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☆ AI lending firm Upstart jumps as $2 bln funding news squeezes bears
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 10 (Reuters) - Shares of highly shorted Upstart Holdings (UPST.O) jumped 32% in premarket trading on Wednesday, squeezing out bearish investors, after the artificial intelligence-driven lending marketplace secured an additional $2 billion in funding. "(The) committed funding agreements are a concrete step towards stabilizing Upstart's business," said James Faucette, analyst at Morgan Stanley, raising its price target on the stock to $13 from $10. At current levels, short sellers stand to lose about $122 million, according to analytics firm Ortex. When there is a rush of demand from short sellers looking to exit bearish bets due to a rise in a stock's price, it pushes prices even higher, resulting in a short squeeze. The company's net loss per share, excluding items, was 47 cents, beating analysts' estimates of 81 cents loss per share, according to Refinitiv.

☆ AI lending firm Upstart jumps as $2 bln funding squeezes bears
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Medha Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 10 (Reuters) - Shares of highly shorted Upstart Holdings (UPST.O) jumped 32% in early trading on Wednesday, squeezing out bearish investors, after the artificial intelligence-driven lending marketplace secured an additional $2 billion in funding. "(The) committed funding agreements are a concrete step towards stabilizing Upstart's business," said James Faucette, analyst at Morgan Stanley, raising its price target on the stock to $13 from $10. At current levels, short sellers stand to lose about $122 million, according to analytics firm Ortex. "With the price in Upstart jumping up over 30%, some short sellers will try to close their positions... adding additional buy pressure on the stock," said Peter Hillerberg, co-founder of Ortex. The company's net loss per share, excluding items, was 47 cents, beating analysts' estimates of 81 cents loss per share, according to Refinitiv.

☆ Freshworks tops revenue estimates as lower-priced offerings boost demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 2 (Reuters) - Freshworks Inc (FRSH.O) beat quarterly revenue estimates on Tuesday and posted its first adjusted operating profit as more businesses sought its lower-priced customer engagement software in a tough economy. Freshworks, whose products compete with Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) and Zendesk, told Reuters that the downturn was driving more companies to its more affordable offerings. The San Mateo, California-based company's revenue rose 20% in the first quarter ended March to $137.7 million, compared with analysts' estimates of $134.3 million, according to Refinitiv. It posted an adjusted operating profit of $3.9 million. The company forecast second-quarter revenue largely in line with estimates, while its forecast for adjusted profit was above estimates.

The justices turned away five appeals by the oil companies of lower court decisions that determined that the lawsuits belonged in state court, a venue often seen as more favorable to plaintiffs than federal court. A separate appeal filed by the oil companies challenging lower court decisions in cases out of New Jersey and Delaware is still pending before the Supreme Court. Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for Chevron, expressed confidence that the cases will be dismissed in state court. That decision prompted other federal appeals courts to reconsider whether they should send similar lawsuits by state and local governments back to state courts. Four other appeals courts reached similar conclusions in the lawsuits by Rhode Island and jurisdictions in California, Colorado, Hawaii and Maryland.

☆ What Young Workers Miss Without the ‘Power of Proximity’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Emma Goldberg | Ben Casselman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least 10 times a day, Erika Becker, who works as a sales development manager at a technology company called Verkada, turns to her boss with questions. “What could I have done better?”Ms. Becker, 28, comes into her office in San Mateo, Calif., five days a week, along with all her colleagues. “It’s like if there’s something in my teeth, I want you to tell me,” she said. More than 50 million Americans, largely in white-collar jobs, began working from home at least part of the time. In recent months, as large employers — including Amazon, Disney and Starbucks — have tried to call workers back to the office, thousands of employees have objected, pointing to a track record of productivity at home.

To report this story, Reuters contacted more than 300 former Tesla employees who had worked at the company over the past nine years and were involved in developing its self-driving system. The company requires car owners to grant permission on the cars’ touchscreens before Tesla collects their vehicles’ data. Reuters found that Tesla employees shared clips that captured sensitive and embarrassing personal moments. Tesla’s own data labelers initially worked in the San Francisco Bay area, including the office in San Mateo. According to several ex-employees, some labelers shared screenshots, sometimes marked up using Adobe Photoshop, in private group chats on Mattermost, Tesla’s internal messaging system.

