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  • Union Pacific CEO to leave after push from activist shareholder | CNN Business

    Union Pacific CEO to leave after push from activist shareholder | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Union Pacific shares jumped 10% in premarket trading Monday after the railroad company announced CEO Lance Fritz will leave the company by year-end, following a call by an activist hedge fund for his ouster.

    Union Pacific just reported a record profit for the second straight year. But the hedge fund, Soroban Capital Partners, put out a statement saying that Fritz had lost the confidence of “shareholders, employees, customers, and regulators.”

    “UNP’s total shareholder return has been the worst in the industry,” said Soroban’s letter to the board. “Among all S&P 500 companies, UNP is rated by employees as the worst place to work and has the lowest employee CEO approval rating (ranked 500th out of 500 in both),” said the letter. And it said that the Surface Transportation Board, one of the regulators of freight railroads, ranked Union Pacific as providing the worst service among the major railroads.

    Soroban only owns about 1% of Union Pacific’s shares.

    “It is my honor and privilege to serve this great company. I am proud of our team and all we have built together,” said Fritz in a statement. “Union Pacific has been my home for 22 years and I am confident that now is the right time for Union Pacific’s next leader to take the helm.”

    Union Pacific said its process of looking for a new CEO had been ongoing for a year and that it decided to make a public statement in light of Soroban’s public call for a change.

    “The Board is grateful to Lance for his unwavering leadership, dedication and oversight in driving our company forward over the last eight years as CEO. Lance created an environment that has allowed Union Pacific to make a measurable impact with our customers, communities and employees alike,” said Michael McCarthy, lead independent director of the Board. “He has capably led our company during a time of significant challenge and change.”

    But, overall, the level of service and on-time performance in the freight railroad industry has been declining for years, as the railroads attempted to trim costs and staffing.

    Despite the industry’s record profits, stocks in major freight railroads have lagged other sectors. Shares of Union Pacific

    (UNP)     are down about 20% over the last 12 month through Friday’s close, even with a rebound in share price so far in 2023. That’s worse than the drop in share price at other major railroads like Norfolk Southern

    (NSC)     and CSX

    (CSX)    .

    As far as employee relations, Union Pacific was seen as a leader among freight railroads in contentious labor negotiations last year that would have resulted in an economy-crippling strike had Congress not stepped in and imposed an unpopular contract. The contract granted employees an immediate 14% raise, including back pay, but denied them the paid sick days they had sought.

    Union Pacific and other railroads argued during the negotiations that it couldn’t afford to meet union demands for paid sick days, even though the unions estimated it would cost the entire industry $321 million a year at a time when the railroads are each making billions of dollars in profits.

    Union Pacific last year earned a net income of $7 billion, up about $500 million, or 7%, from the previous record profit it posted for 2021. Total employee compensation for the year came to $4.6 billion, far less than the $6.3 billion that Union Pacific spent repurchasing shares of stock in the period.

    Last week, Union Pacific reached an agreement with two of its smaller unions granting their members up to four sick days a year, as well as greater flexibility to use three personal days as sick days without prior notice and approval.

    “We will continue to work with other unions to address paid sick time solutions,” according to the company’s statement on sick pay last week. The move came after another major railroad, CSX, reached deals granting sick days with six of its unions. UP did act before a third railroad, Norfolk Southern, reached a deal with one of its unions on sick days in the wake of a major train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which released toxic materials into the area.

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  • Inflation is doing a crab walk and Fed officials fear its pinch | CNN Business

    Inflation is doing a crab walk and Fed officials fear its pinch | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The possibility of a 2023 market rally ground to a halt last week amid an onslaught of unfortunate inflation and economic data that spooked investors and increased the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will continue its economically painful rate hikes campaign for longer than Wall Street hoped.

    All major indexes notched their largest weekly losses of 2023 on Friday. The S&P 500 fell by 2.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 3%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 3.3%.

    What’s happening: It appears that after months of steady decline, the pace of inflation is going sideways. January’s Personal Consumption Expenditures price index – the Fed’s favored inflation gauge – came in hotter than expected on Friday.

    Prices rose a whopping 5.4% in January from a year earlier, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported. In December, prices rose 5.3% annually.

    In January alone, prices were up 0.6% from the prior month, a higher monthly gain from December’s increase of 0.2%.

    This inflationary crab walk is almost certainly causing Fed officials to rethink their policy.

    A paper presented Friday at the Booth School of Business Monetary Policy Forum in New York argued that disinflation will likely be slower and more painful than markets anticipate.

    “Significant disinflations induced by monetary policy tightening are associated with recessions,” said the paper. “An ‘immaculate disinflation’ would be unprecedented.” (Immaculate, in this instance, refers to the possibility of inflation falling quickly to the Fed’s 2% goal without any serious economic damage).

    Several Fed presidents, governors and top economists were on hand at the Booth School forum to discuss the paper and monetary policy on Friday. The majority of those speaking expressed deep concern about the stubbornness of inflation and general market reaction.

    Inflation won’t quit: Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said that while price growth has moderated from its recent high, the overall pace of inflation remains too high and could be more persistent than her colleagues currently anticipate.

    “I anticipate further rate increases to reach a sufficiently restrictive level, then holding there for some, perhaps extended, time,” echoed Boston Fed President Susan Collins at the conference.

    Collins referred to inflation as “recalcitrant,” a loaded million-dollar word that means uncooperative, or defiant to authority.

    Fed Governor Philip Jefferson struck a more befuddled stance on Friday, observing that inflation continues to baffle economists. “The inflationary forces impinging on the US economy at present represent a complex mixture of temporary and more long-lasting elements that defy simple, parsimonious explanation,” he said. Parsimonious being another million-dollar word for frugal.

    Economists stressed that more pain lies ahead. “It’s important that markets understand that ‘no landing’ is not an option,” said Peter Hooper, vice chair of research at Deutsche Bank, an author of the report.

    While recent data has signaled that the US economy remains strong, “by the time we get to the middle of this year we expect to see some bad news coming and the sooner the markets get that message the more helpful it will be to the Fed,” he said.

    The final word: Former Bank of England Governor Lord Mervyn King summed up what many were thinking on Friday: Given the complexity of the current monetary situation, he said, “I wouldn’t want to give advice to any central banks about what we should do.”

    Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have issued a dire warning: If President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan doesn’t come to fruition, the US could face another credit crisis.

    Some background: The Covid-19 crisis triggered a sudden shift in student loan policy and a new openness to forgiveness. In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, which automatically paused required payments on all federally held student loans.

    That forbearance has since been extended eight times and is set to end as late as August, 40 months after it began.

    The Biden Administration had announced an unprecedented debt cancellation proposal which would provide relief to more than 40 million borrowers. An analysis by the New York Fed found that roughly $441 billion of federal student loans are eligible for forgiveness under the proposal, canceling about 30% of all outstanding federal student loan debt.

    That forgiveness proposal is now on hold after an injunction by the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals. On Tuesday, The Supreme Court of the United States will hear the case with its decision expected by June 2023.

    What’s on the line: If the Biden Administration’s forgiveness plan survives the court challenge, it will mark the largest mass discharge of consumer debt in modern history, according to the New York Fed. About 40% of those with federal student loan debt would have a zero balance; even more would have a much smaller monthly payment.

    But, “if payments resume without debt relief, we expect both student loan default and delinquencies to rise and potentially surpass pre-pandemic levels,” warned Fed researchers.

    “We note a stark increase in new credit card and auto loan delinquency for borrowers with eligible student loans over the past few quarters, growing at a faster pace than those without student loans and those with ineligible loans,” they wrote.

    Those missed payments suggest that some federal student loan borrowers are having trouble meeting their monthly debt obligations. “We expect these delinquency patterns to worsen if federal student loan payments resume without relief,” said the report.

    The data “may be suggestive of problems to come, a sign of economic distress that may appear particularly concerning when the burden of student loan payments resumes.”

    Future concerns: If student loan borrowers expect future debt cancellation, they may borrow even more, said researchers, which would increase debt balances even more sharply. “Absent direct policies to address this growing burden, taxpayers may be again called to for relief in the future,” they concluded.

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  • 401(k) balances rise, despite economic and market challenges | CNN Business

    401(k) balances rise, despite economic and market challenges | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Despite higher prices, endless talk of a possible recession and falling markets, 401(k) participants managed to keep their savings rates relatively steady in the fourth quarter of last year, helping to stabilize their nest eggs and increase their overall average balances.

    That’s according to new data from Fidelity Investments, one of the largest providers of workplace retirement plans, which combined represent $2.8 trillion in assets on its platform.

    “Fortunately, the data show that retirement savers understand the importance of saving for the long-term, despite market shift. We are encouraged to see people look past the current volatility and continue to make smart choices for their future,” said Kevin Barry, president of Workplace Investing at Fidelity.

    By that Barry means the average 401(k) savings rate (including both employee contributions and employer matches) held roughly steady at 13.7%, down from the 13.8% in the third quarter and 13.9% in the second quarter.

    Among generations in the workforce, Baby Boomers had the highest savings rate as a percent of their income (16.5%). The youngest cohort – Gen Z workers – saved 10.2%.

    A third of participants actually increased their contribution rate over the last year, according to Fidelity. But the average rate among this group is still very low – at just 2.6%.

    The average 401(k) balance in Fidelity-administered plans, meanwhile, rose 7% from the third quarter, to $103,900. That said, thanks to poor performances in both stocks and bonds last year, the average is still 23% below the $135,600 recorded at the end of 2021.

