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☆ Airbnb drops 10% after earnings report offers cautious outlook for Q2
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Here's how the company did:EPS: 18 cents vs. 9 cents expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. 18 cents vs. 9 cents expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Revenue: $1.82 billion vs. $1.79 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Airbnb reported $117 million in net income for the quarter, up from a net loss of $19 million a year earlier. Gross booking value, which Airbnb uses to track host earnings, service fees, cleaning fees and taxes, totaled $20.4 billion in the first quarter.

☆ We're optimistic about China's tourism recovery in second half of 2023, says Fitch Ratings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | 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're optimistic about China's tourism recovery in second half of 2023, says Fitch RatingsFlora Zhu of Fitch Ratings says tourism in China has had a very strong rebound and a release of pent-up demand will continue to drive recovery in the sector.

☆ PayPal raises full-year profit above estimates on e-commerce strength, cost cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

While a cost-of-living crisis has now begun to squeeze budgets, particularly of lower income households, consumer spending has remained remarkably steady in the face of a looming economic slowdown. The company's payments volume rose 12% on a forex-neutral basis to $354.5 billion in the first-quarter ended March 31. The upbeat forecast echoes expectations of card giants Visa (V.N) and Mastercard (MA.N) that have remained largely upbeat about spending volumes on pent-up travel demand and resilient consumer spending. The company has said in the past that it is focused on lowering expenses with executives cautioning that inflation was impacting discretionary consumer spending. The payments firm earned a profit of $1.17 per share on an adjusted basis in first-quarter, compared with 88 cents last year.

☆ Texas deploys special border force to drive back expected migrant surge
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Doina Chiacu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"They will be deployed to hot spots along the border to intercept to repel and to turn back migrants who are trying to enter Texas illegally," Abbott said at a news conference. The elite National Guard team will focus on any such surges that occur, identifying crossing points and shutting them down, he said. The Biden administration is sending 1,500 additional troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border this week. The government also will finalize by Thursday a new rule denying asylum to many migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Abbott said he would continue busing migrants from small Texas border towns to big cities like Chicago and New York.

☆ How the $8 billion parking industry is evolving to stay alive
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Robert Ferris | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

There are between 700 million and 2 billion parking spaces in America — or put another way, between 2.5 to seven spots for every registered vehicle. The entire parking industry pulled in about $121 billion in 2022, according to Jerry Marcus, who runs a Boston-based parking consultancy called the Parking Advisory Group. The entire parking industry is projected to pull in about $144 billion in 2023. Within the larger parking industry, there's a group of companies that manage parking facilities for owners. That industry pulled in somewhere between $8 billion and just over $10 billion in revenue in 2022, according to market estimates.

☆ China's services activity expands as consumers return - Caixin PMI
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The figure echoed the official PMI released on Sunday, which showed a slightly slower pace of growth. The world's second-biggest economy is facing an uneven recovery and some persistent headwinds, with strong activity in services and a contraction in manufacturing. Surveyed services firms' production activity and new orders including new export order expanded for the fourth consecutive month in April. Caixin group attributed the rise in activity to the return to more normal operating conditions as the impact of COVID-19 continued to fade. Caixin/S&P's composite PMI, which includes both manufacturing and services activity, fell to 53.6 from 54.5 in March, marking the fourth straight month expansion.

WHAT IS TITLE 42? The COVID restrictions, known as Title 42, were first implemented under Republican then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. The Biden administration intends to lift Title 42 next Thursday when the U.S. COVID public health emergency ends. In April, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended some 183,000 migrants, according to preliminary data provided by Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a 13 percent increase from March. U.S. border cities are bracing for a possible rise in migrants when Title 42 ends.

☆ Will wages outpace inflation for long? It depends on the job
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Washington, DC CNN —Wages are now finally beating inflation, according to the latest quarterly data on wage growth. That was the biggest monthly increase since March 2022, though wage growth had gradually slowed since then. “The folks who left one company and went to another are the ones who are still benefiting from wage growth,” said Morgan Llewellyn, chief data scientist at Jobvite. Part of the continued strength in wage growth largely has to do with employers’ difficulty in hiring, which varies by industry. “Wage growth has still been higher for job changers than job stayers and that suggests that there’s still a shortage of labor for some companies,” said Dawn Fay, operational president at staffing firm Robert Half.

☆ China's service sector remains a bright spot as factory data disappoints, Caixin reading shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jihye Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

China's services activity remained well within growth territory in April as a private survey showed a softer reading from March. Atlantide Phototravel | Corbis Documentary | Getty ImagesChina's services activity remained well within growth territory in April, even as a private survey showed a softer reading compared with March. The latest Caixin reading suggests that services activity is still "undergoing a fast recovery," according to Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Insight Group. The continued expansion in China's services activity stood in contrast to the disappointing factory activity reported earlier in the week. "It is worth noting that manufacturing and services activity diverged, with employment and input costs in the manufacturing sector contracting significantly," Wang wrote.

