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☆ The Executives Who Guide the Instacart CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Jaewon Kang | Corrie Driebusch | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In Personal Board of Directors, top business leaders talk about the people they turn to for advice, and how those people have shaped their perspective and helped them succeed. Previous installments from the series are here. When Fidji Simo was named chief executive of Instacart Inc. nearly two years ago, the grocery-delivery company was experiencing a pandemic-driven boom.

☆ China lodges serious representations with South Korea over joint statement with U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, April 28 (Reuters) - China expressed "strong dissatisfaction" to South Korea over its joint statement with the United States about the need for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, a foreign ministry statement said on Friday. Department of Asian Affairs Director-General Liu Jinsong met with South Korean Embassy Minister Kang Sang-wook on Thursday evening to emphasise China's stance on Taiwan and urged South Korea to strictly adhere to the "One-China" principle, the ministry said. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is on a six-day visit to the United States, during which Yoon and President Joe Biden held talks that covered tensions between China and Taiwan and Chinese military activities in the South China Sea. In a South Korea-U.S. joint statement, the presidents stressed the need for peace in the Taiwan Strait and said they opposed "any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the Indo-Pacific, including through unlawful maritime claims, the militarization of reclaimed features, and coercive activities." Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Why Porsche, Mercedes and GM are betting on silicon-anode batteries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Andrew Evers | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Batteries made with silicon instead of graphite — the commonly used material in battery anodes today — have been shown to enable significantly higher energy density and faster charging. Amprius is already working with Airbus , the U.S. Army, AeroVironment and BAE Systems on early iterations of its silicon-anode batteries. Sila Nanotechnologies, which was started by a group of ex-Tesla battery engineers, is also working on silicon-anode technology. Porsche also plans to use silicon-anode technology in its vehicles, and has invested in Washington state-based Group14 Technologies. Watch the video to learn more about silicon-anode batteries and why the auto industry is betting on them.

☆ Whole Foods Plans Corporate Job Cuts, Shuffles Structure
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Whole Foods Market, which operates across nine regions, will now have six. Photo: Laura Morton for The Wall Street JournalWhole Foods Market is planning to cut several hundred corporate jobs, the company said, as the grocer reorganizes its structure to simplify operations. The Amazon.com Inc.-owned grocer, which operates across nine regions, will now have six, according to a Thursday memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The company is adjusting structures of some corporate teams resulting in staff cuts, according to the memo. Whole Foods isn’t closing any stores or facilities, the memo said.

☆ American savers are missing out – because bank interest rates are trailing the Fed's benchmark by a record amount
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

That means there's a record gap between the rates they offer customers on deposits and the Fed's benchmark. The interest rates that banks pay on customer deposits are lagging the US central bank's benchmark by a record amount, its economists said in a new paper. Assets in money-market funds hit a fresh high of $5.25 trillion last week, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. "The spread between the Fed funds rate and the deposit rate is at a modern high of above 2%," Kang-Landsberg, Luck, and Plosser said. Deposit interest rates could be set to surge the rest of this year as the gap to the Fed's benchmark starts to close, according to the researchers.

☆ Whole Foods Market Explores Building Off-Site Kitchens to Supply Food Bars
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Whole Foods wants to improve the shopping experience for its customers. Whole Foods Market is exploring building commercial kitchens that would make prepared meals for the grocer’s food bars and refrigerated cases, people familiar with the matter said. The move is a shift for the Amazon .com Inc.-owned supermarket operator, which has outsourced much of its food production to other companies after years ago closing its own kitchens to cut costs.

☆ White House to China: Don't use Taiwan visit as 'pretext'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - The White House urged China on Wednesday not to use a "normal" stopover in the United States by Taiwan's president as a pretext to increase aggressive activity against Taiwan. John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters that Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's arrival soon in the United States is the latest in a series of routine transits. "The Peoples Republic of China should not use this transit as a pretext to step up any activity around the Taiwan strait," he said. It would be the first meeting on U.S. soil between a House speaker and a Taiwanese leader, and the prospect has angered Beijing. China responded to a visit last August to Taiwan by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with large-scale war games around the democratically ruled island.

☆ I run a multimillion-dollar slime business at 19. Here's how I got started in middle school with only $200.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Lola Christina Alao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Jungmin Kang started making slime out of Elmer's glue and borax as a hobby when she was 13. I started making slime in 2017 when I was a 13-year-old middle schooler after watching a video on Instagram. I realized that you could easily make it with glue and slime activator, which is borax diluted in water. When Jungmin started high school, it became difficult to balance the business with her education. Being a business owner has taught me about persistenceWhen I started, some of my classmates called slime childish and ridiculous.