    In terms of 401(k) loans, the percent of active plan participants with outstanding ones remained at 16.7%. That’s down from 17% a year earlier and 21% from five years ago, Fidelity said.

    The average outstanding loan amount was $10,200. Among different age groups, Gen Xers had the highest average, followed by Baby Boomers. And even though they are just getting started in their careers and haven’t had a lot of time to amass savings, 3.2% of Gen Z workers also had outstanding 401(k) loans, but their average amount ($3,000) was the lowest among all age groups.

    Hardship withdrawals from 401(k)s – money taken when a participant is under financial stress of some kind (e.g., to prevent eviction, pay for funeral expenses or to cover a near-term tuition bill) – stood at 2.4% for the year, up from 1.9% in 2021. The average amount taken out was $2,200. Unlike a 401(k) loan, a hardship withdrawal does not need to be paid back, and will be taxed. Plus, in some instances it may be subject to a 10% penalty if you’re under 59-1/2.

    The new retirement law, Secure 2.0, includes a provision that will make it easier and less costly for 401(k) participants to take money out of their account for emergency needs up to $1,000 in a year.

    Apart from its workplace retirement plans, Fidelity reported a 10.2% annual increase in the number of IRAs on its platform, noting that 61% of the IRA contributions made in the fourth quarter of last year went into Roth IRAs.

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  • Norfolk Southern is paying $6.5 million to derailment victims. Meanwhile, it’s shelling out $7.5 billion for shareholders | CNN Business

    Norfolk Southern is paying $6.5 million to derailment victims. Meanwhile, it’s shelling out $7.5 billion for shareholders | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw pledged Tuesday the freight railroad will spend $6.5 million to help those affected by the release of toxic chemicals from its derailment nearly three weeks ago in East Palestine, Ohio. But in a plan released earlier this year, the company said it’s planning to spend more than a thousand times that amount — $7.5 billion — to repurchase its own shares in order to benefit its shareholders.

    The company spent $3.4 billion on share repurchases last year, and $3.1 billion in 2021, bringing its recent share repurchases to $6.5 billion. That towers over what it said is its financial commitment to East Palestine, which it said exceeds $6.4 million in direct aid to families and government agencies, in addition to what will be required in cleanup costs.

    There is no estimate as to the total cost to Norfolk Southern from the derailment, including the cost of cleanup that the Environmental Protection Agency says will be the railroad’s responsibility.

    It’s not clear how much of the accident’s cost will fall on Norfolk Southern. The company revealed Wednesday during a conference call with investors that it has as much as $1.1 billion worth of liability insurance coverage that it can draw upon to compensate third parties for losses caused by the accident. It also has about $200 million worth of insurance coverage to cover damage to its own property, such as tracks or equipment.

    In March 2022, Norfolk Southern

    (NSC)     announced a new $10 billion share repurchase plan. Its latest annual financial report, filed just hours before the derailment this month, shows that it still had $7.5 billion available to buy additional shares under that repurchase plan as of December 31.

    Norfolk Southern did not respond to questions Wednesday on whether it expects to change its share repurchase plans in the wake of the derailment.

    The company also returned an additional $1.2 billion to shareholders in the form of dividend payments in 2022, and $1 billion in 2021, bringing total payments to shareholders to $4.6 billion last year and $4.1 billion in 2021.

    The shareholders did much better than the company’s 19,000 employees. Total employee compensation in 2022 came to $2.6 billion, up from $2.4 billion in 2021.

    The amount that Norfolk Southern and other major freight railroads are spending on shareholders got a lot of attention in December, when they successfully fought a move in Congress to require them to give hourly workers at least seven sick days a year as part of a labor contract imposed on the industry by Congress in order to avoid an economically crippling rail strike. And it’s getting new attention in the wake of the derailment, along with questions about whether the environmental disaster could have been avoided if the railroad had spent more on staffing and safety.

    “Corporations do stock buybacks, they do big dividend checks, they lay off workers,” said Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “They don’t invest in safety rules and safety regulations, and this kind of thing happens.”

    The accident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. While the cause has yet to be determined, it is known that freight railroads have fought tougher safety rules in the past.

    One rule the industry successfully fought would have required a more modern braking system on trains carrying significant amounts of hazardous materials. The Federal Railroad Administration, which proposed the rule under the Obama administration, estimated a more modern braking system would reduce by nearly 20% the number of rail cars in a derailment that puncture and release their contents.

    The FRA estimated those better brakes would cost the entire industry $493 million, spread over a period of 20 years. The Association of American Railroads, the trade industry group that represents most US freight railroads, estimated a much greater cost — about $3 billion, but again, spread over 20 years. That would mean around $150 million a year for an entire industry that is earning billions of dollars of annual profits.

    Still, it was able to block the rule from ever taking effect, based partly on the argument it was too costly for the potential benefit.

    “The railroads are quick to point out their lack of funds to provide adequate staffing, paid sick leave and improved safety, yet they have billions of dollars to spend on stock repurchases,” said Eddie Hall, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the industry’s second-largest union behind the one that represents conductors.

    Share repurchases are designed to help increase the value of the stock by reducing the number of shares outstanding.

    In theory, each remaining share becomes more valuable since it represents a greater percentage of the company’s overall ownership. The earnings per share, a key measure used by investors to judge a company’s profitability, can rise even if the total dollars earned by the company goes down, as the pool of shares available to the public shrinks further.

    But Norfolk Southern’s profits aren’t going down. They’re going up — by quite a bit. It posted record profits from railway operations of $4.45 billion in 2021, and broke that record in 2022 when it earned $4.8 billion on that basis.

    Other freight railroads are also reporting improving profits, and have joined Norfolk Southern in massive share repurchases.

    Union Pacific

    (UNP)     purchased $6.3 billion worth of shares in 2022, and has plans to purchase an additional 84 million shares, worth more than $16 billion at its current value. CSX repurchased $4.7 billion worth of shares last year and has plans to buy an additional $3.3 billion going forward. Like Norfolk Southern, both UP and CSX spent more on share repurchases than they did on total employee compensation.

    Share repurchases are not limited to the rail industry. Chevron

    (CVX)     recently announced plans to repurchase $75 billion worth of its stock with windfall record profits that came from high oil prices. Across corporate America, share repurchases reached almost $1 trillion for the first time last year, coming in at $936 billion according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, up from $882 billion in 2021.

    Share repurchases are forecast to top $1 trillion this year.

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  • Dow drops more than 500 points as retail earnings disappoint | CNN Business

    Dow drops more than 500 points as retail earnings disappoint | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    US stocks dropped on Tuesday afternoon after fourth-quarter earnings and forecasts from mega-retailers like Walmart and Home Depot raised concerns about the strength of demand from the US consumer.

    The Dow was down about 500 points, or 1.5%, on Tuesday afternoon. The S&P 500 fell by 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.8% lower.

    Walmart

    (WMT)     topped revenue expectations, but shares of the stock fell nearly 2% in morning trading after the retailer lowered its outlook for the year ahead. Walmart

    (WMT)    ’s CFO said that he was worried about inflation and its impact on the US consumer.

    “The consumer is still very pressured, and if you look at economic indicators, balance sheets are running thinner and savings rates are declining relative to previous periods,” Walmart CFO John Rainey said during the earnings call. “And so that’s why we take a pretty cautious outlook on the rest of the year.”

    Shares of the stock had recovered by the early afternoon and were up by about 0.6%.

    Home Depot

    (HD)     reported record earnings for the fiscal year that ended in January, and boosted both hourly wage and the stock dividend. But the fourth quarter painted a different picture, as the company missed revenue expectations for the first time since 2019, before the pandemic.

    The company also lowered its outlook for the year ahead as executives struck a more cautious tone about recession and inflation forecasts on the call that followed earnings.

    Shares of the stock fell by nearly 6% on Tuesday as the housing market weakens – US existing home sales dropped to their lowest level in more than 12 years in January.

    “After a year of defying gravity, the slowing economy and pressures on consumers have finally caught up with Home Depot,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. “For most of 2022, the number of existing homes sold has been in decline. However, the pace of decline accelerated in December with the volume of completed sales down by a sharp 36.3%.”

    Target, Best Buy, Macy’s and Gap will report later this month.

    Investors, meanwhile, are gearing up for a week full of important economic data. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting are coming on Wednesday, a second revision of GDP will be released on Thursday and Friday brings January’s Personal Consumption Expenditures – the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.

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  • Warren Buffett is missing out on this year’s market comeback | CNN Business

    Warren Buffett is missing out on this year’s market comeback | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Warren Buffett is arguably the most legendary investor of all time. But the Oracle of Omaha has missed out on this year’s stock market rally. So far, at least.

    Shares of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway

    (BRKB)     conglomerate, a company that owns businesses ranging from Geico and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad to consumer brands like Dairy Queen, Duracell and Fruit of the Loom, are down slightly this year — lagging the market, as the S&P 500 is up 6%. (The Nasdaq has done even better, surging 12%.)

    Berkshire Hathaway also has a giant stock portfolio that Buffett helps run. Apple

    (AAPL)     is now by far the top holding for Berkshire, which also has big stakes in Bank of America

    (BAC)    , Chevron

    (CVX)    , American Express

    (AXP)     and Coca-Cola

    (KO)    .

