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☆ Morgan Stanley names cash-rich global stocks with 'better downside protection'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Lucy Handley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Morgan Stanley named a raft of European stocks with strong balance sheets, lots of cash or high shareholder returns. High cash flow and shareholder returns The bank also screened for companies with "resilient high free cash flow." "Self-financing companies should be better able to weather any prolonged macroeconomic weakness, deploying capital effectively and seizing opportunities that come along the way," Morgan Stanley said. "Cash-rich companies with high free cash flow yields should also have better downside protection, while providing upside potential if management is able to deploy its cash effectively," the bank said. Those firms also have "positive free cash flow and net income growth expected over the next 2 years," the bank said.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Burberry, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: CNBC, JD Sports, Sanofi, Airbus, MTU Aero Engines, SAP, WPP, Publicis Groupe, InterContinental Locations: Europe

☆ How 'RuPaul's Drag Race' queen Mrs. Kasha Davis gave up an 18-year career to become a drag queen
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Popil began spending his nights performing as drag queen Mrs. Kasha Davis in 2004, and appeared on "RuPaul's Drag Race" in 2015 at age 43. I got to get on stage, have fun and create the character of Mrs. Kasha Davis: married lady, international celebrity housewife. "RuPaul's Drag Race" is like the Olympics of drag, and "All Stars" comes with even higher expectations from fans. I've seen some contestants of "RuPaul's Drag Race" spend thousands, up to $10,000 per look, in order to compete on the runway. Mrs. Kasha Davis

Persons: Ed Popil's isn't, Popil, Kasha Davis, Stephen Levins, Davis, there'd, Pandora Boxx, —, There's, they're, Let's, I've, who's, He's, it's, What's Organizations: CNBC, Hallmark Locations: Rochester , New York, Rochester —, Darienne

☆ We are trying to democratize diamonds, Pandora CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWe are trying to democratize diamonds, Pandora CEO saysPandora CEO Alexander Lacik discusses the company's results and the jewelry maker's plans to enter the Chinese market.

Persons: Alexander Lacik Organizations: Pandora

☆ As Gen Z gains major spending power, brands like Sephora and The Knot are rethinking their marketing strategies beyond millennials
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Ryan Joe | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In 2021, 64.3 million millennials made online purchases, compared to a projected 64.4 million in 2023, according to Insider Intelligence. By contrast, 37.2 million Gen Zers made online purchases in 2021 compared to a projected 45.5 million in 2023. "But in terms of bringing new customers into a brand, I'm not hearing conversations every week about getting more millennials — it's 'Gen Z, Gen Z, Gen Z.'" While Watford's mandate also includes non-Gen Z millennials, some in the advertising industry have shifted focus onto Gen Z, which is more open to brand messaging, particularly in environments like video games. So if you're targeting Gen Z, you're not just targeting Gen Z."

Persons: Gen Z, Gen, Zers, Sarah Engel, it's, Z, Zena Arnold, Jenny Lewis, Lewis, Comscore, Magna, Pandora, SiriusXM, Suzi, Ann Hand, they're, Barbie's Dreamhouse, Hand, Digital's Engel Organizations: Companies, Intelligence, Nielsen, Edison Research, Spotify, YouTube, Super League Gaming, Mattel, League Gaming Locations: Roblox

Yeah, you’re going to need one of those fancy pizza ovens to replicate this in your home. I think right now, every media company in the world is trying to figure out what replaces Twitter. And they say, you’re going to about to make the easiest money you’ve ever made in your entire life. You’re going to have more people beating a path down your door than you thought was possible. We now have Ubers that are so — I don’t know if you’ve looked at your Uber receipts recently.