☆ I transform garages into upscale apartments so homeowners can rent them out and make passive income
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

So I designed a product that's modular — that can go inside a garage — and San Jose preapproved it. Then they are trucked to the site of the garage, along with the wall panels, and installed inside the garage. So far, I've built four units — with five more in the pipeline — throughout San Jose, San Mateo, and Mountain View. The floors are cork and bamboo, and there are solid-core barn doors inside the units. I really started doing this as a way to to solve a problem.

☆ How First Republic's courtship of the wealthy led to meltdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Lawrence Delevingne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

March 27 (Reuters) - First Republic Bank (FRC.N) became the epicenter of the U.S. regional banking crisis after the wealthy clients it courted to fuel its breakneck growth started withdrawing deposits and left the bank reeling. Reuters GraphicsFor years, First Republic lured high net-worth customers with preferential rates on mortgages and loans. Morgan Stanley analysts estimated a deposit outflow of nearly half of total deposits according to a March 20 note. First Republic's loan book and investment portfolio also became less valuable as interest rates rose, which is hampering a capital raise. "Wealthy customers were drawn to First Republic in part because they could get large mortgages at rock-bottom interest rates," said McCoy.

☆ A woman left her AirPods on a plane and tracked them down to an airport worker's home, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A passenger left her Apple AirPods on a plane after landing in San Francisco from Tokyo. Alisabeth Hayden told CNN a police officer helped her trace the AirPods to an airport worker's home. Shortly after getting off the plane on a layover at San Francisco International Airport, she realized she'd left her jacket behind. Hayden told CNN she enlisted the help of a detective at San Mateo police force who was working at SFO. She told CNN United gave her $271 and 5,000 air miles after complaining about the condition of the headphones.

☆ Why Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is suing social media companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The lawsuit, which was filed in California federal court, said “the need is great” to continue to fund mental health outpatient programs, mobile crisis units, family-based mental health services, and in-school mental health programming and training to address the mental health of young people. Bucks County is joining a small but growing number of of school districts and families who have filed lawsuits against social media companies for their alleged impact on teen mental health. Some families have also filed wrongful death lawsuits against tech platforms, alleging their children’s social media addiction contributed to their suicides. Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, believes it will be “difficult” for counties and school districts to win lawsuits against social media companies. “There will be the issues of showing that the social media content was the cause of the harm that befell the children,” he said.

☆ Midmarket Firms Re-Evaluate Regional Bank Risk Following Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Maria Armental | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Midmarket private-equity firms are increasingly moving business to a wider range of banks—especially to those bigger in size—to hedge against the fallout from the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, a major lender to private-market fund managers and their companies. “There’s definitely a flight to quality, to have at least one bank account with kind of a bulge bracket, top-four bank,” said Richard de Silva, the founder and managing partner of private-equity firm Lateral Investment Management in San Mateo, Calif.A...

☆ Walmart says it's closing a store in Albuquerque because it's underperforming. Some shoppers say it was rampant with crime, and police visited hundreds of times last year.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The store has 287 workers who are eligible to transfer to another store, per a Walmart spokeswoman. It's "very sad," he told Insider, because there aren't many retailers with stores in that part of Albuquerque. The San Mateo Boulevard store is set to close on March 10 after opening in July 1985, according to Walmart spokeswoman Lauren Willis. Albuquerque city officials are now looking into buying and repurposing the closing Walmart store. The Walmart is one of at least eight stores closing soon across five states and the District of Columbia.

