DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Landlords who bought thousands of apartments are facing a reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Investors showed outsize interest in apartment buildings during the pandemic. Rents and occupancy rates were rising, interest rates remained relatively low, and rental-property prices were climbing with no sign of letting up during a surge in housing demand. Laguna Point did not respond to a request for comment. Marc McDevitt, a senior managing director at Cred iQ, said it was possible Laguna Point had lost some, or even all, of its investment in the deal. While offices have been going through a paradigmatic shift as more workers do their jobs remotely, apartment buildings have experienced robust demand from tenants.

☆ Manhattan real estate sales plunge 38%, but cash deals hit all-time record
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Robert Frank | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Manhattan real estate sales fell 38% in the first quarter, as buyers and sellers battled over prices and mortgage rates remained volatile, according to new reports. The average sales price fell 5% to $1.95 million and the median sales price fell 10% to $1.075 million, according to the report. The average discount from the initial list price to sales price in the first quarter price was 7%, up from 5% in the fourth quarter, according to Serhant. Overall, cash deals rose to a record 57% of all sales in the quarter, Miller said. "It's not by any stretch a seller's market, but it's getting busier each month."

☆ How Fred Smith's crown jewel, FedEx Express, became the company's problem child — and how FedEx can save it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

FedEx Express, which does precisely-timed deliveries , has been struggling the most. FedEx is at a critical point in its 52-year evolution and founder Fred Smith's pride and joy — the company's Express delivery service — has become the firm's problem child. "Can FedEx Express shrink itself to prosperity?" "For a very long time, over 10 years, improved Ground service is diluting or cannibalizing existing Express deliveries," Maciuba said. "Was there a tremendous amount of fat in FedEx Express?

Soldering demand from the electronics sector remains weak and investors in London and Shanghai continue to play the market from the short side. Surging purchases of electronic goods during lockdown were followed by sharply reduced spending as many Western consumers were hit by a cost-of-living squeeze. LME positioning reports show both investment funds and other financial players are currently net short of the London tin contract after the early-year rally went into reverse. LME tin price, stocks and cash-3s spreadSHANGHAI STOCKS UP, LONDON STOCKS DOWNReasons to be negative are more obvious in China. ShFE registered tin stocks have risen by 60% to 8,745 tonnes since the start of January.

☆ Google got a pandemic boost for its Workspace software but blew it, insiders say. Now it plans to attack Microsoft with a new push in AI.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Rosalie Chan | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian spent much of his time at a partner meeting talking about Workspace, tweeted Tony Safoian, CEO of Google Cloud partner SADA Systems. "Around the globe, more than nine million paying organizations, and more than three billion users rely on Google Workspace for communication and collaboration. Other major customers like Deutsche Bank use Google Cloud for cloud infrastructure, but Microsoft Office for collaboration software. Forty-four percent of software procurers whose organization plans to or currently uses Microsoft's collaboration software also use Google Workspace, according to the 2022 Forrester study. While Google Cloud is still unprofitable, it has decreased losses to $480 million, down from $890 million last year.

☆ UBS says to sell Caterpillar, citing sluggish growth outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"We don't think there is enough cyclical momentum to justify the current valuation," Fisher wrote. "While we don't think the cycle is over, we don't expect substantial earnings growth (or upward estimate revisions) for 2024-25." "Backlog growth has been decelerating and appears set to roll over, and end market momentum is flattening in parts of construction and oil & gas," Fisher added. "After 27% EPS growth in 2022, we expect growth to slow to 16% in 2023E, and 4% in 2024, with 2025 roughly flat. Residential building, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the company's construction segment, has been stalling, Fisher added.

☆ Money really does buy happiness for most people, researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It found that for the vast majority of people, money does buy you happiness. Meanwhile, happiness "increases steadily" along with income among the rest of the population, Killingsworth, Kahneman, and Mellers found. For the happiest 30% of people, happiness rises at an accelerated rate beyond $100,000. "In other words, the bottom of the happiness distribution rises much faster than the top in that range of incomes. Killingsworth, Kahneman, and Mellers noted, however, that the correlation between income and well-being was "weak, even if statistically robust."

But retail investors are haunted by the regulatory purges, volatility and losses since 2021. With 212 million retail investors, equal to Brazil's population, the conservatism of China's retail army has implications for the viability of the rally. Individual retail investor transactions accounted for about 60% of the total A-shares turnover in late 2022, China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Yi Huiman said in November. But data shows barely any investor accounts being opened and the margin financing that retail investors typically use has plateaued. Retail investors are waiting for clearer policy signals, said Lei Meng, China equities strategist at UBS Securities.

