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Tag: Consumer electronics

  • Lana Del Rey says laptop containing her new album was stolen | CNN

    Lana Del Rey says laptop containing her new album was stolen | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Lana Del Rey says she was robbed of a backpack that contained her laptop, which had her new album on it.

    The singer said along with the computer, multiple hard drives and a camera were also stolen.

    “A few months ago, I parked my car on Melrose Place — actually Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles — and I stepped away for a minute,” she said on Instagram. “And the one time I left my backpack inside my car, someone broke all the windows and took it.”

    Del Rey added that another project, a book she is working on, was stolen as well.

    “I had to remotely wipe the computer that had my 200-page book for Simon and Schuster—which I didn’t have backed up on the cloud,” Del Rey said. And despite that, people are still able to remotely access my phone and leak our songs and personal photos. I loved the book that I lost with all of my heart and put a lot of passion into it.”

    The artist asked her fans to not to listen to any leaked music, and said she will continue to work on new music.

    “I just want to mention that despite all of this happening, I am confident in the record to come, despite so many safety factors at so many different levels. I really want to persist and make the best record I can,” she said. “Please don’t listen to the music if you hear it, because it’s not coming out yet,” she said.

    Del Rey concluded: “Obviously I won’t ever leave anything in the car again, even if it’s just for a moment. But we’ve had the same issues at the house, and it is a constant thing. And although I’m so grateful to be able to share all of the good stuff, I just also want to share that it has been a challenge.”

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  • Smartphone maker Foxconn unveils EV for Taiwan brand Yulon

    Smartphone maker Foxconn unveils EV for Taiwan brand Yulon

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    TAIPEI, Taiwan — The company that assembles smartphones for Apple Inc. and other global brands unveiled an electric SUV on Tuesday that will be produced for a Taiwanese automaker under a similar contract model.

    Foxconn Technology Group said the SUV will be sold by Yulon Motor as the Luxgen n7 starting next year. It said the five-seat vehicle should be able to travel 700 kilometers (440 miles) on one charge. No price was announced.

    Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., plans to produce electric cars and buses for brands in China, North America, Europe and other markets. It said clients can modify their appearance and features.

    The venture adds to a crowded global market with electrics offered by almost every established automaker and dozens of ambitious startups.

    “Hon Hai will certainly redefine the EV industry,” company founder Terry Gou said in a statement.

    Foxconn, headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan, is the world’s biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other consumer electronics.

    Yulon, founded in the 1940s, assembles vehicles for Nissan Motor Co. and other automakers. The company launched its own brand, Luxgen, in 2009.

    The Luxgen n7 is one of five proposed models for potential customers.

    On Tuesday, Foxconn also displayed a five-seat crossover, the Model B, and a five-seat double-cab pickup truck, the Model V.

    The company previously announced plans for a sedan developed with Italian design house Pininfarina and an electric bus, the Model T.

    ———

    Foxconn: www.foxconn.com

    Yulon Motor: www.yulon-motor.com.tw

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  • Microsoft Lays Off Employees After Slowdown in Earnings Growth

    Microsoft Lays Off Employees After Slowdown in Earnings Growth

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    The software giant said earlier this year that it planned to reduce staff by less than 1%

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  • Why smartphones deflated 22% while almost everything else is becoming more expensive

    Why smartphones deflated 22% while almost everything else is becoming more expensive

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    Shoppers queue in like outside the Apple store during the launch day of the new iPhone 14 series smartphones in Hong Kong, on September 16, 2022.

    Miguel Candela | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

    The closely-watched consumer price index continues to show headline inflation in the U.S. hovering at levels last seen in the mid-1980s.

    Prices for a wide variety of goods and services, including food, airfare, and gasoline rose in the latest reading released last week. All told, on a 12-month basis, headline inflation was up 8.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which publishes the CPI.

    But one product category monitored by the CPI recorded a 22% plunge, showing deflation: Smartphones.

    That might seem counterintuitive. Most phones are expensive and prices for the best ones aren’t going down. Apple released new iPhones in September at the same U.S. prices as last year’s options, for example. And Samsung’s high-end devices cost as much as $1,800 this year. Average selling prices for smartphones continue to climb in markets around the world.

    It turns out, smartphones aren’t getting cheaper. They’re getting better. And that’s why CPI shows them deflating instead of inflating like lots of other goods.

    Here’s why: Normally, the CPI likes to compare prices for identical items which don’t change much from year-to-year. So, it might compare eggs against eggs, for example. But in the case of smartphones, BLS has to control for devices that get better each year. If smartphones are improving and the price is staying the same, then BLS records a price decline.

    “There’s been a lot of declines in the [smartphone] index. And that’s really just in large part dealing with the quality improvements,” said Jonathan Church, an economist at BLS.

    Twice a year, BLS looks at the new smartphone models and measures how they’ve improved — whether they have better cameras, displays, or other new methods.

    “For smartphones, we’re talking about things like screen size, RAM, processor speed, phone camera or rear camera, whether it’s foldable, or things like that,” Church said.

    Then, BLS makes a “quality adjustment.” If the price of the new iPhone didn’t rise, but it received new features, then the CPI would consider that device to be more valuable than the old one, and it assumes consumers get more value for the same money.

    Estimating the size of the quality adjustments is done with a hedonic modeling method and BLS uses data from a third-party dataset that includes smartphone specs.

    Or, as BLS puts it: “If a replacement smartphone is different from its predecessor and the value of the difference in quality can be accurately estimated, a quality adjustment can be made to the previous item’s price to include the estimated value of the difference in quality.”

    BLS has indexed smartphone technologies to a starting point in late 2019, when Apple’s newest device was the iPhone 11 and Samsung’s best was the Galaxy S10. In fact, smartphone prices have been deflating since 2019, according to the CPI.

    Eventually, Church said, smartphones may mature into the kind of product that would see price increases and inflation. But the rate of improvement would have to slow down.

    “It’s really only that a certain mature point in the cycle that their price will start to go up again,” Church said. “It seems pretty early in the lifecycle still, smartphones in general.”

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  • These 11 stocks can lead your portfolio’s rebound after the S&P 500 ‘earnings recession’ and a market bottom next year

    These 11 stocks can lead your portfolio’s rebound after the S&P 500 ‘earnings recession’ and a market bottom next year

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    This may surprise you: Wall Street analysts expect earnings for the S&P 500 to increase 8% during 2023, despite all the buzz about a possible recession as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy to quell inflation.

    Ken Laudan, a portfolio manager at Kornitzer Capital Management in Mission, Kan., isn’t buying it. He expects an “earnings recession” for the S&P 500
    SPX,
    +2.78%
    — that is, a decline in profits of around 10%. But he also expects that decline to set up a bottom for the stock market.

    Laudan’s predictions for the S&P 500 ‘earnings recession’ and bottom

    Laudan, who manages the $83 million Buffalo Large Cap Fund
    BUFEX,
    -2.86%
    and co-manages the $905 million Buffalo Discovery Fund
    BUFTX,
    -2.82%    ,
    said during an interview: “It is not unusual to see a 20% hit [to earnings] in a modest recession. Margins have peaked.”

    The consensus among analysts polled by FactSet is for weighted aggregate earnings for the S&P 500 to total $238.23 a share in 2023, which would be an 8% increase from the current 2022 EPS estimate of $220.63.

    Laudan said his base case for 2023 is for earnings of about $195 to $200 a share and for that decline in earnings (about 9% to 12% from the current consensus estimate for 2022) to be “coupled with an economic recession of some sort.”

    He expects the Wall Street estimates to come down, and said that “once Street estimates get to $205 or $210, I think stocks will take off.”

    He went further, saying “things get really interesting at 3200 or 3300 on the S&P.” The S&P 500 closed at 3583.07 on Oct. 14, a decline of 24.8% for 2022, excluding dividends.

    Laudan said the Buffalo Large Cap Fund was about 7% in cash, as he was keeping some powder dry for stock purchases at lower prices, adding that he has been “fairly defensive” since October 2021 and was continuing to focus on “steady dividend-paying companies with strong balance sheets.”

    Leaders for the stock market’s recovery

    After the market hits bottom, Laudan expects a recovery for stocks to begin next year, as “valuations will discount and respond more quickly than the earnings will.”

    He expects “long-duration technology growth stocks” to lead the rally, because “they got hit first.” When asked if Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    +6.14%
    and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    +3.69%
    were good examples, in light of the broad decline for semiconductor stocks and because both are held by the Buffalo Large Cap Fund, Laudan said: “They led us down and they will bounce first.”

    Laudan said his “largest tech holding” is ASML Holding N.V.
    ASML,
    +3.79%    ,
    which provides equipment and systems used to fabricate computer chips.

    Among the largest tech-oriented companies, the Buffalo Large Cap fund also holds shares of Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +3.09%    ,
    Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    +3.88%    ,
    Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    +6.63%
    and Alphabet Inc.
    GOOG,
    +3.91%

    GOOGL,
    +3.73%    .

    Laudan also said he had been “overweight’ in UnitedHealth Group Inc.
    UNH,
    +1.77%    ,
    Danaher Corp.
    DHR,
    +2.64%
    and Linde PLC
    LIN,
    +2.25%
    recently and had taken advantage of the decline in Adobe Inc.’s
    ADBE,
    +2.32%
    price following the announcement of its $20 billion acquisition of Figma, by scooping up more shares.

    Summarizing the declines

    To illustrate what a brutal year it has been for semiconductor stocks, the iShares Semiconductor ETF
    SOXX,
    +2.12%    ,
    which tracks the PHLX Semiconductor Index
    SOX,
    +2.29%
    of 30 U.S.-listed chip makers and related equipment manufacturers, has dropped 44% this year. Then again, SOXX had risen 38% over the past three years and 81% for five years, underlining the importance of long-term thinking for stock investors, even during this terrible bear market for this particular tech space.