Persons: kevin roose I’m, casey newton, kevin roose, casey newton They’re, kevin roose Gang, casey newton Oh, let’s, Kevin Roose, ” casey newton, Casey Newton, —, Casey, casey newton Mhmm, it’s, kevin roose I’d, you’re, you’ve, — casey newton, Sam Altman, casey newton Isn’t, that’s, Silly Putty, I’m, casey newton Well, Kevin, what’s, kevin roose Totally, casey newton I’ll, Unobtainium, James Cameron, You’ve, Meissner, we’re, There’s, they’re, casey newton Here’s, Twitch, kevin roose There’s, Iris_IGB, she’s, there’s, casey newton There’s, Russia she’s, I’ve, They’ve, hasn’t, ChatGPT, Claude, They’re, hydroxychloroquine, Joe Rogan, Bravo, “ Fortnite, casey newton That’s, we’ve, casey newton Kevin, India Venom, Lydia Tár, we’ll, don’t, casey newton Sure, ”, Joe Biden, casey newton I’m, casey newton Mike Masnick, he’s, Mike, — casey newton Look, who’d, It’s, HatGPT, kevin roose —, casey newton We’re, Rupert Murdaugh, Beast, James Donaldson, Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a, Beast — casey newton James, Uber, Beast Burger, Burger, We’re, Meta, Abraham Lincoln, Facebook — Abraham Lincoln, casey newton It’s, kevin roose Oh, Abraham —, roose, casey newton Greg Rutkowski, Greg Rutkowski, Greg Rutkowski’s, Greg, You’re, casey newton Wow, Elon Musk, San Francisco NIMBYs, Don’t, kevin roose It’s, you’re Uber Organizations: Mmm, casey newton Mmm, The New York Times, Quantum Energy Research Center, collider, Twitter, Capitol, Federal Trade Commission, Netflix, Heritage Foundation, Republican, Democrats, Republicans, California, Tax, Facebook, YouTube, HatGPT, BBC, WordPress, Health Department, Financial Times, Ford Theater, ” Workers, San, Wall Street Locations: Seoul, Russian, Russia, India, KOSA, SESTA, The, Kashmir, tooting, Washington, San Francisco, Ha, Canada

CNN —Matt Damon turned down a major role years ago – except this role was one that could have made the Oscar-winner upwards of $250 million. “Water” sits behind “Avatar” and “Avengers: Endgame,” which has grossed nearly $2.8 billion since its release in 2019. It’s a decision that may haunt him, but all signs seem to indicate that Damon did just fine without venturing around Cameron’s planet of Pandora. For now, Damon stars in director Christopher Nolan’s latest war-era epic “Oppenheimer,” which premieres in theaters on Friday. As for Damon’s claim that his decision resulted in the most money an actor has declined ever, that’s debatable.

Persons: Matt Damon, Chris Wallace, ” Damon, James Cameron’s, ” Cameron, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore, Michelle Rodriguez, ”, It’s, Damon, Christopher Nolan’s, Oppenheimer, Sean Connery, Gandalf, Peter Jackson’s, “ didn’t, Bond Organizations: CNN

☆ Luxury tests limits of its immunity to downturns
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Compagnie Financiere Richemont (CFR.S) is testing the limits of luxury’s immunity to downturns. Shares of other big luxury players, including $236 billion Hermes International (HRMS.PA) and $502 billion LVMH (LVMH.PA), also fell 4.2% and 3.7% respectively. The top 5% of wealthiest shoppers who are probably less sensitive to inflation drove around 40% of global luxury sales last year, according to Boston Consulting Group. Shares in the European luxury sector are on average up 69% since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Meanwhile, revenue in Asia, which makes up 40% of Richemont's revenue, grew 40% year-on-year in the last quarter.

Persons: Cartier, U.S . downer, Karen Kwok, George Hay, Sharon Lam Organizations: Reuters, Financiere, Hermes, Boston Consulting, Citi, U.S ., Twitter, Cathay, Thomson Locations: Asia

☆ The economy feels worse than it actually is because people were spoiled by the snap-back recovery after the pandemic crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Americans feel bad about the economy, even though data shows a booming labor market. The recovery from the pandemic recession reset everyone's expectations about what a good economy looks like. Americans are feeling bad about the economy, and some of that is likely due to inflation eating at their budgets. Consumer confidence is still low, and, as JPMorgan Asset Management chief global strategist David Kelly writes, Americans feel an "unreasonable level of gloom." In short, the things that used to make Americans feel good or bad about the economy aren't as consequential anymore.

Persons: Aaron Terrazas, Labor Julie Su, that's, David Kelly, Kelly, Terrazas, —, would've Organizations: Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor, Pew Research Center, JPMorgan Asset Management, Fed Locations: Wall, Silicon, America

☆ A baby born the day 'Avatar' was released will be able to legally drink in the US by the time the final movie comes out, as Disney delays the sequels yet again
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Nathan Mcalone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Assuming no further delays, the last movie won't come out until 2031 — 22 years after the original. Disney announced a slew of delays on Tuesday including in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Did you think the delays were over for the "Avatar" franchise? Disney announced a slew of delays on Tuesday that stretched from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Pandora. Variety reported that while some Marvel delays were due to production issues around the Hollywood labor disputes, the "Avatar" delays were to "allow the post-production and visual effects department to continue expanding, developing and refining the different ecosystems across the vast world of Pandora."

