Elon Musk delivered the first of Tesla’s long-promised electric semi trucks on Dec. 1 to PepsiCo.

The trucks arrived years later than Musk had initially forecast, but held out promise to make life better for drivers and the environment .

The trucks feature a 500-mile range, which Musk demonstrated with sped up video of a trip from Tesla’s Fremont, Calif. factory to San Diego.

The seat is located in the middle of the cab for better visibility, Musk said.

The company has tested the trucks extensively for reliability and has developed new high-speed chargers to speed up turnaround times.

The first commercial used of the truck was a delivery of Frito Lay products from PepsiCo’s  (PEP) - Get Free Report plant in California’s Central Valley to the Tesla plant in Sparks, Nevada, where the trucks are being made.

“I can’t believe it’s been five years” Musk said launching the event. “Sorry for the delay,” he added.

A video during the demonstration showed one of the trucks driving up California’s Donner Summit on Interstate 80. The truck is shown accelerating past a diesel truck on the upslope. "If you're a truck driver and you want the most badass rig on the road, this is it," Musk said. "This thing has crazy power compared to a diesel."

He said that when being driven without a trailer it's "like an elephant moving like a cheetah."

The event marked a change from Musk's recent focus on Twitter, which he acquired a month ago and which has seen a string of controversies in the weeks since. 

While trucks are a small part of the vehicle market, they contribute 20 percent of vehicle emissions, Musk said.

"This is really going to revolutionize the roads," he added.

Buying a used car remains expensive even as supply chain bottlenecks have eased up, pushing the average loan amount to $28,506.

Consumers are still relying heavily on financing for the purchase of their cars and the average loan amount rose by 8.59% year-over-year, according to credit score company Experian.

There are some glimmers of light, though.

“Since the start of the inventory shortage, used vehicle values rose at a staggering rate, and that appears to be slowing, which is a positive sign for consumers looking to purchase a vehicle,” said Melinda Zabritski, senior director of automotive financial solutions at Experian. “While average loan amounts and monthly payments are continuing to grow, there are many contributing factors, such as the rise in interest rates."

The amount consumers are borrowing to finance a used car is rising at a slower rate. During the third quarter of 2021, Experian reported a 21.37% year-over-year increase. In the third quarter of this year, the amount rose 8.6%.

Used cars have seen their values soar as the number of new cars available fell due to supply chain challenges from the global pandemic the crimped semiconductor chip supplies. 

The lack of new inventory resulted in many drivers choosing to purchase used cars, but the high demand increased prices.

The average loan amount for a new vehicle also reported a significant increase, rising to $41,665 in the third quarter of 2022 from $37,753 in the third quarter of 2021.

Used Car Loan Interest Rates Exceed 9% 

Interest rates for both used and new car loans continue to rise due to the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates in an effort to curb inflation.

The average interest rate during the third quarter was 5.16% for new vehicle loans and 9.34% for used, up from 4.09% and 8.12% from 2021, according to Experian's data.

"Interest rates have climbed for all borrowers this year – consumers, businesses, and governments alike," Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate, a New York-based financial data company, told TheStreet. 

"Used car rates are at an 11-year high, as are new car loan rates," he said. "To put that in context, the Federal Reserve’s benchmark rate is the highest since 2008, so auto loan rates haven’t increased quite as fast."

The reason interest rates are higher for used auto loans is because there is greater risk of delinquency or default on a loan for an older vehicle, McBride said. 

"If the car breaks down, it is less likely to be under warranty and if the vehicle is in the repair shop, the borrower may have trouble getting to work or keeping up with the payments,” he said.

Auto Loans Are Getting Longer

Drivers are also taking out lengthier loans, increasing the overall amount of money they are paying for interest in many instances.

The average vehicle loan term rose to 69.7 months for new vehicles during the third quarter from 69.5 months during the third quarter in 2021.

The lengthier loan terms occurred in used vehicles, rising to 68.08 months during the third quarter from 66.97 months in the third quarter 2021.

Before consumers obtain a car loan, they should get copies of their credit report and make sure there aren’t any errors that could be "inadvertently torpedoing your credit score," McBride said. 

Shop around for your financing, comparing banks, credit unions, and online lenders and get it lined up before you go car shopping, he recommends.

