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SpaceX’s Starship prototype, Ship 36, exploded in a massive fireball during a routine static‑fire test at its Starbase facility in South Texas.
The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged, defying President Trump’s calls for immediate cuts despite increasing political pressure.
Meta has joined forces with Oakley to launch the Oakley Meta HSTN, a line of A.I. powered smart glasses.
IBM Fellow Jerry Chow talks IBM’s expansion of the Quantum Data Center in Poughkeepsie, installing Heron processors that deliver utility‑scale performance.
Doctors report the first successful pregnancy using AI to find hidden sperm, marking a major fertility breakthrough, reports TIME’s Alice Park.
Right now big business is all about the transition to cleaner energy sources, as the world shuns coal and oil. General Electric spin-off GE Vernova $GEV makes high efficiency gas turbines and its shares are up 260% in the last year.
“GEV isn’t a pure-play bet on traditional or green energy; it’s a bet on the transition itself, recognizing that shifting to cleaner energy will be a gradual, essential process,” Dan Buckley, Chief Analyst at DayTrading.com wrote in an email.
In other words, natural gas turbines aren’t quite as dirty as making electricity from oil or coal, and so they’re having a moment. Natural gas emits about 50% fewer toxic pollutants than oil, making it comparatively clean. As a result, Vernova’s got a backlog of orders through the end of 2027, with more in the pipeline. CEO Scott Strazik “continue(s) to see this market normalizing to a higher-for-longer gas market,” he said on an earnings call in April.
President Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia brought about $12 billion in potential new business to Vernova, whose turbines and electric grid technology are part of the oil kingdom’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2060. The company also hitched up with MIT to develop new green energy technologies, and is building the first small modular nuclear reactor in the West in Canada with Japan’s Hitachi $HIT.
The biggest challenge for Vernova’s growth, say analysts, is regulation in its many forms, from tariffs to national energy policies to competition rules. Fortunately for the share price, there’s not been too much of that around, lately. There’s also a new risk from lawsuits, as we’ll hear later 👇🏻. The NAACP is suing Elon Musk’s xAI company for using gas to produce energy in Black, low-income areas in Memphis, and calling it an environmental injustice.
—Peter S. Green
Watch Big Business This Week on Cheddar—and YouTube!The Usual Suspects Sam’s clubbed by tariffs: Walmart-owned $WMT deep discount big box Sam’s Club says it may have to raise prices on air fryers, coffee makers, and other small appliances in one of the first moves by a major retailer to cover the costs of tariffs. The trouble is that keeping prices low has been the key to the outlet’s success, and more than 80% of its profits come from selling memberships that let shoppers access those prices. Awkward. * Zas’s paycheck gets an edit: And the Oscar for most outrageous comp package goes to: Warner-Bros-Minus-Discovery $WBD chief David Zaslav. Last year, Zas got $51.9 million, but in a non-binding vote this month, shareholders gave that package a symbolic rebuke. Now that WBD’s board has decided to unmerge the company Zaslav created when his Discovery bought Warner, he’s going to be taking a haircut. At the new company, Zas would keep his $3 million-a-year salary, but his target bonus would fall to $6 million, with a cap of $12 million, compared to a payout of $24 million last year. Still it’s not exactly poverty, is it? * 23andMe Is Under New, Wait…Old…Management: Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded and then led DNA data firm 23andMe $MEHCQ into bankruptcy, just bought back the company, using a non-profit she funded called the TTAM Research Institute (“TTAM” stands for…“Twenty-Three and Me”), outbidding Regeneron Pharmaceutical $REGN with a $305 million offer. Wojcicki got a court to reopen the bidding after Regeneron offered $256 million. Wojcicki twice offered to take 23andMe private, the last time for only $40 million. 23andMe’s only real asset is the genetic data it holds on some 15 million people worldwide, which could be used to develop new drugs. * Meta’s Mega job offers to OpenAI: In its bid to revive its fortune with a massive bet on AI, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta $META is paying it forward. Remember the last time Zuckerberg went all-in on changing the company’s name from Facebook to bet big on the “metaverse?” Us, either. Meanwhile OpenAI chief Sam Altman says Meta has tried to poach his employees with signing bonuses of $100 million or more, and even larger annual comp packages. Meta says it wants to build a “superintelligence” (because it can’t find one in-house?) and Altman told the Uncapped podcast that he’s flatterred. “Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped, and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things,” he said, almost sounding sincere. * Timex time for TikTok: That TikTok clock just keeps ticking, as President Trump extended, yet again, a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok parent ByteDance to sell the popular app to a non-Chinese owner or be banned in the U.S. No clear bidders have emerged. Meanwhile a major donor with a stake in the company has been donating heavily to Trump. * Kraft drinks the Kool-Aid: Kraft Heinz $KHC, the food giant known for red ketchup and even redder Jell-O, is removing all chemical dyes from its products by the end of 2027. Kool-Aid and Kraft Mac & Cheese are among the products that will remove artificial dyes. Pepsi also is promising natural colors for its brands, including Doritos, Cheetos, and Gatorade, in the next few years. That may push up prices, because it takes a lot more Cochineal beetles (aka Natural Red No. 4) to make a Dorito its distinctive orange color than it does to use plain old synthetic Red Dye No. 40. * WhatsAd? So you thought WhatsApp, the Meta-owned $META messaging app, was supposed to keep your data private with “end-to-end encryption?” Think again. After more than a decade of ad-free operation, Meta is putting targeted ads on WhatsApp, in the “status” and “update” areas. Meta says it will be collecting some user data, namely “limited info like your country or city, language, the channels you’re following, and how you interact with the ads you see.” It promises that your messages will remain encrypted and off-limits. But if you link your WhatsApp to your Facebook or Instagram accounts, all that info will be used to bring you targeted ads. Presumably this is a hedge against Zuckerberg’s “superintelligence” bet we mentioned earlier, albeit slightly less visionary and slightly more cash cow-ish. Moooo. * How to train your studio: Universal’s release of the live-action “How to Train Your Dragon” remake took in $83 million at box offices in North America last weekend, putting the film on track to cover its $250 million-plus production cost, and giving a boost to the expansion of Comcast-owned $CMCSA Universal’s Orlando resort, which is basing attractions on the movie. It’s part of a trend of live-action movies for kids and families, including Warner Bros’ $WBD “A Minecraft Movie” and Disney’s $DIS “Lilo & Stitch.” * Steel yourself: The Trump Administration has sealed its deal for the sale of U.S. Steel $X to Japan’s Nippon Steel $NPSCY, with an agreement that gives the President $TRUMP an almost unprecedented amount of power over a private corporation. The White House, not a federally chartered corporation, a court, or a government department, will have a single so-called “golden share”* requiring Nippon to get Trump’s approval for acts including transferring production or jobs outside the United States, closing or idling plants before agreed-upon time frames, and changing how it sources raw materials. Steelworkers union chief David McCall blasted Trump’s reversal and said the president had sold out the company to foreign ownership.
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Elon’s World It’s been a quiet week for the man who was very recently the loudest voice on the internet. The NAACP on Tuesday notified Elon Musk’s xAI that it plans to sue the company over air pollution from its AI data center in Memphis. "These turbines have pumped out pollution that threatens the health of Memphis families. This notice paves the way for a lawsuit that can hold xAI accountable for its unlawful refusal to get permits for its gas turbines," said an attorney for the NAACP. * Say, hold on. At issue in the case? Gas-burning turbines used to create the power. Remember the company whose stock price has risen sharply by profiting from those, from our lead story, up above? It turns out 50% as dirty as coal and oil is still sorta polluting. And when you’re mainly polluting economically disenfranchised Black neighborhoods in Tennessee? That’s a problem. xAI responded that its generators are “operating in compliance with all applicable laws," Reuters reported. * Meanwhile, X filed its own lawsuit this week, challenging the constitutionality of a New York law requiring social media companies to disclose how they monitor hate speech, extremism, disinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference, or face heavy fines. Deciding what content social media platforms can allow "engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line," X said. "This is not a role that the government may play.*"
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Trumplandia Rate Relief Rebuffed: The Fed on Wednesday declined to reduce its headline interest rate from the current 4.25%-4.5 % range, warning that inflation is likely to kick up in response to Trump’s tariffs. "Everyone that I know is forecasting a meaningful increase in inflation in coming months from tariffs, because someone has to pay for the tariffs ... between the manufacturer, the exporter, the importer, the retailer," Fed chair Jerome Powell said after a two-day meeting of the Fed. "People will be trying not to be the ones who can pick up the cost. Ultimately, the cost of the tariff has to be paid, and some of it will fall on the end consumer.“ “Jerome Powell is costing our Country Hundreds of Billions of Dollars,” Trump fumed in response. “He is truly one of the dumbest, and most destructive, people in Government.” * The Gulf of Error: Just hours after the Trump family introduced their latest money-making venture, licensing their name to a cell-phone service promising to use phones that the Trumps say will be made in America (although no smart phones are currently made in the U.S.), the company pulled its coverage map after someone noticed that that big body of water between Florida, Texas, and, um Mexico, was labeled the “Gulf of Mexico.” Reuters also looked at the code behind an online map of the service’s coverage and found it an exact match to…T-Mobile’s. * Rememebr that Big Beautiful Bill? Remaking the Federal budget is not going very well for Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and White house Budget chief Russell Vought. After squeaking through the House on party lines, it’s stuck in senatorial mud. The Congressional Budget Office has also weighed in, upping their previous forecast on the bill’s contribution to the national debt by a mere trillion dollars, saying it will now cost $3.4 Trillion over the next decade. * Oil turmoil: Israel’s ongoing air war on Iran and its nuclear facilities has hit the world’s oil markets. The Islamic republic pumps 2% of the world’s oil, and shutting that down could have some knock-on effects. While in theory the U.S.should be immune as a net exporter of oil, the existence of a global market lets U.S. producers mark their oil to market, of course. “Your guess is [as] good as mine’ in future price divination,” analyst John Evans at oil broker PVM told CNBC on Wednesday. * Picky, picky: Last week Trump told ICE to lay off farm, hotel and restaurant workers in a slightly rambling note, after Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins convinced him that without undocumented immigrants, there’d be no food, no clean sheets and no meals in America. Then he changed his mind and said “go ahead, regardless.” America’s food CEOs say they need immigrants, with or without papers. “We need to be very realistic,” Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya said at a Wall Street Journal food forum. “We need immigration and we need workers for our food system to work.” “Without farmworkers, vegetables will be left in the fields, fruit will remain unpicked, and cows will go unmilked,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said at the event. “The end result is a reduced food supply and higher grocery prices for all of America’s families.*”
The Short Stack High Times: The original stoner mag is back, with new-ish owners. Josh Kesselman, the owner of RAW brand rolling papers, paid $3.5 million for the intellectual property rights, and is reviving the print magazine with special editions. He’ll also relaunch the Cannabis Cup pot competition, working with former High Times co-owner Matt Stang. PE firm Oreva Capital bought the magazine from in 2017, but it went into receivership last year. This is the sort of content we’re here for: * Homes out of range: What’s wrong with the residential real estate market? Too many sellers and not enough buyers. According to an analysis by real estate brokerage Redfin $RDFN, many buyers are still priced out, with home prices up 50% in the past five years and mortgage rates at over 6.5%. Also, a mortgage costs a lot more than it used to because of inflation. * Cryptomania is in the House!* After the U.S. Senate approved a bill to authorize stablecoins, a new Crypto law goes to the House of Representatives, where its passage is less certain. Crypto watchers and some Democrats warned the bill doesn’t do much to prevent abuses or trim the involvement of politicians like President Trump, whose own crypto empire has netted his family millions, and from investors who have benefited from Trump’s policies. The Senate passage came after massive lobbying campaigns by the crypto industry, whose SuperPACs spent more than $130 million to influence tight races across the country, winning 53 of the 58 they spent on.
The Buss family has sold its controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter, who previously held a 27% share.
The NTSB has called on Boeing and engine-maker CFM to implement a software fix for Boeing 737 Max LEAP‑1B engines to prevent smoke from entering the cockpit.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta has offered up to $100 million in signing bonuses and generous annual compensation to recruit top OpenAI talent.
HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) — Amazon is gearing up to make as many as 10,000 robotaxis annually at a sprawling plant near Silicon Valley as it prepares to challenge self-driving cab leader Waymo. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also vying to join the autonomous race.
The 220,000-square-foot (20,440-square-meters) robotaxi factory announced Wednesday heralds a new phase in Amazon’s push into a technological frontier that began taking shape in 2009, when Waymo was launched as a secret project within Google.
Amazon began eyeing the market five years ago when it shelled out $1.2 billion for self-driving startup Zoox, which will be the brand behind a robotaxi service that plans to begin transporting customers in Las Vegas late this year before expanding into San Francisco next year.
Zoox, conceived in 2014, will be trying to catch up to Waymo, which began operating robotaxis in Phoenix nearly five years ago then charging for rides in San Francisco in 2023 before expanding into Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. Waymo says it has already more than 10 million paid rides while other would-be rivals such as Amazon and Tesla are still fine-tuning their self-driving technology while tackling other challenges, such how to ramp up their fleet.
Amazon feels like it has addressed that issue with Zoox’s manufacturing plant that spans across the equivalent of three-and-a-half football fields located in Hayward, California — about 17 miles (27 kilometers) north of a factory where Tesla makes some of the electric vehicles that Musk believes will eventually be able to operate without a driver behind the wheel.
Since moving into the former bus manufacturing factory in 2023, Zoox has transformed it into a high-tech facility where its boxy, gondola-like vehicles are put together and tested along a 21-station assembly line. For now, Zoox is only making one robotaxi per day, but by next year hopes to be churning them out at the rate of three vehicles per hour.
By 2027, Zoox hopes to making 10,000 robotaxis annually in Hayward for a fleet that it hopes to take into other major markets, including Miami, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Although Zoox will be assembling its robotaxis in the U.S., about half of the parts are imported from outside the country, according to company officials. Waymo is also planning to expand into Atlanta and Miami and on Wednesday took the first step toward bringing its robotaxis in the most populous U.S. city with the disclosure of an application to begin testing its vehicles in New York.
“It’s an exciting time to be heading on this journey,” Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said during a Tuesday tour of the robotaxi factory that she co-hosted with Jesse Levinson, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer.
Although Zoox will be lagging well behind, it believes it can lure passengers with vehicles that look more like carriages that cars with seating for up to four passengers. Waymo, in contrast, builds its self-driving technology on to cars made by other major automakers, making its robotaxi look similar to vehicles steered by humans. Zoox isn’t even bothering to put a steering wheel in its robotaxis.
As it continues to test its robotaxis in Las Vegas, Zoox recently struck a partnership to give rides to guests of Reorts World. It’s also still testing its robotaxis in San Francisco, where Waymo already has turned driverless cars into an everyday site in a city that has been renowned for cable cars since the 1870s. While testing in San Francisco last month, a minor collision between a Zoox robotaxi and a person riding an electric scooter last month prompted the company to issue a voluntary recall to update its self-driving technology. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Tesla is still angling to compete against Waymo too, although it remains unclear when Musk will fuflil his long-running promise to build the world’s largest robotaxi service. Musk still hasn’t given up on the goal, though his current ambitions are more modest than they were in 2019. when he predicted Tesla would be running a fleet of 1 million robotaxis by now. He is currently aiming for a limited rollout of Tesla robotaxis in Austin this Sunday, although that date could change because Musk is “being super paranoid about safety.”
Zoox, in contrast, is planning to operate 500 to 1,000 of its robotaxis in small to medium-sized markets and about 2,000 robotaxis in major cities where it eventually operates, according to Evans. The company thinks each robotaxi produced in its Hayward plan should be on the road for about five years, or about 500,000 miles
The new Naked Gun trailer has been released and introduces Liam Neeson as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., delivering slapstick humor and absurd gags.
Why iByte might save your life. Plus, how Energy ReLeaf is making solar power more accessible.
A renewed push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hr from the current $7.25 is gaining attention, and this time it’s being led by an unexpected figure.
President Trump has issued a third 90-day executive extension for TikTok, pushing the deadline for ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations to mid September.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A group of tourists were sitting at an outdoor table in the Spanish city of Barcelona, trying to enjoy their drinks, when a woman raised a cheap plastic water gun and shot an arc of water at them.
Her weapon of choice — the cheap, squirt-squirt variety — is an increasingly common fixture at anti-tourism protests in the southern European country, where many locals fear that an overload of visitors is driving them from their cherished neighborhoods.
How did the humble water gun become a symbol of discontent?
From refreshing to revolutionaryThe phenomenon started last July, when a fringe, left-wing activist group based in Barcelona that promotes the “degrowth” of the city’s successful tourism sector held its first successful rally. Some brought water guns to shoot one another and stay cool in the summer heat.
“What happened later went viral, but in reality it was just kind of a joke by a group of people who brought water guns because it was hot,” Adriana Coten, one of the organizers of Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, told The Associated Press.
Then, some turned their water guns from each other to tourists. The images went around the world, becoming a publicity coup for the anti-tourism cause.
The guns reappeared in April when the same group stopped a tour bus in Barcelona, the Catalan capital.
Guns drawnOn Sunday, around a thousand people marched from a luxury shopping boulevard popular with affluent foreigners before police stopped them from getting closer to Barcelona’s top sight-seeing destination: La Sagrada Familia church.
The marchers spritzed unsuspecting tourists along the way, chanting slogans and carrying protest signs. One read: “One more tourist, one less resident!”
They left a trail of stickers on hotel doors, lampposts and outdoor café tables showing a squirting water gun encircled by a message in English: “Tourist Go Home!”
Still, the number of Barcelona protesters carrying water guns was a minority — and in the gun-toting group, many were only shooting in the air or at each other. One dad was toting his baby in a front-pack, water gun in hand.
Outside the protests, Barcelona locals are not toting water guns or taking aim at tourists. And many in the city still support tourism, which is a pillar of the local economy.
‘A symbol’Can the water gun really change the minds of tourists, authorities or the businesses that drive the industry? Depends on who you ask.
Protester Lourdes Sánchez and her teenage daughter, each holding a water gun, said the gun “really isn’t to hurt anyone.”
“This is a symbol to say that we are fed up of how tourism industry is transforming our country into a theme park,” Sánchez said.
Another demonstrator, Andreu Martínez, acknowledged it was “to bother the tourists a bit.”
Laurens Schocher, a 46-year-old architect, said he didn’t shoot any suspected tourists but hoped that carrying a water gun would bring more attention to their cause.
“I don’t think the tourists will get it,” he said. ”I think this is to send a message to authorities.”
A squirt can hurt your feelingsThe marchers had no monster, pump-action water cannons most kids use for backyard battles in the summer. Theirs were the old-school, cheap-o water guns that send a slim jet of water not that far away.
Some tourists who were sprayed took it in stride, even claiming it was refreshing on a day with temperatures pushing up to around 30 degrees Celsius (87 Fahrenheit).
But there were moments of tension. When several marchers squirted workers at a large hostel, tempers flared and one worker spat at his attackers as he slammed the hostel door shut.
Nora Tsai, who had just arrived from Taiwan on a short visit, was among those spritzed on Sunday. She said she was a bit frightened and saddened. The “Tourist go home!” chants didn’t help either.
“I still like Barcelona,” she said. ”I have met a lot of people who were kind.”
Sam Blum, Senior Writer at Inc. Magazine, discusses one of his latest articles on why the Trump family is embracing crypto. Watch!
Ken Shepard, Head of Specialty Asset Management at Bank of America, discusses the importance of real assets and unpacks the bank's specialty asset outlook.
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed that Pluto’s ethereal, bluish haze represents "a new kind of climate”.
JPMorgan Chase is raising the annual fee for its Chase Sapphire Reserve from $550 to $795 starting June 23.
Mattel and OpenAI have entered a strategic collaboration aimed at integrating advanced AI—via tools like ChatGPT Enterprise—into Mattel’s iconic toy brands.
Cardinal Health's Debbie Weitzman explains how the company's Advanced Therapy Solutions Innovation Center aims to improve access to specialty medicines. Watch!
NEW YORK (AP) — Leonard Lauder, a renowned philanthropist who expanded the family cosmetics business into a worldwide empire, has died at the age of 92.
Estee Lauders Cos. announced the news in a release on Sunday and said he died on Saturday surrounded by family.
Lauder, the oldest son of Estee and Joseph H. Lauder, who founded the company in 1946, formally joined the New York business in 1958. Over more than six decades, Lauder played a key role in transforming the business from a handful of products sold under a single brand in U.S. stores to a multi-brand global giant. He had held the title of chairman emeritus at the time of his death.
Estee Lauder’s products are sold in roughly 150 countries and territories under brand names including Clinique and Aveda, according to the company’s latest annual report. The company generated sales of nearly $16 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, the filing said.
Estee Lauder went public in 1995, but members of Lauder family still have about 84% of the voting power of common stock, according to the latest annual filing.
Lauder served as president of The Estée Lauder Cos. from 1972 to 1995 and as CEO from 1982 through 1999. He was named chairman in 1995 and served in that role through June 2009.
Under his stewardship, Lauder created the company’s first research and development laboratory, brought in professional management at every level, and was the impetus behind The Estée Lauder Cos.’ international expansion, helping to spearhead the company’s sales and profits exponentially, according to the company.
Lauder led the launch of many brands including Aramis, Clinique, and Lab Series, among others. Until his death, he remained deeply involved in the company’s acquisition strategy, including the acquisitions of such brands as Aveda, Bobbi Brown, Jo Malone London and MAC, the company said.
During his years as chairman emeritus, Lauder was closely involved in the business and day-to-day operations and was a constant fixture at its global headquarters in New York and at its stores around the world until the time of his death, the company said.
“Throughout his life, my father worked tirelessly to build and transform the beauty industry, pioneering many of the innovations, trends, and best practices that are foundational to the industry today,” said William P. Lauder, son and chair of the board at The Estée Lauder Companies in a statement. “He was the most charitable man I have ever known, believing that art and education belonged to everyone, and championing the fight against diseases such as Alzheimer’s and breast cancer. ”
Lauder was a longtime patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, in 2013, pledged his 78-piece collection of Cubist art to the museum in the largest single philanthropic gift in the museum’s history. He later added five major works to that pledged gift, the company said.
In concert with his Cubist collection donation, he helped establish the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at the Met to support a program of fellowships, focused exhibitions, and public lectures. He also was the Whitney Museum of American Art’s chairman emeritus and a trustee from 1977 to 2011.
Lauder was married to Evelyn H. Lauder, who had been the senior corporate vice president at the cosmetic company and the founder of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, from 1959 until she passed away in 2011.