    Here’s a summary of changes in stock prices (again, excluding dividends) and forward price-to-forward-earnings valuations during 2022 through Oct. 14 for every stock mentioned in this article. The stocks are sorted alphabetically:

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 2022 price change

    		 Forward P/E

    		 Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021
    Apple Inc.

    		 AAPL,
    +3.09%         		-22%

    		 22.2

    		 30.2
    Adobe Inc.

    		 ADBE,
    +2.32%         		-49%

    		 19.4

    		 40.5
    Amazon.com Inc.

    		 AMZN,
    +6.63%         		-36%

    		 62.1

    		 64.9
    Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

    		 AMD,
    +3.69%         		-61%

    		 14.7

    		 43.1
    ASML Holding N.V. ADR

    		 ASML,
    +3.79%         		-52%

    		 22.7

    		 41.2
    Danaher Corp.

    		 DHR,
    +2.64%         		-23%

    		 24.3

    		 32.1
    Alphabet Inc. Class C

    		 GOOG,
    +3.91%         		-33%

    		 17.5

    		 25.3
    Linde PLC

    		 LIN,
    +2.25%         		-21%

    		 22.2

    		 29.6
    Microsoft Corp.

    		 MSFT,
    +3.88%         		-32%

    		 22.5

    		 34.0
    Nvidia Corp.

    		 NVDA,
    +6.14%         		-62%

    		 28.9

    		 58.0
    UnitedHealth Group Inc.

    		 UNH,
    +1.77%         		2%

    		 21.5

    		 23.2
    Source: FactSet

    You can click on the tickers for more about each company. Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    The forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 declined to 16.9 as of the close on Oct. 14 from 24.5 at the end of 2021, while the forward P/E for SOXX declined to 13.2 from 27.1.

    Don’t miss: This is how high interest rates might rise, and what could scare the Federal Reserve into a policy pivot

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  • With product innovation lagging, Silicon Valley bets on a fresh coat of paint | CNN Business

    With product innovation lagging, Silicon Valley bets on a fresh coat of paint | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    When Google unveiled its new Pixel 7 smartphone lineup earlier this month, the devices looked largely the same as the year prior. But there was at least one subtle change: the colors.

    Whereas the Pixel 6 had come in sorta seafoam (a light blue) and kinda coral (a pale pink), the Pixel 7 now comes in lemongrass (a green) and snow (off-white). Google has also swapped the stormy black (a stormy black) option on the Pixel 6 for obsidian (still black) on the Pixel 7.

    The emphasis on a new color palette for devices isn’t unique to Google. As tech companies showed off their latest smartphones, tablets and laptops at splashy press events over the last two months, many of the products had only limited changes on the outside but boasted elaborately named color options.

    Microsoft launched its Surface Pro 9 tablet in shades such as sapphire (blue) and forest (green), and its Surface Laptop 5 comes in metal (silver), sage (green) and sandstone (tan). Apple’s new iPhone 14 lineup comes in Starlight (a champagne color) and midnight (black), and the company has previously unveiled two shades of green (“green” and “alpine green”) and purple (“purple” and “deep purple”).

    Purple, in particular, has been having a moment in tech. Earlier this summer, Samsung unveiled a “bora purple” color for its flagship Galaxy S22 smartphone — the word “bora” in Korean translates to “purple,” effectively dubbing the color “purple purple.”

    At a time when many of the biggest upgrades to smartphones and other gadgets are under the hood, drumming up consumer interest with a fresh coat of paint may be easier in some ways than getting people excited about faster processors.

    “The quality of all phones is so high, it’s getting difficult for consumers to even notice what ‘better’ is anymore,” said Kelly Goldsmith, professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University. “As a result, tech brands need to adopt new strategies. Introducing different, niche colors is just one way to do it.”

    For consumers, there can be a real value to a broader range of colors. “Devices — whether they’re smartphones, wearables, PCs, or tablets — are an extension of the user’s persona, both in terms of who they are and who they aspire to be,” said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC Research. “Introducing a different color is a way for devices and their owners to distinguish themselves.”

    But just as basic black, white, gray and silver are the top colors in the automobile industry, these colors tend to resonate most with smartphone owners, according to Peggy Van Allen, a color anthropologist for the Color Marketing Group. Still, she noted, a shift has been underway toward stronger colors.

    The Pixel 7 comes in obsidian, snow and lemongrass. The Pixel 7 Pro is available in obsidian, snow and hazel.

    Apple famously brought “Bondi Blue” to its Mac line in the late 1990s after Steve Jobs’ return to the company (it was a huge success). More recently, it created a splash with the introduction of the rose gold iPhone in 2015.

    “Warm metallics went away and then came back in style, and rose gold really reached mass appeal,” Van Allen said. “It peaked at a time when social media influencers were gobbling it up, and the popularity of Millennial Pink also helped to usher it in.”

    Both pinks lasted longer than most forecasters would have predicted, she said. “It was carried along by other trends of the time that enforced the desire for personalization and female empowerment.”

    The names of more recent colors have become increasingly esoteric in the last year or so. This is also likely a strategic play, according to Barbara Kahn, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

    “Color names that are descriptive but odd can spark positive reactions because the consumer likes being able to ‘solve the puzzle,’” she said. “Color names that are ambiguous also spark attention and customers work to figure out what the meaning might be.”

    But for all the varied colors out there, it’s important to remember customers still overwhelmingly keep their phones in a case, essentially covering up the color that once helped entice them to upgrade.

    “There are some transparent cases available from both first and third parties,” said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at market research firm ABI Research, “but at least anecdotally, they don’t seem as popular as regular cases.”

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  • Digitunity Works With Local Organizations to Close Arkansas’ Digital Divide

    Digitunity Works With Local Organizations to Close Arkansas’ Digital Divide

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    Partnership with community groups works to improve the state’s ranking for broadband coverage.

    Press Release
    –

    Oct 17, 2022 08:00 EDT


    CONWAY, N.H., October 17, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    As a national nonprofit connecting technology donors with organizations serving people in need of computers, Digitunity supports the state of Arkansas in working with community-based groups to close the digital divide afflicting the state’s marginalized residents. They do this through their Digital Opportunity Network, comprised of 1,500 organizations across the U.S.

    In July, Heartland Forward, a Bentonville nonprofit, announced the organization of a coalition of over a dozen Arkansas-based organizations. Its goal is to expand internet access throughout the state by supporting local initiatives and securing federal funding to ensure high-speed internet is more accessible and affordable across Arkansas. 

    According to findings from the Arkansas State Broadband Manager’s Report, as of June 2020, Arkansas is 50th in the nation for broadband coverage. Only 79% of the state’s population has internet service with speeds of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. As recently as 2022, there are still 210,000 households in the state lacking adequate broadband access. 

    “Having a connected computer and the skills to use it productively is a fundamental need in today’s society,” said Scot Henley, executive director of Digitunity. “Since its founding, Digitunity has partnered with several nonprofit organizations in Arkansas, with wide-ranging missions from youth-focused projects to life skills and digital literacy for adult learners, all with a shared mission of bridging the technology gap.”

    Digitunity has six Digital Opportunity Network members in the state: 

    • The North Central Career Center of Leslie
    • The Conway County Center for Exceptional Children of Morrilton
    • Carter’s Crew of Little Rock
    • The Arkansas Adult Learning Resource Center of Little Rock
    • Shirley Community Service and Development Corporation of Shirley 
    • Northeast Arkansas Innovative Training Center of Jonesboro 

    These distribution partners provide technology to adults looking for jobs, schoolchildren, and nonprofit organizations like career and technical centers. As of 2021, Digitunity and its Network have distributed 273 devices in Arkansas. Their body of work connecting donors of technology with recipient organizations serving people in need spans nearly 40 years. 

    Since Digitunity’s inception, thousands of people have benefitted from its efforts. Its perspective has been shaped by decades of experience creating local impact through the benefit of a national lens. As an independent, national nonprofit focused on advancing digital equity through device ownership, Digitunity is unique in the digital inclusion landscape. 

    One way Digitunity demonstrates this uniqueness is by partnering with local organizations and governments to benefit members of these communities. One such way they’re doing this is by helping state and local governments, like those in Arkansas, create digital equity plans. This action was inspired by the landmark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

    The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will expand broadband infrastructure and enable eligible households to obtain home broadband access and a connected device. Digitunity sees this initiative as an opportunity to help the state of Arkansas as they develop a digital equity plan. The goal of this plan is to expand access to connected devices for all Arkansas residents. 

    In response, the organization has developed recommendations for state digital equity plans. This expertise in both supply and community distribution gives Digitunity the ability to effectively partner with coalitions, cities, and states to create sustainable device access solutions. To learn more about Digitunity’s digital equity planning work, please visit digitunity.org.

    About Digitunity
    Since the 1980s, Digitunity has advanced digital inclusion by connecting donors of technology with organizations serving people in need. Our mission is to ensure everyone who needs a computer has one, along with robust internet connectivity and digital literacy skills. To learn more about our mission, please visit www.digitunity.org.

    Source: Digitunity

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  • What to do with your old phones, gadgets and other e-waste | CNN Business

    What to do with your old phones, gadgets and other e-waste | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    In the past two months, Apple, Google and Samsung have all unveiled their newest smartphones and other devices with the goal of getting consumers to upgrade ahead of the holidays. But in the process, these and other companies may also be adding to a growing problem: electronic waste.

    The limited lifespan of many tech gadgets combined with few options to fix older devices, have caused the issue of e-waste to surge over the years. United Nation’s data indicates the world generated a staggering 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste in 2019, and only 17.4% of that was recycled.

