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NEW YORK , March 7 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N) Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan had a clear message for shareholders on Tuesday: "We are capitalists." The proclamation from the head of the second-largest U.S. lender might seem obvious, but comes at a time when Wall Street titans face more criticism for embracing environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations. The word "capitalism" is mentioned 22 times in BofA's latest annual report spanning 222 pages, rising from 16 times a year earlier. Still, the CEO acknowledged there are concerns about whether companies share profits or pay people fairly and equitably. The lender outlined its ESG goals in the report, including a pledge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and deploy $1.5 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030.

☆ Factbox: JetBlue-Spirit deal flies into Biden administration's tough scrutiny
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 7 (Reuters) - The $3.8 billion merger between JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O) and Spirit Airlines Inc (SAVE.N) is in the crosshairs of the U.S. Justice Department, making it the latest major deal to attract tough regulatory scrutiny. Large deals, including Nvidia Corp's (NVDA.O) bid to buy UK-based chip firm Arm Ltd, have been abandoned following regulatory hurdles. Here is a list of some mergers that faced strong antitrust scrutiny under the Biden regime:DEALS UNDER SCRUTINYDEALS BLOCKED & ABANDONEDDEALS THAT WENT THROUGHReporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File PhotoMarch 6 (Reuters) - American carmakers will lean on technology to keep the horsepower wars going among their electric muscle cars, a tectonic shift from the big, rumbling motors of the past. GM and Dodge have both issued timelines to stop selling gas-powered muscle cars and replace them with electric variants that will wear the same badges. Dodge's Charger and Challenger muscle cars will not be made next year, while Chevrolet has laid out plans for an electric Corvette. Brands such as Polestar and Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) have announced optional power upgrades to their sedans that improve acceleration and total horsepower via paid OTA (over-the-air) software updates. Dodge has said it will transition its muscle cars to an electric platform, and is working to differentiate those models.

☆ Exclusive: Activist Legion Partners nominates 4 directors at Primo Water -letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Activist investor Legion Partners Asset Management is pushing for four new directors to join Primo Water Corp's (PRMW.N) board, arguing they could help the water company's share price triple over five years. Legion nominated experts in water delivery, beverage operations, marketing and capital allocation as director candidates for election to the U.S.-Canadian company's 10-person board to help reverse "chronic underperformance," according to a letter seen by Reuters. "Substantial shareholder-driven change in the boardroom is long overdue and necessary at the 2023 Annual Meeting in order for Primo to achieve its full potential," Legion's managing directors, Chris Kiper and Ted White, wrote to fellow Primo Water shareholders. Legion, which helped place directors onto boards at Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's, said it owns a 1.5% stake in Primo Water and has been an investor in the past. Primo Water offers home and office water delivery, water exchange, where customers return their empty water jugs and buy new ones at retailers, and water refill, its most affordable offering, where customers refill jugs themselves.

☆ Exclusive: Nvidia's plans for sales to Huawei imperiled if U.S. tightens Huawei curbs-draft
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Alexandra Alper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] The logo of Nvidia Corporation is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan May 30, 2017. Nvidia's plans to sell to Huawei have not been previously reported. Reuters could not learn the details of the specific policy change whose impact was being assessed in the report. The report suggested Qualcomm would likely suffer a "moderate economic impact" from the change in policy, in contrast to Huawei. Indeed, the loss of access to Qualcomm's modem chips would have a bigger impact on Huawei, the report forecast, since Huawei "relies heavily on Qualcomm's modem chips to support its smart phone offering."

☆ AI stocks surge after C3.ai's strong forecast
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationMarch 3 (Reuters) - Shares of artificial intelligence-based (AI) product makers zoomed in premarket trade, as a strong forecast by retail investor darling C3.ai Inc (AI.N) amplified an ongoing euphoria driven by the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT. C3.a1 forecast a better-than-expected revenue and profit for both the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023, after the AI software company posted third-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates. Shares of C3.ai climbed 16.14% to $24.73 before the bell, and were among the top five stocks trending on StockTwits. Other major AI stocks with strong premarket moves included business support supplier Steelcase Inc (SCS.N), BigBear.ai (BBAI.N), conversation intelligence firm SoundHound AI (SOUN.O) and Thailand's security firm Guardforce AI (GFAI.O), jumping between 5.4% and 12%. AI firms have been at the forefront of retail buying ever since Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) investment in OpenAI's ChatGPT.