On Jan. 1, 2015, Lauder married Judy Glickman Lauder, a philanthropist and internationally recognized photographer.
Lauder was born in 1933 in New York City. He was a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and the Officer Candidate School of the United States Navy.
Lauder studied at Columbia University’s graduate school of business. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and as a Navy reservist, for which the U.S. Navy Supply Corps Foundation later recognized him with its Distinguished Alumni Award.
In addition to his wife and son William, Lauder is survived by his other son Gary M. Lauder and wife, Laura Lauder; five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, many stepchildren and step grandchildren, as well as his brother, Ronald S. Lauder, and wife, Jo Carole Lauder, and their daughters, Aerin Lauder and Jane Lauder.
While Silicon Valley executives like those from Palantir, Meta and OpenAI are grabbing headlines for trading their Brunello Cucinelli vests for Army Reserve uniforms, a quieter transformation has been underway in the U.S. Navy.
How so? Well, the Navy’s chief technology officer, Justin Fanelli, says he has spent the last two and a half years cutting through the red tape and shrinking the protracted procurement cycles that once made working with the military a nightmare for startups.
The efforts represent a less visible but potentially more meaningful remaking that aims to see the government move faster and be smarter about where it’s committing dollars.
“We’re more open for business and partnerships than we’ve ever been before,” Fanelli told TechCrunch in a recent Zoom interview. “We’re humble and listening more than before, and we recognize that if an organization shows us how we can do business differently, we want that to be a partnership.”
Right now, many of these partnerships are being facilitated through what Fanelli calls the Navy’s innovation adoption kit, a series of frameworks and tools that aim to bridge the so-called Valley of Death, where promising tech dies on its path from prototype to production.
“Your granddaddy’s government had a spaghetti chart for how to get in,” Fanelli said. “Now it’s a funnel, and we are saying, if you can show that you have outsized outcomes, then we want to designate you as an enterprise service.”
In one recent case, the Navy went from a Request for Proposal (RFP) to pilot deployment in under six months with Via, an eight-year-old, Somerville, Massachusetts-based cybersecurity startup that helps big organizations protect sensitive data and digital identities through, in part, decentralization, meaning the data isn’t stored in one central spot that can be hacked. (Another of Via’s clients is the U.S. Air Force.)
The Navy’s new approach operates on what Fanelli calls a “horizon” model, borrowed and adapted from McKinsey’s innovation framework.
Companies move through three phases: evaluation, structured piloting and scaling to enterprise services. The key difference from traditional government contracting, Fanelli says, is that the Navy now leads with problems rather than predetermined solutions.
“Instead of specifying, ‘Hey, we’d like this problem solved in a way that we’ve always had it,’ we just say, ‘We have a problem, who wants to solve this and how will you solve it?’” Fanelli said.
Fanelli’s drive to overhaul Navy tech is personal. Originally a scholarship cadet in the Air Force studying electrical engineering, he was disqualified from military service due to a lung issue. Determined to serve anyway, he chose the Navy over private sector offers more than 20 years ago because he “wanted to be around people in uniform.”
Since then, his career has spanned roles across defense, intelligence, DARPA and open source initiatives, before returning to the Department of the Navy.
The change he’s overseeing is opening doors to companies that previously never considered government work and may have thought it a waste of time to try.
Fanelli points, for example, to one competition run through the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), wherein the Navy expected a handful of bidders for a niche cybersecurity challenge but received nearly 100 responses — many from companies that had never worked with the DOD before but were already solving similar problems in the private sector.
Fanelli says his team has documented dozens of success stories altogether, including a venture-backed startup that used robotic process automation to zip through a two-year invoice backlog in just a couple of weeks. Another example involved rolling out network improvements to an aircraft carrier that saved 5,000 sailor hours in the first month alone.
“That not just changed their availability, but it changed their morale, esprit de corps, how much time they could spend doing other tasks,” Fanelli noted, explaining that time saved is one of five metrics that the Navy uses to measure the success of a pilot program. The other four are operational resilience, cost per user, adaptability and user experience.
As for what the Navy is looking for right now, Fanelli outlined several high-priority areas, including AI, where the service is actively talking with teams.
The Navy apparently wants to accelerate AI adoption beyond basic generative AI use cases into more agentic applications for everything from onboarding and personnel management to data processing on ships.
He also cited “alternative” GPS, explaining that the Navy is quickly adopting alternative precision navigation and timing software, particularly for integration with unmanned systems. And he mentioned “legacy system modernization,” saying that some of the aging technology that the Navy is looking to update includes air traffic control infrastructure and ship-based systems.
So, how much money is it looking to put to work each year? Fanelli said he wasn’t at liberty to provide specific budget breakdowns, but he said the Navy currently allocates single-digit percentages to emerging and commercial technology versus traditional defense contractors — a balance that he expects to evolve significantly as AI continues to advance.
As for the most common reason that promising technologies fail when trialed, he said it isn’t necessarily because of technical shortcomings. Instead, he said, the Navy operates on long budget cycles, and if a new solution doesn’t replace or “turn off” an existing system, funding becomes problematic.
“If we’re getting benefit and we’re measuring that benefit, but there’s no money [getting to the startup] in a year and a half — that’s a really bad story for their investors and our users,” Fanelli explained. “Sometimes it’s a zero sum game. Sometimes it’s not. And if we’re going to flip the public-private sector to more private and ride that wave, we do have a lot of technical debt that we need to cut anchor on.”
Before ending our call, we asked Fanelli if the Trump administration’s “America first” policies are impacting these processes in any way. Fanelli answered that the current focus on domestic manufacturing aligns well with the Navy’s “resilience” goals. (Here, he pointed to ongoing initiatives like digital twins, additive manufacturing and onsite production capabilities that can reduce supply chain dependencies.)
Either way, the Navy’s message for entrepreneurs and investors is very clearly that it’s a genuine alternative to traditional commercial markets, and it’s a pitch that appears to be gaining traction in Silicon Valley, where there’s growing receptiveness to partnering with the U.S. government.
Said Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth at a recent Bloomberg event in San Francisco: “There’s a much stronger patriotic underpinning than I think people give Silicon Valley credit for.”
It’s a marked change from the more skeptical stance that characterized much of the Valley in previous years, as longtime industry observers can attest.
Now, Fanelli — who has been making the rounds, taking with business media outlets and podcast interviewers — hopes to attract more of that interest to the Navy specifically.
“I would invite anyone who wants to serve the greater mission from a solution perspective,” he told TechCrunch, “to lean in and to join us in this journey.”
If you’re interested in hearing our full conversation with Fanelli, you can check it out right here.
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The Trump Organization announced a new wireless service called Trump Mobile, launching in September with a $47.45 monthly plan.
U.S. Steel shares rose about 5% on Monday after President Trump approved its merger with Japan’s Nippon Steel, contingent on a national security agreement.
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Business, tech, innovation — Cheddar covers all of it with exclusive shows and thought-provoking interviews.
Amid this year’s market turmoil, I’ve heard investors wonder if they should hit pause on 401(k) contributions until things settle down.
Though this approach sounds tempting, it’s better to stick with your investment strategy instead of waiting for conditions to improve.
Running the numbersTo test how a “wait and see” approach would have fared compared with continuing to invest, I looked at four different market downturns of the 21st century.
In each case, I looked at results under two different scenarios: an investor who started saving $500 per month and continued to do so throughout downturns, and another investor who stopped saving until the market started to improve. I assumed all contributions were invested in stocks. (In the first four cases below, I assumed that contributions were only paused during the bear market in question and then resumed for all the periods that followed.)
Case 1: March 2000–October 2002Stocks suffered cumulative losses of about 33% from early 2000 through October 2002. But an investor who started investing $500 per month in March 2000 and kept doing that even throughout the turmoil would have about $700,000 as of March 31, 2025.
The “wait and see” investor, on the other hand, would have about $573,000.
Case 2: October 2007–February 2009The market downturn in 2008 was the second-worst calendar year for equity investors in recent market history.
An investor who started investing $500 per month in October 2007 and continued making monthly investments would have about $360,000 as of March 31, 2025. An investor who paused contributions until March 2009 would have about $307,000 as of the same date.
Case 3: February and March 2020The covid-19-driven market downturn led broad stock market indexes to shed about 34% of their value from Feb. 19, 2020.
But after this sharp downturn, the rebound was even more impressive, with stocks posting gains of 28.7% during 2021. As a result, the “keep buying” investor would have still ended slightly ahead by March 2025, even after suffering through market downturns in 2022 and early 2025.
Case 4: January 2022–October 2022The 2022 market reversal was a sharp reaction to 2021’s unexpected spike in inflation, followed by a series of aggressive interest-rate hikes. As a result, the Morningstar US Market Index lost about 19% from January through October of that year.
But thanks to the market’s dramatic rebound, the “keep buying” investor would have ended about $7,000 ahead by March 2025.
Case 5: January 2000–March 2025The differences are even more dramatic over a longer period.
For this analysis, I assumed that an investor started contributions of $500 per month in January 2000, paused during each of the four above downturns, and then resumed contributions after the market had bottomed out.
But even in this seemingly ideal scenario, consistent contributions won out. The consistent 401(k) contributor ended up nearly $200,000 ahead of the stop-and-start investor.
The reason? Consistent contributions meant there were more dollars around to benefit when the market rebounded, while hitting pause on contributions meant the opposite. And the impact compounds over time.
The “wait and see” investor would have skipped out on 61 months’ worth of contributions for a total of $30,500 but ended with a balance about $184,000 lower than the “keep buying” approach.
Why retirement savers shouldn’t give upThese examples make a strong case for sticking with the plan, even during a bear market. But this analysis probably overstates the results for “wait and see” investors because it assumes that investors somehow knew when the market would start recovering.
Not only is it tough to get the timing right for a market recovery, but keeping money on the sidelines means betting against the odds. Statistically speaking, the market goes up more than it goes down. Watching a 401(k) lose money isn’t fun to live through, but things eventually turn around.
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This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance
Amy Arnott is a portfolio strategist at Morningstar.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales dropped sharply last month, in part because cold weather kept more Americans indoors, denting sales at car dealers and most other stores.
Retail sales fell 0.9% in January from the previous month, the Commerce Department said, after two months of healthy gains. It was a much bigger drop than economists expected and the biggest decline in a year.
The average temperature in January was the lowest since 1988, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics, and was particularly disruptive in the more temperate South. Devastating fires in Los Angeles may have also impacted spending.
The data does not show that Americans rushed to buy goods in January to get ahead of President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs, as some analysts had expected. However, sales were revised higher for December. Many consumers may have just cut back in January after splurging during the holiday season.
The tail-off in sales may provide some measure of reassurance for the Federal Reserve, after a very hot read on inflation for January, that the economy may not be overheating.
And the decline in retail sales indicates that the economy, while still expanding, will grow more slowly in the first three months of this year. It grew at a 2.3% annual rate in last year's final quarter.
Sales plummeted 2.8% last month at auto dealers and slumped at furniture stores, home and garden centers. Even in the usually strong online retail sector saw a 1.9% decline. Sales rose at general merchandise stores, a category that includes big retailers like Walmart and Target, and at restaurants and bars.
In addition to cold weather, the sales decline could in part point to fading consumer confidence as was reflected in a pair of recent surveys by the Conference Board and University of Michigan. Still, hiring and wage growth have been steady, suggesting the economy is still expanding. Last week the government reported that the unemployment rate fell for the second straight month to a low 4%.
Inflation did tick higher last month despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to cool prices through higher interest rates. The cost of groceries jumped in January from the previous month, pushed higher by soaring egg prices. Rising costs at the grocery store is exacting a toll on Americans.
Retail chains that have struggled are being forced to cut costs and close underperforming locations.
One of those chains, Joann, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month for the second time in a year and said this week it would close about 500 locations, more than half of its stores operating in the U.S.
The owner of surfer and skater-inspired labels like Quiksilver, Billabong and Volcom filed for bankruptcy protection last week. That company, Liberated Brands, also plans to shutter stores.
The environment for all retailers may grow more perilous as Trump steps up tariff threats, which could lead to higher prices. Trump said Thursday he would soon impose “reciprocal” tariffs on countries that levy large duties on U.S. goods exports. Trump has already added 10% import taxes on goods from China, and has said he will place 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.
David French, executive vice president of the National Retail Federation, warned the import taxes could raise prices for consumers.
“While we support the president’s efforts to reduce trade barriers and imbalances, this scale of undertaking is massive and will be extremely disruptive to our supply chains," French said Thursday. “It will likely result in higher prices for hardworking American families and will erode household spending power.”
Retail executives say that it’s hard to plan given the fluidity of the tariff policies under the Trump administration.
Kim Tobman, CEO of Bouqs, an online floral retailer based in Marina del Ray, California, said most of her vases come from China, and that the 10% increase wasn’t as bad as she expected. She doesn’t expect to raise prices, but she is considering Vietnam, Indonesia and other areas to source vases.
“We feel at this moment we can absorb it,” Tobman said.
She experienced the turbulence that comes with Trump’s shifting tariff plans last month during his showdown with Colombia, a massive exporter of flowers, after that nation initially refused to accept flights of deported migrants.
Trump swiftly announced a series of retaliatory measures, including a 25% tariff on Colombia exports to the U.S., with a threat it could escalate. Colombia is the largest flower exporter to the U.S and represents a big chunk of sourcing for Bouq’s floral arrangement, Tobman said. The Colombian government eventually agreed to Trump’s demands, and the tariffs never materialized.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters, ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring arrives.
Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart and rewards shoppers who could see higher prices, or possibly lose stores, if thefts continue. The car washes will be free.
“I don't think everybody that steals is a bad person. Sometimes people are just down on their luck,” said Clothier, who was recently elected to Genesee County District Court. “But there's going to be consequences when you break the law.”
Clothier told The Associated Press that he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for misdemeanor shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Detroit. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars at weekend events at that location in March and April.
The judge said Walmart is “on board” and will provide water and supplies. The company's Arkansas headquarters didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
Clothier said he was shocked to see the breadth of retail thefts when he joined the bench in January, adding that offenders were from all over Michigan and outside the state.
“It's just crazy,” he said, noting he had 48 such cases on his docket one day.
“I think it will be humiliating to be out there washing cars if you see someone you know,” Clothier said.
Walmart designated a parking space for police because of frequent calls about thefts, township Supervisor Scott Bennett said.
“It's an innovative approach,” county Prosecutor David Leyton said of the car washes. “Even if it deters one person, then there’s some success there.”
And shoplifters won't be the only people up to their elbows in suds.
“I will be there washing cars with them,” the judge said.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase.
A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk, who has become President Donald Trump's billionaire adviser aiming to dismantle agencies and downsize the federal workforce, was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
While it was in its planning phases, the deal with Tesla was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers before the plans were put on hold. His companies obtain hundreds of millions of dollars each year in contracts. SpaceX has secured nearly $20 billion in federal funds since 2008 to ferry astronauts and satellites into space. And Tesla had already received $41.9 million from the U.S. government, including payment for vehicles provided to some U.S. embassies.
No government contract had been given to Tesla or any other manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for the Department of State, the agency said.
The Biden administration had tasked the State Department to gather information from potential suppliers to buy these vehicles in September. An official request for bids was to be released in May, according to State Department data from December. But that solicitation is now on hold with no plans to issue it, the State Department said.
After reports emerged about the plans to buy from Tesla, the State Department changed the data entry on its expected contracts forecast for fiscal year 2025 late Wednesday. The State Department said it should have been entered into the system as a generic “electric vehicle manufacturer," but there is at least another entry for a different purchase that continues to list a company— German car manufacturer BMW.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her government wouldn’t rule out filing a civil lawsuit against Google if it maintains its stance of calling the stretch of sea between northeastern Mexico and the southeastern United States the “Gulf of America.”
The area, long named the Gulf of Mexico across the the world, has gained a geopolitical spotlight after President Donald Trump declared he would change the Gulf's name.
Sheinbaum, in her morning news conference, said the president's decree is restricted to the “continental shelf of the United States" because Mexico still controls much of the Gulf. “We have sovereignty over our continental shelf," she said.
Sheinbaum said that despite the fact that her government sent a letter to Google saying that the company was “wrong” and that “the entire Gulf of Mexico cannot be called the Gulf of America," the company has insisted on maintaining the nomenclature.
It was not immediately clear where such a suit would be filed.
Google reported last month on its X account, formerly Twitter, that it maintains a “long-standing practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
As of Thursday, how the Gulf appeared on Google Maps was dependent on the user's location and other data. If the user is in the United States, the body of water appeared as Gulf of America. If the user was physically in Mexico, it would appear as the Gulf of Mexico. In many other countries across the world it appears as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”
Sheinbaum has repeatedly defended the name Gulf of Mexico, saying its use dates to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.
She has also mentioned that, according to the constitution of Apatzingán, the antecedent to Mexico’s first constitution, the North American territory was previously identified as “Mexican America”. Sheinbaum has used the example to poke fun at Trump and underscore the international implications of changing the Gulf's name.
In that sense, Sheinbaum said on Thursday that the Mexican government would ask Google to make “Mexican America” pop up on the map when searched.
This is not the first time Mexicans and Americans have disagreed on the names of key geographic areas, such as the border river between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. Mexico calls it Rio Bravo and for the United States it is the Rio Grande.
This week, the White House barred Associated Press reporters from several events, including some in the Oval Office, saying it was because of the news agency's policy on the name. AP is using “Gulf of Mexico” but also acknowledging Trump's renaming of it as well, to ensure that names of geographical features are recognizable around the world.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Flying a few hundred feet above the streets and shores of Daytona Beach, the Goodyear Blimp draws a crowd.
Onlookers stare and point. Drivers pull over for better looks, snapping pictures, recording videos and trying to line up the perfect selfie. For some, it’s nostalgic. For others, it’s a glimpse at a larger-than-life advertising icon.
At 100 years old, the blimp is an ageless star in the sky. And the 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 on Sunday — roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its latest and greatest anniversary tour.
Even though remote camera technologies — drones, mostly — are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
“It’s great to show the pack racing,” Fox Sports director Artie Kempner said, adding that he expected to use aerial shots from the blimp about 50 times during Sunday’s race.
The Goodyear Blimp has been a regular at major sporting events since flying above the 1955 Rose Bowl. A few years later, it became a service vehicle for television coverage while simultaneously functioning as a highly visible advertising platform. It’s been at every Daytona 500 since 1962.
During that streak, blimps have undergone wholesale changes and improved dramatically: steering technology, safety innovations, high-definition cameras, gyro-stabilized aerial views and much quieter rides thanks to relocated engines and propellers.
Nowadays, riding on the blimp isn’t much different from traveling on a small plane. The 12-seater comes with reclining seats, tray tables, seatbelts, a safety briefing and a bathroom with amazing views. A few windows serve as the only air conditioning onboard. The blimp offers a smooth ride even at top speed, creeping along at 73 mph — well below the cars pushing 200 mph on the track.
“It’s an iconic symbol for our nation, a floating piece of Americana,” blimp pilot Jensen Kervern said. “There’s nothing like it in the world.”
The blimp has covered more than 2,500 events and taken more than 500,000 passengers for rides, according to Goodyear. Former President Ronald Reagan might be the most famous passenger, and rapper Ice Cube raised the blimp’s street cred when he included a line about it in his 1992 song titled “It Was A Good Day.”
But not just anyone can climb aboard. Rides are invitation only even though phones at blimp headquarters — the three U.S.-based airships are housed in California, Florida and Ohio — ring off the hook with people inquiring about buying a ride.
As part of the blimp’s 100-year anniversary celebration, however, Goodyear is giving three U.S. residents a chance to join the exclusive club and win a ride. The sweepstakes will provide each winner a certificate for two to fly on the blimp. The prize also includes $3,000 for travel expenses to one of Goodyear’s airship hangars.
It would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, no doubt.
The blimp flies low enough to spot pods of dolphins or flotillas of sea turtles in the Atlantic Ocean. The view over Daytona International Speedway is equally stunning, with the ability to see every inch of the famed track while watching (and hearing) race cars turning laps.
Already in 2025, the Goodyear fleet has flown over the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Pro Bowl and Pebble Beach. Its upcoming schedule includes the Academy Awards, Coachella and WrestleMania.
But will the blimp survive another 100 years?
Drone imagery and resolution continue to improve along with maneuverability, stability and flight longevity. And where drones can be flown by one person, the Goodyear Blimp crew at Daytona tops 20 staffers.
But given the blimp’s longevity, adaptability and celebrity, no one should bet against it sticking around for generations to come.
“Despite changes in technology and our environment, people still get so excited to see the blimp," Kervern said. “It's just an iconic symbol for our nation.”
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Elysium's CEO and Chief Scientist explain how the company's latest NAD+ boosters are making human longevity more accessible
One of the funny things about physics is that Newton’s third law of motion, the one that says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, doesn’t necessarily mean that what goes up must come down. And it certainly does not apply to inflation. That’s a truth that has clearly been on the minds of Federal Reserve governors and Fed chair Jerome Powell as they wrestle with inflation in our haphazardly growing economy.
Data in this week shows that last month, consumer prices rose 3% from a year earlier, more than the 2.9% that economists were expecting. That may sound like a tiny move, but it’s a move in the wrong direction, and in Newtonian style, the overheating economy cooled the Fed’s enthusiasm for a rate cut. So why did things go awry? Call it anticipatory economics. Donald Trump was president for less than two weeks that month, but consumers and producers were already anticipating what he’d do. Ahead of Trump’s promised tariffs, companies and consumers have been stockpiling goods they fear may get more expensive, everything from steel to computer chips. That’s boosted the price of used cars and auto insurance for one, and then there’s eggs. Bird flu is killing tens of millions of laying hens, so the cost of eggs has more than doubled in the past few months. You know things are bad when Waffle House puts a 50-cent-an-egg surcharge on breakfast dishes. And while businesses may be talking up Trump’s economy, they’re voting with their pocketbooks: The U.S. economy added only 143,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, a slowdown in hiring compared with November and December.
This is not what Trump promised when he said during his campaign that he’d roll back prices. In an interview this week, he evaded the question of how long it would take to bring prices down, and at a news briefing, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “I don’t have a timeline” for bringing down prices. Even J.D. Vance, who famously posed in front of a supermarket egg display to decry Bidenomics, tried to temper expectations that consumer prices would be dropping anytime soon. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Vance told CBS News.
So if prices are up, where does that leave interest rates? Well, right where they are for the time being. “We do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance,” Powell told Congress on Tuesday. “We think our policy rate is in a good place, and we don’t see any reason to be in a hurry to reduce it further,” he said, noting that while price hikes are slowing in areas like housing, Trump’s sweeping proposals on immigration, tariffs, and taxes are keeping prices down. Trump has placed an extra 10% tariff on all Chinese imports and 25% taxes on imported steel and aluminum. Tariffs on Canada and Mexico are on hold but may still take effect. So when will interest rates come down so you can buy that new home? It’s gonna be a while.
