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☆ Recent college graduates create a $500 'human dog bed' going viral on TikTok for taking napping to the next level
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Since going viral on social media, the company has generated over $1 million in revenue, according to ABC7. Videos on Plufl's official TikTok account have garnered several million views and comments from users who are intrigued by the human-sized dog bed. I'll just get an actual dog bed," one user wrote. Plufl met the skepticism with their reasons for the pricing, noting the product is more than just a large dog bed. Amid the online success, Silverman and Kinoshita appeared on "Shark Tank" in October 2022 where they secured a $200,000 deal from Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner.

On Wednesday, the company reported adjusted fourth quarter profit of 25.8 pence per share on sales of about 7.4 billion pounds ($9.11 billion). At 0900 GMT, GSK shares were up 0.4% outperforming the FTSE 100 which was up 0.3%. U.S. litigation over the heartburn drug Zantac has also spooked investors, hurting GSK's shares in the second half of 2022. "Nevertheless, against the backdrop of recent performance, and without any contribution from Covid-19, GSK’s 2023 guidance demonstrates some improved momentum," he said. GSK's shares have lagged most of its rivals in recent years.

☆ Wolfe Research downgrades WWE, says resistance to Vince Mahon's return could mean trouble ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Investors hoping the recent leadership shakeup at WWE would be a knock-out may instead find themselves getting body slammed, Wolfe Research warned. "Stephanie McMahon's resignation and the Board's formal resistance to Vince's return indicate serious stress," Supino said in a Monday note to clients. Before coming into the co-CEO role, Stephanie left her position as chief brand officer to focus on family. There's also risk associated with Vince's return, he said, pointing to the potential for a ratings collapse due to fans disapproving of him. Supino said Vince's return could also aid competitors AEW and UFC as the companies try to poach talent.

☆ Asia shares brace for rate hikes, earnings rush
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Wayne Cole | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Asia has been no slouch either as China's swift reopening bolsters the economic outlook, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) up 11% in January at a nine-month high. "We also look for him to continue to push back against market pricing of rate cuts later this year." "Based on our recent Asia supply chain checks we believe iPhone 14 Pro demand is holding up firmer than expected," they added. Market pricing of early Fed easing has been a burden for the dollar, which has lost 1.5% so far this month against a basket of major currencies. read moreEarly Monday, Brent was up 79 cents at $87.45 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 66 cents to $80.34.

☆ U.S. inflation roller coaster prompts fresh look at long-ignored money supply
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The recent decline in the money supply comes as the Fed has been aggressively raising rates to push inflation back to its 2% target. That dynamic changed in the last two years, though, with money supply trends moving in roughly the same direction as inflation pressures: As money supply rose rapidly into early 2022, so did inflation; since M2 started a persistent decline last summer, inflation pressures have also receded. To be sure, measuring money supply is complicated, with no one way to do it. Bullard, acknowledging the cooling off of money supply, said this downshift in money "bodes well for disinflation," which means the Fed is likely to face an enduring trend of lower price pressures. Economists, meanwhile, are still taking on board whether money supply is something they need to pay greater mind to as they contemplate monetary policy and inflation.

☆ UK payments star can keep defying fintech slump
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Volumes, a measure of the amount of currency that customers are changing, were 26.4 billion pounds - slightly lower than in the previous three-month stretch. Even after the selloff, Wise trades at a punchy 44 times forward earnings according to Refinitiv data. Volumes per retail customer indeed leapt to almost 4,000 pounds per quarter from April to September, before falling back to 3,500 pounds. Unlike other bombed-out fintech stocks, Wise’s revenue growth is strong, at 50% year-on-year in the most recent quarter, and it is highly profitable. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ BlackRock edges closer to its Blackstone roots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - BlackRock (BLK.N) is taking a page from the Blackstone (BX.N) family album. So-called illiquid alternatives were the only one of 13 BlackRock buckets to get fuller. Despite accounting for only about 1% of assets, fees from the unit represented 7.1% of revenue, up from 4.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Rising income from beyond traditional stock and bond offerings, and particularly the harder-to-sell variety, may yet turn out to be more of a game-changer for BlackRock. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ The fog lifts for Didi's path to normalcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Jan 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Didi Global's road ahead looks clearer. The move effectively removes a one-and-a-half year ban on new users for Didi, which has cost it dearly. Its market share has fallen more than 10 percentage points to 72% over the period, according to Bernstein analysts. That should help clear the way to an eventual re-listing in Hong Kong. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Tim Cook’s pay re-enters earth’s atmosphere
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

His pay has been out of this world, but then so has the iPhone maker’s share price performance. Nonetheless Apple, its investors and its board have agreed Cook’s pay should orbit closer to Earth in 2023. On Friday, Apple said Cook’s targeted pay will fall to $49 million. Apple says it will target his pay between 80th and 90th percentile among peers in future years. A bigger improvement is making Cook’s pay less of a giveaway.