"Not only does this set boundaries around the amount you can spend, but it gives you the ability to negotiate the price of the car independent of the financing," he said. "You aren’t limited to whatever financing the dealer offers.”

.A growing number of consumers are obtaining auto loans from credit unions instead of going to banks, which had traditionally financed the most auto loans.

Credit unions owned 28.4% of vehicle loans during the third quarter, a 40% year-over-year increase, compared to 20.2% during the third quarter in 2021.

Market share of auto loans declined for banks to 27.3% in the third quarter from 32.5% in during the third quarter in 2021.

The leasing of new vehicles declined to 18% in the third quarter from 27.3% in 2021.

Consumers are shifting to leasing larger vehicles, such as full-size trucks, and SUVs, which comprise of the top 10 most leased models.

Payments for leased cars are often lower than a payment with the average difference between a loan and lease payment at $133.

“Opting for a lease is one way that consumers look to manage their monthly payments, which is often how they shop for a vehicle,” Zabritski said. “Affordability will continue to remain top of mind as a decline in leasing, coupled with the lack of new vehicle inventory, will impact availability of used vehicles in a few years.”

 The average credit score for auto loans continued to rise to 738 from 733 year-over-year for new vehicle loans and to 678 for used vehicle loans, Experian said. 

Wyoming has the largest percentage of loans for used cars at 85.4%, while New York reported the lowest amount at 65.5%.

New Car Loan Payments Exceed $700

Auto loan payments broke the $700 level in July for the first time ever because consumers fueled their desire for bigger new vehicles as prices skyrocketed since the start of the global pandemic.

Smaller discounts from auto dealers along with rising prices for cars and interest rates for loans have thrust monthly payments above the $700 level, said Thomas King, president of the data and analytics division at J.D. Power, a Troy, Michigan-based data analytics company.

“The average monthly finance payment in July is on pace to hit a record high of $708, up $81 from July 2021,” he said.

If Twitter is going to make it as a successful company, it will almost surely have to increase its advertising.

Advertising now accounts for 90% of the company’s revenue, and that’s unlikely to change much anytime soon. Chief Executive Elon Musk’s initial efforts to build a subscription service have failed.

But advertising at this point is going backward. General Mills, Pfizer and Chipotle Mexican Grill are part of the parade of companies that have dropped or paused their ads on Twitter, as they seek to disassociate themselves from the extremist content flooding the company’s platform.

Twitter is desperate for revenue. It has a $13 billion debt burden as part of Musk’s takeover, yet hasn’t turned a profit for eight of the last 10 years.

Musk hopes to cut costs by $1 billion per year on infrastructure and estimated that the first round of layoffs will save Twitter $400 million a year. But that won’t be enough to pay back the debt and retain profits.

Advertising Incentives

So it’s no wonder that Twitter has now offered incentives for advertisers to boost their spending on Twitter, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

One incentive has Twitter matching companies’ ad spending. That would allow advertisers who increase their spending by at least $500,000 to have that spending matched with a “100% value add,” up to a $1 million cap, according to an e-mail sent by Twitter to ad agencies and viewed by The Journal.

Presumably, a “100% value add” means the advertiser would be able to spend double the amount of its increase on ads. But it’s not clear.

In any case, Musk seems to flail from one idea to another. He first offered subscribers a check-mark verification for $7.99. But that bombed, with fake tweets flowing like water. So Musk halted the program. He has pushed back the date for introduction of a new subscription service to Dec. 2.

At this point it’s hard to see how Musk is going to attract meaningful revenue for subscriptions. He’s alienated anyone whose politics are left of center and befuddled most others.

James Gorman is a Musk Fan

One luminary who clearly supports Musk is Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman. “I wouldn’t bet against Elon Musk,” Gorman said at a conference, as cited by Bloomberg. He called Twitter “a great company” and Musk “an extraordinary executive.”

Gorman better hope that’s right, because Morgan Stanley already has bet on Musk. It provided $3.5 billion of the $13 billion of loans that Musk took out to buy Twitter.

You don’t want to count out someone who has had major successes founding and running companies, including PayPal and Tesla. But so far at Twitter, Musk’s performance looks like a flop.

The creators of products that have been popular for decades have a unique challenge on their hands.