Watch Big Business This Week on Cheddar—and YouTube!The Usual Suspects Steel there: The back and forth over who gets to buy embattled U.S. Steel seems to have shifted back to Japan’s Nippon Steel. The firm’s CEO, Eiji Hashimoto, is expected to meet Donald Trump next week after Trump said, following a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, that he’d approve a deal with Nippon agreeing to take only part ownership in the Pittsburgh-based firm. It’s not at all clear who’d own the rest of the company, and Ishiba said later that just how much stock could be purchased and still keep the company American would be up to the talks between the two companies. “People in the U.S. have a deep-rooted pride in the fact that U.S. Steel was once the world’s largest steelmaker,” Ishiba said on on Japanese TV. “The key is whether American people will feel that the company remains fundamentally American.” * Slowing Lyft: A slowdown in the growth of bookings for its rides sent Lyft shares down 9% after-market Tuesday, even as the shares had shot up 19% in the past 12 months. CFO Erin Brewer said fewer people were taking rides, and the rides were shorter. Rival Uber also saw a drop in ridership growth last quarter, sending its shares down. But Lyft says it’s on track to cut costs with the introduction of some 1,000 Mobileye-powered robotaxis in Dallas next year, financed by Japanese trading and investment firm Marubeni. * Back to petroleum: Just days after news broke that Paul Singer’s activist hedge fund Elliott Management has taken a stake in oil major BP, CEO Murray Auchincloss said the British-based energy company would be turning back to its oil and gas assets, abandoning his predecessor’s “Beyond Petroleum” move to make the firm a diversified energy company and pursue low-carbon energy production, with investments in solar, wind and EV-charging. Auchincloss wants to pursue new leases the company has in Iraq and the Gulf of Mexico America whatever it’s called now. BP’s share price is down 2.5% in the past five years, while Exxon-Mobil’s shares are up 77%. “BP’s weak share price is the result of a far-too-radical transition strategy,” Irene Himona, an analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a recent note. * Tomato tomahto*: They were going to create the world’s third-largest automaker, slipping in just behind Toyota and Volkswagen, but Honda, Nissan and Mistubishi have called the whole thing off. What was the problem? Well, the parties to the proposed $50 billion merger just couldn’t agree on either a pre-nup or a dowry. Cash-strapped Nissan didn’t want to sit in the back seat while Honda drove, and it lacked the cash to buy itself out of its current alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi. (Plus, Renault apparently saw a golden opportunity to bolster its own reserves and reportedly demanded an outrageous price for its 37.5% stake. Mitsubishi’s presence just complicated everything.) Nissan and Honda will continue seeing each other, however, and their next date will be a joint effort to build hybrid and emission-free vehicles. And even though it got cold feet, Nissan still has one secret admirer: Foxconn. The Taiwanese-owned manufacturer of everyone’s favorites electronics said recently it may entertain a bid for Nissan.
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Elon’s WorldThe Kendrick Lamarr–Drake feud is nothing compared to Elon Musk’s war with Sam Altman. Still angry that Altman wants to turn the nonprofit OpenAI into a for-profit company (after he gave several million dollars to bankroll the AI venture), Musk first sued in federal court, claiming the move is illegal. That case was thrown out. While Musk is pursuing an appeal, he came out Monday with what he said was a $97.4 billion bid for the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. “If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI Inc. board of directors are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time,” said Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff. Unmentioned: A for-profit OpenAI is also a potential competitor to Musk’s for-profit xAI, which has been lagging its peers and draining cash from Tesla.
Altman took to X to spit back:
no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025
Musk paid more than $42 billion for Twitter in 2022, then saw Tesla stock slip by two-thirds. The tit-for-tat knocked another 6.3% off the share price of Musk’s main company, Tesla, as analysts warned an OpenAI battle would distract Musk from running Tesla, which is already down about 25% this year, pulling Musk’s personal fortune down by $48 billion to well under the $400 billion mark.
On Thursday, word came that Musk had withdrawn his offer. No word yet on whether Musk and Altman will be taking their beef to the halftime show at next year’s SuperBowl.
Minting DOGE coin: Former officials at the now-defunct Consumer Financial Protection Bureau say the reason Musk targeted their office is because he wants to launch his own payments business on X, and doesn’t want government scrutiny. Musk started his career with a digital payment platform, and eventually joined PayPal in its rise to global dominance. Now he wants to make X a virtual wallet. But the CFPB has put other tech firms under the microscope when they launched digital money platforms. “Elon Musk is working his way into the financial products marketplace right now,” Richard Cordray, the bureau’s inaugural director, told The New York Times. “It’s very convenient for him to be trying to neutralize the regulator that he would have to answer to.”
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The Short Stack Who wants AI, anyway? Not America’s corporate chieftans, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing attendees at its annual CIO summit. Some 61% of CIO’s said they’re experimenting with AI agents, while 21% said they’re not using them at all. Their top concern about AI: It’s unreliable. Meanwhile, the big AI vendors, like OpenAI, Microsoft and Sierra say if the buyers wait for AI to get it right, it will be too late. Hmmm. * SoftBank’s soft quarter: Fresh off a joint announcement with Sam Altman and Donald Trump that he’d partner with U.S. companies to invest up to $500 billion in new AI infrastructure in the U.S., SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son reported his company had a net loss of $2.42 billion in Q4, raising questions about its ability make those promised investments. Anyone competing with xAI gets a broadside from Elon Musk, who openly questioned the seriousness of the big AI bet, called Stargate, after he was not present at the announcement. SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said the company has long experience in project finance and doesn’t need to rely solely on its own balance sheet for investment funds. “We hope Elon-san will find that out,” he said. * The California fires bite back: The cost of those fires is about to hit. California’s state-sponsored insurer of last resort, the FAIR Plan, says it will collect $1 billion from private insurers in the state, triggering an automatic increase in private home insurance across California. Already, major insurers were pulling back from the state. The money is needed for FAIR to pay out its claims, said the state’s insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara. Half the cost of the assessment can be passed on to consumers. Insurers have to absorb the other half. That’s pushing up rates. State Farm last week asked Lara to let it raise rates by 22% to keep operating in California. Advocates are also hoping the debacle will encourage insurers and the states to require less risky home-building practices, particularly the rapid growth of housing in the so called Urban-Wildland Interface, and the replacement of aging high-tension lines that sparked the 2017–2018 wildfires. * Murdoch’s latest media move*: Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation said it’s acquired Red Seat Ventures, the digital media company that has become a go-to partner for conservative old-media stars, including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Piers Morgan, as they create their own online programming. Red Seat founders Chris and Kevin Balfe will operate autonomously inside Fox’s Tubi Media Group. The purchase price was not disclosed. The move represents a homecoming for Carlson, who was pushed out of Fox TV as his program aired increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories and Russian state propaganda. Also coming aboard as part of Red Seat: Dr. Phil, Nancy Grace and another disgraced Fox personality, Bill O’Reilly.
Trumplandia Bribe, baby, bribe! U.S. companies have long complained they’ve been sidelined in countries where payoffs to government officials are the way to get business done. That’s because under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is illegal for U.S. companies to pay bribes abroad. The law was put in place following revelations by a Senate committee of massive bribes paid by U.S. firms, including Northrop, Lockheed, United Brands, Gulf Oil, and Mobil in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Honduras, Korea, Italy, and the Netherlands. United Brands CEO Eli Black jumped to his death from Manhattan’s PanAm building in 1973 just before investigators discovered a bribe he’d paid to Honduras’s president to cut taxes on banana exports. Black’s son Leon runs Apollo Capital Management. In one notable case brought under the FCPA, a Goldman Sachs subsidiary pleaded guilty to a foreign bribery charge in the collapse of Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, with the bank paying $2.9 billion in fines and penalties and a former Goldman banker sentenced to 10 years in prison. Now Trump wants to sideline the law. In one the scores of executive orders he’s signed since returning to the White House, Trump has ordered the Justice Department to pause criminal investigations under the law for 180 days. It’s not clear how that affects civil prosecutions, which are handled by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and can result in fines of many millions of dollars. The White House said in a fact sheet Monday that U.S. companies were harmed by “overenforcement” of the act, because it “prohibited [them] from engaging in practices common among international competitors, creating an uneven playing field.” * The tariff mess: Trump’s proposed tariffs are starting to cause a world of hurt, even before they are enacted. Planned 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, set to take effect on March 12, are likely to hit automakers hard, and it will take time for U.S. steel mills to ramp up, even as their plants have excess capacity of more than 30%, and imports count for only 26% of U.S. steel demand. But getting the right mix of steel at the right price is why imports are used in the first place. A proposed 10% tax on Canadian oil imports will slam refineries in the Midwest that were built to take Canada’s crude oil, which is cheaper and heavier than most U.S. crude, and are expensive to adapt, especially if the tariffs are only a passing fancy. “You can’t turn the Titanic on a dime, and the industry is kind of the same way,” Rick Weyen, a retired refining executive, told the New York Times. * Ford is angry*: U.S. executives have been largely silent so far on Trump’s economic plans, but not Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley. He says Ford may have to lay off workers if Trump goes ahead with tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and cuts tax breaks for EVs. If Republicans repeal Biden-era legislation that provided billions in EV factory loans and subsidies, “many of those jobs will be at risk,” Farley told an investment conference. “A 25 percent tariff across the Mexico and Canadian border will blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen,” he added. “It gives free rein to South Korean and Japanese and European companies that are bringing one and a half to two million vehicles into the U.S. that wouldn’t be subject to those Mexican and Canadian tariffs.” Trump’s plans have not been helpful, Farley said. “So far what we’re seeing is a lot of costs and a lot of chaos.”
NEW YORK (AP) — The White House said Wednesday that news organizations that refuse to use President Donald Trump’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico were telling “lies” and insisted it would continue to bar Associated Press journalists from presidential events.
Trump has decreed that the international body of water — which borders Mexico, the United States and other nations — be called the Gulf of America. In its influential Stylebook, the AP said it would continue to use Gulf of Mexico, while also noting Trump’s decision, to ensure that names of geographical features are recognizable around the world.
The White House’s outright attempt at regulating language used by independent media — and the punitive measures attached to it — mark a sharp escalation in Trump’s often fraught dealings with news organizations.
At a regular briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that."
In reality, the body lies partially in waters that don’t belong to the United States and has been called the Gulf of Mexico for hundreds of years.
On Tuesday, AP reporters were blocked from attending events in the Oval Office and the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room. While an AP reporter was in the White House briefing room Wednesday for Leavitt’s remarks, they were turned away at a later event in the Oval Office for the swearing in of Tulsi Gabbard as national intelligence director.
Julie Pace, AP’s senior vice president and executive editor, wrote to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday objecting to the moves.
“The actions taken by this White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech,” Pace wrote. “It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say.”
White House says Oval Office access is a privilegeThe White House pointed out that the AP was allowed into its briefing Wednesday but continued to take issue with the style of the gulf’s name. “Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions,” Leavitt said. “We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office.”
Generally, when the press is permitted to cover White House events where space is tight, a small pool of journalists are allowed in. The AP, which transmits news to thousands of clients, has traditionally been a part of that pool in past administrations.
Asked if barring AP reporters was retaliatory, Leavitt said that the Interior Secretary has codified the name change in official documents and that “pretty much every other outlet in this room has recognized that body of water as the Gulf of America.”
The move raised alarms among several advocates for the press. “Barring an AP journalist from covering an Oval Office event because the AP has not adopted President Trump’s change of name to what has long been called the Gulf of Mexico is an affront to the First Amendment,” said noted attorney Floyd Abrams.
A major consortium of news organizations, the Inter American Press Association, said Wednesday that the White House move was “an act of censorship and intimidation that violates the freedom of the press enshrined in the United States Constitution.”
The president of the IAPA, José Roberto Dutriz, expressed concern about this measure: “Restricting press coverage and warning against the AP demonstrate a troubling intention to impose official criteria on public interest information, with the threat of reprisals for those who do not comply," said Dutriz, CEO and general director of La Prensa Gráfica in El Salvador.
Many who write follow AP styleUsers of the Google map app in the United States will now see the body of water referred to as the Gulf of America, the company said. Mexican users would see “Gulf of Mexico.” Elsewhere in the world, Google identifies it as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”
But the AP's decision is influential because many news outlets and other organizations use it as an arbiter of how to consistently refer to things.
Some larger outlets have their own rules.
—The New York Times said it would continue to use Gulf of Mexico, while noting Trump's renaming in stories that discuss that issue. The gulf, which borders Mexico and Cuba as well as the United States, has been known as the Gulf of Mexico for more than 400 years.
—The Washington Post also said it would use Gulf of Mexico in most references because it “is not solely within the United States' jurisdiction and the name of Gulf of America might confuse global readers.”
—Fox News said that, starting Sunday, it would use Gulf of America in all of its references.
Trump has also ordered that the United States' tallest mountain revert to the name Mount McKinley after President Barack Obama changed the Alaska peak to its Indigenous name, Denali. AP says it would follow Trump's decision because he has the authority to rename areas that are solely within the United States.
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week as employers continue to retain workers despite resurgent inflation and elevated interest rates.
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell by 7,000 to 213,000 for the week ending February 8, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts projected that 215,000 new applications would be filed.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of layoffs.
The four-week average, which smooths out some of the week-to-week volatility, inched down by 1,000 to 216,000.
Despite showing some signs of weakening during the past year, the labor market remains healthy with plentiful jobs and relatively few layoffs.
Last week, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 143,000 jobs in January, significantly fewer than December’s 256,000 job gains. However, the unemployment rate ticked down to an even 4%, signaling a still very healthy labor market.
Late in January, the Federal Reserve left its benchmark lending rate alone after issuing three cuts late in 2024. Fed officials are closely monitoring inflation and the labor market for signs of a potentially weakening economy. They expect only two rate cuts this year, down from previous projections of four.
However, after Wednesday’s consumer prices report that showed inflation accelerated last month, many experts believe the Fed may not be moved to cut rates at all this year.
The consumer price index increased 3% in January from a year ago, up from a 3 1/2 year low of 2.4% in September. The new data shows that inflation has remained stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target for roughly the past six months after it fell steadily for about a year and a half.
Overall, while layoffs remain low by historical standards, a host of companies have announced job cuts already this year.
Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks and Facebook parent company Meta have all trimmed their workforces already in 2025.
Late in 2024, GM, Boeing, Cargill and Stellantis announced layoffs.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of February 1 fell to 1.85 million, a decrease of 36,000 from the previous week.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automakers Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi said Thursday they are ending talks on business integration.
Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said the talks had changed focus from setting up a joint holding company to making Nissan into a subsidiary of Honda.
“The intent was to join forces to win in the global competition, but this was not going to realize Nissan's potential, so I could not accept it,” he told reporters. He said that Nissan was going to aim for a turnaround without Honda instead.
Honda Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe said in a separate news conference that Honda had suggested a stock swap to speed up decision-making.
“I am really disappointed,” Mibe told reporters. “I felt the potential was great, but I also knew actions that would bring pain were necessary to realize that."
The automakers agreed to end their agreement on considering a structure for a collaboration, a joint statement said. The decision was passed by board meetings at each of the companies.
Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Corp. announced in December that they were going to hold talks to set up a joint holding company. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. had said it was considering joining that group.
From the start, the effort had analysts puzzled as to the advantages to any of the companies, as their model lineups and strengths overlap in an industry shaken by the arrival of powerful newcomers like Tesla and BYD, as well as the move to electrification.
Honda and Nissan initially said they were trying to finalize an agreement by June and set up the holding company by August.
The three automakers will continue to work together on electric vehicles and smart cars, such as autonomous driving, they said Thursday.
In recent weeks, Japanese media had various reports about the talks breaking down, citing unidentified sources. Some said Nissan balked at becoming a minor player in the partnership with Honda.
Mibe denied he knew or heard anything about the media speculation that Taiwan's Foxconn was considering taking a stake in Nissan.
Uchida also denied have held any official talks with Foxconn but stressed that various options will be considered as Nissan attempts a turnaround, promising a more detailed turnaround plan within a month.
Honda is in far better financial shape and was to take the lead in the joint executive team. Honda reported Thursday that its April-December 2024 profits declined 7% to 805 billion yen ($5 billion).
Nissan reported a loss for the July-September quarter as its vehicle sales sank, prompting it to slash 9,000 jobs. At that time, Uchida took a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the results.
On Thursday, Nissan reported that its April-December profit crashed to 5.1 billion yen ($33 million) from 325 billion yen ($2.1 billion) last year, and projected losses of 80 billion yen ($519 million) for the full fiscal year through March.
When asked by reporters if he would resign to take responsibility for Nissan's results, Uchida expressed openness to departing but said it was the board's decision.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama
English cricket has generated around $650 million from the sale of stakes in franchises in The Hundred to big-business investors from India and the United States, including consortiums involving NFL great Tom Brady and Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly.
Auctions held over the past two weeks drew bids that value the eight teams in The Hundred — a format similar to Twenty20 and launched in England only in 2021 — at more than $1.2 billion.
English cricket officials confirmed the huge figures for the first time on Thursday and set out how they want the money spent. The priority? Safeguarding the future of the domestic game that has lurched into financial strife in recent years.
“We’ve reached a seminal moment for cricket in England and Wales,” said Richard Thompson, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The investors who secured stakes in the franchises range from Silicon Valley tech giants including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, to four Indian conglomerates already owning teams in the widely popular Indian Premier League.
Throw in the likes of Knighthead Capital Management, which includes Brady and already owns Birmingham City soccer club, and Cain International, a company co-funded by Boehly, and there's now a heavy dose of expertise in finance, technology and elite sport in a once-quaint sport that has been supercharged by money from around the world.
Lessons from the Stanford scandalIt was 17 years ago when Allen Stanford, a Texan businessman, flew into Lord's — the so-called “home of cricket” in northwest London — aboard a private helicopter filled with fake dollar notes in a publicity stunt for a remarkable deal he reached with the ECB: A five-match T20 series between England and superstars from the Caribbean worth $100 million.
The ECB were in raptures for a supposedly game-changing deal that quickly went wrong when Stanford was charged with — and later convicted of — fraud.
So, has the ECB learnt its lessons after hitting the jackpot again?
“This has probably been done in a different style — a bit more muted,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said on a video call. “We are very confident in the investor group we have got. ... We haven't been complacent.”
The ECB has done “extensive due diligence” and “all the checks to ensure it will be a different outcome" to the Stanford debacle, director of business operations Vikram Banerjee said.
Could games be played abroad?The ECB seems open to that, yes.
“We'd be foolish not to listen to the amazing set of investors that have got great ideas,” Gould said. “We need to make sure we are a governing body that provides stability but also enables our investors and county clubs to drive forward.”
Gould made reference to the NFL taking games overseas and also the idea — floated around in 2008 but never adopted — of a 39th round of English Premier League games played abroad.
Are foreign investors controlling English cricket?No, the ECB insists.
The governing body said it still owns The Hundred as a competition and felt it was important the “structure of the game is retained and owned by the ECB and our members (the counties).” That means the schedule, the formats and the governance of English cricket.
Expect, however, the new investors to make changes to their franchises when it comes to team names, colors and branding in The Hundred from 2026.
Changing the times when matches are played — to potentially suit Indian audiences, for example — is “not on the agenda,” Gould said, because securing strong attendances inside the stadiums is a priority.
Banerjee said there was no intention to turn the Hundred — a format where each team receives a maximum of 100 balls — into a T20 competition but could envisage the competition having a second tier if there is enough growth.
The ECB said the new investors have a “lock-in period” of five years before they can sell their shares to other parties.
So, where will all the money go?The ECB said the deals, once finalized after an exclusivity period, will underpin “long-term financial sustainability” in the domestic game in England.
Proceeds from the sales will be split 19 ways — between the 18 long-established county teams in the English and Welsh domestic game as well as the Marylebone Cricket Club, which owns Lord’s and is regarded as the guardian of the laws of the game. The grassroots game is in line to receive around 50 million pounds ($62 million), the ECB said.
“Our three overarching principles as we look at what we want this investment to deliver should be strategic, ambitious and leaving a legacy,” Thompson said in an open letter. “We may not get this chance again for at least a generation, and cannot afford to waste this golden opportunity.”
Thompson spoke of the money heading to “three core investment areas”: Building reserves, revenue generation or debt reduction.
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem.
Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Eggs Up Grill has 90 restaurants in nine southern states, up from 26 in 2018. Florida-based Another Broken Egg Café celebrated its 100th restaurant last year.
Fast-food chains are also adding more breakfast items. Starbucks, which launched egg bites in 2017, now has a breakfast menu with 12 separate items containing eggs. Wendy’s reintroduced breakfast in 2020 and offers 10 items with eggs.
Reviews website Yelp said 6,421 breakfast and brunch businesses opened in the United States last year, 23% more than in 2019.
In normal times, producers could meet the demand for all those eggs. But an ongoing bird flu outbreak, which so far has forced farms to slaughter more than 145 million chickens, turkeys and other birds, is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. In January, the average price of eggs in the U.S. hit a record $4.95 per dozen.
The percentage of eggs that go to U.S. restaurants versus other places, like grocery stores or food manufacturers, is not publicly available. U.S. Foods, a restaurant supplier, and Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. producer of shell eggs, did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.
But demand from restaurants is almost certainly growing. Foot traffic at U.S. restaurants has grown the most since 2019 for morning meals, 2019, according to market research firm Circana. Pre-lunchtime hours accounted for 21% of total restaurant visits in 2024.
Breakfast sandwiches are the most popular order during morning visits, Circana said, and 70% of the breakfast sandwiches on U.S. menus include eggs.
Eggs Up Grill CEO Ricky Richardson said breakfast restaurants took off after the COVID pandemic because people longed for comfort and connection. As inflation made food more expensive, customers saw breakfast and lunch as more affordable options for eating out, he said.
The growth in restaurant demand reverses a pattern that emerged during the pandemic, when consumers tried to stock up on eggs for home use but restaurants needed fewer of them, according to Brian Earnest, a lead economist for animal proteins at CoBank.
Changing preferences since then have caused further market strain. Americans are increasingly looking for protein with few added ingredients, and eggs fit that bill.
“Consumers think eggs are really fresh, so if you’re making something with eggs, you know it’s fresh,” Earnest said.
To address animal rights concerns, McDonald’s and some other companies have switched to 100% cage-free eggs, which limits the sources they will buy from. Ten states, including California and Colorado, have passed laws restricting egg sales to products from cage-free environments.