☆ Inflation drop gives Fed leeway to save jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Americans’ jobs may just have a chance to survive the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation. The Fed has two main, specific, tasks: keeping inflation around 2% and ensuring all those who want to have jobs do. The central bank has more recently prioritized the former goal at the expense of the latter, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell arguing that permanently higher inflation would be more harmful to Americans than temporarily higher unemployment. Inflation data released Thursday suggests Fed might not have to choose between the two. The inflation battle isn’t over yet, but it’s looking increasingly likely the Fed won’t have to sacrifice jobs to win it.

☆ Gaming’s winter of discontent bolsters M&A logic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The holiday quarter is traditionally a bumper one for gaming groups, as punters stay home to play. As consumers and companies focus on “mega-brands”, smaller firms will struggle to attract staff, and match investment. Sony, for example, will need to bulk up in response to Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) $69 billion swoop on Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O). However, in a tougher environment, Guillemot will need to find some way to keep his hand on the joystick. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Ukraine bolsters its defenses around Bakhmut as Russia sends waves of attacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine said it was strengthening its forces around Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and repelling constant attacks there by Russian mercenary group Wagner, whose leader has vowed to capture the area’s vast underground mines. Kyiv had sent reinforcements to Soledar, a small town near Bakhmut where the situation was particularly difficult, Ukrainian officials said. Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. A U.S. official has said Prigozhin, a powerful ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in nightly video remarks on Sunday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction after months of attacks.

The rule will make medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions, more accessible in states where abortion remains legal, but its impact in states that have banned abortion will be limited. Most significantly, the FDA's new regulation will not help patients get abortion pills in states that have banned abortion, said Amanda Allen of the Lawyering Project, a legal group that defends abortion rights. Nonetheless, Allen said, the rule could make it easier to travel out of state for a medication abortion. Currently, a patient seeking a medication abortion in another state must both obtain the prescription and the pill in that state. Some conservative policy groups and lawmakers have proposed laws that would make it a crime to help someone travel to another state for abortion or mail them abortion pills.

☆ Wells Fargo ordered to pay $3.7 billion for past scandals. Here's why we see it as a positive
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Wells Fargo will pay a $1.7 billion civil penalty and more than $2 billion to the "over 16 million affected consumer accounts," the CFPB said. Wells Fargo has already paid out some of that $2 billion, the bank told Jim Cramer. Wells Fargo has long made clear it was being investigated by the CFPB, so Tuesday's announcement wasn't a complete shock. Shares of Wells Fargo dropped roughly 2% to just under $41 each. However, Wells Fargo had already reserved, or set aside, more than half of that.

☆ U.S. Congress aims to pack additional measures into government funding bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Richard Cowan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Democrats and Republicans alike aim to tuck as many legislative wish-list items as possible into the "omnibus" bill funding the government through the end of its fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2023, without derailing the whole package. "Republicans simply were not going to lavish extra-liberal spending" on non-defense programs into the omnibus bill, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said last week. The Senate's cumbersome rules mean that it could take a few days for the funding bill even to come to a vote, after which the House will need to pass it. Another add-on to the spending bill appeared certain: Republican and Democratic leaders have agreed to clarify and tighten the way U.S. presidential election winners are certified by Congress. Lawmakers and their aides spent the weekend gauging how to wedge other special initiatives into this catch-all spending bill.

☆ Goldman Sachs upgrades Pfizer, says pharma giant can outperform even as Covid demand diminishes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Pfizer 's work on new products will help the company maintain its Covid momentum even as vaccine becomes a smaller business element, Goldman Sachs said Tuesday. Analyst Chris Shibutani upgraded the stock to buy from neutral with a price target of $60, which reflects a 15% upside over Monday's close. His previous price target of $47 indicated the stock would fall from Monday's close. But he said the diversity within Pfizer's pipeline bolsters optimism that the company can perform even if it has a Covid trough. Outside its the company's Covid offerings, Shibutani sees potential in its late-stage growth offerings including the RSV vaccine, Nurtec for migraines and Oxbryta within the sickle cell space.

☆ JPMorgan says this resilient software stock can rally more than 25% even if the economy worsens
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Monday.com has navigated a tightening economy well so far, JPMorgan said Monday, noting that the software stock's price is a good entry point for long-term investors. Analyst Pinjalim Bora upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral and increased his price target by $10 to $140. Bora originally had concerns about what a worsening economic backdrop would mean for share value, though fears have been mitigated by recent performance. Down 64.4% compared with the start of 2022, he said the stock is at an "attractive entry point" for long-term investors. Compared with direct peers Smartsheet and Asana , Bora said Monday.com has the fastest revenue growth and an "elite" margin profile.

