvements across the company, while completing key development efforts and delivering better capabilities and economics to our customers," Muilenburg added.
The company turning more dollars into cash this quarter surprised a lot of people, Canaccord Genuity's Ken Herbert later in the day told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."
Herbert said he expects the cost-cutting "story" to continue for Boeing, although pricing pressure will likely become more of an issue for the aircraft manufacturer amid competition.
Boeing On Wednesday said it now expects to earn between $9.80 and $10 per share in 2017, topping analysts' prior predictions.
As of Tuesday's close, Boeing's stock has climbed a whopping 58 percent over the past 12 months, and shares are up about 36 percent for the year.
Source: FactSet
—CNBC's Gina Francolla continued to this report.
VIDEO2:3702:37Boeing has surprised many with efficiency and cost cutting: Canaccord Genuity's Ken HerbertSquawk on the Street
|
a3e7ef8640cc2730dd03e6d058e6b932 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/citigroup-ceo-michael-corbat-touts-100-billion-deal-with-costco.html | VIDEO1:0001:00Citigroup CEO touts Costco partnership
Citigroup's partnership with Costco may be old news, but Citi CEO Michael Corbat said he still considers the deal, which the big bank took from competitor American Express, a huge success.
In a wide-ranging interview with "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer, Corbat said the deal with Costco to issue the retailer's branded credit cards was much larger than it may have initially seemed.
"If I came in and said, 'Jim, let me tell you about a deal that we're gonna do. And that deal is going to be with a terrific partner, one of the best retailers in the world. And in that deal we're going to bring in $10, $11 billion of receivables. We're gonna bring in new cardholders. And those cardholders, in a single year, are going to spend $100 billion on that card,' think about it," Corbat said.
The 16-year-long deal between American Express and Costco expired in March 2016. Since then, the discount retail chain has partnered with Citi for its credit cards and Visa for its rewards program.
"Costco's a great partner," Corbat said. "It's a great company. And the receptivity of our cardholders and the usage of the cardholders has been great."
VIDEO22:1222:12Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat talks regaining credibility and finding growth by scaling downMad Money with Jim Cramer
Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Citigroup.
Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - VineQuestions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com
| |
564bb31dba123e6909a479841a22f635 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/italys-immortal-silvio-berlusconi-bouncing-back-in-polls-and-could-become-kingmaker.html | Italy's 'immortal' Silvio Berlusconi bouncing back in polls and could become kingmaker | Italy's 'immortal' Silvio Berlusconi bouncing back in polls and could become kingmaker
Silvio BerlusconiGetty Images
The center-right party of Italian politician and ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is leading voter polls in the country and could now be central to forming a new government in elections looking likely in early 2018, according to analysts.
Despite a political career that has been plagued by corruption allegations and sex scandals, Berlusconi is seeing a bounce back in opinion polls against a backdrop of increasing voter anger and apathy at the state of Italian politics.
Last weekend, an Ipsos poll conducted for Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera showed that Berlusconi was back leading the polls and that a center-right coalition -- made up of Berlusconi's Forza Italia and other similar conservative parties Lega Nord and Fratelli d'Italia -- could capture up to 35 percent of votes.
The poll showed that current center-left ruling Democratic Party (PD) - a party which has been fraught with in-fighting following a failed referendum on constitutional reform last year - was lagging behind with 26.9 percent of the vote and the populist 5 Star Movement (M5S) with 27.6 percent of the vote.
VIDEO2:1702:17Is Berlusconi back in Italian politics? ‘Absolutely not’ says 5StarSquawk Box Europe
Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of risk consultancy Teneo Intelligence, said in a note on Tuesday that it was "Silvio, not (former Prime Minister Matteo) Renzi, that has the magic."
"Former PM Silvio Berlusconi is increasingly likely to become the kingmaker after the next elections, which are unlikely to take place before early 2018," he said.
"Between a center-left that seems to be in a perpetual crisis and a populist Five Star Movement (M5S) that is recovering from a disastrous performance in the recent local elections, the center-right is enjoying positive momentum. This is largely due to the work of the eternal survivor of Italian politics, Silvio Berlusconi."
PM, again?
The poll results and the possibility that the octogenarian politician and four-time former prime minister Berlusconi could return to power has surprised some political analysts, although many have come to expect the unexpected when it comes to the charismatic, if not controversial, politician.
Despite having been expelled from the Italian Senate in 2013 for his conviction for tax fraud (and there have been countless other accusations, trials and acquittals for a variety of charges), Berlusconi has refused to bow out of the limelight and retire. Even Berlusconi's doctor has reportedly joked that his patient, who turns 81 in September, is "technically immortal."
Mauro Barogiola, an analyst at Citi, said in a note Tuesday that Berlusconi's bounce back was surprising.
"We would say that this is a quite an amazing result for a leader who first became prime minister in 1994 - when other current leaders barely had a driving license," Barogiola said.
"Although some years ago the Economist (publication) famously questioned Silvio Berlusconi's fitness for office, he seems to be back (as per the polls) leveraging: i) the internal frictions at PD; ii) the lack of a program at M5S seen as credible and iii) the proposal of Ius Soli (a bill granting Italian citizenship to foreign babies born on Italian soil ) – hardly the most popular political program under current circumstances."
Barogiola said media mogul Berlusconi could go for the prime minister's job again should forthcoming regional election results see more support for the center-right and a scenario favoring a coalition at the expense of the ruling PD party.
"We believe that Sicily elections (held in November) might shape the future of Italy," Barogiola said. "In a system favoring coalition – Silvio Berlusconi (assuming he's cleared for the job) rather than Matteo Renzi might run for the prime minister's job."
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
|
9558e54cc4f1e43792062d35df2b70cd | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/the-market-risk-that-makes-nobel-laureate-robert-shiller-lie-awake.html | The market risk that makes Nobel laureate Robert Shiller ‘lie awake worrying' | The market risk that makes Nobel laureate Robert Shiller ‘lie awake worrying'
VIDEO0:5900:59Robert Shiller on the biggest risk to the marketTrading Nation
Yale University economics professor Robert Shiller has a warning for investors.
The Nobel laureate says low volatility paired with a questionable price-earnings ratio could wipe out a chunk of the stock market's value.
"The price increase just went step-by-step with the earnings increase. I think it's an overreaction to good earnings," said Shiller on Wednesday's "Trading Nation."
His comments came as the , Dow and Nasdaq were hitting fresh all-time highs and the CBOE Volatility Index dropped to a record low.
In a special note to CNBC, Shiller writes that low volatility could be "the quiet before the storm." It's a phenomenon which Shiller says is making him "lie awake worrying."
And, that's not the only issue he's raising.
His Shiller PE Ratio, also known as CAPE, shows the price-earnings ratio based on average inflation-adjusted earnings from the last 10 years is over 30. The number carries significance because the only times it's been higher was just before the Great Depression in 1929 and mid-1997 to mid-2001.
"I worry that historically earnings have been trend-reverting," said Shiller. "Admittedly, we do have a president who's going to 'make America great again.' So if he's right, maybe then we're launching out in a whole new path. But it would be the first time in American history."
Shiller's latest analysis shouldn't be taken lightly.
His forecasting skills were recognized in 2013 when he won the Nobel Prize in Economics. He's known for predicting both the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble in his book "Irrational Exuberance."
If Shiller is right and the stock market ultimately goes back to trend, it could create havoc.
"It would definitely be a negative for equities. It would be pretty big. We are at a high valuation. The only time we've had a higher valuation than where we are now was around 1929 and around 2000," Shiller said.
"We could see a major correction," he said. "This is not a forecast. It's a worry."
VIDEO6:2606:26The full post-Fed interview with Robert ShillerTrading Nation
|
8e1a9d07582d46e6d84bee0a895ca0d3 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/trump-scott-walker-to-reveal-foxconn-factory-plans-in-wisconsin.html | White House to announce Apple-supplier Foxconn manufacturing plant in Wisconsin on Wednesday: Source | White House to announce Apple-supplier Foxconn manufacturing plant in Wisconsin on Wednesday: Source
VIDEO2:1502:15White House to announce Apple-supplier Foxconn manufacturing plant in Wisconsin on Wednesday: SourceSquawk on the Street
Apple-supplier Foxconn will announce a plant in Wisconsin on Wednesday evening, accompanied by President Donald Trump and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a source with knowledge of the announcement told CNBC.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will also be present at the announcement in Washington, a source said. No exact location for the plant has been chosen — but the area of southeast Wisconsin between Milwaukee and Chicago is under consideration, according to a source.
A source said that seven states were considered for the expansion, but Wisconsin appears to be a preliminary winner, and Ohio is a contender. About 10,000 jobs could be created.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Foxconn may be eyeing a new U.S. plant for display panels.
Terry Gou Tai-ming, founder and chairman of Taiwan's Foxconn TechnologyVCG | Getty Images
Foxconn is also known as Hon Hai Precision, a longtime supplier to Apple and other electronics companies that has come under scrutiny in the past over labor practices in China. It is unclear if Apple is involved in Wednesday's announcement.
The announcement would come on the heels of a Wall Street Journal interview with Trump, where he said he had spoken to Apple CEO Tim Cook about three U.S. factories. Apple has yet to comment on Trump's remarks. Cook told Jim Cramer on CNBC's "Mad Money" in May it would start a $1 billion fund to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States.
With its wide network of developers, Apple has already created two million jobs in the United States, according to Cook. Apple supplier Corning told CNBC last week that it would "immediately" invest $500 million and create 1,000 new jobs in the United States, but those jobs are related to medical devices.CNBC has reached out to Apple, Foxconn, the White House and Ryan for comment. Walker said to watch his Twitter and gave no further comment.
— Reporting by CNBC's Justin Solomon. Scott Cohn contributed to this report.
VIDEO2:2402:24We're investing immediately in creating new American jobs: Corning CEO Wendell WeeksClosing Bell
|
6c55ef25dd90404a522f00c45ad68c64 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/venezuela-crisis-week-vote-nicolas-maduro-constituent-assembly-approaches-pdvsa.html | Venezuela enters crisis week as vote for new constituent assembly approaches | Venezuela enters crisis week as vote for new constituent assembly approaches
Opposition supporters attend a rally to pay tribute to victims of violence during protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, July 24, 2017.Ueslei Marcelino | Reuters
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is pressing ahead with a controversial election to form a new government that opponents and analysts fear will damage the country's democracy and allow him to cement his leadership.
The election for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) will be held on Sunday, July 30, and opposition leaders are planning a week of protests, including a two-day national strike starting on Wednesday, to oppose the election. More than 100 people have died since April in anti-Maduro protests and hundreds more have been injured and arrested, according to Reuters.
The ANC is expected be heavily made up of Maduro supporters, as it over-represents territories and sectors of the economy more likely to support him. Once formed, the ANC will be able to rewrite the country's constitution and will supersede any other legislative body, including the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
"The establishment of an alternative institution would result in the rubberstamping of new laws and effectively eliminate political dissent in the country," Joel Ross, Latin America analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC via email.
"In this context, the July 30 vote would legitimize the executive's encroachment on the separation of powers."
VIDEO3:3303:33The ethics of owning Venezuelan debt: CIOPower Lunch
Diego Moya-Ocampos, senior analyst for Americas at IHS Country Risk, predicts the ANC will likely immediately assume the role of and then dissolve the National Assembly.
"The likely decision to proceed with the ANC threatens to have a high political and economic cost in terms of international isolation, sanctions, and casualties from escalating protests, increasing the risk of the Maduro regime collapsing in the two-year outlook," he wrote for IHS Jane's Country Risk report published last week on Thursday.
Moya-Ocampos warns that protests against Maduro are likely to escalate in Caracas and other major cities in the coming months, but the president will likely maintain the support of the country's military. Maduro plans to deploy 232,000 solider on the streets to ensure the election goes ahead, according to Reuters.
While Maduro pursues forming the ANC, Venezuela's crippling economic crisis continues, with shortages of food and basic goods. More than 1.5 million Venezuelans have fled the country because of the crisis, according to Barclays' researchers Alejandro Arreaza, Michael Cohen and Warren Russell, in a commodities research paper published Tuesday.
They warn that if the country collapses, it could become a crisis for the rest of the region.
"This number (of refugees) could increase exponentially, affecting neighboring countries, particularly Colombia. The international community will need to support the region in a refugee crisis," they said.
Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, arrives to a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday, June 22, 2017.Carlos Becerra | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Alejandro Werner, director of the western hemisphere department at the International Monetary Fund, echoed this warning, adding that Venezuela faces a political and humanitarian crisis made worse by a "prolonged economic recession."
"This political crisis poses significant downside risks for growth if it escalates further or remains unabated for a long period. Inflation is expected to accelerate driven by the monetization of large fiscal deficits and the loss of confidence in the currency," he said in an Americas outlook report published Tuesday.
"If living conditions continue deteriorating, Venezuela's humanitarian crisis could spin out of control, increasing the number of people migrating to neighboring countries."
President Trump has been vocal in criticizing Maduro and the ANC. Trump warned last week he would take "strong and swift economic actions" if the election goes ahead. The Trump administration is reportedly considering a wide range of economic sanctions against the country, its senior government officials or the state-owned oil company PDVSA.
Venezuela's economy is highly dependent on selling oil, especially to the U.S., but its oil export revenue is at a 15-year low, according to Barclays' Arreaza, Cohen and Russell. They say even limited U.S. sanctions could cause Venezuela to default on its debt payments and disrupt oil production.
"A sharper and longer disruption (e.g. exceeding three months) could raise oil prices at least $5 to $7 per barrel," they said. "It may be just the opportunity OPEC needs to exit its current strategy."
However, the U.S. energy system relies on Venezuela; offsetting heavy oil supply from the country would be more difficult than offsetting Middle East supply and U.S. refiners would be negatively affected by any sanctions, according to the Barclays' researchers.
The European Union has also called on Maduro to suspend the ANC process. Last week, the foreign affairs council discussed applying specific sanctions against individual Venezuelan leaders, but the EU has so far refrained from taking action.
Opposition activists protest in Caracas on July 24RONALDO SCHEMIDT | AFP | Getty Images
Sanctions would have mixed results, warns Verisk Maplecroft's Joel Ross.
"Sanctions would hit ordinary Venezuelan families hardest, but they would also increase pressure from the military for Maduro's resignation. This is because reduced revenues from oil exports would shut down Venezuela's access to foreign currency, impacting the distribution of food and medicine that the armed forces control as part of a complex patronage system," he said.
Ross warns that if the ANC goes ahead and chances of a peaceful solution retreat, protestors are more likely to resort to violent means to remove Maduro's government.
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
|
6fe98cc04e0679dcad6f48b0c2655b12 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/xiaomi-launches-mi-ai-speaker-to-rival-amazon-echo.html | China's Xiaomi just launched a $44 rival to the Amazon Echo | China's Xiaomi just launched a $44 rival to the Amazon Echo
Xiaomi's Mi AI Speaker on display.Xiaomi
Xiaomi launched its own smart speaker on Wednesday to rival the likes of the Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod but for a fraction of the price.
The Mi AI speaker costs 299 yuan ($44) less than the $349 for Apple's HomePod and $179.99 for the Amazon Echo.
It's a white tall speaker with Xiaomi's "Mi" branding on it and contains six microphones in order to hear a user no matter which side of the device they are standing.
The speaker employs artificial intelligence that allows users to speak to it. Xiaomi said that users can stream music or radio stations, and the speaker acts as a personal assistant able to provide information such as weather and news.
Xiaomi is releasing the device in August in China through a beta program where 1,000 recruited users will pay 1 yuan each to get a speaker. Through speaking to it, the users will help train the smart speaker. This is how voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa get smarter. It requires data in the form of people talking to it.
The start-up, which has been dubbed "China's Apple" and was once growing at a triple-digit pace in the smartphone market, has struggled in recent times. But it has looked to new areas of growth beyond smartphones, particularly other internet-connected devices like TVs and robot vacuum cleaners.
Xiaomi sees the Mi AI Speaker being at the center of this with users able to connect it to other devices made by the company and then control those through the speaker.
Like Amazon has done, Xiaomi is inviting third-party developers to create apps for the speaker.
Xiaomi, however, hasn't given any word on whether this will be available internationally after the beta trial. But the smart speaker space is getting incredibly crowded and even in China, e-commerce giant Alibaba has its own version called Tmall Genie.
|
a28cb0d28d293dfa5e55f2f8d455b225 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/house-republicans-call-for-a-second-special-counsel--to-investigate-clinton-comey-and-lynch.html | House Republicans call for a second special counsel — to investigate Clinton, Comey and Lynch | House Republicans call for a second special counsel — to investigate Clinton, Comey and Lynch
VIDEO0:4800:48House Republicans call for a second special counsel - to investigate Clinton, Comey and LynchNews Videos
House Judiciary Committee Republicans on Thursday called for a new special counsel — to investigate Hillary Clinton, James Comey and Loretta Lynch.
In a letter addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Republicans said they were writing to "request assistance in restoring public confidence in our nation's justice system and its investigators, specifically the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)."
The lawmakers said they presumed investigation of potential Russian influence on the U.S. presidential election was covered by special counsel Robert Mueller, but that they "are not confident that other matters related to the 2016 election and aftermath are similarly under investigation" by the former FBI director.
"The unbalanced, uncertain, and seemingly unlimited focus of the special counsel's investigation has led many of our constituents to see a dual standard of justice that benefits only the powerful and politically well-connected," the letter said. "For this reason, we call on you to appoint a second special counsel to investigate a plethora of matters connected to the 2016 election and its aftermath, including actions taken by previously public figures like Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."
Last year, the Justice Department declined to charge Clinton or her associates for Clinton's handling of classified information while at the State Department. As a candidate, Trump threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Clinton's actions.
Comey had made a public announcement about the FBI's recommendation that the Justice Department not pursue charges against Clinton. He had said "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against the former secretary of state for her handling of government emails. That conclusion was widely panned by Republicans.
Mueller, meanwhile, was appointed in May following Trump's dismissal of Comey and after the former FBI director's accounts about private conversations with the president started to surface.
Although the Thursday letter will surely be deemed a cynically partisan move by those on the left, the lawmakers attempted to address those criticisms.
"Our call for a special counsel is not made lightly. We have no interest in engendering more bad feelings and less confidence in the process or governmental institutions by the American people. Rather, our call is made on their behalf. It is meant to determine whether the criminal prosecution of any individual is warranted based on the solemn obligation to follow the facts wherever they lead and applying the law to those facts."
Still, Thursday's letter aligns with recent messages from the White House.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out and tried to shift the focus to Clinton amid his frustration with federal and congressional investigations into whether his campaign coordinated with Moscow. He has called the probe, led by Mueller, a politically charged "witch hunt."
The man Trump has picked to lead the FBI, Christopher Wray, has disputed that assertion.
Trump also recently lashed out at Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Moscow's role. He called Schiff "sleazy" and "totally biased" and accused him of using Russia as an excuse for Democrats' performance in the election.
—CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.
|
ca0578f9648b3b45132648d56bdb43c2 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/lindsey-graham-holy-hell-to-pay-if-trump-fires-jeff-sessions.html | Lindsey Graham: 'There will be holy hell to pay' if Trump fires Sessions | Lindsey Graham: 'There will be holy hell to pay' if Trump fires Sessions
VIDEO0:4800:48Lindsey Graham warns President Trump against firing Jeff SessionsNews Videos
Sen. Lindsey Graham warned President Donald Trump on Thursday against firing his attorney general — the latest Republican to try to deter Trump from a move that would carry huge consequences for the U.S. government.
"If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay," the Republican from South Carolina told reporters, according to video taken by NBC News.
A push to fire Sessions — who enraged Trump by recusing himself from the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin — is seen as a possible precursor to removing the special counsel overseeing that probe. Graham also warned of consequences if the Trump administration tries to remove special counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director.
"Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, unless Mueller did something wrong. Right now, I have no reason to believe that Mueller is compromised," Graham said.
NBC News: WATCH: Sen. Lindsey Graham says there will be "holy hell to pay" if AG Jeff Sessions is fired. Video via @VaughnHillyard
Trump has publicly lambasted Sessions several times recently, and his anger stems from the attorney general's March recusal. Reports have said Trump has talked privately about replacing Sessions, potentially circumventing Congress by making an appointment while the Senate is in recess.
It is unclear how serious Trump is about appointing a new attorney general.
On Wednesday night, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said "no way" would he fit in confirmation of a new attorney general this year.
Graham said Thursday that he is working on bipartisan legislation to protect Mueller.
VIDEO0:5500:55Fmr. Sen.George Mitchell: It's been an awkward and humiliating time for AG Jeff SessionsSquawk Box
|
d00554af36dffccd19e835de29609f3e | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/mccain-graham-johnson-lay-out-terms-for-supporting-obamacare-repeal.html | GOP senators shred 'skinny' Obamacare repeal — then say they'll support it | GOP senators shred 'skinny' Obamacare repeal — then say they'll support it
VIDEO18:3818:38Sen. Lindsey Graham: 'The skinny bill, as policy, is a disaster'Congress
Three Republican senators on Thursday appeared to get the assurances they needed to support the GOP's "skinny" Obamacare repeal, after earlier criticizing the proposal.
In the latest twist in a bizarre legislative process, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., slammed the proposal to roll back parts of Obamacare at a news conference. But they later told reporters that they would back the plan after House Speaker Paul Ryan told them a House and Senate conference committee would seek a better alternative. A fourth senator who attended the news conference, John McCain, R-Ariz., would not say where he stood after speaking to Ryan.
Earlier, Graham said he could not support a "half-assed" plan that he called "politically" the "dumbest thing in history." But he added that he could back the bill if he is promised that lawmakers could strike a better Obamacare replacement deal in conference.
Johnson said the plan was sold to senators as "a vehicle to get to conference." McCain added that he is "voting no unless I see that there is a path to a conference" and said he would also listen to GOP Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's opinions on the plan.
Essentially, the senators said they would back the plan only with the assurance that the House will not pass the same bill.
House Speaker Paul Ryan later said that his chamber is open to going to a conference committee to reach an Obamacare repeal deal with the Senate — but expressed doubts that his Republican counterparts could pass any major overhaul of the health-care system. After Ryan's initial statement, McCain responded by saying his assurances were not sufficient.
Supporting the proposal carries risks for senators who do not want it to become law. The House could simply approve it and send it to President Donald Trump's desk to end the months-long struggle to at least partially repeal Obamacare, a key GOP promise for the last seven years.
A conference committee can form when the Senate and House pass differing versions of bills and aim to strike one agreement that both chambers can then vote to approve. The House already passed an Obamacare replacement plan, the highly unpopular American Health Care Act. It is unclear if that process can produce a plan that enough Senate Republicans will support.
Separate GOP plans to immediately replace the Affordable Care Act or repeal it with a two-year transition period failed in the Senate amid Republican divisions. The skinny proposal is seen as a final attempt to push a plan through the Senate before the chamber tries to reach a plan that could also get approval in the House.
Senate Republicans unveiled the "skinny" repeal bill late Thursday just hours before they planned to vote on it. It repeals Obamacare's individual mandate, rolls back the employer mandate, suspends the medical device tax, increases contribution limits for health savings accounts, cuts off Planned Parenthood funding for one year and expands a program that would allow states to waive some consumer protections.
A Congressional Budget Office score requested by Democrats estimated that a skinny repeal plan would leave 16 million more people uninsured and make premiums about 20 percent higher than under current law. However, that report was based only on widely reported outlines of a skinny repeal proposal, meaning it does not capture the exact bill the Senate will field.
Insurance companies need to collect payments from healthier people in order to offset the costs of sicker ones. Without an individual mandate requiring Americans to have insurance or pay a penalty, it is expected that some healthy people will drop their coverage.
Graham did not mince words about the proposal.
"The skinny bill, as policy, is a disaster," he said.
It is still unclear if the Senate can reach a majority vote on the plan. As Republicans hold 52 seats, three "no" votes will block it.
|
8ac8fb92fc6494f1ba69d871a06cc76d | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/pay-attention-to-outside-reversal-or-you-will-regret-it-dennis-gartman.html | If you don't pay attention to outside reversal days, you will regret it, says Dennis Gartman | If you don't pay attention to outside reversal days, you will regret it, says Dennis Gartman
VIDEO4:0504:05This is an important day for market technicians: Gartman Letter's Dennis GartmanPower Lunch
An outside reversal occurs when the market closes above the previous day's high or below the previous day's low. If the NASDAQ Composite keeps trending down Thursday, it could qualify as a bearish outside reversal.