“It makes the market much more complicated than it was 20 years ago,” Earnest said.
The higher prices are hitting restaurants hard. Wholesale egg prices hit a national average of $7.34 per dozen last week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That was 51% higher than at the beginning of the year. Wholesale costs may be higher than retail prices since grocers use eggs as a loss leader to get customers in the door.
Some chains, like Waffle House, have added a surcharge to help offset the cost of eggs. Others may turn to egg substitutes like tapioca starch for some recipes or cut egg dishes from the menu, said Phil Kafarakis, the president and CEO of the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association.
First Watch President and CEO Chris Tomasso said eggs are critical for the chain's brand and are found in the majority of its offerings, whether at the center of the plate or as an ingredient in batters. So far, he said, the company has been able to obtain the eggs it needs and isn't charging extra for them.
First Watch is also increasing portion sizes for non-egg items like meat and potatoes, Tomasso said.
Richardson, of Eggs Up Grill, said he recently met with franchisees to discuss adding a surcharge but they decided against it.
“Eggs have always been and will continue to be an important part of American diets,” Richardson said.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation accelerated last month as the cost of groceries, gasoline and rents rose, a disappointment for families and businesses struggling with higher costs and likely underscoring the Federal Reserve’s resolve to delay further interest rate cuts.
The consumer price index increased 3% in January from a year ago, Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed, up from 2.9% the previous month. It has increased from a 3 1/2 year low of 2.4% in September.
The new data shows that inflation has remained stubbornly above the Fed's 2% target for roughly the past six months after it fell steadily for about a year and a half. Elevated prices turned into a major political hurdle for former President Joe Biden. President Donald Trump pledged to reduce prices on “Day 1" if elected, though most economists worry that his many proposed tariffs could at least temporarily increase costs.
The unexpected boost in inflation could dampen some of the business enthusiasm that arose after Trump's election on promises to reduce regulation and cut taxes. The Dow fell 400 points in mid-day trading Wednesday. Bond yields rose, a sign traders expect inflation and interest rates to remain high.
“We're really not making progress on inflation right now,” Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “This just extends the Fed's hold.”
Inflation often jumps in January as many companies raise their prices at the beginning of the year, though the government’s seasonal adjustment process is supposed to filter out those effects.
Yet House said inflation's stubbornness wasn't just a one-month blip. Consumers — particularly wealthier ones — are still spending at a robust pace, giving many companies less reason to hold down prices. And much of the decline in inflation in 2023 and early last year stemmed from supply-chain improvements, but that trend has mostly played out.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core consumer prices rose 3.3% in January compared with a year ago, up from 3.2% in December. Economists closely watch core prices because they can provide a better read of inflation's future path.
Inflation also worsened on a monthly basis, with prices jumping 0.5% in January from December, the largest increase since August 2023. Core prices climbed 0.4% last month, the most since March 2024.
Grocery prices climbed 0.5% just in January, pushed higher by a 15.2% surge in egg prices, the biggest monthly increase since June of 2015. Egg prices have soared 53% compared with a year ago.
An avian flu epidemic has forced egg producers to cull from their flocks about 40 million birds in December and January. Stores have imposed limits on egg purchases and restaurants have placed surcharges on egg dishes.
The cost of car insurance continues to rise, and picked up 2% just from December to January. Hotel prices rose 1.4% last month, while the cost of a gallon of gas moved up 1.8%.
Trump’s tariffs are making life more complicated for Phil Hannon, vice president of operations at Abt, a consumer electronics store in Glenview, Illinois. Roughly 60% of Abt’s sales are appliances, big and small. The rest are in consumer electronics like TVs and computers, and furniture.
Hannon expects to raise prices between 3% and 15% as soon as March to offset the impact of tariffs, including the steel and aluminum duties.
He’s received notices from vendors over the past two weeks warning about eventual price increases, though they’re not specific. To get ahead of the cost increases, Hannon has been locking in orders from suppliers for up to 90 days.
Hannon said that many customers are already asking about price increases and when the tariffs are coming. He started seeing a noticeable pickup of customers ordering products like washing machines this month to get ahead of the tariffs.
Separately, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee that the Fed “has made great progress” on inflation “but we're not quite there yet."
"Today's inflation print ... says the same thing," he added. As a result, the Fed wants to keep rates “restrictive for now," he said. At its current level, the Fed's key rate is restricting borrowing and spending by consumers and businesses, Powell has said.
With inflation down significantly from its 9.1% peak in June 2022, the Fed cut its rate to about 4.3% in its final three meetings last year. It raised its benchmark rate in 2022 and 2023 to a two-decade high of 5.3% to combat inflation.
The Fed’s rate typically influences other borrowing costs for everything from mortgages to credit cards.
Early Wednesday, Trump said on social media that interest rates should be lowered, “something which would go hand in hand with upcoming Tariffs!!!” Yet the tick up in consumer prices makes it less likely the Fed will cut rates anytime soon.
One sign of concern for economists is that goods prices, excluding food and energy, rose 0.3% in January from the previous month. Prices for cars, furniture, and appliances had been flat or falling after supply-chain kinks stemming from the pandemic were resolved. Yet now those prices have ticked up even before tariffs have been launched.
Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, which could push the cost of cars, appliances, and industrial machinery higher. He also said earlier this week he would impose “reciprocal tariffs” on countries that have high duties on U.S. goods.
“There’s just a stew of uncertainty that if it lasts and lingers over the next couple months, you could see business confidence come down,” Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, said. That could reduce hiring and investment, he said.
On Tuesday, Powell acknowledged that higher tariffs could lift inflation and limit the central bank's ability to cut rates, calling it “a possible outcome.”
But he emphasized that it would depend on how many imports are hit with tariffs and for how long.
“In some cases it doesn’t reach the consumer much, and in some cases it does,” Powell said. “And it really does depend on facts that we we haven’t seen yet.”
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AP Retail Writer Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this report from New York.
More stars have been announced for the big SNL 50th special. You can expect to see fan favorites like Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Amy Poehler and more!
Stocks falling sharply after some disappointing news on inflation on the heels of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell saying the Fed is in no hurry.
President Trump and Elon Musk held a joint appearance in the Oval Office, with Trump signing an executive order aimed at downsizing the federal workforce.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
New York City, NY – February 11, 2025 – Cheddar, the leading news network for forward-thinking business leaders and tech-savvy consumers, is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with Inc. and Fast Company to deliver exclusive, behind-the-scenes interviews from Inc. Founders House and the Fast Company Grill during SXSW® 2025.
As part of this partnership, Cheddar will be on-site in Austin, TX in the speaker-prep room for both the Fast Company Grill and Inc. Founder House events. Cheddar will interview speakers as they prepare to go on-stage, connecting its audience with some of the most influential names shaping the future of business, technology, and entertainment. From visionary founders and rising entrepreneurs to top executives and creative pioneers, Cheddar will deliver new insights straight from the heart of two of the most influential SXSW experiences.
Each year at SXSW, the Fast Company Grill and Inc. Founders House become the ultimate gathering spots for innovation-hungry future-makers—through two exclusive hubs where leaders, creators, and industry pioneers come together to shape the future. Over three days, these events foster deep conversations, bold ideas, and purpose-driven strategies while attendees enjoy world-class networking, thought-provoking panels, and of course, incredible food and drinks.
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MIAMI (AP) — If any husbands or boyfriends mess up Valentine’s Day this week, it’s not because of a shortage of flowers.
In the run up to Feb. 14, agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport have processed about 940 million stems of cut flowers, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Around 90% of the fresh cut flowers being sold for Valentine's Day in the United States come through Miami, while the other 10% pass through Los Angeles.
Roses, carnations, pompons, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and gypsophila arrive on hundreds of flights, mostly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami on their journey to florists and supermarkets across the U.S. and Canada.
Miami's largest flower importer is Avianca Cargo, based in Medellín, Colombia. In the past three weeks, the company has transported about 18,000 tons of flowers on 300 full cargo flights, senior vice president Diogo Elias said during a news conference last week in Miami.
“We transport flowers all year round, but specifically during the Valentine’s season, we more than double our capacity because there’s more than double the demand,” Elias said.
Flowers continue to make up one of the airport's largest imports, Miami-Dade chief operation officer Jimmy Morales said. The airport received more than 3 million tons of cargo last year, with flowers accounting for nearly 400,000 tons, worth more than $1.6 billion.
“With 1,500 tons of flowers arriving daily, that equals 90,000 tons of flower imports worth $450 million just in January and February,” Morales said.
It's a big job for CBP agriculture specialists, who check the bundles of flowers for potentially harmful plant, pest and foreign animal diseases from entering the country, MIA port director Daniel Alonso said.
"Invasive species have caused $120 billion in annual economic and environmental losses to the United States, including the yield and quality losses for the American agriculture industry," Alonso said.
Colombia's flower industry was recently looking at a possible 25% tariff, as President Donald Trump quarreled with the South American country's leadership over accepting flights carrying deported immigrants. But the trade dispute came to a halt in late January, after Colombia agreed to allow the flights to land.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had previously rejected two Colombia-bound U.S. military aircrafts carrying migrants. Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation and threatened to retaliate against the U.S. by slapping a 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods.
Officials at Friday's news conference declined to answer any questions about politics or tariffs.
BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger tough countermeasures from the 27-nation bloc. It means iconic U.S. industries like bourbon, jeans and motorcycles should beware.
“The EU will act to safeguard its economic interests,” von der Leyen said in a statement in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum on Monday.
“Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said. “Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered — they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures.”
The EU trade minister scheduled a first emergency video meeting on the bloc's response on Tuesday.
“It is also important that everyone sticks together. Difficult times require such full solidarity,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU presidency.
EU could target a range of US exports from motorcycles to whiskeyJust as Trump imposed similar tariffs during his first presidency, the EU countermeasures could easily amount to those that were used to retaliate then if the measures come into force March 12.
Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament's trade committee, warned that previous trade measures were only suspended and could legally be easily revived.
“When he starts again now, then we will, of course, immediately reinstate our countermeasures,” Lange told rbb24 German radio. ”Motorcycles, jeans, peanut butter, bourbon, whiskey and a whole range of products that of course also affect American exporters" would be targeted, he added.
The EU Commission, which negotiates trade relations on behalf of the bloc, said it is not clear what countermeasures would apply, but officials and observers have said they would target Republican states and traditionally strong U.S. exports.
In Germany, the EU's largest economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament that “if the U.S. leaves us no other choice, then the European Union will react united,” adding: "Ultimately, trade wars always cost both sides prosperity.”
European steel will be hard hit in trade warEuropean steel companies are bracing for losses.
“It will further worsen the situation of the European steel industry, exacerbating an already dire market environment,” said Henrik Adam, president of the Eurofer European steel association.
He said the EU could lose up to 3.7 million tons of steel exports. The United States is the second biggest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16% of the total EU steel exports. “Losing a significant part of these exports cannot be compensated by EU exports to other markets.”
Trump is hitting foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tax in the hope that they will give local producers relief from intense global competition, allowing them to charge higher prices.
EU Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič said that the tariffs are "economically counterproductive, especially given the deeply integrated production chains established through our extensive transatlantic trade and investment ties.”
“We will protect our workers, businesses and consumers," Šefčovič said, but added that “it is not our preferred scenario. We remain committed to constructive dialog. We stand ready for negotiations and to find mutually beneficial solutions where possible.”
The EU estimates that the trade volume between both sides stands at about $1.5 trillion, representing some 30% of global trade. “There is a lot at stake for both sides,” he told the EU legislature.
While the bloc has a substantial export surplus in goods, it says that is partly offset by the U.S. surplus in the trade of services.
The EU says that trade in goods reached 851 billion euros ($878 billion) in 2023, with a trade surplus of 156 billion euros ($161 billion) for the EU. Trade in services was worth 688 billion euros ($710 billion) with a trade deficit of 104 billion euros ($107 billion) for the EU.
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Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump is hitting foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tax. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he did pretty much the same thing during his first term.
Trump’s original metals tariffs gave America’s struggling steel and aluminum producers some relief from intense global competition, allowing them to charge higher prices. In anticipation of the new tariffs, shares of steel and aluminum producers climbed Monday. Nucor rose 5.6%, Cleveland-Cliffs jumped 17.9% and Alcoa ticked up 2.2%.
But the tariffs took a toll last time, too, damaging U.S. relations with key allies and driving up costs for “downstream’’ U.S. producers that buy steel and aluminum and use them to manufacture goods.
Timothy Zimmerman is CEO of one of those downstream companies: Mitchell Metal Products in Merrill, Wisconsin. And he still has bad memories of those times.
“We were significantly impacted,’’ he said. “The challenges we faced were unprecedented -- rapid inflationary impacts from domestic steel producers. We saw steel prices rise within a few months about 70% over what they had been ... Our (steel) suppliers simply broke contracts and gave us an option: Take this or take nothing.’’
But Mitchell Metal Products was locked into contracts with its own customers — a wide range of businesses from furniture makers to telecommunications firms -- that didn’t allow it to pass along all or part of the higher cost. His company’s profit margins were squeezed, and it ended up losing business to European rivals that didn’t have to contend with the fallout from Trump’s steel tariffs.
The overall economic impact on the United States was limited then – and is likely to be limited again -- because steel and aluminum imports amount to barely a ripple in the almost $30 trillion U.S. economy.
Still, the new taxes on foreign steel and aluminum and Trump’s other import tax plans – including his promise to raise American tariffs to match those charged by other countries -- are likely “to boost U.S. inflation and weigh on global growth this year,’’ Jennifer McKeown and Hamad Hussain of Capital Economics wrote Monday.
Tariffs would hit American allies — againThe steel and aluminum tariffs would hit U.S. allies. Canada is the No. 1 supplier of foreign steel and aluminum to the United States. Mexico is the No. 3 steel supplier, and Japan and South Korea are also major steel exporters to the U.S.
China is widely seen as source of the world steel industry’s problems. Chinese overproduction has flooded the world with steel and kept prices low, hurting steelmakers in the United States and elsewhere. But the U.S. already uses trade barriers to keep out all but a trickle of Chinese steel. China accounted for less than 2% of U.S. steel imports last year, making it the No. 10 supplier of steel to the U.S., according to the American Iron and Steel Institute, a trade group.
In slapping duties on steel and aluminum nearly seven years ago, Trump reached into the federal government’s tariff toolkit and pulled out Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Section 232 gives the president the power to impose tariffs on other countries national security grounds.
The 2018 tariffs — 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum — provoked outrage in Canada and Mexico, U.S. neighbors and allies that resented being hit with trade sanctions and labeled as threats to U.S. national security.
The steel and aluminum tariffs also drew retaliation as U.S. trading partners hit back with taxes on U.S. exports from Kentucky bourbon to Levi’s jeans.
Trump's first-term tariffs proved costlyBy making foreign steel costlier, the tariffs allowed U.S. steelmakers to raise prices and encouraged them to keep mills running and to invest in new capacity.
But the tariffs hammered downstream businesses like Zimmerman’s that had to pay the higher prices. In 2021, production at downstream companies dropped by nearly $3.5 billion because of the tariffs, canceling out the $2.3 billion uptick in production that year by aluminum producers and steelmakers, according to a 2023 study by the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency that investigates trade disputes.
In 2020, researchers from Harvard University and the University of California, Davis, found that the tariffs created 1,000 jobs – but reduced employment elsewhere by 75,000. When the tariffs hit seven years ago, Mitchell Metal Products employed a peak of 102 workers. It had to cut its payrolls by leaving openings unfilled and weeding out some workers. The company now employs about 75 people.
Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that Trump’s first-term trade wars, including his tariffs on most Chinese imports, were costly to American industry.
“The net effect of all these tariffs at that time — on China, aluminum, steel, plus retaliation — was to reduce U.S. manufacturing unemployment,’’ he said. “I’m expecting the same thing this time around.’’
The 2018 metals tariffs were partially eased. For some countries, they were dropped. For some, they were replaced with import quotas. On Monday, Trump removed all exceptions and exemptions on the original tariffs and upped the levy on aluminum from 10% to 25%.
Zimmerman is bracing for the new tariffs to hit. “Already last week several large (steel) mills operating in the United States announced price increases in anticipation of the tariffs, not due to increased demand,’’ he said. “I think the domestic producers will work to do the same thing, or very close to the same thing, as what happened in 2018.’’
This time, he said, Mitchell Metal Products will seek to be more pro-active in getting its customers to absorb some of the higher costs. Otherwise, he said, “It’s not a healthy place to be as a company.’’
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans who followed news influencers during the presidential campaign were more likely to hear positive reports about Donald Trump than they were about Kamala Harris, a study has revealed.
Influencers reviewed by the Pew Research Center talked about Trump and Harris on social media about equally, but there were more posts about Trump and they tended to be more favorable.
Pew said roughly 20% of Americans regularly get news from influencers — podcasters, commentators and the like — and about two-thirds said it helps them better understand things. Pew analyzed more than 150,000 posts from about 500 influencers, defined as those who regularly comment on current events and have at least 100,000 followers on some combination of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube.
Trump courted this youth-oriented sector more actively than Harris did during the campaign. He was interviewed by the popular podcaster Joe Rogan, for example, while Harris did not get an appearance there.
The study found an equal amount of influencers — 42% — were critical of either the Republican or Democratic candidate for president.
Yet Trump earned his edge in volume; his supporters posted more often than Harris'. As an example, twice as many total posts about Harris on the Elon Musk-owned X site were critical than they were positive, while the ratio for Trump was more evenly split, Pew said.
And X is where most of the political influencers lived. Pew found that 79% of the political posts were on that site. On X, 48% of the influencers who posted there identified themselves as right-leaning, while 28% said they were more liberal.
On average, right-leaning news influencers posted 183 times per week. The more liberal ones posted 72 times on average, Pew said.
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
A group of investors led by Elon Musk is offering about $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI, escalating a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Musk helped found a decade ago.
Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to take control of the ChatGPT maker and revert it to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab, according to Musk's attorney Marc Toberoff.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid on Musk's social platform X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Musk bought Twitter, now called X, for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk and Altman, who together helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it, have been in a long-running feud over the startup's direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.
Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab that would benefit the public good by safely building better-than-human AI. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, Toberoff has said.
The sudden success of ChatGPT two years ago brought worldwide fame and a new revenue stream to OpenAI and also heightened the internal battles over the future of the organization and the advanced AI it was trying to develop. Its nonprofit board fired Altman in late 2023. He came back days later with a new board.
Now a fast-growing business still controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission, OpenAI last year announced plans to formally change its corporate structure. But such changes are complicated. Tax law requires money or assets donated to a tax-exempt organization to remain within the charitable sector.
If the initial organization becomes a for-profit, generally, a conversion is needed where the for-profit pays the fair market value of the assets to another charitable organization. Even if the nonprofit OpenAI continues to exist in some way, some experts argue it would have to be paid fair market value for any assets that get transferred to its for-profit subsidiaries.
Lawyers for OpenAI and Musk faced off in a California federal court last week as a judge weighed Musk's request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers hasn't yet ruled on Musk's request but in the courtroom said it was a “stretch” for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she doesn’t intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned transition.
But the judge also raised concerns about OpenAI and its relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she wouldn’t stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.
“It is plausible that what Mr. Musk is saying is true. We’ll find out. He’ll sit on the stand,” she said.
Along with Musk and xAI, others backing the bid announced Monday include Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund, Emanuel Capital Management and Eight Partners VC.
Toberoff said in a statement that if Altman and OpenAI’s current board “are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time.”
Musk's attorney also shared a letter he sent in early January to the attorneys general of California, where OpenAI operates, and Delaware, where it is incorporated.
Since both state offices must "ensure any such transactional process relating to OpenAI’s charitable assets provides at least fair market value to protect the public’s beneficial interest, we assume you will provide a process for competitive bidding to actually determine that fair market value,” Toberoff wrote, asking for more information on the terms and timing of that bidding process.
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The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives.
Christopher Zara, Senior Editor at Fast Company, joins Cheddar to discuss the current state of X and why Elon Musk may be the reason people are joining Bluesky.
David Liu, CEO at Plus Autonomous Trucks, joins Cheddar to discuss advancements and developments in the Automated Trucking industry.
President elect Trump making another eye opening cabinet selection by nominating Robert F Kennedy Junior as the nation's next top health official.
The world is smitten with Moo Deng the adorable pygmy hippo, and now a catchy new song celebrating her charm is spreading worldwide.
Former heavyweight champion of the world, now 58 year old Mike Tyson squares off with YouTube star turned boxer Jake Paul on Netflix tonight.
The micro-blogging startup, Bluesky has gained over 1.25 million new users in the past week alone, signaling a shift in social media habits.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talks Emirates partnership, stance on social media, and why Amazon is the league’s next growth opportunity.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talks Emirates partnership, stance on social media, and why Amazon is the league's next growth opportunity
JD Vance is good at a couple of things, and one of them is making big pronouncements. Back in September he warned that when Donald Trump is elected, 11 million undocumented immigrants should get ready to go back home. “If you are in this country illegally in six months, pack your bags, because you’re going home,” Vance said. Well, now he’s got his chance.
But the cost would be staggering. Simply removing the undocumented immigrants, and another 2.3 million so-called “removable immigrants” on short-term visas would cost $315 billion, according to the American Immigration Council, or about 20% of all Social Security payments made last year. Removing a vast army of low-paid laborers would, however, send wages shooting up for those willing to do farmwork, construction, landscaping and dishwashing across the U.S.—and that would send prices up, too.
A post-pandemic bounceback in legal immigration and a wave of people illegally crossing the border helped keep wages down for low-paid jobs, even as unemployment plunged across the economy. The immigrant labor force also helped keep inflation down. If those workers go, it is unlikely to help the economy. One study earlier this year showed the knock-on effect of deporting migrants: There were fewer daycare workers, and American mothers with lower-wage jobs lost the ability to go to work.
Jim Bair, the president of the U.S. Apple Association, which represents apple farmers across the country, noted that it’s only with immigrant labor that U.S. apple farmers can pick their crop. Most of the workers come from Mexico and Jamaica on H-2A visas, which are also in the sights of Trump’s crackdown. As Bair noted, to use the program, U.S. growers must hire any American who walks onto the farm even if they have no experience harvesting fruit, “but rarely does anyone show up.”
