DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ A portrait of one of the few young, female truckers in France
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Amélie is one of the few female truck drivers in France. At the time photographer Yohanne Lamoulère met her in 2019, she was driving from Arles to Castellón, Spain, and back at least twice a week, Lamoulère explained over email. The photographer, whose uncle is also a trucker, met Amélie at a truck show in southeastern France where drivers decorate their vehicles for a competition. Lamoulère then shot her portrait of the newly-engaged couple in front of Amélie’s truck, the bouquet placed on the dashboard above their heads. She said it’s rare to see a young woman “aboard monsters like Amélie’s truck” and finds it “very beautiful” to see her forge her own path.

Persons: CNN —, Yohanne, Amélie Riquelme, Yohanne Lamoulère, Lamoulère, Jérémy, Amélie, “, ” Lamoulère, — Jérémy, Lucie, Les, qu’on Organizations: CNN, Volvo, International Road Transport Union, Cité Internationale des Arts Locations: Amélie, France, Arles, Europe, Castellón, Spain, Paris, Cité

☆ McDonald's to boost restaurant growth, streamline some programs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Hilary Russ | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

McDonald's beat sales and profit estimates in its last quarterly earnings results in October, helped by higher menu prices and increased foot traffic from inflation-weary customers looking for value meals. Its global same-store sales increased 9.5% in the third quarter. read moreLike other fast-food chains, McDonald's has hiked menu prices to keep up with surging commodity and labor costs. McDonald's strong sales and profits also mean that it - like several other restaurant chains including Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (CMG.N) - can embark on big expansion plans. It now also plans to streamline technology - including its loyalty programs - and menu development in order to get new products into use globally more quickly.

☆ A PE firm that's built its brand on high-profile sports deals is broadening its scope
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But one firm that's already well established in the space is looking to quietly diversify itself beyond the pitch. With seemingly everyone interested in sports these days, Cardinale is smart to want to hedge his firm. The crypto exchange also agreed to pay $50 million to improve how it vets customers and transactions. Mala Gaonkar's hedge fund just made its long-awaited debut. SurgoCap Partners entered the fray this week with $1.8 billion in capital, making it the biggest launch of a women-led hedge fund, Bloomberg reports.

☆ More than 20 people, including 3 children, injured after car crashes into NYC sports bar
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Mirna-Alsharif-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Mirna Alsharif | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

At least 23 people, including three children, were injured after an SUV operating as an Uber crashed into a sports bar and restaurant in New York City Monday night, officials say. An SUV crashed into Inwood Bar & Grill in Manhattan, N.Y., on Jan. 2, 2023. This caused the 31-year-old male driver of the RAV4 to lose control of the car, mount the curb and crash into the Inwood Bar & Grill, police said. It was not immediately clear if there were passengers in Toyota RAV4, and Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nineteen people, including the driver of the RAV4, were taken to area hospitals while the others refused medical care.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Tesla, Wynn, Traeger, Amazon and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Tesla – Shares of Tesla shed 13% after the company announced fourth-quarter vehicle deliveries that fell short of Wall Street's expectations. Wynn Resorts – Shares of Wynn Resorts added more than 2% after Wells Fargo upgraded the hotel and casino operator, saying it sees a significant reopening opportunity and citing China's moves toward a full reopening. MGM Resorts added 1%. Molina Healthcare — The health care company slid nearly 5% despite the company saying it expects revenue from California Medicaid to double under revised contracts. PayPal – Shares added 4.1% after Truist upgraded PayPal to buy from hold, saying that estimates now look reasonable.

☆ Baird's top stock picks for 2023 include Tesla and this favorite retailer
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Tesla shares have come under selling pressure this year in the wake of Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter . News of an extended shutdown at its factory in Shanghai pushed down Tesla shares by more than 11% on Tuesday. Tesla stock has plunged about 69% this year and is on pace for its worst month, quarter and year ever. The brand's position as a leading specialty fragrance retailer, with consistent product replenishment cycles, should stabilize demand even in a downturn, wrote analyst Mark Altschwager. But that premium is justified given Chipotle's positioning for solid EPS gains and double-digit revenue growth over time, wrote analyst David Tarantino.