And that's not a good thing, according to Dennis Gartman, the commodities king.
"If you don't pay attention to outside reversal days, 85, 90 percent of the time you regret not having paid attention," he said on CNBC's "Power Lunch."
The NASDAQ was down almost 1 percent at just past 2:30 Thursday afternoon.
However, it doesn't necessarily mean this is the peak for the year, according to Gartman. It may just mean a five or 10 percent correction is coming, he said.
"But it is something that should be paid attention to, and if you don't, I'm certain you'll regret it," he said.
Gartman also said recent signs could mean money is moving out of equities and into plants and equipment, less liquid assets. But that's what should happen, he said, calling it "real economic activity."
He said broad commodity market indices making new highs could be signaling inflation rather than deflation, as many expect.
"The conversation was constantly about deflation," he said. "Instead, the commodities markets are starting to tell you that perhaps there's incipient inflation taking place."
|
0b2bf3609ab3326789a852548042c3ea | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/top-esports-gamer-talks-explosion-in-gaming-with-logitech-ceo.html | VIDEO0:4100:41eSports gamer & Logitech CEO: 'Explosion' in billion-dollar gaming industry
The days of "couch potato" gamer stereotypes are long over, as the burgeoning eSports industry rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
The trend's top beneficiaries include Logitech, the Swiss maker of computer accessories like keyboards, headphones and high-end gaming gear, and its CEO, Bracken Darrell, is thrilled to be a part of it.
"It's been an explosion of a business for us," Darrell told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer on Thursday. "We're getting deeper and deeper into eSports with every launch, and we're really innovating very aggressively trying to improve the experience for not only the casual player or the competitive player, but even the professional player."
One such professional player is Andy Dinh, the 25-year-old founder of one of eSports' top-ranking teams.
In five years, Dinh rose from his gameplay being watched by hundreds to filling stadiums. Now, his team, SoloMid, is sponsored by the likes of Logitech, HTC, Red Bull and Geico, among others.
"I think it's a billion dollar industry right now, and the revenues are in the hundred millions annually," Dinh told Cramer in a joint interview with Darrell. "I think, in the future, it's going to be in the multi-billions."
Dinh's team is known for being the winningest North American team in League of Legends, the top game in eSports. Dinh and his teammates work with Logitech's product team to develop the most efficient gaming gear for them to get an edge over competitors.
"Every second matters," Dinh told Cramer. "Every click matters. You can lose in basketball based off of one point. You can also lose in eSports based on one second. So everything matters and using your preferred gear is extremely important. It matters more than just the paycheck. You have to use the best products."
And while Logitech's first-quarter results were not met kindly on Wall Street, its CEO is already capitalizing on the rapidly expanding industry.
Darrell said that eSports teams will soon have to pay tens of millions of dollars to "buy in" to leagues and become permanent, just like in the NFL or the NBA.
"This league is about to completely change," Darrell said. "We sponsor about 25, 26 teams. And so it's a dynamic thing. But we intend to be a leader. We've got great competition in there too, there are a lot of great companies making peripherals. But we're a technology company and we're going to keep investing to make sure that we give an edge to people who use our equipment."
VIDEO9:3609:36Top eSports gamer talks 'explosion' in billion-dollar gaming industry with Logitech CEOMad Money with Jim Cramer
Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - VineQuestions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com
| |
541378faf9f7caaa9ffbc75412acb12f | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/trending-up-gucci-captures-millennial-to-help-kering-unveil-more-eye-catching-results.html | Trending up: Gucci captures millennials to help Kering unveil more eye-catching results | Trending up: Gucci captures millennials to help Kering unveil more eye-catching results
VIDEO0:4700:47I don't need a shoe specialist like Jimmy Choo: Kering CEO PinaultLuxury
The revamp of classic high-end fashion brands including Gucci and Balenciaga has helped French parent Kering deliver a stellar set of results for the first half of the year, with scion Francois-Henri Pinault telling CNBC that the company's success is not as fickle as fashion itself.
"What we did is that we transformed this business model," said the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Kering, speaking to CNBC on Thursday from the company's Parisian headquarters, explaining that the brands' couture offerings now have continuity from one season to the next.
"What you bought at Gucci early 2016 you can still wear it, you are still in the same creative environment…the volatility that we used to have on that category is not there anymore, that's very important," he added.
Kering has been handsomely rewarded in recent financial reporting quarters for taking a risk in on appointing individualistic, edgy and in some cases lesser-known talent as creative directors at some of its iconic brands - most notably Alessandro Michele at Gucci, Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga and Anthony Vaccarello at Yves Saint Laurent.
Gucci delivered a 43.4 percent jump in comparable revenue for the first half of 2017, with Yves Saint Laurent tracking close behind on 28.5 percent.
VIDEO4:0104:01Our completely new strategy for Gucci and Saint Laurent, according to Kering's CEOLuxury
Meanwhile, over at the company's sports & lifestyle division, Puma followed up on the confidence it demonstrated in raising its guidance for the second time in three months on Wednesday by reporting 15.7 percent comparable revenue growth.
Mergers and acquisitions have been a persistent theme in the luxury fashion sector, with Michael Kors' takeover of high-end shoemaker Jimmy Choo on Tuesday just the latest example.
Yet, Kering has long maintained that it would prefer to focus its efforts and resources on developing its existing brands rather than seek growth via external means - a point reinforced by Pinault as he confirmed to CNBC that he was "very satisfied" with the company's existing stable of brands.
"We built the portfolio to really have something really balanced between categories, price segments, and style," he explained, noting that he did not even look at Jimmy Choo.
"The reason is that all my brands are very strong in that category. Gucci is one of the best player in the shoe business, Saint Laurent is very strong, Balenciaga is doing an amazing job in the shoe business too - so I don't need a specialist," asserted Pinault, who is the son of the founder of Kering's previous incarnation, PPR.
The Gucci fashion show at Milan Fashion Week.Venturelli | WireImage | Getty Images
The company's attempts to harness the spending power of the so-called Millennial generation and Generation Z have been fiercely strategic and demonstrably successful. The combined cohort is represented by those aged around 35 and under.
"Gucci is selling 50 percent of all sales to these people…Saint Laurent 65 percent of the turnover is made with millennials. It means that we have a core category of customers that are between 25 and 35…The attractiveness of couture, of the ready to wear is much higher for that clientele than it used to be for older people before," said the Kering chief.
"So the momentum that we are enjoying in couture is not just due to the few months or few seasons, it is there to stay," Pinault declared.
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
|
4ed34258913a7c2c43248e49f67134be | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/altria-shares-fall-after-fda-releases-roadmap-to-curb-tobacco-related-deaths-.html | Altria shares plunge after FDA releases road map to curb tobacco-related deaths | Altria shares plunge after FDA releases road map to curb tobacco-related deaths
VIDEO0:3200:32Altria shares plunge after FDA announces new plan to curb tobaccoNews Videos
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday announced a plan for tobacco and nicotine regulation, which seeks to lower nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels.
This would be just the first step in a sweeping review of the tobacco industry's regulations by the agency, with the goal of encouraging the development of new products that are less dangerous than cigarettes. The FDA has also said it will consider the role of menthol and other flavors in tobacco products.
The statement by the FDA largely came as a surprise and will likely face much resistance from tobacco companies, which are already facing a declining consumer base for their products.
Shares of Altria Group, maker of Marlboro and Parliament brands through its Philip Morris USA unit, plunged more than 10 percent after the FDA's announcement. British American Tobacco, which owns brands such as Camel, Lucky Strike and Newport, fell nearly 9 percent. Vector Group, which sells Liggett Select, Eve and other cigarette brands, saw its stock decline more than 4 percent.
Shares of Philip Morris International, which sells Marlboro and other brands outside the U.S., also dropped nearly 3 percent on the news. Imperial Brands, formerly known as Imperial Tobacco Group, fell 6 percent.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called the amount of death and disease attributable to tobacco "overwhelming." Cigarettes are "the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended, will kill half of all long-term users," he said in a statement. "Envisioning a world where cigarettes would no longer create or sustain addiction, and where adults who still need or want nicotine could get it from alternative and less harmful sources, needs to be the cornerstone of our efforts — and we believe it's vital that we pursue this common ground."
The FDA said Friday that it plans to begin a "public dialogue" surrounding lowering nicotine levels by way of "achievable product standards." The agency added that it's prepared to issue guidance that will describe a new enforcement policy "shortly."
Altria said, in a statement, that it plans to be "fully engaged throughout the process.
"We think today's announcement is an important evolution in the [FDA's] approach to regulating tobacco products and a meaningful step forward in developing a comprehensive regulatory policy that acknowledges the continuum of risk," Altria said.
"The process outlined by the Commissioner today will allow all stakeholders the opportunity to participate in a science and evidence based regulatory framework which is transparent, predictable, and sustainable," the company added.
In an email, a British American Tobacco spokesperson told CNBC that the company's Reynolds American unit was "encouraged" by Gottlieb's comments.
"Dr. Gottlieb's comments regarding nicotine and menthol do not come as a surprise to us," the spokesperson said. "We are well prepared and look forward to participating in a thorough process to develop a comprehensive plan for tobacco and nicotine regulation."
"We believe future success will require transformative, innovative products and changing the conversation about tobacco harm reduction," the company added.
Gottlieb said the agency is planning to look at regulation to "render cigarettes minimally addictive."
The FDA said it also will consider an exemption for what it calls premium cigars, and will consider a delay in implementing new rules for reduced-risk offerings like e-cigarettes.
VIDEO2:2002:20Tobacco stocks slide as FDA weighs new nicotine regulationsSquawk Alley
"We've longed believed the FDA would ultimately take a more comprehensive approach toward regulating nicotine as a natural next step," Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said in a note to clients.
"Overall, while the market is viewing today's announcement as a 'negative' for cigarette manufacturers, we believe this could prove to be an opportunity over the long term for reduced risk products and, therefore, a positive for Altria/PM as they have a unique competitive advantage."
One concern remains that though the FDA seeks a balanced approach to avoid "unintended consequences," such as activity in the black market, this might not pan out as anticipated, Herzog said. It also increases the risk that a federally mandated ban on menthol cigarettes would be implemented, she added.
"Surely" this encourages a black market, Joseph Agnese, an analyst at research firm CFRA Research in New York, told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Friday. But this will also take awhile to go into any sort of effect, he said.
For now, "these actions are actually supportive of the future demand of e-cigarette products," Agnese said. And regulations would primarily impact younger smokers.
Notably, e-cigarettes and vaping devices that were on the market in August 2016 won't be subject to review until 2021 or 2022, depending on the type of product, the FDA said.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-smoking group, said the plan has "great potential to save lives." However, they were critical of the delayed oversight of these newer tobacco products.
"There is no reason to allow these products to stay on the market while developing and implementing the comprehensive strategy Dr. Gottlieb outlined today," the group's president, Matthew Myers, said in a statement.
VIDEO1:1101:11FDA to seek cutting nicotine levels in cigarettes, causing tobacco stocks to tumbleSquawk on the Street
|
efbd0a13afd64ea564688075991bf08b | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/as-tesla-goes-mainstream-luxury-carmakers-plan-rivals.html | As Tesla goes mainstream, luxury carmakers plan rivals | As Tesla goes mainstream, luxury carmakers plan rivals
Tesla Motors unveils the new lower-priced Model 3 sedan at the Tesla Motors design studio in Hawthorne, Calif., Thursday, March 31, 2016.Justin Prichard | AP
Tesla's Model 3 is perhaps the most desired electric vehicle in history, with a waiting list that stretches more than a year.
But competition could start to heat up relatively soon, according to one analyst.
For now, Tesla seems to be in a class of its own, and enjoys a considerable lead over competitors. It has no rivals in the high-end electric car segment, and enthusiasm for the Model 3, based on reservations, has far outpaced the interest in similarly priced electric cars. These include the already available Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf.
But Tesla will face a bevy of competitors in the next few years, especially among high end carmakers with strong brands of their own, said Barclays analyst Brian Johnson, who has been a consistent skeptic of the California electric car maker and renewable energy company, even though Tesla stock has risen more than 50 percent this year alone.
"We can just hear the Tesla fans objections to the volume of competitor launches – most of those are mass market cars, and many are compliance cars — and hence not appealing to the status-conscious Tesla target segment," Johnson said in his note to clients on Friday.
Recently, Barclays hosted a powertrain conference in London, where several high-end auto companies showed off their planned electric offerings.
From what he saw there, along with recent announcements from manufacturers, Johnson said legacy luxury automakers will begin a launch cadence in 2019 that will distribute a broad selection of electric vehicles across several brands by 2021.
"In particular at our conference, we were impressed by Mercedes' plans for the EQ brand as a standalone platform for EVs from inception," Johnson said. "We think Mercedes' strategy will stand them in good stead in the long run."
He added that BMW will produce early electric vehicles on existing architectures, but will also develop a standalone platform as it builds scale. He expects Mercedes and BMW to have four models each, and Volkswagen to have seven — three from Audi, two from Porsche and one Bentley.
Maserati, Jaguar and Aston Martin are each expected to have one model.
Whether any of these will be able to truly challenge Tesla remains to be seen. But each could conceivably take significant slices out of the market share Tesla all but controls now.
Johnson also thinks, along with many others, that China will be the key growth market for electric vehicles over the next several years, and Tesla is at a great disadvantage to Chinese makers who all but dominate the Chinese market.
Tesla's Model S and X cars compete with 19 Chinese electric vehicle models in that country, by his count. Local regulations favor local companies, and Chinese models typically sell better than Tesla cars, according to his report. Both Daimler and GM have plans to source battery cells in China as well.
Still, some analysts have expressed skepticism that traditional auto companies pose a great threat to Tesla. Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas, for example, said in a note published in April that traditional automakers tend to profit more from cars with internal combustion engines, and was doubtful that shareholders would reward companies for pursuing "money-losing electrics."
Jonas said that Tesla's true competitors may end up being tech companies instead.
To be sure, Tesla has a considerable lead on competitors and has a strong brand. So far the company has had the high-end electric vehicle market to itself.
The company proved that electric cars could offer luxury and high performance and be highly desirable to consumers. They are now aiming to prove that they can also offer at least some of that performance and design at a lower price.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has at times encouraged other companies to make electric cars. In 2014, Tesla released all the patents it held at the time "in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology," Musk said in a blog post.
The market for electric cars is still tiny—only about 1 percent of all cars sold. It is likely about to become quite a bit more crowded.
Tesla was not immediately available for comment.
|
fa29ec40f33d5a444e27c5450aed4eec | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/express-scripts-pbm-getting-questions-about-amazon-and-health.html | Drug middleman Express Scripts is getting peppered with questions about Amazon's health care interest | Drug middleman Express Scripts is getting peppered with questions about Amazon's health care interest
Tim Wentworth, CEO of Express Scripts.CNBC
Express Scripts' president and CEO Tim Wentworth was peppered with questions about Amazon on its earnings call earlier this week.
Wentworth, who runs one of the largest pharmacy benefits management organizations -- otherwise known as PBMs -- appears to have contemplated this question quite a bit.
"So as I think about Amazon and what they may choose to do in pharmacy, you said it right in the beginning, which is, you know, becoming a PBM is a lot more than dispensing drugs," he responded to an analyst.
PBMs act as intermediaries between payers, like health insurers, and the rest of the health system.
Speculation has ensued for months that the company will attempt to disrupt PBMs like Express Scripts, and bring some transparency to drug pricing. CNBC reported in May that Amazon has a secret health team and is hiring experts to help steer it into the multibillion-dollar pharmacy market.
All of this puts Express Scripts in a tricky spot.
Wentworth suggested that the company would be open to working with Amazon rather than competing with them. "If Amazon were looking to be an efficient provider in networks, we would welcome that opportunity," Wentworth told analysts on the call.
Some experts find this move to be somewhat surprising.
"Typically there is only 1 mail order pharmacy in a PBM and it's the one owned by the PBM," said Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting and author of Drug Channels. "It's unusual for them to signal this."
It's still early days for Amazon, and the company hasn't announced anything official. The company might prioritize other areas first, said Fein. As CNBC reported this week, the company is also interested in other areas like telemedicine and electronic medical records.
"Amazon has a long way to go before it becomes a mail order pharmacy," said Fein, who pointed to myriad challenges ahead ranging from regulatory to technical. And if it were to become a network pharmacy, he said, it would need to build the "back engine" to accept insurance and adjudicate claims.
"I think Amazon has more lucrative areas to go after than becoming a PBM," he said.
VIDEO0:5100:51Express Scripts in line with expectationsClosing Bell
|
0bf6936b76b90e8697d371473ef4d6df | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/ferrari-driver-crashes-288000-supercar-just-an-hour-after-purchase.html | Ferrari driver wrecks supercar just an hour after he bought it | Ferrari driver wrecks supercar just an hour after he bought it
VIDEO0:4500:45Ferrari driver wrecks $288,000 supercar just an hour after he bought itNews Videos
A driver in the United Kingdom has destroyed his Ferrari supercar in an accident after owning it for just one hour.
Police in South Yorkshire said the driver was able to walk away with just cuts and bruises after the Ferrari 430 "went airborne and burst into flames" in South Yorkshire on Thursday.
It's unclear what he paid for the car, but it was one of only 499 ever sold with an original list price of $288,000. These cars currently fetch between $80,000 to $220,000 according to one dealer.
Credit: South Yorkshire Police
In a statement on Facebook police added: "Officers asked the driver what sort of car he 'had' to which he replied 'It was a Ferrari'."
"Detecting a sense of damaged pride he then said 'I've only just got it, picked it up an hour ago'."
South Yorkshire Police said when officers arrived, firefighters were already dousing the car which was 50 meters off the main M1 freeway.
Credit: South Yorkshire Police
The Ferrari 430 Scuderia can reach 60 miles per hour in 3.3 seconds and has a reported top speed of 198 miles per hour.
But in an update Friday, police said they "do not believe excess speed was a contributory factor in this collision."
VIDEO0:4100:41Ferrari's new super car sells out super fastNews Videos
|
397e374b083227ea2ccfcb9786b22b6c | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/market-melt-up-could-push-stocks-to-new-records-yardeni-says.html | VIDEO1:5201:52This is could be the number one factor protecting the rallyFutures Now
Veteran market watcher Edward Yardeni believes investors who succumb to stock market jitters could miss out on another wave of big gains.
Yardeni noted the most recent record highs for the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and indices aren't being driven by a surge in valuation multiples. Rather he says the activity is "more like a melt-up in earnings." And, that's a bullish sign for the rally.
"The fundamentals are just cranking along at a decent pace here. Earnings are doing remarkably well given that the economic data looks kind of slow. But somehow or another, companies are generating good revenues and good earnings. I think that's because the global economy is doing reasonably well," said Yardeni of Yardeni Research recently on CNBC's "Futures Now."
He has been miles away from the bear camp since March 2009, turning bullish a few days after the S&P 500 hit an intraday low of 666 on March 6.
Most recently, Yardeni has been arguing that some of the best bull markets have "climbed a wall of worry," and this situation is no different.
Yardeni, along with his colleague Joe Abbott, have been keeping track of the number of "panic attacks" in the S&P 500 since the beginning of the bull market more than eight years ago. And, he's up to 56.
"We're already at my target. At the end of last year, I talked about 2400 to 2500 by the end of this year which was a pretty bold forecast at the time. Here we are coming down on 2500," said Yardeni. "I think by the middle of next year we'll be looking at 2600-2700."
If he's right, that range would be a five to nine percent increase for the S&P 500's current levels.
But, it's a viewpoint that's not shared by other esteemed financial market veterans.
Nobel laureate and Yale University Economics Professor Robert Shiller told CNBC last week that he will "lie awake worrying" about the stock market.
"We have seen phenomenal earnings growth right now. Analysts are forecasting a continuation of that. So, I don't know what is driving earnings," said Shiller. "I would be skeptical that they would continue at such a blistering pace. History shows that big earnings increases like this have a tendency to revert to trend."
Yet, Yardeni is holding firm with his forecast and doesn't see much derailing the rally – not even a White House failure to pass a tax reform package.
"The markets have pretty much discounted that we don't want to bet too much on Washington providing us with more stimulus or tax reform," Yardeni said. "The market is doing well on its own just on the fundamentals. So, I'm not convinced that if we get more evidence that nothing is going to happen on the tax front that the market is going to go down."
| |
78b7928bc2f3628142a99f9a08b68292 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/us-cigarette-volumes-take-hit-in-q2-as-california-tax-hike-causes-.html | Feds give big tobacco new headache as California taxes proving hazardous to cigarette sales | Feds give big tobacco new headache as California taxes proving hazardous to cigarette sales
A shop owner sells a pack of cigarettes to a customer in San Francisco.Getty Images
Big Tobacco is feeling the sting not only from federal action but also from California tripling cigarette taxes in April, with some retailers indicating cigarette purchases are down as much as 50 percent.
On the federal front, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday indicated it plans to slash nicotine levels in cigarettes to bring them to non-addictive levels. The FDA news is causing a sell-off in shares of tobacco companies, including Altria Group, owner of Philip Morris USA and the leading U.S. cigarette brand — Marlboro.
In California, tobacco also is facing challenges due to April's steep increase in cigarette excise taxes. Several independent retailers interviewed for this story say the decline in sales was steeper than they had expected. However, some report that coupons provided by the tobacco companies are helping to cushion the blow.
"We're down 50 percent," said Sam Mroky, store manager at Cigarette Depot in San Diego. "Before the price went up, a lot of people stocked up on cigarettes. I'm the cheapest one in the town now and … still business is no good."
The falloff in sales is evident in a study released this month by the state Legislative Analyst's Office. It shows revenues from the state's cigarette excise taxes plunged 64 percent in May 2017 compared with the year earlier.
An informal check of more than a dozen independent retailers statewide found more than half of them were experiencing a drop of 10 percent or more in cigarette purchases. Several others, though, indicated they had seen a recovery in June or July and estimated purchases were down in single digits.
California voters passed a measure in November to boost the cigarette tax by $2 a pack, up from the earlier 87-cent tax. Big tobacco companies spent more than $70 million fighting the voter measure, according to MapLight.
The higher taxes are designed to discourage people from smoking by raising the price of cigarettes. California already has one of the nation's lowest adult smoking rates.
"We went down around 12 percent after the tax," said Andy Musayelyan, manager of Hollywood Smokes in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, Altria reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share that were short of Thomson Reuters consensus. The company said its smokeable segment's results were hurt by the cigarette excise tax increase in California.
According to Altria CEO Martin Barrington, the company's flagship brand, Marlboro, has more than 50 percent share in the California market.
The CEO called California "a high-volume state," noting it previously accounted for about 7 percent of total U.S. cigarette industry volume but since the tax increase its volume contribution fell to 5 percent. As a result, he said total U.S. industry cigarette volumes were down around 4.5 percent in the June quarter.
Altria and other big tobacco companies have been using coupons to make the California tax hike more palatable to consumers.
"The tobacco companies have been sending out a lot of coupons to our customers," said Dave Mesesan, store manager for Rod's Liquor in Orange, California. "They're trying to deal with the tax increase the best they can."
A bill that would have prohibited the redemption of all coupons and promotional discounts for tobacco products failed to pass recently in the state legislature. The bill was proposed by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento).
"Tobacco coupons are nothing more than a deadly promotional trick by the tobacco industry to keep Californians smoking, leading to illness and early death for our residents, with taxpayers footing the bill," McCarty said in a statement.
The higher cigarette prices also have attracted theft rings.
Three suspects are being sought for several recent thefts of cigarettes from Walgreens stores in the L.A. area, according to the Burbank Police Department. It said there have been eight reported incidents involving the same suspects, including in Burbank, and estimated losses were running into the thousands of dollars.
Similarly, there have been big thefts of cigarettes reported in recent months in other areas of the state, including Redding, Riverside and Bakersfield.
|
73719fdd8e1bdcdb782ba8f59e920df2 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/30/china-isnt-discouraging-overseas-investment-only-regulating-it-beijing-backed-think-tanker-says.html | China isn't discouraging overseas investment, only regulating it, Beijing-backed think tanker says | China isn't discouraging overseas investment, only regulating it, Beijing-backed think tanker says
VIDEO3:0203:02China not discouraging overseas investment: ICC-NDRCSquawk Box Asia
Several high profile Chinese firms may be on the receiving end of government scrutiny over their overseas acquisitions, but the authorities are not cracking down on foreign investments, a Beijing-backed think tanker said.