    Friday marks International E-Waste Day, an annual opportunity to reflect on the impacts of electronic waste and do more to repair or recycle them. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEE) Forum, a Brussels-based nonprofit that has spearheaded the occasion since 2018, said the focus this year is on taking action with the small bits of e-waste many people may unintentionally hoard, including your old cell phone, headphones, remote controls and computer mouse.

    “People tend not to realize that all these seemingly insignificant items have a lot of value, and together at a global level represent massive volumes,” Pascal Leroy, director general of the WEEE Forum, said in a statement.

    The issue of e-waste is about much more than just cleaning out space in your junk drawers.

    The US Environmental Protection Agency says large swaths of e-waste are shipped to developing countries that lack the capacity to reject these imports or infrastructure to safely recycle them. The World Health Organization also warned that children, with their smaller hands, are often used to process mountains of e-waste in developing nations in search of valuable elements such as copper, silver, palladium and more. The WHO said more than 18 million children are exposed to a range of negative health impacts as they engage in this informal e-waste processing industry.

    Here are a few steps you can take with the phones, laptops and chargers you have stashed at home to alleviate the e-waste burden.

    If you live in an area that offers e-waste disposal services (either via specific pickup dates or at a drop-off location), experts say that’s among the easiest and most intuitive ways to clear out old gadgets.

    Various coalitions have emerged in recent years to give consumers the option to responsibly dispose of devices. The e-Stewards group and Sustainable Electronics Recycling International each offer online tools to find recycling centers that they have certified.

    The collective impact of recycling e-waste can be staggering. For every 1 million cell phones that are recycled, the EPA says 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.

    But not all municipalities in the US offer infrastructure for e-waste recycling.

    If you can’t find a recycling center nearby, a growing list of major retailers — including Staples and Best Buy — also have programs that let customers bring in e-waste for recycling. And many producers, including Apple

    (AAPL)    , have programs that offer credits or free recycling in exchange for trading-in used gadgets. Google

    (GOOG)    , for example, offers an option to request a free shipping label to mail in some used gadgets and electronics for recycling.

    Environmental advocates say the most important step to tackling the mounting e-waste problem is simply to try and use your electronics for as long as possible. In some ways, that’s getting easier than ever.

    While tech manufacturers have come under fire for tactics aimed at making you upgrade, policymakers have recently enacted changes to push companies to make it easier for customers to repair consumer electronics and support the rise of the Right-to-Repair movement.

    Earlier this year, Apple and Samsung launched their self-service repair stores, offering parts for users seeking do-it-yourself fixes for their smartphones. Google similarly announced it would offer genuine Pixel parts for DIY-ers at an online store this year.

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  • Taiwan chipmaker TSMC says quarterly profit $8.8 billion

    Taiwan chipmaker TSMC says quarterly profit $8.8 billion

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    TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the biggest contract manufacturer of processor chips for smartphones and other products, said Thursday that its quarterly profit rose 79.7% over a year earlier to $8.8 billion amid surging demand.

    Quarterly revenue rose 47.9% over a year ago to $19.2 billion, the company reported.

    TSMC, headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, makes processor chips for brands including Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. Many of their products are assembled by factories in China, which has exposed TSMC to the possible impact of U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security.

    TSMC’s U.S.-traded shares fell 14% in value after Washington on Friday tightened restrictions on Chinese access to advanced computer chips. Those controls are based on limiting the ability of TSMC and other suppliers to use U.S. chip or manufacturing technology for Chinese customers.

    The American Embassy in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether TSMC had received an exemption that might allow normal supplies to Chinese factories to continue.

    TSMC’s chip supplies to China already were restricted under a 2020 order by then-President Donald Trump that prohibits vendors from using U.S. technology to manufacture for Huawei Technologies Ltd., a maker of network switching gear and smartphones. Washington says Huawei is a security risk and might facilitate Chinese spying, which the company denies.

    Chipmakers are benefiting for demand for next-generation telecoms, high-performance computing and chips for use in products from cars to medical devices.

    TSMC announced plans last year to invest $100 billion over the next three years in manufacturing and research and development.

    Most semiconductors used in smartphones, medical equipment, computers and other products are made in Taiwan, South Korea and China.

    That has prompted concern among American officials about reliance on supplies that might be disrupted by conflict between China and Taiwan. They are lobbying TSMC and other chipmakers to set up factories in the United States.

    TSMC announced plans last year to build its first chip factory in Japan. The company and Sony Corp. later said they would jointly invest $7 billion in the facility.

    TSMC operates a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility in Camas, Washington, and design centers in San Jose, California, and Austin, Texas.

    The company has announced plans for a second U.S. production site in Arizona.

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  • Japan’s Sony, Honda jointly making EVs for 2026 US delivery

    Japan’s Sony, Honda jointly making EVs for 2026 US delivery

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    TOKYO — A new electric car company that brings together two big names in Japanese business, Honda and Sony, officially kicked off Thursday, with both sides stressing their common values of taking up challenges and serving people’s needs.

    The electric vehicle from Sony Honda Mobility Inc. will go on sale in 2025, with deliveries coming first in the U.S. in early 2026, and in Japan later that year, Chief Executive Yasuhide Mizuno told reporters. Pre-orders start 2025.

    In March, Sony Group Corp. and Honda agreed to set up the 50-50 joint venture, with the idea of bringing together Honda’s expertise in autos, mobility technology and sales with Sony’s imaging, network, sensor and entertainment expertise.

    Production will take place at a Honda plant in the U.S., but details such as pricing, platform and the kind of battery to be used were not disclosed. Production volume was also not given, but officials said this was a special model and not intended for massive sales.

    Mizuno, who is from Honda Motor Co., said the collaboration brings together hardware and software to deliver an emotionally satisfying experience on the move.

    “It was necessary to take a totally new approach,” Mizuno told reporters in Tokyo. “We want to make this completely new.”

    The U.S. was chosen for the launch because electric vehicles were already popular there, Japan came second as Honda’s home market, and other markets, including Europe, will follow, but no dates were set, he said.

    Izumi Kawanishi, the Sony executive who became Chief Operating Officer at Sony Mobility, said partners will be added to the project.

    Demand for “zero-emissions” vehicles is expected to grow worldwide amid concerns about climate change and sustainability.

    Sony, which makes the PlayStation video-game console and has movie and music businesses, showed an electric car concept at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas two years ago, and has been eager to find an auto partner.

    Honda has electric vehicles in its lineup, although not as plentiful as do some rivals, like Ford Motor Co. or Nissan Motor Co. Tokyo-based Honda has teamed up with General Motors to share platforms for EVs in North America, but the products are not yet on sale.

    ———

    Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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  • Microsoft unveils $4,299 Surface desktop computer | CNN Business

    Microsoft unveils $4,299 Surface desktop computer | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Microsoft’s most expensive Surface device is about to get even pricier.

    At a press event on Wednesday, Microsoft is set to unveil several Surface Pro tablets, Surface Laptop models and a Surface Studio 2+ desktop computer, the last of which has not been updated in several years.

    The new 28-inch Surface Studio 2+, an all-in-one desktop, now has an Intel Core H-35 processor, 50% faster CPU performance and an updated NVIDIA chip for faster graphics. The device also includes an updated display, cameras, microphones and supports a digital pen for on-screen drawing. It also has several ports, including USB with Thunderbolt 4, and the display can split into four different apps at once for greater multitasking.

    The Surface Studio 2+ starts at $4,299, and $4,499 with the digital pen. The previous Surface Studio 2, released in 2018, received some criticism for its $3,499 starting price. Microsoft told CNN Business this year’s price jump is attributed to several significant improvements, including the new processor, a 1 TB SSD hard drive for faster file transfers and an enhanced 1080p camera, among other features.

    The announcements about the refreshed Surface product lineup will kick off Microsoft’s days-long Ignite developer conference on Wednesday. The event comes as Microsoft marks the tenth anniversary of the Surface line, which originally launched with a tablet to take on the iPad.

    Like other tech companies that have unveiled new products this fall, Microsoft is also confronting a more difficult economic environment, including high inflation and fears of a looming recession, that could make it harder to convince customers to spend three or even four figures upgrading devices.

    While the new Surface products aren’t much different in terms of design or screen size than previous iterations, the latest devices feature some upgrades, including new chipsets for better performance.

    Microsoft showed off its flagship Surface Pro 9 tablet, once again aimed at replacing the laptop. The two-in-one device features an aluminum casing in new colors as well as a built-in kickstand and a PixelSense display. Underneath the display is an HD camera, updated speakers and microphones, and a custom G6 chip. Microsoft said the chip helps power apps with digital ink, such as Ink Focus in Microsoft OneNote and the GoodNotes app for Windows 11, which is designed to make it feel like the user is writing with a pen and paper.

    The Surface Pro 9 also offers a choice between processors. The first option is a 12th Gen Intel Core processor built on the Intel Evo platform 4 with Thunderbolt 4 – a combination which promises 50% more performance, better multitasking and desktop productivity, faster data transfer, and the ability to dock to multiple 4K displays. The second option is a Microsoft SQ3 processor powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon with 5G connectivity, with up to 19 hours of battery and new AI features.

    The Surface Pro 9 is available in four colors, including platinum, graphite, sapphire and forest. It starts at $999.

    Microsoft also introduced an update to its ultra-portable laptop, Surface Laptop 5, which looks very similar to its predecessor but with a processor update that may attempt to bring it closer in competition with Apple’s ARM-based chipsets for macOS laptops.