    So is Berkshire’s portfolio, dare we say it, a little too boring? After all, if you want exposure to the big blue chips he owns, you could just buy an S&P 500 index fund.

    Buffett, in fact, has promoted that idea to investors many times, arguing that most individual stock pickers will not be able to beat the market. The 92-year-old Buffett, who has a net worth of more than $100 billion according to Forbes, even said that he wants the trustee in charge of his will to put 90% of his wife’s inheritance in index funds.

    Still, investors pay extremely close attention to Buffett every time he speaks. So traders will be poring over every word in his annual shareholder letter, which will be released the morning of Saturday, February 25, along with Berkshire’s latest earnings report.

    Don’t expect any major surprises. Buffett will probably continue to extol the virtues of a long-term, patient approach to investing and give a bullish outlook for the US economy. And to his credit, that usually pays dividends: Berkshire stock was up 3% last year in a down market.

    But market watchers are looking to see what Buffett says about the current inflationary scourge that has had a big impact on consumers and investors. He has lived through a couple of bouts of high inflation, after all.

    “I would like to hear Buffett address what’s going on with interest rates and inflation up as much they are,” said Steve Check, president of Check Capital Management, an investment firm that owns Berkshire shares. “He talked a lot about how concerned he was in the 1970s and 1980s.”

    Buffett has made numerous comments about inflation over the past few decades. And he was particularly nervous during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when soaring oil prices created an inflationary shock that severely hurt the economy.

    “High rates of inflation create a tax on capital that makes much corporate investment unwise,” Buffett said in his 1980 shareholder letter to Berkshire investors. Buffett also described inflation as a gigantic parasitic “tapeworm” for businesses in 1981.

    Buffett may also need to address how top-heavy and concentrated his portfolio has become. Berkshire’s five largest holdings make up about 75% of the company’s stock investments.

    “The portfolio is significantly overweight [in] technology, energy, consumer staples, and financials relative to the S&P 500,” said Bill Stone, chief investment officer with The Glenview Trust Company, another Berkshire shareholder, in a report. Stone noted that Berkshire also has big stakes in Kraft Heinz

    (KHC)     and oil company Occidental Petroleum

    (OXY)    .

    Investors also want to hear more about what Buffett plans to do with Berkshire’s massive pile of cash. The company has more than $100 billion on its balance sheet. Are more acquisitions coming?

    Buffett has talked for the past few years about how he’s longing to do an “elephant-sized” deal with Berkshire’s cash. Its most recent big deal was last year’s purchase of insurer Alleghany for $11.6 billion.

    Still, the recent sluggish performance of Berkshire’s stock is unlikely to deter the faithful Buffett fans, many of whom are expected to make the annual pilgrimage to Omaha on May 6 for the company’s shareholder meeting.

    Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger will likely be on stage with Buffett. So will Greg Abel, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy who Buffett has handpicked to eventually succeed him as Berkshire Hathaway CEO.

    Buffett’s faith in the US economy is well founded. American consumers have proven to be remarkably resilient despite rampant inflation. The surprisingly strong retail sales gains for January is further proof of that.

    Investors will get several more clues about consumer spending this week when several top retailers report earnings.

    Dow components Walmart

    (WMT)     and Home Depot

    (HD)     are the highlights. Walmart

    (WMT)    , which has a massive grocery business, should shed some light on how shoppers are coping with surging grocery prices.

    Walmart could still benefit from its reputation as a place for bargains, though. That could even attract more affluent shoppers looking to save a buck.

    “With inflation remaining elevated in the U.S., we expect Walmart to see continued trade-down benefits…particularly from higher-income customers,” said Arun Sundaram, an analyst at CFRA Research, in a report.

    And investors will be looking for clues about the health of the housing market when Home Depot reports. Placer.ai, a research firm that measures foot traffic at top retailers, said in a recent report that consumers are returning to Home Depot and rival Lowe’s at almost pre-pandemic levels — even despite the housing slowdown.

    One reason? Current homeowners may decide to spend more on renovations if they now plan to stick in their current house longer instead of looking to sell.

    “Although the hot home-buying market is cooling off…foot traffic remains close to pre-pandemic levels due to a shift towards projects aimed at sprucing up a current living space,” said Placer.ai’s Ezra Carmel in a report. “It appears that projects that enhance the prospect of staying in place also have the ability to drive visits.”

    Investors will be keeping close tabs on several other retailers set to report earnings this week, including TJX

    (TJX)     — the owner of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods — as well as online retailers eBay

    (EBAY)    , Etsy

    (ETSY)    , Overstock

    (OSTK)    , Wayfair

    (W)     and China’s Alibaba

    (BABA)    .

    The US government is also set to release personal spending figures for January on Friday, another data point that will give a glimpse of consumers’ financial health.

    Monday: US stock and bond markets closed for Presidents’ Day

    Tuesday: US existing home sales; Eurozone and UK PMI; earnings from Walmart, Home Depot, Medtronic

    (MDT)    , Fluor

    (FLR)    , Molson Coors

    (TAP)    , Caesars Entertainment

    (CZR)    , Diamondback Energy

    (FANG)    , Chesapeake Energy

    (CHK)    , Palo Alto Networks

    (PANW)    , Coinbase, La-Z-Boy

    (LZB)     and Hostess Brands

    (TWNK)

    Wednesday: Weekly crude oil inventories; earnings from Stellantis, Baidu

    (BIDU)    , TJX, Garmin

    (GRMN)    , Overstock, Wingstop

    (WING)    , Nvidia

    (NVDA)    , eBay, Etsy and Bumble

    Thursday: US weekly jobless claims; US Q4 GDP (second estimate); Eurozone inflation; Turkey interest rate decision; earnings from Alibaba, Netease

    (NTES)    , Keurig Dr Pepper

    (KDP)    , Wayfair, Newmont, Domino’s

    (DPZ)    , Papa John’s

    (PZZA)    , Yeti

    (YETI)    , Nikola, CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery, Block

    (SQ)    , Booking Holdings

    (BKNG)    , Live Nation

    (LYV)    , Carvana

    (CVNA)    , Intuit

    (INTU)     and Beyond Meat

    (BYND)

    Friday: US personal income and spending; US PCE inflation figures; US new home sales; Japan inflation; Germany Q4 GDP; earnings from CIBC

    (CM)    , Scripps

    (SSP)     and Cinemark

    (CNK)

    Saturday: Berkshire Hathaway earnings and Warren Buffett annual shareholder letter

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  • Elon Musk donated $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year | CNN Business

    Elon Musk donated $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave 11.5 million shares of his stake in the electric automaker to an undisclosed charity last year, shares worth about $1.9 billion at the time they were donated.

    The donation would make him the second largest charitable donor in 2022, according to a ranking of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which was compiled before Musk’s filing. The Chronicle’s ranking lists Bill Gates as No. 1 with $5.1 billion in donations, followed by Michael Bloomberg at $1.7 billion.

    Musk’s net worth at the end of 2022 stood at $137 billion, according to Forbes’ real time billionaire tracker, so the $1.9 billion represented about 1.4% of his net worth at that time.

    Musk’s 2022 donations are down from the estimated value of his donations reported for 2021, when he reported that he had given 5 million Tesla

    (TSLA)     shares, then worth an estimated $5.7 billion, at the end of that year. A three-for-one stock split in Tesla

    (TSLA)     shares in August of last year means the number of shares he donated in 2021 was also 30% greater than his 2022 donations, on a split-adjusted basis.

    Musk’s donations in 2021 also were to an undisclosed charity. They came at a time that he had been challenged by David Beasley, the UN food program director, to donate $6 billion to battle global hunger. Beasley had said a donation of that size could feed more than 40 million people across 43 countries that are “on the brink of famine.” Musk responded on Twitter at that time if the World Food Program “can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”

    Musk’s 2021 donation of Tesla shares came soon after that exchange, but there was never any confirmation as to where the shares went to.

    The most recent donation of shares represented 1.6% of Musk’s stake in the company at the end of last year when considering both shares he held outright and the vested options he holds to purchase additional shares.

    Since the end of the year he had another 25.3 million options vest when the company achieved certain financial goals, a grant the company had already said was probable to take place. So Musk made the donation knowing that he would soon receive options to buy twice a many shares at a nominal price.

    Musk did sell a far larger portion of his Tesla stake in the last 18 months than he has donated. First he sold $16.4 billion worth of Tesla stock in 2021, with most going to to pay a large income tax bill he faced for exercising options in 2021 before they expired. Then in 2022 he sold $22.9 billion worth of Tesla shares as he raised cash for his purchase of Twitter.

    Tesla shares had their worst year on record in 2022, losing 65% of their value. The drop in share price knocked him out of position as the world’s richest person. But after a rough start to this year, they’ve rebounded nicely in 2023, rising 70% year-to-date. Given Tuesday’s closing price, the 11.5 million shares that Musk donated last year are worth $2.4 billion.

    Musk is now the second richest person on the planet, behind Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH, according to an estimate by Forbes’ real time billionaire tracker, with a net worth of about $196.5 billion.

    The typical US household has a net worth of about $121,700, according to the most recent estimate from the Federal Reserve. So the $2.4 billion current value of Musk’s donations last year, compared to his current net worth, is the equivalent of that typical family donating $1,500, or just less than $30 a week.