☆ TikTok creators could soon start charging users to watch their videos, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

TikTok creators could soon start charging fans to watch their videos, per The Information. The company hopes a paywall and second Creator Fund 2.0 would help to reward creators on the app. These projects aim to bring more users to TikTok after the platform's use among US adults plateaued last year. Only 21% of US adults currently use TikTok, according to a 2021 Pew Research study, compared to 67% of US teenagers, according to a 2022 Pew Research poll. "We're committed to exploring new ways to create a valuable and rewarding experience for the TikTok creator community," a TikTok spokesperson told Insider, though they declined to comment on the specific features.

☆ In a health system in crisis, Britain's heart care suffers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Alistair Smout | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

Britain's cardiology departments are a microcosm of the problems that have spread through the system. In November, around 8,000 people like Cogan had been waiting more than a year for heart treatment, up from a couple of dozen pre-pandemic. Reuters GraphicsTeams were still trying to restore cardiac services to pre-pandemic levels, NHS England said. Pandemic disruptions to diagnosis and treatment, in addition to delays in emergency care, had an outsized impact on cardiological care, she said. On one visit to his local Colchester hospital, staff could not find a working ECG machine to read his heart's electrical activity when he felt a twinge.

☆ Inflation has cooled, but investors risk being caught off guard by a 'head fake' that could kill the latest stock-market rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Stocks are off to a strong start in 2023 after last year's selloff, with cooling inflation a pillar of support. But there's stickiness in services inflation, and that poses downside risks for equities, analysts said. Wage growth has eased but an even slower pace would suit the Fed's inflation-fighting goal. The Fed has been zeroing in on wage growth, Draho said. Annual average hourly wage growth was 4.6% in December.

To start with, the familiar winter increase in Covid cases is back again this year. The week of October 5, 2022, there were about 320,000 new Covid cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The week of January 11, 2022, there were more than 5.4 million new Covid cases in the United States, according to the CDC. Since October 5, 2022, the weekly Covid death number has largely bounced between 2,000 and 3,000. One other way 2023 feels unlike 2022 or 2021.

☆ Big U.S. banks continue to add jobs as Goldman Sachs cuts staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The chief financial officers of the two biggest U.S. banks said they would hire selectively despite waning economic growth. JPMorgan's Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said the bank is still hiring and "in growth mode" in a call with journalists to discuss the bank's fourth-quarter earnings. Bank of America also continues to hire, particularly in wealth management, while also remaining disciplined on its expenses, Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick told reporters on Friday. Citigroup Inc's Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason told an earnings briefing "we're actively hiring to execute against our strategy. The banking giants stood by their hiring plans even as other lenders cut staffing in investment banking and mortgages.

[1/4] A Bank of America logo is pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 30, 2019. The chief financial officers of the two biggest U.S. banks said they would hire selectively despite waning economic growth. JPMorgan's (JPM.N) Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said the bank is still hiring and "in growth mode" in a call with journalists to discuss the bank's fourth-quarter earnings. Bank of America (BAC.N) also continues to hire, particularly in wealth management, while also remaining disciplined on its expenses, Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick told reporters on Friday. The banking giants stood by their hiring plans even as other lenders cut staffing in investment banking and mortgages.

☆ Apple's latest App Store revenue stat shows slowing growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

This year's disclosure suggests that Apple's App Store growth has plateaued. If all developers paid a 30% cut to Apple, Apple's App Store grossed over $85 billion in 2022, based on CNBC analysis. Apple's stat includes anyone who subscribes to a service through Apple's App store, not just its own first-party services like Apple TV+ and Music. Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring has been following slowing App Store growth. "While App Store growth remains near its lowest levels in history, and we acknowledge the global consumer remains challenged, we are encouraged to see growth trajectory continue to improve after bottoming in September," Woodring wrote.

☆ Office Owners Already Reeling From Remote Work Now Face Recession Risk in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Peter Grant | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The office vacancy rate was 12.3% at the end of September, up from 9.2% at the end of 2019. Owners of office buildings stumbled through 2022, when their holdings underperformed most every other type of commercial real estate. Things look poised to get worse in 2023. Landlords have been longing for employees to head back to office buildings in greater numbers. For the past three months, it has plateaued at about half of what it was before the pandemic.

☆ A weak economy will test consumers' wanderlust, but these stocks could prove resilient in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The U.S. Travel Association anticipates domestic leisure travel demand will hold up, although growth may be a bit slower in 2023. The stock has an average analyst rating of buy and 47% upside to the average price target, according to FactSet. Marriott has an average analyst rating of overweight and 13.5% upside to the average analyst price target, per FactSet. Norwegian has an average analyst rating of overweight and nearly 27% upside to the average analyst price target, while Royal Caribbean has an average analyst rating of overweight and about 24% upside to its average price target. However, Carnival has an average analyst rating of hold and 24% upside to the average price target.