Watch Big Business This Week on Cheddar—and YouTube!Elon’s WorldDonald Trump has been having a bromance with Elon Musk, with Musk reviewing resumes for Cabinet picks, sitting in on phone calls with foreign leaders from Ukraine to Turkey, and now being named a co-head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, another of Musk’s DOGE puns. But it may be a little one-sided: DOGE won’t actually be a government department—just an advisory board. Musk has said he wants to cut $2 trillion from the $6.7 trillion federal budget, because the national debt is too high, and the U.S. is spending $850 billion a year on defense. The big problem is that everything the federal government spends money on is something that somebody wants, including Space X’s $11.8 billion contract with NASA and its $3.6 billion contract with the Pentagon. That’s raised some significant conflict of interest questions to which even a GOP-controlled Congress may demand answers. • All that time backing Trump has convinced at least one group of people that Musk is on to something: Tesla shareholders. Despite Trump’s overt hostility to the EV industry, many investors apparently believe the president-elect is just being a gasbag. Tesla shares are up 45% in the last month, most of that since Election Day, and the company’s market cap is now hovering around the trillion-dollar mark. • All that time away from home (Texas? California? South Africa?) has Musk looking for help around the house. Now he’s hired Mahmoud Reza Banki, former CFO of Tubi, as the new CFO of X Corp., where he joins CEO Linda Yaccarino. Banki becomes the first publicly known CFO of X since Musk bought the company in 2022. It’s facing significant headwinds: Advertising and use have plummeted and one major investor, Fidelity, has written its stake down by 79%. • France’s richest man, LVMH owner Bernard Arnault, and a group of French media companies are suing X, accusing the platform of running the content of their media properties without paying royalties they’re entitled to under European and French law. Arnault owns business newspaper Les Echos, and he’s joined by daily newspapers Le Monde and le Figaro. They say X has refused to negotiate with them and are seeking an injunction blocking the platform from displaying their content. A legal dispute earlier this year in Brazil ended with Musk and X backing down and agreeing to abide by local content rules. • Cybertruck owners are facing their sixth recall of the year. This time it’s pretty serious: The drive inverter can fail, leaving Cybertrucks cruising down the highway while drivers stomp on the accelerator with no effect, which as regulators noted, “may increase the risk of a collision.” • Mar-a-Lago insiders tell multiple news outlets that while Trump and Musk have appeared nearly inseparable, the president-elect is getting tired of the so-called “first buddy.” “I can’t get rid of him,” Trump “joked” in Washington on Wednesday. One Mar-a-Lago insider told NBC: “He’s behaving as if he’s a co-president and making sure everyone knows it,” one source said, adding that Musk is “sure taking lots of credit for the president’s victory. Bragging about America PAC and X to anyone who will listen.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump has given Musk his own walk-on song when he enters the Mar-a-Lago dining room: David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” • Back in 2023, Elon Musk promised to build a Tesla factory near Monterrey, Mexico. Now Trump is threatening to put 200% tariffs on cars made in Mexico. That country’s economy minister, Marcelo Ebrard, sounding a plaintive note, told a radio station south of the border that he’s “going to set up a meeting with [Musk] soon so that he tells me exactly what he’s thinking and see what we can do so this project moves forward.”
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The Usual Suspects The ol’ inflation game: This week’s Consumer Price Index had some good news and some bad news: Inflation is still way down from its pandemic-fueled 9.1% peak in 2022, but the Consumer Price Index, one of several gauges the Fed uses to check the temperature of the economy, was up a hair to 2.6% in October from a year earlier, that’s 0.2 percentage points higher than September’s year-on-year number. The Fed wants to keep inflation at about 2% for the year, and with seasonal variations, it’s on track to do that, particularly since another measure, known as core inflation, was stable at 3.3%.That means a December rate cut of another quarter-point is likely still in the cards, but Trump’s proposed plans for a sharp cut in taxes and across-the-board tariffs may slow or block future cuts. His plan for 10% to 20% tariffs on imports (and 50% or 60% on imports from China) could double inflation. * Loser, loser, biggest loser? Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent of Donald Trump’s unpopular social media platform Truth Social, ain’t doing well. It’s been ricocheting all over the place since Nov. 5, but it opened Thursday morning down nearly 7 percent, with its market cap at just above $5.8 billion, but that’s a massive 11% drop since winning the election. One potential reason for the decline: Insiders, including CFO Phillip Juhan, who cashed out $12 million of the stock. * What is John Malone up to? The media mogul known as the Cable Cowboy is reorganizing his empire as longtime Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei prepares to step down at the end of the year. Most notably, Liberty Broadband will be sold to Charter Communications, where Malone is a large shareholder, and Liberty’s stake in entertainment giant Live Nation will be spun off. Liberty Media will keep its cable channels and systems. * Spirit crushing: These may be the final days for Spirit Airlines. The company is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, after rival Frontier said it’s no longer seeking to merge with or acquire Spirit. Spirit has $1.1 billion in bonds coming due within a year, it’s selling its planes in a leaseback arrangement, and its operating profit margin dropped 12% over the past year, as ridership plummets, flights are canceled and pilots are furloughed. Shares are down 50% in the past week. Still, some analysts say Frontier could be back with a diamond ring for Spirit if the price changes. * 23 & who?* It looks like that’s it for the DNA-based ancestry-tracing firm. CEO Ann Wojcicki said she’s laying off 200 people, or 40% of the company’s remaining staff, and closing its drug development arm, its supposed money-spinner that would make use of all the genetic profiles it collected. Now Wojcicki said she hopes to sell the two drug prospects the firm had developed. She’s still hoping that big pharma might be salivating over all that DNA data she’s amassed.
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Endless Shrimp EndsLobsters can learn, too. After seafood chain Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy protection in May, closing more than 100 restaurants. Initial reports blamed the closing on the chain’s famous $20 all-you-can-eat shrimp offer. Red Lobster’s new owner is famed asset manager Fortress investment Group. And it turns out the real culprit was a series of leaseback deals for the restaurants that saddled them with inflated real estate costs. Still, new CEO Damola Adamolekun said the endless shrimp offer won’t be back ”because I know how to do math.”
The Short Stack Crypto’s payback moment: After spending more than $130 million supporting Trump’s presidential campaign, crypto holders are hoping for some love from the new administration. Already, news reports say Coinbase, Ripple and Circle have been talking with Trump’s team. What’s on their Christmas list? An easing of regulations intended to keep consumers safe from the wild swings of the crypto market, and maybe even a crypto-friendly SEC chair. One name floating around is Dan Gallagher, chief legal officer at Robinhood. * Finger-lickin’ lawsuit: The Colonel is mad. KFC is suing rival chicken hut Church’s for using the phrase “Original recipe” in its promotions. KFC claims it’s got the OG O.R. and has used the phrase “original recipe” for half a century to describe its blend of 11 herbs and spices. Church’s began a promo campaign in September saying “our original recipe is back.” A court will now have to decide if a phrase as common as “original recipe” is really a copyrightable original. KFC’s parent company, Yum Brands, reported an earnings miss on Nov. 5, noting that same-store sales at KFC were down 4% year over year globally and 5% in the U.S. * Verizon on the line*: Shareholders at Frontier Communications have approved the sale of their company to Verizon for $9.6 billion, making the mobile phone player into a major fiber-optic-network competitor of AT&T and Comcast. Verizon also absorbs $10 billion of Frontier’s debt. The move gives Verizon a strong presence in Texas and California without having to lay its own cable, an increasingly expensive proposition.
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Amazon Subprime!The digital sales giant has launched its own online discount stores as it faces growing competition from China’s bargain-basement online retailer Temu, not to mention other Chinese challengers, including TikTok’s Shop and fast-fashion retailer Shein. Amazon Haul is filled with color and emojis and is aimed at younger shoppers with a large selection of $20-and-under items. It’s now in beta, but available if you update your Amazon phone app. And no need for a $139 Amazon prime subscription.
The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.
"The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement provided by his lawyers.
The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion said its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Everytown will continue to raise awareness on InfoWars’ channels about gun violence prevention and present actual solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis, including bipartisan, common-sense measures and public safety initiatives backed by Everytown,” The Onion said in a statement Thursday.
Jones confirmed The Onion's acquisition of Infowars in a social media video Thursday and said he planned to file legal challenges to stop it.
“Last broadcast now live from Infowars studios. They are in the building. Are ordering shutdown without court approval,” Jones said on the social platform X.
Jones was broadcasting live from the Infowars studio Thursday morning and appeared distraught, putting his head in his hand at his desk.
Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones had expressed interest in buying Infowars. The other bidders have not been disclosed.
The Onion, a satirical site that manages to persuade people to believe the absurd, bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers.
Jones has been saying on his show that if his detractors bought Infowars, he would move his daily broadcasts and product sales to a new studio, websites and social media accounts that he has already set up. He also said that if his supporters won the bidding, he could stay on the Infowars platforms.
Relatives of many of the 20 children and six educators killed in the shooting Jones and his company for defamation and emotional distress for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.
The lawsuits were filed in Connecticut and Texas. Lawyers for the families in the Connecticut lawsuit said they worked with The Onion to try to acquire Infowars.
Big news for little monsters, Lady Gaga will appear in a cameo role in season 2 of Netflix's hit series "Wednesday," according to variety.
On Wednesday The Supreme Court appeared inclined to let a class action lawsuit against Nvidia proceed, accusing the company of misleading investors.
Attention New Yorkers, some good news this week! The New York City Council has passed a bill requiring landlords to pay broker fees, rather than renters.
Trump appointed representative Matt Gaetz of Florida as attorney general, despite Gaetz currently being under investigation.
Food recalls normally happen because of contamination (like E.coli, listeria, and salmonella), but a latest recall involving Costco products has the Internet scratching their heads. On October 11, the retailer announced a voluntary recall of almost 80,000 pounds of butter due to its packaging not having the phrase “Contains Milk.”
Yes, you read that right. The butter was recalled because its packaging failed to mention an undeclared allergen: milk… which is a main ingredient of butter. The FDA listed the reason for the recall as “Butter lists cream, but may be missing the Contains Milk statement.” On November 7, the FDA classified it as a Class II recall which the agency describes as “a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”
The butter products in question are 1,300 cases (46,800 pounds) of Kirkland Signature Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter and 900 cases (32,400 pounds) of Kirkland Signature Salted Sweet Cream Butter. Both are 16-ounce, four-stick packs. The products were manufactured and distributed by Continental Dairy Facilities Southwest LLC in Texas. Below are the lot numbers and Best By dates:
Kirkland Signature Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter: Lot 2424091 – Best By Feb 22, 2025; Lot 2424111 – Best By Feb 23, 2025; Lot 2426891- Best By Mar 22, 2025; Lot 2426991 – Best by Mar 23, 2025
Kirkland Signature Salted Sweet Cream Butter: Lot 2424191 – Best By Feb 23, 2025; Lot 2427591 – Best By Mar 29, 2025
While it may seem a bit silly that the recall happened because packaging failed to list what one would think is an obvious ingredient, the bright side is that the FDA is diligent when it comes to common allergens. In fact, a federal law requires that labels of most packaged foods disclose whether it contains major food allergens. Nine foods are classified as a major food allergen, they are: milk, egg, fish (such as bass, flounder, or cod), crustacean shellfish (such as crab, lobster, or shrimp), tree nuts (such as almonds, pecans, or walnuts), wheat, peanuts, soybeans, and sesame.
This story was originally published on sunset.com. You can read it here.
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is facing a second Donald Trump presidency, and few countries can match its experience as a target of Trump’s rhetoric: There have been threats to close the border, impose tariffs and even send U.S. forces to fight Mexican drug cartels if the country doesn’t do more to stem the flow of migrants and drugs.
That’s not to mention what mass deportations of migrants who are in the U.S. illegally could do to remittances — the money sent home by migrants — that have become one of Mexico’s main sources of income.
But as much as this second round looks like the first round — when Mexico pacified Trump by quietly ceding to his immigration demands — circumstances have changed, and not necessarily for the better. Today, Mexico has in Claudia Sheinbaum a somewhat stern leftist ideologue as president, and Trump is not known for handling such relations well.
Back in 2019, Mexico’s then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was a charismatic, plain-spoken, folksy leader who seemed to understand Trump, because both had a transactional view of politics: You give me what I want, I’ll give you what you want. The two went on to form a chummy relationship.
But while López Obrador was forged in the give-and-take politics of the often-corrupt former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Sheinbaum grew up in a family of leftist activists and got her political experience in radical university student movements.
“Claudia is more ideological than López Obrador, and so the problem is that I see her potentially responding to Trumpian policies, whether it’s, you know, organized crime or immigration or tariffs with a much more nationalistic, jingoistic view of the relationship,” said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s former ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2013.
Sheinbaum made a point of being one of the first world leaders to call Trump on Thursday to congratulate him after the election, but during the call Trump did two things that may say a lot about how things will go.
First, Sheinbaum said, Trump quickly brought up the border to remind her there were issues there. Then he asked Sheinbaum to send his greetings to López Obrador, with whom Trump said he had “a very good relationship.” That might suggest that Trump believes that López Obrador — the new president's political mentor — is still in charge, a view shared by some analysts.
Sarukhan said he believes the fact that Sheinbaum is a woman and is from Mexico will be "a very important challenge, an issue out there as both of them get going in their relationship.”
There's little likelihood that Trump will get caught up in other issues and just forget about Mexico. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman, said Trump had been given "a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”
Not everything has changed for the worse: Cross-border trade has topped $800 billion per year and U.S. companies are more dependent than ever on Mexican plants.
But the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, or USMCA, is coming up for review, and Mexico has made legal changes that Trump could seize on to demand a re-negotiation of parts of the deal.
Sheinbaum has suggested Mexico won't give in even if backed into a corner, saying “we obviously are going to address any problems that come up with dialogue, as a collaborative process, and if not, we are going to stand up, we are prepared to do that with great unity.”
Standing up hasn’t worked particularly well before. In 2018, Marcelo Ebrard was Mexico’s top diplomat; former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Ebrard basically bent to U.S. demands to keep asylum seekers in Mexico and accept migrants back even if they weren’t Mexicans.
Ebrard just asked that the deal not be made public to avoid embarrassing López Obrador, Pompeo wrote. (Ebrard later claimed he had avoided signing a much worse "safe third country’" agreement.)
Today, Ebrard is Mexico’s economy secretary, and would lead Mexico’s delegation in the scheduled 2026 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, something that Trump has greeted with mirth ("I've never seen anybody fold like that," Trump once said of Ebrard.)
Ebrard on Thursday downplayed any risks this time around, saying e conomic ties between the two countries would keep Trump from closing borders or imposing tariffs.
“I am optimistic. Unlike other countries, we are the largest trading partner (of the U.S.), so, if you put up a tariff, that will have repercussions in the United States,” Ebrard said. “I’m not saying it is going to be easy, because it is not at all easy, but the relationship with President Trump will be good because, what unites us? These numbers, this gigantic economy.”
But some former diplomats say any argument that Mexico can avoid friction with the Trump administration is overconfident, and that 2025 is not necessarily going to be like 2019.
Martha Bárcena, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2018 to 2021, said she doesn't think Trump would back away from campaign promises to deport migrants who are in the country illegally. She said Mexican officials who believe Trump might temper his “campaign promises because Mexican migrants are necessary for the U.S. economy” are being overly optimistic.
“Mexico is looking at it through the lens of economic logic. The logic that the Trump campaign applies on immigration is a logic of national security and cultural identity issues," Bárcena said.
Some of Trump's biggest policy concerns – restoring U.S. jobs and the increasing rivalry with China — also run through Mexico.
U.S. and foreign automakers have set up dozens of plants in Mexico, and some in the U.S. worry that Chinese companies could do the same to take advantage of existing trade rules to export Chinese cars or auto parts to the United States.
It doesn’t help that Sheinbaum has pushed through López Obrador’s policies aimed at eliminating independent regulatory and oversight bodies, and laws the U.S. government says could reduce the independence of the judiciary, both of which are required under the USMCA trade agreement.
“If they go ahead with the elimination of independent regulators and autonomous bodies, that’s going to be a further violation of the USMCA,” Sarukhan said. “And then that’s going to make things even worse. Obviously, the big piece is going to be China and the Chinese footprint in Mexico.”
That could lead Trump to demand the re-negotiation of all auto industry agreements under the trade pact.
As far as efforts to jointly combat the illegal drug trade — such cooperation fell to historic lows in 2019 and 2020 — there have been some modestly encouraging signs. Last week, Mexico announced the seizure in Tijuana of over 300,000 fentanyl pills after months when t he country’s entire seizures had amounted to as little as 50 grams — a couple of ounces — per week.
Sheinbaum, who took office on Oct. 1, also appears to be tacitly abandoning López Obrador’s strategy of not confronting drug cartels. But neither she nor her predecessor and political mentor could ever accept any Trump plan to send U.S. forces to operate independently on Mexican soil.
It remains to see how far Trump might go; he often makes only token gestures to carry through on threats. But Sarukhan noted, “I do think that he will talk loudly and carry a big stick.”
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AP Writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) — Toy giant Mattel says it “deeply” regrets an error on the packaging of its “Wicked” movie-themed dolls, which mistakenly links toy buyers to a pornographic website.
The error gained attention on social media over the weekend, where numerous users shared photos of the URL printed on the back of the boxes for the special edition dolls, which feature characters from the movie adaptation of “Wicked” set to hit theaters later this month. Instead of linking to Universal Pictures' official WickedMovie.com page, the website listed leads to an adult film site that requires consumers to be over 18 to enter.
In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Mattel said it was “made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls," which it said are primarily sold in the U.S. “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this,” the company added.
Mattel did not confirm whether this action included removing unsold products with the incorrect link from stores. But as of Monday morning, at least some of these “Wicked” dolls appeared to be no longer available or not in stock on sites like Amazon, Target and Mattel's.
In the meantime, the company is advising consumers who already have the dolls to discard their packaging or obscure the link — and contact Mattel's customer service for more information.
Mattel unveiled its special “Wicked” collection earlier this year. Back in July, a promotion shared on Instagram showed Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who star as Elphaba and Glinda in Universal Pictures' upcoming film, seeing the line's singing dolls for the first time.
The beloved Broadway musical has been split into two parts for its movie adaptation. The first chapter of “Wicked” will hit theaters on Nov. 22, with part two set for a fall 2025 release.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world’s most important monument’s while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems.
Using 400,000 high-resolution digital photographs, taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was in the basilica, the digital replica is going online alongside two new on-site exhibits to provide visitors -- real and virtual -- with an interactive experience.
“It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued,” Microsoft's president Brad Smith told a Vatican press conference.
The project has been launched ahead of the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee, a holy year in which more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica’s Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 who visit on a normal day.
“Everyone, really everyone should feel welcome in this great house,” Pope Francis told Smith and members of the project's development teams at an audience Monday.
The digital platform allows visitors to reserve entry times to the basilica, a novelty for one of the world’s most visited monuments that regularly has an hours-long line of tourists waiting to get in.
But the heart of the project is the creation of a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica through advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence that allows anyone to “visit” the church and learn about its history.
The ultra-precise 3D replica, developed in collaboration with digital preservation company Iconem, incorporates 22 petabytes of data — enough to fill five million DVDs — Smith said.
The images have already identified structural damage and signs of deterioration, such as missing mosaic pieces, cracks and fissures invisible to the naked eye, with a speed and precision far beyond human capabilities.
Francis has called for the ethical use of AI and used his annual World Message of Peace this year to urge an international treaty to regulate it, arguing that technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great.
On Monday, he thanked the Microsoft team and basilica workers responsible for the project and marveled at how modern technology was helping spread an ancient faith and preserve a piece of world patrimony, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of its consecration in 2026.
“This house of prayer for all peoples has been entrusted to us by those who have preceded us in faith and apostolic ministry,” he told Smith and the delegation. “Therefore, it is a gift and a task to care for it, in both a spiritual and material sense, even through the latest technologies.”
Smith declined to give a price tag for Microsoft’s investment in the project, saying only it was “substantial” and was borne of Francis’ initiative in 2018 to bring tech companies together to promote ethnically minded AI.
He said Microsoft had done similar AI projects at Mont Saint-Michel in France and Ancient Olympia, in Greece.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
DETROIT (AP) — Since it started selling cars in 2013, Carvana has disrupted the U.S. used vehicle market with no-haggle pricing and an online buying process that cuts out the often-dreaded salesman.
The Tempe, Arizona, company took advantage of many buyers’ fear of negotiating with a dealer, letting them purchase vehicles via computer and have them delivered to their homes.
CEO and co-founder Ernie Garcia says the company has lower costs than conventional dealerships because it doesn’t have expensive real estate across the nation. It does have 17 centers nationwide where used vehicles are reconditioned before sale.
So far the company has sold about 2 million vehicles, with sales now running at a rate of 400,000 per year. That’s still only a small part of the U.S. used vehicle market of about 36 million sales annually.
Garcia spoke recently with The Associated Press about the used vehicle market and the future of the business.
Q: When you started Carvana, did you have research showing that people didn’t like negotiating at dealerships?
A: There’s plenty of research out there that suggests that customers are looking for something that is much simpler. That was the entire premise behind building Carvana. We didn’t set out to build an e-commerce platform for selling cars. We set out to build a simpler customer experience where customers could leave confident.
Q: Do I pay a premium for this experience over conventional dealerships?
A: Versus our largest competitors, on average, customers save about $1,000, give or take, on price. That’s the flow-through of building a completely different business model. We’re buying those cars directly from customers. We have our own finance company, and that means there’s not another middleman. Customers go through a self-service platform, which means that we save a lot of money and time that would otherwise go into someone to walk them through that process.
Q: Why should I buy a car from you without seeing it? Why should I trust you?
A: What we would ask customers to do is trust the 2 million customers that came before them and bought cars from Carvana. And buy with the confidence of knowing that if the car’s not right for you, you can return it, no questions asked, for seven days. And that in many ways that’s much, much better than a test drive. Most consumers only test drive a single car. Those test drives generally last a couple of minutes.
Q: Do I have to pay to ship a car back?
A: You don’t have to pay to ship it back. Many cars on the website have no shipping fees. In that case we’ll just come and pick it up. Or we’ll drop off a new one if you want to swap the car for another one. If you did buy a car from far away, the shipping fee is not refundable.
Q: Used car prices have been dropping for a few months. But there were huge increases during the pandemic. What’s going to happen?
A: Over the last two years, on average, car prices have been coming down. I think that that trend is generally continuing. There are seasonal times around tax season in February and March, or around return to school in August, where prices can go up a bit. But generally around this time of year, they’re going down. For several years, cars got extremely expensive, and that made it hard for a lot of people to buy. Pricing has come down in the last two years. We hope that they continue to come down and that the rates continue to come down as well, driving customer payments lower.
Q: We’re not back to pre-pandemic prices yet. Do you ever see us returning to that level?