    Surface Laptop 5 runs on Intel Evo platform and comes in two display sizes: 13.5 inches and 15 inches. It comes with updated Dolby Atmos 3D spatial speakers, a front-facing HD camera that automatically adjusts camera exposure in any lighting, and several new aluminum colors, such as cool metal, sage and alcantara. The company also said it promises one day of battery life on a single charge and is 50% more powerful than its predecessor.

    The Surface Laptop starts at $999 for the 13.5-inch version and $1299 for the 15 inch. Pre-orders begin for Surface products on Wednesday in select markets and start hitting shelves later this month.

    Microsoft hardware devices amount to between 3% to 5% of the tablet market, according to David McQueen, an analyst at ABI Research. Instead, the bulk of its revenue comes from Microsoft OS across different device types and associated applications and cloud services.

    “Microsoft is able to stay in the hardware sector because of revenue generated from these services,” McQueen said. It’s an approach similar to Google whose Pixel smartphone remains a niche product but serves as a way for the company to highlight its apps and OS.

    On Wednesday, the company also announced a new Microsoft Designer app and Image Creator in Bing and the Edge browser to bring advanced graphic design to mainstream audiences. The platform relies heavily on a partnership with startup OpenAI and its AI-powered DALL-2 tool, which generates custom images using text prompts. DALL-2 is also coming to Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service.

    Brands are increasingly using DALL-2 for both ads and product inspiration, according to Microsoft. In a blog post, the company detailed how toy company Mattel sought out Dall-E 2 to conceptualize how future cars may look, such as by changing colors and typing “make it a convertible,” among other commands.

    Experts in the AI field have raised concerns that the open-ended nature of these systems — which makes them adept at generating all kinds of images from words — and their ability to automate image-making means they could automate bias on a massive scale. In previous test of OpenAI’s system, for example, typing in “CEO” showed images that all appeared to be men and nearly all of them were white.

    Microsoft said it is taking the concerns seriously. Inappropriate text requests will be denied by Microsoft’s servers, according to the company, and users will ultimately be banned for repeat offenses.

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  • Meet the 10 biggest megadonors for the 2022 midterm elections

    Meet the 10 biggest megadonors for the 2022 midterm elections

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    With four weeks until Election Day, congressional candidates are on track to break midterm fundraising records, having raised nearly $2.5 billion so far this cycle. That’s already 70% more than what was raised during the 2014 cycle and just $200 million shy of the total raised during the full 2018 cycle.

    This cycle has also seen record-shattering outside spending, topping $1 billion through the beginning of October, according to an OpenSecrets estimate.

    The increase in spending and fundraising is due in large part to the involvement of millionaire and billionaire megadonors who have sought to influence the outcome of an election in which both chambers of Congress are in play.

    “When megadonors pump millions of dollars into super PACs, they get to help call the shots,” said Michael Beckel, research director at Issue One, a nonpartisan political reform organization. “Massive spending from a megadonor can influence what issues are talked about on the campaign trail and in Congress.”

    Super PACs are independent political action committees that can raise unlimited sums of money but are not allowed to coordinate with a candidate or campaign. Due to contribution limits, such as those restricting individuals’ candidate contributions to $2,900 per election per candidate, most megadonor spending goes to super PACs.

    More context: These are the basics of campaign finance in 2020 — in two handy charts

    A MarketWatch analysis of Federal Election Commission data through the end of September shows that these 10 business moguls and philanthropists are the biggest federal-level donors this cycle.

    Read: These 3 races could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate in 2023

    And see: If this seat flips red, Republicans will have ‘probably won a relatively comfortable House majority’

    Top federal-level megadonors this cycle
    Rank

    		 Contributor

    		 Total Contributions

    		 For Republicans

    		 For Democrats

    		 Nonpartisan/Bipartisan
    1

    		 George Soros

    		 $128,782,000

    		 $0

    		 $128,782,000

    		 $0
    2

    		 Ken Griffin

    		 $50,955,800

    		 $50,955,800

    		 $0

    		 $0
    3

    		 Richard Uihlein

    		 $49,117,000

    		 $49,117,000

    		 $0

    		 $0
    4

    		 Sam Bankman-Fried

    		 $39,931,000

    		 $201,000

    		 $37,725,000

    		 $2,005,000
    5

    		 Jeff Yass

    		 $32,754,000

    		 $32,754,000

    		 $0

    		 $0
    6

    		 Peter Thiel

    		 $30,189,000

    		 $30,189,000

    		 $0

    		 $0
    7

    		 Fred Eychaner

    		 $22,343,000

    		 $0

    		 $22,343,000

    		 $0
    8

    		 Stephen Schwarzman

    		 $21,870,000

    		 $21,865,000

    		 $0

    		 $5,000
    9

    		 Larry Ellison

    		 $21,003,000

    		 $21,003,000

    		 $0

    		 $0
    10

    		 Ryan Salame

    		 $18,932,000

    		 $17,432,000

    		 $0

    		 $1,500,000
    Totals:

    		 $415,877,000

    		 $223,517,000

    		 $188,850,000

    		 $3,510,000

    Source: MarketWatch analysis of FEC data as of Sept. 30, 2022
    Note: Partisan breakdown includes non-party affiliated PACs with over 95% of their spending benefitting one party, data has been rounded to the nearest thousand

    Big spending by itself doesn’t automatically mean winning. There have been notable instances of the financially strongest candidates losing (such as crypto-backed House candidate Carrick Flynn earlier this year and billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s self-financed presidential bid) — but money can certainly help put a candidate on the right track.

    “Money alone doesn’t guarantee electoral success, but every candidate prefers to be the one with more money to spend,” Beckel said. He added: “Outside spending on behalf of a candidate isn’t a silver bullet that’s going to guarantee electoral success. But it goes a long way to boosting somebody’s name recognition, and to presenting them as a viable candidate — somebody who has the resources to run a competitive campaign.”

    Information about the spending by the top 10 donors this cycle has been compiled from MarketWatch’s analysis of FEC data and filings, super PAC websites and previously reported comments. Read on to find out who are the top 10 biggest donors this cycle.

    10. Ryan Salame — $19 million

    Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, a subsidiary of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, founded a hybrid PAC earlier this year called American Dream Federal Action. The vast majority ($15 million) of the $19 million Salame has spent this cycle has gone into bankrolling the PAC, which has spent $2.4 million in independent expenditures supporting Illinois Republican Rep. Rodney Davis, $2 million supporting Republican Senate candidate Katie Britt from Alabama, and $1.2 million each supporting Arkansas GOP Sen. John Boozman and Brad Finstad, a GOP congressional candidate in Minnesota.

    On its website, the PAC describes itself as “organization dedicated to electing forward-looking candidates — those who want to protect America’s long term economic and national security by advancing smart policy decisions now.” A representative for Salame didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    9. Lawrence Ellison — $21 million

    The co-founder of Oracle
    ORCL,
    +0.26%
    has similarly bankrolled a PAC this election cycle — giving a total $20 million to Opportunity Matters Fund Inc. The super PAC has largely held onto its funds so far, recent FEC records show, having $17 million cash on hand as of the end of August. Of the independent expenditures it has made this cycle, it spent the most on Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker ($1.3 million), Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson ($1.3 million) and North Carolina Senate candidate and current Republican Rep. Ted Budd ($1.1 million). A representative for Ellison didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    8. Stephen Schwarzman — $22 million

    Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of private-equity giant Blackstone
    BX,
    -2.41%    ,
    is the eighth biggest donor at the federal level this cycle. In March, Schwarzman gave $10 million to both the Senate Leadership Fund and Congressional Leadership Fund, super PACs aimed at obtaining a Republican majority in the Senate and House, respectively. A representative for Schwarzman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    7. Fred Eychaner — $22 million

    Fred Eychaner has also contributed $22 million so far this cycle, but unlike most of the spending on this list, his has been directed toward Democratic causes. The chairman of Chicago-based Newsweb Corporation has given $9 million to the House Majority PAC and $8 million to the Senate Majority PAC, as well as just under $1.5 million to the Democratic National Committee and several hundred thousands to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. A representative for Eychaner didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    6. Peter Thiel — $30 million

    Venture capitalist Peter Thiel was heavily involved in backing Ohio Republican J.D. Vance’s primary bid, giving $15 million in the spring to the Vance-aligned Protect Ohio Values PAC.

    The massive primary investment was “historic” and record-setting, according to Beckel, who added that Thiel’s involvement in the Ohio Senate primary could mark “a new chapter of how mega donors are choosing to play in politics.”

    “I think it’s become clear for a lot of megadonors that there are high stakes to a lot of primaries, and by spending in the primary, where there is typically lower turnout than in say, a statewide general election, they can get a lot of bang for their buck by investing in a primary election,” Beckel added.

    Thiel has indicated that he doesn’t intend to put any more money toward Vance’s bid as he reportedly believes the Ohio candidate is on track to win, and instead will focus his funding on Arizona Republican Blake Masters’ bid to oust Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in the final weeks leading up to the midterm election.

    Thiel, known for his roles in PayPal
    PYPL,
    -1.69%    ,
    Palantir
    PLTR,
    -0.25%
    and Facebook
    META,
    -3.92%    ,
    has also given a total $15 million to the Masters-aligned PAC, Saving Arizona, with his most recent contribution in July. Both Vance and Masters are venture capitalists, but Masters has worked with Thiel. He served as chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation, and he co-authored a book on startups with Thiel in 2014. A representative for Thiel didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    5. Jeff Yass — $33 million

    Options trader Jeff Yass, who founded trading firm Susquehanna International Group, has contributed about $33 million on a federal level this cycle. Yass has given $15 million to the School Freedom Fund, or the equivalent of 97% of the PAC’s total fundraising. The group focuses on the issue of school choice, and its website states that some bureaucrats “hindered the development and education of our youth through school closures, mask mandates, critical race theory, and more.”