"The Chinese government is not discouraging overseas investment. It's just that the government has started regulating overseas investment," Cao Wenlian, director general of the International Cooperation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission (ICC-NDRC), told CNBC.
The think tank falls under the purview of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a government agency that heads up economic and social policy in China.
As there were risks associated with Chinese firms making foreign investments, it was part of the government's role to control and fend off risks, Cao explained. "That might make the outside world feel that the Chinese government is discouraging investments abroad. But it's not," he added.
"I believe every government is responsible for overseeing the behavior of their companies — to see that their leverage and other actions are in line with international laws," Cao said.
Regulators in the world's second-largest economy have been cranking up the heat on local corporates as part of a broader crackdown on financial risk and capital outflows before the 19th party congress in the fall.
Wanda Plaza in Yantai, Shandong Province, China. Foreign acquisitions made by property developer Dalian Wanda include cinema chain AMC and Legendary Entertainment.Zhang Peng | LightRocket | Getty Images
Just last month, media reports said domestic banks had been asked by regulators to review their exposure to foreign debt incurred by some of China's most prolific buyers of foreign assets, including property developer Dalian Wanda, conglomerate Fosun International and insurance company Anbang.
Acquisitions made by those companies include Anbang's 2014 purchase of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, as well as Dalian Wanda's purchase of U.S. cinema chain AMC Theatres and Legendary Entertainment as part of its push into the entertainment business.
As recently as July 28, Fosun announced its intentions, together with Beijing Sanyuan Foods, to buy St Hubert, a French margarine manufacturer. The acquisition was "aligned" with government policy in China to drive innovation, Reuters quoted Fosun Chairman Guo Guangchang as saying.
Despite the additional scrutiny, Cao said he was not worried about a scale back in overseas Chinese investment.
"I still believe that a lot of countries see China currently as one of the biggest investors investing abroad," Cao said.
"To put it in layman's terms, if a man gets rich, it's easier for him to squander his wealth. So from the perspective of the Chinese government and our internal think tank, we should tighten the belts of companies and remind them that their investments need to be wiser."
|
999c5e282e9d6c92664f758cd55a8126 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/30/us-considering-some-sanctions-on-venezuela-oil-sector-sources-say.html | US considering some sanctions on Venezuela oil sector, sources say | US considering some sanctions on Venezuela oil sector, sources say
Donald TrumpJim Bourg | Reuters
President Donald Trump's administration is considering imposing some U.S. sanctions on Venezuela's vital oil sector in response to Sunday's election of a constitutional super-body that Washington has already denounced as a "sham" vote, U.S. officials said.
The measures, which could be announced as early as Monday, are not expected to include a ban on Venezuelan oil shipments to the United States -- one of the harshest options -- but could block sale of lighter U.S. crude that Venezuela mixes with its heavy crude and then exports, the officials told Reuters.
While no final decisions have been made, the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States could also sanction further senior Venezuelan officials. But the timing of any new sanctions, which were imposed on 13 Venezuela figures last week, remained uncertain.
Other options that remain under consideration, the officials said, are various measures to restrict access by the Venezuelan government and state oil company PDVSA to the U.S. banking system, the sources said. But it was not clear whether the U.S. administration was ready to take such action or would instead hold it in reserve if further escalation was deemed necessary.
The new round of sanctions is intended to make good on Trump's threat of "strong and swift economic actions" if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro went ahead with Sunday's election of a controversial new congress, the officials said.
But the U.S. response, though expected to be the toughest yet against Maduro's leftist government since Trump took office, is also being calibrated to avoid causing further suffering to the Venezuelan people or damaging U.S. economic interests, the officials said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
|
952519509b6477603c3b33b06a4d2fc0 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/31/china-300-million-investment-in-abu-dhabi-ports-is-a-milestone.html | China's $300 million investment in Abu Dhabi Ports is a 'milestone' | China's $300 million investment in Abu Dhabi Ports is a 'milestone'
Cranes stand on the quayside at Khalifa Port on April 26, 2012.Gabriela Maj | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Five Chinese companies have agreed to spend a total of $300 million in a deal with Abu Dhabi Ports, deemed a "milestone" by CEO Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi.
The companies hail from China's eastern Jiangsu province and will boost industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronics and aluminium smelting, Al Shamisi told CNBC's Street Signs Monday.
In a deal struck through the Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation and Investment Company, the companies have signed a lease on 2.2 square kilometers of the Free Trade Zone of Khalifa Port, which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm Abu Dhabi Ports oversees.
"The Chinese companies established within the free zone will sub-lease to five factories to start with," Al Shamisi explained.
According to Reuters, the Chinese firms involved in the deal are Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, Jiangsu Fantai Mining Development (Group) Co Ltd, Xuzhou Jianghe Wood Co, Jiangsu Jinzi Environmental Technology Co and Guangzheng Group.
VIDEO2:4502:45China invests $300 million in Abu Dhabi Port free trade zoneStreet Signs Europe
The move is in line with China's One Belt, One Road infrastructure project to revive ancient trading routes, which is thought to be the biggest foreign spend ever by any country.
Al Shamisi explained the strategic advantage of the UAE's ports, which enable "direct access through major shipping lines through Africa, (the) Indian subcontinent, Europe and Far East Asia."
This is not the first time the China and the UAE have collaborated. In 2015, the two countries established a joint investment fund worth $10 billion.
The promising economic potential of the UAE was one of BMI Research's findings in its Global Industry Investment Attractiveness report, published Friday.
VIDEO3:2103:21UAE and Malaysia top emerging markets: BMI ResearchStreet Signs Europe
The UAE ranked in the top 10 percent of countries for five out of the nine sectors measured: power, infrastructure, renewables, upstream oil and gas, and food and non-alcoholic drinks. It was the best performing emerging market in BMI Research's Risk/Reward Index.
"This is impressive considering that the UAE has a relatively small market size (0.5% of global GDP) compared to China (15.2% of global GDP), for instance," BMI Research said in the report.
This positive sentiment come as a surprise considering the UAE's involvement in an ongoing diplomatic spat with nearby Qatar and the tumbling price of oil in recent years.
Marina Petroleka, head of energy and infrastructure research at BMI Research, told CNBC's Street Signs Monday that the UAE has "good project pipelines" and a "good demographics profile," meaning that it was "quite ahead of the curve compared to some other GCC countries when it comes to diversifying ... away from oil."
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
|
e6cc0c2308094d0d02288f35a22db954 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/01/five-rules-for-success-according-to-marcus-lemonis.html | .group-container:not(:last-child) > .inline-player {
border-bottom: 1px solid #cdd6db;
}
Over the years, Marcus has met hundreds of entrepreneurs, their employees and their families. In that time, he's also met several jerks. Marcus makes it very clear, "when it comes to success in business, don't be an ass."
Marcus explains, "Anger, yelling and screaming don't make anyone want to come to work early and stay late."
VIDEO1:3401:34Marcus Lemonis Rule #1: Don't Be An AssThe Profit
Many business experts subscribe to the philosophy "the customer is number one" but not Marcus Lemonis. He believes employees should be prioritized over the customer.
"My theory is that if you treat the employee right, that ultimately that employee will be the one to interact with the customer and their experience will be better," says Marcus.
VIDEO1:4101:41Marcus Lemonis Rule #2: Make Your Employees Number OneThe Profit
"I know what I am good at, and I know what I am not good at."
Marcus explains that it's important to know the areas that you are not good at. The reason? You can always fill in the gap by finding people who are successful in the areas you are not as strong in and then make them part of your team.
VIDEO1:5301:53Marcus Lemonis Rule #3: Know What You Don’t KnowThe Profit
"If you're going to tell your story, you better make sure it's a work of non-fiction," according to Marcus.
This is something Murchison-Hume owner Max Kater clearly struggled with. Even though the company was on the verge of collapsing, she carried herself as if nothing was wrong. Marcus believes she was trying to give the impression of wealth and success. He ended up walking away from the company.
VIDEO0:5700:57Marcus Lemonis Rule #6: Be AuthenticThe Profit
"I'm going to find what you're hiding, and the more I sniff something that you're hiding, I am going to find it," Marcus says.
Marcus doesn't want to do business with someone he can't trust. An example of a business that wasn't honest with Marcus is Artistic Stitch, a silk and screening business. As soon as Marcus started diving into the financial statements, he discovered several red flags including multiple personal expenses on the company credit card.
VIDEO1:4201:42Marcus Lemonis Rule #7: Be TransparentThe Profit
Watch the full episode, "Ten Rules for Success", to get even more advice from Marcus Lemonis on becoming a successful business owner.
| |
240b118bea37a0978e6336d63c01d7fb | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/01/good-winter-ahead-for-natural-gas-morgan-stanley-says.html | It's going to be a good winter for natural gas and the companies that drill for it, Morgan Stanley says | It's going to be a good winter for natural gas and the companies that drill for it, Morgan Stanley says
Getty Images
Natural gas-focused drillers stand to benefit as low prices appear poised to drive up demand for the commodity, according to .
Prices for future delivery of natural gas have fallen below $3 per million British thermal units. That sets up a more attractive backdrop for natural gas producers as low prices give power plants a reason to burn natural gas rather than coal.
"Natural gas forwards have now fallen to levels in-line with (or below) our bearish sub-$3 forecast, driving a more constructive risk-reward into winter 2018," Devin McDermott lead U.S. gas and power commodity strategist at Morgan Stanley said in a research note on Tuesday.
Under normal weather conditions, Morgan Stanley forecasts natural gas prices could rebound to $3.25 to $3.30 per mmBtu in the fourth quarter of this year and first three months of 2018. That compares with prices just above $3 per mmBtu in the forward curve, which reflects what the market is willing to pay in the future.
The bank believes investing in drillers with low cost structures and excellent balance sheets like Cabot Oil and Gas is the best way to play the more attractive risk-reward outlook this winter. It recently upgraded Cabot to overweight.
But Morgan Stanley maintains its long-term bearish outlook on natural gas and is underweight other drillers like Gulfport Energy and Southwestern Energy.
Natural gas-fired electricity generation exceeded coal-fired power in the United States for the first time last year. But power plants are burning more coal than natural gas this year because gas prices are above last year's levels.
Morgan Stanley expects some plants to switch over to natural gas in the August to October period, creating additional demand for about a half billion cubic feet per day of gas.
VIDEO0:4900:49Natural gas inventories up 17 billion cubic feetSquawk on the Street
|
b5d6b7b30a56923a0bc2e62984638164 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/01/us-personal-income-june-2017.html | US personal income unchanged in June vs 0.3% increase expected | US personal income unchanged in June vs 0.3% increase expected
VIDEO1:2401:24Personal income unchanged in June, personal spending up 0.1%Squawk Box
U.S. consumer spending barely rose in June as personal income failed to increase for the first time in seven months amid a decline in dividend payments, pointing to a moderate pace of consumption growth in the third quarter.
The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, edged up 0.1 percent in June after an upwardly revised 0.2 percent gain in May.
There was also little sign of inflation. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, excluding food and energy, rose 0.1 percent in June after a similar gain in May. In the 12 months through June, the so-called core PCE price index increased 1.5 percent after advancing by the same margin in May.
The core PCE is the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure. The U.S. central bank has a 2 percent target.
The data was included in the second-quarter gross domestic product report published last week. That report showed consumer spending increasing at a 2.8 percent annualized rate, which accounted for the bulk of the economy's 2.6 percent growth pace during the quarter.
U.S. stock index futures pared gains slightly after the data while the dollar held gains. Prices of U.S. Treasuries were trading lower.
The increase in consumer spending in June was in line with economists' expectations. Consumer spending was previously reported to have gained 0.1 percent in May.
When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending was unchanged after rising 0.2 percent in May. June's flat reading likely sets consumer spending on a moderate growth path in the third quarter.
Since accelerating at a 3.8 percent pace in the second quarter of 2016, consumer spending growth has remained below a 3.0 percent rate, restrained by sluggish wage gains.
In June, personal income was unchanged. That was the weakest reading since a 0.1 percent dip in November 2016 and followed a 0.3 percent increase in May.
Wages and salaries increased 0.4 percent in June. Personal dividend income declined 3.0 percent in June after surging 4.8 percent in May. Income at the disposal of households after accounting for inflation fell 0.1 percent, the largest decrease since last December. Savings slipped to $546.4 billion in June from $564.7 billion in May.
|
6a5065172620543eb20b38a79b239c79 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/01/venezuela-energy-sanctions-coming.html | Venezuela energy sanctions could still be coming. Here's how they would affect the market | Venezuela energy sanctions could still be coming. Here's how they would affect the market
VIDEO0:4600:46Venezuela energy sanctions could still be coming. Here's how they would affect the marketNews Videos
The U.S. government held its fire against Venezuela on Monday, choosing not to slap sanctions on the oil-dependent nation's energy sector, but analysts say those penalties could still be coming.
The U.S. Treasury Department instead sanctioned embattled President Nicolas Maduro after he held a vote over the weekend to overhaul the nation's legislative body and sweep away the political opposition. The vote was a prelude to rewriting Venezuela's constitution, which would fortify Maduro's grip on power as his nation remains mired in economic crisis and rocked by deadly street clashes.
But the sanctions against Maduro himself are unlikely to knock him off the course he's plotted toward dictatorship, making it likely the United States will eventually impose economic sanctions, analysts say.
"Maduro is not going to be deterred, so the question is what happens when the new constituent assembly starts dismantling the existing institutions or we have further bloodshed. I think we will start to see escalating economic measures," Helima Croft, head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told CNBC.
VIDEO2:2402:24Mnuchin: We will continue to monitor the situation in VenezuelaClosing Bell
While the penalties put Maduro in a notorious club with sanctioned dictators like North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, those leaders are still in power, analysts noted.
"Personal sanctions make it harder for the elite to benefit from corruption and increase the punishment associated with it. But, as the experience of sanctions elsewhere shows, it can take a long time to achieve the desired effect," Stuart Culverhouse, chief economist at frontier market investment firm Exotix Capital, said in a recent research note.
Sanctions against Venezuela's oil industry could have ripple effects across the energy sector, creating winners and losers from American gas pumps to African export terminals. They could also contribute to a total collapse in Venezuela, rather than an orderly transition of power, some say.
It's risky for the United States to hit Venezuela where it hurts because the two nations' oil industries are intertwined.
Many U.S. Gulf Coast refineries are configured to process the heavy crude that Venezuela pumps. In 2016, the United States imported about 740,000 barrels a day from Venezuela, which sits on the northern coast of South America, a relatively short trip to the Gulf Coast.
VIDEO1:1101:11Here's how potential Venezuela sanctions affect the oil market: RBC Capital's Helima CroftPower Lunch
The most severe measures would bar U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude or prevent state oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, from transacting in U.S. dollars. But the Treasury Department is considering less severe penalties, The Wall Street Journal reported.
One measure reportedly under review is a ban on sales of U.S. light crude oil and condensate to Venezuela, which PDVSA uses to dilute its heavy crude before selling the oil to refineries. That would force PDVSA to buy those light grades from further afield, potentially Libya, Algeria and Nigeria, according to Andrew Lipow, president at Lipow Oil Associates.
"The fact is that U.S. supplies are five days away from Venezuela, whereas these other suppliers are several weeks away," said Lipow. "The cost would increase."
Venezuela's oil production has already fallen as PDVSA struggles to fund investments, so any higher costs would only ratchet up the pressure. But market disruptions could raise crude prices and squeeze profit margins for Gulf Coast refiners, including those owned by top users of Venezuelan crude like Valero, Phillips 66, Chevron and the Venezuelan state-owned Citgo.
It could also make winners out of firms that operate tanker ships such as Frontline and Nordic American, who would benefit from booking trips to Africa rather than the Gulf Coast, Lipow said. The United States shipped about 75,000 barrels a day of these petroleum products to Venezuela last year.
VIDEO2:1402:14Venezuela election: 'Maduro will survive'Capital Connection
U.S. shale drillers stand to benefit in almost any sanctions regime because the disruptions are likely to reduce supply, which boosts oil prices. U.S. crude has been stuck below $50 a barrel for much of the year, making it hard for many of them to turn a profit.
Many refiners upgraded their facilities in recent years to allow them to process lighter oil grades. Those facilities would have the option of refining oil from U.S. shale fields, which would be a boon to American drillers, said Hillary Stevenson, director of oil markets at Genscape, an energy market data firm.
An outright ban on importing Venezuelan crude or financial sector sanctions would amplify all of these impacts, analysts say. They could lead to higher gasoline prices and layoffs at some refineries, particularly Citgo. It would also pile significantly more pressure on refinery profit margins.
"It is important for the administration to carefully consider the effects of any proposed sanctions, which would not prevent Venezuelan crude from being sold elsewhere on the world market while potentially having a detrimental effect on U.S. refineries that are set up to process the type of crude oil produced in Venezuela," Phillips 66 told CNBC in a statement.
|
ac271f35836559c86036dfd57ce5567d | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/apple-just-added-a-ford-stock-up-48-billion-in-a-single-day.html | Apple just added a Ford. Stock is up $48 billion in a single day | Apple just added a Ford. Stock is up $48 billion in a single day
VIDEO0:5100:51Apple surges 6% to record after forecast shows Wall Street fears over iPhone delay were 'overblown'News Videos
Apple, the world's most valuable company, added more worth in one day than the market cap of nearly 400 individual companies in the .The smartphone maker's shares surged 6 percent to a new all-time high at Wednesday's open, a day after it reported better-than-expected earnings. The gain represented $48.1 billion of additional value for Apple shareholders to an approximately $830 billion total market value. The single-day increase is more than the market value of Ford Motor and 392 companies in the S&P 500, according to FactSet.
Apple's stock closed up 5 percent Wednesday.
Apple's cash pile rose to a record $261.5 billion, which is enough to buy Wal-Mart outright at its $243 billion market cap.
The technology company has been one of the best-performing large-cap stocks in the market. Its shares rallied 29.6 percent year to date through Tuesday versus the S&P 500's 10.6 percent return.
Disclaimer
VIDEO0:5600:56A first look at Apple's HomePod, an Amazon Echo competitorDigital Original
|
ae67f7aeb8c3ba94a638be309d30c061 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/art-cashin-in-years-ending-in-7-stocks-tend-to-top-out-before-the-end-of-august.html | Art Cashin: In years ending in 7, stocks tend to top out before the end of August | Art Cashin: In years ending in 7, stocks tend to top out before the end of August
VIDEO4:1104:11UBS' Art Cashin: Troubled by divergences in industrials and transportsHalftime Report
Wall Street could witness a sell-off in the next few months if three decades of history are any indicator, closely watched trader Art Cashin warned Wednesday.
"To prove that I'm probably ready for that aluminium foil hat, I would like to remind you that this year ends in the numeral seven, and markets tend to top out in the first three weeks of August in years that end in the numeral seven," the UBS director of floor operations at the New York Stock Exchange said on CNBC's "Halftime Report."
The pattern does not work all the time, but decades of Wall Street watercooler talk have always been wary of years ending in seven and the potential for a September or October downturn, Cashin said.
The most dramatic occurrence in recent memory was in 1987 when the market crashed. The Dow Jones industrial average topped out in August of that year, traded sideways in September, and then fell off a cliff on Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987. The Dow lost around 22 percent on that day.
"I've been doing this well over a half a century. The way you survive and to sometimes thrive for that long is the first thing you look at when you walk into a room is the exit sign," Cashin said. "If I sound a little cautious, that's the way I've learned to be over the years."
The Dow hit another milestone Wednesday, breaking above 22,000 for the first time ever, driven by a more than 4 percent earning-inspired surge in shares of index stock Apple.
Post-Dow 22K, Cashin said he's particularly troubled with a divergence between the Dow industrials and Dow transports. "The last time we've seen this kind of divergence, the next several months the markets didn't really go anywhere," he said, adding August and September are typically some of the worst months of the year.
In the past 20 years, August has been the worst month of the year for the Dow and the , according to analytics firm Kensho. September has been the third-worst month for stocks.
In the latest earnings season, which is more than two-thirds complete, Cashin said quarterly results are good, but investors owe a big portion of that strength to "financial engineering."
"The corporate buybacks made the earnings look good," he contended.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal, parent of CNBC, is a minority investor in Kensho.
— CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
|
4e8f67da246831b80971f813fa4375c8 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/cramer-zooms-in-on-how-the-stay-at-home-economy-is-affecting-earnings.html | VIDEO0:5900:59How the stay-at-home economy affects earningsMad Money with Jim Cramer
It might not seem like Royal Caribbean, AMC Entertainment, General Motors and Apple have much to do with each other, but Jim Cramer begs to differ.
"In fact, though, they have everything to do with each other," the "Mad Money" host said. "They're all about the revolution in how the consumer spends his time, but the analysts and skeptics who abound everywhere just can't seem to get their darned heads around it."
With the experiential economy in full swing, it came as a surprise to Cramer that movie theater giant AMC's earnings pre-announcement was drastically weaker than expected.
Shares of AMC took a nosedive on Wednesday after the company reported a $178 million loss and 4.4 percent decline in the U.S. box office.
While General Motors' quarterly earnings beat Wall Street estimates, the automaker's Tuesday report of a 15 percent drop in sales in July was also unsettling, pushing shares down nearly $1.
Cramer said the only explanation for these "seismic" declines was the rise of the experiential economy.
"People want document-able, record-able experiences," he said. "Unless they can go out and create memories they can share with their friends online, they mostly watch things at home and order delivery instead of driving to restaurants."
The "Mad Money" host pointed to Royal Caribbean's post-earnings conference call with its CEO, Richard Fain. Fain said that instead of spending money on televisions and cars, consumers "seem to be buying memories as never before."
The CEO added that this trend was global, not just U.S.-based. As the chief of a cruise line marketing experiences and memories, he said it played to Royal Caribbean's "sweet spot."
Cramer also nodded to the various social media platforms benefiting from experiential trends. Consumers record their memories via Facebook, Instagram and Alphabet's YouTube. They scroll through and watch their friends' memories on Apple devices, sales of which are booming.
"How do we know this? Because we heard it on the AT&T call. Specifically, in reference to their Time Warner acquisition, management explained that people are watching Time Warner on their handheld — again, widescreen handhelds like the iPhone 7 Plus," Cramer said.
Beyond that, over 30 million people in the United States play video games. Gamers and eSports fanatics are growing in number rapidly, and watch roughly a billion hours of YouTube videos per day.
Paired with the rise of shopping on Amazon, binge-watching Netflix and tuning in to HBO or weekend football games, it is difficult to ignore that the ways people spend time nowadays are shifting in home-bound, tech-savvy ways.
"It's a simple thesis. The create-memories-to-watch thesis coupled with video games and internet programming best watched on the go, but not driving, at home or going to the movies," Cramer said. "And, of course, we're ordering food via Uber and GrubHub."
Note the commonality of FAANG, Cramer's extended acronym for the stocks of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet).
All of these tech giants are capitalizing on the changing habits of the general populous, habits that Cramer believes remain misunderstood among some experts on the Street.
"But as long as this shift continues, you can keep owning FAANG. It's only getting more pronounced, as is the 'A,' as time goes on, which means these stocks can all still go higher," the "Mad Money" host said.
VIDEO9:1009:10Cramer zooms in on how the stay-at-home economy is affecting earningsMad Money with Jim Cramer
Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Apple, Facebook and Alphabet.
Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - VineQuestions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com
| |
a5c3569e5720c2ec13d83a273e1f359b | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/dow-22000-here-are-the-stocks-that-got-us-here.html | Dow 22,000: Here are the stocks that got us here | Dow 22,000: Here are the stocks that got us here
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner in flight.Boeing Company | Paul Weatherman
The Dow Jones industrial average broke above 22,000 on Wednesday, just 107 trading days after hitting 21,000 for the first time.
The 30-stock index has gained nearly 1,000 points since March 1, when it hit 21,000 on an intraday and closing basis, thanks in large part to a handful of stocks.