☆ North Korea claims that in 1 day, 800,000 youths just up and decided to voluntarily join its army and fight the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

North Korea on Sunday claimed that 800,000 young people signed up to join the military in one day. Even if this were true, it doesn't necessarily mean Pyongyang's army has 800,000 new soldiers, an expert says. Even if North Korea did recruit 800,000 army personnel in a day, it may not mean that its military strength will increase by that amount, Gordon Kang, who researches North Korea at the East Asia Institute in Singapore, told Insider. On Sunday, North Korea launched another missile test that flew an estimated 500 miles east and fell into the ocean. North Korea currently has an estimated 1.15 million active-duty troops, including 950,000 army personnel, according to the CIA.

However, further announcements are expected in coming weeks as China implements a reorganisation of its financial regulatory structure and other government bodies. "Opting for continuity in these critical economic roles suggests an emphasis on credibility and stability," said Mattie Bekink, China director at the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network. The U.S.-educated central bank chief Yi, appointed PBOC governor in 2018, had widely been expected to retire after being left off the ruling Communist Party's Central Committee during the party's once-in-five-years congress in October. "It shows China wants to at least have a dialogue with the United States on monetary policy and financial cooperation," he said. The parliamentary session will end on Monday, with Xi expected to give a speech and Li, the new premier, scheduled to hold a televised media conference afterwards.

☆ Disney CEO Bob Iger says it's time for 'newness' from Marvel movies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

After a fourth Thor movie and a third standalone Ant-Man film, even Disney CEO Bob Iger wants something new out Marvel. "Sequels typically worked well for us," Iger said during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Thursday. "There's nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand," Iger said. Additionally, the amount of time between Disney+ Marvel series has grown. A new Marvel series has not debuted since the final episodes of "She-Hulk" launched in early October.

☆ A small Japanese town charges visitors to learn its baby-making tips
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The birth rate in Japan has been falling for three decades, and hit an all-time low last year. But in one small town, parents are electing to have more kids, The Wall Street Journal reported. For a second child, parents pay a maximum of $210, and aren't charged for any kids they have after that. Additionally, parents in Nagi receive a stipend of $1,000 annually for each child they have enrolled in high school. "We'd like to make policies like this," Kang Mu-seung, a South Korean official visiting Nagi, told The Journal.

☆ Crypto firm BKCoin hit by emergency asset freeze over alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme that paid for co-founder's rent and vacations
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The SEC Monday took emergency action against crypto firm BKCoin and its co-founder for allegedly running a fraud scheme. The company allegedly ran a $100 million Ponzi scheme that paid for its co-founder's rent and vacations. The asset freeze marks US regulators' intense crackdown on the crypto sector following FTX's collapse. BKCoin and Kang assured investors their money would be used to trade crypto, and that the company would generate returns for investors through separately managed accounts. "This action highlights our continued commitment to protecting investors and uprooting fraud in all securities sectors, including the crypto asset arena," said Eric Bustillo, director of the SEC's Miami office.

☆ South Korea's fertility rate fell to a new low in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Chery Kang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSouth Korea's fertility rate fell to a new low in 2022High child care and education costs, a demanding work culture and changing attitudes to gender equality are contributing to South Korea's low fertility rate, CNBC's Chery Kang reports.

SEOUL, March 6 (Reuters) - South Korea will halt a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute process sparked by a complaint against Japan as the two countries discuss Japan's export curbs on high-tech materials to South Korea, the two countries' trade ministries said on Monday. In July 2019, Japan imposed export curbs on materials used in smartphone displays and chips amid a decades-old row with Seoul about South Koreans who said they were forced to work under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea. As South Korea has proposed its companies would compensate those people, both countries will quickly begin discussions to return export curbs to their pre-July 2019 state, the ministries said on Monday. "The suspension of the WTO dispute resolution process is not really a withdrawal... but a pause," said Kamchan Kang, director-general at Korea's trade ministry. Reporting by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Flawless Kang seizes lead at World Championship
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 3 (Reuters) - American Danielle Kang fired a flawless nine-under-par 63 to grab a one-shot halfway lead at Sentosa after a weather-delayed second round of the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore on Friday. World number 18 Kang, who finished in a share of 29th after the first round, surged to the top of the leaderboard after draining nine birdies, including three in a row from the 12th. Surprise overnight leader Elizabeth Szokol was tied for second place, alongside Allisen Corpuz and Kim Hyo-joo, after the world number 153 had an inconsistent round and nearly cancelled out her five birdies with four bogeys. American world number two Nelly Korda was in a three-way share for fifth after carding 68. Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Aadi Nair Editing by Toby DavisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A part-time worker for Instacart filled customer orders in New Jersey last year. Instacart Inc. generated sharply higher sales and profit in the fourth quarter, according to people familiar with the matter and an internal memo, as the company prepares for its highly anticipated initial public offering of stock. The grocery-delivery company told employees on Tuesday that its revenue increased more than 50% in the fourth quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier, while gross profit rose more than 80%, according to a memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