☆ Moody's downgrades Silvergate's rating after going concern warning
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Global ratings agency Moody's downgraded Silvergate Capital Corp's (SI.N) deposit rating to 'Caa1' from 'Ba3' on Friday, after the crypto-focused bank raised going concern doubts earlier this week. Cryptocurrency heavyweights including Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O) and Galaxy Digital have subsequently dropped Silvergate as their banking partner. Moody's said the Silvergate rating change reflects its "expectation that the company will continue to experience further declines in deposits, forcing it to continue selling securities, potentially at further losses." The bank's ratings were also placed on review for downgrade, Moody's said. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ These fortress stocks are beating the market this year as a perilous March looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The stock market in March is looking grim, but certain "fortress" stocks can allow investors to play defense and beat the market. With this in mind, CNBC screened for fortress stocks that can withstand and outperform the market. However, while shares have gained more than 9% in 2023, the stock has tumbled 15% over the past 12 months. Edison has also shown steady growth, with shares up 7% over the past 12 months. Shares have rallied more than 6% in 2023, but they are down almost 11% over the past 12 months.

☆ Buffett's Berkshire has record annual operating profit despite inflation, rate pressures
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) on Saturday reported its highest-ever annual operating profit, even as foreign currency losses and rising interest rates contributed to lower earnings in the fourth quarter. Buffett called 2022 a "good year" for Berkshire in his annual shareholder letter, after the conglomerate's dozens of businesses generated $30.8 billion of profit despite rising inflation and supply chain disruptions, including from the war in Ukraine. Berkshire also bulked up its cash hoard, ending the year with $128.6 billion after selling about $16.3 billion of stocks in the fourth quarter. Quarterly operating profit fell 8% to $6.71 billion, or $4,596 per Class A share, from $7.29 billion. Berkshire projected that Geico, which shed 7% of its 41,000-person workforce last year, will generate an underwriting profit in 2023.

☆ Lucid shares stumble on dour EV production target as price war weighs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Shares of Lucid Group Inc (LCID.O) slumped 10% in premarket trading on Thursday after the electric vehicle maker's 2023 production targets fell short of expectations amid waning demand and a price war unleashed by market leader Tesla Inc (TSLA.O). Lucid expects to produce 10,000 to 14,000 luxury electric vehicles this year, below analysts' estimates of 21,815 cars, according to Visible Alpha. Tesla shares rose 1.3%. About a quarter of Lucid's free float shares are in short position, according to analytics firm Ortex. Meanwhile, Nikola Corp's shares (NKLA.O) rose 4.7% on receiving an order for 20 hydrogen electric trucks from German logistics company Richter Group.

☆ EV maker Nikola misses quarterly revenue estimates on weak deliveries
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Nikola Corp FollowFeb 23 (Reuters) - Nikola Corp's (NKLA.O) fourth-quarter revenue missed Wall Street expectations on Thursday as the electric truck maker delivered fewer vehicles to dealers than it produced. The EV maker produced 133 trucks and delivered 20 vehicles to dealerships. It expects to deliver between 250 and 350 Tre battery electric trucks this year and at least 125 fuel-cell electric trucks in the fourth quarter. Nikola reported revenue of $6.6 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, below analysts' estimates of $32.1 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Net loss stood at $222.1 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $158.9 million a year earlier.

Executives across the technology sector are talking about how to operate AI like ChatGPT while accounting for the high expense. What makes this form of AI pricier than conventional search is the computing power involved. Still, footing the bill is one of two main reasons why search and social media giants with billions of users have not rolled out an AI chatbot overnight, said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology officer. Technology experts also said a workaround is applying smaller AI models to simpler tasks, which Alphabet is exploring. The company said this month a "smaller model" version of its massive LaMDA AI technology will power its chatbot Bard, requiring "significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users."