Boeing shares have had the biggest points impact on the price-weighted Dow, contributing 380.29 points since March 1, followed by McDonald's and UnitedHealth Group with 171.14 and 166.35 points, respectively. Caterpillar and 3M rounded out the top five points contributors, adding 99.44 and 91.22 points, respectively, to the Dow since March 1.
But the Dow could have reached the elusive 22,000 mark well before had it not been for IBM, Goldman Sachs, General Electric, Chevron and ExxonMobil shares. Since March 1, these stocks have contributed the biggest amount of losses to the Dow.
Below is a chart showing the biggest contributors of point gains, and losses, to the Dow since it first reached 21,000.
|
46096105a9e8034a8332a72861edb279 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/its-earth-overshoot-day-weve-used-more-resources-than-nature-can-regenerate-in-2017.html | It's Earth Overshoot Day: We've used more resources than nature can regenerate in 2017 | It's Earth Overshoot Day: We've used more resources than nature can regenerate in 2017
Nine OK | The Image Bank | Getty Images
It may seem like any other Wednesday, but it's not. August 2 2017 marks 'Earth Overshoot Day', when humans' annual demand on natural resources exceeds what our planet can reproduce in one year.
This year's Earth Overshoot Day is the earliest yet, coming one day ahead of the 2016 date.
According to international research organization the Global Footprint Network, it takes 1.7 earths to meet our demand on nature and its resources. Food alone represents 26 percent of humanity's ecological footprint.
UNEP TWEET
The consequences of "global ecological overspending" included drought, fresh water scarcity, and the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it added.
"Our planet is finite, but human possibilities are not," Mathis Wackernagel, CEO of the Global Footprint Network, said in a statement ahead of today's inauspicious landmark.
"Living within the means of one planet is technologically possible, financially beneficial, and our only chance for a prosperous future," Wackernagel added.
|
3f41f016d6821f28ecf6861f1b3d9142 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/lawsuit-says-wells-fargo-auto-insurance-charges-were-a-fraud.html | Lawsuit says Wells Fargo auto insurance charges were a fraud | Lawsuit says Wells Fargo auto insurance charges were a fraud
VIDEO0:4200:42Lawsuit says Wells Fargo auto insurance charges were a fraudNews Videos
A new lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo of racketeering violations and fraud after the bank admitted to charging several hundred thousand borrowers for auto insurance they did not ask for or need, causing many delinquencies.
The proposed class action filed on Sunday in San Francisco federal court deepens the fallout from the latest bad practice at Wells Fargo.
It follows the scandal in which the third-largest U.S. bank has said employees created as many as 2.1 million unauthorized customer accounts to meet sales goals.
Wells Fargo said late last week it would refund about $80 million to an estimated 570,000 customers who were wrongly charged for auto insurance, including roughly 20,000 people whose vehicles were repossessed.
The San Francisco-based bank made its announcement less than three hours after The New York Times wrote about an internal report prepared for executives that detailed improper charges.
Wells Fargo said it halted the charges last September after customers expressed "concerns."
But according to the lawsuit, refunds to defrauded customers are not enough.
"Wells Fargo has long lost the right to decide what is best for its customers," Roland Tellis, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an interview.
"Refunds don't address the fraud or inflated premiums, the delinquency charges, and the late fees," he added. "It will be up to a jury or court to decide the appropriate remedy."
Wells Fargo had no immediate comment on Monday.
The lawsuit is led by Paul Hancock, a 34-year-old marketing consultant from Indianapolis.
He said Wells Fargo charged him $598 for insurance though he repeatedly told the bank he had coverage from Allstate, and imposed a late fee after the unnecessary policy took effect.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, which could be tripled under federal racketeering law, for borrowers nationwide, and in California and Indiana.
"If refunding premiums was just the start, this could be a nine-figure case," Tellis said.
Wells Fargo's accounts scandal resulted in $185 million of regulatory penalties and a $142 million settlement of private litigation, and cost former Chief Executive John Stumpf his job.
The case is Hancock v Wells Fargo & Co et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 17-04324.
|
4fd321f82c78f1d10b92d8f250dae461 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/netflix-board-member-says-government-crackdown-on-amazon-inevitable.html | Netflix board member says government crackdown on Amazon ‘inevitable’ due to its massive size | Netflix board member says government crackdown on Amazon ‘inevitable’ due to its massive size
VIDEO0:5100:51A government crackdown on Amazon is 'inevitable,' says Rich BartonNews Videos
Technology entrepreneur Rich Barton says government intervention on Amazon in the future is unavoidable.
Barton was asked about his views on Amazon in relation to the Department of Justice's antitrust investigation of Microsoft during the 1990s in a Bloomberg podcast interview."I lived through that DOJ thing. It was really rough. It's no fun. And I think it is inevitable as companies get really, really huge," Barton said in the podcast interview published Friday.
"I think Jeff [Bezos] is probably well aware of that," Barton said. Bezos "is trying to do everything he can to delay that as long as possible and to play within the rules, but eventually the tall poppy gets chopped in."Barton has served on Netflix's board of directors since 2002. He is one of the few businessmen who have started multiple billion-dollar companies. He founded Expedia in 1994, co-founded Zillow in 2005 and worked as a product manager at Microsoft in the early 1990s. Currently, Barton is a venture partner at Benchmark Capital.Expedia and Zillow have market values of $23 billion and $8 billion respectively, according to FactSet.The entrepreneur also predicted Amazon will likely dominate the software business going forward:
"They are really the major force in enterprise software as well now. Because of AWS [Amazon Web Services] and because pretty much most computing is moving into the cloud … The whole enterprise software stack is moving out of these premise based systems as sold by Oracle, Microsoft, IBM [while] Amazon keeps adding more and more functionality embedded as a service within the cloud and is taking over chunk by chunk ... these enterprise software categories."
Last week Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hinted the administration may soon take "a position" on Amazon's tax collection policy after President Donald Trump repeatedly blasted the company on the topic on Twitter.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. See the full Bloomberg podcast interview here.
|
e8b45ff2550d3cd645df8d9d2cc0afea | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/us-attorney-subpoenas-kushner-familys-real-estate-business.html | Kushner family's real-estate business reportedly subpoenaed by US Attorney | Kushner family's real-estate business reportedly subpoenaed by US Attorney
Federal prosecutors subpoenaed a property developer owned by Jared Kushner's family, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
White House Senior Advisor and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner reads a statment in front of West Wing of the White House after testifying behind closed doors to the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC.Getty Images
The matter concerns Kushner Companies' use of the EB-5 federal visa program — a scheme that grants green cards to immigrants who invest $500,000 in certain U.S. businesses that are slated to create 10 jobs per investor.
It wasn't clear what violation was being investigated, but the subpoena involves at least one Jersey City project that was partly funded by EB-5, the Journal said.
Jared Kushner, senior advisor to President Donald Trump, was running the New York-based business before last year's election, but he has since resigned.
A lawyer for Kushner Companies told the Journal that the firm had fully complied with EB-5's rules and denied any improper conduct.
Read the Wall Street Journal's full story
|
0c79d5129c900ce84856723d81310e90 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/volcker-rule-is-a-step-closer-to-getting-watered-down.html | Trading ban implemented on banks after Lehman's collapse is close to getting watered down | Trading ban implemented on banks after Lehman's collapse is close to getting watered down
Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) (L) and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) talk about their hallmark and namesake legislation, the Dodd-Frank reform law, on the fifth anniversary of the law at the Newseum July 20, 2015 in Washington.Getty Images
The government is asking the public for its input on whether to roll back some crisis-era rules that clamped down on trading and risky investments by banks.
The national bank regulator, called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is opening a public comment period asking if the Volcker rule should be revised to lessen the compliance burden on banks. "This is one piece of a larger interagency effort to improve the rule," the notice said on Wednesday.
The rule, which is part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reforms, was meant to restrict banks from trading or undertaking other risky investing activities for their own accounts in the aftermath of a financial crisis that felled Lehman Brothers and sent many other financial firms scrambling for safety.
It required big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to curtail trading desks and exit investments in private equity and hedge funds, and as a result they have shifted the focus of their business.
But the Volcker rule has been widely criticized for creating complex compliance issues, including how to define trades that are speculative versus those that facilitate customer needs, and how to determine what investment activities are permissible. Late last year the Fed gave Wall Street five more years to unload stakes in some of their harder-to-sell investments to get into compliance with the rule.
The regulator is looking at whether to change aspects of the rule that defined the type of trading it covers, which firms are covered by it and how bank compliance with the rule is measured.
The OCC says lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree there is a need to clarify the Volcker Rule, which was named after former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, to remove unnecessary burdens on banks.
|
40d42576789cdfd7a4755fbd71788104 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/03/dementia-villages-for-alzheimers-sufferers.html | Revolutionary day care for Alzheimer's sufferers: Dementia villages | Revolutionary day care for Alzheimer's sufferers: Dementia villages
Sebastien Bozon | AFP | Getty Images
After working with people with dementia for many years as a licensed nursing home administrator, Scott Tarde was fed up with the lack of affordable care options. So as the CEO of George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers, he decided to reimagine a new kind of day care: a faux mini-town with a 1950s and 1960s look designed for people with dementia. His concept is based on reminiscence therapy. His creation is Glenner Town Square, set to open in San Diego next spring.
Reminiscence therapy, developed by psychologist Ellen Langer in 1979, involves the use of past activities, events and experiences with other people, usually with the aid of music and tangible, visual prompts from earlier years, such as photographs and familiar household items.
Glenner Town Square bathes the senses in sights and smells to reflect a person's younger days. Its 9,000 square feet of space, designed by renowned architect Douglas Pancake, sits in an industrial building and will include a pet store with shelter puppies, department store with clothes and a movie theater with real popcorn. Everyplace is staffed with trained caregivers.
Besides being fun, the retro town, outfitted with gas-lit streetlamps, also has real uses, like triggering positive past memories, say experts, and can help people with dementia feel calmer and need fewer drugs. The goal is to offer a safe location where residents have a structured day, as well as autonomy and independence — giving them a higher quality of life.
"We're taking people back to their strongest memories," says Tarde, noting it is a form of time-travel therapy. "Long-term memories are more preserved than short-term ones."
A rendering of Balboa City Hall at the Glenner Town Square, the dementia village set to open next spring in San Diego.Source: Douglas Pancake Associates.
Tarde, who has 20 years of experience working in the long-term care industry, has targeted a growing demographic in America. An estimated 5.4 million people in the United States suffer from Alzheimer's disease, a number that is expected to grow as baby boomers age. Even more suffer from a form of dementia. He got the idea for the village after visiting a junior-achievement mini-city in San Diego, where young people discover how the "real world" works by learning how to generate wealth and effectively manage it.
More from Modern Medicine:A major step forward in fighting Alzheimer'sNew technology that can help with hearing loss
Tarde has ambitious national plans, too. He wants to build 100 of these day care centers throughout the United States within 20 years. "Families need reliable options and meaningful experiences," he says. As the projected number of dementia patients grows, he adds, society will need new, viable solutions.
Glenner Town Square fits into a new type of community called dementia villages. They're attempting to bring fresh models of care, rather than just relying on drugs to take the sharp edges off the disease. The villages also provide safety and connection, which can increase well-being.
Tarde's creation may be the United States' first dementia village, though. In 2009 the first kind of residential dementia village appeared in Hogewey, Holland, outside Amsterdam. Inhabitants walk freely among the walled town's parklike grounds and live in housing units arranged by theme. There are also grocery stores, hair salons and pubs, where the staff works and keeps an eye on the 152 residents The village is about the size of 10 football fields.
Bringing more residential dementia villages to the United States may be a challenge. Hogewey is mainly funded by the Dutch government. Glenner Town Square, conversely, is privately funded by real estate developers Village Holdings, who have anted up $1 million in capital so far. The cost for day visitors, though, is affordable at $95 per day, says Tarde.
Still, Tarde is optimistic about the power of day programs like Glenner Town Square to transform lives. He believes that medicine alone can't effectively treat people with Alzheimer's. "Many people can also stay home if they have the right support," he says.
There's such a tsunami of dementia care needed, agrees Donna Surges Tatum, board of directors of the National Certification Board for Alzheimer and Aging Care. In the United States an estimated 4 million to 5 million Americans currently have dementia. It remains the most expensive disease in America — a study funded by the National Institute on Aging estimated that in 2010 it cost up to $215 billion a year to care for dementia patients, surpassing heart disease ($102 billion) and cancer ($77 billion).
In addition, 5.5 million people are currently living with Alzheimer's. By 2050 that number is projected to reach 13.8 million, according to the Alzheimer's Association. "It's expensive to create a whole village," she says. "And we have such trouble getting care to anyone needs who it these days."
A rendering of the Gaslamp district of Glenner Town Square. The retro town, outfitted with gas-lit streetlamps, has props, sounds and smells to reflect a person's younger years.Source: Douglas Pancake Associates.
Reminiscence therapy, which taps into positive back memories, works well, though, she adds. These villages also emphasize personalized care and more engagement, too. "People are currently sometimes drugged more than necessary," she adds.
Jason Karlawish, a co-director at Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania, agrees. He advocates for spaces that tap into well-learned memories and comfort. "They should be safe, social and engaged," he says. Social isolation can even lead to dementia, according to studies, he says.
"People with dementia need to feel like they're part of the human race," he adds. "And so we need new approaches that aren't just biomedical."
For people used to growing up on farms, Prairie Elder Care in Kansas has a different solution. It's developing a dementia-care residence farm in Overland Park, Kansas, set to open next year. Called Prairie Farmstead, it has chicken coops and gardens. About 16 residents will always be supervised. But they can also plant tomatoes or roam in a sensory garden with butterflies. The cost is about $7,400 per month.
People with dementia need to feel like they're part of the human race. We need new approaches that aren't just biomedical.Jason Karlawishassociate director, Penn Memory Center
"Men with dementia can be difficult to engage," says Mandy Shoemaker, co-owner of Prairie Elder Care. "They end up being on lots of medications for aggressive behaviors."
The goal, she says, is giving them back control over their lives. "Control is slowly lost over the most basic decisions," she adds, explaining that with more engagement, they can be more calm and connected.
There are no one-size-fits-all dementia villages, though, says Mario Garrett, professor of gerontology at San Diego State University. "Your 1950s is completely different then my 1950s," he says. Yet every attempt is a good one, he adds, since people with dementia tend to be ignored.
Even dementia village models will evolve into something better, he says. "People need emotional support."
— By Constance Gustke, special to CNBC.com
|
8cde1b32bdff7e15f60f73669e003ad4 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/03/kleiner-perkins-adds-mamoon-hamid-from-social-capital.html | A big shake-up is going on at Kleiner Perkins, as old-guard venture firm fights to stay relevant | A big shake-up is going on at Kleiner Perkins, as old-guard venture firm fights to stay relevant
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley's old-guard venture capital firms, is moving fast to plug holes in its investment team. The firm, which was founded in 1972, just nabbed Mamoon Hamid as a general partner. Hamid co-founded Social Capital, and led investments there in Slack, OneLogin and other enterprise tech deals.
Hamid confirmed the move in a blog post today calling Kleiner Perkins' Chairman John Doerr a role model. Doerr is famous for not just his investing acumen, but running a firm where seniority rules.
New talent tends to move on from Kleiner, rather than rise in the ranks.
Earlier this week, four of Kleiner's newer investment partners departed all around the same time, and the firm shut down its "Edge Program" seed fund, Bloomberg reported. That program, and the partners managing it, were supposed to help keep Kleiner relevant and appealing to a new generation of start-ups.
Kleiner's name used to show up in plenty of early-stage venture capital deals, and gained fame for being an early backer of Netscape, Google, and Amazon. But the firm has shifted lately to investing in later-stage rounds for hypergrowth tech start-ups -- according to Crunchbase data, this year more than half of its investments have been in later-stage start-ups.
In later stages, shares in successful start-ups tend to cost more, and outsized returns on those investments are much harder to realize.
Mature firms like Kleiner are facing an onslaught of competition for early-stage deals. Rising "microfunds" are writing checks for seed and Series A deals without bigger, institutional VC's leading the way.
Last year, industry tracker Prequin found 470 first-time funds looking to raise and invest in start-ups. These microfunds were looking to raise, on average, around $106 million for seed and early-stage follow-on deals.
Social Capital was counted as a microfund just six years ago.
Kleiner bringing on the co-founder of one of these growing, next-generation funds may signal that the firm is ready to incorporate not only new talent, but new ideas.
|
96c34656105c2912595c56e2fa3946d4 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/03/pricey-engagement-rings-may-become-obsolete-if-millennials-have-their-way.html | Pricey engagement rings may become obsolete, if millennials have their way | Pricey engagement rings may become obsolete, if millennials have their way
VIDEO1:1201:12Cutting costs as a wedding guestPersonal Finance
The sparkle of a pricey engagement ring may be fading for young consumers.
Many millennials say they aren't willing to spend big on a ring, according to a new survey by TheCashlorette.com, a subsidiary of Bankrate. The site polled 1,001 adults in late July.
"Older millennials" (those between ages 27 and 36) were the most likely of any age group to say a buyer should spend no more than one month's salary on a ring. Thirty-one percent of older millennials said one month's salary is appropriate, and another 10 percent, less than one month. (That doesn't include 3 percent who said they wouldn't spend anything, or don't believe in engagement rings.)
To compare, 25 percent of Gen Xers and 21 percent of baby boomers think one month's salary on a ring is the right number. Another 5 percent in each group said they would spend less than that amount, and 2 percent in each said they would spend nothing.
Millennials tend to have other financial goals that compete with a ring, said Sarah Berger of TheCashlorette.
"Older millennials could still be saddled with student loan debt, and many are trying to save for a down payment on a house," she said.
This generation also tends to be less interested in expensive material possessions, she said.
PeopleImages | Getty Images
"Millennials gravitate toward spending money on experiences, and not on things," Berger said.
Recent wedding trends reflect that. The average wedding in 2016 cost $35,329, an all-time high, according to a report from wedding site The Knot. (See infographic below.) From 2009 to 2016, the average number of guests per wedding dropped to 141 from 149 — but the per-guest cost jumped to $245 from $194 over the same time period.
While millennials say they are aiming for a more affordable engagement ring, they still make up the largest consumer market for diamond jewelry globally.
Average spending on an engagement ring rose to $6,163 in 2016, about a 5 percent jump from the prior year, TheKnot found. And while global production of rough diamonds has been sharply cut in the last decade, a report from De Beers Group estimated that millennials represented nearly 45 percent of the retail value of diamond jewelry in the largest markets in 2015.
"We see, in trends, alternative stones becoming more popular," said Shelley Brown, The Knot's fashion and beauty editor, "but we still see that, far and away, even the round cut diamond is the most popular choice."
If you do go for a diamond, deciding which of the "4 C's" — cut, color, clarity and carat — to prioritize can save thousands when it comes time to buy.
Even a ring with a less-than-perfect clarity or color grade can impress your loved one if the diamond has a superior cut, which provides its signature sparkle.
For example, a 1.03 carat round-cut diamond with the highest quality cut, color and clarity currently sells for $17,940 on ethically sourced jewelry site BrilliantEarth.com. A 1.09 carat diamond with a lower color grade but the highest-grade cut and clarity sells for $9,870.
"I wouldn't sacrifice cut, but maybe clarity and color you have some flexibility with," Brown said.
Brown also says the choice of a diamond's shape can "cheat" the look of a larger stone. A round-cut diamond may be iconic, but a shallower cut with a larger table surface area (think: an oval or marquise) creates the illusion of a larger-carat rock for thousands less.
|
3ce398d478360004de01c186302d3237 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/03/thousands-show-up-for-jobs-at-amazon-warehouses-in-us-cities.html | Thousands show up for jobs at Amazon warehouses in US cities | Thousands show up for jobs at Amazon warehouses in US cities
VIDEO1:0801:08Amazon hosts giant job fairDigital Original
Thousands of people showed up Wednesday for a chance to pack and ship products to Amazon customers, as the e-commerce company held a giant job fair at nearly a dozen U.S. warehouses.
Although the wages offered will make it hard for some to make ends meet, many of the candidates were excited by the prospect of health insurance and other benefits, as well as advancement opportunities.
It's common for Amazon to ramp up its shipping center staff in August to prepare for holiday shopping. But the magnitude of its current hiring spree underscores Amazon's growth when traditional retailers are closing stores — and blaming Amazon for a shift to buying goods online.
Amazon said it received "a record-breaking 20,000 applications" and hired thousands of people on the spot, and will hire more in the coming days. That number represented fewer than half of the 50,000 people it had said it planned to hire.
Most of the jobs are full-time positions in packing, sorting and shipping and will count toward Amazon's previously announced goal of adding 100,000 full-time workers by the middle of next year.
The bad news is that more people are likely to lose jobs in stores than get jobs in warehouses, said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce.
Job seekers register before interviews during an Amazon jobs fair at the Amazon Fulfillment Center on August 2, 2017 in Robbinsville, New Jersey.Getty Images
On the flip side, Amazon's warehouse jobs provide "decent and competitive" wages and could help build skills.
"Interpersonal team work, problem solving, critical thinking, all that stuff goes on in these warehouses," Carnevale said. "They're serious entry-level jobs for a lot of young people, even those who are still making their way through school."
The company is advertising starting wages that range from $11.50 an hour in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to $13.75 an hour in Kent, Washington, near Amazon's Seattle headquarters. The $11.50 rate amounts to about $23,920 a year. In Washington state, the current minimum wage is $11.50 but by 2020 will increase to $13.50. By comparison, the warehouse store operator Costco raised its minimum wage for entry-level workers last year from $13 to $13.50 an hour.
Some job candidates Wednesday were looking to supplement other income.
Rodney Huffman, a 27-year-old personal trainer, said the $13-an-hour job in Baltimore would pay enough to help cover bills while he starts his own company.
"I'm looking to do the night shifts and then run my own company during the day," he said.
At one warehouse — Amazon calls them "fulfillment centers" — in Fall River, Massachusetts, Amazon was looking to hire more than 200 people Wednesday, adding to a workforce of about 1,500. Employees there focus on sorting, labeling and shipping what the company calls "non-sortable" items — big products such as shovels, kayaks, surfboards, grills, car seats — and lots of giant diaper boxes. Other warehouses are focused on smaller products.
Job seekers tour the Amazon Fulfillment Center during an Amazon jobs fair in Robbinsville, New Jersey.Getty Images
While Amazon has attracted attention for deploying robots at some of its warehouses, experts said it could take a while before automation begins to seriously bite into its growing labor force.
"When it comes to dexterity, machines aren't really great at it," said Jason Roberts, head of technology and analytics for mass recruiter Randstad Sourceright, which is not working with Amazon on its jobs fair. "The picker-packer role is something humans do way better than machines right now."
Steve King, 47, a job candidate in Fall River with experience running his own business, agreed: "I don't think robots are up to snuff yet. I think they will be. Hopefully I can get in before the robots get that good and get above the robots in administration or something."
In recent years, reports have emerged about difficult working conditions at Amazon's warehouses, including deaths at two Amazon warehouses in 2014. The company also came under fire in 2011 for extreme heat at its warehouses that caused "heat-related injuries" among workers. Amazon said at the time that it took emergency actions during heat waves and subsequently installed cooling systems in its warehouses.
But many of those who showed up Wednesday were excited by the prospects of health insurance and other benefits, as well as advancement opportunities.
"I like to be busy, so I know Amazon is busy and they want hard workers," retired police officer Brian Trice said.
Trice was among those who stood in line in Baltimore on a hot day as Amazon contractors passed out bottles of water. In Fall River, a line snaked out of the warehouse and under an air-conditioned tent. In Kent, Washington, a vendor offered free cups of shaved ice from a truck playing steel-drum music.
Among those lining up in Kent were 18-year-old Javier Costa and his 49-year-old uncle, Manuel Alvarenga. Costa said the warehouse work wasn't necessarily what he was looking for, but his uncle, a recent immigrant from El Salvador, was looking for whatever he could get.
"He was making $6 an hour in El Salvador; you can imagine what the people below him were making," Costa said. "It's a harder life down there. At this point he just needs a job."
Ron Joslin, 55, said he's long worked at call centers, most recently making medical appointments for veterans. But he lost that job in April, and since then hasn't been able to find work — despite the Seattle area's hot labor market.