That challenge is to find ways to continue to serve the same product, whether it be fast food like the iconic McDonald's  (MCD) - Get Free Report Big Mac or Hershey's  (HSY) - Get Free Report beloved Kisses, and find a way to make it different -- but not so different that it makes customers who love the original turn away,

There's an art to this process, and one that many companies have gained quite a bit of finesse in. Yum Brands chain  (YUM) - Get Free Report Burger King gets a shout-out for reinventing the Whopper what seems like hundreds of times, for instance.

Cereal makers also face this unique challenge. General Mills  (GIS) - Get Free Report, for instance, which has been chugging along since 1928, has been making many of its classic cereals since those early years. Kix, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, and Trix aren't only some of the company's longest-running products, but they're iconic -- and often what folks think of when they imagine the cereal aisle at their local grocery.

Lucky Charms has been around since the '60s, but there's nothing wrong with giving this classic a fresh coat of paint -- and that's exactly what General Mills is about to do.

A Cozy Take on Lucky Charms

Everyone loves the marshmallows (or, as General Mills calls them, "marbits") in Lucky Charms, but in its newest incarnation, they're getting a very seasonal boost. The new Lucky Charms S'Mores replaces the usual oat cereal with chocolate cereal, as well as adding graham squares to get that toasty campfire flavor.

This new variant of the cereal will hit store shelves in January 2023, Tasting Table reports. So if you love the taste of S'mores but just don't feel like building a fire to get the delightfully gooey result, this cereal is a way to scratch that itch (and, of course, avoid going outside in freezing temps to make it).

General Mills Aims For the Grownups

While kids were definitely the target demographic for General Mills in its earlier years, the company is now also aiming its wares at a newer one: older adults that have nostalgia for the taste of cereals they ate when they were kids.

This move was partially driven by shrinking cereal sales, a problem the company was coping with in 2019 alongside Kellogg  (K) - Get Free Report. Sales went up during the pandemic likely because of the ease of making oneself a bowl of cereal during a difficult time, but as vaccines became available and people felt ready to go out into the world once more, cereal sales slumped again.

However, General Mills seems to be finding ways to thrive, helped no doubt in part by its portfolio outside the cereal aisle, which includes brands such as Blue Buffalo, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, and Yoplait. 

The company reported a 5 percent growth in the U.S. morning foods sector during its Q1 2023 earnings call in September.

"Additionally, we are making significant capital investments to increase our internal manufacturing capacity on key platforms such as pet food, fruit snacks, hot snacks, Mexican food, and cereal," chairman and CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening said. "These businesses were growing before the pandemic, they grew during the pandemic, and these investments will enable them to continue to grow into the future. "

When people think of the players that dominate the Las Vegas Strip, their thoughts generally turn to Caesars Entertainment (CZR) - Get Free Report and MGM Resorts International (MGM) - Get Free Report, which dominate the south and central parts of the Strip.

Caesars owns its namesake Caesars Palace, Harrah's, Planet Hollywood, the Cromwell, the Flamingo, Bally's (soon to be Horsehoe), the Linq, and Paris Las Vegas. MGM counters that with Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, Aria, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Delano Las Vegas, Park MGM, NoMad Las Vegas, New York-New York, Luxor, and Excalibur.

After that, thoughts turn to other players like Wynn Resorts (WYNN) - Get Free Report, the brand new Resorts World International, and the Venetian, which is operated by Apollo Global Management (APO) - Get Free Report. There are, of course, some lesser players like Circus Circus owner Phil Ruffin and Tillman Fertita, who plans to develop a major Las Vegas Strip resort.

In reality, while those are the frontline big players, none of those companies is actually the leading player on the iconic 4.2-mile stretch of road known as the Las Vegas Strip.

Two Major Las Vegas Strip Properties 

Vici Properties (VICI) - Get Free Report actually owns the underlying property that many of Caesars and MGM's resort casinos sit on. Now, the real estate investment trust that's heavily invested in the Las Vegas Strip has entered into a deal to acquire full interest in two MGM-operated properties.

Vici currently owns 50.1% of Mandalay Bay and the MGM Grand. Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) owns the remaining 49.9%. Now, Vici will acquire BREIT’s 49.9% interest in the joint venture for cash consideration of approximately $1.27 billion and Vici’s assumption of BREIT’s pro-rata share of the existing property-level debt.

The debt has a principal balance of $3 billion, matures in 2032, and bears interest at a fixed rate of 3.558% per year through March 2030.