    Aside from the School Freedom Fund, Yass’ other biggest contributions are to the conservative Club for Action ($6.5 million), Kentucky Freedom ($5 million), Protect Freedom ($2 million) and Crypto Freedom ($1.9 million). A representative for Yass didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    4. Sam Bankman-Fried — $40 million

    Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX, is the main funder behind Protect Our Future PAC, giving it $27 million of the $28 million it raised this cycle. 

    The organization says on its website that it focuses on promoting Democratic candidates championing pandemic preparedness and prevention “so this is the last time in our lifetime, and our children’s lifetimes, that we will face the devastation that has gripped communities across the U.S. since 2020.”

    The group spent more than $10 million supporting Democrat Carrick Flynn’s House bid in Oregon. Flynn lost his primary in May by 18 points despite his massive outside spending advantage. In addition to Flynn, the group has made over $1 million in independent expenditures each supporting Democratic congressional candidates Lucy McBath, a current representative from Georgia; Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Adam Hollier of Michigan, Valerie Foushee of North Carolina and Shontel Brown, a current representative from Ohio.

    Most of the other $10 million Bankman-Fried spent this cycle has gone to the House Majority PAC ($6 million) and the crypto PAC GMI ($2 million).

    While the vast majority of his spending has supported Democratic candidates and causes, Bankman-Fried does not classify himself as an exclusively Democratic donor — for instance he gave $105,000 to the Alabama Conservatives Fund in June and $45,000 to the NRCC in July. 

    He told Politico in August that he is “legitimately worried about doing things that will make people view me as partisan when it’s not how I feel … because I think it both misses what I’m trying to do and makes it harder for me to act constructively.” A representative for the FTX boss didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    3. Richard Uihlein — $49 million

    Richard Uihlein is the founder of the shipping and business supply company Uline, and is a longtime conservative donor. This cycle has seen nearly $50 million in political spending by him, with just over half of it going to Club for Growth Action. Uihlein has also given about $14 million to Restoration PAC, an organization that says it is “dedicated to strengthening the foundations that made America the greatest nation in the world: God, family, education, and community.”

    Uihlein’s next largest contributions are to the conservative Team PAC ($2.5 million) and the Arkansas Patriots Fund ($2.2 million), which earlier this year made ad buys favoring Republican Sen. John Boozman’s primary opponent. A representative for Uihlein didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    2. Ken Griffin — $51 million

    With $51 million in federal-level political spending, Ken Griffin, CEO of hedge fund Citadel, is the second most prolific donor this cycle.

    The biggest beneficiaries are the Republican-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund with $18.5 million in contributions, the Senate Leadership Fund with $10 million and Honor Pennsylvania, a super PAC that backed Republican Dave McCormick’s Senate bid. McCormick lost in the primary to Mehmet Oz by less than a thousand votes. 

    While Griffin spent about $64 million during the last cycle, his $51 million figure this year marks by far the most he has spent during a midterm cycle. During the 2018 cycle, his contributions totaled less than $8 million.

    A spokesperson for Griffin told MarketWatch that Griffin “supports leaders who are committed to protecting the American Dream and pursuing policies that will create a better future for the United States.”

    “The right policies will focus on creating rewarding jobs, prioritizing public safety, and investing in a strong national defense,” his spokesperson said. “Preserving the American Dream will require that every child is well educated, can access great healthcare, and has the opportunity to succeed.”

    1. George Soros — $129 million

    Not one donor comes close to matching the sum that billionaire philanthropist George Soros has contributed this cycle: $129 million. However, much of that money hasn’t actually been put to work this cycle.

    The majority of those on this list have focused their funding on Republican causes, but Soros’ money has gone to Democratic groups — specifically Democracy PAC II, whose $125 million in contributions comprises 99% of its fundraising. The super PAC spent more than $80 million on Democratic groups and candidates during the 2020 election.

    A representative for Soros pointed MarketWatch to a Politico article from January, in which Soros said the $125 million is aimed at supporting pro-democracy “causes and candidates, regardless of political party” who are invested in “strengthening the infrastructure of American democracy: voting rights and civic participation, civil rights and liberties, and the rule of law” and called his contribution a “long-term investment” that will  support political work beyond this year.

    So far this cycle, Democracy PAC has spent very little and holds $113 million in available cash. Contributions the PAC has made this cycle include $5 million to the Senate Majority PAC, $2.5 million to One Georgia and $1 million to both Care in Action and House Majority PAC.

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  • Google unveils new Pixel 7 smartphones and first-ever Pixel smartwatch | CNN Business

    Google unveils new Pixel 7 smartphones and first-ever Pixel smartwatch | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Google on Thursday unveiled its new Pixel 7 smartphone lineup and its first-ever Pixel smartwatch, packed with tracking and health features from its subsidiary Fitbit.

    At a press event in New York City, Google showed off the new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro devices, which largely look the same as the year prior but with new camera features, an improved screen and battery, and an updated Google Tensor processor.

    While many of the updates are iterative, the lineup will likely appeal to tech enthusiasts who want the latest version of Android and an alternative to Apple or Samsung smartphones, as well as those who haven’t upgraded their Pixel device in a few years.

    The 6.3-inch Pixel 7 features a glass back, aluminum frame and a sleek band on the back with black cutouts for the camera system. Its always-on OLED display allows for quick checking of widgets that highlight useful information, such as baggage claim details at the airport or when packages are arriving (not unlike what’s been recently made available on the new iPhone 14 line with the lockscreen).

    Google

    (GOOG)     said the Pixel 7’s screen is now 25% brighter for visibility indoors, and the device can go a full day on a single charge (or 72 hours when on extreme battery saver mode). It comes in three colors – obsidian, snow and lemongrass – and starts at $599, or $200 less than a baseline iPhone 14 with the same amount of storage.

    “We want people to give Pixel a try, so while phones in this tier typically start at $799, we’re starting the price at $599,” Brian Rakowski, Google vice president of product management, said on stage during the event.

    The larger 6.7-inch Pixel Pro – which comes in a matte aluminum finish – features an always-on display, the same long-lasting battery as the Pixel 7 and a new triple rear camera system, which includes a 5x telephoto lens, 30x super resolution zoom and an upgraded ultrawide lens. The ultrawide lens comes with autofocus capabilities to support new features including Macro Focus that picks up on fine details.

    Both models run on Google’s new Tensor G2 processor, which powers the device’s machine learning and speech recognition capabilities, and several camera features. With Night Sight, for example, the camera now processes photos twice as fast. The tech also drives Cinematic Blur, a new dramatic blurring effect for videos.

    A new accessibility feature called Guided Frame helps visually impaired users take better selfies by vocally instructing them to move the device in specific directions. Google also announced updates to making calls, including cutting down on background noise and the ability to transcribe audio messages into text messages.

    The Pro model, which comes in obsidian, snow and hazel, starts at $899. Pre-orders start on Thursday for both models and the devices hit shelves on Thursday, October 13.

    Google’s Pixel line remains a niche product. Its global market share for smartphones has never surpassed 1% on an annual basis, according to data from IDC Research. Google also limits sales to only a handful of countries, so keeping the volume low has been strategic as Google remains predominantly a software company with many partners running Android. (Google said the Pixel 7 line, however, will launch in sevral new countries, including India, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.)

    Google won’t likely take much market share away from Apple with these Pixel updates, as iPhone owners are known to be brand-loyal. Other Android smartphone makers, however, such as Samsung or smaller Chinese manufacturers may feel the pressure from consumer interest in Google hardware, according to Ben Wood, an analyst with CC Insight. “But given the incremental updates, it’s possible there will be less excitement than there has been in the past,” he said.

    At the event, Google also teased another early look at its upcoming Pixel tablet, which will feature the Tensor G2 processor, and is expected to launch in 2023.

    But one area where Google could make a greater impact this year is with the introduction of the Pixel watch. It is Google’s first wearable that plays up Fitbit’s strengths in health, fitness and wellness since closing its $2.1 billion acquisition of the smartwatch company early last year. Until now, Google had been quiet about how the Fitbit brand would integrate with its Wear OS software.

    The Google Pixel Watch

    The new 41 mm Google Pixel Watch features a circular, domed-shaped Gorilla Glass display that’s scratch- and water-resistant. It promises up to 24 hours of battery life and is compatible with Android 8 and newer devices. Built with Fitbit’s tracking capabilities, the Pixel Watch can monitor a user’s heart rate and sleep quality, offers 40 workout modes, and learns user behavior over time.

    The device also assists with emergency SOS and supports a handful of Google services, including Google Wallet, Gmail and calendar updates, as well as sending messages and talking over 4G. The Pixel Watch comes in black, gold and silver finishes. It will cost $349 for Bluetooth and $399 for 4G LTE.

    “Pixel Watch poses zero threat to the Apple Watch, but it has an important role to play in raising the awareness of smartwatches for Android smartphone owners,” Wood said. “Given the success of the Apple Watch, there has to be a bigger market for smartwatches in the Android segment and together with Samsung’s Galaxy Watch, the new Pixel Watch should be a key driver for growth.”

    It may take the Pixel Watch a few generations to catch up to the Apple Watch in terms of usability, however, as Apple’s smartwatch is now in its ninth iteration. But coupled with the Fitbit acquisition and the formation of Wear OS in collaboration with Samsung, Google is showing its greater commitment to the smartwatch market and perhaps hoping the time may finally be right for it.

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  • Digitunity Named the 2022 ChannelPro Not-For-Profit All-Star

    Digitunity Named the 2022 ChannelPro Not-For-Profit All-Star

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    The honor recognizes organizations for significant contributions to business and technology.