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  • Japan nominates new central bank leader in possible move away from ultra-easy policy | CNN Business

    Japan nominates new central bank leader in possible move away from ultra-easy policy | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    The Japanese government has nominated Kazuo Ueda to lead its central bank, in a surprise move that could pave the way for the country to wind down its ultra-loose monetary policy.

    If appointed, Ueda — a 71-year-old university professor and a former Bank of Japan (BOJ) board member — would succeed Haruhiko Kuroda, the country’s longest serving central bank chief and the architect of its current yield curve control policy (YCC). His term ends on April 8.

    Ueda’s nomination must be approved by both houses of parliament, each is currently controlled by the ruling coalition, before the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida can formally appoint him for a five-year term.

    Analysts believe Ueda’s appointment could increase the odds that the BOJ will exit its prolonged ultra-easy monetary policy, which is increasingly difficult to maintain at a time when inflationary pressure is rising and other central banks are hiking rates aggressively.

    “Investors reckoned that the pick of Ueda-san is a signal to pave the way [for BOJ] to exit the ultra-loose policy,” said Ken Cheung, chief Asian foreign exchange strategist at Mizuho Bank.

    “[The] chance for ending the yield curve control policy and negative interest rate[s] has been increasing,” he said, but adding that the BOJ’s monetary policy will likely stay “accommodative.”

    The yield curve control policy is a pillar of the central bank’s effort to keep interest rates low and stimulate the economy.

    Accommodative is a term used to describe monetary policy that adjusts to adverse market conditions and usually involves keeping interest rates low to spur growth and employment.

    The BOJ has implemented an ultra-easy policy since Kuroda took the reins in 2013. In 2016, after years of aggressive bond buying failed to push up prices, it introduced the yield curve control program, where it bought targeted amounts of bonds to push down yields, in order to stoke inflation and stimulate growth.

    As part of that program, the central bank targeted some short-term interest rates at an ultra-dovish minus 0.1% and aimed for 10-year government bond yields around 0%.

    But as prices rose and interest rates elsewhere went up, pressure has grown on the BOJ to wind down YCC.

    In December, the BOJ shocked global markets by allowing the 10-year government bond yield to move 50 basis points on either side of its 0% target, in a move that stoked speculation the central bank may follow the same direction as other major economies by allowing rates to rise further.

    The unexpectedly hawkish decision caused stocks to tumble, while sending the yen and bond yields soaring.

    But Kuroda later dismissed a near-term exit from his ultra-loose monetary policy.

    When local media first reported Friday that Ueda would be nominated as the next BOJ governor, the yen jumped against both the US dollar and the euro.

    “Investors interpreted the news as signaling a hawkish turn,” said Stefan Angrick, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics.

    “But it will take time for the implications to become clear,” he said. “With demand-driven price pressure still preciously scarce and stronger wage gains yet to materialize, it’s hard to see the BOJ rush towards tightening under a new governor.”

    On Friday, Ueda told reporters that he thinks “the current BOJ policy is appropriate” and “monetary easing must carry on given the current state.”

    In an opinion piece published last July in the Nikkei, Ueda warned against prematurely raising rates.

    However, in the same piece, he also noted the BOJ should prepare an exit strategy, saying that a “serious” examination is needed at some point on the unprecedented monetary easing framework, which has continued far longer than most would expect.

    “We don’t think he is expected to immediately change the BOJ’s policy stance based on his previous remarks,” said Min Joo Kang, senior economist at ING Group, in a recent research report.

    “He [Ueda] is likely to shift monetary policy only gradually and the BOJ’s data dependency – inflation and wage growth – will become more important.”

    Japan’s economy remains weak, highlighting the tough task ahead for Ueda.

    According to the latest data from Tuesday, Japan’s economy grew by an annualized 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022, reversing a 0.8% contraction in the third quarter. But it was much weaker than the consensus forecast of 2% expansion.

    “We believe that the modest recovery will continue this year, but today’s data support[s] the Bank of Japan’s argument that the recovery is still fragile and that easy monetary policy is needed,” said ING analysts. “The incoming new governor will find it difficult to start any normalization.”

    – CNN’s Junko Ogura contributed reporting

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  • In a market that’s gone mad, investors can embrace these dependable stocks | CNN Business

    In a market that’s gone mad, investors can embrace these dependable stocks | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Many people don’t have the time or inclination to do deep research on stocks.

    It’s often easier to buy an exchange-traded fund that owns a basket of the top blue chips, like Apple

    (AAPL)    , Microsoft

    (MSFT)     and Amazon

    (AMZN)    . Other investors like to bet on themes and memes instead of poring over a company’s financial statements and regulatory filings. Hence the recent craze for momentum stocks like GameStop

    (GME)     and AMC

    (AMC)    .

    But for old-fashioned investors with a little gray in their hair (and veteran business journalists like yours truly) there are other ways to find winning stocks for the long haul.

    I’ve been running stock screens using market data software, first from FactSet and now from Refinitiv, on and off during the more than 20 years I’ve worked at CNN Business. (It was CNNMoney when I first started.)

    I’ve typically done this stock picking feature in early to mid February as a Stocks We Love type of story, pegging it to Valentine’s Day. (Here’s the first one I did in 2002!) So they’ve often been littered with cheesy references to how romantic it is to find a reliable company you can count on for a long-term relationship.

    Well, investing trends have changed a bit in the past two decades. Some would argue that active investing (actually choosing individual companies) is no longer in vogue thanks to the rise of passively run index funds.

    And to be fair, the experts are right, mostly. Investors usually are better off owning an index ETF. If the goal is saving for retirement in particular, a diversified mix of companies is safer than trying the riskier strategy of identifying individual winners and losers.

    But you know what they say about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks? I still believe there’s value in looking for quality stocks at bargain prices. Legendary investors like Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch of Fidelity fame would likely agree.

    With that in mind, I ran one final stock screen for this Valentine’s Day. Like my past screens, I tried to find companies with strong fundamentals (solid sales and earnings growth), low levels of debt and high returns on equity. And perhaps most importantly, I screened for companies trading at a reasonable price based on their estimated earnings.

    This screen wound up identifying 33 companies that could make sense as a buy-and-hold investment. All of them generated double-digit sales growth annually over the past five years and they are all expected to report profit growth of at least 10% a year for the next few years.

    Some of the more prominent companies on the list? IT services/consulting giant Accenture

    (ACN)     made the cut. So did software leader Adobe

    (ADBE)    , semiconductor manufacturer Analog Devices

    (ADI)    , chip equipment juggernaut Applied Materials

    (AMAT)     and Venmo owner PayPal

    (PYPL)    .

    That’s a fair amount of exposure to the tech sector. But several other non-techs made my list too.

    Auto insurer Progressive

    (PGR)     (hi Flo!), health insurer Humana

    (HUM)    , cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty

    (ULTA)    , UGG boots and Hoka sneakers maker Deckers Outdoor

    (DECK)     and trucker JB Hunt

    (JBHT)     met my criteria.

    As did financial services firm Raymond James

    (RJF)    , perhaps most famous for having its name on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium Tom Brady briefly called home.

    None of these stocks are likely to be moonshots that will surge because of comments that someone makes on Reddit. But they might offer a little more in the way of security and dependability. And after all, isn’t that what we all want from a long-term partner on Valentine’s Day?

    The broader market has continued to rally, in large part due to hopes that inflation pressures (and more Federal Reserve rate hikes) will soon be things of the past. But consumers are still skittish when it comes to buying more costly items.

    Meat processing giant Tyson Foods

    (TSN)     reported disappointing results last week, largely due to a pullback in consumer demand for pricier beef. Luxury apparel retailer Capri Holdings

    (CPRI)    , which owns the Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors brands, also posted lousy numbers.

    But shoppers still seem to be spending on more affordable goods. Pepsi

    (PEP)     reported sales and earnings last week that topped Wall Street’s targets. Fast food giant Yum! Brands

    (YUM)    , the owner of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, issued solid results too.

    That could bode well for several leading consumer companies that are on tap to report earnings this week, including Pepsi competitor Coca-Cola

    (KO)     as well as Restaurant Brands

    (QSR)    , the parent company of Burger King, Popeyes, Tim Horton and Firehouse Subs.

    Kraft Heinz

    (KHC)    , restaurant owner Bloomin’ Brands

    (BLMN)    , Sam Adams brewer Boston Beer

    (SAM)     and food delivery service DoorDash are also scheduled to release their latest results this week.

    The restaurant stocks in particular could do well.

    “Consumers continue to trade goods for services,” said Jharonne Martis, director of consumer research for Refinitiv, in a report. Martis noted that the restaurant and broader leisure sector has continued to outperform other consumer-related industries this year.

    Inflation is obviously still a concern for big consumer brands. Companies have to deal with the challenge of trying to pass on higher costs to customers without driving them away.

    That could become less of a problem though.

    The US government will report both its Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index for January this week and economists are hoping for a further slowdown in year-over-year prices. Consumer prices rose 6.5% over the past 12 months through December, down from a 7.1% pace in November.

    “There are positive signs. Inflation has passed the peak so there is a little bit of a respite,” said Kathryn Kaminski. chief research strategist with AlphaSimplex.

    Higher prices were a problem for retailers during the holidays. Retail sales fell 1.1% in December from November, according to figures from the US government, following a 0.6% drop in November.

    But retail sales are expected to bounce back as inflation becomes less of an issue. Economists are forecasting a 0.9% increase in retail sales for January when those numbers come out later this week.