☆ All 31 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, ranked by how much money they made at the global box office
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Travis Clark | Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Universal Pictures Worldwide box office: $264.7 million Total domestic box office: $134.8 million Domestic opening weekend: $55.4 million Budget: $150 million 29. Disney/Marvel Worldwide box office: $370.6 million Total domestic box office: $176.7 million Domestic opening weekend: $65 million Budget: $140 million 28. "Ant-Man" (2015) Marvel Worldwide box office: $519.3 million Total domestic box office: $180.2 million Domestic opening weekend: $57.2 million Budget: $130 million 23. Marvel Studios Worldwide box office: $644.8 million Total domestic box office: $206.4 million Domestic opening weekend: $85.7 million Budget: $170 million 19. Marvel/Sony Worldwide box office: $880.2 million Total domestic box office: $334.2 million Domestic opening weekend: $117 million Budget: $175 million 11.

☆ Marvel's 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' scores $104 million during domestic debut
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Paul Rudd is Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, alongside Johnathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in "Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania." Disney and Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" scored an estimated $104 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend. "Quantumania's" domestic haul is nearly double what the first standalone Ant-Man film opened to in 2015 and marks the 31st consecutive MCU release to debut at number one at the domestic box office. Internationally, "Quantumania" took in $121 million, bringing its estimated global haul for the three-day spread to $225 million. "'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' sets into motion what looks to be week after week of solid moviegoing and creates momentum for a solid summer movie season."

☆ Food Companies to Ex-Employees: Come Back, Please
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Jesse Newman | Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kroger has been reaching out to some ex-employees via text and email, helping lift the company’s staffing to near its prepandemic level. The U.S. food industry is tapping a new pool of workers to staff plants and grocery warehouses: their former employees. Kroger Co., the biggest U.S. supermarket operator by sales, is staying in touch with ex-employees and bringing some back. Cereal maker General Mills Inc. has persuaded some retirees to return to plant jobs, and other food-company recruiters have combed social media for former workers who might be open to coming back.

"Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" premiered in theaters on February 17. How to watch 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'"Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" is now available to watch exclusively in theaters. When will 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' be available on Disney Plus? "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" is expected to start streaming on Disney Plus later this year. With this range in mind, "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" should hit Disney Plus in April or May.

☆ 'Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania' eyes $100 million open after $17.5 million Thursday
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Disney's "Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania" collected $17.5 million in Thursday night previews on its way towards a $100 million opening weekend. Previously, 2015's "Ant-Man" snared $6 million on Thursday before tallying $57 million over the three-day spready. 2018's "Ant-Man and the Wasp" secured $12 million on its Thursday debut and $76 million across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. "'Quantumania' is tracking to become the best February box office opener in five years," said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. Lackluster critical reviews of the film likely won't deter moviegoers.

[1/4] Director Peyton Reed poses at a premiere for the film "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" in Los Angeles, California, U.S., February 6, 2023. "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is the first movie in phase five of Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. It takes the superhero and his resizing powers into the Quantum realm, a subatomic world where he meets new challenges. Reality melted away and brought her into the fantasy world that many children grew up reading about in the Marvel comic books, she noted. Disney artists assembled new environments, creatures, buildings and an entire internal history and logic to make the Quantum realm come to life.

☆ 'Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania' reviews: The villain is good, but the movie is bad
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

DisneyAre the pint-sized heroes of Disney's "Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania" enough to take on the newest — and baddest — villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." "Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania" held a 53% "rotten" rating from 148 reviews, as of Wednesday afternoon. "Sometimes the weight of all this responsibility causes 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' ... to buckle at the knees," O'Sullivan wrote. Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) in "Ant-Man and The Wasp in Quantumania."

☆ Kazuo Ueda nominated to lead Japan's central bank in possible move away from ultra-easy policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN —The Japanese government has nominated Kazuo Ueda to lead its central bank, in a surprise move that could pave the way for the country to wind down its ultra-loose monetary policy. Accommodative is a term used to describe monetary policy that adjusts to adverse market conditions and usually involves keeping interest rates low to spur growth and employment. As part of that program, the central bank targeted some short-term interest rates at an ultra-dovish minus 0.1% and aimed for 10-year government bond yields around 0%. But as prices rose and interest rates elsewhere went up, pressure has grown on the BOJ to wind down YCC. But Kuroda later dismissed a near-term exit from his ultra-loose monetary policy.

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