[1/4] Chairman Thomas Jordan of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) looks on as he attends a news conference in Bern, Switzerland December 15, 2022. Although Swiss inflation plateaued at 3% in November, it remains elevated by the country's own standards and outside the SNB's price stability goal of annual increases of 0-2%. The European Central Bank is expected to increase its deposit rate by half a percentage point later on Thursday, according to a Reuters poll, while the Bank of England is also forecast to add 50 basis points to its Bank Rate. In its latest forecast on Thursday, the SNB said it expected inflation rates of 2.9% in 2022, 2.4% in 2023 and 1.8% in 2024. Inflation was then expected to rise again, to 2.1% in the third quarter of 2025, the central bank said - above its price stability goal.

☆ Delta expects 2023 earnings to nearly double thanks to 'robust' travel demand
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Leslie Josephs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The airline expects its adjusted earnings to nearly double to as much as $6 per share next year, above analysts' estimates. Delta and other airline executives in recent weeks have been upbeat about a recovery in travel demand, despite warnings from other industries about economic weakness ahead. The U.S. airline industry returned to profitability this year thanks to a sharp rebound in travel demand and consumers' willingness to pay higher fares, which helped carriers more than make up for increased costs like fuel. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby last week said that business travel demand has "plateaued" but that revenue is still rising. A restoration of capacity will likely "take a little bit of pressure off the fare mix," but strong demand will continue to boost revenues, Bastian said.

☆ Hotel prices and airfare decline as travel demand cools after summer surge
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The cooldown comes in a year where the travel industry enjoyed major tailwinds after a turbulent couple of years due to Covid. Pent-up travel demand even began to encroach on retail's momentum as pandemic shoppers turned into post-pandemic travelers. The travel industry has seen demand taper since a summer surge. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, however, said that travel demand and revenue remains strong while business travel has "plateaued." Even as travel demand cools, revenues in the industry have remained stable due to higher prices.

☆ First Test for Amgen: Fix Horizon’s Growth Problem
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( David Wainer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The crown jewel in Amgen ’s $28 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics is the drug Tepezza for thyroid eye disease, a rare condition that causes swelling and damage to the tissues around the eye. It is the only drug approved in the U.S. for the condition and is generating close to $2 billion in annualized sales. Horizon in November upped its guidance for the treatment, predicting expansion abroad and growth in the U.S. will help the drug fetch more than $4 billion in peak sales. The raised guidance was seen by many on Wall Street as a sign the company was gearing up for a sale. One immediate challenge: Sales of the treatment have plateaued in recent quarters, raising the question of whether Horizon’s numbers are realistic.

☆ United CEO says business travel has 'plateaued' but revenue is still rising
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Leslie Josephs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Business travel demand has "plateaued" but revenue continues to rise thanks to strong demand and capacity constraints, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC Tuesday. Major companies, many in tech, have announced plans to cut back on spending, like business travel, or even lay off workers. San Francisco is one of United's major hubs, along with Newark, New Jersey, Houston, Washington D.C. and its home base of Chicago. "It feels like business travel, and this probably is indicative of pre-recessionary kind of behavior, has plateaued even though our total revenues are still going up," Kirby said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box."

The spread of RSV appears to be slowing, though Covid cases have risen since Thanksgiving and flu hospitalizations remain at a decade high, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday. "This year’s flu season is off to a rough start," Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, board chair of the American Medical Association, said at a CDC press briefing. Nationally, the number of positive weekly RSV tests fell from more than 19,000 in the week ending Nov. 12 to around 7,500 in the week ending Nov. 26. Average daily Covid cases, however, have risen 16% over the last two weeks, according to NBC News' tally. The CDC recorded a nearly 18% increase in average daily hospital admissions due to Covid from the week ending Nov. 22 to the week ending Nov. 29.

☆ How much a TikToker with 500K followers earns in a year and what she charges for a sponsored video
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Shriya Bhattacharya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Pivoting to TikTok helped her gain a larger audience and land five-figure deals with brands. For some creators, money doesn't roll in immediately — they have to spend years building their brands before landing lucrative paid partnerships. Still, it took Leanage years to gain enough followers to attract brands and earn a sizable income. Leanage now has 87,000 subscribers on YouTube, 10,000 followers on Instagram, and 506,000 followers on TikTok. She also regularly chats with other creators to make sure that her rates are up to industry standard.

Covid, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are together driving a national wave of respiratory illnesses. Covid, flu and RSV can be difficult to distinguish, since they share many common symptoms. But a loss of taste and smell is more commonly associated with Covid than with flu or RSV. Flu symptoms tend to develop more suddenly than those of Covid or RSV. To reduce the length of flu symptoms, though, doctors usually prescribe Tamiflu or one of three other approved treatments.

Search resuls for: "plateaued"

25 mentions found