    Monday: Earnings from TreeHouse Foods

    (THS)    , Avis Budget

    (CAR)    , FirstEnergy

    (FE)    , IAC

    (IAC)     and Palantir

    Tuesday: US CPI; Japan GDP; UK employment report; earnings from Coca-Cola, Asahi Group, Marriott

    (MAR)    . Cleveland-Cliffs

    (CLF)    , Restaurant Brands, Suncor Energy

    (SU)    , Airbnb, Herbalife

    (HLF)    , GoDaddy

    (GDDY)     and TripAdvisor

    (TRIP)

    Wednesday: US retail sales; UK inflation; weekly crude oil inventories; annual meeting of Charlie Munger’s Daily Journal Co

    (DJCO)    ; earnings from Kraft Heinz, Lithia Motors

    (LAD)    , Sunoco

    (SUN)    , Sonic Automotive

    (SAH)    , Ryder

    (R)    , Barrick Gold

    (GOLD)    , Biogen

    (BIIB)    , Owens Corning

    (OC)    , Krispy Kreme, Cisco

    (CSCO)    , AIG

    (AIG)    , Shopify

    (SHOP)     and Boston Beer

    Thursday: US PPI; US weekly jobless claims: US housing starts and building permits; China housing prices; earnings from US Foods

    (USFD)    , Lenovo

    (LNVGF)    , Nestle

    (NSRGF)    , Paramount Global, Southern

    (SO)    , Hasbro

    (HAS)    , Hyatt

    (H)    , Bloomin’ Brands, WeWork, Applied Materials

    (AMAT)    , DoorDash, DraftKings and Redfin

    (RDFN)

    Friday: Earnings from Deere

    (DE)    , AutoNation

    (AN)    , Sands China

    (SCHYF)     and AMC Networks

    (AMCX)

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  • Lyft shares fall nearly 25% after forecasting revenue below estimates | CNN Business

    Lyft shares fall nearly 25% after forecasting revenue below estimates | CNN Business

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    Reuters
     — 

    Lyft

    (LYFT)     on Thursday forecast current-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates, blaming extremely cold weather in some of its major markets and lower prices, especially during peak hours, sending its shares down nearly 25% in extended trading.

    The company’s outlook was in contrast to that of its larger rival Uber

    (UBER)    , whose strong presence globally is helping it ride a boom in demand for ride-hailing services from travelers and office-goers

    Lyft’s bigger presence on the U.S. West Coast, a region that analysts have said was trailing the rest of the United States in return to pre-COVID demand, could be hurting its recovery compared with Uber.

    Company president John Zimmer said in an interview that the West Coast had “not fully” recovered but noted a “material improvement.”

    Lyft forecast first-quarter revenue of about $975 million, which fell below analyst estimates of $1.09 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

    Its forecast for first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a key measure of profitability that strips out some costs, was between $5 million and $15 million.

    For the fourth quarter, Lyft reported an adjusted EBITDA of $126.7 million, excluding $375 million it had set aside for increasing insurance reserves. Analysts had forecast $91.01 million.

    “We wanted to ensure we strengthened our insurance reserve … the purpose of doing that is to ensure we don’t have that type of volatility going forward, because we did such a large reserve on the high end of what we could expect given the size of our insurance book,” Zimmer said in an interview.

    Active riders rose 8.7% increase to 20.36 million for the fourth quarter, Lyft said. Analysts were expecting 20.30 million, according to FactSet estimates.

    Rideshare was “really back … we’re happy with the current marketplace conditions,” Zimmer said.

    Revenue rose 21% to $1.18 billion, slightly above the average estimate of $1.16 billion.

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  • Here’s what keeps Jerome Powell up at night and interest rates high | CNN Business

    Here’s what keeps Jerome Powell up at night and interest rates high | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell threw markets into a tizzy on Tuesday as he spoke about the economy alongside his former boss, Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, at the Economic Club of Washington.

    Stocks struggled for direction as investors tried to get a read on Powell’s economic outlook, attitude towards inflation and on future interest rate hikes. Wall Street cheered as the Fed chair said the disinflationary process has begun, then soured when he said the road to reaching 2% inflation will be “bumpy” and “long” with more rate hikes ahead.

    Markets soared to new highs, before quickly falling to session lows and then recovering to close the day in the green.

    “Powell doesn’t want to play games with financial markets,” said EY Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco after the conversation. But at the same time, he said Powell wanted to communicate that the Fed’s “base case was not for inflation to come down as quickly and painlessly as some market participants appear to expect.”

    Here’s why Powell thinks bringing down prices will be more difficult than investors anticipate.

    Structural changes in the labor market: The US economy added an astonishing 517,000 jobs in January, blowing economists’ expectations out of the water. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4% from 3.5%, hitting a level not seen since May 1969.

    The current labor market imbalance is a reflection of the pandemic’s lasting effect on the US economy and on labor supply, said Powell on Tuesday in answer to a question about the report. “The labor market is extraordinarily strong,” he said. Demand exceeds supply by 5 million people, and the labor force participation rate has declined. “It feels almost more structural than cyclical.”

    “If we continue to get, for example, strong labor market reports or higher inflation reports, it may well be the case that we have to do more and raise rates more,” he said.

    Core services inflation: Powell noted that he’s seeing disinflation in the goods sector and expects to soon see declining inflation in housing. But prices remain stubborn for services. Service-sector inflation, which is more sensitive to a strong labor market, is up 7.5% from the year prior through the end of 2022, and has not abated, he said.

    “That sector is not showing any disinflation yet,” Powell said. “There has been an expectation that [higher prices] will go away quickly and painlessly and I don’t think that’s at all guaranteed.”

    Geopolitical uncertainties: Powell also cited concerns that the reopening of China’s economy after the sudden end of Covid-Zero restrictions, plus uncertainty about Russia’s war on Ukraine could also affect the inflation path in ways that remain unclear.

    ▸ The labor market is strong, but tech layoffs keep coming. There were around  50,000 tech jobs cut in January, and the trend has continued into February.

    Video conferencing service Zoom is one of the latest to announce layoffs. The company said Tuesday that it’s cutting 1,300 jobs or 15% of its workforce. 

    Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post on Tuesday that Zoom ramped up employment  quickly due to increased demand during the pandemic. The company grew three times in size within 24 months, he said and now it must  adapt to changing demand for its services.

    “The uncertainty of the global economy, and its effect on our customers, means we need to take a hard — yet important — look inward to reset ourselves so we can weather the economic environment, deliver for our customers and achieve Zoom’s long-term vision,” he wrote.

    Yuan added that he plans to lower his own salary by 98% and forgo his 2023 bonus. Shares of Zoom closed nearly 10% higher on Tuesday. 

    The announcement comes just one day after Dell said it would lay off more than 6,500 employees.

    Amazon

    (AMZN)    , Microsoft

    (MSFT)    , Google and other tech giants have also recently announced plans to cut thousands of workers as the companies adapt to shifting pandemic demand and fears of a looming recession.

    ▸ Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis told CNN that he is starting to think that the US economy could avoid a recession and achieve a so-called soft landing.

    It’s hard to have a recession when the job market is still so robust, he told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Tuesday on CNN This Morning.

    Still, “we have more work to do,” Kashkari told Harlow, adding that the labor market is “too hot” and that is a key reason why it is “harder to bring inflation back down.”

    Although many investors are starting to think the Fed may pause after just two more similarly small hikes, to a level of around 5%, Kashkari said he believes the Fed may have to raise rates further. Kashkari has a vote this year on the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s interest-rate setting group.

    ▸ It’s a good time to be in the oil business. BP’s annual profit more than doubled last year to an all-time high of nearly $28 billion.

    The British energy company said in a statement that underlying replacement cost profit rose to $27.7 billion in 2022 from $12.8 billion the previous year. The metric is a key indicator of oil companies’ profitability.

    BP

    (BP)     also unveiled a further $2.75 billion in share buybacks and hiked its dividend for the fourth quarter by around 10% to 6.61 cents per share.

    BP’s shares rose 6% in Tuesday trading following the news. Over the past 12 months, its shares have soared 24%.

    The earnings are the latest in a string of record-setting results by the world’s biggest energy companies, which have enjoyed bumper profits off the back of skyrocketing oil and gas prices.

    Last week, another energy major Shell reported a record profit of almost $40 billion for 2022, more than double what it raked in the previous year after oil and gas prices jumped following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    On Wednesday it was TotalEnergie

    (TTFNF)    s turn. The French company posted annual profit of $36.2 billion for 2022, double the previous year’s earnings.

    Disney has found itself in the middle of a culture war battle that could end up transferring Disney World’s governance to a board appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And that may be the least of Disney’s problems, writes my colleague Chris Isidore.

    The company faces a media industry in turmoil, plunging cable subscriptions, a still-recovering box office, massive streaming losses, activist shareholders, possible reorganization and layoffs and growing labor disputes with employees. That’s a lot for CEO Bob Iger to handle.

    Iger, who retired as CEO in 2020 only to be brought back in November, has been mostly quiet about his plans for the company since his return. That ends at 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday when he is set to begin an earnings call with Wall Street investors.

    Click here to read more about what to look for on what is certain to be a closely-followed call.

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  • Fed Chair Powell: Inflation fight will take ‘a significant period of time’ | CNN Business

    Fed Chair Powell: Inflation fight will take ‘a significant period of time’ | CNN Business

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    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    The US labor market remains “extraordinarily strong” and Friday’s monster jobs report underscored that the central bank has more work to do to bring down inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday.

