DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Australia to hold independent inquiry into handling of COVID pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Renju Jose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Loren Elliott/file photo Acquire Licensing RightsSYDNEY, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Australia's centre-left Labor government on Thursday said it would hold an independent inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to better prepare for future health crises. Australia closed its international borders and locked down cities among other pandemic restrictions that helped keep infections and deaths far below levels in other comparable developed economies such as the United States and Britain. A three-member panel, which includes an epidemiologist, public service expert and economist, will conduct the inquiry, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a media conference. "We need to examine what went right, what could be done better with a focus on the future," Albanese said. "Because the health experts and the science tells us that this pandemic may ... not likely to be the last one that occurs."

Persons: Loren Elliott, Anthony Albanese, " Albanese, Albanese's, Peter Dutton, Renju Jose, Miral Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Labor, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia, United States, Britain, Victoria, Melbourne

☆ Behind Warren Buffett's $100 billion-plus bet on Apple and the iPhone
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-17 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The new iPhone 15 is about to hit the stores, and Apple CEO Tim Cook might have already sent one to his most important investor — Warren Buffett. He bought Apple shares after realizing how devoted people are to its phones, and its unique ability to keep consumers spending within the Apple ecosystem. His return has been well over $100 billion on paper, making Apple Buffett's best investment over the past decade. "Our railroad is a very good business, but it's not remotely as good as Apple's business," Buffett said at the Berkshire shareholder meeting in May . The billionaire investor has called Apple Berkshire's "third-largest business," after its insurance and railroad holdings.

Persons: Tim Cook, — Warren Buffett, Buffett, Ted Weschler, Todd Combs, Ben Graham, Cook, buybacks Buffett, repurchases, Apple's Organizations: Apple, Oracle, New, Wall, CNBC Locations: Berkshire, Omaha

☆ Nvidia again proves it's an 'own it, don't trade it' stock after delivering another blowout quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

"During the quarter, major cloud service providers announced massive NVIDIA H100 AI infrastructures. Leading enterprise IT system and software providers announced partnerships to bring NVIDIA AI to every industry. Quarterly commentary Data-center revenue in the quarter — comprising 76% of total revenue — reached a new record, more than doubling from a year ago and on a sequential basis. However, revenue was up sequentially on improved demand for Nvidia's enterprise workstation and the ramp of Nvidia RTX products. Nvidia said it bought back $3.28 billion worth of stock during its second quarter.

Persons: chipmaker, —, Jensen Huang, Jensen, Wall, there's, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Walid Berrazeg Organizations: Nvidia, Revenue, Club, Analysts, UBS, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Oracle, Ampere, Gaming, Truist, Jim Cramer's Charitable, CNBC, Getty Locations: China, Taiwan

☆ Nvidia wins again — plus two more takeaways from this week's mega-cap earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

It was also one of several conclusions we made combing through the results and listening to the conference calls with investors. We are basically looking for results or management commentary that speaks to peer companies or the industry as a whole. On the call, management said it was "to support cloud demand, including investments in AI infrastructure." What is increased AI spending going to do for Meta's engagement and Reels monetization efforts? Nvidia chief Jensen Huang (centre L) poses for photographs before attending a press conference at Computex 2023 in Taipei on May 30, 2023.

Persons: it's, Sundar Pichai, We're, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Jensen Huang, Sam Yeh Organizations: Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, AMD, Intel, Jim Cramer's Charitable, CNBC, Afp, Getty Locations: Taipei

☆ Hollywood strike may soon turn destructive for media stock investors, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

"We're getting to a point of being very destructive to the entertainment ecosystem," said Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett. Bazinet said to expect the walkout to last into the fourth quarter, which would mean a writers' strike lasting between around 150 and 240 days and an actors' strike in a range of 70 and 160 days. The strikes could cost the film and TV industry about $150 million per week, Citigroup's Bazinet wrote, using inflation-adjusted data from the 1980 actors' strike. "The lasting impacts are: [it] makes the streamers stronger and the traditional media companies weaker," Crockett said. JPMorgan analyst David Karnovsky downgraded movie theatre chain Cinemark shares to neutral from overweight earlier this week, citing the strike.

Persons: We're, Barton Crockett, Jason Bazinet, Bazinet, Douglas Mitchelson, Mitchelson, Goldman Sachs, Brett Feldman, Philip Cusick, Cusick, Goldman's Feldman, Citigroup's Bazinet, Rosenblatt's Crockett, Crockett, Feldman, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Stephen Laszczyk, David Karnovsky, Karnovsky, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Screen, – American Federation of Television, Radio Artists, Alliance, Television Producers, Writers Guild of America, Rosenblatt Securities, Media, AMC, Disney, Warner Bros, Discovery, Paramount, Netflix, UFC, Endeavor, WWE, SAG, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, AMC Networks, WBD, Covid, Comcast, CNBC

☆ Salesforce raises prices for the first time in 7 years. What it means for the stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | In Kevinstankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Salesforce (CRM) on Tuesday took another step to deliver profitable growth — a welcome development for investors, like us, which sent its stock price higher. Investors appeared upbeat around the list price increases, which Salesforce said are the first in seven years. "I don't expect it to impact churn much," said Berg, who has a buy rating and $230-per-share price target on Salesforce stock. It's worth noting, large customers will usually negotiate with Salesforce to secure a discount to a product's list price. Previously, a customer who bought 100 licenses at a 20% discount to the old list price would've generated $24,000.