Job seekers tour the Amazon Fulfillment Center during an Amazon jobs fair on August 2, 2017 in Robbinsville, New Jersey.Getty Images
"I don't believe the numbers reflect what's really happening," he said, waiting in a line hundreds of people long. "You want to see what's really happening, go to the unemployment office and see how many people are there and how long they've been unemployed."
His wife, a regular Amazon shopper, told him about the job fair, he said.
"She heard about it on the news and was like, 'You need to go there.' I said, 'It's going to be 100 degrees.' She said, 'You need to go there.' She's tired of me being around the house."
Some left disappointed. Maureen Schell gave up after several hours at the Fall River site, describing it as a publicity stunt and a "drive to get bodies in the door so they can cherry-pick the warehouse staff they want."
"It looks like they're looking for young, healthy warehouse staff only," said Schell, a 57-year-old searching for work that will put more money into her retirement.
Amazon was also holding events at shipping sites in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Illinois and Indiana.
|
422c8dcac2b349557cf66d0f240e5279 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/04/new-bitcoin-cash-crashes-30-percent-friday-in-volatile-first-week.html | New 'bitcoin cash' crashes 30% Friday in volatile first week of trading; original bitcoin steady | New 'bitcoin cash' crashes 30% Friday in volatile first week of trading; original bitcoin steady
VIDEO0:4900:49'Bitcoin cash' prices fall by 57 percent, while some investors must wait until 2018 to receive their tokensTech Transformers
Bitcoin is holding up well against its offshoot rival in its wild first week of trading.
The new "bitcoin cash" plunged 30 percent Friday to below $300, while the original cryptocurrency edged higher and approached $2,900, nearly triple in value for the year.
Bitcoin split into and bitcoin cash Tuesday, and the new digital currency has swung dramatically amid limited trading access. Bitcoin cash leaped from around $220 to above $700 briefly Wednesday, before crashing Friday to $287 in early afternoon trade, according to CoinMarketCap, which tracks prices across exchanges.
Digital currency enthusiasts attributed the decline in the last day to an increase in exchanges accepting deposits of bitcoin cash.
Bitcoin cash one-day performance
Source: CoinMarketCap
Investors who held bitcoin on most exchanges as of Tuesday morning, when the split happened, should have automatically received the equivalent amount of bitcoin cash.
A major digital currency exchange, Bitfinex, tweeted Friday morning it now accepted bitcoin cash deposits and withdrawals, while another large exchange, Bittrex, began accepting bitcoin cash deposits Thursday. Popular digital currency wallet, or storage site, Trezor, also announced Thursday that it restored customer access to bitcoin cash.
Coinbase's GDAX exchange initially said it would not give customers bitcoin cash, but announced late Thursday it would support the new currency by Jan. 1, 2018.
"I suspect the price drop is people selling newly minted" bitcoin cash, said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and CEO of BKCM, which runs a digital assets strategy.
Nearly two-thirds of trading in bitcoin cash was being done in bitcoin, and about 43 percent of those transactions were conducted on Bittrex, according to CryptoCompare. U.S. dollar transactions in bitcoin cash accounted for 22 percent, the site showed.
The original bitcoin traded Friday nearly 3 percent higher at $2,894.91, holding near Tuesday's highs, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin hit a record high of $3,025 in June, briefly more than tripling in value for the year.
Rival digital currency Ethereum traded 2 percent lower near $219, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum has surged more than 2,000 percent this year.
Bitcoin this week
Source: CoinDesk
Bitcoin split into two versions Tuesday morning after a minority of digital currency developers decided to go ahead with their own upgrade process. Bitcoin cash removed compatibility with a more popular Segregated Witness upgrade proposal and expanded the size of the block — which limits the speed of transactions in the digital currency — from bitcoin's 1 megabyte to 8 megabytes.
Bitcoin cash supporters such as early bitcoin investor Roger Ver say the currency is closer to the original developer's intentions.
Tweet
VIDEO0:4300:43'Bitcoin cash' potential limited, but a catalyst could be looming for it to take offTech Transformers
|
322a6432a1304ab2d0707ac18335ef55 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/04/us-stocks-jobs-report-beats-fed.html | Dow rises to 8th straight record close after much stronger-than-expected jobs report | Dow rises to 8th straight record close after much stronger-than-expected jobs report
VIDEO1:0401:04Dow rises to 8th straight record close after stronger-than-expected jobs reportTrading Nation
U.S. equities rose on Friday on better-than-expected employment data.
The Dow Jones industrial average hit a record high and closed 66.71 points at 22,092.81. Goldman Sachs contributed the most gains. The index also posted its eighth straight record close.
The gained 0.19 percent to close at 2,476.83, with financials rising 0.72 percent to lead advancers. The Nasdaq composite closed 0.18 percent higher at 6,351.56.
Major U.S. Indexes
Banks, including Goldman Sachs, outperformed the market, with the SPDR S&P Bank exchange-traded fund (KBE) advancing 0.81 percent. The space received a boost from a jump in interest rates, which followed strong U.S. employment data.
The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department, well above the expected gain of 183,000.
"If this were a company reporting earnings, this would be a beat and raise in guidance," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities. "We're also winding down on the earnings season so this came at the perfect time."
The closely watched wage number was unchanged from previous months, with average hourly earnings up 2.5 percent. The average work week also was unchanged at 34.5 hours.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City.Getty Images
"This is the second month in a row where we came in above 200,000 and above expectations," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. "I think the reason the market isn't going gangbusters here is because [the Dow] has gone up for eight days in a row. It's hard to justify buying heading into the weekend when you've had this rally."
U.S. equity indexes have been on a tear lately, especially the Dow. The 30-stock index has notched seven straight record closes and broke above 22,000 for the first time on Wednesday.
Investors paid close attention to the report as they looked for clues about the Federal Reserve's plans for future monetary policy changes. Market expectations for a December rate hike are approximately 50 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
"This just gives them more ammunition for another rate hike," said Sharon Stark, managing director of fixed income strategies at Incapital, referring to the jobs report. "The market reaction is not a surprise. We had a pretty strong rally yesterday."
U.S. Treasury yields jumped on the news, with the benchmark 10-year yield climbing to trade at 2.264 percent, while the short-term two-year yield rose to 1.355 percent. Yields followed their UK counterparts lower on Thursday after the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged.
Currencies also moved on the report, with the dollar edging off a 15-month low. The greenback also hit its lowest level against the euro earlier this week, with the common currency briefly breaking above $1.19.
"The euro has basically had a straight run higher against the dollar since April," said Minh Trang, senior FX trader at Silicon Valley Bank. "A lot of that has to do with an upward outlook on the European economy and also the dollar weakness," which is due to subdued expectations of fiscal stimulus and tax reform.
The dollar soared soon after President Donald Trump was elected, but has dropped more than 8 percent this year. Trump's administration has been mired by multiple failed attempts at repealing and replacing Obamacare, as well as an ongoing investigation into Russia's involvement in the U.S. election.
On Thursday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal first reported that Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation on Russia, impaneled a grand jury.
"Health-care reform is dead but that's already baked into the market," said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt. "Now they're pivoting to tax reform. If that peters out altogether, then that could be a negative for the market."
—CNBC's Jeff Cox contributed to this report.
|
e2d12788596f149a48b0bba137c9aee5 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/06/boxed-chieh-huang-wants-to-offer-discount-prices-to-urban-millennials.html | VIDEO0:0000:00Outside the BoxOn the Money
A $7 box of Cheerios was the impetus behind the launch of an online retailer.
When Boxed CEO Chieh Huang was growing up in suburban New Jersey, going to Costco forerunner Price Club was a family ritual.
"Every other weekend, I'd go with my parents and stock up, " he tells CNBC's On The Money in an interview.
Years later, grown up and working in Manhattan, he was annoyed at having to pay expensive city prices for a simple box of cereal.
"I didn't have a car to go to a warehouse club. I felt, maybe millions of other Americans might have this problem. "
The solution he created was Boxed. Three and a half years ago, Boxed was launched with only 200 items in Huang's garage, as a mobile version of a warehouse club—kind of a Costco-meets-Amazon, aimed at millennials.
But Huang says the demand has expanded well beyond millennials, as customers come to them from rural areas too.
"As ubiquitous as the brands of the warehouse clubs are, Costco, BJ's and Sam's, they're not everywhere. If you have less than a million people in your town, or less than 500K, you might never get access to wholesale savings. So we help folks with that."
Unlike most warehouse club stores, Boxed doesn't charge any membership fee. It also offers free shipping for orders over $49, and nearly all customers get shipments within two days, while half get them overnight. The company has four fulfillment centers: in New Jersey, Atlanta, Dallas and Las Vegas.
According to Fung Global Retail, the warehouse club sector is expected to generate $191 billion in revenues in 2017.
But according to Huang, mobile sales for all these competitors total "about zero. In just three years we've reached $100M in sales."
While a warehouse club like Costco sells about 4,000 items, Boxed carries only about 1,600 items. "We generally only carry one to three items per category."
Huang says that brings "competitive tension" from manufacturers "who pitch to us and want to take one of the slots".
"At the end of the day if you're a manufacturer, if we're not getting a good price, or it's not a great product, we just won't carry it because we're not the everything store. "
By the way, today, Boxed sells two large 20 oz. boxes of Cheerios for $6.79.
Clarification: Boxed offers free shipping for orders over $49.
On the Money airs on CNBC Saturday at 5:30 am ET, or check listings for air times in local markets.
| |
ed4e3f3a988f4f7aa025080e3bf93286 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/clear-genetics-using-chatbots-to-offer-genetic-counseling.html | You're getting a DNA test — start-up Clear Genetics is building chatbots to help you understand the results | You're getting a DNA test — start-up Clear Genetics is building chatbots to help you understand the results
A lab technician at Myriad Genetics in Salt Lake City, Utah.George Frey | AFP | Getty Images
Thousands of people are getting genetic tests, for everything from their cancer risk to their likelihood of passing on a disease to a child.
But many doctors aren't adequately trained to interpret these results, or tell patients how to act on them. And genetic counselors -- who do have that knowledge -- are in short supply. There are only about 4,000 genetic counselors in the country today. That's one for every 80,000 Americans. That means some patients have to wait months to get a consultation.
Start-up Clear Genetics, which launches this week after raising $2.5 million in financing, is trying to make genetic expertise more widely available.
The start-up has developed a conversational chatbot to guide a user through their results, collect information and review options for genetic testing, and answer questions about things like whether the test will be covered by insurance. If there's a need for additional support, the patient can then schedule a consultation with a human expert via video or in-person.
"We're finding that it's working really well with patients," said Moran Snir, Clear Genetics' CEO, who was previously a software engineer with the Israeli military.
Clear Genetics is working with several large health systems in the United States to test out a beta version of its product.
"I think this is a very good use for AI," said David Ledbetter, executive vice president and chief scientific officer at hospital network Geisinger Health System, in an interview with CNBC.
Ledbetter is running one of the largest genetics research studies in the country, which involves sequencing 250,000 patients' DNA and returning results that are deemed "medically actionable," meaning the patient can do something about it. It was a struggle to recruit 25 genetic counselors to serve these patients, said Ledbetter.
Geisinger hasn't yet rolled out Clear Genetics' app, as it's still in the experimental phase. But if the chatbot can sufficiently support even 10 percent of patients, he said, "it would be a spectacular success."
The cost of DNA sequencing has plummeted in recent years, enabling large-scale research studies and dozens of genetic-testing companies.
Many people will get a positive result. In some cases, there's a lot they can do to decrease the likelihood of getting sick.
"Having to talk to a genetic counselor every time we want information is not an effective use of these experts," Snir said.
|
bbdd80e38f403660062e7f8599ff0840 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/elon-musks-tesla-could-soon-be-overtaken-in-batteries-arms-race.html | Elon Musk's Tesla could soon be overtaken in the global 'arms race' for batteries, strategist says | Elon Musk's Tesla could soon be overtaken in the global 'arms race' for batteries, strategist says
VIDEO1:1001:10Elon Musk’s Tesla could soon be overtaken in the global ‘arms race’ for batteriesDigital Original
Elon Musk's car company Tesla appears to be leading the "arms race" for lithium-ion batteries — for now.
Musk recently announced plans to build the world's biggest lithium-ion battery storage project in South Australia. Meanwhile, construction of the company's highly anticipated 35-gigawatt-hour (GWh) "Gigafactory 1" is still underway.
"There's a kind of arms race on batteries around the world. We know that Elon Musk with Tesla has got this Gigafactory. The Chinese are racing to overtake him; they'll have three times the capacity. And then in Germany, we've just heard announcement of a new plan for a $1 billion factory on batteries," Giles Keating, chairman at investment consultancy Werthstein Institute, told CNBC Monday.
A report published by Bloomberg Intelligence in June said factories planned by Chinese companies could have the capacity to produce more than 120 GWh by 2021 – enough to supply 1.5 million Tesla Model S vehicles.
And a German consortium of companies led by Frankfurt-based start-up TerraE Holding GmbH is preparing to set up its own 34 GWh lithium-ion battery cell production facilities, touted as Germany's answer to the Gigafactory.
VIDEO2:1902:19There's a global arms race for batteries: ProSustainable Energy
Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable batteries. When they are connected to a charger, lithium ions move in an opposite direction to when they are being used, restoring the battery for reuse.
The batteries are thought to be a sustainable alternative to petroleum and diesel, as they can be recharged rather than burned.
Battery storage is fundamental to the renewable energy sector. Tesla's Gigafactory is used to produce batteries for solar-powered homes, utilities and the Tesla Motors brand of electric cars.
As well as an energy efficient alternative to burning fossil fuels, lithium is now a sought-after commodity for investors.
Keating, a former Credit Suisse research chief, said big automakers such as Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen have been "in denial" about the force of electric cars.
"I think Tesla was always all about electric cars, whereas I think the conventional auto manufacturers, they were in denial. They just kind of almost wanted batteries to be weak so that they wouldn't have to go that route so that their existing route of business can continue, if I'm brutal about it," he said.
VIDEO0:3600:36Tesla CEO says gigafactory can produce more than expectedNews Videos
He added that the batteries these carmakers develop were "miserable," and that the push to pass diesel emissions tests rather than invest heavily in electric technology meant manufacturers avoided having to innovate.
"For most conventional manufacturers it was about beating the emissions rules rather than about trying to revolutionize stuff," Keating added.
Last week, executives from BMW, Daimler, Opel and Volkswagen came to an agreement with politicians to cut emissions by updating the software of 5 million cars.
Volkswagen in particular has come under pressure ever since the infamous "dieselgate" scandal. The auto giant's software allowed it to cheat pollution standards during test conditions, but not when actually out on roads.
VIDEO1:2501:25Here are 5 electric alternatives to Tesla’s Model 3Digital Original
|
532d3357b91e7357d9a7c4a2f39cd634 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/uber-co-founder-garrett-camp-kalanick-is-not-coming-back-as-ceo.html | Uber board member and co-founder Garrett Camp says Travis Kalanick is not coming back as CEO | Uber board member and co-founder Garrett Camp says Travis Kalanick is not coming back as CEO
Mike Windle | Getty Image
Uber co-founder and board member Garrett Camp told employees that the company's former CEO Travis Kalanick isn't returning to fill his prior role, sources told Recode. In an email to staff on Monday, Camp addressed recent reports that Kalanick was attempting to come back as CEO.
Camp wrote that he received several questions about the CEO search when he attended a product leadership all-hands last week.
The ride-hail company is in the middle of finding a replacement for Kalanick after he was ousted by a handful of major shareholders. The board has since narrowed down that search to four people but not without some meddling from Kalanick. As Recode reported, Kalanick has been telling people he's "Steve Jobs-ing it" and will return to the company.
VIDEO3:3703:37Kara Swisher: Travis Kalanick's role at Uber is probably the focus for any potential CEOSquawk Alley
"Our CEO search is the board's top priority," Camp said in the email. "It's time for a new chapter and the right leader for our next phase of growth. Despite rumors I'm sure you've seen in the news, Travis is not returning as CEO. we are committed to hiriring a new world class CEO to lead Uber."
Uber declined to comment.
"Uber must evolve and mature as we improve our culture and practices, to achieve our mission of bringing mobility to everyone," he continued. "We are dedicated to making Uber successful and keeping everyone informed of our progress."
Here's the full email:
Team,I've spent a lot of time focused on Uber these past few months, talking to employees in product and engineering and helping wherever I can. Last week I joined a product leadership all hands, and several questions were about the CEO search and confusion around the process.Our CEO search is the board's top priority. It's time for a new chapter, and the right leader for our next phase o growth. Despite rumors I'm sure you've seen in the news, Travis is not returning as CEO. We are committed to hiring a new world-class CEO to lead Uber.Uber must evolve and mature as we improve our culture and practices, to achieve our mission of bringing mobility to everyone. We are dedicated to making Uber successful, and keeping everyone informed of our progress. Thank you for all your hard work.Garrett Camp Co-founder
—By Johana Bhuiyan, Re/code.net.
CNBC's parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Recode's parent Vox, and the companies have a content-sharing arrangement.
VIDEO0:3700:37JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon and ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick meet in DCDigital Original
|
6574a423afc33ca21b5961c8a4a0bde4 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/wells-fargo-awash-in-scandal-faces-violations-over-car-insurance-refunds.html | Wells Fargo, awash in scandal, faces violations over car insurance refunds | Wells Fargo, awash in scandal, faces violations over car insurance refunds
Wells Fargo, the scandal-plagued bank, is facing new regulatory scrutiny for not refunding insurance money owed to people who paid off their car loans early, according to people briefed on the inquiry.
Just last month Wells Fargo was found to have forced unneeded collision insurance on consumers who financed their car purchases. That practice, first disclosed by The New York Times, affected 800,000 customers according to an analysis commissioned by the bank. Some 274,000 people were pushed into delinquency as a result, and 25,000 cars were wrongly repossessed.
The latest inquiry, by officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where the bank has its headquarters, involves a different, specialized type of insurance that is sold to consumers when they buy a car. Called guaranteed auto protection insurance, or GAP, it is intended to protect a lender against the fact that a car — the collateral for its loan — loses significant value the moment it is driven off the lot.
A woman passes a Wells Fargo sign.Charles Mostoller | Reuters
GAP insurance, also known as guaranteed asset protection, makes up that difference for a lender if, for instance, a car is stolen before the loan is paid off. Regular car insurance typically covers only the current market value.
Because Wells Fargo is a large auto lender, tens of thousands of customers may have been affected by the bank's actions on GAP insurance.
It is not mandatory for car buyers to carry GAP insurance, which typically costs $400 to $600. But car dealers push the insurance, and lenders like it because of the protection it provides. When borrowers pay off the loans early, they are entitled to a refund of some of the GAP insurance premium because the coverage they paid for is no longer needed.
Laws in nine states require that customers get unused insurance money back. They are Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Carolina.
Jennifer A. Temple, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, provided a statement saying: "During an internal review, we discovered issues related to a lack of oversight and controls surrounding the administration of Guaranteed Asset Protection products. We are reviewing our practices and actively working with our dealers and have already begun making improvements to the GAP refund process. If we find customer impacts, we will make customers whole."
Ms. Temple declined to say when the problem began. She said the bank was trying to assess how many customers had been affected. Wells Fargo improved controls on the refund process in 2014, she said. The unit of the bank that makes car loans is called Wells Fargo Dealer Services.
Asked about the regulatory inquiry into GAP insurance at Wells Fargo, Darren Gersh, a spokesman for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington said, "We are focused on ensuring that the root causes of a firm's compliance and controls breakdowns are understood and addressed." He declined to comment on the specifics, adding that "the Federal Reserve Board will take any regulatory and supervisory steps we feel are necessary to ensure the firm's attention to compliance."
More from New York Times: Despite S.E.C. warning, wave of initial coin offerings growsSecrecy and suspicion surround Trump's deregulation teamsIran reaches deal with Renault despite new U.S. sanctions
A failure to refund the insurance money harmed borrowers whose cars were repossessed by increasing what they owed, a figure that the bank reports to consumer credit bureaus. All 50 states require that the amount of unused insurance be credited to those borrowers' accounts, reducing the amount owed.
The bank alluded to the new problem briefly in its quarterly financial statement issued Friday. "The company has identified certain issues related to the unused portion of guaranteed auto protection waiver or insurance agreements between the dealer and, by assignment, the lender, which may result in refunds to customers in certain states," Wells Fargo said in the filing.
"These and other issues related to the origination, servicing and/or collection of indirect consumer auto loans, including related insurance products, may subject the company to formal or informal inquiries, investigations or examinations from federal, state and/or local government agencies, and may also subject the company to litigation."
GAP coverage is similar to home mortgage insurance, which shields lenders against a default if a borrower loses his or her job and cannot make the payments.
Car buyers who finance their purchases typically add the cost of the GAP coverage to the amount of the loan. The interest that borrowers pay on the coverage goes to the bank that made the loan.
"Dealer Services is on a journey to strengthen its business, fix problems and help build a better Wells Fargo," Ms. Temple said. "We've taken huge proactive steps to improve the customer experience."
The new problem raises questions about Wells Fargo's internal controls and its board's oversight of company operations.
In a separate crisis at Wells Fargo that was exposed last year, bank employees were found to have created millions of credit card and bank accounts that customers had not requested. That led to millions of dollars in fines and the departure of the chief executive, John G. Stumpf.
VIDEO2:0102:01Wells Fargo: Legal costs could surpass $3.3 billion reservesPower Lunch
More recently, after the disclosure that the bank had forced auto insurance on customers who did not need it, several Democratic lawmakers asked that hearings be convened to learn more.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who is on the Senate Banking Committee, also reiterated her request that the Fed oust 12 of Wells Fargo's 15 directors, saying they had violated their duties to oversee risk management at the bank in the period when the improprieties had taken place.
In its regulatory filing on Friday, Wells said its directors had undertaken actions to enhance governance and oversight.
"The board recognizes that there is still work to be done, and, in response to feedback received at our annual stockholders meeting in April 2017, the board is engaging in an ongoing comprehensive review of its structure, composition and practices," it said. The bank expects the review to result in changes to be disclosed in the coming months, it added.
In a statement to employees issued Friday with the filing, Timothy J. Sloan, Wells Fargo's chief, said, "To regain the trust we have lost, we must continue to be transparent with all our stakeholders and go beyond what has been asked of us by our regulators by reviewing all of our operations — leaving no stone unturned — so we can be confident we have done all that we can do to build a better, stronger Wells Fargo."
|
c7686ffbd456cddcc373b8b5071a9ff1 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/biotech-fibrogen-soars-on-positive-lung-disease-treatment-study.html?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=104639611&yptr=yahoo | Biotech FibroGen soars more than 45% on positive lung disease treatment study | Biotech FibroGen soars more than 45% on positive lung disease treatment study
An x-ray of a man with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.Getty Images
Shares of FibroGen are soaring more than 45 percent in midday trading Tuesday after the biotech reported positive study results for a potential blockbuster drug.
The biotech company's drug pamrevlumab, a treatment for fatal lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, successfully completed a mid-stage FDA test.
"Significant value creation should occur now," Jefferies analyst Michael Yee wrote in a note after the results. The analyst believes the drug should add $3 to $4 billion to FibroGen's market cap eventually or $35 to $50 to its share price.
The stock surged as much as 52 percent, or $17.45 a share, to $50.80 in early trading Tuesday. It is on pace for the best daily performance ever since it began trading publicly in November 2014. The stock traded more than twelve times its 30-day average volume, with nearly 5 million shares changing hands on Tuesday.
While phase 2 testing for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is complete, FibroGen announced it will continue phase 2 testing of pamrevlumab as a treatment for both pancreatic cancer and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a disease which scars lung tissue, leading to organ dysfunction and eventual failure within a few years of diagnosis. FibroGen said in its most recent quarterly report that "pamrevlumab was well tolerated" by patients in phase 2 study. Jefferies' Yee believes the drug should post similar results in phase 3.
FibroGen reported a loss of $33.2 million in the second quarter, and reported an EPS loss of 48 cents per share, slightly missing Wall Street's expectations of a loss of 47 cents per share.
The company's stock was up more than 56 percent this year before Tuesday's open, and was leading the iShare Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF in pre-market trading.
|
bac23d2c71ac47cc607fb1362a054711 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/cramer-remix-what-disneys-shot-at-netflix-means-for-stocks.html | VIDEO1:2701:27Cramer Remix: What Disney’s shot at Netflix means for stocksMad Money with Jim Cramer
After Disney issued its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday and announced it would end its partnership with Netflix, Jim Cramer watched shares of Netflix drop with intrigue.