    Press Release
    –

    Oct 10, 2022


    CONWAY, N.H., October 10, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Digitunity is pleased to announce it was selected as the 2022 ChannelPro Not-For-Profit All-Star. ChannelPro recognized Digitunity for its work to close the digital divide through sustainable technology reuse and connecting donors of used computers with its network of more than 1,500 non-profit organizations across the United States serving people in need. 

    The only award program of its kind, the ChannelPro SMB All-Stars recognizes select IT hardware, software, and service vendors whose products, programs, and initiatives made a significant impact on small to medium-sized businesses in the last year as determined by the ChannelPro Network editorial team. 

    What constitutes a significant impact? 

    • Developing a new product or service with market-changing potential.
    • Creating a significant new channel program.
    • Redefining the company with clear partner benefits.
    • Making bold business moves that positively impact resellers.
    • A market shift from enterprise to small to medium-sized businesses, with products purpose-built for these businesses.
    • Leveraging an acquisition to provide enhanced opportunities for partners and additional functionality for customers.

    “Digitunity is thrilled to be recognized as the 2022 ChannelPro Nonprofit All-Star,” stated Susan Krautbauer, Senior Director of Strategy and Development. “Advancing digital equity through device ownership requires close collaboration between Digitunity, business, government, education, and community leaders. By combining bold action and cross-sector cooperation, our mission to create a more sustainable future for everyone can be achieved.”

    For the fourth year in a row, The ChannelPro Network is including a Not-For-Profit All-Star Award as well. The All-Stars list varies in size annually. It has neither a minimum nor maximum length. However, placement on this list is a much-coveted honor.

    “It’s always a privilege to recognize organizations that make a difference in our industry,” says Rich Freeman, executive editor of The ChannelPro Network. “ChannelPro is especially proud to call attention to the vital work Digitunity does to help Americans thrive in the digital economy.”

    Editorial coverage includes the ChannelPro SMB All-Stars special feature in the October editions of ChannelPro-SMB magazine and online coverage at ChannelProNetwork.com. For complete coverage, please visit ChannelProNetwork.com. 

    About Digitunity

    Digitunity connects corporate and individual donors of technology to thousands of partner organizations every day, providing the technology and support they require to deliver community-based programs to people in need across North America. 

    With a proven body of work and a national network of member organizations, Digitunity works to ensure all barriers that limit equitable opportunity to participate in our digitally connected society are removed. To learn more, visit www.digitunity.org.

    About The ChannelPro Network 
    The ChannelPro Network provides targeted business and technology information for the IT channel. Via ChannelPro-SMB magazine, events, and online properties, the network delivers expert opinions, analysis, news, product reviews, and advice vital to IT solution providers’ success. Perspectives from vendors, distributors, and analysts are spotlighted daily. No other media company focuses on the small and midsize marketplace like The ChannelPro Network.

    Source: Digitunity

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  • 21 dividend stocks yielding 5% or more of companies that will produce plenty of cash in 2023

    21 dividend stocks yielding 5% or more of companies that will produce plenty of cash in 2023

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    When the stock market has jumped two days in a row, as it has now, it is easy to become complacent.

    But the Federal Reserve isn’t finished raising interest rates, and recession talk abounds. Stock investors aren’t out of the woods yet. That can make dividend stocks attractive if the yields are high and the companies produce more cash flow than they need to cover the payouts.

    Below is a list of 21 stocks drawn from the S&P Composite 1500 Index
    SP1500,
    +3.12%
    that appear to fit the bill. The S&P Composite 1500 is made up of the S&P 500
    SPX,
    +3.06%    ,
    the S&P 400 Mid Cap Index
    MID,
    +3.18%
    and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index
    SML,
    +3.80%    .

    The purpose of the list is to provide a starting point for further research. These stocks may be appropriate for you if you are looking for income, but you should do your own assessment to form your own opinion about a company’s ability to remain competitive over the next decade.

    Cash flow is key

    One way to measure a company’s ability to pay dividends is to look at its free cash flow yield. Free cash flow is remaining cash flow after planned capital expenditures. This money can be used to pay for dividends, buy back shares (which can raise earnings and cash flow per share), or fund acquisitions, organic expansion or for other corporate purposes.

    If we divide a company’s estimated annual free cash flow per share by its current share price, we have its estimated free cash flow yield. If we compare the free cash flow yield to the current dividend yield, we may see “headroom” for cash to be deployed in ways that can benefit shareholders.

    For this screen, we began with the S&P Composite 1500, then narrowed the list as follows:

    • Dividend yield of at least 5.00%.

    • Consensus free cash flow estimate available for calendar 2023, among at least five analysts polled by FactSet. We used calendar-year estimates, even though fiscal years for many companies don’t match the calendar.

    • Estimated 2023 free cash flow yield of at least double the current dividend yield.

    For real-estate investment trusts, dividend-paying ability is measured by funds from operations (FFO), a non-GAAP figure that adds depreciation and amortization back to earnings. Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) takes this a step further, subtracting cash expected to be used to maintain properties. So for the two REITs on the list, the FCF yield column makes use of AFFO.

    For many companies in the financial sector, especially banks and insurers, free cash flow figures aren’t available, so the screen made use of earnings-per-share estimates. These are generally considered to run close to actual cash flow for these heavily regulated industries.

    Here are the 21 companies that passed the screen, with dividend yields of at least 5% and estimated 2023 FCF yields at least twice the current payout. They are sorted by dividend yield:

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 Type

    		 Dividend yield

    		 Estimated 2023 FCF yield

    		 Estimated “headroom”
    Uniti Group Inc.

    		 UNIT,
    +7.36%         		Real-Estate Investment Trusts

    		 8.33%

    		 25.25%

    		 16.92%
    Hanesbrands Inc.

    		 HBI,
    +5.56%         		Apparel/ Footwear

    		 8.33%

    		 17.29%

    		 8.96%
    Kohl’s Corp.

    		 KSS,
    +5.80%         		Department Stores

    		 7.68%

    		 16.72%

    		 9.04%
    Rent-A-Center Inc.

    		 RCII,
    +10.40%         		Finance/ Rental/ Leasing

    		 7.52%

    		 17.26%

    		 9.73%
    Macerich Co.

    		 MAC,
    +8.18%         		Real-Estate Investment Trusts

    		 7.43%

    		 18.04%

    		 10.60%
    Devon Energy Corp.

    		 DVN,
    +5.72%         		Oil & Gas Production

    		 7.13%

    		 14.47%

    		 7.33%
    AT&T Inc.

    		 T,
    +1.19%         		Major Telecommunications

    		 6.98%

    		 14.82%

    		 7.84%
    Newell Brands Inc.

    		 NWL,
    +5.16%         		Industrial Conglomerates

    		 6.59%

    		 17.42%

    		 10.82%
    Dow Inc.

    		 DOW,
    +2.96%         		Chemicals

    		 6.18%

    		 15.63%

    		 9.45%
    LyondellBasell Industries NV

    		 LYB,
    +3.64%         		Chemicals

    		 6.09%

    		 16.07%

    		 9.99%
    Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. Class A

    		 SMG,
    +5.01%         		Chemicals

    		 6.04%

    		 12.68%

    		 6.65%
    Diamondback Energy Inc.

    		 FANG,
    +5.23%         		Oil & Gas Production

    		 5.56%

    		 13.63%

    		 8.08%
    Best Buy Co. Inc.

    		 BBY,
    +5.86%         		Electronics/ Appliance Stores

    		 5.53%

    		 14.08%

    		 8.55%
    Viatris Inc.

    		 VTRS,
    +5.62%         		Pharmaceuticals

    		 5.50%

    		 28.95%

    		 23.45%
    Prudential Financial Inc.

    		 PRU,
    +5.66%         		Life/ Health Insurance

    		 5.38%

    		 13.30%

    		 7.91%
    Ford Motor Co.

    		 F,
    +7.76%         		Motor Vehicles

    		 5.23%

    		 15.95%

    		 10.72%
    Invesco Ltd.

    		 IVZ,
    +6.76%         		Investment Managers

    		 5.23%

    		 14.95%

    		 9.73%
    Franklin Resources Inc.

    		 BEN,
    +4.37%         		Investment Managers

    		 5.17%

    		 13.21%

    		 8.04%
    Kontoor Brands Inc.

    		 KTB,
    +0.73%         		Apparel/ Footwear

    		 5.17%

    		 14.15%

    		 8.98%
    Seagate Technology Holdings PLC

    		 STX,
    +4.09%         		Computer Peripherals

    		 5.11%

    		 13.19%

    		 8.07%
    Foot Locker Inc.

    		 FL,
    +1.35%         		Apparel/ Footwear Retail

    		 5.03%

    		 15.52%

    		 10.49%
    Source: FactSet

    Any stock screen has its limitations. If you are interested in stocks listed here, it is best to do your own research, and it is easy to get started by clicking the tickers in the table for more information about each company. Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    For the “estimated FCF yields,” consensus free cash flow estimates for calendar 2023 were used for all companies except the following:

    Don’t miss: Dividend yields on preferred stocks have soared. This is how to pick the best ones for your portfolio.

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  • Amazon’s $999 dog-like robot is getting smarter | CNN Business

    Amazon’s $999 dog-like robot is getting smarter | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a collection of product updates that tie together its vast suite of services and help ensure it remains at the center of peoples’ lives and homes.

    Nearly a year after Amazon

    (AMZN)     was met with criticism over its controversial vision for the future of home security, the company is doubling down on new features for Astro, its dog-like robot, to help it better patrol the household when the owners are away. Amazon

    (AMZN)     also announced a new sleep-tracking device as well as an updated Alexa-powered Fire TV that knows when you’re in the room, among a number of other products.