☆ Should I Refinance My Mortgage?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +9 min

By Michele LernerFor most people, the prime reason to refinance a mortgage is to lower their interest rate and monthly payments. While there are many reasons people refinance (more on that later), normally when someone has a low mortgage rate, they don’t refinance into a higher one, says Erin Wood, a financial planner with the Carson Group in Omaha, Neb. Here are a few reasons to refinance your mortgage:To reduce your paymentsThe simplest way to lower your monthly payments is if you can refinance into a lower mortgage rate, which reduces the interest you pay on your loan. Generally, closing costs for a mortgage refinance range from 2% to 5% of the new loan amount. That expense means it only makes sense to refinance if you can reduce your mortgage rate by half a percentage point or more, says Middleman.

☆ China tech companies are closely watching ChatGPT's A.I. skills. Here's what they're doing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Big tech companies in the U.S. and China rushed this month to announce they are working on similar AI tools. PingCap launched "Chat2Query" for customers outside China in January that uses a publicly available application programming interface from OpenAI. "We think the revolution may not be in AI search but in every business," he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. Transformative potentialFang said he was directly inspired by OpenAI's early version of ChatGPT tech in 2020. In contrast, he said generative AI tech can immediately provide value since it operates where users are already producing and consuming content.

☆ After Mexican government cracked down on solar geoengineering, startup lets off balloons in Nevada
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Essentially, solar geoengineering is mimicking what happens when a volcano erupts, and it's known to work. Solar geoengineering is not a solution to climate change, and nobody who studies it rigorously suggests it should be. Injecting sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere could damage the ozone layer, cause respiratory illness and create acid rain. The White House is coordinating a five-year research plan into solar geoengineering, the quadrennial U.N.-backed Montreal Protocol assessment report included an entire chapter addressing stratospheric aerosol injection (more colloquially called solar geoengineering), and Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook , is funding solar geoengineering research via his philanthropic organization, Open Philanthropy. The Nevada launch was previously detailed by Time reporters, who were there.

Dozens of employees at a Tesla factory in upstate New York have been fired just days after launching a union campaign, organizers alleged Thursday. In a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, Workers United said Tesla fired more than 30 workers from its Autopilot unit at a Buffalo plant as a retaliatory measure and to discourage union activity. Employees at the Buffalo facility on Tuesday launched organizing efforts under the union Tesla Workers United. Workers received an email Wednesday evening laying out a new policy that prohibits them from recording workplace meetings without the permission of all participants, Tesla Workers United said in a release Thursday. In 2017, Tesla fired a union activist named Richard Ortiz, and in 2018, Musk tweeted a comment found to have violated federal labor laws.

☆ California farm worker pleads not guilty to 7 murder counts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The next hearing in the case was set for May 3, the district attorney, Steve Wagstaffe, confirmed to Reuters. Zhao is charged with seven counts of premeditated murder and a single count of attempted murder in a criminal complaint that also cites "special circumstance" allegations accusing him of "personally and intentionally" shooting to kill. read moreUnder California law, defendants convicted of murder with "special circumstances" are eligible for the death penalty, though Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. Authorities said the Monterey Park assailant, Huu Can Tran, 72, shot himself to death the next day as police closed to make an arrest. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles Editing by Alistair Bell and Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Walmart is closing a batch of stores in 2023 — here's the full list
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ben Tobin | Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Walmart will close five stores in four states: Illinois, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Florida. The company is also winding down its two remaining pickup locations in Illinois and Arkansas. The recent closures follow a trend of Walmart closing a handful of stores across various states each year, with the company saying that the stores are "underperforming" without providing specifics. In addition, the retail giant is ending its nine-year experiment with two pick-up only locations in Illinois and Arkansas. SE, AlbuquerqueWisconsin:10330 W. Silver Spring Dr, MilwaukeeDo you shop at one of the Walmart stores above and want to share your thoughts?

☆ The wife of the doctor accused of driving his family off a cliff in a Tesla doesn't want him to be prosecuted. A domestic violence expert says this kind of behavior isn't uncommon.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The wife of a man accused to driving his family off a cliff in a Tesla doesn't want him prosecuted. A domestic violence expert told Insider this type of behavior in victims is not uncommon. Prosecutors handling the case are treating it like a domestic violence case, a local DA said. A domestic violence expert and the local district attorney handling the case told Insider on Tuesday this type of behavior in victims is not uncommon. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told Insider that his office is "viewing" the case as a domestic violence case.