    “We didn’t expect it to be this strong,” Powell said of the January jobs report, which showed the US economy added 517,000 jobs. “It kind of shows you why we think that this will be a process that takes a significant period of time.”

    Powell was speaking during a question-and-answer session with David Rubenstein of the Economic Club of Washington.

    “The disinflationary process has begun,” Powell said, noting progress especially in goods prices. However, price gains within the services sector remain high, he added.

    The Fed expects “significant” declines in inflation to occur this year. It will take “not just this year but next year to get down to 2%,” the central bank’s inflation target, Powell said. And rates will have to remain at a restrictive level “for a period of time” before that happens, he noted.

    Powell expects housing inflation to come down by the middle of this year but is keeping the closest watch on a metric within the Personal Consumption Expenditures report: Core services excluding housing.

    “There has been an expectation that [inflation] will go away quickly and painlessly; I don’t think it’s guaranteed that’s the base case,” Powell said. “It will take some time.”

    The major US stock indexes rallied during Powell’s discussion but then fell in early afternoon trading, with the Dow down by around 200 points or 0.6%, the S&P lower by 0.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down by 0.2%.

    While economists said the January job total was heavily influenced by seasonal factors and will probably be adjusted downward, it was probably too hot for the Fed’s liking. The robustness of the labor market has stood somewhat at odds with the Fed’s efforts to lower inflation.

    “The labor market is strong because the economy is strong,” Powell said.

    The current labor market is also a reflection of the pandemic’s lasting effect on the US economy and labor supply, he noted. The demand exceeds the supply by 5 million people, and the labor force participation rate has declined, he said.

    “It feels almost more structural than cyclical,” he said.

    A key reason Chair Powell wants more slack in the labor market is out of concern that a tight employment situation will continue to push up wages, which could then keep inflation elevated. As the unemployment rate rises, workers lose bargaining power for higher wages and households pull back on spending.

    Fed officials also want to keep inflation expectations anchored.

    “We had a labor market with 3.5% unemployment in 2018 and ’19, and we had inflation just barely getting to 2%, and wages moving up for most of the people at the lower end of the spectrum,” he said. “We all want to get back to that place.”

    And the Fed will react accordingly with the data to ensure it does, he said.

    “If we continue to get, for example, strong labor market reports or higher inflation reports, it may well be the case that we have to do more and raise rates more,” he said.

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  • Gold giant Newmont’s $16.9 billion bid for Australia’s Newcrest clouded by deal doubts | CNN Business

    Gold giant Newmont’s $16.9 billion bid for Australia’s Newcrest clouded by deal doubts | CNN Business

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    Melbourne
    Reuters
     — 

    Top gold producer Newmont

    (NEM)     Corp said it had made a $16.9 billion offer for Australian peer Newcrest

    (NCMGF)     Mining to build a global gold behemoth, although investors and analysts said it undervalued the target amid a leadership change.

    Newcrest is seeking a new boss, with previous chief executive Sandeep Biswas having stepped down in December, while global interest rates are expected to peak this year and turn down, polishing the outlook for gold prices.

    The Australian gold miner said that it was considering the all-share proposal in a filing that was a response to media speculation over the weekend. The initial feedback from shareholders is that they want a higher price, according to a person familiar with Newcrest’s deliberations.

    “A good litmus test for a reasonably-priced deal is one where both seller and buyer feel somewhat aggrieved by selling out too low or by paying too much,” said Simon Mawhinney, chief investment officer at Allan Gray, Newcrest’s largest shareholder with a 7.36% stake. “It’s not clear to me that this kind of symmetry exists with these deal terms.”

    Newcrest shares surged as much as 14.4% to A$25.60 ($17.77), the highest since May 2022, but remained below the implied current offer price of $27.16, suggesting investors were not convinced the deal would pan out. Shares closed 9.3% higher at A$24.53.

    Newmont, which is already the world’s biggest gold producer by market capitalization and by ounces produced, said the combination represented “a powerful value proposition.”

    Newcrest’s operations include its top class Cadia asset in Australia, an expanding footprint in North America and Papua New Guinea, and growth potential in copper, highly prized as key to the energy transition. BHP

    (BBL)     Group offered $6.4 billion for Australian copper miner Oz

    (OZMLF)     Minerals Minerals in December.

    The Newmont proposal is via an agreed scheme of arrangement that would need to be recommended by the Newcrest board and subject to due diligence, various regulatory approvals and a shareholder vote that could stretch out for months.

    The indicative offer implies a 21% premium to Newcrest’s last closing value of A$22.45, materially below the traditional 30% takeover premium, noted analyst Jon Mills of Morningstar, which values Newcrest at about A$31 per share.

    Newcrest shareholders would receive 0.380 Newmont shares for every Newcrest share, giving them a 30% stake in the enlarged miner. It is a 4.7% improvement from a previous 0.363 per share offer that Newcrest already rejected for not providing enough value to shareholders, Newcrest disclosed on Monday.

    If investors don’t back the deal, the board will be under pressure to improve Newcrest’s value, perhaps by breaking out assets like Havieron and Telfer in Australia, or Lihir in Papua New Guinea, said Barrenjoey analyst Dan Morgan.

    Newcrest has been expected to announce a new chief executive this year after Biswas announced his retirement after eight years.

    Sherry Duhe, formerly chief financial officer, who joined Newcrest in February last year, is interim chief executive while a global internal and external search for a replacement is underway.

    Newcrest has been viewed as a target in recent years given its middling performance, but only a handful of buyers are big enough to take it out, said an investment banker who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

    The all-share nature of the offer meant the timing is more likely to be linked to Newcrest’s leadership vulnerability than a big call on the gold price, but it probably also reflects a constructive view on the precious metal, the banker added.

    Risks are growing for gold to break higher, Morgan Stanley in a note on Jan. 16, noting that its macroeconomists were now forecasting lower rates and a weaker U.S. dollar, in tailwinds for the metal.

    Morgan Stanley is looking towards a bull case of spot gold reaching $2,160 in the fourth quarter, up from $1,866 an ounce.

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  • EV maker Rivian to cut 6% of jobs amid price war | CNN Business

    EV maker Rivian to cut 6% of jobs amid price war | CNN Business

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    Reuters
     — 

    Rivian Automotive is laying off 6% of its workforce in an effort to cut costs as the EV maker, already grappling with falling cash reserves and a weak economy, braces for an industry-wide price war.

    The company is focusing resources on ramping up vehicle production and reaching profitability, Chief Executive R.J. Scaringe said in an email to employees on Wednesday announcing the job cuts. Reuters obtained a copy of the email.

    Layoffs at Rivian come amid falling EV prices kicked off by cuts made recently by Elon Musk-led Tesla

    (TSLA)     and Ford Motor Co.

    The price cuts by Tesla and Ford are expected to hurt EV upstarts such as Rivian, Lucid Group and British startup Arrival, which Monday said it would lay off half its staff.

    Despite a blockbuster initial public offering in November 2021, Rivian’s shares have fallen nearly 90% from their peak that month to Tuesday’s close. Rivian’s stock was trading down 4% on Nasdaq on Wednesday, paring some losses after news of the job cuts.

    “We must focus our resources on ramp and our path to profitability,” Scaringe said in the email, in which he apologized to employees for the necessity of the cuts.

    A Rivian spokesman confirmed the email was sent, but declined further comment.

    “They’re bleeding cash and would like to grow at a much faster rate, but they continue to struggle with their EV production ramp and have been unable to meaningfully drive down unit costs,” CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson said. “We think that is what’s behind this decision.”

    Rivian is focusing on ramping up production of its R1 trucks and EDV delivery vans for top shareholder Amazon.com and launching its R2 platform, he said. “The changes we are announcing today reflect this focused roadmap.”

    Irvine, California-based Rivian, which has about 14,000 employees, will let go of about 840 staff in a move that will not affect manufacturing operations at its plant in Normal, Illinois.

    Rivian, which has been losing money on every vehicle it builds, narrowly missed its full-year production target of 25,000 vehicles last year as it dealt with supply-chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It had previously halved that target.

    To further conserve its cash, Rivian late last year shelved plans to build delivery vans in Europe with Mercedes. Rivian had earlier pushed back by a year to 2026 the planned launch of a smaller R2 vehicle family at the $5 billion plant it is building in Georgia.

    Last July, Rivian, which is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 28, laid off staff and suspended some programs as part of a broader restructuring.

    The company has a market valuation of $17.8 billion. Its cash and cash equivalents stood at $13.27 billion as of Sept. 30, 2022, down from over $18 billion a year earlier.

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  • Apple is the only US tech giant to have avoided significant layoffs. Will it last? | CNN Business

    Apple is the only US tech giant to have avoided significant layoffs. Will it last? | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    In less than three months, four of the big five US tech companies have cut tens of thousands of employees combined, shattering myths about the industry’s seemingly unstoppable growth in the process.

    But there has been one notable exception: Apple.

    To date, Apple

    (AAPL)     has not announced any substantial cuts, thanks in part to slower headcount growth than some of its peers during the pandemic and continued demand for its core products. Some analysts think more modest cost cuts could be coming, however.

    The iPhone maker is set to report earnings results for the final three months of 2022 on Thursday after the bell. It is expected to post a rare year-over-year decline in revenue.

