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☆ Tesla owner says his app unlocked a stranger's car — and let him drive off with it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla owner Rajesh Randev says he accidentally drove off in someone else's Tesla. Sometimes, you can even jump in and drive somebody else's electric car, according to Canada-based Tesla owner Rajesh Randev. As he sees it, his Tesla phone app granted him access to someones else's Tesla, he told the paper. The other Tesla driver involved in the mixup was able to unlock Randev's parked car using his Tesla key card, according to the Post. That way, he was able to find Randev's phone number on a document inside the car and inform him of the snafu.

☆ Google employees are already internally testing a smarter version of its chatbot called 'Big Bard'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Googlers are testing the company's Bard chatbot ahead of release. Staff also have access to a superior version, named "Big Bard." Big Bard produces much richer and more humanlike responses. Insider viewed examples of users asking both versions similar questions, and Big Bard produced richer and more humanlike responses. Big Bard appears to be a preview of what a more advanced version of the chatbot might look like.

☆ The stock market and the economy are stuck on different pages - but the Fed's going to get the last word
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It's one of my favorite books, and the idea is relevant today because "Catch-22" is a fitting characterization of what's facing stocks and economy right now. Good news isn't good news and bad news is good news. To be sure, inflation remains hot, as we saw in Friday's Personal Consumption Expenditure data — the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. Even as many top commentators are split on the outlook for the economy, markets appear stuck digesting a host of mixed signals, from strong economic data on the one hand, to fears of higher rates on the other. The billionaire Tesla chief has warned that the central bank could crush the value of the entire stock market.

☆ Hasbro 'continues to destroy customer goodwill' and the stock could crash 29% as it dilutes the value of Magic: The Gathering, Bank of America says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hasbro stock has 29% downside potential as it continues to dilute the brand value of Magic: The Gathering. That's according to Bank of America, who reiterated its "Underperform" rating on the stock in a Tuesday note. "Within its Wizards segment, Hasbro continues to destroy customer goodwill by trying to over-monetize its brands." According to BofA, Hasbro continues to over-monetize the brands within its Wizards segment, which includes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. "Within its Wizards segment, Hasbro continues to destroy customer goodwill by trying to over-monetize its brands," Bank of America said.

☆ Can Pete Buttigieg Fix the FAA?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Holman W. Jenkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Why didn’t Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg rush over and fix Southwest Airlines ’ crew-scheduling snafu? Why didn’t he save the day with his programming skills after outside contractors rummaging around a Federal Aviation Administration computer closet deleted vital software that caused the nation’s air traffic control system to crash? Of course such criticism is unrealistic. We should be asking instead whether we’re glad Mayor Pete is on the job to straighten things out. He has yet to excel at federal spin but we should also be looking for something else: whether he will use the opportunity to move forward a stalled reform agenda that is no mystery to anyone and lacks movement only for want of investment of political capital.

☆ S&P 500 closes slightly red as weak corporate guidance fuels recession fears
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Fourth-quarter earnings season has shifted into overdrive, with 95 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Analysts now see aggregate S&P 500 earnings dropping 3.0% year-on-year, nearly double the 1.6% drop seen on Jan. 1, per Refinitiv. Five of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 ended lower, with utilities (.SPLRCU) suffering the largest percentage loss. General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) beat quarterly expectations, but a weak 2023 forecast helped send the defense contractor's shares sliding 3.6%. The S&P 500 posted 8 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 61 new highs and 30 new lows.

☆ Wall Street dips as weak corporate guidance fuels recession fears
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Fourth-quarter earnings season has shifted into overdrive, with 95 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Analysts now see aggregate S&P 500 earnings dropping 3.0% year-on-year, nearly double the 1.6% drop seen on Jan. 1, per Refinitiv. Most of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 were red, utilities (.SPLRCU) suffering the largest percentage loss. General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) beat quarterly expectations, but a weak 2023 forecast helped send the defense contractor's shares sliding 3.2%. The S&P 500 posted 6 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 52 new highs and 26 new lows.

☆ NYSE Glitch Causes Erroneous Prices in Hundreds of Stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Alexander Osipovich | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For most of the affected stocks, trading was halted 15 seconds after markets opened and resumed between five and 15 minutes later. A technical glitch at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday briefly caused wild price swings and a temporary trading freeze in stocks of major companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., McDonalds Corp. and Walmart Inc. Hundreds of stocks experienced erroneous prices as a result of the incident, the biggest snafu to hit a U.S. stock exchange in several years, according to a spreadsheet of affected securities released by the NYSE.

But a plan to move heavy oil quickly from inventories at the Petroboscan joint venture with state-run company PDVSA is facing delays because of lack of dredging at Maracaibo Lake's navigation channel, the people said. Petroboscan has instructed vessels since to limit their draft after loading at the Bajo Grande oil terminal. That means about 250,000 barrels of Boscan heavy crude can move at a time through the channel linking Bajo Grande to the Caribbean Sea. In a sign that Chevron expects to expand operations quickly, the oil producer has begun advertising for Venezuelan contract administrators and cargo schedulers. The company wants to assemble a trading team to market oil from Venezuela and expand its role in the four projects.