"It's sinking more in after-hours [trading] on the news that Disney is ending its movie deal with Netflix [in] 2019, in part so it can do its own streaming service, although that news isn't stopping Disney's stock itself from declining on a revenue miss in part from weaker cable numbers, even as the earnings were better than expected," the "Mad Money" host said.
Disney and Pixar movies will be moved off Netflix's platform towards the end of 2018. Also on Tuesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC that the two companies have a "good relationship."
The entertainment giant is also planning to launch its own streaming service for its sports network, ESPN, which drove a 23 percent decline in Disney's cable operating income.
Netflix's stock was down more than 3 percent in after-hours trading as of Tuesday evening.
In addition to tracking its decline, Cramer also reviewed the retail stocks that are finally starting to stand up to the dominant force of Amazon.
Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cramer loves when strong, secular themes drive stocks. One of his favorites has been the shift from paper to plastic as credit cards increasingly dominate payments worldwide.
"As we move closer to a cashless society, I want to go off the charts with the help of Bob Lang," the "Mad Money" host said. "I want to get a better sense of what's happening with the four major credit card companies. Of course, we're talking about Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover."
Cramer began with the daily chart of Visa, the largest credit card issuer of the four. Up nearly 30 percent so far in 2017, Visa is one of the Dow Jones Industrial average's top components, partially responsible for the average's recent 22,000 landmark, Cramer said.
Intel CEO Brian KrzanichGetty Images
After Intel completed its $15 billion tender offer to buy Mobileye on Tuesday, Cramer wondered whether the deal was a sign that the tech giant was making a serious comeback.
"For years, we watched as Intel hung out on the fringes of the great markets, great markets like mobile devices, the internet of things, anything Apple [and] the autonomous car," Cramer said.
With its purchase of Mobileye, an Israeli tech company specializing in self-driving technology and collision prevention, Intel is entering the autonomous driving space with one of its top innovators under its wing.
Intel is also reportedly seizing on the rift between chipmaker Qualcomm and Apple by supplying semiconductor chips and modems for Apple's tablets and, potentially, the new Apple Watch.
"I cannot stress enough just how important this is for the company that pioneered the microprocessor for the personal computer," Cramer said.
Stanley Bergman, CEO, Henry ScheinScott Mlyn | CNBC
Then, Cramer sat down with Stanley Bergman, the chairman and CEO of health care equipment and service provider Henry Schein, to speak more about the company's secular drivers.
Bergman said that while the global expansion of the middle class was helping overall sales, even more pertinent is the rise of "digital-ization" across the medical space.
"The dental equipment market is doing very, very well as that market digitalizes," Bergman told Cramer on Tuesday. "Align is a typical example of the digital-ization of an industry, and they have digitalized, in a very successful way, the orthodontics space."
And as his company enjoys stable, 4-to-6 percent sales growth, Bergman said that Henry Schein will welcome and seize on these developments as they progress.
"That market is on fire. Anything to do with digital – imaging, prosthetics – is advancing in a very rapid way," he said.
Jeffrey Craig, CEO, MeritorScott Mlyn | CNBC
Cramer also spoke with Jay Craig, the CEO of truck component manufacturer Meritor. Craig told Cramer on Tuesday that as his "hardcore manufacturing" company grows hand in hand with the economy, management is exploring some unique options related to the future of trucking.
"We have a big push on electrification right now," Craig told Cramer, referring to the burgeoning trend of building vehicles to run using electric power rather than traditional fuel.
Along with bringing cleaner energy sources to the trucking industry, the CEO said this initiative could help start more buzz about under-the-radar names like Meritor.
"We think we're establishing a strong position in that marketplace as we see the trend of commercial vehicles most likely moving where life vehicles are, more highly electrified, and we think that will start to catch some people's attention that may not have looked at us," Craig said.
In Cramer's lightning round, he flew through his take on some callers' favorite stocks, including:
Kimberly Clark: "Yeah, it doesn't have the growth that Clorox has, frankly. It's got a 3 percent yield. No one ever got hurt buying Kimberly Clark. I prefer Procter [& Gamble] and Clorox to it."
Southwest Airlines: "My charitable trust owns Southwest Air. I'm going to discuss it tomorrow with my ActionAlertsPlus.com members call at 11:30. Here's a preview: I like it very much and if it got back to $52, $53, I'd buy back the stock for the trust that the trust sold in the $60s."
Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - VineQuestions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com
| |
4383042c552b5893c719f724f3dee293 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/disney-earnings-q3-2017.html | Disney sees worst day in more than a year as ESPN issues drag cable business | Disney sees worst day in more than a year as ESPN issues drag cable business
VIDEO0:5500:55Disney misses on top lineClosing Bell
Shares of the Walt Disney Company fell after the company said in its third-quarter report that issues at ESPN impacted operating income for its cable business.
The segment saw operating income decline 23 percent year over year amid trouble at ESPN, Disney said in a statement. The sports network was plagued by higher programming costs and lower advertising revenue, as well as severance and contract termination costs.
On Wednesday, the stock closed nearly 4 percent lower at $102.83. It was the stock's worst day since May 2016, when it fell 4.04 percent.
CEO Bob Iger has repeatedly defended the business, previously telling CNBC that the company is "confident in ESPN's future" and believes "live sports is still a huge driver of consumption."
The broader media and networks segment also reported operating income that missed Wall Street projections.
Here's what Disney reported as operating income for each segment, compared with analysts' expectations, according to StreetAccount consensus estimates:
Media and networks: $1.84 billion vs. $1.99 billion expectedParks and resorts: $1.17 billion vs. $1.09 billion expectedStudio: $639 million vs. $636.6 million expectedConsumer and interactive: $362 million vs. $394.6 million expected
The company also announced that it will no longer stream its movies on Netflix starting in 2019. Disney instead plans to launch in 2019 a direct-to-consumer streaming service, which will host its films exclusively.
In a Tuesday interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin on "Closing Bell," Iger said that Disney has "no plans" to pull Marvel shows from Netflix. The CEO added that the Disney and Netflix have a "good relationship." Iger also said that Disney may decide to license other content to the streaming giant in the future.
During the third quarter, the Disney also celebrated the first anniversary of Shanghai Disney Resort. The company said in June more than 11 million people visited the park in its first year of operation.
Disney said that Shanghai Disney Resort and Disneyland Paris contributed to the 18 percent year-over-year growth in its theme park business.
Here's how the company's broader results compare to what Wall Street expected:
Adjusted EPS: $1.58 vs. $1.55 expected, according to Thomson ReutersRevenue: $14.24 billion vs. $14.42 billion expected, according to Thomson Reuters
In the year-ago period, Disney reported adjusted earnings of $1.62 per share on $14.28 billion in revenue.
In March, Disney's board announced it was extending Iger's contract to July 2, 2019. The company has not yet named a successor for him.
When CNBC asked the Disney CEO if he'd run for office, Iger said he hasn't thought much about what he will do when he leaves the company.
VIDEO1:0901:09Disney will pull its movies from Netflix and start its own streaming servicesNews Videos
|
ec7441b1419f0ee195b2e5ac73028b00 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/iranian-drone-flew-within-100-feet-of-us-navy-fighter.html | Iranian drone flew within 100 feet of US Navy fighter in a Gulf incident described as 'unsafe' | Iranian drone flew within 100 feet of US Navy fighter in a Gulf incident described as 'unsafe'
A file photo of a F/A-18E Super HornetSean M. Castellano | US Navy | Reuter
A U.S. military official Tuesday said an Iranian drone flew about 100 feet from an American fighter jet in the Persian Gulf in a dangerous incident.
The Navy said the incident involved an F/A-18E Super Hornet that was preparing to land in international airspace on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the central Gulf.
"The F/A-18E maneuvered to avoid collision with the QOM-1 [Iranian drone] resulting in a lateral separation of approximately 200 feet and a vertical separation of approximately 100 feet," spokesperson Lt. Chloe J. Morgan said in a statement to CNBC.
According to the statement, the U.S. military made "repeated calls to stay clear of the fixed-wing flight operations in the vicinity of USS Nimitz," but the Iranian drone still "executed unsafe and unprofessional altitude changes" close to the American F/A-18E that was "in a holding pattern preparing to land on the aircraft carrier."
The Navy said the action by the Iranian QOM-1 drone "created a collision hazard and is not in keeping with international maritime customs and laws."
The Navy official also indicated this incident marked "the 13th unsafe and/or unprofessional interaction between U.S. and Iranian maritime forces" so far this year.
|
c82e535971aa1f562b9ea456f8b876a0 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/jeff-gundlach-obscure-chart-tells-him-yields-to-rise-stocks-to-fall.html | Jeffrey Gundlach says an obscure chart tells him yields will shoot higher and stocks will fall | Jeffrey Gundlach says an obscure chart tells him yields will shoot higher and stocks will fall
VIDEO2:3902:39Jeffrey Gundlach: Yields are going to break out to the upsideHalftime Report
DoubleLine Capital CEO and Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Gundlach predicts bond yields will rise and lead to market volatility.
"One of the things that I follow to give a really good short-term cyclical indication of the yield of the 10-year Treasury is the ratio of copper to gold," Gundlach said Tuesday on CNBC's "Halftime Report."
The bond manager cited how on Tuesday the copper-to-gold ratio hit the high of the year and for the previous 12 months.
"When the copper-gold ratio is rising it's incredibly suggestive that something is going on that might be a little inflationary," he said. "It suggests to me yields are going to break out to the upside. ... The leg up in yields will be a catalyst of volatility in the market."
Copper futures relative to Gold futures, 1 year
Source: FactSet
As a result, Gundlach believes it may be wise to lower exposure to assets that are up dramatically during the bull market.
"I think you should be de-risking systematically," Gundlach said. "Even if it takes six to nine months for the markets to head down you're not giving up very much."
DoubleLine has assets under management of more than $100 billion, according to its website.
Gundlach is betting that as yields jump, it will cause volatility — as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index— to double. The money manager is currently long put options on the S&P 500 that will increase in value if the market pulls back, something Gundlach believes it will do, to the tune of 3 percent.
Investors like Gundlach watch the ratio because copper is a measure of inflation. So if it is increasing in value versus an inflation hedge like gold, then bond prices should be lower and yields higher.
Copper/gold ratio (yellow) vs. 10-year Treasury yield, 1 year (green)
Source: FactSet
|
d13bc50d5b0b2249a3b7ad29619a79d3 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/new-sanctions-could-scare-off-north-koreas-previous-customers.html | Wanted: Buyers for North Korean arms and other illicit goods | Wanted: Buyers for North Korean arms and other illicit goods
Stung by the latest round of United Nations sanctions, North Korea is likely on the lookout to expand its illicit trade outlets. But countries who previously did business with the rogue state may now be less inclined to make new deals.
People watch news report showing North Korea's Hwasong-14 missile launch on electronic screen at Pyongyang station, North Korea in this photo taken by Kyodo on July 29, 2017.Kyodo via REUTERS
Pyongyang props up its nuclear program with income from the sale of various illegal goods, including weaponry, synthetic drugs, counterfeit currency and nuclear technology. Those go to a range of frontier markets across Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. And while North Korea has been under sanctions since 2006, that's never deterred buyers — until maybe now.
As Washington and Beijing turn up the heat on Kim Jong-un's regime, reflected by Saturday's new penalties, fewer nations may now be willing to risk the international community's wrath by engaging with Kim.
"There is now a much greater effort...to cut Pyongyang's diplomatic ties in the developing world and raise awareness of various U.N. resolutions," said Karl Dewey, an analyst specialized in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear assessments at defense researcher Jane's by IHS Markit.
The fresh set of penalties imposed on Kim's administration this past Saturday could subtract $1 billion from Pyongyang's coffers, the U.S. State Department estimated.
"Tighter sanctions and added pressure from the U.S. could make it even more difficult for North Korea to push through some future contracts as countries could think twice about buying from North Korea at this time," echoed Omar Lamrani, senior military analyst at geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor.
A key reason behind the potential shift in mentality from previous years lies in the nitty-gritty of Saturday's resolution.
VIDEO3:3603:36Eurasia Group's Scott Seaman: Sanctions are designed to really squeeze North KoreaClosing Bell
One of the secondary sanctions efforts deals with jurisdictions that are non-compliant with U.N. resolutions, Stephan Haggard, visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics, said in a Monday note.
Specifically highlighted are ports in China, Iran, Russia and Syria that "do not engage in inspections and essentially permit transshipment and trade to take place," Haggard continued.
While those nations may not change their behavior anytime soon, the legislation could have more effect "with other developing countries more concerned about their reputation with the West."
Speculation is high that Tehran could increase exchanges related to ballistic missiles with Pyongyang amid reports of cozier bilateral ties. Last week, the head of North Korea's parliament arrived in Tehran for a trip that was widely seen as a front for expanded military cooperation.
In the past, both nations have focused on missile cooperation rather than outright transactions. "The main elements of this cooperation appear to be the transfer of North Korean liquid-fueled missile technology to Iran, but with very few reports of Iranian solid-fueled technology going the other way," said Dewey.
Experts, however, told CNBC they don't believe there's likely to be any heightened activity.
There is a chance the two could exchange nuclear weapons blueprints, but that wouldn't be wise for Kim as it would elicit even greater international rebuke, according to Lamrani.
"North Korea's nuclear program is all about ensuring its security by deterring foreign attack. Crossing over into significant nuclear proliferation weakens that deterrence by adding pressure on the U.S. and allies to act on Pyongyang instead of simply containing it," he added.
VIDEO2:5502:55Iran is ready for business, but banks are not buying itStreet Signs Asia
When it comes to military hardware sales, clients can be classified into three groups, Andrea Berger outlined in a 2016 paper when she was deputy director of the proliferation and nuclear policy program at the Royal United Services Institute.
The most resilient customers include fellow renegade nations such as Iran, Syria, Cuba and Uganda, "whose military ties to North Korea have weathered decades and shown few efforts to cease cooperation," Berger said.
Reluctant customers, such as Ethiopia and Yemen, "might prefer to buy elsewhere, but because of price or lingering dependency have found it difficult to cut Pyongyang out of their arms-related supply chain," Berger continued, adding that Republic of the Congo was one of the ad hoc customers that used North Korea as a sporadic supplier.
While those markets are now expected to stay away from Pyongyang in light of the new sanctions, Dewey noted they could be susceptible to striking more deals depending on whether prices justified the increasing pressure surrounding North Korea.
Regarding North Korean nuclear technology exports, Libya and Syria have been the primary recipients, but neither is currently seen in a position to resume their nuclear programs.
Meanwhile, the Philippines — North Korea's third-largest trading partner in 2016 — remains a hub for drugs from the pariah state, according to the Peterson Institute of International Economics.
|
d8ba04e7361b50e14ba31eb035ed30bc | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/scott-walker-dismisses-2020-presidential-bid-not-running-for-anything-but-re-election.html | Scott Walker dismisses 2020 presidential bid: 'Not running for anything but re-election' | Scott Walker dismisses 2020 presidential bid: 'Not running for anything but re-election'
VIDEO3:5103:51Governor Scott Walker on Wisconsin's Foxconn winClosing Bell
Count Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker out as a presidential candidate in 2020. The Republican told CNBC on Tuesday he is "not running for anything but re-election."
"I'm ready to run for governor in 2018. I'm going to fill my term out for the next four years," he said in an interview.
"I love being governor. When you have a state like this, there's nothing better than being governor."
Walker was elected to office in 2010, survived a recall election in 2012 and was re-elected in 2014. His state voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential race, the first time Wisconsin chose a Republican president since 1984.
He's not the first prominent Republican to dismiss the idea of a 2020 bid.
On Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence denied that he's preparing for a run, calling the suggestion "disgraceful and offensive." He was referring to a New York Times report that some Republicans were moving to form a "shadow campaign" for 2020.
The article said multiple advisors to Pence "have already intimated to party donors that he would plan to run if Mr. Trump did not."
While Pence called the article "fake news," The New York Times said it stood by its coverage.
— CNBC's Jacob Pramuk and Reuters contributed to this report.
|
6df7ca27cb9cabc907edcf7ea2d93da2 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/trumps-approval-rating-is-still-stuck-in-a-rut.html | Trump's approval rating is stuck in a rut, but he shrugs it off as 'fake news' | Trump's approval rating is stuck in a rut, but he shrugs it off as 'fake news'
VIDEO1:0401:04Trump's approval rating is still stuck in a rutNews Videos
President Donald Trump can't seem to break out of his polling funk.
Trump's approval ratings in three new polls fail to crack 40 percent. A CNN poll out late Monday showed 38 percent of Americans approve of the job the president is doing versus 56 percent who disapprove.
His approval rating was 2 points lower in a CBS poll released Tuesday. The poll found that 58 percent disapprove of his performance. Gallup's daily tracking poll indicates 38 percent of American approve of the job the president is doing.
Those figures come as Trump struggles to enact some key planks of his campaign platform and fumes over the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the election. His approval rating remains stuck despite generally positive views about the U.S. economy among Americans.
On Tuesday, Trump claimed that "rarely has any Administration achieved what we achieved (in 200 days)..not even close!" He added: "Don't believe the Fake News Suppression Polls!"
After 200 days, rarely has any Administration achieved what we have achieved..not even close! Don't believe the Fake News Suppression Polls!
On Monday, the president argued his base is "far bigger and stronger than ever before" despite "some phony Fake News polling."
The Trump base is far bigger & stronger than ever before (despite some phony Fake News polling). Look at rallies in Penn, Iowa, Ohio.......
The recent numbers do not appear to back the claim. Only 24 percent of Americans in the CNN poll said they "strongly" approve of Trump, down from 30 percent in March.
Fifty-nine percent of Republicans said they "strongly" approve — compared with 73 percent in February.
Still, 80 percent of Republicans in the CBS poll said they approve of Trump, up from 72 percent in June.
|
8c7e92bc143ac513f87b90308ac9596e | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/bitcoin-is-almost-triple-the-price-of-gold--heres-what-traders-think-you-should-buy.html | VIDEO5:5305:53What the bitcoin surge could mean for goldFutures Now
Two traders are unfazed by bitcoin's meteoric surge and say that between the cryptocurrency and gold, you're better off trading the yellow metal.
has jumped 240 percent this year to a high of $3,288 on Wednesday, while gold was trading at $1,280. But despite the bitcoin gains, Brian Stutland of Equity Armor Investments and Path Trading Partners' Bob Iaccino believe gold is still a better bet than bitcoin from technical and fundamental perspectives.
"When you look at gold over the past couple of months, [it has] tracked very well [relative] to the cryptocurrency," Stutland said Tuesday on CNBC's "Futures Now." "If you price adjust and volatility adjust, I think gold still has a little bit of catching up to do."
As for Iaccino, he believes that while bitcoin's popularity is indisputable, a takeover by another digital currency could be possible, leading him to believe that bitcoin is more unstable than many may think.
"Bitcoin, right now, is the most popular [cryptocurrency] and it is the most valuable one," he said. "But I don't see it as a store of value, because any [other cryptocurrency platform] could come out with a slightly better technology and completely replace bitcoin."
In order to catch up to all the action bitcoin is seeing, Stutland wants to buy gold at the $1,265 level, targeting a move up to $1,285 by December expiration with a stop at $1,250, a key support level that gold has held, according to the trader.
"The volatility is tremendous, so you're going to see wild swings in here and that is something to be aware of," he said.
Gold actually rose more than 1 percent on Wednesday off threats delivered by President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un to one another, the yellow metal being one of the biggest safety trades in times of possible turmoil. Bitcoin, on the other hand, dropped more than 3 percent Wednesday, reversing some of the cryptocurrency's gains from the week
| |
c9cf88d3631d1e9b4fb1a43dc084a127 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/employers-to-spend-about-10000-on-health-care-for-each-worker.html | Employers to spend about $10,000 on health care for each worker | Employers to spend about $10,000 on health care for each worker
Employees at big companies should be prepared to pay 5 percent more for their health care next year.
New results from an industry organization's annual study shows that large employers expect the total average per-employee cost for health insurance benefits — which includes premiums and out-of-pocket costs for employees and dependents — to rise in 2018 to $14,156 from $13,482 this year.
With employers covering about 70 percent of that cost, the average worker will pay 30 percent of the tab, or about $4,200.
VIDEO0:4900:49How hospitals could kill the health insurance industryNews Videos
"I think you'll see [the 5 percent rise] in premium increases," said Brian Marcotte, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based National Business Group on Health, which released the study this week. "Most people will probably see minimal changes to deductibles and co-pays unless they move to a [higher-deductible] plan."
This marks the fifth consecutive year that health care costs are expected to rise by 5 percent, according to the study. That outpaces the rate of inflation, which was 2.54 percent in 2016 and 2 percent for the first half of 2017.
Workers' salaries also aren't rising as quickly as health care costs. The most recent data from the Federal Reserve shows that wages are growing by 3.2 percent annually.
Source: National Business Group on Health
The National Business Group of Health's annual study surveyed 148 companies, 79 percent of which have 10,000 or more employees. It shows that employers rank the cost of "specialty pharmaceuticals" as the top driver of cost increases, which is unchanged from last year's survey results.
Basically, new treatments for specific conditions ranging from diabetes and asthma to hemophilia and immune disorders can come with hefty price tags.
"There's a rich pipeline of specialty medicines," Marcotte said. "They can be thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per treatment."
Source: National Business Group on Health
Marcotte said that the cost can vary depending on where the treatment is administered (i.e., a hospital or doctor's office or even in the home). The survey shows that 44 percent of companies plan to combat pharma costs in part by better managing where patients receive those high-price medicines.
Employers also increasingly have been offer high-deductible plans as a way to control costs. The study shows that by next year, 90 percent of large companies will offer this option.
Under these plans — sometimes called consumer-driven health plans in industry lingo — employees can put away tax-deductible savings in a health savings account, or HSA. For 2017, contribution limits are $3,400 for individual coverage and $6,750 for family plans. An extra $1,000 is allowed for people age 55 or older.
HSA balances can carry over from year to year, and withdrawals are tax-free as long as they go toward qualified medical expenses.
The survey also says that without such various cost-cutting measures being implemented by employers, overall costs would increase by 6.6 percent next year instead of the anticipated 5 percent.
|
4599e95af3055d64c6669115db913bd1 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/in-the-trump-era-are-canadian-cities-poised-for-success.html | In the Trump era, are Canadian cities poised for success? | In the Trump era, are Canadian cities poised for success?
Thousands of people showing their patriotism jam into the area around Canada Place waterfront convention centre to celebrate Canada Day on July 1, 2016 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.George Rose | Getty Images
The ads and billboards began going up before the election, and haven't stopped. Sortable, an ad platform based in Waterloo, Ontario, started running an ad in March showing a picture of President Trump with the words "Feeling Homesick?," part of an attempt to bring Canadian tech workers in the U.S. back home.
A company called True North launched in November 2016 to help tech workers, especially those on visas nervous about recent anti-immigrant rhetoric, relocate from Silicon Valley to Vancouver. In May, Toronto Life magazine ran a feature about eight Americans who relocated to Canada, including a Bay Area tech worker who found both opportunity and a better work-life balance, and provincial leaders in Ontario are launching a social-media outreach campaign targeting tech execs.
In the age of Trump, Canada's tech scene sees an unprecedented opportunity. Sure, it's still a fraction of the size of the industry in the U.S.—while venture capital investments in Canadian companies nearly hit an all-time high of $1.7 billion in 2016, it's still tiny compared to the $69 billion invested in U.S. companies (figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted).
More from Curbed: Tiny houses: Big future, or big hype?Sacramento, emerging from Bay Area's shadow, becoming booming urban alternativeSupercommuters, skyrocketing commutes, and America's affordable housing crisis
But big names, such as and Hootsuite, continue to grow, Toronto is aggressively pursuing investments in artificial intelligence, and the Canadian government announced in June it would streamline the visa process so international tech workers can get a work permit in just two weeks (the process in the U.S. takes months).