It allows border agents to rapidly expel many migrants to Mexico. The anticipated increase in border crossings will be "extremely challenging," Mayorkas said during a press conference in Brownsville, Texas. The Mexican government will step up border security in southern Mexico as part of an agreement reached this week, Mayorkas said. Migrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border have risen in recent weeks, which Mayorkas attributed to a spike in Venezuelan crossers. Beginning May 12, roughly 1,000 appointments will be available each day, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

☆ China's factory activity skids in April on weak demand - Caixin PMI
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s factory activity unexpectedly dipped in April, a private sector survey showed on Thursday, due to softer domestic demand and suggesting the manufacturing sector is losing momentum amid a bumpy post-COVID economic recovery. FILE PHOTO: Employees work on a production line manufacturing metal parts for furniture at a factory in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China April 30, 2020. China Daily via REUTERSThe Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 49.5 in April from 50.0 the previous month prior. The reading echoes a similarly disappointing official PMI released on Sunday and reflects the uneven nature of China’s economic recovery, with services consumption, a key growth driver in the first quarter, outperforming manufacturing. “This suggests that China’s economic recovery significantly slowed after COVID-19 infections peaked at the start of this year,” said Wang Zhe, economist at Caixin Insight Group.

☆ Booking Holdings beats profit estimates on strong travel demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Booking Holdings Inc (BKNG.O) reported a better-than-expected profit for the first quarter on Thursday, as the online travel agency benefited from pent-up demand that drove consumers to book flights and hotels despite worries of an imminent recession. While experts in the industry largely remain confident about demand in the near-term, high inflation and concerns around a potential slowdown, however, threaten consumer spending. Last month, U.S. hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc (HLT.N) signaled signs of travel demand weakening in the second half of the year after it raised its full-year profit outlook. Booking reported an adjusted profit of $11.60 per share in the quarter ended March 31, compared to analysts' estimate of $10.61 per share, as per Refinitiv data. Reporting by Priyamvada C and Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China's May Day holiday spending exceeds pre-pandemic levels for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN —Holiday spending during China’s Golden Week has surged past pre-pandemic levels for the first time in three years, in a sign the country’s travelers have fully emerged from the depths of Covid-related restrictions and are eager to live large to make up for lost time. Alipay, the country’s biggest digital payment app, reported a 200% increase in online holiday spending from a year earlier. “The fact that domestic tourism spending is now back to 2019 levels suggests that the reopening boost to consumer spending has largely run its course,” said Capital Economics analysts in a Thursday report. “The swift recovery in in-person services has been the major driver of China’s post-Covid recovery this year,” they said. However, “the lackluster property recovery, a global slowdown and rising geopolitical conflict remain major challenges for China’s recovery to be sustained.”

U.S. hotel operators who have been grappling over the past year with an uneven recovery in Chinese demand are now benefiting from pent-up-demand throughout Asia Pacific, particularly in Greater China. "While macroeconomic uncertainty persists, it has not weighed on travel demand to date. In fact, demand continued to rise across all customer segments in the quarter," Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said on a call with investors. In the Greater China region RevPAR rebounded to 95% of pre-pandemic levels during the quarter while Mainland China RevPar fully recovered to 2019 levels. "First quarter hotel performance came in a bit better than expected and will likely be the high-water mark for the year," said CoStar Group National Director of Hospitality Analytics Jan Freitag.

☆ Marriott raises full-year profit forecast on strong travel demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 2 (Reuters) - Marriott International Inc raised its full-year adjusted profit forecast on Tuesday, as the U.S. hotel operator benefits from pent-up demand for leisure and business travel. Flexible work arrangements have fueled travel demand and helped hotel operators to improve their margins after they took a beating during the pandemic. The travel industry has also benefited in the last few quarters from a strong U.S. dollar. The company expects full-year adjusted profit between $7.97 and $8.42 per share, compared with its prior forecast of $7.23 to $7.91. Reporting by Priyamvada C in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Iran resorts to security cameras, ostracism to deter unveiled women
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

For decades women who refused to wear the hijab were accosted by morality police operating from vans that patrolled busy public spaces. NOVEL TACTICSIn place of the vans, authorities are installing cameras on streets to identify unveiled women, providing a more discreet method of detecting breaches of Iran's conservative dress code. Now women show up frequently unveiled in malls, airports, restaurants and streets in a display of civil disobedience. Several lawmakers and politicians have warned that the protests could resume if authorities continue to focus on penalising women who discard the hijab. "My grocery shop was closed down for a few days by authorities for serving unveiled women," said Asghar, 45, in the central city of Isfahan.

☆ Surprises, snubs and a watershed moment that wasn’t.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Scott Heller | Alexis Soloski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Not everyone can wake up to good news on Tony nominations morning. Then again, with a panel of voters often un-wowed by celebrity, the roster typically turns up left-field choices and anoints young talent. But the Tony committee gave the show’s team something to laugh about, lavishing six nominations, including two for Cooper himself: best play and best featured actor in a play. Cooper, who portrayed a saucy airline hostess named Peaches, gave it his all, onstage and off: When the show’s sudden closing was first announced, he took to Instagram to rally audiences. Yet Tony voters passed on nominating Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan for their sexy, impassioned portrayals of a fraying couple in 1960s Greenwich Village.

JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N) shares rose 3.1% to a near two-month high after the deal was announced earlier in the day. The S&P 500 Banks index (.SPXBK) gained 1.1%, while the KBW Regional Banking index (.KRX) shed 1.5%. Shares of regional banks PNC Financial (PNC.N) and Citizens Financial (CFG.N), that were among the bidders for First Republic, dropped 4.7% and 5.2%, respectively. "But regional banks will face higher cost of doing business for some time until confidence is rebuilt or there is a different regulatory scheme." Analysts now expect first-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies to fall 1.9% from a year earlier, compared with a 5.1% fall expected at the start of April, according to Refinitiv data.

The S&P 500 Banks index (.SPXBK) gained 1.4%. Big banks such as Bank of America (BAC.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) rose 0.3% and 2.8%, respectively. First Republic's woes kicked off last week on a bleak note, but upbeat earnings from Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) helped the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) notch its second consecutive month of gain on Friday. Analysts now expect first-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies to fall 1.9% from a year earlier, compared with a 5.1% fall expected at the start of April, according to Refinitiv data. The S&P index recorded 21 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 48 new highs and 47 new lows.

☆ Norwegian Cruise lifts profit forecast on higher ticket prices, steady demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ananya Mariam Rajesh Anne Florentyna Gnanaraja Sekar | Ananya Mariam Rajesh | Anne Florentyna Gnanaraja Sekar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

loss per share of 30 cents vs loss est. of 41 centsCompany says it sees "strong consumer demand"May 1(Reuters) - Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH.N) raised its annual profit forecast and sailed past first-quarter estimates on Monday, betting on higher ticket pricing, pent-up demand and robust on-board spending from wealthy customers. Norwegian, which mostly caters to the affluent, has also been raising prices of its tickets to offset the impact from higher costs of fuel and food due to supply chain snags worsened by the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The company expects 2023 adjusted profit of 75 cents per share, compared with its earlier forecast of about 70 cents per share. Shares in the company were up about 1% in premarket trade, paring some gains after it forecast second-quarter adjusted earnings per share below estimates.

☆ Futures muted as Fed caution sets in, JPMorgan to buy First Republic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The rescue comes less than two months after a deposit flight from U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank forced the Fed to step in with emergency measures to stabilize markets. Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is set to report later this week. Markets should take today's news in stride knowing that the repeated bank failures should now have the Fed back on its heels and defanged moving forward." ET, Dow e-minis were down 14 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3.75 points, or 0.09%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 13.5 points, or 0.1%. Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Sony shares tumble on weaker-than-expected annual outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, May 1 (Reuters) - Sony Group Corp's (6758.T) shares fell as much as 4.8% on Monday after the Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate's annual profit outlook fell short of market expectations. The company on Friday posted a record operating profit for the year ended March 2023, driven by a robust performance at its music and microchip units. For the current business year, however, it projected a 3.2% profit decline to 1.17 trillion yen ($8.55 billion), missing an analysts average estimate of a 1.275 trillion yen profit, as it expects slow recovery in profitability in the videogame unit. Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal said in a note to clients Sony's outlook "is overly conservative," and that its PlayStation 5 (PS5) game consoles and game software are likely to benefit from pent-up demand. The conglomerate aims to sell a record 25 million units of the PS5 in the year to next March.

☆ Mihoyo's new video game tops download charts as big launches return to China
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The blockbuster debut bodes well for several other games due to launch this summer in the world's largest video games market. As of Thursday, the Shanghai-based company's strategy game "Honkai: Star Rail", where anime characters battle space monsters, had amassed 20 million downloads across smartphones and personal computers, miHoYo said. 1 on the iOS game download chart in more countries than any prior game," Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad said on Twitter. It is scheduled to test action game "Valorant" in May ahead of its official release this year. Tencent will invest in launching an esports league in China for the game.

[1/2] FILE PHOTO-French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during the National Conference on Disability at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, April 26, 2023. "You talk a lot of nonsense everyday," the man told Macron, after the president, barely able to squeeze in an answer, said he should get his numbers right. Such direct confrontations, the president reckons, are essential to give people a cathartic release after weeks of anger directed at the government's pension bill and Macron himself. Before the pension reform protests, the government managed to pass legislation on issues such as nuclear energy and renewables with the help of both left-wing and right-wing lawmakers outside Macron's centrist alliance. That was apparent again this week, when his prime minister Elisabeth Borne was forced to give up on an immigration bill.

☆ Mastercard profit beats estimates as consumers weather tough economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Gross dollar volumes, a metric that represents the total dollar value of all transactions processed by Mastercard, rose 15% on a local currency basis to $2.1 trillion. Pent-up demand from consumers tired of lockdowns also helped, driving a 35% surge in Mastercard's cross-border volumes - a gauge of travel demand that tracks spending on cards beyond the country of its issue. Earlier this week, Visa (V.N) beat profit estimates and bet on sustained growth at its payments business. Mastercard's total operating expenses on an adjusted basis rose 10% to $2.4 billion in the first quarter ended March 31. On an adjusted basis, Mastercard earned $2.80 in the quarter, sailing past Wall Street estimates of $2.72 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

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