Persons: Salesforce, Needham, Scott Berg, Berg, Mizuho, Marc Benioff's, Benioff, He's, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com, David Paul Morris Organizations: Service, Industries, Nasdaq, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, Devices, CNBC, Salesforce, Mizuho Securities, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: Palo, San Francisco

The S & P 500 rose 8.3% in the second quarter to extended its 2023 advance to 15.9%. Here's a closer look at the Club's best and worst performers in the first half of 2023, starting with the four winningest stocks. West Texas Intermediate crude ended the second quarter under $71 per barrel, about $10 below where it started the year. Humana (HUM) dropped 12.7% in the first half of 2023, rounding out the bottom-four Club stocks between January and June. The common denominator among the worst-performing Club stocks is a bit less obvious than with the winners.

Persons: It's, Dow, Here's, Mark Zuckerberg, Palo, Lisa Su, —, Eli Lilly, Locker, Foot Locker's, Estee Lauder, Estee, Halliburton haven't, encouragingly, Halliburton, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Jen, Hsun Huang, Huang, Andrej Sokolow Organizations: Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Nvidia, FactSet, Meta, Investors, Facebook, Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Alto, AMD, Devices, Palo, would've, The, HAL, Halliburton, West Texas, Coterra, Humana, Disney, DIS, CNBC, Consumer, Audi, Getty Locations: China, Meta, Palo, Palo Alto, Las Vegas, USA

☆ What comes next for ESG funds after the political backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Jesse Pound | In Jesse-Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Surging energy stocks in 2022 hurt the performance of many of the largest funds, and political backlash has gained traction with several states moving to block state funds from being invested in ESG products. According to AllianceBernstein, there were $12.1 billion of outflows from ESG funds in North America during the first quarter, although that was due to large outflows from a handful of funds. "This was primarily driven by redemptions from a few large passive ESG funds (e.g., iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF ) due to underlying investors rebalancing their factor exposure. Clearly the political backlash against ESG also weighed on sentiment and demand for ESG products in North America," AllianceBernstein's Zhihan Ma said in an early May note to clients. There were $2.7 billion of inflows into ESG funds in Western Europe during the first quarter, according to Bernstein.

☆ HSBC sees Chevron jumping more than 20% as oil prices recover
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

HSBC thinks oil giant Chevron stands to benefit from a recovery in oil prices. The firm upgraded shares of Chevron to buy from hold, with a $189 price target, which represents about 24% upside from Monday's close. Chevron shares are down nearly 10% this month. HSBC analyst Kim Fustier thinks that's mainly due to a drop in oil prices — U.S. crude oil is down 6% in May — noting it opens a buying opportunity. Meanwhile, the International Energy Association recently warned of a pending oil shortage that could lift prices higher in its monthly report for May .

Persons: Kim Fustier, that's, Fustier, Brent, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: HSBC, Chevron, Exxon, International Energy Association Locations: Chevron

☆ Gold advances on softer dollar as traders await U.S. inflation data
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A mark of 999.9 fine sits on hallmarked one kilogram gold bullion bars at the Valcambi SA precious metal refinery in Lugano, Switzerland, on April 24, 2018. Gold prices gained on Tuesday after falling over 1% in the previous session, as the dollar eased ahead of key U.S. inflation data. U.S. gold futures rose 0.5% to $2,013.30. The opportunity cost of holding the non-yielding bullion rises when interest rates are raised to bring down inflation. Data on Tuesday showed top bullion consumer China's March consumer inflation hit the slowest pace since September 2021 and suggested demand weakness persisted amid an uneven economic recovery.

☆ 3 takeaways from our daily meeting: 2 retailers we like and a strategy update
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. Sticking with Club stocks Buying more EL We like Costco here 1. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.

☆ Analyst loves Eli Lilly for its potential blockbuster obesity drug — and we do, too
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Club holding Eli Lilly 's (LLY) new diabetes treatment might become "the biggest drug ever" if it were to also get regulatory approval as an obesity drug, UBS wrote in a note to clients Thursday. Eli Lilly shares jumped more than 3% in Thursday's session. Bottom line We also think Eli Lilly is a buy here. As noted, Eli Lilly has a long history developing and selling diabetes drugs. The Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of the company's offices in San Diego, California, September 17, 2020.

Search resuls for: "May ."

12 mentions found