But in addition to a burgeoning tech scene and more open immigration policy, our northern neighbor has another big economic advantage in the long run: a much more focused, pro-urban policy on multiple levels of government. Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver each have their own issues—especially affordability and an "overheating" housing market—but they're all growing, while the public and private sectors are making big investments in urban projects across the country. At a critical time, when populations and jobs are more concentrated than ever in urban areas, the contrasts between the Trudeau government and Trump administration on urban issues is marked.
"We don't separate citymaking from economic development," says Brent Toderian, Vancouver's former chief city planner and now international consultant who helped make his city of Vancouver a model of progressive urbanism. "Smart citymaking is the bedrock of economic development. We get a lot of attention in Canada for our cities' livability, but livability isn't the only thing. Affordable housing, sustainability, healthy urban design, public transport, climate change: these are critical to the success of cities, and cities are critical to the success of Canada."
Toderian believes that many Americans see Canadian cities as different because they appear to be more socialist, or less capitalist. He says that's a myth that misunderstands the history of the two nations' urban development. Canadian cities, he says, quoting Toronto's former Director of Urban Design Ken Greenberg, are "more American than American cities," because they're far less dependent on massive subsidies for suburban sprawl, or government funding for highways.
@BrentToderian: "Canadian city-building is marked by optimism, willingness to try, & a consistent belief in cities." My interview:
Greenberg, now a leading urbanist and consultant, says Canadian cities, on an upward trajectory for decades, are really starting to achieve their potential. Recent job statistics suggest the same: According to recent research from urbanist Richard Florida, between 2001 and 2016, more Canadian metros saw job growth, while more U.S. metros saw job loss.
"It's due to a broad acknowledgement that we're an urban country," Greenberg says. "Eighty percent of us live in big city regions, and have more in common with each other as opposed to the heartlands in the provinces. That's significant. We're not experiencing that kind of deeply unsettling constant culture war that tends to be happening in the U.S., or the anti-urban backlash."
He was shocked when Trump advisor Stephen Miller used the word "cosmopolitan" as an insult during an exchange with a reporter last week over immigration. In Canada, Greenberg says, that would typically be used as a compliment.
Relocation to Canada has been a focus of many recent articles about the country's growing tech scene. Vancouver is considered an obvious choice due to its high quality of life, its relative proximity to Silicon Valley, and its lower costs, due in part to a favorable exchange rate (a recent CBRE study found that Vancouver is the cheapest of 50 U.S. and Canadian markets to start a tech company, less than half the cost of San Francisco). And, with roughly 350,000 Canadians already working in Silicon Valley, repatriation alone could bring substantial growth.
But focusing on temporary relocations and quick moves misses some of the fundamental shifts in the Canadian tech scene, especially homegrown development. Karen Greve Young is executive vice president of partnerships and corporate development at the MaRS Discovery District, a Toronto startup hub that opened in 2005, and has been at the center of the region's push to become a world-recognized tech center. Set within four towers near the University of Toronto, MaRS hosts more than 6,000 workers, including offices for Facebook, Airbnb, Etsy, and Paypal, as well as 200 Canadian startups.
"Since moving here in 2008, I have felt the momentum," she says. "People are really considering this the right place to found tech- and science-based companies. This is a lot more than the Trump effect."
Since Young arrived, Johnson & Johnson opened their JLABS accelerator at MaRS and Google established a major presence in Toronto and Waterloo. Earlier this year, Invest Ottawa, a city-funded nonprofit, began recruiting tech talent in the U.S. to fill some of the thousands of jobs expected to come out of the city's growing tech scene. Interest has been "off the charts," according to an Invest Ottawa rep who spoke to the Guardian, with more than 3 million people interacting with the ads.
A streetcar on the intersection of King Street and University Street in Toronto, Ontario.Getty Images
There's also a focus on diversity in Canadian tech: 54 percent of MaRS startups have a non-Canadian founder, and 30 percent have a female founder. According to Young, this commitment to diversity in leadership has been bolstered by the Trudeau administration's focus on immigration.
"The Canadian government is taking a reverse approach to the U.S. government when it comes to talent and immigrants," says Michael Tippett, one of the founders of True North. "We see this as an asset, not a liability. It's a way to grow."
For Tippett, economic diversity isn't just about employees. After the administration of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which continued the traditional focus on resources and mining, the new administration sees technology as a true growth industry. In British Columbia, the tech sector now makes up a larger part of the GDP than the resource sector.
A warm welcome won't be nearly enough to overcome some of the structural issues Young and others see in the Canadian tech scene. Salaries are lower than in the U.S., and traditionally, many of the companies here are smaller or early-stage startups. The industry is still relatively young, so there aren't as many Canadian-born tech firms with an international presence.
"We need more examples of companies that grow and scale from Canadian headquarters," Young says. "Canada has never had a gap with starting companies—it's been about scaling companies."
But a big selling point for Young and others is the quality of life in Canada's urban centers. MaRS, for instance, is located near both a streetcar and subway stop in the heart of the city, around neighborhoods cheaper than comparable areas in U.S. tech centers such as Boston, New York, and San Francisco.
The contrast between how the current Canadian and American governments see cities couldn't be more stark. While the Trump administration still hasn't passed a budget through Congress, all signs point to drastic cuts in transportation fundingand public and affordable housing, and a shift toward private sources of capital for long-overdue infrastructure projects.
"When I work in American cities, I've noticed many are starting to do the right things," says Toderian. "But they're having a hard time stopping doing the wrong things, which is often harder."
Canadian cities are far from perfect, and they haven't solved the serious issues of sustainability, affordability, and equality. But at least the national government is helping—or getting out of the way. The Trudeau administration proposed a CA$11.2 billion dollar effort (US$8.9 billion) to fund more affordable housing after commissioning a national study to examine the issue. Despite the fact that more than 70 percent of the lowest-income householdsin the United States face severe housing burdens, according to Harvard researchers, the Trump administration proposed a $6 billion cut to the agency that funds public housing and rental assistance programs. During the era of Conservative Prime Minister Harper and President Obama, the U.S. may have espoused more progressive urban policies. But that situation has flipped.
"All the initiatives to help cities in the U.S. are under attack," says Greenberg, who works for clients in both the U.S. and Canada, "while the Trudeau government and provincial governments are going the other way. It's a factor in the unprecedented growth spurt we're seeing in Toronto, and to some respects, Vancouver. It's an explosion of people wanting to be here. The biggest problems we've had is dealing with our success."
Geoff Cape, CEO of Evergreen, an urban innovation hub in Canada, says the Trudeau government has embraced an innovation agenda. A CA$300 million Smart City challenge announced last summer seeks to be a catalyst to inspire a new generation of urban tech and infrastructure development, while the country's Innovation Superclusters Initiative will invest CA$750 million over the next five years in innovation centers.
"These sorts of moves are part of a larger narrative," Cape says. "The Smart Cities Challenge is a provocation, a way to provoke innovative private sector investment to set up Canada to be a leader in global urban development."
Like urban areas around the world, Canadian cities are experiencing big investments and new developments. Toronto, which has seen its population grow 6.2 percent since 2011, has become a focus of real estate development. The city's CA$50 billion Big Move initiative, including a sleek new express train that runs from downtown to the airport, seeks to create a more connected regional transport system.
The CA$25 million Bentway development will create a new park underneath a highway, the city's stab at Highline-style park building, the recently finished CityPlace neighborhood has revitalized a section of downtown, and the revitalization of Regent Park, a public housing complex, was seen as an exemplary example of neighborhood redevelopment. And the expansion is poised to continue: 10 massive high-rises are planned in what some are calling the "Manhattanization" of the city's skyline, including a 92-story Frank Gehry-designed skyscraper in King West that would be the city's tallest. A new series of waterfront developments, including a high-tech district called Quayside, is in the works.
"Doing the urban agenda right hits all the big subjects, including sustainability and innovation," says Cape. "It's the omnipresent theme globally. How do we make cities work?"
Historically, Canadian urbanism has differed in some key ways from the United States. Provincial governments have much more control over city government than states do in the U.S., but have avoided the kinds of pre-emption fights that have been roiling blue cities in red states. Canada fell under the sway of Robert Moses-like central planning and highway construction in the '60s and '70s, but Canadians never abandoned cities in the same numbers as Americans did via white flight and suburbanization. Don't forget, Jane Jacobs lived, worked, and battled the development of highways in Toronto, too.
"Our cities never fell as far back as American cities did," says Toderian. "We never gave up on our cities and never gave up on our downtowns. We did do damage with bad planning ideas, and didn't fully avoid the mistakes of the Robert Moses era, but we did better and came to our senses sooner."
According to David Crombie, a former Toronto mayor, regional governments support cities. Canada has always paid attention to an "ecosystem approach" to city development.
@Richard_Florida: 4 Toronto's incredible diversity, density, & industry mix just make it feel much more like NY or even London than any other North Amer city.
Greenberg is careful to not exaggerate the positive too much; there are arguments about funding and NIMBYism and solving inequality (the election of Rob Ford, Toronto's rambunctious conservative former mayor, can be seen as analogous to Trump, he says, in that it was a "protest vote by those who felt left behind"). But he believes that a culture focused on embracing universal access and multiculturalism is more poised to welcome entrepreneurship and solve some of the pressing problems posed by urbanism, including infrastructure and climate readiness.
"The messaging the U.S. is sending is horrible, while the message we're sending, which we don't always live up to 100 percent, is going in a very different direction," says Greenberg.
|
6affaf0dba50d023a5174573618a78c2 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/initial-coin-offerings-surpass-early-stage-venture-capital-funding.html?utm_campaign=DonanimHaber&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=DonanimHaber | Initial coin offerings have raised $1.2 billion and now surpass early stage VC funding | Initial coin offerings have raised $1.2 billion and now surpass early stage VC funding
Getty Images
The amount of money raised by cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups via so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs) has surpassed early stage venture capital (VC) funding for internet companies for the past two months.
ICOs are a way for start-ups to raise money from users, similar to crowdfunding, by allowing them to buy a stake. In return, the user will receive a token or digital currency, which are equivalent to shares in the firm. ICOs are popular among cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups and have exploded in the past few months.
The total amount of money raised via ICOs in April was just under $100 million, but by May this had more than doubled to almost $250 million, according to Coinschedule, a website that tracks such data. In June, ICO funding had hit over $550 million and it was the first month ever that it surpassed angel and seed VC funding. This was noted by Goldman Sachs in a note released Tuesday.
Angel and early VC funding in June was just under $300 million, Goldman noted, according to CB Insights data. In July, ICOs were just over $300 million, while angel and early VC funding was just over $200 million.
In 2017, there has been 92 ICOs which collectively have raised $1.25 billion.
A number of companies have raised a large amount of money via ICOs. A start-up called Tezos raised over $230 million. The company has created a new blockchain — the technology that underpins the likes of bitcoin or ethereum. Another company called Bancor raised $153 million.
But ICOs have received a lot of criticism and are under scrutiny from regulators. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said in a recent statement that ICOs are "vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing risks due to the anonymous nature of the transactions, and the ease with which large sums of monies may be raised in a short period of time."
And the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said last month that the country's securities laws may apply to the sale of new digital coins.
VIDEO0:4600:46Here comes the ICO, a wild new way for cryptocurrency start-ups to raise moneyNews Videos
Meanwhile, a start-up called CoinDash started an ICO, but was eventually hacked last month with the funds being stolen.
"Strict regulation comparable to the IPO business to protect investors is required," Oliver Bussmann, a former chief information officer at UBS, and now head of a fintech advisory firm, told CNBC by email.
But Bussmann was confident that ICOs will continue.
"ICO as a new business model leveraging blockchain technology will sustain as the digital way, combining crowdfunding and (a) new hybrid asset class of equity ownership and currency," Bussmann said.
|
f4a9e7ff0ead4bf4e79307758dd7db22 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/trump-just-set-his-own-uncrossable-red-line--and-north-korea-crossed-it-instantly.html | Trump just set his own, uncrossable 'red line' — and North Korea crossed it instantly | Trump just set his own, uncrossable 'red line' — and North Korea crossed it instantly
VIDEO1:1601:16Trump just set his own, uncrossable 'red line' - and North Korea crossed it instantlyNews Videos
President Donald Trump appears to have painted himself into a corner: He must now follow up on his pledge of hitting North Korea with "fire and fury," or he risks further blowing U.S. credibility.
Kim Jong-un's regime said late on Tuesday that it may strike Guam. That came shortly after Trump warned Pyongyang it would face "power, the likes of which this world has never seen before" if the renegade state continued to threaten the U.S.
"If the red line he drew today was 'North Korea cannot threaten the U.S. anymore,' that line was crossed within an hour of him making that statement," said John Delury, associate professor of Chinese studies at Seoul-based Yonsei University.
The episode draws parallels to President Barack Obama's own geopolitical red line.
In 2013, the former leader said the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war would trigger an American military response. But when it happened, Obama failed to follow up on his promise — a move that critics, including Trump, said weakened Washington's position as a superpower.
"Trump is drawing a decisive red line for himself, we all think back to Obama's red line in Syria, which ultimately became an embarrassment for him," Peter Jennings, Australia's former deputy secretary in defense, told CNBC.
A U.S. offensive on North Korea isn't likely anytime soon, experts said, which means Trump just made the same mistake as his predecessor.
VIDEO3:2003:20Former Defense Secretary: Tamping down North Korea rhetoric the right thing to doSquawk Box
"Certainly, the president cannot back up a red line," said Delury, who is also a senior fellow at the Asia Society.
Defense secretary James Mattis and new chief of staff John Kelly are unlikely to sign off on any military action, so this may just be yet another example of "Trump being Trump and firing off his mouth," added Robert Kelly, associate professor at Pusan National University.
The Republican has certainly chalked up a lengthy track record of unsupported statements. For one, his administration said in April that an aircraft carrier strike group was headed toward North Korea when the vessel was actually in Indonesian waters.
Instead of interpreting Trump's remark as a red line, the president may be playing the role of the madman, in a ruse to pressure the Chinese to get tough on Kim, Kelly continued.
Trump's ultimatum of "fire and fury" came after a Washington Post report said the pariah state was capable of building a miniaturized nuclear weapon.
"In the short term, the Americans will wait and see if the latest sanctions change North Korea's behavior," said Jennings, currently executive director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
But because Kim isn't expected to budge, the stalemate could result in the real risk of American preemptive action within six months, according to Jennings: "Just because it's a dangerous option doesn't mean it won't happen. It will be an act of last resort but looks like we're heading in that right direction."
Trump's use of such incendiary rhetoric is seen further undermining the image of the world's largest economy.
"The more he doesn't follow-up on promises, the weaker America's image gets overseas...Trump is gaining a reputation for not being truthful," said Kelly.
VIDEO1:5601:56It's time to acknowledge North Korea is a 'definitive' nuclear power: Expert
Indeed, policy flip-flops from NATO to China have become a signature of the billionaire's administration.
"The problem with Trump's comments is there is no strategy behind them. They don't reflect a thought-out plan or discussions with allies, they just add more risk to an already risky situation," Jennings added.
Moreover, there was no real need for the president's Tuesday remark, according to Delury.
"Every single day, there's a [North Korean] threat on the U.S. or its allies. We haven't really seen any spectacular new level of threat," said Delury, who referred to North Korea's Guam warning as "standard operating procedure."
Instead of military might, officials should concentrate on the "freeze for freeze" deal, which remains the best option on the table, Delury continued.
Under the proposal, North Korea would temporarily freeze nuclear and missile tests in return for a reduced American military presence in the Korean Peninsula.
"It's a shame [Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson was in the same room as the North Korean foreign minister, who is a reasonable person, and that discussion didn't occur," Delury said. "Both sides need to probe to find a way to step back from the cliff and change these dynamics."
VIDEO1:1801:18Here are five ways North Korea is funding its nuclear programDigital Original
|
c6091ca3e343ace204672bed83cacfa5 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/us-diplomats-in-cuba-suffer-severe-hearing-loss-blamed-on-covert-sonic-device.html | American diplomats in Cuba struck by covert sonic device, US officials say | American diplomats in Cuba struck by covert sonic device, US officials say
VIDEO0:4400:44American diplomats in Cuba struck by covert sonic device, US officials sayNews Videos
The two-year-old U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba was roiled Wednesday by what U.S. officials say was a string of bizarre incidents that left a group of American diplomats in Havana with severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device.
In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama's reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been exposed to an advanced device that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose.
The U.S. officials weren't authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. retaliated by expelling two Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington on May 23. She did not say how many U.S. diplomats were affected or confirm they had suffered hearing loss, saying only that they had "a variety of physical symptoms."
The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement late Wednesday that "Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception."
The statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the incidents on Feb. 17 and had launched an "exhaustive, high-priority, urgent investigation at the behest of the highest level of the Cuban government."
It said the decision to expel two Cuban diplomats was "unjustified and baseless."
The ministry said it had created an expert committee to analyze the incidents and had reinforced security around the U.S. embassy and U.S. diplomatic residences.
"Cuba is universally considered a safe destination for visitors and foreign diplomats, including U.S. citizens," the statement said.
U.S. officials told The Associated Press that about five diplomats, several with spouses, had been affected and that no children had been involved. The FBI and Diplomatic Security Service are investigating.
Cuba employs a state security apparatus that keeps many people under surveillance and U.S. diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. Like virtually all foreign diplomats in Cuba, the victims of the incidents lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.
However, officials familiar with the probe said investigators were looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cuba's formal chain of command.
Nauert said investigators did not yet have a definitive explanation for the incidents but stressed they take them "very seriously," as shown by the Cuban diplomats' expulsions.
"We requested their departure as a reciprocal measure since some U.S. personnel's assignments in Havana had to be curtailed due to these incidents," she said. "Under the Vienna Convention, Cuba has an obligation to take measures to protect diplomats."
U.S. diplomats in Cuba said they suffered occasional harassment for years after the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the 1970s, harassment reciprocated by U.S. agents against Cuban diplomats in Washington. The use of sonic devices to intentionally harm diplomats would be unprecedented.
|
03d0a8591343288d939bd7db5d99ee30 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/blackstones-invitation-homes-to-buy-starwood-waypoint.html | Blackstone's Invitation Homes to buy Starwood Waypoint | Blackstone's Invitation Homes to buy Starwood Waypoint
A home on Casaba Ave. in Canoga Park that Invitation Homes recently bought, fixed up and turned into a rental property.Mel Melcon | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Invitation Homes said on Thursday it would buy Starwood Waypoint Homes in an all-stock deal that would create a $11 billion U.S. single-family rental company.
Under the deal, each Starwood Waypoint Homes share will be converted into 1.614 Invitation Homes shares, based on a fixed exchange ratio, Blackstone-owned Invitation Homes said.
After the deal closes, Invitation Homes stockholders will own about 59 percent of the combined company's stock, with Starwood Waypoint stockholders owning the rest.
|
8a58a5612a2c10ffa52b368789a41abe | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/ethereum-price-hits-one-month-high-up-near-50-percent-in-the-last-two-weeks.html | Ethereum hits a one-month high and is up nearly 50% in the last two weeks | Ethereum hits a one-month high and is up nearly 50% in the last two weeks
A phone showing an ethereum price chart on the Coinbase exchange platform.Todd Haselton | CNBC
While bitter infighting and subsequent price rise has taken center stage, rival cryptocurrency ethereum has been quietly pushing higher in the background.
On Wednesday, ethereum hit $314.75, the highest level in over a month since it reached $322.28 on June 29, according to CryptoCompare, a platform monitoring live prices of major cryptocurrencies. The price pulled back at a bit on Thursday to just above $301.
But ethereum has been climbing steadily. Over the past two weeks, ethereum is up nearly 50 percent.
All the while, the bitcoin community has been fighting for its future. The price took a beating for a while but just recently came back to hit a record high after the fighting was resolved.
South Korea is driving the trade with over 60 percent of buying happening in Korean won. Lawmakers in South Korea are looking to regulate ethereum and bitcoin which is buoying sentiment.
At the same time, there has been huge hype around so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs). ICOs are a way for start-ups to raise money from users, similar to crowdfunding, by allowing them to buy a stake. In return, the user will receive a token or digital currency, which are equivalent to shares in the firm. ICO money in June and July surpassed early stage venture capital and angel funding.
Many of the firms doing an ICO are blockchain start-ups built on the ethereum blockchain. The ethereum blockchain is particularly useful for so-called smart contracts which are automatically executed when certain conditions are met.
The number of transactions in a single day using ethereum also hit a record high this week, according to industry website Etherscan, showing the traction the digital currency is getting.
VIDEO2:2102:21Here's what sets ethereum apart from its rival bitcoinDigital Original
Ethereum has also had some very high-profile corporate backers. A group called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) was established in February 2017. Since then, it has grown to include 86 firms including the likes of JPMorgan and Microsoft. The corporate support has lent it legitimacy which has boosted investors' appetite.
Analysts expect the current price rises in ethereum to continue, with online trading platform eToro saying that there is bullish sentiment among traders.
"Investors' attitude towards the coin over the coming hours and days will be a great case study. Some might want to realize profits shortly to avoid the losses they incurred during the last trading cycle, but looking at current trading sentiment on the eToro platform, the mood seems to be bullish," Iqbal Gandham, U.K. managing director at eToro, said in a note on Wednesday.
|
3bcbbf29a1ee5315df31605bf9697015 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/microchips-at-wisconsin-firm-part-of-growing-augmented-reality-trend.html?fbclid=IwAR00f6MBaTGh6ewRCWuE6gLET481v27Hjadr9NaBVGV4JKABpu3D_9x-iXU | You will get chipped – eventually | You will get chipped – eventually
VIDEO1:0001:00You will get chipped - eventuallyNews Videos
Follow @CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech industry news.
You will get chipped. It's just a matter of time.
In the aftermath of a Wisconsin firm embedding microchips in employees last week to ditch company badges and corporate logons, the Internet has entered into full-throated debate.
Religious activists are so appalled, they've been penning nasty 1-star reviews of the company, Three Square Market, on Google, Glassdoor and social media.
More from USA Today: Cuba diplomats ousted after bizarre incident with U.S. embassy workers in Havana It's not just you — there really are fewer homes for sale with inventory at a 20-year lowGoogle flap: How to have an opinion and still keep your job
On the flip side, seemingly everyone else wants to know: Is this what real life is going to be like soon at work? Will I be chipped?
"It will happen to everybody," says Noelle Chesley, 49, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "But not this year, and not in 2018. Maybe not my generation, but certainly that of my kids."
Gene Munster, an investor and analyst at Loup Ventures, is an advocate for augmented reality, virtual reality and other new technologies. He thinks embedded chips in human bodies is 50 years away. "In 10 years, Facebook, Google, Apple and Tesla will not have their employees chipped," he says. "You'll see some extreme forward-looking tech people adopting it, but not large companies."
The idea of being chipped has too "much negative connotation" today, but by 2067 "we will have been desensitized by the social stigma," Munster says.
VeriChip, the world's first implantable radio frequency ID microchip for human use.Rhona Wise | AFP | Getty Images
For now, Three Square Market, or 32M, hasn't offered concrete benefits for getting chipped beyond badge and log-on stats. Munster says it was a "PR stunt" for the company to get attention to its product and it certainly succeeded, getting the small start-up air play on CBS, NBC and ABC, and generating headlines worldwide. The company, which sells corporate cafeteria kiosks designed to replace vending machines, would like the kiosks to handle cashless transactions.
This would go beyond paying with your smartphone. Instead, chipped customers would simply wave their hands in lieu of Apple Pay and other mobile-payment systems.
The benefits don't stop there. In the future, consumers could zip through airport scanners sans passport or drivers license; open doors; start cars; and operate home automation systems. All of it, if the technology pans out, with the simple wave of a hand.
Not a GPS tracker
The embedded chip is not a GPS tracker, which is what many critics initially feared. However, analysts believe future chips will track our every move.
For example, pets for years have been embedded with chips to store their name and owner contact. Indeed, 32M isn't the first company to embed chips in employees. In 2001, Applied Digital Solutions installed the "VeriChip" to access medical records but the company eventually changed hands and stopped selling the chip in 2010.
In Sweden, BioHax says nearly 3,000 customers have had its chip embedded to do many things, including ride the national rail system without having to show the conductor a ticket.
In the U.S., Dangerous Things, a Seattle-based firm, says it has sold "tens of thousands" of chips to consumers via its website. The chip and installation cost about $200.