☆ A Mexican restaurant will replace Rep. Lauren Boebert's former gun-themed restaurant
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The location of Rep. Lauren Boebert's former gun-themed restaurant is being filled by a Mexican restaurant. Shooters Grill, where waitresses proudly holstered firearms on the job, closed its doors in July. In July, Shooters Grill closed its doors for good after the landlord did not renew its lease, according to a tweet from Boebert. Now that Boebert's restaurant has shuttered, it appears that its location is going to be filled by a Mexican restaurant, Tapatios Family Mexican Restaurant, which now has emblazoned its "coming soon" sign on the premises' front window. Insider verified the location of the new restaurant by finding that "TAPATIOS2 LLC" was established in October at the same location as the former Shooters Grill.

☆ The year of the restaurant robot: Why chains are investing in automation and what it means for workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

This year brought a flurry of automation announcements in the restaurant industry as operators scrambled to find solutions to a shrinking workforce and climbing wages. Three-quarters of restaurant operators are facing staffing shortages that keep them from operating at full capacity, according to the National Restaurant Association. Many restaurant operators hiked wages to attract workers, but that pressured profits at a time when food costs were also climbing. "Automation is one word, and a lot of people go right to robotics and a robot flipping burgers or making fries. The labor questionAutomation often faces pushback from workers and labor advocates, who see it as a way for employers to eliminate jobs.

With the deep freeze stretching from Montana to Texas as it crept eastward, some 240 million people - more than two-thirds of the U.S. population - were under winter weather warnings and advisories on Friday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. The map of existing or impending wintry hazards "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever," the NWS said. [1/5] A driver makes their way through a flooded street at high tide during a winter storm in Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S., December 23, 2022. Their plight has added to local agencies scrambling to get people off the streets as the arctic blast arrived. While some areas downwind from the Great Lakes received a foot or more of snow on Friday, "the big story wasn't so much the falling snow but the blowing snow," weather service meteorologist Brian Hurley said.

☆ TikTok banned on government devices under spending bill passed by Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The bill includes an exception for law enforcement, national security and research purposes. TikTok has repeatedly said its U.S. user data is not based in China, though those assurances have done little to alleviate concern. While it fell short of antitrust advocates' hopes, the inclusion of the merger filing fee bill still gained praise. Miller said the bill will "significantly strengthen antitrust law for the first time since 1976." Empowering state AGs in antitrust casesAnother antitrust bill included in the package was a version of the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act.

☆ This is how Waffle House stays open during storms — including using a natural disaster playbook, emergency teams, and limited menus
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Mary Meisenzahl | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Waffle House keeps its nearly 2,000 locations open 24/7, even through many natural disasters. Waffle House takes natural disaster preparation so seriously that it's become an unofficial metric to measure the severity of storms for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known as the "Waffle House Index." "If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? Every location is armed with a "Waffle House storm playbook" that has protocol for keeping the restaurant running in an emergency, including if electricity and running water are unavailable, Waffle House Director of External Affairs Pat Warner told NPR. The company shifts to a grill-only menu during natural disasters, Waffle House said.

☆ This oil and gas VC upended his career to start a plant-based burger chain. Now, he's raised $20 million to open new restaurants with plans to steal market share from McDonald's.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Next Level Burger, which makes plant-based burgers, was cofounded in 2014 by Matt de Gruyter. Next Level Burger plans to triple in size and steal share from McDonald's, de Gruyter said. In his quest to align his career with this diet, he quit his job and launched a restaurant serving plant-based burgers in 2014. Both became early backers of de Gruyter's brand, Next Level Burger, which has grown to nine restaurants in six states. The restaurant chain announced a $20 million raise on Tuesday, led by Payne and his wife, Nicole Brodeur.