    The new updates, announced at an invite-only press event, come a week after the company introduced four new Fire HD 8 tablet models and appear aimed at drumming up excitement for its products ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season.

    Amazon, like other tech companies, must convince customers to upgrade or buy new gadgets at a time when fears are mounting about a possible global recession. At the same time, Amazon must also confront shifting comfort levels with its growing reach into the lives of consumers and how closely its household products may be tracking them.

    Last month, Amazon agreed to buy iRobot, the company behind the popular automated Roomba vacuums, in a $1.7 billion deal that quickly raised concerns. The Federal Trade Commission is now probing the deal after more than two dozen groups wrote to the agency alleging the acquisition could help Amazon “entrench their monopoly power in the digital economy.”

    Amazon did not mention the Roomba at Wednesday’s event, but Amazon clearly remains committed to investing to make every home a little more of an Amazon home.

    Here’s a look at what the company announced:

    Amazon is rolling out its first major software update to Astro, an autonomous 20-pound dog-like robot with large, cartoon-y eyes on its tablet face, and a cup holder. The robot – not unlike an Alexa on wheels – uses voice-recognition software, cameras, artificial intelligence, mapping technology and voice- and face-recognition sensors as it zooms from room to room, capturing live video and learning your habits.

    Soon Astro will be able to detect cats and dogs in the home, take short video clips of what they’re up to when owners aren’t around and watch and talk to them in real time. Amazon is also adding the ability to monitor if windows or doors are left open, building on what the company said users have been already doing, such as checking to see if the stove was left on.

    Amazon is also opening Astro up to the developer community by offering tools that enable them to build software or specific commands for the robotic pup. And Astro will now work with a real-time subscription service from Amazon’s smart-doorbell company, Ring, to provide security monitoring to small and medium-sized businesses.

    The company emphasized that Astro was conceived with security and privacy as a priority, with data processed on the device itself and the ability to restrict where Astro can go in the home.

    Astro is currently available for $999, which includes a six-month free trial of Ring Protect Pro. (Pricing will later jump to $1,499.)

    Amazon unveiled a new series of Fire TV Omni QLED models – the first Fire TV to ship with Dolby Vision IQ.

    Through adaptive technology, the 4K TVs know when you walk into a room and leave, so it can save on power and turn off when needed. It also features a gallery of 1,500 curated pictures that can be displayed when not in use – a concept similar to Samsung’s existing Frame TVs.

    Its deeper integration with Alexa could be a true standout: with its built-in microphones, users can access widgets such as sticky notes, the calendar, the weather or dim the lights by talking directly to the TV. A 65-inch model costs $799 and 75-inch version costs $1,099.

    Amazon is also rolling out a premium remote, called Alexa Voice Remote Pro, that includes a feature to make it easier to find when the remote gets misplaced.

    Amazon is expanding its suite of Halo wellness products beyond wearables into sleep tracking. The new Halo Rise sits on the nightstand and monitors the sleeping and breathing patterns of the person closest. It also tracks humidity and light in the room, and presents a natural light to wake up to as an alternative to an alarm.

    The device, which uses sensor tech and machine learning to approach sleep, works even if the person is turned in the other direction, or covered in pillows and blankets, as it can detect micro-movements, according to the company.

    Amazon said it developed the product to offer consumers more choices around sleep tracking, noting many people don’t like sleeping with a wearable device and that batteries often turn off mid-sleep cycle.

    Halo Rise is $139.99 and includes a six-month Halo membership, which provides workouts, insights and tools for health tracking.

    Fifteen years after launching the Kindle, Amazon is introducing a higher-end version that also serves as a writing device.

    With a 10.2-inch HD display and its first-ever Kindle pen, the Kindle Scribe allows users to write to-do lists, journal entries and review documents imported from their phone. Amazon said it will partner with Microsoft to support its suite of products on the Kindle Scribe early next year.

    Kindle Scribe

    The new Kindle supports USB-C charging and has a battery designed to last for months. The device starts at $339 with a pen and 16 GB of storage and costs $369 for a premium pen and 32 GB. (The company did not go into specifics on the premium pen.) In comparison, a basic Kindle starts at $99, while its higher-end Kindle Oasis is $249.

    Amazon updated its Echo Dot speaker lineup. The new devices feature twice the bass, updated processors and can serve as a Wi-Fi extender for the company’s Eero mesh system. Amazon is also rolling out a software update to its high-end Echo Studio speaker to include new spatial audio processing and improve sound quality. The speaker, which is $199, now comes in white.

    The company is also taking another shot at getting Alexa into the car. Its Echo Auto device ($54.99) is now smaller, sleeker and can be more easily mounted in a vehicle. The gadget is intended to let users send hands-free messages, listen to music and podcasts, access navigation and seamlessly sift from the car to another device when you get home.

    Amazon also announced a number of software updates coming to its existing Echo Show 15, a device the company said is especially popular in the kitchen.

    The upgrade includes free access to Fire TV and a much more personal Alexa. The voice assistant can now rattle off a morning routine for each person in the home, including providing calendar updates, playing specific music and highlighting traffic reports for commuters.

    Other new features include receiving alerts for weather forecast changes; the ability to record video messages that can be displayed on the Echo Show screen or via the Alexa app; asking Alexa to dim the lights up to 24 hours in the future; and receiving updates about when a Whole Foods Market curbside pickup order is ready. The updates will roll out in the coming months.

    The Echo Show is also getting an interactive storytelling feature that lets kids pick from a handful of themes, such as an undersea or outer space adventure, and characters like an octopus or an astronaut, to create a story that is immediately animated on the gadget’s display and told by Alexa. The story is generated using a number of AI models that determine elements including the script and music, making it different each time.

    “Amazon has invested in embedding more intelligence in its Alexa devices for awhile now and the ability to extend that capability into greater system-wide intelligence is significant,” said Jonathan Collins, a research director at market research firm ABI Research. “New functionality, including its Routines feature, could help make Amazon smart home systems more intelligent, responsive and helpful, and more tightly integrated with other Amazon offerings from grocery shopping and beyond.”

    CNN Business’ Rachel Metz contributed to this report

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  • Amazon is always watching | CNN Business

    Amazon is always watching | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    A TV that knows when you’re in and out of the room. A gadget that monitors your breathing pattern while you sleep. An enhanced voice assistant tool that highlights just how much it knows about your everyday life.

    At an invite-only press event last week, Amazon unveiled a long list of product updates ahead of the holiday shopping season that appear designed to further insert its gadgets and services into every corner of our homes with the apparent goal of making everything a little easier. But the event was also another reminder of just how much Amazon’s many products are watching us.

    During prior events, Amazon

    (AMZN)     raised eyebrows with blatant examples of surveillance products, including drones and Astro, the dog-like robot that patrols the home. But this year, Amazon

    (AMZN)    ’s advancements in everyday tracking were a bit more subtle.

    The new Halo Rise sleep tracking device, for example, sits on the nightstand and monitors a person’s breathing and micro-movements as they sleep without the need to wear a sleep tracker. The device is said to work even if the person is turned in the other direction, or covered up by pillows and blankets.

    On the new Echo Show 15 smart display, Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa can now rattle off a morning routine for each person in the home, provide calendar updates and highlight traffic reports for the commute to the office. There’s also an option to ask Alexa to turn off the lights up to 24 hours in the future if they won’t be home.

    Amazon continues to expand Astro’s features, too. It can now detect the faces of pets in the home and stream footage to owners when they’re out of the house. The robot can also make sure windows and doors are closed and it can perform deeper monitoring when the owner is away as part of a virtual surveillance subscription.

    Amazon is far from the only tech company offering products that monitor users or collect data with the promise of improved conveniences, productivity and safety. But Amazon, perhaps more than any of its peers, has created a sprawling suite of products and services that arguably track more of our daily lives in and around our homes.

    In the months leading up to the product event, Amazon made two big announcements that could expand its reach into our lives even more. Amazon agreed last month to acquire iRobot, the company behind the popular automated Roomba vacuums, some of which create maps of the inside of our homes. It also announced plans to broaden its reach in the health care market by buying One Medical, a membership-based primary care service.

    In the process, Amazon is possibly testing customers’ comfort levels with how much any single company should know about our lives, and perhaps shifting our tolerance, too.

    Jonathan Collins, an analyst at ABI Research, said the scope and breadth of the company’s consumer offerings may be a concern for some, but many may simply accept the tradeoff for conveniences.

    “By and large, negative consumer attitudes to data collection across smart home and other areas have largely been ameliorated by the services received in return,” he said. “Even if not explicit, there is a tradeoff between lower priced or free services and the data sharing and collection that supports their availability.”

    Stephen Beck, founder and managing partner of consultancy cg42, said the views of customers “will likely remain unchanged after Amazon’s event because items like a TV, smart speaker, or sleep tracker feel familiar and do not pose obvious, new threats to privacy.”

    Amazon has a history of being caught collecting user data without consumers knowing. In 2019, reports surfaced that Amazon was recording snippets of conversations from Alexa users that were sometimes reviewed by humans. In the wake of backlash, Amazon changed its settings so people could opt out of this.

    For its latest products, the company states on its website how Astro is designed to detect only the chosen wake word, and no audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects that word. It also emphasizes the sensor data that Astro uses to navigate the home is processed on the device itself and not sent to the cloud, and the robot only streams video or images to the cloud when a feature like Live View in the Astro app is in use.

    The Halo Rise sleep tracking device, meanwhile, encrypts the collected data and stores it in the cloud, according to the company. Users can later download or delete it.

    But Amazon’s continued rollout of products that can monitor customers to varying degrees comes at a time many Americans have more reason to be mindful of data collection given the shifting legal landscape around abortion. Digital rights experts have warned that people’s search histories, location data, messages and other digital information could be used by law enforcement agencies investigating or prosecuting abortion-related cases.