    While these expectations show the strain Apple’s business is under, Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives said in a note this week that pent-up demand for upgrading iPhones remains strong. “Apple will likely cut some costs around the edges, but we do not expect mass layoffs from Cupertino this week,” Ives wrote.

    Tom Forte, a senior research analyst at DA Davison, agreed there will be staff reductions, but likely not as drastic as those at other large tech companies. “Apple will cut headcount,” he said in a recent interview on Bloomberg TV, but suggested the cuts would come through attrition or reductions at the retail level.

    “While they haven’t done so yet, like everyone else, they will adjust their headcount for the current level of demand,” he said.

    Fueled by a surge in demand for digital products earlier in the pandemic, Big Tech went on a massive hiring spree.

    Amazon

    (AMZN)     and Meta each doubled their headcount between the third quarter in 2019 and the third quarter 2022, according to data shared in the companies’ securities filings. Alphabet, meanwhile, grew its headcount 64% during that time, and Microsoft grew its staff by more than 50% over approximately the same period.

    Apple, by comparison, grew its headcount by a more modest 20%. As of September 2022, Apple said it had approximately 164,000 full-time employees.

    Many tech CEOs, with varying degrees of remorse, have blamed over-hiring in the early days of the pandemic for the mass layoffs now. As pandemic restrictions eased last year, the demand for digital services shifted back toward pre-pandemic levels. Inflation pinched consumer and business spending, and rising interest rates evaporated the easy money tech companies had tapped into. And one-by-one, amid the whiplash, household names in Silicon Valley began announcing widespread layoffs to adjust to the new environment.

    While Apple has not announced layoffs, its business has been strained in other ways. Like other Big Tech companies, it has faced threats of antitrust action in the United States and EU. Earlier this month, Apple also said CEO Tim Cook had agreed to a massive pay cut this year, following a shareholder vote on his compensation package after its stock fell about 27% in 2022.

    As consumer spending tightened, global smartphone shipments plunged 18% in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to market research firm Canalys. Apple’s business also faced supply chain hurdles linked to China’s Covid lockdowns and unrest that hit a key production site in Zhengzhou, China late last year.

    Still, Apple’s business is weathering the downturn better than some of its fellow tech giants. In its most-recent earnings report, the company reported sales grew 8% year-over-year and that the company hit a September quarter revenue record for iPhone.

    Thursday’s earnings results will show whether Apple can keep defying gravity.

    “Apple continues to innovate with high-quality, industry-leading products supported by a powerful digital platform,” analysts at Monness, Crespi and Hardt wrote in an investor note Tuesday. “However, regulatory headwinds persist and we believe the darkest days of this downturn are ahead of us.”

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  • Snap stock plunges 15% as revenue growth stalls | CNN Business

    Snap stock plunges 15% as revenue growth stalls | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Snapchat’s parent company reported stalled revenue growth and a large net loss for the final three months of 2022, as it confronts tighter advertiser budgets amid broader economic uncertainty.

    Snap’s quarterly revenue was just shy of $1.3 billion, essentially flat from the year prior. For the full year, Snap’s revenue grew 12%, a slower rate that the company attributed to “rapid deceleration in digital advertising growth.”

    The situation appears to be even worse in the current quarter. Snap said it has already seen a roughly 7% revenue decline so far in the first quarter compared to the year prior. It estimates revenue for the first three months of the year will be down between 2% and 10% compared to the previous year. (Those figures were included in an investor letter, despite Snap saying it would not provide specific guidance for the quarter.)

    Meanwhile, Snap posted a net loss of more than $288 million in the quarter, compared to the $22.5 million in net income it earned in the same period a year ago.

    Snap

    (SNAP)     shares fell as much as 15% in after-hours trading following the report.

    The report marked the fourth straight quarter of net losses for Snap, which has suffered from increased competition in the social media market, disruptions to its ad business from Apple’s app privacy changes and weaker advertiser demand amid fears of a looming recession. High interest rates and inflation have also impacted many large tech firms.

    Snap’s earnings could be a concerning bellwether for the other tech giants that rely on the health of the digital ad market, including Facebook-parent Meta and Google-parent Alphabet, both of which are set to report results this week.

    Shares of Meta and Alphabet dipped slightly in after-hours trading Tuesday following Snap’s results.

    Snap in August became one of the first big tech firms to announce major layoffs when it said it would cut 20% of its staff. A slew of other tech companies have followed suit in recent months, including Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Mircrosoft and others, resulting in tens of thousands of job losses in the industry.

    In addition to challenges in the digital advertising market, Snap pointed to a change to its ad platform that it expects “will drive improvement for our partners and our business over time, but that may be disruptive… in the near term.”

    Perhaps the lone bright spot for Snap in the results is its audience. The company reported having 375 million daily active users in the quarter, an increase of 17%. Snap’s subscription service Snapchat+, which launched last year in an attempt to grow new revenue sources, reached more than 2 million paying subscribers in the fourth quarter, it said.

    The company also said it expects to realize the $500 million in cost reductions it had promised as a result of its restructuring by the end of the first quarter.

    Still, Scott Kessler, an analyst for investment firm Third Bridge, said in an investor note following the report that, “one of the big questions about Snap is whether it remains a growth story or can soon continue as a growth story,” given its gloomy outlook for the start of this year.

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  • Gautam Adani fails to calm investors over market mayhem that wiped out billions | CNN Business

    Gautam Adani fails to calm investors over market mayhem that wiped out billions | CNN Business

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    New Delhi
    CNN
     — 

    Indian billionaire Gautam Adani tried to reassure investors on Thursday after he abruptly abandoned his flagship firm’s $2.5 billion share sale.

    “For me, the interest of my investors is paramount and everything is secondary,” the 60-year-old businessman said in a recorded video address. “Once the market stabilizes, we will review our capital market strategy.”

    This was the first time the tycoon has spoken about the stock market mayhem that has wiped billions off his logistics and energy business empire.

    A week-long meltdown in the value of Adani Group shares started when an American short seller accused the conglomerate of fraud. The group, which has seven listed companies, has lost more than $90 billion in market value in the week since Hindenburg Research published its report.

    Foreign banks have started to closely scrutinize the conglomerate. According to Bloomberg, Credit Suisse has stopped accepting bonds of Adani firms as collateral for margin loans to its private banking clients. The Swiss lender declined to comment on a CNN request for confirmation.

    Despite the turmoil, the group’s flagship company, Adani Enterprises, managed to issue new shares worth $2.5 billion on Tuesday. The capital raising exercise was touted as India’s biggest ever public offering by a listed company. After a tepid start, the offer was fully subscribed.

    A day later, though, Adani abandoned the deal. The shares have been trading considerably below the offer price since last week, meaning that investors in the capital raise were looking at immediate losses.

    “Hence to insulate the investors from potential losses we have withdrawn,” Adani said in the video. “This decision will not have any impact on our existing operations and future plans. We will continue to focus on timely execution and delivery of projects.”

    Adani added that his group’s fundamentals were “strong” and that it had an “impeccable track record of fulfilling our debt obligations.”

    In an investigation published on January 24, Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.”

    The research firm also questioned the “sky-high valuations” of Adani firms and said their “substantial debt” put the entire group “on a precarious financial footing.”

    While the Adani Group had immediately denounced the report as “baseless” and “malicious,” the video address marked the first time the founder spoke about the crisis.

    But it wasn’t enough calm the markets. Shares in Adani Enterprises were down almost 9% in Mumbai, while shares in his other companies plunged 5% to 10%.

    Indian market regulators have not yet commented on the events of the past week. But, Reuters reported Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was examining the stock price falls and also looking into any possible irregularities in Tuesday’s share sale, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

    The scrapping of the share sale on Wednesday was a huge setback for one of India’s most prominent industrialists. Just a week ago, Adani’s sprawling group was worth over $200 billion, making him Asia’s richest man by a wide margin. At one point last year, he even overtook Jeff Bezos to become the second richest person in the world.

    On Wednesday, Adani lost his perch as Asia’s richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index. He had a net worth of $72.1 billion, according to the index, behind Mukesh Ambani, who has a fortune of $81 billion.

    CNN’s Mark Thompson contributed to this report.

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  • CEO pay cuts could be just the start | CNN Business

    CEO pay cuts could be just the start | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Corporate boards are slashing the pay of some leading CEOs in a new trend that could just be getting started.

    The pay cuts are hitting some of America’s best-known and highest-paid bosses, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.

    The moves follow a dreadful year in the stock market – 2022 was the S&P 500’s worst year since 2008 – and come as a growing number of corporations lay off rank-and-file workers to brace for a potential recession.

    For example, Goldman Sachs laid off 3,200 employees earlier this month amid a downturn in Wall Street dealmaking. The bank then disclosed on Friday that Solomon’s 2022 pay is being cut by nearly 30%. Goldman Sachs’ profit dropped 49% last year as the slowdown in dealmaking curbed advisory fees.

    “This is a show of solidarity. CEOs need to share the pain,” said Nell Minow, vice chair of ValueEdge Advisors, which advises institutional investors on corporate governance matters.

    A similar pay cut could be coming for Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google parent Alphabet

    (GOOGL)    .

    After Alphabet announced 12,000 job cuts this month, Pichai told employees that top executives would take a “very significant” pay cut, Business Insider reported. Google did not respond to a request for comment.

    But don’t feel too badly for these top execs. They’re still raking in serious cash and stock awards, just not quite as much as in the past.