A: There’s no question car prices went up very significantly in 2021 and 2022 and then interest rates went up to 2023. That drove affordability down significantly and led to payments being significantly higher for most customers. The other news that simultaneously occurred is the price of nearly all goods and services in the economy also went up. And so during 2022 and 2023 and even early 2024, car prices were still higher relative to other goods and services than they were pre-pandemic. More recently, car prices continued to depreciate more quickly while there’s still some inflation across the rest of the economy. So now car prices are similar relative to other goods and services to where they were pre-pandemic. But there’s no question car prices are higher in nominal terms, even though they’re somewhat similar in inflation-adjusted terms.
Q: Many automakers have gotten rid of lower-cost vehicles, mainly cars, meaning there are fewer lower-cost used vehicles. Can somebody still get a decent, affordable vehicle?
A: We try to make discovery of what car works for them as easy as possible. They can go on the website, they can get approved for financing in seconds. They can start searching by monthly payment, down payment. They can see exactly what they can afford and what makes sense for them. We sell cars in a very wide range of prices. The least expensive car that we sold on Carvana so far is just over $5,000.
NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks are rising Monday, led by those seen as benefiting the most from Donald Trump’s reelection as president, but drops for some high-profile Big Tech stocks are keeping indexes in check.
The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in late trading, and two out of every three stocks in the index were climbing. It's coming off its best week of the year, following Trump's presidential victory and a cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve to bolster the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 332 points, or 0.8%, with roughly an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.
Tesla was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 after rising 7.2%. Its leader, Elon Musk, has become a close ally of Trump’s, and its stock jumped nearly 15% the day after the election and has kept rising.
Several pieces of what’s known as the “Trump trade” also helped drive the market, as investors try to identify which companies will be winners under a second Trump term. JPMorgan Chase rose 1.3%, and bank stocks broadly led the market on expectations for stronger economic growth, less regulation from Washington and an increase in mergers and acquisitions.
A White House more friendly to big tie-ups has helped Wall Street speculate about a merger between insurers Cigna Group and Humana, for example. It’s been so feverish that Cigna said Monday it isn’t pursuing a deal with Humana. Cigna’s stock rose 7.5%, and Humana’s sank 2.3%.
Stocks of companies more focused on the U.S. economy were also rising more than the rest of the market, including a 1.4% rally for the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index, because they’re seen as benefiting more from Trump’s America First policies than big multinational companies.
They helped offset a drop of 1.7% for Nvidia, which was the heaviest weight on the market and helped drag the Nasdaq composite in particular.
Such Big Tech stocks have rocketed higher on excitement about artificial-intelligence technology, and they had been gaining almost regardless of what the economy was doing. Now, though, critics say their prices look too expensive, and investors are finding more interesting buys in companies that could do well under Trump's second term. A drop for Nvidia packs a particularly heavy punch because its massive value of nearly $3.6 trillion makes it one of the most influential stocks on the S&P 500 and other indexes.
AbbVie, meanwhile, tumbled 12.7% after saying trials investigating its treatment for some adults with schizophrenia failed to show statistically significant improvement compared with a placebo group at week six.
Some of the sharpest swings were in the crypto market, where bitcoin rose above $86,000 for the first time. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies generally and pledged to make his country the crypto capital of the world. Bitcoin hit a record of $86,660, according to CoinDesk.
Another Trump trade has been a rise in Treasury yields, as traders anticipate potentially higher economic growth, U.S. government debt and inflation because of Trump’s policies. But trading in the bond market is closed Monday in observance of Veterans Day.
Treasury yields been generally climbing since September, in large part because the U.S. economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can continue to stay solid as the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates in order to keep the job market humming, now that it’s helped get inflation nearly down to its 2% target.
But Trump’s win has scrambled expectations for coming cuts to rates. Traders have already begun paring forecasts for how many the Fed will deliver next year. While lower rates can boost the economy, they can also give inflation more fuel.
Still, many professional investors warn not to get carried away by all the momentum following Trump's victory. It takes time to see what campaign promises turn into actual policy, and that can lead to sharp snaps back for the market's initial knee-jerk reactions.
The U.S. stock market is also broadly looking more expensive, as prices continue to run up faster than corporate profits.
“Valuations are increasingly elevated, and the pace of growth isn’t sustainable,” according to Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “While near-term seasonality will be a strong tailwind for markets, valuations may prove to be a tipping point as we move into 2025.”
Stock markets abroad have swung following Trump’s election amid worries about increased tariffs and disruptions to global trade.
Indexes were mixed Monday, with European markets rising while South Korea’s and Hong Kong’s sank.
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AP Writer Zimo Zhong in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
Trinity Chavez sits down with world renown astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson to talk about his new book 'Merlin's Tour of the Universe'.
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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government announced on Thursday what it described as world-leading legislation that would institute an age limit of 16 years for children to start using social media, and hold platforms responsible for ensuring compliance.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
The legislation will be introduced in Parliament during its final two weeks in session this year, which begin on Nov. 18. The age limit would take effect 12 months after the law is passed, Albanese told reporters.
The platforms including X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook would need to use that year to work out how to exclude Australian children younger than 16.
“I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online,” Albanese said.
The proposal comes as governments around the world are wrestling with how to supervise young people's use of technologies like smartphones and social media.
Social media platforms would be penalized for breaching the age limit, but under-age children and their parents would not.
“The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people,” Albanese said.
Antigone Davis, head of safety at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the company would respect any age limitations the government wants to introduce.
“However, what’s missing is a deeper discussion on how we implement protections, otherwise we risk making ourselves feel better, like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place,” Davis said in a statement.
She added that stronger tools in app stores and operating systems for parents to control what apps their children can use would be a “simple and effective solution.”
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. TikTok declined to comment.
The Digital Industry Group Inc., an advocate for the digital industry in Australia, described the age limit as a “20th Century response to 21st Century challenges.”
“Rather than blocking access through bans, we need to take a balanced approach to create age-appropriate spaces, build digital literacy and protect young people from online harm,” DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said in a statement.
More than 140 Australian and international academics with expertise in fields related to technology and child welfare signed an open letter to Albanese last month opposing a social media age limit as “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.”
Jackie Hallan, a director at the youth mental health service ReachOut, opposed the ban. She said 73% of young people across Australia accessing mental health support did so through social media.
“We’re uncomfortable with the ban. We think young people are likely to circumvent a ban and our concern is that it really drives the behavior underground and then if things go wrong, young people are less likely to get support from parents and carers because they’re worried about getting in trouble,” Hallan said.
Child psychologist Philip Tam said a minimum age of 12 or 13 would have been more enforceable.
“My real fear honestly is that the problem of social media will simply be driven underground,” Tam said.
Australian National University lawyer Associate Prof. Faith Gordon feared separating children from there platforms could create pressures within families.
Albanese said there would be exclusions and exemptions in circumstances such as a need to continue access to educational services.
But parental consent would not entitle a child under 16 to access social media.
Earlier this year, the government began a trial of age-restriciton technologies. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the online watchdog that will police compliance, will use the results of that trial to provide platforms with guidance on what reasonable steps they can take.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the year-long lead-in would ensure the age limit could be implemented in a “very practical way.”
“There does need to be enhanced penalties to ensure compliance,” Rowland said.
“Every company that operates in Australia, whether domiciled here or otherwise, is expected and must comply with Australian law or face the consequences,” she added.
The main opposition party has given in-principle support for an age limit at 16.
Opposition lawmaker Paul Fletcher said the platforms already had the technology to enforce such an age ban.
“It’s not really a technical viability question, it’s a question of their readiness to do it and will they incur the cost to do it,” Fletcher told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“The platforms say: ’It’s all too hard, we can’t do it, Australia will become a backwater, it won’t possibly work.’ But if you have well-drafted legislation and you stick to your guns, you can get the outcomes,” Fletcher added.
TOKYO (AP) — Sony’s profit rose 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said on Friday.
Quarterly profit was 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the year-earlier period, while consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).
Tokyo-based Sony’s latest quarterly results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.
Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, compared with 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.
Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.
The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included “SOS” by SZA, David Gilmour’s “Luck and Strange” and Kenshi Yonezu’s “Lost Corner.”
One area where Sony’s business suffered was its pictures division, including TV shows and movies, which was impacted by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.
Among the recent hit films from Sony was “It Ends With Us,” a romantic drama based on a novel.
Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, maintained its 980-billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.
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Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are coasting to the close of their best week in a year with some modest moves on Friday.
The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in afternoon trading and on track for its biggest weekly gain since early November 2023. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 230 points, or 0.5%, as of 12:09 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged.
The relatively quiet trading follows big gains and more records for indexes earlier in the week after Donald Trump won the presidential election and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again to make things easier for the economy.
Axon Enterprise, which sells Tasers and body cameras used by police officers, helped lead the market. It jumped 21.5% after delivering stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also raised its revenue forecast for the full year to $2.07 billion, which would mean 32% growth.
Expedia Group rose 6.2% after likewise topping profit expectations. It said booked room nights rose 9% from a year earlier.
Helping to keep the market in check was Airbnb, which sank 8.3% after the online vacation rental platform posted a mixed third-quarter earnings report and issued forecasts for the fourth quarter that disappointed investors.
Digital pinboard and shopping site Pinterest slid 16.7% after the company’s revenue guidance came in lower than investors expected, even as it easily beat Wall Street’s sales and profit targets.
In the bond market, longer-term Treasury yields eased.
A preliminary report in the morning suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers rose for a fourth straight month to its highest level in six months. The survey from the University of Michigan, which was conducted before Tuesday's election, also said expectations for inflation in the coming year eased to the lowest level since 2020.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.31% from 4.33% late Thursday. But it’s still well above where it was in mid-September, when it was close to 3.60%.
Treasury yields climbed in large part because the U.S. economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can continue to stay solid as the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates in order to keep the job market humming, now that it’s helped get inflation nearly down to its 2% target.
Some of the rise in yields has also been because of Trump. He talks up tariffs and other policies that economists say could drive inflation and the U.S. government’s debt higher, along with the economy’s growth.
Traders have already begun paring forecasts for how many cuts to rates the Fed will deliver next year because of that. While lower rates can boost the economy, they can also give inflation more fuel.
In stock markets abroad, Trump’s talk about tariffs has raised worries about possible trade tensions and disruptions to the global economy.
European indexes were mostly lower and on track for a losing week.
Markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai fell as investors awaited much-anticipated steps by Beijing to rev up the slowing Chinese economy following a meeting of the legislature’s Standing Committee. Officials announced a 6 trillion yuan ($839 billion), three-year plan to help local governments refinance their many trillions of debt that has ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic and a collapse of the property market.
Financial markets worldwide have swung sharply as investors lay bets on what Trump's plans for higher tariffs, lower tax rates and lighter regulation could mean for the global economy. But many professional investors have also urged caution, saying snaps back in prices could occur as it becomes more clear what proposals will become policy versus just negotiating starting points.
U.S. banks and the stocks of more domestically focused companies have seen some of the wildest moves, as some of the poster children of the “Trump trade.” The stock that’s become most synonymous with the president-elect, Trump Media & Technology Group, rose 11.6% Thursday and is on track for a slight gain this week.
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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed to this report.
Guy Diedrich, SVP and Global Innovation Officer at Cisco joined Cheddar to discuss how our digital diets impact our well being & an upcoming study to prove it!
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Thursday by a quarter-point in response to the steady decline in the once-high inflation that had angered Americans and helped drive Donald Trump’s presidential election victory this week.
The rate cut follows a larger half-point reduction in September, and it reflects the Fed’s renewed focus on supporting the job market as well as fighting inflation, which now barely exceeds the central bank’s 2% target.
Asked at a news conference how Trump's election might affect the Fed's policymaking, Chair Jerome Powell said that "in the near term, the election will have no effects on our (interest rate) decisions.”
But Trump’s election, beyond its economic consequences, has raised the specter of meddling by the White House in the Fed’s policy decisions. Trump has argued that as president, he should have a voice in the central bank’s interest rate decisions. The Fed has long guarded its role as an independent agency able to make difficult decisions about borrowing rates, free from political interference. Yet in his previous term in the White House, Trump publicly attacked Powell after the Fed raised rates to fight inflation, and he may do so again.
Asked whether he would resign if Trump asked him to, Powell, who will have a year left in his second four-year term as Fed chair when Trump takes office, replied simply, “No.”
And Powell said that in his view, Trump could not fire or demote him: It would “not be permitted under the law,” he said.
Thursday’s Fed rate cut reduced its benchmark rate to about 4.6%, down from a four-decade high of 5.3%. The Fed had kept its rate that high for more than a year to fight the worst inflation streak in four decades. Annual inflation has since fallen from a 9.1% peak in mid-2022 to a 3 1/2-year low of 2.4% in September.
When its latest policy meeting ended Thursday, the Fed issued a statement noting that the "unemployment rate has moved up but remains low,” and while inflation has fallen closer to the 2% target level, it “remains somewhat elevated.”
After their rate cut in September — their first such move in more than four years — the policymakers had projected that they would make further quarter-point cuts in November and December and four more next year. But with the economy now mostly solid and Wall Street anticipating faster growth, larger budget deficits and higher inflation under a Trump presidency, further rate cuts may have become less likely. Rate cuts by the Fed typically lead over time to lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
Powell declined to be pinned down Thursday on whether the Fed would proceed with an additional quarter-point rate cut in December or the four rate cuts its policymakers penciled in for 2025.
Diane Swonk, chief economist at accounting giant KPMG, said she thought Powell was reluctant to provide hints about the Fed’s next moves because of the uncertainty caused by Trump’s election victory.
“He’s not willing to go too far out ahead of his skis, given how much could change,” she said. “In an environment where you don’t know how promises on the campaign trail translate to actual policies, you don’t want to front-run it.”
Still, Matthew Luzzetti, an economist at Deutsche Bank, said there were signs that the Fed might end up announcing fewer rate cuts next year than many economists expect. The job market and the economy are looking healthier than they appeared in September, when the Fed announced an outsize half-point rate cut.
“Nothing in the economic data,” Luzzetti said, “suggests that the (Fed) has any need to be in a hurry” to get rates down substantially.”
On Thursday, Powell did express confidence that inflation, despite some recent higher-than-expected readings, would keep falling back to the Fed’s target.
“We feel like the story is very consistent with inflation continuing to come down on a bumpy path over the next couple of years, and settling around 2%,” he said.
The economy is clouding the picture by flashing conflicting signals, with growth solid but hiring weakening. Consumer spending, though, has been healthy, fueling concerns that there is no need for the Fed to reduce borrowing costs and that doing so might overstimulate the economy and even re-accelerate inflation.
Financial markets are throwing yet another curve at the Fed: Investors have pushed up Treasury yields since the central bank cut rates in September. The result has been higher borrowing costs throughout the economy, thereby diminishing the benefit to consumers of the Fed’s half-point cut in its benchmark rate, which it announced after its September meeting.
Broader interest rates have risen because investors are anticipating higher inflation, larger federal budget deficits, and faster economic growth under a President-elect Trump. Trump’s plan to impose at least a 10% tariff on all imports, as well as significantly higher taxes on Chinese goods, and to carry out a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants would almost certainly boost inflation. This would make it less likely that the Fed would continue cutting its key rate. Annual inflation as measured by the central bank’s preferred gauge fell to 2.1% in September.
Economists at Goldman Sachs estimate that Trump’s proposed 10% tariff, as well as his proposed taxes on Chinese imports and autos from Mexico, could send inflation back up to about 2.75% to 3% by mid-2026.
The economy grew at a solid annual rate just below 3% over the past six months, while consumer spending — fueled by higher-income shoppers — rose strongly in the July-September quarter.
But companies have scaled back hiring, with many people who are out of work struggling to find jobs. Powell has suggested that the Fed is reducing its key rate in part to bolster the job market. If economic growth continues at a healthy clip and inflation climbs again, though, the central bank will come under pressure to slow or stop its rate cuts.
Asked at his news conference about Americans who are feeling little relief from the pain of high prices and who helped fuel Trump’s victory, Powell said:
“It takes some years of real wage gains for people to feel better, and that’s what we’re trying to create, and I think we’re well on the road to creating that. Inflation has come way down, the economy is still strong here, wages are moving up, but at a sustainable level.
“I think what needs to happen is happening, and for the most part has happened, but it will be some time before people regain their confidence and feel that.”
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AP Business Writer Alex Veiga contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is expanding its program that allows people to file their taxes directly with the agency for free.
The federal tax collector’s Direct File program, which allows taxpayers to calculate and submit their returns to the government directly without using commercial tax preparation software, will be open to more than 30 million people in 24 states in the 2025 filing season.
The program was rolled out as a pilot during the 2024 tax season in 12 states.
Now IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel says the program will be permanent and the IRS will expand eligibility opportunities for taxpayers.
“We're announcing significant expansions of Direct File that will make the service available to millions more taxpayers in 2025,” Werfel said on a call Thursday with reporters. He said it is possible that additional states could still choose to join the program in 2025.
The pilot program in 2024 allowed people in certain states with very simple W-2s to calculate and submit their returns directly to the IRS. Those using the program claimed more than $90 million in refunds, the IRS said.
It was originally available to certain taxpayers in California, New York, Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming and Massachusetts.
States to be added in 2025 include: Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In addition, new eligibility standards will allow participation by taxpayers with 1099 income and credits including the Child and Dependent Care Credit, Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, and the deduction for Health Savings Accounts, among others.
"Other countries have been providing their citizens with the ability to do this type of thing for years," Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on the call with reporters. Several nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, including Germany and Japan, have similar systems with prepopulated tax forms.
The direct file idea is not viewed favorably by the commercial tax prep software firms that have made billions of dollars from charging people to use their software.
Additionally, an IRS inspector general report released this week notes that the IRS has not maintained sufficient safeguards over data protection related to the IRS Free File Alliance. The alliance is a longstanding agreement between the IRS and some commercial tax preparation companies to provide free tax prep services to low and middle-income taxpayers.
The Free File Alliance is separate from the Direct File program.
The IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It gave the IRS nine months and $15 million to report on how such a program would work.
Have you ever craved salsa in the morning? Tostitos and NFL legend Julian Edelman are shaking things up with the launch of Tostitos salsa cereal
Spirit Airline stock, crashing Friday on reports, the troubled airline is considering filing chapter 11 bankruptcy
JetBlue is shaking things up for transatlantic flights with their new menus, and there's a twist: economy class passengers can forget about hot meals.
Nearly 50-thousand dock workers from Maine to Texas are back to work today after a short-lived strike appears to have been resolved
A big menu update at the golden arches. McDonald's chicken Big Mac, which sold out in the UK within 10 days, is set to launch in the US on October 10.
A federal judge has decided to let a temporary restraining order against the Biden administration's expansive student loan forgiveness plan expire
A stunning jobs report shows surprising strength in the us labor market. 254,000 jobs created in the month of September, far more than the 140,000 expected
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No Port in a StormStriking U.S. dockworkers have the economy by the short hairs, cutting as much as $5 billion daily from U.S. economic activity. That number could rise as the strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association blocks the loading and unloading of everything from food to cars at all ports on the Gulf and East Coasts. Some 60% of U.S. containerized trade moves through the ports in which dockworkers unloaded nearly $600 billion of imports last year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
U.S. companies—and consumers—can wait out a strike for a couple of weeks, but beyond that, prices will start rising as shortages appear. Despite lessons learned during the pandemic, the global supply chain is still a tenuous linkage of many parts, says Amir Mousavian, supply chain management professor at the University of New England’s College of Business.
“It’s a global economy and global supply chain,” Mousavian said in an interview. “There has not been sufficient time since the pandemic for all companies to create the resiliency they need.” He said some items are too perishable to be stored, and not every company wants to pay for warehousing months worth of parts and materials.
“When you order something off Amazon, within two days you have the product delivered at your door—we have a supply chain that is very efficient but not resilient,” he said.
The dockworkers are serious. Their leader, Howard Daggett, says he’s seeking a 77% pay hike over six years, raising the base pay for dockworkers to $69 an hour from $39. Employers and shippers offered 40% but upped that to 50% this week under pressure from the White House.
Daggett, 78, has been indicted for fraud but never convicted. In a 2005 trial, witnesses said Daggett was an associate of the Genovese crime family. One of his co-defendants was found dead during the trial in the trunk of a car, and Daggett was acquitted.
Ultimately, says Mousavian, the dockworkers have the upper hand. Their demands are a fraction of the damage they are causing. When fully phased in, the wage hike will cost about $2.1 billion a year, less than half of what the strike costs the economy each day.
“People are going to sit up and realize how important longshoremen jobs are,” Daggett said in an interview at the rally. “They won’t be able to sell cars. They won’t be able to stock malls. They won’t be able to do anything in this country without my f—ing people. And it’s about time they start realizing it,” Daggett told the Wall Street Journal.