☆ Four-time NBA champion Steph Curry joins his rich neighbors in opposing much-needed new housing near their Bay Area backyards
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Steph and Ayesha Curry penned a letter opposing a townhouse development near their home in Atherton, California. "This is a tough thing for a community like Atherton to change," Atherton City Manager George Rodericks told NBC. Since 1969, California law has required cities to update their housing and land use needs, known as "Housing Elements," every eight years to ensure enough affordable housing is available to residents. Cities who fail to comply with the deadline could lose grant funding and face lawsuits from the state Attorney General. Cities spanning from San Francisco to Los Angeles have had their plans approved by state regulators, with many plans including efforts to increase density on developable land.

☆ Wife of doctor accused of driving his Tesla off a cliff with his family inside shouted to rescuers 'he intentionally drove the car over' edge, DA alleges
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The wife of a man accused of driving a Tesla off a cliff said he "intentionally" did it, the DA said. The woman shouted to medics that her husband "intentionally drove the car over," the DA said. "She just said to the paramedics that he intentionally drove the car over the cliff," Wagstaffe said. He is accused of intentionally driving a Tesla off a notorious 250-foot cliff in Northern California with his wife and two young kids inside on January 2. The district attorney's office has not yet spoken to the suspect's wife, who remains hospitalized, said Wagstaffe.

☆ $100 repair bill sparked Half Moon Bay shooting, prosecutor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

SAN FRANCISCO — A farmworker charged with killing seven people at two Half Moon Bay mushroom farms reportedly told investigators he was spurred to carry out the shootings after his supervisor demanded he pay $100 to repair a forklift damaged at work. KNTV-TV, the NBC affiliate in the San Francisco Bay Area, was first to report the development. Zhao told KNTV-TV in a courthouse interview Thursday that he committed the shootings. He said he has a 40-year-old daughter in China and lived with his wife in Half Moon Bay. The coroner’s office has named six of the victims: Zhishen Liu, 73, of San Francisco; Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50, of Moss Beach, California; Aixiang Zhang, 74, of San Francisco; Qizhong Cheng, 66, of Half Moon Bay; Jingzhi Lu, 64, of Half Moon Bay; and Yetao Bing, 43, whose hometown was unknown.

☆ Tesla driver taken from hospital to jail without bail after being accused of intentionally driving his family off a cliff
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A man accused of intentionally driving off a cliff was moved from a hospital to jail, local news reported. The San Mateo District Attorney's Office said the driver was booked without bail. Authorities are seeking to rule out any mechanical issues with the Tesla, including brake failure. The San Mateo District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication. The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet on January 2 that the children were "unharmed" at the time of rescue.

☆ Driver in California cliff crash that injured his two young children and his wife moved from hospital to jail
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

MONTARA, Calif. — The driver of a car that plunged 250 feet off a treacherous cliff in northern California, injuring his two young children and his wife, was released from the hospital and jailed on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse, authorities said Friday. The office didn’t indicate when he was released from the hospital. The Pasadena man was seriously injured when the Tesla sedan went over the cliff at Devils Slide, along the Pacific Coast Highway on Jan. 2. Firefighters were forced to cut the family, including Patel’s 41-year-old wife, 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, out of the wreckage. Patel was later arrested after California Highway Patrol investigators “developed probable cause to believe this incident was an intentional act,” the agency said.

☆ Key Fed inflation measure eased in December while consumer spending also declined
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Consumers spent less in December even as an inflation measure considered key by the Federal Reserve showed the pace of price increases easing, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Spending adjusted for inflation declined 0.2% on the month, worse than the 0.1% drop that Wall Street had been anticipating. The numbers come with Fed officials closely watching to measure the impact their rate increases have had on the economy. That number, which includes the volatile food and energy components, was the lowest annual rate since September 2021. The Fed watches core PCE closely as the measure takes into accounts changing consumer behavior, such as substituting lower price goods for higher-priced items, and strips out volatile food and energy prices.

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