    “The danger of this tracking has never been so clear,” said Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and a fellow at the NYU School of Law. “Far too few customers think about how the information they give to companies can be misused by governments, hackers, and more.”

    While some of the newly announced features, such as Astro’s increased monitoring of doors and windows, may be aimed at helping people feel more secure in their homes, Cahn worries these seemingly small updates also push people even deeper into Amazon’s ecosystem.

    “Thankfully,” Cahn said, “even if you can teach an old robotic dog new tricks, you can’t change one fact: It’s still creepy.”

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  • For Long-Term Investors, It’s Time to Buy Tech Again. Here Are 20 Stocks to Look at First.

    For Long-Term Investors, It’s Time to Buy Tech Again. Here Are 20 Stocks to Look at First.

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    One cruel truth the stock market confirmed this past week is that trying to pick the bottom for technology stocks is a fool’s errand. The Nasdaq Composite’s terrible September—it was down 10.5% on the month—has made the bottom-fishing that took place over the summer look ill-advised. As I’ve noted before, the first downturn in tech earlier this year was all about valuations. This new phase of the decline is all about softening earnings. When it comes to price-to-earnings ratios, the market is running into a denominator problem.

    The market downturn, the weaker economy, and the reversal of some pandemic-era trends have exposed weaknesses in the business models of companies such as


    Peloton Interactive


    (ticker: PTON),


    Zoom Video Communications


    (ZM),


    Shopify


    (SHOP),


    Affirm Holdings


    (AFRM), and


    Snap


    (SNAP), and investors have adjusted valuations accordingly. But there are still some powerful underlying secular trends that should eventually drive tech stocks higher. Investors with long time horizons and strong stomachs might consider inching into the market. I have a few ideas on where to look.

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  • These 20 stocks in the S&P 500 tumbled between 20% and 30% in September

    These 20 stocks in the S&P 500 tumbled between 20% and 30% in September

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    Stocks declined again on Friday, closing out September with large losses across the board as the rally from the June lows partway through August faded into memory.

    The S&P 500
    SPX,
    -1.51%
    fell 1.5% on Friday. The benchmark index slumped 9.3% for September, leading to a 2022 loss of 24.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -1.71%
    gave up 1.7% on Friday, for a September decline of 8.8%. The Dow has now fallen 20.9% for 2022. The Nasdaq Composite Index
    COMP,
    -1.51%
    pulled back 1.5% on Friday for a September drop of 10.5% and a year-to-date plunge of 32.4%. (All price changes in this article exclude dividends.)

    Below is a list of stocks in the S&P 500 that fell the most during September.

    It was the worst September performance for U.S. stocks since 2008, according to Dow Jones Market Data. William Watts looked back to see what poor performance during September may portend for October.

    Real estate leads the sector bloodbath

    All sectors of the S&P 500 were down during September, including five that fell by double digits:

    S&P 500 sector

    		 Sept. 30 price change

    		 September price change

    		 2022 price change
    Real Estate

    		 1.0%

    		 -13.6%

    		 -30.4%
    Communication Services

    		 -1.7%

    		 -12.2%

    		 -39.4%
    Information Technology

    		 -1.9%

    		 -12.0%

    		 -31.9%
    Utilities

    		 -2.0%

    		 -11.5%

    		 -8.6%
    Industrials

    		 -1.3%

    		 -10.6%

    		 -21.7%
    Energy

    		 -0.9%

    		 -9.7%

    		 30.7%
    Materials

    		 -0.3%

    		 -9.6%

    		 -24.9%
    Consumer Staples

    		 -1.8%

    		 -8.3%

    		 -13.5%
    Consumer Discretionary

    		 -1.8%

    		 -8.1%

    		 -30.3%
    Financials

    		 -1.1%

    		 -7.9%

    		 -22.4%
    Health Care

    		 -1.4%

    		 -2.7%

    		 -14.1%
    S&P 500

    		 -1.5%

    		 -9.3%

    		 -24.8%
    Source: FactSet
    Worst performers in the S&P 500 in September
    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 Sept. 30 price change

    		 September price change

    		 2022 price change

    		 Decline from 52-week intraday high

    		 Date of 52-week intraday high
    FedEx Corp.

    		 FDX,
    -2.52%         		-2.5%

    		 -29.6%

    		 -42.6%

    		 -44.4%

    		 01/05/2022
    V.F. Corp.

    		 VFC,
    -2.73%         		-2.7%

    		 -27.8%

    		 -59.2%

    		 -62.1%

    		 11/16/2021
    Lumen Technologies Inc.

    		 LUMN,
    -1.36%         		-1.4%

    		 -26.9%

    		 -42.0%

    		 -49.8%

    		 11/05/2021
    Ford Motor Co.

    		 F,
    -2.35%         		-2.4%

    		 -26.5%

    		 -46.1%

    		 -56.7%

    		 01/13/2022
    Charter Communications Inc. Class A

    		 CHTR,
    -2.96%         		-3.0%

    		 -26.5%

    		 -53.5%

    		 -59.8%

    		 10/07/2021
    Adobe Inc.

    		 ADBE,
    -1.10%         		-1.1%

    		 -26.3%

    		 -51.5%

    		 -60.7%

    		 11/22/2021
    Carnival Corp.

    		 CCL,
    -23.25%         		-23.3%

    		 -25.7%

    		 -65.1%

    		 -73.5%

    		 10/01/2021
    CarMax Inc.

    		 KMX,
    +1.32%         		1.3%

    		 -25.4%

    		 -49.3%

    		 -57.7%

    		 11/08/2021
    Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

    		 AMD,
    -1.22%         		-1.2%

    		 -25.3%

    		 -56.0%

    		 -61.5%

    		 11/30/2021
    Caesars Entertainment Inc.

    		 CZR,
    -0.49%         		-0.5%

    		 -25.2%

    		 -65.5%

    		 -73.1%

    		 10/01/2021
    Boeing Co.

    		 BA,
    -3.39%         		-3.4%

    		 -24.4%

    		 -39.9%

    		 -48.2%

    		 11/15/2021
    WestRock Co.

    		 WRK,
    -1.56%         		-1.6%

    		 -23.9%

    		 -30.4%

    		 -43.6%

    		 05/05/2022
    International Paper Co.

    		 IP,
    -1.22%         		-1.2%

    		 -23.8%

    		 -32.5%

    		 -44.0%

    		 10/13/2021
    Western Digital Corp.

    		 WDC,
    +1.15%         		1.1%

    		 -23.0%

    		 -50.1%

    		 -53.1%

    		 01/05/2022
    Newell Brands Inc.

    		 NWL,
    -0.57%         		-0.6%

    		 -22.2%

    		 -36.4%

    		 -47.5%

    		 02/16/2022
    Eastman Chemical Co.

    		 EMN,
    +0.34%         		0.3%

    		 -21.9%

    		 -41.2%

    		 -45.1%

    		 01/19/2022
    Nike Inc. Class B

    		 NKE,
    -12.81%         		-12.8%

    		 -21.9%

    		 -50.1%

    		 -53.6%

    		 11/05/2021
    Seagate Technology Holdings PLC

    		 STX,
    -2.11%         		-2.1%

    		 -20.5%

    		 -52.9%

    		 -54.8%

    		 01/05/2022
    PVH Corp.

    		 PVH,
    -3.55%         		-3.6%

    		 -20.4%

    		 -58.0%

    		 -64.3%

    		 11/05/2021
    Dish Network Corp. Class A

    		 DISH,
    -2.19%         		-2.2%

    		 -20.3%

    		 -57.4%

    		 -70.1%

    		 10/04/2021
    Source: FactSet

    Click on the tickers for more about each company, including developments that led to their share-price declines.

    Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    FedEx Corp.
    FDX,
    -2.52%
    tops the list because of investors’ harsh reaction to the company’s sales and profit warning on Sept. 16. Claudia Assis and Greg Robb explained the implications of FedEx’s warning for the broad economy.

    Shares of Carnival Corp.
    CCL,
    -23.25%
    fell 23% on Friday (for a September decline of 26%) after the cruise giant again reported sales and earnings below what analysts had expected, even though it reported increasing its capacity usage to 92%.

    Nike Inc.
    NKE,
    -12.81%
    was down 13% on Friday for a September decline of 22%, after the company warned that discounting to clear inventory would continue to affect its earnings performance. Here’s how analysts reacted.

    Adobe Inc.
    ADBE,
    -1.10%
    made the list because of investors’ doubt about its dilutive $20 billion deal to acquire Figma.

    The bulk of CarMax’s
    KMX,
    +1.32%
    drop for the month came on Sept. 29, after the used-car dealer missed sales and earnings estimates and indicated that consumers were beginning to resist high prices.

    Don’t miss: Dividend yields on preferred stocks have soared. This is how to pick the best ones for your portfolio.

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  • Amazon to release bedside sleep tracker later this year

    Amazon to release bedside sleep tracker later this year

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    Soon enough, an Amazon device might know whether you’re sleeping — or not.

    The e-commerce and tech giant said Wednesday it will release a device that can track sleeping patterns, with features that can help users wake up at the right time.

    The device, called Halo Rise, will use no-contact sensors and artificial intelligence to measure a user’s movement and breathing patterns, allowing the device to track sleep stages during the night, the Seattle-based company said. Amazon said it will be available for $139.99 later this year.

    Amazon noted the device can connect with its virtual assistant, Alexa, and allow users to wake up to their favorite songs, among other things.

    Separately, the company said it will release a new Kindle Scribe, the first Kindle consumers can write on. It will also add more features to its home robot, Astro, and release new Echo devices.

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