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The Usual Suspects Elon’s World: October 10 is the day that could define Tesla: Musk will unveil the electric carmaker’s robo-taxi on the Warner Brothers Studio lot in Los Angeles. Wedbush Securities says the unveil will be a “linchpin day for the tesla story.” If it works, the tech upgrade will turn every Tesla into a robo-taxi that could earn $30,000 a year for every Tesla owner, Musk says, which could make Tesla worth $5 trillion. • You can say one thing about Musk—he embodies the current spirit of X. The New York Times held Musk’s own tweets to light, and the results were dismal: Almost a third of Musk’s 171 posts last week were false, misleading, or missing vital context, the newspaper reported. Those posts included a false report of a bomb at a Trump rally. Maybe that’s why Musk’s popularity among Democrats has fallen to 6%. “It’s a damaged brand,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. • It’s not only Musk’s popularity that’s suffered. Investment giant Fidelity, which helped fund Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022, says it’s written down its stake by 78.7%. X is now worth $9.4 billion, a loss of a staggering $34.6 billion. • The Lost in Space Chronicles: After the successful launch of a capsule to rescue two NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station, Space X’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket was grounded by regulators when its booster failed to properly touch down. The capsule has docked at the International Space Station, and the two space cadets will head back to Earth next year. • Musk’s Brazilian nemesis, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, moved X a step closer to being restored in the country, unblocking X’s local bank accounts after Musk agreed to pay fines of over $5 million for spreading alleged disinformation in Brazil. • Is Musk in a China bind? That’s the contention of Axios, which notes that a Biden Administration move to keep Chinese software out of advanced U.S. vehicles would help Tesla fight off growing competition from cheaper Chinese EVs. If Beijing responds, Teslas could be banned in China, which might be the second-biggest market for Musk’s EV. • Musk nemesis Mark Cuban had some advice for the X-man: No matter how much you help Trump, he will never pay you back. “At the point you need him the most, you will find out what so many before you have learned, his loyalty is only to himself,” Cuban wrote on X. • In a bold move, Musk says he will ban italics and boldface letters on X users’ main timelines. Musk said the typography is being abused for “engagement farming,” adding “My eyes are bleeding.” • In a state that is the pork capital of the world, it’s no surprise that Musk and Donald Trump are hogging credit for giving cellphone customers free access to Starlink on their phones in areas of North Carolina hard hit by Hurricane Helene. FEMA responders have long-standing programs to use Starlink satellites to help residents of hard-hit areas communicate. • Meanwhile, Musk is facing a lawsuit for helping to spread false stories that Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio, are eating cats and dogs. The Office of the Haitian Diaspora filed a defamation suit in federal court in Miami. • Despite his recent anti-immigration comments, Musk, who was born in Africa, has his own immigrant story, and his brother Kimbal said the two were “illegal immigrants” when they started their first venture. A year ago, Elon Musk said, “As an immigrant to the United States, I am extremely pro-immigrant,” calling for “a greatly expanded legal immigration system, and that we should let anyone in the country who is hardworking and honest and will be a contributor to the United States,” CNN reports. • Elon says he is not having an affair with Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. “There is no romantic relationship whatsoever with PM Meloni,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post of a photo of the two of them gazing fondly into each other’s eyes at a banquet table. * Dismal Disney: Hurricanes, competition, and the end of the post-pandemic travel surge are weighing heavily on Disney, with its share price down 29% in the past six months and 36% over the past five years. Analysts at Chicago-based fund manager Raymond James say concerns about Disney’s theme parks division pushed them to downgrade the stock this week from outperform to market perform, and they said they’re getting off the “rollercoaster.” Disney is in the midst of a planned $60 billion investment in theme parks and cruises under Experiences division CEO Josh D’Amaro, a potential successor to Disney chair Robert Iger. * Rotten Apple: Apple has illegally blocked workers from organizing and advocating for better working conditions, the National Labor Relations Board said. The board’s complaint claims Apple required employees nationwide to sign illegal confidentiality, non-disclosure, and non-compete agreements. Apple allegedly imposed overly broad misconduct and social media policies. Apple said it disagrees with the claims, and an administrative judge will hear the case in January. * Boeing: The embattled planemaker is considering issuing $10 billion in new stock, equivalent to about 25% of its current market capitalization, to help pay for a punishing strike by the 33,000 union machinists who build its planes and weapons as well as federally mandated safety and quality control slowdowns on its planemaking. Meanwhile, the machinists union urged new CEO Kelly Ortberg to “truly engage” in negotiations. * Open Agents:* OpenAI says AI-powered assistants will become mainstream next year as tech firms race to bring AI agents to consumers. “We want to make it possible to interact with AI in all of the ways that you interact with another human being,” Kevin Weil, Open AI’s chief product officer, said at the company’s developer day. Meanwhile, OpenAI is close to completing a $6.5 billion funding round this week that would value the concern, a non-profit that wants to become a for-profit corporation, at $150 billion.
Union boss behind port strikes has sprawling mansion in NJ — complete with Bentley, 5-car garage and guest house https://t.co/Uamz882e0m pic.twitter.com/ApFAK1tIDj
— New York Post (@nypost) October 2, 2024
The Short Stack That taxi is so fly: Toyota says it’s betting $500 million on electric air taxis, investing into Joby Aviation’s electric vertical take-off and landing craft. Joby is still waiting for some approvals from the FAA while Toyota has supplied them with components. * Another brick in the vault:* Pink Floyd agreed to sell the rights to its entire catalog to Sony Music for $400 million. Sony gets the rights to the band’s recordings, name, and likeness, the Financial Times reports. Floyd keeps the songwriting royalties. The deal, one of the last for the great rock bands of the late 20th Century, was held up for years by a feud between Roger Waters and David Gilmour, as well as concerns by band members over the tax structure of the deal.
Checking in on the Great Rate CutTwo weeks after the Fed cut rates by a dramatic half of a percentage point—the first cut in more than two years—how has the economy reacted? Well, the man behind the curtain spoke out Monday at a Nashville conference.
“Overall, the economy is in solid shape; we intend to use our tools to keep it there,” chair Jerome Powell said. Because the Federal Open Markets Committee (which sets the benchmark Federal Funds Rate) has a positive outlook on the economy, he added, “This is not a committee that feels like it’s in a hurry to cut rates quickly.”
Consumers are doing well, with wages outpacing inflation, say Ernst & Young economists Lydia Boussour and Gregory Daco. They noted that real disposable income is now growing at a robust 3.1% year-on-year pace, and real consumer spending growth ticking up to 2.9%. The data, they said, “indicate a more sustainable pace of consumer spending backed by robust income momentum.”
The Fed’s dual mandate—to keep inflation down and employment up—seems to be paying off in both directions. U.S. job openings unexpectedly increased in August after two straight monthly decreases, with 1.13 job openings for every unemployed person in August compared to 1.08 in July, and the number of Americans quitting their jobs fell to the lowest level since August 2020. This puts the economy on track for an expected .25% rate cut in November.
Mortgage rates are still inching downward at about 6.22 % this week, down from 7.35% in August; however, the Fed has less power over mortgages, notes Melissa Cohn, a regional vice president at William Raveis Mortgage. “Rates follow the 10-year yield and not the fed funds rate,” she said. “Renewed concerns that the inflation battle has not yet been won has sent yields up this week and some mortgage rates with it.”
Still, even as some economists worry about a potential rise in unemployment, a recession, or stagflation, Swiss bank UBS says the chance of a boom cycle is 50%.
“It’s no longer too soon nor too optimistic to suggest that the US will experience a Roaring ‘20s economy,” said Jason Draho, head of asset allocation for the Americas at UBS. “It already is by our criteria, with the relevant question being whether these conditions will continue, not whether they will materialize.”
One cloud on the horizon is Donald Trump’s tariff plan. Morgan Stanley economists say the plan would drive up inflation, crimp economic growth, and hurt employment. “If the proposed tariffs are fully implemented, we estimate a near-term acceleration in the inflation rate and a delayed drag in GDP growth,” they wrote in a note Monday.
Washington DC based non-profit Dog Tag, explains how their business education programs are helping former service members re-enter the workforce.
NEW YORK (AP) — Crude prices are jumping Thursday on worries that worsening tensions in the Middle East could disrupt the global flow of oil, while U.S. stocks pull back further from their records.
The S&P 500 was edging down by 0.4% in afternoon trading after a shaky week knocked the index off its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 251 points, or 0.6%, as of 3 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
Stocks sank as oil prices kept rising amid the world's wait to see how Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack from Tuesday. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, leaped 5% to settle at $77.62 after starting the week below $72. It's potentially on track for its biggest weekly gain in nearly two years.
Oil prices rose after President Joe Biden suggested on Thursday that U.S. and Israeli officials were discussing a possible strike by Israel against Iranian oil facilities.
“We’re in discussion of that,” Biden said to reporters. He added, “I think that would be a little – anyway,” without finishing the thought. Biden also said he doesn’t expect Israel to retaliate immediately against Iran.
Iran is a major producer of oil, and a worry is that a broadening of the fighting could not only choke off Iran's flows to China but also affect neighboring countries that are integral to the flow of crude. Helping to keep prices in check, though, are signals that supplies of oil remain ample at the moment. Brent last month hit its lowest price in nearly three years.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose after reports suggested the U.S. economy remains solid. One showed growth for real estate, health care and other U.S. services businesses accelerated to its strongest pace since February 2023 and topped economists' expectations, though employment trends may be slowing.
A separate report, meanwhile, suggested the number of layoffs across the United States remains relatively low. Slightly more workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, but the number remains low compared with history.
Outside of this week’s worries about the Middle East, the dominant question hanging over Wall Street has been whether the job market will continue to hold up after the Federal Reserve earlier kept interest rates at a two-decade high. The Fed wanted to press the brake hard enough on the economy to stamp out high inflation.
Stocks are near their records because of hopes the U.S. economy will indeed continue to grow, now that the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates to give it more juice. The Fed last month lowered its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years and indicated more cuts will arrive through next year.
China is also talking about more aid for its economy, and “when the top policymakers in the world’s two largest economies are determined to support economic growth, it pays to listen,” according to Evan Brown, head of multi-asset strategy at UBS Asset Management. He suggests not underestimating policy makers' resolve to cut off the risk of a recession.
The job market could use help, as U.S. hiring has been slowing. The U.S. government will release the latest monthly update on the jobs market on Friday, and economists expect it to show hiring slowed slightly from August's pace.
On Wall Street, Levi Strauss dropped 7.4% despite reporting better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The denim company’s revenue fell short of forecasts, and it said it’s considering what to do with its Dockers brand, whose revenue fell 7% last quarter.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.85% from 3.78% late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Fed will do with overnight rates, rose to 3.71% from 3.64%.
Yields have been rising as as traders pare their bets for how much the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by at its next meeting in November. After many were earlier forecasting another deeper-than-usual cut of half a percentage point, they're now betting on a 65% chance the Fed will cut by just a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2% as its sharp swings continue amid speculation about when the country’s central bank may hike interest rates next.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has also been swerving, and it gave back 1.5%. Stocks in China have largely been surging on hopes for a flurry of recent announcements from Beijing to prop up the world’s second-largest economy. With Shanghai and other markets in China closed for a weeklong holiday, trading has crowded into Hong Kong.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Have you ever wanted to step into the world of Super Mario Brothers? Now you can. Except you'll have to go to the home of Nintendo in Japan
Dallas Cowboys or Pittsburgh Steelers? New York Mets or Milwaukee Brewers? Democrats or Republicans? You can now bet on all three of those upcoming clashes
October 3, 2024, New York, NY – Cheddar, the finance, technology, and innovation news platform, is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This collaboration introduces NYSE TV Live, which airs every weekday from 9am-10am EST. NYSE TV Live offers streaming coverage of bell ceremonies, exclusive interviews with company executives and guests, and real-time market reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.
Cheddar’s content distribution efforts include its 30+ partner-strong CTV and OTT streaming app network, social media channels that reach over 10 million people, the cheddar.com website, and daily newsletters to over 500,000 subscribers. Starting this fall, five exclusive annual sponsorships will be available across the Cheddar Network for NYSE TV LIve’s " Opening Bell” show.
In conjunction with this exciting partnership, Cheddar is set to launch a dedicated section on its website titled “NYSE TV Live.” This channel will highlight segments from the “Opening Bell” show and provide a rich archive of historical content from the NYSE.
“Cheddar’s mission has always been to offer news in an approachable and engaging format, and partnering with the NYSE amplifies this commitment,” said Lauren Babbage, Head of Content and Programming for Cheddar. “By integrating the prestigious ‘Opening Bell’ into our show lineup and creating a channel to house NYSE TV Live, we are setting a new standard for financial journalism and opening up a world of possibilities for our viewers and sponsors alike.”
This partnership is designed to captivate our core audience of young professionals aged 26-49 who prefer Cheddar’s fresh and dynamic approach to finance, technology, and innovation news. As the preferred platform for millennials, representing the largest generational group in the U.S., Cheddar is uniquely positioned to connect innovative brands with this influential demographic through impactful and integrated marketing campaigns.
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About CheddarCheddar is the leading source of news and analysis in finance, technology, and innovation. Known for its journalistic integrity and engaging presentation style, Cheddar reaches millions of viewers who seek a more modern take on financial news. Cheddar is not just a news outlet; it’s a movement towards making financial and technological literacy accessible to everyone.
Media Contact: Stephanie Gildea, Head of Marketing, sgildea@mco.com
Imagine logging on to check your bank account and finding zero balance…that was the case for many Bank of America customers on Wednesday
The dockworkers strike impacting ports from Maine to Texas, including New York and New Jersey continues…and its impact being seen at the grocery store
Just over a month away from the election and President Trump again facing criminal allegations
Brooks Running SVP of Footwear, Carson Caprara, introduces the new Glycerin Max and explains how leaning into innovation helps build customer brand loyalty
Find out which groups of people are thinking a TikTok ban will actually happen and which are hoping the social media lives forever. Watch!
Low interest financing, sweet lease deals, price cuts and free charging boosted Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter, the first increase this year for the electric vehicle maker.
The Austin, Texas, company said Wednesday that it delivered 462,890 vehicles from July through September, bolstered by loans as low as 1.99%, and $299 monthly leases on the Model 3, its least expensive vehicle. It delivered 435,059 vehicles during the same period last year.
The figures for July through September came in slightly higher than analyst estimates of 462,000 for the period, according to data provider FactSet.
However, shares of Tesla Inc. dropped sharply in morning trading, down nearly 4%.
The deliveries were “good and a step in the right direction,” wrote Dan Ives of Wedbush, but that there would be pressure on the company's stock because investors had been hoping for even better.
“Overall, this is a clear improvement from the first half and we believe getting in the range of 1.8 million for the year is still the key and important bogey,” Ives said.
Tesla has struggled much of the year to sell its aging model lineup as growth in electric vehicle sales in the U.S. and Europe slowed due to concerns with range, price and the ability to charge on trips.
Falling sales early in the year led to once-unheard of discounts for the automaker, cutting into its industry leading profit margins. Analysts estimated that Tesla’s average vehicle sales price was $42,500 for the third quarter, the lowest price in four years.
The sales decline likely will pull down third quarter earnings when they are announced on Oct. 23.
Tesla’s sales decline comes as competition is increasing from legacy and startup automakers, which are trying to nibble away at the company’s market share.
Nearly all of Tesla’s sales came from the smaller and less-expensive Models 3 and Y, with the company selling only 22,915 of its more expensive models that include X and S, as well as the new Cybertruck.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors Tuesday that third-quarter sales would bring a rebound as China sales continue to increase and price and demand stabilizes.” As China continues to heat up on the demand story for Tesla with favorable leasing/financing terms and pent-up demand in the region, we are confident that we will see a significant growth figure in the region,” he wrote.
Europe will continue to be slow with macroeconomic pressures, and U.S. demand should stabilize, Ives wrote.
But BNP Paribas Exane said in an investor note that long term expectations of the market are somewhat high for Tesla. The company said its sales estimates for 2026 and 2027 “remain 10% to 15% below the street, respectively.”
Tesla is scheduled to unveil a purpose built robotaxi at an event next week.
Ayako Yoshioka, Senior Portfolio Manager at Wealth Enhancement Group, discusses how data is indicating how the economy will fare in the fourth quarter of 2024.
NYC Innovates takes you on a deep dive into the heart of the Big Apple's booming tech scene. Airing Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
NYSE TV Live offers streaming coverage of bell ceremonies, exclusive interviews with executives, and real-time market reporting. Weekdays 9–10 a.m. ET.
You can own a piece of Tom Brady! A time piece that is…the seven-time Super Bowl champ putting up his exquisite watch collection for sale at Sotheby's
"Iran will pay," that's the stark warning from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Iran launched it's largest ever attack on Israel Tuesday
Hurricane Helene is now the second deadliest storm to hit the US mainland in the last 50-years, 162 deaths blamed on the category 4 hurricane.
Vice Presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance took part in a relatively civil debate in New York City Tuesday night
Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite, explains why the company's self-ordering kiosks are taking over restaurants across the country
Merriam-Webster is introducing 200 new words to the world. They may be words or phrases you already know, but now they are officially a part of the dictionary.
Are we on the verge of another Middle East War? The White House believes Iran is planning an imminent ballistic missile attack on Israel
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are retreating from their records Tuesday as worries worsen about potentially escalating violence in the Middle East.
The S&P 500 pulled 1.1% lower, a day after setting an all-time high for the 43rd time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 225 points, or 0.5%, in midday trading after coming off its own record. The Nasdaq composite was 1.7% lower, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time.
Oil prices jumped as worries ratcheted higher that worsening tensions in the Middle East could disrupt the flow of crude from the region. Iran is preparing to “imminently” launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel, according to a senior U.S. administration official, who warned Tuesday morning of “severe consequences” should it take place. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 3.7% to top $70.
The sharp swings halted, at least temporarily, what had been a run to records for U.S. stocks. They had been jumping on hopes the U.S. economy can continue to grow despite a slowdown in the job market, as the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates to give it more juice. The Fed last month lowered its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years, and it’s indicated it will deliver more cuts through next year.
The question is whether the cuts will ultimately prove to be too little, too late after the Fed earlier kept rates at a two-decade high in hopes of braking on the economy enough to stamp out high inflation.
A discouraging report arrived Tuesday, showing U.S. manufacturing weakened by more in September than economists expected. Manufacturing has been one of the areas of the economy hurt most by high interest rates, and the report from the Institute for Supply Management said demand continues to slow.
A separate report was potentially more encouraging. It showed U.S. employers were advertising more than 8 million job openings at the end of August. That was slightly more than July's number and better than what economists were expecting. A more comprehensive report on hiring will arrive on Friday, when the U.S. government details how many jobs U.S. employers created in September.
Besides the job market, another threat to the economy could lie in the strike by dockworkers at 36 ports across the eastern United States. It could threaten to snarl supply chains and drive up inflation if it lasts a while.
The workers are asking for a labor contract that doesn’t allow automation to take their jobs, among other things. So far, financial markets have been taking the strike in stride. Supply chain experts say consumers won’t see an immediate impact from the strike because most retailers stocked up on goods, moving ahead shipments of holiday gift items.
On Wall Street, the majority of stocks were falling. Among the exceptions were defense contractors that make weapons and oil-and-gas companies that could benefit from higher crude prices.
Northrop Grumman flew 2.7% higher, and Marathon Oil gained 2.8% for two of the bigger gains in the S&P 500.
Signet Jewelers dropped 8% after the diamond retailer said CEO Virginia Drosos is retiring, effective Nov. 4. The company named J.K. Symancyk, who was most recently the CEO of PetSmart, as her successor.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.71% from 3.79% late Monday. Yields fell after worries about the Middle East drove investors into Treasurys, gold and other investments seen as safer.
Yields had already been easing worldwide following an encouraging earlier update on inflation from Europe. Inflation among the 20 countries that use the euro currency came in below 2% in September for the first time in more than three years, and the slowdown could give the European Central Bank leeway to cut interest rates more quickly.
In stock markets abroad, European indexes swung from modest gains to losses. They fell 1% in France and 0.7% in Germany.
Farther east, a quarterly “tankan” survey by the Bank of Japan showed more large manufacturers are still feeling optimistic about business conditions than pessimistic. Japan also reported that its unemployment rate for August fell to 2.5% from 2.7% in July, in line with market expectations.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rallied 1.9% to claw back some of its steep 4.8% loss from the day before.
Markets in China and South Korea were shut for holidays. Mainland Chinese markets, which had their best day since 2008 on Monday, will remain closed until Oct. 7 for the National Day break.
___
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
In the classic board game Monopoly, players covet high end properties. In the newest update, they've been replaced by the karaoke bar and the mechanical bull.
Voters can watch election coverage while simultaneously shopping for everything from school supplies to socks and electronics
Tonight, Republican Senator JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz square off in the Vice Presidential Debate here in New York
A major strike impacting impacting the entire US economy is under way. Tens of thousands of dockworkers walking off the job Tuesday
Founder of KIND Snacks, Daniel Lubetzky, joins Cheddar to talk about diving in the deep end on ABC's 'Shark Tank.' Watch!
The mission of Legacy Education is to educate students in career specific disciplines in the areas of allied health that match industry demands.
Noom has announced it's providing GLP-1s to kickstart your weight loss journey with affordable pricing.
DailyPay provides employees with real-time access to their earned wages, offering greater financial flexibility and control.
Kristen Scholer sits down with Adam Lake, Head of Engagement at Climate Group, during Climate Week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled Monday that more interest rate cuts are in the pipeline but suggested they would occur at a measured pace intended to support a still-healthy economy.
His comments, at a conference of the National Association for Business Economics in Nashville, Tennessee, disappointed the hopes of many investors that the Fed would implement another steep half-point reduction in its key rate before the end of the year. The Fed cut its rate by a larger-than-usual half point earlier this month as it has moved past its inflation fight and pivoted toward supporting the job market.
The broad S&P 500 stock index fell 0.2% in afternoon trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5%.
“We’re looking at it as a process that will play out over some time,” Powell said during a question and answer session, referring to the Fed's interest rate reductions, “not something that we need to go fast on. It’ll depend on the data, the speed at which we actually go.”
At their last meeting Sept. 18, Fed officials reduced their rate to 4.8%, from a two-decade high of 5.3%, and penciled in two more quarter-point rate cuts in November and December. On Monday, Powell said that remains the most likely outcome.
“If the economy performs as expected, that would mean two more cuts this year,” both by a quarter-point, Powell said.
In prepared remarks, Powell said the U.S. economy and hiring are largely healthy and emphasized that the Fed is “recalibrating” its key interest rate, as opposed to cutting rapidly as it would in an emergency.
He also said the rate is headed “to a more neutral stance,” a level that doesn't stimulate or hold back the economy. Fed officials have pegged the so-called “neutral rate” at about 3%, significantly below its current level.
Powell emphasized that the Fed's current goal is to support a largely healthy economy and job market, rather than rescue a struggling economy or prevent a recession.
“Overall, the economy is in solid shape,” Powell said in written remarks. “We intend to use our tools to keep it there.”
Inflation, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, fell to just 2.2% in August, the government reported Friday. Core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories and typically provides a better read on underlying price trends, ticked up slightly to 2.7%.
The unemployment rate, meanwhile, ticked down last month to 4.2%, from 4.3%, but is still nearly a full percentage point higher than the half-century low of 3.4% it reached last year. Hiring has slowed to an average of just 116,000 jobs a month in the past three month, about half its pace a year ago.
Over time, the Fed’s rate reductions should reduce borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including lower rates for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.
“Our decision ... reflects our growing confidence that, with an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, strength in the labor market can be maintained in a context of moderate economic growth and inflation moving sustainably down to 2%,” Powell said.
Since the Fed’s rate cut, many policymakers have given speeches and interviews, with some clearly supporting further rapid cuts and others taking a more cautious approach.
Austan Goolsbee, president of the Fed’s Chicago branch, said that the Fed would likely implement “many more rate cuts over the next year.”
Yet Tom Barkin, president of the Richmond Fed, said in an interview with The Associated Press last week, said that he supported reducing the central bank’s key rate “somewhat” but wasn’t prepared to yet cut it all the way to a more neutral setting.
A big reason the Fed is reducing its rate is because hiring has slowed and unemployment has picked up, which threatens to slow the broader economy. The Fed is required by law to seek both stable prices and maximum employment, and Powell and other policymakers have underscored that they are shifting to a dual focus on jobs and inflation, after centering almost exclusively on fighting price increases for nearly three years.