☆ A map shows the most popular Christmas dishes around the world
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

To see who's eating what this weekend, the culinary website Chef's Pencil created a map showing what it says are the most popular Christmas dishes around the world. Those headed to parts of South America can too — the map shows turkey is a top Christmas food in Brazil, Chile and Peru. Source: Chef's PencilItalians traditionally eat veal, while Rwandans grill both beef and goat for Christmas, the map shows. Carp, a freshwater fish, is popular in Central and Eastern Europe, while saltwater cod tops holiday menus in Italy and Portugal, the map shows. In a post about Christmas in Portugal, the travel website Portuguese for a Day states, "Christmas is not Christmas without codfish on the table!"

☆ Cormac McCarthy Loves a Good Diner
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Dwight Garner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Cormac McCarthy has long presented himself as a man of simple appetites. Diners — which he sometimes calls cafeterias or lunchcounters or drugstores — are all over the place in McCarthy’s fiction. The existential cowboys in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy novels, set out on the frontier, consume many of their meals fireside. Here too, though, hash houses are timeless way stations. The meals are, in this writer’s hands, private acts in public spaces.

Persons: Cormac McCarthy, Richard B, Woodward, McCarthy, Suttree ”, “ Organizations: The New York Times Magazine Locations: El Paso

☆ 'How dare he?' New Hampshire seethes at Biden's planned changes to the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Natasha Korecki | Natasha Korecki Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

“How dare he?” Laurie Jasper, a member of the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women, said. Salting the wound was the revelation that South Carolina hadn’t even asked to be first, and officials there contend they were as surprised as anyone to be handed the spot. In South Carolina, the majority of Democratic primary voters are African American. “North Carolina is more diverse than South Carolina. Democrats say they aren’t about to retreat behind South Carolina and anyway, they can’t.

☆ Argentina in World Cup Final Gives Tired Nation a Reason to Celebrate
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Kejal Vyas | Sylvina Frydlewsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BUENOS AIRES—In a working-class neighborhood of dirt streets and broken sidewalks, Pablo Martínez donned the white-and-blue jersey of Argentina’s national team to grill chicken at a soup kitchen he helps run for families struggling amid a punishing economic crisis. With galloping inflation and economic stagnation pushing 43% of the population into poverty, the number of hungry children showing up to his cafeteria on the outskirts of the capital has been rising, Mr. Martinez said. The daily hardship he and his neighbors face in a poor barrio is leaving an indelible impact.

☆ Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, Carvana, Delta, Walmart & more
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Evercore ISI names Apple as a top pick in 2023 Evercore said it sees 2023 as a "moonshot" year for Apple. MKM names Walmart a top 2023 pick MKM said it sees further share gains for Walmart in 2023. " JPMorgan names Eli Lilly a top 2023 pick JPMorgan said Eli Lilly is "best-in-class." Canaccord names Yeti and Traeger top 2023 picks Canaccord says Yeti should hold up well in a recessionary environment. YETI Holdings (YETI : BUY, $58 PT): We believe the core YETI consumer should hold up relatively better in a recession as it skews a bit higher end.

☆ EU greenlights only half of global tax deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, Dec 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The European Union has at last found unanimity on the global minimum tax, half of an almost 140-nation pact to clamp down on global tax avoidance. Hungary finally dropped its veto this week, only for Poland to provide last-minute drama before finally allowing the EU to proceed. Whack-a-mole objections have become EU routine on tax matters, which require the unanimity of the 27 member states. The other half of the global deal, struck under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development auspices in 2021, concerned big digital services companies. In the meantime, trade wars over a hodgepodge of national digital services taxes are likely to continue.