Persons: James Cameron, Jason Guerrasio, Cameron, Guerrasio, Jon Landau Organizations: Disney, Marvel, Variety Locations: Hollywood

June 13 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) on Tuesday announced that a new "Star Wars" film will reach theaters in 2026 but said it would postpone the release of the next three installments in James Cameron's blockbuster "Avatar" series. The studio also pushed back the scheduled release dates for "Thunderbolts" and "Blade," two Marvel films that have been disrupted by the ongoing strike by Hollywood writers. "Avatar 3," originally scheduled to debut in December 2024, is now set for release in December 2025. "Avatar 4" is slated for December 2029 and "Avatar 5" for December 2031. A new "Star Wars" movie was scheduled for December 2026, one of two in the space saga that will be released that year.

Persons: James Cameron's, Jon Landau, Landau, Mahershala Ali, Ryan Reynolds, Dawn Chmielewski, Lisa Richwine, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Walt Disney Co, Tuesday, Marvel, Hollywood, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Los Angeles

[1/2] Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin speaks with servicemen during withdrawal of his forces from Bakhmut, 2023. Press service of "Concord"/Handout via REUTERSSummary Prigozhin: conflict with Chechens settledPrigozhin: Kremlin factions endanger the stateSays defence ministry is in chaosWagner may go to Belgorod region - PrigozhinMOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters. Prigozhin said a dispute between him and Chechen forces who are also fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine had been resolved. But he laid the blame for the discord on unidentified Kremlin factions - which he calls "Kremlin towers". "Dangerous games have become commonplace in the Kremlin towers...they are simply destroying the Russian state."

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin's, Prigozhin, Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov's Akhmat, Sergei Shoigu, Staff Valery Gerasimov, Niether, Guy Faulconbridge, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Press, Staff, Thomson Locations: Bakhmut, Concord, Belgorod, MOSCOW, Russian, Ukraine, Kremlin, Soviet Union

☆ Should you check emails on vacation or face a ‘tidal wave’ of messages later? These CEOs have some ideas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Should you check email on vacation or face a tsunami of messages once you're back at the office? An 'email intervention'Robinson launched an "Email Intervention Campaign" earlier this month to deal with issues like "vacation email panic," he told CNBC Travel. "I encounter tons of people who are burned out from email," said work-life speaker and consultant Joe Robinson. Robinson advises companies to create defined email policies, ideally ones which give workers permission not to check email on vacation. Don't respond (if you don't have to) Emails proliferate like rabbits, said Joe Robinson.

☆ Europe wants to ban Russian diamond imports. What comes next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“Russian diamonds are not forever,” European Council President Charles Michel said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on Friday. Tatyana Makeyeva/ReutersA ban on Russian diamonds could inflate prices for European consumers, especially if diamond production elsewhere doesn’t ramp up. The biggest task facing Europe is how to design an air-tight ban that prevents Russian diamonds from arriving in the bloc through circuitous routes. “There are a lot of Russian diamonds that still get sold within the American economy,” he said. “If you really want to close loopholes, you need to find a system that prevents [Russian] diamonds going to the G7 market,” Neys said.

May 16 (Reuters) - French video game producer Ubisoft (UBIP.PA) posted the biggest operating loss in company's history on Tuesday but stuck to its guidance for the current financial year, citing a renewed focus on blockbuster titles. The maker of the hit "Rainbow Six" franchise posted a full-year non-IFRS operating loss of 500.2 million euros ($550.6 million), in line with a target announced in its January profit warning. The family-run firm has been dogged by game cancellations and delays in recent years, booking a writedown estimate of around 500 million euros in 2022 due to research and development expenses. The Paris-listed publisher confirmed its estimate for a full-year core profit of around 400 million euros, while forecasting first-quarter net bookings of around 240 million euros. ($1 = 0.9084 euros)Reporting by Victor Goury-Laffont and Enrico Sciacovelli; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Opinion | We Could Easily Make Risky Virological Research Safer
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The 2007 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain was traced to a faulty drainage pipe at a research facility. In 2015 the Department of Defense discovered that a germ-warfare program in Utah had mistakenly mailed almost 200 samples of live anthrax over 12 years. Lab accidents happen, and they aren’t especially rare. In January the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity issued a series of draft recommendations for tightening regulation and oversight. And many of those who see the Covid pandemic as merely the sort of pathogenic disaster that lab accidents might cause agree that greater safety is needed.

Researchers have also sought to quantify fairness and bias in AI models through various socio-ethnic parameters. For example, Stanford University's artificial intelligence index report scores for bias across AI models. It found a "counterintuitive" correlation between fairness and bias: models that scored better on fairness metrics demonstrated stronger gender bias, and less gender-biased models were more toxic. Driving AI technology advancements — being a "key player or enabler across the AI ecosystem to make businesses and society better." Some investors believe AI itself can help investors monitor and track ESG efforts by companies.