Live from New York its the 50th season of Saturday Night Live. SNL returning over the weekend and so too did Maya Rudolph in her role as Kamala Harris
Hashtag cancel Netflix was trending on 'X' due to founder Reed Hastings support of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris
Two stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts finally have a ride home and it arrived at the international space station on Sunday
Hurricane Helene leaving behind a path of devastation and carnage across the Southeastern US. The cleanup expected to take weeks or even months.
30 Rock's Top of the Rock is launching skylift, a new ride that takes visitors 900 feet above Manhattan, opening on October 1st
Diageo and PepsiCo have launched a new ready-to-drink beverage in great Britain that combines Captain Morgan spiced rum with Pepsi Max
Consolidation coming to cable TV. DirecTV and Dish close to a merger that would create the largest pay TV provider in the country.
The Oakland A's bidding an emotional farewell to the place they called home since 1968, before a sellout crowd of nearly 47-thousand fans
Good news on the inflation front. The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge showed consumers paid 2.2 percent more for goods and services for the year
Hurricane Helene is wreaking havoc along the Florida Gulf Coast. Helene made landfall late Thursday night as a category 4 hurricane and is now a tropical storm
Emirates connects the world through Dubai, operating modern aircraft and offering award-winning services with a diverse workforce across six continents.
Stocks hit record highs as inflation and interest rates fall, suggesting a soft landing for the Fed. However, low consumer confidence raises concerns.
Boeing’s Big Bad MonthIt isn’t getting any better for America’s planemaker. Last week, 30,000 machinists walked off the job, angling for something better than a 25% wage hike. On Thursday Boeing confirmed its 737 production line was shut down, and the company has been losing money on several of its fixed-cost development contracts with the Defense Department. Oh, and did we mention that those two astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are still stuck on the International Space Station? It’s just like Lost, but, you know, in space. If only there were a TV show that sufficiently conveyed that idea…
New CEO Kelly Ortberg has a lot of work to do: He needs to end the strike and, analysts say, rebuild Boeing’s culture of innovation. That means moving headquarters back to the factory floor in Seattle from Washington, and working with airlines, regulators and staff to rebuild America’s faith in Boeing after two fatal crashes of the 737 Max (in 2018 and 2019) and a January 2024 incident where an unsecured fuselage panel blew off in mid-flight.
Boeing’s problems are really an issue of corporate culture, says Usha Haley, a business professor at Wichita State University. (Boeing’s fuselage builder, Spirit Aerospace, is also in Wichita.) A series of CEOs at Boeing in the past couple decades shifted the emphasis from building great planes to posting quarterly profits.
“The cultural issue was a shift from quality and innovation to cost cutting, and it began about 20 years ago with spinning off Spirit,” said Haley. “When you outsource manufacturing, you lose control over quality.”
Quality was Boeing’s hallmark for over a century, and until the beginning of the 21st century, it built all its airplanes in Seattle and manufactured many of its own parts. Rebuilding the culture of quality, and the safety assurance that comes with it, will be the key to increasing production. (The FAA now limits Boeing to 34 planes a month, when it could turn out 84.) “It’s very difficult to change your culture: You can hire people. You can fix problems in the supply chain, but to change a culture, the problem is the soft stuff is the hard stuff.”
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The Usual Suspects Elon’s World: X issued its first transparency report since Musk’s 2022 takeover, noting that in the first half of 2024, it received nearly 224 million reports, including 67 million reports of “hateful conduct,” removed 10.7 million posts and suspended 5.3 million accounts. In all, just 0.123% of all posts were found to violate X’s posted rules. • Is Elon a national security threat? That’s what former U.S. labor secretary Robert Reich argued in The Guardian this week: Musk has access to many national security secrets, controls Starlink, and uses illegal drugs, including marijuana and ketamine. • SpaceX will send a handful of unmanned ships to Mars in two years, the next time the two planets are aligned, in what Musk called the “Earth–Mars transfer window.” If those go well, the first manned flights would be in four years. Ultimately, it’s all about the benjamins: “Making life multiplanetary is fundamentally a cost per ton to Mars problem,” Musk tweeted. • Musk and Bernie Sanders agree on one thing: Semaglutides are too expensive, and the government needs to bring the price down. • A photo posted by Elon’s mom shows her boy and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni gazing into each other’s eyes at a dinner in New York. Introducing her at the event, Musk said Meloni “is even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside,” while she called him “a precious genius.” Both are effectively single, and as the New York Post reports, “They have discussed their shared interest in the West’s declining birth rates and expressed their optimism for the future of artificial intelligence.” There’s been no comment from either camp. • There’s no ambiguity about Mark Cuban’s relationship with Musk: “I just like to fk with him,” Cuban said on the podcast This Past Weekend. He said it’s remarkably easy to wind up Musk, adding that the billionaires’ feud “almost seems romantic a little bit.” • Adult party game Cards Against Humanity bought a small chunk of land on the U.S.-Mexico border to mess with Donald Trump’s border wall. Now it’s suing SpaceX for allegedly trespassing on that lot. • Thousands of former Twitter employees could gain significant severance payments, after one of their crowd won an arbitration victory with Musk. * Damn, We’re Good: The pandemic recovery was even faster than early data showed, according to new information from the Commerce Department. Standard updates to GDP data showed that, adjusted for inflation, the economy grew faster in 2021, 2022 and early 2023 than initially believed. * Sky Wars: The Airline Fights Back: Embattled number-four carrier Southwest says it will start selling assigned seats next year, but continue to allow two free bags per passenger, as it fights back against activist investor Elliott Investment Management. Southwest’s own reservation system let it win passengers when rivals were hobbled by the CrowdStrike computer outage in July. Elliott owns 10% of Southwest and says it wants to change the board, oust the CEO, and make the airline more profitable. * Fed Up*: The Fed’s rate cut last week boosted small business investment, The Wall Street Journal reports. A fourth of small-business owners surveyed earlier this month said a half-percentage-point reduction in rates would be enough to boost their prospects, the Journal reported, citing a survey by Vistage Worldwide in early September. The rest said they still need more rate cuts before they feel comfortable investing again (or feel a significant reprieve from high interest payments).
The Trouble With OpenAISam Altman seems to have a problem keeping people from getting mad at him. He was famously fired last November by the board of OpenAI over issues including allegedly abusive behavior. He was rehired a week later. Now he’s facing a wave of departures at OpenAI as he simultaneously plans to turn the nonprofit foundation into a for-profit company in which he’d own a significant 7% stake. First, Mina Murati, his chief technical officer, announced she’s leaving after six years. No reason was given, but Altman said in a blog post that he understood her reasons for packing it in. Within hours, the chief research officer, Bob McGrew, and vice president of research Barret Zoph said they’re leaving, too.
Then the New York Times reported on Altman’s hush-hush plan for a series of global computing hubs to build ever more powerful AI. According to the Times, which cited nine people close to the program, Altman got investors from the United Arab Emirates, chipmakers in Asia and U.S. regulators talking together to build his network.
The transformation to a for-profit company comes as Altman says he’s talking to investors who could value the company at $150 billion. Names floating around include Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple and Tiger Global.
It’s hard to see how OpenAI can make that transformation. U.S. tax laws would put a heavy burden on the transformation, and might not permit the full transfer of its IP to a private firm. Then there’s Altman’s nemesis, Elon Musk, who is still smarting over his own investment into OpenAI.
“You can’t just convert a non-profit into a for-profit. That is illegal,” Musk posted on X. “Sam Altman is Little Finger,” he added.
so let me get this straight
openai decides to become a for-profit company now
the cto, head of research, and vp of training research all decide to leave on the same day this is announced
sam altman gets a $10.5B pay day (7% of the company) on the same day
tim cook and satya…
— amit (@amitisinvesting) September 26, 2024
The Short Stack Walmart’s Children: Walmart’s rising share price, up 50% this year, has made Sam Walton’s three kids, Alice, Jim and Rob centi-billionaires. * Googled! AI engineer Noam Shazeer quit Google when the search company refused to introduce a chatbot he’d developed. Now Google wants Shazeer and his AI smarts back in-house as it battles Apple, Microsoft and OpenAi for the artificial intelligence market. So it agreed to pay his Character.ai company $2.7 billion to license the chatbot technology. With one condition: Shazeer come back to work for Google. * Port Ills: Dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts are threatening a walkout October 1, forcing businesses to rush imports into the country before the ports close. Other ships are being diverted through the Panama Canal or around the tip of South America to West Coast ports, where longshoremen have already agreed to a new labor pact. JP Morgan says a strike could cost the economy $5 billion a day, or 6% of GDP, The New York Times reported. * Visa Charged*: The Justice Department took a swipe at Visa this week, accusing it of stifling competition in the credit card market. For more than a decade, Visa allegedly forced merchants and banks to put the bulk of their payments through the card company’s payment network. It allegedly used its dominant market position to threaten higher fees for merchants who use other payment networks—like MasterCard’s—to process debit transactions. No word on whether the government will take on those 30% interest rates for late payment. “Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing, but the price of nearly everything,” said attorney general Merrick Garland.
Regulating ElonIt’s been a bad week for Elon Musk and the various regulators who scrutinize his businesses around the world. First, Brazil got Elon to cry uncle, and now the month-long showdown with Brazil’s highest court appears to be ending with Musk agreeing to appoint a new country representative, a key step to restoring X’s access in Brazil. But it also leaves the door open to sanctions for not moderating extremist local content on the site. To get back online, X will have to pay a $1 million fine, and provide proof all the inflammatory accounts identified by the court have been shut. No word on whether Musk has to take down the Alexandre Files account, devoted to shaming his Brazilian nemesis, Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, whom Musk has called Brazil’s Voldemort. Then, across the Atlantic in Europe, regulators are mulling a probe into X breaking the Digital Services Act, a new set of content moderation rules. The European Commission accused X in July of misleading users with its blue checkmarks for certified accounts, insufficient advertising transparency and failing to give researchers access to the platform’s data. Fines could reach into the billions of dollars, and as its owner, Musk could be held personally liable. Back across the ocean, Musk is in hot water with two sets of U.S. regulators: The Federal Aviation Administration has been delaying the approval of Musk’s next Starliner launch, part of his ambitious—and likely unfeasible—program of getting humans to Mars this decade. Musk is now calling for FAA chief Michael Whitaker to resign. Maybe that’s because unless Musk is on a rocketship to Mars, he will have to face an interrogation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over his 2022 purchase of Twitter for $44 billion. A federal judge ordered him to cooperate with regulators looking at whether Musk made misleading statements about his purchases of Twitter stock, but when they showed up in California to meet him on September 10, Musk ghosted them.
Meta goes Hollywood. The tech giant upgrading its AI chatbot to feature celebrity voices like Awkwafina, Kristin Bell, John Cena, and Dame Judi Dench
A political earthquake in NYC as Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on federal criminal charges, making him the first sitting mayor in the city's modern history
The Florida panhandle bracing for Hurricane Helene. Currently strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to hit the Florida gulf coast later this week.
Desiree Freison, Build In Tulsa’s Director of Programming, talks about helping the city's business ecosystem.Sponsored by Build In Tulsa
CEO of Amplify for Women Carlisha Williams Bradley talks about her experience with Build In Tulsa’s W.E. Build program.Sponsored by Build In Tulsa
Ashli Sims, Managing Director of Build In Tulsa, discusses how the organization is creating an equitable economy in Tulsa.Sponsored by Build In Tulsa
Big news is afoot in the Magic Kingdom. Disneyland announced that one of its long-standing fan-favorite rides will undergo two lengthy closures in the coming months. The first of the closures for It’s a Small World will run from September 16 through November 15 for general maintenance, as well as to get the ride decked out with decor for the upcoming holiday season. Then, the ride will close again on January 21 for a few additional months as it receives general and ride system maintenance. Although an official date hasn’t yet been announced, the ride is expected to reopen after the second closure in spring 2025.
The old mill boat ride in Fantasyland is known for its whimsical kitschy decor and costumed chorus of children sings the undeniably catchy classic “It’s a Small World (After All)” song. It was first created for 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF.) The project was directly overseen by Walt Disney, and was such a big hit that it eventually was shipped back to Disneyland in Anaheim, where it opened on May 28, 1966.
All Ears reported that the various closures in the park have resulted in heavy wait times for other rides. The Happiest Place on Earth is also discontinuing the Red Car Trolley in the Disney California Adventure Park, inspired by the Pacific Electric Railway trolleys that operated in Los Angeles from 1887 to 1961. Though the closures for It’s a Small World are temporary, the ride will undoubtedly be missed by travelers and Disney fans until it’s impending reopening.
This story was originally published on sunset.com. You can read it here.
Oliver Linch, CEO of Bittrex Global, joins Cheddar to breakdown what happened to Caroline Ellison and discusses the future of cryptocurrency. Watch!
Warner Brothers Discovery and Google have teamed up to create an AI caption generation tool for the Max streaming platform dubbed "Caption AI."
U.S. commercial real estate is rebounding as buyers and lenders return, driven by declining borrowing costs and the belief that property prices have hit bottom.
Google has re-hired AI pioneer Noam Shazeer for approximately $2.7 billion, following his departure in 2021 to start character-AI.
Chinese-linked hackers have recently infiltrated several U.S. internet service providers in a covert operation called "Salt Typhoon."
James Stewart joins Cheddar to discuss his New York Times article on what really went on behind-the-scenes at Disney when Bob Iger took back his spot as CEO.
Oscar and Grammy-winner, Lady Gaga, has announced her upcoming soundtrack album "Harlequin" featuring 13 songs set for release on September 27th.
New CDC data shows that the U.S. adult obesity rate has ticked down to 40.3%, marking the first time in over a decade it has not increased.
Coca-Cola says it is discontinuing Coca-Cola spiced just seven months after its release.
Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of alameda research and key witness in the FTX fraud case, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11B.
Dubai welcomed 9.31 million international tourists this year, a 9% increase. The 'D33' Agenda aims to double GDP by 2033 through innovative projects.
GameSquare CEO, Justin Kenna, joins Cheddar to discuss the online gaming space and how marketable it can be with billions signing on to play worldwide. Watch!
The justice department is suing Visa for allegedly monopolizing the debit card market. The DOJ claims the company forces businesses to use its network.
Citizens Financial Group outpaced the S&P 500 with a 20.1% gain in 3 months, 25.7% YTD, and 51.3% in a year.
Steve Hill, CEO & President of Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, talks all things Sin City including transportation news, nightlife and the Sphere!
Caroline Ellison, a former executive at Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX cryptocurrency empire, is set for sentencing for fraud.
For last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice. — TS Eliot
Carlo and Baker cover the verdict in the Ghislaine Maxwell case, piecemeal Covid closures spreading across the country and more.
Carlo and Baker discuss the lives of two iconic Americans who rose from nothing to the top of their fields, and more.
Carlo and Baker cover the new CDC quarantine guidelines, the prospects of a vax mandate for air travel and more.
Carlo and Baker kick off the weirdest week of the year with all the news you missed over the holiday weekend, including calls for the CDC to shorten its isolation window as Omicron sweeps through the country.
Carlo and Baker cover the heartening news on the Covid front ahead of the holiday, plus President Biden punting student loan repayments again, a new space telescope and Love, Hate, Ate: Christmas Eve Eve Edition!
The boys discuss President Biden's plans to send out free rapid tests as the testing supply chain starts to buckle ahead of the holidays. Also, why aren't Americans having more babies, and The Matrix returns.
Carlo and Baker preview President Biden's address to the nation as Omicron becomes the new dominant Covid strain. Plus, Trump gets booed for getting his booster and the White House gets a new puppy.
Carlo's joined by a quarantining Baker to discuss the headlines from the weekend as Omicron spreads like wildfire, Manchin kills Biden's signature bill and Spider-Man throws a lifeline to the box office.
Carlo and Baker wrap up another week discussing the latest explosion in new Covid cases in the Northeast, President Biden's stalled agenda and more. Plus, Love, Hate, Ate featuring the question: why did movie dialogue get so hard to understand?
The boys talk Fed decision, Omicron spread, NFTs and more. Plus Carlo expands on his exasperation with new Covid restrictions.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest data showing the Omicron wave has likely started, Pfizer's Covid pill, Jan. 6 and a box office rescue attempt courtesy of Spider-Man.
Carlo and Baker discuss the latest revelations from the Jan. 6 investigation, the Biden administration's efforts to cut government red tape and more.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest developments after a devastating tornado outbreak over the weekend, plus an eye on Omicron and inflation, and not even Spielberg can save the box office.
Carlo and Baker wrap up the week talking about the Biden economic boom that no one seems to notice, a verdict in the Jussie Smollett case, the first Starbucks union in America and the pleasures of the "dude nod."
Cheddar Innovates gets a look at the satellite that's searching for the earliest light from the big bang, plus a former Nike executive breaks down what the new era of sportswear looks like.
Stefan Olander, co-founder of sportswear company Omorpho, joins Cheddar Innovates to talk about his 'gravity sportswear' concept and why our workout clothes need an overhaul.
Research finds that the market for plant-based foods is worth $7 billion, but a lot of the plant-based and vegan options on our shelves aren't as healthy as they seem. Enter 'Cool Beans.' Tyler Mayoras joins Cheddar Innovates to talk about his whole-food, plant-based burrito brand.
A packed Thursday pod: Carlo and Baker cover the latest developments in the Ghislaine Maxwell, Jussie Smollett and Elizabeth Holmes trials. Plus, Dems are losing the Hispanic vote, Boris Johnson in trouble again, and is it possible that Adele has peaked?
Biden warns Putin not to move on Ukraine, the first data on Omicron breakthrough cases is in, pay raises coming, Confederate statue removal and more.
Carlo and Baker discuss the sweeping new vaccine mandate in NYC that will target all private businesses. Plus, Trump's media venture gets its CEO and more.
Carlo and Baker catch you up on what you missed over the weekend, starting with the latest, somewhat encouraging, developments re: Omicron.
It's Friday at long last. Jill and Carlo cover the latest on Omicron, including a possible superspreader event in NYC. Plus, previewing the November jobs report, a new Zoom feature no one asked for, and when it's no longer a good idea to eat Thanksgiving leftovers.
Jill and Carlo discuss what appears to be the beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade, another victim dies following the school shooting in Michigan, Omicron in the U.S., Trump's Covid chronology and more.
Jill and Carlo cover the latest on Omicron, another school shooting in America and more. Plus, bidding farewell to 'transitory' inflation, and the controversy surrounding 'Lovely Bones' author Alice Sebold.
Jill and Carlo cover the latest developments with the Omicron variant that are spooking markets once again. Twitter's @Jack is leaving, SCOTUS takes up abortion rights and the world has a brand new republic.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest developments with the Omicron variant, and break down what we know and what we still don't. Plus, a relatively tame Black Friday, and more.
Jill and Carlo talk travel, Covid, Grammy nominations and what they're thankful for this year. Plus, a special pre-Thanksgiving Love, Hate, Ate!
Jill and Carlo are a bit delayed today on account of Carlo's internet not working. Better late than never, they discuss what we know about the suspect in the Christmas parade crash, closing arguments in the Arbery killing trial, and more.
Jill and Carlo cover the developing story out of suburban Milwaukee, where a speeding SUV careened through a Christmas parade. Looters get more brazen in San Francisco, the missing Chinese tennis star resurfaces, and more.
Jill and Carlo are back to cover the latest in the Rittenhouse trial, new information on the origins of Covid, return-to-office and more.
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Jill Wagner is joined by Baker to talk about kids and vaccines: we finally know how many young kids are getting vaccinated. Plus, Democrats are working on a Plan B for paid family leave. And the salad chain Sweetgreen goes public.
Jill is joined by “Friend of the Pod” Mosheh Oinounou to talk booster shots, and whether “fully vaccinated” will eventually mean three shots, not two. Plus, the latest on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. And the research is in: we know now the perfect way to hug. Also, Jill and Mosheh debate whether Airpods are passé.
Jill is joined by Baker Machado to talk all things infrastructure: where will the money go and who’s in charge? Plus, Sesame Street has its first Asian-American muppet. And a trailer for the trailer for Spiderman. Huh?
Jill and Carlo cover the latest with the infrastructure bill, the growing state rebellion over boosters, Trump's dereliction of duty on the pandemic, Taylor Swift's reign of cultural domination and more.
A jam-packed Freitag pod with Carlo and Baker: new Covid hotspots, Kyle Rittenhouse trial, Belarus making trouble for Europe, red-hot housing market, and how to manage a PR crisis the right way.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest inflation print, a climate pledge between adversaries, a dramatic day in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and more.
Some ominous signs as Covid cases stop going down, Kamala Harris' brutal poll numbers, a union drive at Starbucks and more.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
Jill and Carlo are back, talking Biden's big infrastructure victory, the end of the pandemic in sight with new anti-Covid pills imminent, and more.
A Freitag pod with Carlo and Baker, talking about the upcoming federal vax-or-test deadline, the most shocking upset of this week's elections, an incredible story of selflessness and Love, Hate, Ate.
Carlo and Baker discuss the fallout from Tuesday's election and the flashing warning sign for Dems ahead of the midterms. Also, a big 2A case at the Supreme Court, Aaron Rodgers has Covid and is in big trouble, and a first for the MCU.
Carlo and Baker discuss the election results across the country, including a Republican comeback in Virginia -- and possibly NJ -- plus the CDC gives the go-ahead for child vaccinations, Atlanta wins the World Series and more.
Carlo and Baker cover the big races to watch on this off-cycle Election Day, the concrete pledges starting to come out of COP26, Jeffrey Epstein keeps causing CEOs to lose their jobs, and Ryan Murphy's TV hit that wasn't.
Carlo's flying solo today, talking COP26 and climate change, another racially charged trial gets underway, SCOTUS takes on abortion and a stunning rise in traffic deaths points to a bigger societal breakdown sparked by the pandemic.
Carlo and Baker cover Facebook's big rebrand, the latest on Biden's economic agenda and more. Plus, ranking the best Halloween candy and the worst couple's costumes.
Dems race for a deal on President Biden's economic agenda ahead of his big foreign trip. What to make of the latest threat assessment in Afghanistan. Plus, the meme cryptocurrency of the moment that's now worth more than many Fortune 500 companies.
Jill and Carlo discuss the pending approval for Pfizer's vaccine for kids, the state of anti-Semitism three years after Tree of Life, potential criminal charges in the 'Rust' prop gun shooting and more.
Jill and Carlo cover the news out of Facebook's latest earnings, Tesla's monumental day, Dave Chappelle addresses controversy and the tragedy of the climate emergency.
Jill and Carlo cover the latest developments in the Alec Baldwin prop gun shooting, when vaccines for kids as young as 5 should be approved, new reporting on Facebook and more.