    Apple, for example, said it is cutting the target pay package of Cook by 40%. But that still leaves him with a massive $49 million in total compensation.

    “They are still overpaid. Let me super clear about that,” said Minow.

    Among the 500 largest public companies by revenue, the median CEO made $14.2 million in fiscal 2021, up 18.9% from the year before, according to the latest research from Equilar.

    Tech bosses have received the biggest pay hikes, with the median CEO pay surging by 42.1% in 2021 to $19.1 million, Equilar said.

    Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley announced Gorman made $31.5 million in total compensation for 2022, down 10% from the year before. The Wall Street bank said its compensation committee took into consideration the fact that “in a challenging economic and market environment firm performance for 2022 was not as strong as the prior year” when it enjoyed record results.

    Minow is relieved that some boards are imposing pain on CEOs.

    “That’s exactly the way pay is supposed to work,” Minow said. “The problem with pay traditionally is it’s been all upside and no downside. CEOs would often get all the credit and money for good times and then blame El Nino or some extraneous force for the downside. Now they are being forced to accept more responsibility.”

    Of course, some of that responsibility is coming because the rules have changed.

    After the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, regulators have required public companies to give shareholders a voice on compensation issues. So-called “Say on Pay” votes are advisory, meaning companies can still go forward even if 100% of shareholders vote no. Still, having shareholders reject pay packages is an embarrassment companies try to avoid.

    Last year, JPMorgan Chase suffered a blow when its shareholders voted down a massive $52.6 million retention bonus that was planned for CEO Jamie Dimon.

    This month, JPMorgan announced Dimon’s pay will be unchanged at $34.5 million – even though wages are rising for average workers. The bank also said it decided not to give Dimon a special award for the year.

    That means Dimon’s pay isn’t budging even as wages go up for many employees.

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  • Here’s why you should always wait for the earnings call | CNN Business

    Here’s why you should always wait for the earnings call | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Investors are pretty bad at living in the moment. We’re currently in the thick of fourth quarter earnings reports, but traders don’t seem to care about how companies fared during the final months of 2022. They’re more focused on what’s going to happen in the future.

    Case-in-point: Earnings calls, where top execs pontificate about their economic outlook, have been moving markets more than earnings-per-share and revenue reports.

    What’s happening: The mantra on Wall Street has become, as Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown puts it, “ignore the numbers, wait for the call.”

    Microsoft reported great fourth quarter earnings last Tuesday that beat Wall Street’s expectations, but the stock dropped 4% the next day. That’s because CEO Satya Nadella got on an earnings call with investors and warned of a slowdown in the company’s cloud business and software sales. His negative outlook came just as the company announced it was letting go of 10,000 employees, further spooking investors. 

    Other tech companies are following suit — while things are fine for the time being, they’re reporting that the future is foggy.

    IBM stock sank 4.5% last Thursday even as the tech titan beat Wall Street’s Q4 expectations. The reason for the drop might be because Jim Kavanaugh, IBM’s finance chief, warned on the conference call that it would be wise to expect the company’s total 2023 revenue growth to be on the low end. IBM also announced layoffs – the company said it plans to cut around 3,900 jobs or 1.5% of its total workforce. 

    The economic environment is rapidly changing. CEOs on earnings calls are talking more about recession than inflation now, according to an analysis by Purpose Investments.

    Wall Street is also beginning to fear an economic downturn more than painful rate hikes and as a result investors are putting more weight on CEO and CFO forecasts.

    And they’re looking bleak. As of Friday, 19 companies in the S&P 500 had issued forward earnings-per-share guidance for the first quarter of 2023, according to FactSet data. Of these 19 companies, 17, or 89%, issued negative guidance. That’s well above the 5-year average of 59%.

    “My best guess is that cautious tones on conference calls will be the norm, not the exception,” wrote Brown in a recent post. These slowdowns have been partially factored into stock prices, he said, “but not necessarily in full.”

    The upside: Market reaction appears to go both ways. American Express missed on earnings last week but said that credit card spending was hitting new records and that the future looks bright. The stock shot up more than 10%. 

    Prices at the pump typically fall during the coldest months as wintry weather keeps Americans off the roads. But something unusual is happening this year, reports my colleague Matt Egan. Gas prices are rocketing higher.

    The national average for regular gas jumped to $3.51 a gallon on Friday and remained there through the weekend, according to AAA. Although that’s a far cry from the record of $5.02 a gallon last June, gas prices have increased by 12 cents in the past week and 41 cents in the past month.

    All told, the national average has climbed by more than 9% since the end of last year – the biggest increase to start a year since 2009, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

    Why are gas prices jumping? It’s not because of demand, which remains weak, even for this time of the year. Instead, the problem is supply.

    The extreme weather in much of the United States near the end of last year caused a series of outages at the refineries that produce the gasoline, jet fuel and diesel that keep the economy humming. US refineries are operating at just 86% of capacity, down from the mid-90% range at the start of December, according to Bespoke.

    Beyond the refinery problems, oil prices have crept higher, helping to drive prices at the pump northward. US oil prices have jumped about 16% since December partially due to expectations of higher worldwide demand as China relaxes its Covid-19 policies and also because oil markets are no longer receiving massive injections of emergency barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

    What’s next: Expect more pain at the pump. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, worries the typical springtime jump in prices will be pulled forward.

    “Instead of $4 a gallon happening in May, it could happen as early as March,” De Haan told CNN. “There is more upside risk than downside risk.”

    A return of $4 gas would be painful to drivers and could dent consumer confidence. Moreover, pain at the pump would complicate the inflation picture as the Federal Reserve debates whether to slow its interest rate hiking campaign.

    Goldman Sachs had a rough time in 2022, and the investment bank’s CEO, David Solomon, is being punished for it. Well, kind of. 

    The investment banking giant said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday that Solomon received $25 million in annual compensation last year. While that is still a very large amount of money, it’s down nearly 30% from the $35 million that Solomon raked in during 2021, reports my colleague Paul R. La Monica. 

    Solomon’s $2 million annual salary is unchanged. But the company said that his “annual variable compensation,” paid in a mix of performance-based restricted stock units and cash, was well below 2021 levels.

    Goldman Sachs (GS) shares fell more than 10% in 2022. The company also  reported a 16% drop in revenue in the fourth quarter and profit plunge of 66% earlier this month, mainly due to the lack of merger activity and initial public offerings.

    Maybe Solomon can make that extra $10 million with payouts from his burgeoning DJ career. 

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  • Chevron earnings soar to a record | CNN Business

    Chevron earnings soar to a record | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Chevron reported a record full-year profit of $36.5 billion, buoyed by high oil prices.

    Adjusted earnings for the year more than doubled from the $15.6 billion Chevron earned in 2021 and up 36% from its previous record profit set in 2011.

    The oil company’s fourth-quarter earnings came in at $7.9 billion, up 61% from a year earlier but less than the record quarterly income of $11.4 billion it reported for the second quarter.

    The fourth quarter earnings per share of $4.09 fell short of the forecast of $4.38 a share from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. But revenue in the quarter of $56.5 billion topped forecasts by nearly $2 billion and was up 17% from a year earlier.

    Full-year revenue of $246.3 billion was up 52% from 2021.

    Shares of Chevron

    (CVX)     were down slightly more than 1% in premarket trading.

    Ahead of Friday’s report Chevron, the nation’s second largest oil company, behind only ExxonMobil, had announced it was hiking its dividend by 6% along with a massive $75 billion share repurchase plan. The decision brought criticism from those who said oil companies should be investing their money in producing more oil and gasoline to increase supply and drive down prices for inflation-weary drivers.

    “For a company that claimed not too long ago that it was ‘working hard’ to increase oil production, handing out $75 billion to executives and wealthy shareholders sure is an odd way to show it,” said Abdullah Hasan, assistant press secretary at the White House, in a tweet Wednesday evening after the share repurchase was announced.

    Chevron said Friday its investments in operations increased by more than 75% from 2021, and annual US production increased to the equivalent of 1.2 million barrels of oil a day.

    The amount it spent on capital spending and exploration in 2022 was $12.3 billion, up 43% compared with $8.6 billion spent in 2021, but only slightly more than the $11 billion it spent on dividends or the $11.3 billion on share repurchases during the year.

    The record profit came primarily from the soaring oil prices during the year, not its increased production.

    Chevron and other major oil companies all benefited from the spike in oil and gasoline prices during 2022, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While Russia, one of the world’s leading oil exporters, sent relatively little oil to the United States, sanctions placed on Russia following the invasion roiled global commodity prices which set the price of oil.

    Futures for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, hit a record of $123.58 close in early June, up more than 50% from six months earlier ahead of the war, and the average price of a gallon of regular gas in the United States broke the $5 mark a week later to reach a record $5.03.

    But oil and gas prices have fallen substantially since then. Brent closed Thursday at $87.47, slightly below the year-earlier level, while the average price of a gallon of regular gas stands at $3.51 a gallon, only slightly higher from the $3.35 average of a year ago.

    But prices have started to rise once again, partly because Covid lockdown rules in China have been lifted. Traders believe that’s a bullish sign for global demand for oil and gasoline. Refinery problems caused by winter weather are also pushing prices higher.

    The average US price of a gallon of regular gasoline is up nearly 12 cents in just the last week and up 41 cents, or 13%, in the last month. Brent oil is up 12% in the last three weeks.

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