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☆ Kyiv is demanding F-16s and 2 Ukrainian pilots just proved they can master the jet 4 times faster than the Pentagon thought possible: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ukrainian pilots can master F-16 jets in four months, per an Air Force document obtained by Yahoo News. The internal assessment is likely to ratchet up pressure on Biden to send Ukraine the planes. Four experienced US air force instructors assessed the Ukrainian pilots and determined the pilots could perform several "relatively technical" maneuvers, including landing after losing an engine and withstanding mock attacks, Yahoo News reported, citing the assessment. The two men were already qualified to operate a MiG-29 and Su-27 respectively, both Soviet-era fighter jets that comprise the majority of Ukraine's remaining air force, according to the outlet. But the report published by Yahoo on Thursday deduces that four months is a "realistic training timeline" for Ukrainian pilots to undergo training on the aircraft.

☆ Disney is playing the long game in business structure, says Guggenheim's Michael Morris
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | 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 EmailDisney is playing the long game in business structure, says Guggenheim's Michael MorrisMichael Morris, Guggenheim Securities, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss Morris' reaction to Disney's decision to scrap its new campus plans, Morris' expectations to the company's cost-cutting efforts and how the decline of linear networks will impact Disney's business.

☆ Minnesota man indicted over theft of Judy Garland’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’ slippers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Tina Burnside | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —US authorities have charged a man in connection with the theft of a pair of ruby red slippers worn by actress Judy Garland as Dorothy in the 1939 classic movie “The Wizard of Oz” nearly 20 years after they were stolen from a museum in Minnesota. Judy Garland is thought to have used at least seven different pairs of ruby slippers on the set of the 1939 classic. ShutterstockIn August 2005, authorities said a thief broke into the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota before smashing a glass display case and stealing the slippers. Regarded as among most recognizable items of memorabilia in American film history, the red slippers were, in the movie, gifted to Dorothy by Glinda the Good Witch. WCCOIt is not known how many pairs of ruby slippers Garland wore during filming, though the stolen shoes were among four remaining ones known to have survived.

☆ Evelyne Axell was a trailblazer of erotic pop art in the 1960s. Then she died
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Throughout Evelyne Axell’s short but radical career, the Belgian artist revered the female body in psychedelic hues rendered in gleaming enamel. In 1972, only a handful of years into painting, she died in a car crash and faded into relative obscurity. But such sales for Axell are infrequent, according to Sara Friedlander, Christie’s deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art. Her stylistic approach — a mix of pop art influences and dreamy surrealist settings — is still underrecognized, according to Morris. “She acts as a historical bridge (between surrealism and pop art),” she said.

☆ These 18 top Netflix execs are driving its advertising push under head Jeremi Gorman as the company makes its first big TV upfronts pitch
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Peter Naylor, VP of global advertising salesPeter Naylor, VP, global advertising sales. Netflix has also brought on several directors and other roles in ad sales who've worked at Hulu, Snap, and elsewhere. They are Kinsey Osberg Tamberrino, who is Publicis' main point of contact, and who spent eight years at Hulu, rising to director of advertising sales. Chad Rumminger, who focuses on automotive accounts, from automotive ad sales at Twitter. Julie Taylor Green is head of US vertical ad sales; she was TikTok's director of global business solutions before that.

☆ More People Are Falling Behind on Credit Card and Car Debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Joe Pinsker | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The share of consumers’ auto-loan debt that became delinquent rose year-over-year amid high inflation. Photo: David Paul Morris/BloombergMore Americans are having a harder time keeping up with their car, credit-card and mortgage payments compared with a year ago. The share of debt balances that became at least 90 days delinquent in the first quarter of 2023 was 1.08%, up from 0.071% a year earlier, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Monday.

☆ How Car Sales Could Keep the Economy Humming
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Justin Lahart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sales gains at motor vehicle dealers seem likely to continue, and strengthen, in the months ahead. The Commerce Department on Tuesday reported that retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in April from a month earlier after slipping 0.7% in March. That was less than the 0.8% economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected. But sales excluding gasoline stations, car dealers, building-materials stores and food services—the so-called control group that economists use to track the underlying pace of consumer spending— rose 0.7%. That put control spending above its first-quarter average, setting the stage for another quarter of spending gains.

☆ How Wall Street pros traded 7 of our Club stocks, including Salesforce, in the first quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | In Kevinstankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Lots of Club holdings, including Nvidia (NVDA) and Alphabet (GOOGL), were among the stocks traded by some of Wall Street's biggest investors and money managers in the first quarter. That firm, Jeffrey Ubben's Inclusive Capital, had owned 1.63 million Salesforce shares at the end of December, worth nearly $217 million at the time. Jeff Smith's Starboard Value also sold some Salesforce shares in Q1, leaving the firm with 2.5 million shares at the end of March. Mason Morfit's ValueAct Capital amplified its Salesforce stake in the first quarter, ending with 3.5 million shares, up from just 560,221 shares at the end of 2022. Loeb's Third Point amassed 4.75 million shares of Alphabet, worth $492.7 million at the end of the first quarter.