May 8 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) agreed to pay $215 million to settle a class action alleging widespread bias against women in pay and promotions, ending one of the highest-profile lawsuits claiming unequal treatment of women on Wall Street. In a well-known 1990s case, Smith Barney settled charges that men harassed women in a space known as the "Boom-Boom Room." "This settlement will help the women I had in mind when I filed the case," Orlich said in a statement. The settlement also calls for Goldman to hire independent experts to analyze its gender pay gaps and performance evaluation processes. In 2020, the bank said it aimed for 40% of vice presidents to be women within five years.

☆ Wall Street is empowering its employees to build their own tech tools. But who is keeping track of all this stuff?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A story about training non-tech workers that has nothing to do with ChatGPT? Man Group, a $144 billion investment firm, has a popular training program to get non-tech workers up to speed on coding and data-science. Programs like <develop>, along with the rise of ChatGPT, speak to a wider trend across Wall Street of enabling employees to build their own tools despite not having a background in tech. Empowering people to build their own tools and apps to streamline their work seems great on paper. Read more about how Man Group teaches non-tech workers programming skills that help them save time.

And Ecuadorian authorities have struggled to tackle this public security crisis “efficiently because it is mired in (a) political crisis,” González says. Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso is at the center of this storm, and his popularity has tanked amid widespread discontent with spiraling crime rates. Before President Guillermo Lasso took office, Ecuador had already become a key transit hub for cocaine due to its location between Peru and Colombia. Lasso told Ecuador’s legislative commission investigating him that he had not evaded taxes and that his tax trajectory was legally supported. Members of unions and civil society groups march on International Workers' Day to demand that Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, who is facing an impeachment process, leave office on May 1, 2023.

☆ European consumer sentiment becoming more positive, says Pandora CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailEuropean consumer sentiment becoming more positive, says Pandora CEOAlexander Lacik, CEO at Pandora, discusses first-quarter earnings, and explains how the company is navigating uncertain macroeconomic conditions.

☆ Opinion | We Are Opening the Lids on Two Giant Pandora’s Boxes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Well, if you are most worried about China beating America in A.I., you want to turbocharge our A.I. If you want to truly democratize A.I., you might want to open-source its code. systems will compound discrimination, privacy violations and other divisive societal harms, the way social networks do, you want regulations now. That last danger is real enough that on Monday Geoffrey Hinton, one of the pioneering designers of A.I. “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Hinton told The Times’s Cade Metz.

☆ 2023 layoff tracker: The latest on which companies have announced job cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +20 min

New York CNN —BuzzFeed, Lyft, Whole Foods and Deloitte all recently announced layoffs affecting thousands of US workers. With 11,000 job cuts announced in November and the 10,000 announced in March, Meta’s headcount will fall to around 66,000 — a total reduction of about 25%. The company announced in January that it was eliminating some 18,000 positions as part of a major cost-cutting bid at the e-commerce giant. IndeedJob listing website Indeed.com announced cuts of approximately 2,200 employees, representing almost 15% of its total workforce, the company said in March. The cuts come after the company announced several rounds of job cuts throughout the pandemic due to falling demand, followed by rapid hiring last year.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts poses during a group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., October 7, 2022. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday invited Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to testify next month before the panel about ethics reform of the court. Last week, the same news outlet reported that Thomas failed to disclose that Crow had purchased property from Thomas and his relatives, which included a house where Thomas' mother still lives. In his letter Thursday to Roberts, Durbin wrote, "Your last significant discussion of how Supreme Court Justices address ethical issues was presented in your 2011 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary." A Supreme Court spokeswoman did not immediately respond to CNBC when asked if Roberts would accept Durbin's invitation to appear before the committee.

☆ Universal Music Group calls AI music a ‘fraud,’ wants it banned from streaming platforms. Experts say it’s not that easy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Vanessa Yurkevich | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Universal Music Group — the music company representing superstars including Sting, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande — has a new Goliath to contend with: artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, and specifically AI music, learns by either training on existing works on the internet or through a library of music given to the AI by humans. That could possibly threaten UMG’s deep library of music and artists that generate billions of dollars in revenue. “However, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music … begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on.”The company said AI that uses artists’ music violates UMG’s agreements and copyright law. Grammy-winning DJ and producer David Guetta proved in February just how easy it is to create new music using AI.

☆ Bosses hate work from home because 'home' is for women
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

And the old way was clear: The office is for work, and the home is for — well, for whatever unpaid stuff it is that women do while their men are at work. Skeptical that work — real work — could be done at home, bosses quietly penalized the women who opted for flexible schedules by sticking them with boring assignments and denying them promotions. Embracing remote work is a good start, but it comes with risks of its own. Since the pandemic hit, I've heard a few CEOs liken remote work to opening Pandora's box. Women working from home are no longer the aberration — tradition-bound executives are.

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