Costlier vegetables drove food inflation up to 10.0% in November from a year earlier, the fastest pace since September 2018, due to supply constraints caused by a typhoon. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the core CPI rose 6.5%, faster than October's 5.9%. Year-to-date inflation stood at 5.6%, well outside the central bank's 2%-4% target for the year. ING economist Nicholas Mapa said the central bank would likely opt for a 50-basis point rate hike this month, which would take the policy rate (PHCBIR=ECI) to 5.50%. "Demand side pressures persist with revenge spending related items like restaurant and personal services seeing higher inflation," Mapa said in a message on Twitter.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday hears the latest clash between religious conservatives and LGBTQ rights as it weighs a conservative evangelical Christian web designer's bid to avoid working on same-sex weddings. Lower courts ruled against Smith, prompting her to appeal to the Supreme Court. The remaining 21 states do not have laws explicitly protecting LGBTQ rights in public accommodations, although some local municipalities do. The court ruled on the baker case before the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted in favor of LGBTQ rights in key cases. In another major victory for LGBTQ rights, the Supreme Court in 2020 — to the surprise of many court-watchers — ruled that a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in employment protects LGBTQ employees.

☆ DHL buying Ford's electric cargo vans showcases Club holding's EV strategy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The news DHL will acquire 2,000 Ford E-Transit cargo vans by the end of 2023, the companies announced Monday. DHL— owned by Germany's Deutsche Post — said it has already received some of the E-Transit vans, adding them its global fleet of roughly 27,000 electric vans. Ford has sold roughly 5,800 E-Transit vans through November , and the vehicle has become the top-selling commercial vehicle in North America, according to the company. One of those is called Telematics, the official name for the fleet management software DHL will use under Monday's deal. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

Lower courts ruled against Smith, prompting her to appeal to the Supreme Court. The remaining 21 states do not have laws explicitly protecting LGBTQ rights in public accommodations, although some local municipalities do. Alliance Defending Freedom, which also represented Phillips, has had success arguing religious rights cases at the Supreme Court in recent years. The court ruled on the baker case before the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted in favor of LGBTQ rights in key cases. In another major victory for LGBTQ rights, the Supreme Court in 2020, to the surprise of many court-watchers, ruled that a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in employment protects LGBTQ employees.

☆ Executives at ‘fintechs’ made hundreds of millions handing out PPP Covid cash, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Laura Strickler | Laura Strickler Is A Washington-Based Investigative Reporter With The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The report says Reis is not Black or a veteran. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis$80 billion in fraudIt’s well known that the $800 billion PPP program was plagued by fraud, with some fraud estimates as high as $80 billion. In a text message obtained by the committee, Reis commented on his company’s success, noting it made nearly $1.5 billion in less than six months processing PPP loans. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus CrisisThe report cited a text message in which Kristen Spencer described the anticipated windfall from processing PPP loans. In July 2021, two months after the last PPP loans went out the door, the Spencers bought an $8 million, 10,975-square-foot mansion, according to local property records.

Emerging economies started hiking before the Fed, and quickly, partly because their currencies had weakened against the dollar, raising funding costs and importing inflation. That had quickly fed through to prices, especially energy and some food commodities that are generally traded in dollars. "Total reserves in the emerging markets had fallen by over $400 billion, down 7%, this year as of September." ECB & BOJAt the ECB, the Fed's signal bolsters an already strong case for more measured rate hikes after back-to-back 75 basis point moves and eases growth concerns. Slower Fed rate hikes also help the Bank of Japan, whose ultra-low rates have been criticised for fuelling a sharp yen decline that inflates the cost of imports.

☆ The deadly missile incident in Poland is a 'propaganda gift' for the Ukrainians and Zelenskyy, Russia expert says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Two people were killed after Russian-made missiles landed in Poland, according to reports. The incident could benefit Zelenskyy's efforts to stir up further assistance, a Russia expert said. "This is a propaganda gift for the Ukrainians," said Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke. But what marks the first seeming spillover of Russia's war beyond Ukraine could ultimately benefit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's ongoing efforts to stir up additional assistance and support, a Russia expert told Insider. On top of being a fatal tragedy for Poland, the Tuesday incident also bolsters Ukraine's ongoing wartime rhetoric.

☆ Global stocks rise but Polish deaths raise market concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Herbert Lash | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Stocks wavered and the dollar briefly rose on initial reports of the Polish deaths as the market was overstretched as data suggested inflation was coming off its peak, said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex in New York. The Polish deaths were reminiscent of U.S. bombs that killed three people in the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999, he said. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsMSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) gained 1.03%, while its emerging markets index (.MSCIEF) rose 2.22%. The euro up 0.22% to $1.0348, after briefly slipping on the Polish reports, and the yen strengthened 0.50% versus the dollar at 139.18. U.S. crude futures settled up $1.05 at $86.92 a barrel, while Brent futures rose 72 cents to settle at $93.86.

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