Kidde-Fenwal filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court. Kidde-Fenwal sold AFFF foam products from 2007 to 2013, according to court documents. Kidde-Fenwal does not make AFFF products, but it previously sold AFFF products through a subsidiary called National Foam. 3M, a central defendant in the AFFF lawsuits, has said it would stop producing PFAS by 2025. The case is In re Kidde-Fenwal Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, No.

☆ ONEOK shares drop on concerns over Magellan pipeline deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Laura Sanicola | Arathy Somasekhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

(Reuters) - Shares of gas pipeline operator ONEOK Inc fell about 9% on Monday on questions about potential synergies from its deal to acquire oil pipeline operator Magellan Midstream Partners. FILE PHOTO: A drilling rig operates in the Permian Basin oil and natural gas production area in Lea County, New Mexico, U.S., February 10, 2019. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File PhotoONEOK on Sunday said it would pay $18.8 billion in cash and stock for Magellan to diversify its natural gas and gas-liquids transportation business into oil and oil products. “The deferral of Oneok’s corporate cash taxes seems like a major deal component,” Mizuho analysts wrote in a research note. “ONEOK and Magellan have geographical overlap among their assets, but their primary businesses are very different,” Morris said.

☆ Martin Shkreli-founded drug company files for bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Vyera said its bankruptcy was the result of declining profits, increased competition for generic drugs, and litigation alleging that Vyera suppressed competition for its most valuable drug, Daraprim. Daraprim is a life-saving anti-parasitic medicine that Shkreli infamously raised the price on by more than 4000% and worked to choke off generic competition for after the company acquired the drug in 2015. Vyera filed a Chapter 11 plan in court on Wednesday, laying out it its intent to repay creditors through asset sales. Vyera said that recently-sold vouchers have fetched prices between $95 million and $120 million in sales that have occurred since 2020. Vyera listed Duane Morris as its largest unsecured creditor in its bankruptcy filing, with a $2.1 million asserted debt.

☆ After a Gale Blew Off Their Roof, They Decided It Was Time for a More Durable Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Ruth Bloomfield | Photographs Leia Morrison For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The weather in Wales is notoriously wild and windy, and Tracey and Paul Morris’s family home by the sea was feeling the strain. Decades of wind and rain rolling in from the North Atlantic Ocean had left the 1920s house suffering from damp and both wet and dry rot. After a section of its roof blew off during a gale, they decided to cut their losses, and replace it with something much more durable. “A fortress was what we wanted. Something really robust, with clean lines and open-plan space,” said Mrs. Morris.

May 9 (Reuters) - Digital stablecoin tether is winning the race for the title of the crypto world's "least risky" asset. Tether is already the top performer among stablecoins -- digital tokens pegged to some fiat asset like the dollar -- and has seen its market value soar since March. Buying tether and bitcoin is really a vote against the U.S. system," says Jensen. On CoinMarketCap's database of 23,891 tokens, tether has risen to number 3 with a market cap of $82 bln and a share of 6.83%. NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWSTo be sure, tether has long been dogged by doubts about its peg being backed by dollar reserves.

☆ Your Child Picked a College! Tee Up Your 529 Plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Laura Saunders | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan isn’t the only change coming for student loan borrowers. His plan also fundamentally changes how loans will be repaid, turning many into, essentially, free college grants. This month kicked off with college decision day, the May 1 deadline for many high-school seniors to pick a school. It should also prompt parents to plan withdrawals from so-called 529 college-savings plans. “There’s so much focus on putting dollars into 529 plans that people forget about taking the money out—and parents procrastinate because they’re busy,” says Mary Morris , chief executive of Virginia529, which recently held $86 billion for savers.

☆ Peloton’s Progress in Narrowing Losses Falls Short of Expectations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Sabela Ojea | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Peloton has been implementing restructuring measures including layoffs to stem losses. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsPeloton Interactive reported a wider-than-expected loss in the latest quarter as it continues to sit on high levels of unsold web-connected bikes and treadmills. The New York company’s shift from primarily selling equipment to being one focused on subscriptions is also progressing slowly. Peloton ended the March quarter with about 3.1 million subscribers, up 74,000 from the end of December.

☆ ‘The Melt Goes On Forever’ Review: David Hammons Makes, and They Take
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Wesley Morris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The title of this new documentary about the artist David Hammons is a mouthful: “The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art & Times of David Hammons.” It’s playing at Film Forum, and I don’t envy whoever has to make it fit the marquee. But they should figure that out because the title feels crucial to the aim of this movie, a sly, toasty, piquant consideration of Hammons’s conceptual art, the way it mocks and eludes easy ownership. Which is to say: the way his art is aware of — the way it’s often about — the stakes for Black people navigating the straits of the market. That piece is like a lot of Hammons’s work: tragicomic. It would have been enough to behold the assortment of thrilling footage of Hammons at work, in conversation and, in one contentious encounter, under interrogation by a group of students.