After years of being a subculture, "the time is now" for chips to be more commonly used, says Amal Graafstra, founder of Dangerous Things. "We're going to start to see chip implants get the same realm of acceptance as piercings and tattoos do now."
In other words, they'll be more visible, but not mainstream yet.
"It becomes part of you the way a cellphone does," Graafstra says. "You can never forget it, and you can't lose it. And you have the capability to communicate with machines in a way you couldn't before."
But after what we saw in Wisconsin last week, what's next for the U.S. workforce? A nation of workers chipping into their pods at Federal Express, General Electric, IBM, Microsoft and other top corporations?
Experts contend consumers will latch onto chips before companies do.
Chesley says corporations are slower to respond to massive change and that there will be an age issue. Younger employees will be more open to it, while older workers will balk. "Most employers who have inter-generational workforces might phase it in slowly," she says. "I can't imagine people my age and older being enthusiastic about having devices put into their bodies."
Adds Alec Levenson, a researcher at University of Southern California's Center for Effective Organizations, "The vast majority of people will not put up with this."
Three Square Market said the chips are voluntary, but Chesley says that if a company announces a plan to be chipped, the expectation is that you will get chipped — or risk losing out on advancement, raises and being a team player.
"That's what we're worried about," says Bryan Allen, chief of staff for state Rep. Tina Davis (D), who is introducing a bill in Pennsylvania to outlaw mandatory chip embedding. "If the tech is out there, what's to stop an employer from saying either you do this, or you can't work here anymore."
Several states have passed similar laws, while one state recently saw a similar bill die in committee. "I see this as a worker's rights issue," says Nevada state Sen. Becky Harris (R), who isn't giving up. "This is the wrong place to be moving," she says.
Should future corporations dive in to chipping their employees, they will have huge issues of "trust" to contend with, says Kent Grayson, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
"You've got to have a lot of trust to put one of those in your body," Grayson says. Workers will need assurances the chip is healthy, can't be hacked, and its information is private, he says.
Meanwhile, religious advocates have taken to social media to express their displeasure about chipping, flooding 32M's Facebook page with comments like "boycott," "completely unnecessary" and "deplorable." On 32M's Google page, Amy Cosari a minister in Hager City, Wisc., urges employees to remove the chip.
"When Jesus was raised, he was raised body and soul, and it was him, not zombie, not a ghost and we are raised up in the same way," Cosari wrote. "Employees of 32Market, you are not a walking debit card."
Get used to it, counsels Chesley.
Ten years ago, employees didn't look at corporate e-mail over the weekend. Now they we do, "whether we like it or not," he says.
Be it wearable technology or an embedded chip, the always on-always connected chip is going to be part of our lives, she says.
|
2e8b7bf7d60f1bfa2acc06dc55221ed7 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/new-data-shows-just-how-crucial-americans-are-to-teslas-success.html | New data shows just how crucial Americans are to Tesla's success | New data shows just how crucial Americans are to Tesla's success
Tesla Model S P100DSource: Tesla
It has long been known the U.S., and California in particular, have been driving forces behind the demand for Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles.
What has never been clear is exactly how much of the automaker's sales come from its home market. Tesla's policy has been, and still remains, that it doesn't break down sales by market.
But a new report by Moody's gives us a glimpse into just how important the U.S. is to Tesla. Moody's, citing company reports and registration data from Polk, says Tesla dominates the EV market in the U.S., selling 45 percent of all electric vehicles in the first half of this year.
That is well ahead of General Motors, which had 16 percent of the domestic market thanks to its Chevy Bolt.
While Moody's does not give specific sales numbers for each electric model sold in the U.S., there are other ways to track those numbers.
The research firm Autodata reports monthly U.S. vehicle sales for each model, except Tesla.
Since Autodata reports GM sold 7,598 Chevy Bolt cars and Moody's says the Bolt made up 16 percent of all EV sales, here's a snapshot of electric vehicles in the U.S., including Tesla's two models:
Overall, Americans bought about 48,000 pure electric vehicles. That is roughly one-half of 1 percent of the 8.45 million autos sold between January and June of this year.
Tesla's Model S had 29 percent of the market, according to Moody's. That means Americans bought about 13,900 Model S cars in the first half of 2017.
Tesla's Model X and the Chevy Bolt each had 16 percent of the U.S. EV market, which works out to roughly 7,600 for each model.
The Nissan Leaf had 15 percent of the market, according to Moody's. Which matches the total of 7,248 Leaf cars sold, according to Autodata.
So what do all these numbers tell us?
First, electric vehicle sales still make up just a tiny portion of total U.S. auto sales. For all the talk about America going green, the numbers show electric vehicles have a long way to go.
VIDEO0:5300:53Tesla meets with California DMV to discuss autonomous trucksClosing Bell
Second, the U.S. remains crucial to the health of the Tesla Model S. In fact, 55 percent of the 25,450 Model S vehicles delivered in the first half of the year went to customers in the U.S. Of the 21,500 Model X SUVs delivered between January and June, about 36 percent went to U.S. buyers.
Tesla's dependence on the U.S. is not a surprise since it is based in California and the Golden State is filled with Tesla loyalists. In the future, as Tesla expands sales in China that market will take on greater importance and a greater percentage of vehicle deliveries.
VIDEO1:1601:16Tesla is building the largest battery system in the worldDigital Original
|
85fbdb4ee0d08ae0b31f3895f7136638 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/north-koreas-missile-threat-to-guam-crafted-for-maximum-drama.html | North Korea's missile threat to Guam crafted for 'maximum drama,' says former CIA analyst | North Korea's missile threat to Guam crafted for 'maximum drama,' says former CIA analyst
People watch news report showing North Korea's Hwasong-14 missile launch on electronic screen at Pyongyang station, North Korea in this photo taken by Kyodo on July 29, 2017.Kyodo via REUTERS
North Korea's specific threat issued this week of test-firing ballistic missiles into waters off the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam — and flying over Japan — is perhaps more theater and mischief than anything else, a former CIA analyst said Thursday.
"By constructing this whole scenario in the way they have, they've opted to go for maximum drama," said former Central Intelligence Agency analyst Robert Carlin, now a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation. He spoke on a press conference call arranged by 38 North, a think tank specializing in North Korea at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Added Carlin, "In other words, as this drags out day by day, there will be more dramatic developments and statements and events, and I think that probably suits them (the North Korean regime) fine. They'd like as much drama surrounding this as they can."
At the same time, there doesn't appear to be any military mobilization underway in North Korea that might indicate widespread preparations for war, experts said.
Carlin, who also served as chief of the Northeast Asia division at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, said the population in North Korea does not appear to be seriously mobilized about the threat and potential repercussions.
"Almost surprising, if you look at the radio and television [and] daily news, it's pretty normal," he said. "And they are still mostly concentrating on economic themes — not much in terms of mobilizing themselves in preparation for a crisis with the Americans."
Joseph Bermudez, a 38 North analyst and founder of KPA Associates, agreed that based on what's known today there are no signs of preparations within North Korea for a war mobilization effort.
"I don't see any significant signs of mobilization of the populace in North Korea," said Bermudez. He said the assessment was based in part on satellite imagery.
Even so, Carlin said North Korea has at times in its history used something termed a "state of semi-war" that puts the regime's army on alert. He said that type of event hasn't happened in some time and would also mean the population is put on alert and people get pulled out of factories too.
That said, Carlin doesn't believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to interrupt economic activities in the country by mobilizing the population fully. If the regime did do that, though, he said it would be seen as "a pretty serious sign that they're very concerned that something is about to happen."
Experts said North Korea also is about to enter the harvest season so a war-like mobilization of the population could have negative implications on the country's already low food supplies.
North Korea's food problems have taken a toll on the population, which suffers from a poor diet and sometimes starvation. In contrast, the regime's leadership and top officers get to the front of the line when it comes to food supplies.
"If they were to mobilize at this point in time, it would have a serious impact upon food collection, harvesting and then subsequently food distribution," said Bermudez. "And then after that, food availability during the upcoming winter."
To be clear, Carlin said a full mobilization of its population also might not mean that the regime plans to strike first but that they may be worried about being a target.
Carlin also said it was unusual that North Korea issued a specific target threat for a test but he added that it's also not unprecedented. He pointed out that the North had talked about "aiming fire in the past at South Korean targets," including things as small as propaganda loudspeakers.
However, Carlin said what's perhaps different this time is the North's threat was aimed at "something as sensitive, let's say, as an American military base." Guam has U.S. military bases with an estimated 6,000 troops, and it hosts the Air Force's B-1B strategic bombers, a Navy submarine base and the THAAD missile interceptors.
According to Carlin, the new threat from North Korea doesn't appear to be a sign they are planning to use a nuclear weapon on Guam or the United States but rather making a demonstration.
"At some point, they're going to say, 'Look, this isn't anything different from your flying B-1 bombers over Korea,'" he said. "So this isn't the point at which they are going to do anything, and I don't think they really are … unless they are put into a corner."
Finally, the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile that the North threatened to launch toward Guam still has serious reliability issues.
Based on what's known, Bermudez said the Hwasong-12 missile was tested four times by the regime — and only once was successful.
"This is not a good ratio or percentage of success to base a significant military operation upon," he said. "We have to view this statement (about Guam) in the context of the political situation."
Meantime, the missiles the North said it might fire toward Guam would fly over populated areas of Japan.
Japan's public broader, NHK, reported Friday the country's Defense Ministry plans to step up "its vigilance and surveillance to prepare possible contingencies that may arise from North Korea's threatened launch of ballistic missiles.
|
7c2cd543dd01f906f95439b1bb790984 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/trump-maybe-fire-and-fury-statement-on-north-korea-wasnt-tough-enough.html | Trump: Maybe 'fire and fury' statement on North Korea wasn't tough enough | Trump: Maybe 'fire and fury' statement on North Korea wasn't tough enough
VIDEO8:0208:02Trump: North Korea should be nervous if it acts against usPower Lunch
President Donald Trump on Thursday ramped up his rhetoric on North Korea again, saying his to the isolated nation may not have gone far enough.
"If anything, maybe that statement wasn't tough enough," he told reporters at his New Jersey golf club.
When asked what could be tougher than "fire and fury," the president responded: "we'll see." He also did not comment on whether the U.S. is considering a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.
"The people of this country should be very comfortable, and I will tell you this: If North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack, of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous," Trump said. "I'll tell you why, and they should be very nervous. Because things will happen to them like they never thought possible."
President Donald Trump speak to the press on August 10, 2017, at Trump's Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey before a security briefing.Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
The remarks continue a series of aggressive exchanges between Trump and the North Korean regime in rhetoric more forceful than U.S. presidents typically use. As tensions escalate and Pyongyang keeps developing its nuclear and missile programs in the face of international opposition, Trump and other world leaders face a set of limited and difficult options to respond.
On Tuesday, Trump strongly warned Pyongyang against threatening the United States in a reportedly improvised line.
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump told reporters, speaking slowly and deliberately with his arms crossed in front of him. "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening ... and as I said they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before."
North Korea's state media responded by saying the country was considering a plan to attack the U.S. territory of Guam. It also called Trump's statement "nonsense" and said only "absolute force" can work on him.
"Let's see what he does with Guam. If he does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody's seen before, what will happen in North Korea," Trump told reporters Thursday. He added that his comments on Guam were not a "dare," just a "statement of fact."
Trump's comment followed reports that Pyongyang had successfully created a miniaturized nuclear weapon. It marks a major step in the country's nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has continued its aggression and missile tests in the face of economic sanctions. The most recent round was unanimously approved by the U.N. Security Council on Saturday.
Trump also contended "there are no mixed messages" coming out of his administration on North Korea. Some aides had reportedly said not to read too far into the president's "fire and fury" comments.
"I think what the president was just reaffirming is that the United States has the capability to fully defend itself from any attack, and our allies, and we will do so," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday.
Trump added that he believes the latest sanctions on North Korea may not accomplish as much as some would hope. China, Pyongyang's only major ally, "can" and "will" do a lot more to keep the isolated regime in check, the president said.
Trump said he wants to "de-nuke the world."
VIDEO1:2601:26Trump wants a bigger nucleaer arsenalClosing Bell
|
13101befea695fc408acf5aa799525cb | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/european-markets-set-for-a-lower-open-as-north-korea-tensions-intensify-innogy-novozymes-report.html | European markets register worst week this year amid North Korea tensions; Dixons down 7.1% | European markets register worst week this year amid North Korea tensions; Dixons down 7.1%
European stocks registered their worst weekly loss this year on Friday as geopolitical tensions over North Korea intensified.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended over 1 percent lower to a five-month low with almost all sectors in negative territory. For the week, the benchmark slipped 2.6 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100, the German DAX and the French CAC 40 all dropped more than 2.3 percent this week.Oil and gas, telecoms and basic resources stocks led the losses on Friday, with the latter sector down by more than 2.5 percent.
Geopolitical concerns took center stage once again after President Donald Trump issued a new round of comments against North Korea. He said Thursday that his first threat to unleash "fire and fury" may not have been tough enough. As a result the volatility index, known as the VIX, was at its highest since November 9 - a day after the U.S. elections, though it was close to record lows earlier this week – before the tensions escalated.
Thus, investors were seen to be reducing positions from traditional assets and piling into safe haven with the dollar slumping to a two-month low against the Japanese yen.
Looking at individuals stocks, Dixons Carphone ended at the bottom of the European benchmark after a downgrade from BNP Paribas. The British retailer's shares were down by over 7 percent.
Novozymes cut its growth outlook on Friday after lower-than-expected growth in the second quarter. However, the Danish biotech company saw its stock recover from earlier losses to close almost 1 percent higher.Meanwhile, in the U.S., stock indexes continued marginally higher on Friday, supported by weaker-than-expected consumer price data for July. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index inched up 0.1 percent last month, pointing to subdued inflation which could make Federal Reserve policymakers cautious regarding another interest rate hike in 2017.
In Italy, authorities have given Telecom Italia more time to hand in details of the role of its top shareholder Vivendi in running the company. Elsewhere, Volkswagen and Tata Motors have ended talks on an emerging markets merger, Reuters reported.
Oil prices fell around 0.5 percent on Friday amid oversupply fears. The International Energy Agency said Friday the oil market is re-balancing as demand continues to grow but more time is needed before these shifting fundamentals are felt by markets.
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
|
028689d0ad686da377c74eaa675b4420 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/guam-has-some-good-advice-on-how-to-survive-a-nuclear-attack.html | Guam has some good advice on how to survive a nuclear attack | Guam has some good advice on how to survive a nuclear attack
VIDEO0:3800:38North Korea crisis: Guam and South Korea show little fearNews Videos
Guam's government is giving sound advice for surviving a nuclear disaster, says one expert.
The government of the U.S. territory issued a two-page fact sheet on Friday, after North Korea vowed to launch an "enveloping strike" in the waters around the Pacific island.
It recommends doing things such as making lists of nearby concrete buildings that could serve as shelters, taking cover if outside during an attack, and removing clothing that might have radiation on it.
While the idea of a nuclear attack is unthinkably frightening, the Guamanian government's preparations highlight the fact it is possible to survive some of them, if people take the right steps.
"The fact sheet looks pretty good. I think we need more of that sort of thing in the U.S. generally," said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Earth Institute and a professor at the university's Mailman School of Public Health.
"Frankly, I think it is excellent," he added.
The size of the bomb North Korea appears to have developed is thought to be roughly the size of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which would make it somewhere around 15 or 20 kilotons, Redlener said.
VIDEO1:5101:51Making sense of North Korea's Guam statement
In contrast, it would be nearly impossible to survive the detonation of the massive multi-megaton bombs developed during the Cold War, he said.
"This is very, very different from the Cold War scenario, which was hundreds of thousands of times more powerful and frightening," he said. "It is an immeasurable fraction of what we faced during the Cuban Missile Crisis."
To give an idea of the damage a 10-kiloton bomb could cause, consider that if it were detonated in downtown New York, it would kill roughly 75,000 people immediately, with hundreds of thousands more injured by either the blast or the resulting radiation.
Anyone within a half-mile of the explosion would have only a 10 percent chance of survival — bodies very close to the explosion would be vaporized, Redlener said. Nuclear detonation can generate temperatures in tens of millions of degrees.
People outside of that but within a 2-mile radius would have a 50 percent chance of being killed instantly, and people up to 8 miles away would stand a 10 to 20 percent chance of being killed instantly.
Of course, Redlener told CNBC, these estimates can vary depending on factors such as the number of buildings in the area, whether the bomb detonates in the air or on the ground, and the weather.
"There would be an unprecedented amount of death and destruction, there is no question of that," he said. "The deaths of 75,000 people is unthinkable, but in this case there are things we can do to minimize harm."
The best thing to do if caught in a nuclear attack is to stay inside, preferably in a building made of brick or concrete.
If you are outside, and you survive the initial blast, you have 10 to 20 minutes to get to a shelter as far away from the blast as possible. That's roughly the amount of time it takes for the radioactive material from the mushroom cloud to begin falling back to the ground and spreading. It should be a place you can stay in for a 24- to 48-hour period until authorities can give instructions.
The mere contemplation of a nuclear attack is horrifying, but it may be a good time to have a needed conversation many public officials are normally reluctant to have, out of concern over stoking public fears.
"In some ways this is an opportunity to talk to people around the country about what they should do in the unlikely event that something did happen," he said.
VIDEO0:3700:37Guam governor says North Korea's talk of revenge is no threatNews Videos
|
dcb400856f1ad4cf12f3d8e89dc53db0 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/hbo-hack-game-of-thrones-ransom.html | HBO email suggesting $250,000 bitcoin payout for hackers who stole 'Game of Thrones' script is a 'delay tactic’: Insider | HBO email suggesting $250,000 bitcoin payout for hackers who stole 'Game of Thrones' script is a 'delay tactic’: Insider
VIDEO0:5000:50HBO is trying to get $250,000 in bitcoin to pay hackers who stole Game of Thrones scriptsNews Videos
HBO offered $250,000 as a "bounty payment" to a hacker who stole TV show scripts from the company, according to an email obtained by CNBC, but a source familiar with the situation said it was just a "delay tactic."
Details of a data breach at HBO came to light last week. Scripts from shows such as "Game of Thrones" were leaked online ahead of Sunday's episode. A hacker or group called "Mr. Smith" claimed responsibility and said they had around 1.5 terabytes of data from HBO.
The hackers demanded money worth six months of their salary, claiming they make $12 million to $15 million from stealing intellectual property and blackmailing companies. Those hackers appear to have been engaged in email correspondence with HBO.
In the message dated July 27, an IT employee said the company has been "working hard" since July 23 and asked the hackers to extend their ransom deadline, before making an offer.
"As a show of good faith on our side, we are willing to commit to making a bug bounty payment of $250,000 to you as soon as we can establish the necessary account and acquire bitcoin," the email read, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
CNBC has verified the email.
The HBO employee has been careful about wording. Instead of referring to a ransom, the employee has used the term "bug bounty payment." This phrase refers to a reward paid by a company to good hackers for finding flaws in their system. Many technology companies have bug bounty programs in which they reward good hackers for finding security holes.
But a source close to the situation told CNBC that this email was merely a "delay tactic" and said HBO is having no communication with the hackers now.
HBO declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.
|
a0b9814a8d384e15240fe0a47ae5bd71 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/musicians-are-coming-back-to-life-thanks-to-holograms.html | Life after death: Musicians are coming back to the stage thanks to holographic technology | Life after death: Musicians are coming back to the stage thanks to holographic technology
Ronnie James Dio of Heaven and Hell during Heaven and Hell Performs at the HP Pavilion in San Jose - April 24, 2007 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.John Medina
Heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio died from stomach cancer in 2010.
Fast forward seven years, and fans will be able to catch him on tour.
While the singer himself will not personally return to the stage, his hologram will soon embark on the "Dio Returns" world tour. The idea — part of a trend that has brought the likes of Tupac Shakur's and Michael Jackson to the stage — is the brainchild of hologram company Eyellusion, and the singer's widow and former manager, Wendy Dio.
"After several meetings, we agreed to make a hologram of Ronnie, and made a debut at the Wacken Festival in Germany in August 2016," said Dio, who is president of Niji Entertainment Group. "After receiving a great response we decided to tour."
Virtual images of deceased musicians have been used before in live performances, as in the case of Tupac's 2012 appearance at Coachella, 16 years after his death. Yet most of those have been one-off performances.
The "Dio Returns" tour will travel the world and may include as many as 100 dates. That makes it a far more complicated venture than a single festival appearance. If successful, the tour could create a new template for departed artists to return to the concert stage via hologram.
"You're never going to make everyone happy," said Leslie Richin, social media editor at Billboard and Spin. "But if the demand is there, and the approval is there, we will certainly see more holograms touring in the future."
Tupac performs onstage during day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on April 15, 2012 in Indio, California.Christopher Polk
Jeff Brown, a partner in the Chicago office of the Michael Best law firm and a specialist in intellectual property matters, said it may well happen. However, he cautioned that there's more to holographic tours than simply turning on a projector on from city to city.
"If they can get an arena full of ticket buyers putting up metal horns to a Dio hologram, that will be incredible," Brown told CNBC.
However, the legal hurdles can be daunting. When a performer dies, the name, image and likeness rights held while they were alive may or may not still apply, and those rights must be secured. Brown added that if the hologram is created with third party images, it's necessary to acquire those rights as well.
There's also the added legal layers of performance rights, musical composition rights and trademark rights in the individual performer's name.
Eyellusion CEO Jeff Pezzuti explained that the technological hurdles that must be overcome aren't small either. His company is overseen by special effects executive Scott Ross, formerly of Lucasfilm, and co-founder of Digital Domain with "Avatar" director James Cameron.
"We scour archive footage and photos, then build several physical models that can be scanned and animated," he told CNBC.
"The actual display of the hologram involves use of an invisible film that is stretched at an angle with an LED projector, projecting an image onto it to create the 3-D effect and illusion," he explained. "This is an incredibly complicated process."
Pezzuti said other artists, as well as the estates of deceased ones, have approached Eyellusion for similar treatment as album sales dwindle and revenue streams dry up. Yet many live artists are not up for the punishing physical demands of a 100-day world tour — especially older performers.
"Some don't want to tour as extensively, or they want to create unique live music experiences," Pezzuti said, adding that holograms and the use of technology "open up a realm of possibilities" beyond a simple live music show.
Eyellusion is aiming to raise $1.5 million in a first round of venture capital funding. He described the company as being led primarily by music fans, and he sees its overall mission as one of delivering artist legacies to future generations.
"This is an entirely new frontier in live music, and we believe it is the future," Pezzuti said.
|
1f76d11e32f3d0056f96c088f34d0c97 | https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/trump-on-venezuela-im-not-going-to-rule-out-a-military-option.html | Trump: 'I'm not going to rule out a military option' in Venezuela | Trump: 'I'm not going to rule out a military option' in Venezuela
VIDEO11:0711:07Trump: Military option on the table in Venezuela
President Donald Trump on Friday said he would not rule out a "military option" in Venezuela as the ruling regime there consolidates power.
"We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary," Trump told reporters at his New Jersey golf club on Friday.
The president did not answer a question about whether American troops would lead a potential operation.
"We don't talk about it. But a military operation, a military option, is certainly something we could pursue," he responded.
Reuters reported later Friday that the Pentagon said the White House hadn't given it any orders on Venezuela.
In response, Venezuela's defense minister said that Trump's threat of military intervention was "a crazy act."
Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro had requested a phone call with Trump, the White House said. Trump, according to an administration statement, will gladly speak with the nation's leader when democracy has been restored in the country.
The Trump administration has issued sanctions against Maduro, whom it calls a "dictator," and more than two dozen other former and current officials. The U.S. accuses Maduro's regime of violating human rights and subverting democratic processes.
Trump's comment about possible military action comes after a week of the president escalating rhetoric against the isolated regime in North Korea, which is pushing forward with nuclear and missile programs in the face of international opposition. On Friday morning, Trump said "military solutions are now in place" should "North Korea act unwisely."
The international community has recently condemned Maduro's moves to consolidate power. He has been accused of setting up a powerful constitutional assembly to push aside opposition.
In an address to that assembly, Maduro expressed a desire to have a dialogue with Trump.
"Mr. Donald Trump, here is my hand," he said.
Venezuela's political turmoil comes as its economy has been battered by both low oil prices and policy.
— Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.