☆ DeSantis' second inauguration as governor will have a 'Free State of Florida' theme, an intimate candlelight dinner, and a toast to moms supporting the GOP governor
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The overarching theme is "The Free State of Florida," the Florida Standard first reported. "The Free State of Florida" is a motto mirroring DeSantis' 2022 campaign theme. Officials stand on stage during an inauguration ceremony where Ron DeSantis was sworn in as Florida Governor, Tuesday, January 8, 2019, in Tallahassee, Florida. This inauguration, DeSantis is considering turning down donations from Big Tech companies, The New York Times reported. "I support Governor DeSantis and am honored to have been invited to his inauguration," GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida told Insider.

☆ Why Southwest is still melting down
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Still, Southwest canceled another 2,300 flights today, long after its rivals had resumed normal service. Here’s why is Southwest taking so long to get its operations back on track: Southwest got unlucky with the location of the storm and its timing. And outdated scheduling technology left Southwest scrambling to match crew with planes. Bad luckThe storm hit Chicago and Denver hard, where Southwest has two of its biggest hubs – Chicago Midway airport and Denver International airport. Although Southwest says it was fully staffed for the holiday weekend, illness makes adjusting to increased system stress difficult.

☆ Analysis: Southwest got billions of dollars in taxpayer aid. Why is its service still a mess?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Southwest Airlines received more than $7 billion from that program. However, analysts say, Southwest’s service meltdown is unrelated to the taxpayer assistance the airline received in 2020. Cancelled Southwest Airlines flights are seen on the flight schedules at LaGuardia Airport, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022, in New York. In April 2020, airline passenger traffic plummeted 96% and stayed 60% below 2019 levels in 2020, according to the US Government Accountability Office. “The problems at Southwest Airlines over the last several days go beyond weather,” she said in a statement.

☆ Congress wants to grill Live Nation’s CEO over the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster fiasco
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

It also wants answers about how Ticketmaster plans to improve in the future. Swift’s Eras tour kicks off March 17 and will have 52 concerts in multiple stadiums across the United States over five months. In its letter to Rapino, the committee also said it wants information about the fees Ticketmaster charges customers. Rapino and Live Nation have caught the ire of Congress before. Senator Amy Klobuchar criticized Ticketmaster in an open letter Rapino in the days following the ticket snafu, saying she has “serious concerns” about the company’s operations.

WASHINGTON — If it’s Monday ... It’s the last day of campaigning before tomorrow’s Georgia Senate runoff. ... NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard covers the closing messages by Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. And just looking at the campaigns, which get the biggest bang per advertising buck, it’s Warnock at $25.2 million, versus Walker at $10.1 million. But now it’s $11.8 million — behind Warnock’s $25 million and the $20.3 million from Georgia Honor, a Democratic Super PAC. Runoff watch: Walker accuser speaks to NBC NewsDays after she first revealed an allegation of domestic abuse against Georgia Republican Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, a former girlfriend of his sat down with NBC News to detail those allegations.

☆ Herschel Walker calls the election an 'erection' during Fox News snafu
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Herschel Walker on Tuesday appeared to slip up and mispronounce the word "election" on TV. "This erection is about the people," Walker said, presumably meaning to say "election" instead. "This election is about more than Herschel Walker. This erection is about the people," Walker said during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News. Walker presumably meant to say "election," but messed up his pronunciation of the word while the two senators nodded and looked on.

Iger is widely considered entertainment industry royalty, celebrated for his management acumen and creative chops. He turned Disney into a global powerhouse by acquiring marquee brands such as Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. Bob Chapek, left, and Bob Iger, in Orlando, Fla.,on Sept. 30, 2021. Shares of the Walt Disney Co. are down 40% this year, and layoffs are pending. But almost immediately, the entertainment industry media zeroed in on what was thought to be a frosty relationship between the two men.

The U.S. Justice Department, which approved Ticketmaster's much-criticized purchase of Live Nation in 2010, is different than it was 12 years ago. A probe is well short of a decision to file a lawsuit asking a judge to break up a company. Ticketmaster previously said in a statement the Swift ticket sale problems were caused by unprecedented demand, much of it by bots trying to buy tickets to resell. "Live Nation was a new entrant, but it had the wherewithal to really compete," he said. A previous Ticketmaster fight with the department culminated in a December 2019 settlement that extended for another five years a consent decree that was part of the deal's initial approval.

Based on U.S. export inspection data, the United States exported roughly 145 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds in calendar year 2021. In 2021, some 42% of October-December soybean shipments to China left from the U.S. Gulf versus 52% from Pacific ports, though the Gulf share was 58% in 2020. Through 29 days of September, soybean sales to all destinations of 3.1 million tonnes were an 11-year low for the month. About two-thirds of all U.S. grain shipments to Mexico are shipped via interior methods such as rail, but the other third relies on the Gulf. Interior exports accounted for 14% of all U.S. grain and oilseeds last year, third behind the Gulf and Pacific regions.

☆ Nancy Pelosi's husband just invested millions in 2 tech companies with lots at stake on Capitol Hill
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-12 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The House speaker's husband, Paul Pelosi, made two million-dollar stock trades. Pelosi's husband buys up more stocksHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, bought stocks in Google's parent company, Alphabet, and in Nvidia Corporation, which designs graphics-processing units for the gaming market. Drew Hammill, the speaker's spokesman, said she did not own any stock and complied with all disclosures, which require members of Congress to post stock trades for spouses and dependent children. Rep. Pat Fallon, a Republican from Texas, in a group photo with freshman members of the House Republican Conference on the House steps of the US Capitol on January 4. By federal law, members of Congress have 30 days from when they become aware of a stock trade to formally disclose it.

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