WHAT IS THE ACTIVISION DEAL? A group of 10 gamers in the United States has filed a private consumer antitrust lawsuit over the deal. Both companies have signed 10-year licensing deals that will bring Call of Duty to their gaming platform if the Activision deal is approved. Spain's Nware also signed a 10-year deal to bring Xbox and Activision Blizzard games to the Spanish cloud-gaming platform. Microsoft's Smith said the company would fight the FTC's request to block the deal.

Persons: Tencent, Martin Coleman, Brad Smith, Smith, Spain's Nware, Meta, Microsoft's Smith, Foo Yun Chee, Aurora Ellis, Maju Samuel Organizations: U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Microsoft, Activision, ACTIVISION, HK, Sony, U.S . FTC, Britain's, Markets, FTC, Nintendo, Sony Group, CMA, Commission, WHO, United States, May, Games Development, UNI Global Union, Nvidia, MICROSOFT, Britain, NINTENDO, NVIDIA, Xbox, Activision Blizzard, Antitrust, Facebook, Thomson Locations: metaverse, U.S, United, Brazil, Chile, Serbia, Saudi Arabia

☆ How to boost your portfolio income when companies cut dividends
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Dividend stocks have long been a way for investors to earn income, but recent cuts may have some concerned about what to do next. However, those recent decreases are unusual, said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S & P Dow Jones Indices. Where to look for income Corporate dividends are just one source of income, and that income should be just one part of your overall portfolio, said certified financial planner Jamie Hopkins, managing partner of wealth solutions at Carson Group. Dividend funds Another option is an exchange-traded fund composed of dividend stocks. WDIV YTD mountain SPDR S & P Global Dividend ETF's year-to-date performance The ProShares S & P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF , also tracks the index.

☆ Qualcomm announces software business around its supply chain chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 21 (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) on Tuesday said it is launching a paid cloud software service to help companies that use its chips keep tabs on goods as they move through the supply chain. The San Diego, California company is the world's biggest provider of chips that help smartphones connect to mobile data networks. Qualcomm Aware, as the new service is called, works with Qualcomm chips that go into tracking devices for shipping containers, pallets, packages and other parts of supply chains to help companies track where their goods and materials are. The software service announced Tuesday aims to let Qualcomm customers program their chips from one central spot, with updates sent to the chips over the air. "We believe there's value in the chip and in the cloud service," Torrance told Reuters.

Microsoft President Brad Smith told a news conference on Tuesday he was now more optimistic of getting the Activision acquisition done after the Nvidia deal and a similar arrangement with Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.T). Instead, Nvidia's 25 million customers will need to pay Nvidia for access to its cloud gaming platform and pay Microsoft for its games. Shares of Microsoft fell 2%, Nvidia dropped 3.4% and Activision fell 0.7% in a broadly lower market on Tuesday afternoon. Nvidia said it now supports the Xbox maker's bid to purchase Activision, but the deal could still be a hard sell with regulators. Smith said he hoped that rival Sony Group Corp (6758.T) will consider doing the same type of deal with Nvidia.

While law firms sometimes negotiate fixed fees on transactions, market participants said such deals would be unlikely on transactions that faced the amount of legal uncertainty of Rogers-Shaw. The Rogers-Shaw deal is expected to be the tenth-largest deal in Canadian history since 1995, according to data from Dealogic. Law firms Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb represented Rogers, while Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg and Wachtell are lawyers for Shaw. None of the law firms responded to Reuters queries on the legal fee. Rogers and Shaw on Friday extended the closing deadline for the fourth time to March 31.

☆ The Peebles Corp's Don Peebles explains how rising mortgage rates affect the housing market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | 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 EmailThe Peebles Corp's Don Peebles explains how rising mortgage rates affect the housing marketDon Peebles, founder of the Peebles Corporation, joins ‘Power Lunch’ to discuss the health of the housing market.