☆ Danske slap confirms pay-what-you-can principle
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

That’s one takeaway from the $2 billion slap it delivered late on Tuesday to Denmark’s Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO), which pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Danske’s Estonian unit processed $160 billion of potentially illicit payments through U.S. banks on behalf of foreign customers, including Russians, the DOJ said. BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) in 2014, by contrast, agreed to pay roughly $9 billion for moving $8.8 billion for sanctioned clients. In Danske’s case, the bill is roughly 1% of suspicious flows, whereas BNP’s was around 100% of illicit payments. Danske will be able to keep using U.S. correspondent banks for dollar payments, according to a person familiar with the matter.

☆ Rising rates hurt these stocks. They could benefit now if the Fed dials back inflation fight
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bank of America recently screened for S & P 500 stocks with the lowest nominal interest rate betas, meaning they are hurt by rising nominal interest rates. Take-Two Interactive Software , which has a nominal interest rate beta of -7.6, has lost more than 40% this year. It has lost about 9% year to date and has a nominal interest rate beta of -6.3. REITs overall have been hit this year by rising interest rates, since investors who have them for their high dividend yields may ditch the assets for risk-free Treasurys. Meanwhile, Chipotle Mexican Grill has a nominal interest rate beta of -5.8 and has lost more than 11% so far this year.

☆ Tech industry group sues to block California law designed to protect kids online over free speech concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Modeled off standards in the U.K., the California law aims to establish rules that make the internet safer for kids. Lawmakers are, in many instances, attempting to weaken the broad liability protections that online platforms enjoy for their content moderation efforts and their users' posts. "The State is empowered to impose crushing financial penalties" if the companies guess incorrectly, the group said. "The State can also impose such penalties if companies fail to enforce their content moderation standards to the Attorney General's satisfaction." The Supreme Court could still choose to take up the cases against both the state laws.

☆ Nuclear fusion triggers an overreaction
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A fusion breakthrough unveiled on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Energy is a scientific tour de force, and a commercial irrelevancy. It’s a notable feat that researchers produced more energy from fusing atoms together than they used to start the process. Unless there are more breakthroughs, fusion probably would take place in massive facilities like today’s fission plants. The cost of power from a new nuclear plant runs about five times more expensive than a solar equivalent, Lazard analysts estimate. Making fusion cheaper and practical could be as big a challenge as fusion itself.

☆ Rent prices conceal better U.S. inflation picture
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The U.S. battle against inflation is faring even better than its own data suggest. The country’s Consumer Price Index rose just 0.1% in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday. Yet a lag between market trends and CPI data means that true inflation is lower than the government’s reading. According to the government’s measure, shelter prices rose 0.7% last month, but Zillow’s (ZG.O)gauge of nationwide rent prices fell for a second consecutive month in November, by 0.4%. Once CPI catches up, the inflation picture is going to look much more encouraging.

☆ Ukraine’s Nestlé boost is as important as EU aid
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Consumer group Nestlé (NESN.S) on Monday announced a small war-time investment in Ukraine which may be as important for the country’s future as an 18 billion euro European Union aid package agreed on the same day. Nestlé will invest 40 million Swiss francs (41 million euros) in a new facility that will help to produce cold sauces, seasonings, soups and instant food. The Swiss consumer group, which already has 5,800 employees in the country, will add 1,500 new jobs in the process. Meanwhile the EU struck a deal with holdout Hungary that will allow it to disburse aid to Ukraine next year. While still at war with Russia, Ukraine needs Western aid to help the government pay its teachers, doctors and soldiers, and start rebuilding railroads and power plants.

☆ Grill Maker Weber to Be Taken Private in $3.7 Billion Deal, With Debt
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Colin Kellaher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This year, Weber Inc. cut its outlook twice, replaced its chief executive and withdrew its financial guidance. Weber Inc. on Monday said it agreed to a sweetened buyout from BDT Capital Partners LLC, the private-equity firm that took the grill maker public in 2021 and had remained the company’s majority owner. BDT agreed to pay $8.05 a share, a 24% premium to Weber’s closing price Friday, for the rest of the Palatine, Ill.-based company that it doesn’t own. BDT holds a more-than 85% stake in Weber.

Search resuls for: "Grill"

25 mentions found