The seizure was to "thwart the activity" of Islamic State and "impair its ability to further its goals," the NBCTF said on its website. The NBCTF document, which has not been previously reported, did not give any details on the value of the crypto seized, nor how the accounts were connected to Islamic State. Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volumes, did not respond to Reuters' calls and emails seeking comment. The U.S. Treasury said in a report last year that Islamic State had received crypto donations it later converted to cash, accessing funds via crypto trading platforms. The owner of the two Islamic State-linked Binance accounts seized by Israel was a 28-year old Palestinian called Osama Abuobayda, the NBCTF document shows.

☆ Olive Garden Owner to Buy Ruth’s Chris Steak House
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Chris Wack | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants expects pretax synergies of $5 million to $10 million within the first year after the deal closes. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsOlive Garden parent Darden Restaurants said it is buying Ruth’s Hospitality Group for $21.50 a share, in an all-cash transaction with an equity value of $715 million. The deal represents a 34% premium to Tuesday’s closing price for Ruth’s Hospitality, and a 32% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price.

☆ Olive Garden Owner to Buy Ruth’s Hospitality Group
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Chris Wack | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants expects pretax synergies of $5 million to $10 million within the first year after the deal closes. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsDarden Restaurants agreed to buy Ruth’s Hospitality Group in a deal that would put the fine-dining chain under the same roof as Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Seasons 52. Darden agreed to an all-cash transaction, valued at $715 million, or $21.50 a share. The deal represents a 34% premium to Tuesday’s closing price for Ruth’s Hospitality.

☆ Uber Is Firing on the Most Important Cylinders
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Dan Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Uber’s quarterly ride-share revenue jumped 72% year over year to $4.3 billion. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsHow well is Uber Technologies doing these days? Well enough that it can afford to be magnanimous. The ride-share giant had some kind words for its smaller and struggling rival Lyft on Tuesday. “Those days are over,” he said.

☆ Property Owners May Soon Get a New Reason to Sell
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Carol Ryan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Property buyers loaded up on unusually large amounts of variable debt during the pandemic. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsThe eye-watering price of interest-rate hedges could push more property owners to put up a “For Sale” sign. Lenders in the U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market and banks usually require borrowers to hedge their interest-rate risk when they take out a variable-rate loan.

May 2 (Reuters) - International law firm Squire Patton Boggs said on Tuesday it has hired partner Lian Yok Tan for its energy and infrastructure practice in Singapore. Tan joins from K&L Gates, where she was global co-head of the energy, infrastructure and resources practice, Squire Patton Boggs said. Barry Stimpson, Squire Patton Boggs’ Singapore office managing partner, said in a statement that Tan has connections across the Asia Pacific, particularly in Indonesia, which will help the firm secure new clients. On Monday, Squire Patton Boggs became the latest law firm to set up an office in Dublin. In March, the firm signed a cooperation agreement with The Law Office of Looaye M. Al-Akkas for a new office in Riyadh.

☆ Biden set to address White House Correspondents Dinner
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Maegan Vazquez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But undoubtedly, a White House official told CNN, his speech will address the issue of wrongfully detained Americans abroad. US President George W. Bush, left, waves with impressionist Steve Bridges at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2006. Roger L. Wollenberg/Pool/Getty Images The White House Correspondents' Dinner is held in 1923. It was started two years earlier by the White House Correspondents' Association, the organization of journalists who cover the president. Roosevelt was congratulating Brandt for winning the first Raymond Clapper Memorial Award, which was given by the White House Correspondents' Association for distinguished reporting.

☆ Quotes: Fed plans broad revamp of bank oversight in wake of SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

The assertion in the introduction that the Fed should focus on large bank capital requirements is disconnected from the report's conclusions. AMERICAN BANK ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT AND CEO ROB NICOLS"We take any bank failure seriously, and we will review the findings and proposed policy changes in these reports carefully, including where the conclusions may differ. JONATHAN MONDILLO, HEAD OF NORTH AMERICAN FIXED INCOME AT ABRDN"We're likely to see higher capital requirements. What that means for the overall markets is that the devil is in the details: how stringent those capital requirements will be. A potential First Republic Bank failure could similarly present a risk to the long-term investment strategy of high net-worth individuals."

☆ Ocean Container Lines Push a Rebound in Trans-Pacific Shipping Prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The rate is still below the average price a year ago, but suggests a decline in pricing starting mid-2022 may have bottomed out. Photo: t.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsThe cost of shipping goods by ocean from Asia to the U.S. is turning upward as container lines try to reverse a monthslong slide in rates ahead of the busy importing season. The average spot market price to ship a 40-foot container from Asia to the U.S. West Coast jumped 34%, or $425, over the past two weeks to $1,659, according to Norway-based transport data firm Xeneta.

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