After a dearth of plant approvals last decade, developers have secured dozens of long-term contracts to finance new multibillion-dollar LNG plants. The United States was long an importer of LNG, but natural gas discoveries and production from the shale revolution flipped the country into an LNG exporter in 2016. U.S. LNG exports hit 10.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2022, making the country the second biggest LNG exporter behind Australia. But their production volumes will allow the United States to remain ahead of output from Australia and Qatar. The seven U.S. export plants already in service, including Freeport LNG, can turn about 13.8 billion cubic feet of gas into LNG each day.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoFeb 16 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc's (WMT.N) results on Tuesday will provide Wall Street with new details on what items American shoppers are buying as rising grocery prices squeeze their wallets. In December, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said "we do not like" that some suppliers were hinting at raising prices further in 2023. He warned that Walmart would allocate space to private and tertiary brands if prices got too high. KitKat maker Nestle on Thursday said further price hikes were necessary to offset commodity costs. Still, Wall Street expects Walmart sales and revenue to rise in 2023 as its shipping and logistics costs moderate, even as labor expenses go up.

☆ Sony chip unit sees limited impact from recent export curbs to China
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Sony Group Corp's (6758.T) semiconductor division will likely see a limited impact from chip export curbs to China by the United States, Japan and the Netherlands, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Chief Executive Terushi Shimizu said on Thursday. Sony is the world's largest maker of image sensors widely used in smartphones and autos. Shimizu said shipments of its security camera-related products could be affected by export curbs introduced by the United States in October, saying negative impact to its sales will likely exceed one billion yen ($7.47 million), but below 10 billion yen. In comparison, the chip division expects its total sales to come to 1.42 trillion yen for the year ending March 31, 2023. ($1 = 133.8700 yen)Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka Editing by Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The layoffs come as SoftBank tries to set up a public listing for Arm this year. Before the layoffs, Arm China had about 700 employees; there were no layoffs last year when parent Arm Ltd had global layoffs affecting up to 15% of its workforce, according to one of the sources. Arm China declined to comment. Arm China is the exclusive distributor of Arm licenses in China. One of the sources said some customers are concerned about Arm potentially changing how it charges royalties, as well as U.S.-China geopolitical tensions that could cut off access to Arm technology.

☆ AMD wins nearly a third of processor market, Arm's climb slows, analyst report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.O) has captured nearly a third of the market for central processor units while British chip technology firm Arm Ltd's rise in the PC market slowed in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to an analyst report. In the fourth quarter, Intel had 68.7% market share for x86 processors versus AMD's 31.3%, which was up from 28.5% a year earlier, according to Mercury Research. But the PC sales slump has also affected Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) Mac computer lineup, which is the leading source of sales for Arm-based PC chips. Mercury said Arm PC chips, led by Apple's in-house chips but also joined by Qualcomm Inc's (QCOM.O) recent PC chips for Windows machines, now have 13.3% share of the market PC chips, down from 14.6% a quarter earlier but still up from 10.3% share a year ago. Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Emerging markets are getting attention. Morgan Stanley names the 'highest quality' stocks to play it
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Zavier Ong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Emerging market stocks are piquing investor interest. Against that backdrop, Morgan Stanley named a raft of EM stocks it says are of the "highest quality" and are trading at reasonable prices. Morgan Stanley said valuations look "attractive" for the 29 stocks that turned up on its screen. Morgan Stanley likes Alibaba as a play on China's reopening and consumption recovery. Singapore-based utilities firm Sembcorp Industries is another Morgan Stanley favorite.

☆ Tesla's Model Y and Model 3 top-selling vehicles in California in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles were the top-sellers in California last year, outselling Toyota Motor Corp's (7203.T) RAV4 and Camry models, according to an industry body report. It is the first time a Tesla model topped the annual sales list in California, a major vehicle market where one in five cars is electric. Austin, Texas-based Tesla sold 87,257 Model Y electric sport utility vehicles and 78,934 Model 3 electric sedans last year, while Toyota sold 59,794 units of its RAV4 SUV and 55,967 of its Camry sedans, the California New Car Dealers Association said in its report. In 2021, the Camry was the top-seller in California, followed by the Model Y, Honda's (7267.T) Civic and RAV4, and the Model 3. Last year, zero-emission vehicles accounted for 19% of all cars sold in California, which brought in 40% of all sales of electric vehicles, including hybrid vehicles, in the United States.

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