"We’re excited to further our investment in MGM Grand Las Vegas and Mandalay Bay, two of the largest and highest-quality resorts in what we believe is the leisure and convention destination with the most compelling future demand outlook. This transaction also provides us with the opportunity to further grow our partnership with MGM Resorts International as they look to capitalize on the growing vitality of the South Strip,” said Vici Properties CEO Edward Pitoniak in a press release.

Nothing Really Changes for MGM

Caesars and MGM have both sold much of their real estate holdings to Vici. That frees up cash in the short term while allowing the companies to still operate the properties under long-term leases.

"The MGM Grand Las Vegas/Mandalay Bay triple-net lease has a remaining initial lease term of approximately 27 years (expiring in 2050) with two ten-year tenant renewal options. Rent under the lease agreement escalates annually at 2% through 2035 (year 15 of the initial lease term) and thereafter at the greater of 2% or CPI (subject to a 3.0% ceiling)," Vici shared.

MGM has a triple-net lease, a common setup where the company leasing the property pays all expenses including real estate taxes, building insurance, and maintenance as well as utilities (along with the rent). The MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay lease will earn Vici Properties approximately $310 million annually upon the commencement of the next rental escalation on March 1, 2023.

Vici Properties plans to fund the transaction through a combination of cash on hand, proceeds from the settlement of existing outstanding forward equity sale agreements, and the assumption of the remaining 49.9% of the existing property-level debt. The deal, which Vici said will be "immediately accretive to AFFO (adjusted funds from operations) per share upon closing," is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023. 

If you’re a stock-mutual fund holder, you may face a double whammy this year.

First, the value of your holding has likely dropped along with the overall market. 

As shareholders have exited mutual funds amid the market’s slide, managers have been forced to sell shares to cash these investors out. 

That's where the second whammy comes from.  

It's because those sales often generate capital gains on longterm holdings which generate capital gains distributions to shareholders, who then have to pay capital gains taxes on them.

Christine Benz, Morningstar’s director of personal finance, discussed how investors can deal with the capital gains issue.

One option is to sell the fund before the capital gains distributions. But remember that when you sell you fund shares, if they’re trading higher than when you bought them, you will owe capital gains tax on that appreciation.

Silver Lining

One silver lining from the market’s decline this year is that it would likely limit the amount of your capital gain if you indeed sell your shares.

Also, “many of the funds making distributions this year have been serial distributors,” Benz said. “This isn't the first year they've made distributions. If you've been reinvesting those distributions, you're able to increase your cost basis by the amount of that distribution.”

So that would lower your capital gain.

Of course, if you really like your fund, it might be worth it to just pay the capital gains tax on the distribution and hang in there with the fund.

“And remember you are getting credit for these distributions, even though you're having to pay taxes in the current year in which you receive the distribution,” Benz said.

“If you're reinvesting back into the fund, you're increasing your cost basis. That reduces the taxes that will be due down the line.”

Stick to Fundamentals

You’re better off making your decision of whether to keep your fund based on investing fundamentals, rather than tax factors, Benz noted.

Another possibility for investors is to sell a fund, but purchase a similar one if they want to retain their exposure to the sold fund’s strategy.

In that case, “you need to be aware of what's called the wash sale rule, which means that if you purchase something that the IRS considers substantially identical to the thing that you've just sold, and you do that within 30 days of the sale, you disallow the tax loss,” Benz said.

“That means that if you're swapping out of an index fund and into an exchange-traded fund that tracks the same market benchmark, it’s probably not a great idea from the standpoint of the wash sale rule.”

But, it’s ok to exit an actively-managed fund and then dive into a passively-managed one, Benz said.  

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried doesn't want to be the Bernie Madoff of crypto.

The founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has launched a media blitz, intended to play down his responsibility for the downfall of his empire.

SBF, as he is called in the crypto space, knew nothing. And how could he have known, since he did not run Alameda Research, his hedge-fund trading platform, from which the collapse started?

"Look, I wasn't running Alameda; I didn't know exactly what was going on. I didn't know the size of their position," the fallen CEO told the journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times Dealbook Summit via Zoom on Nov. 30, in his first interview since his empire went bankrupt.

The collapse of his organization in a few days, marked by the overnight implosion of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was simply due to a "lot of mistakes."

"I made a lot of mistakes," he said. "There are things I would give anything to be able to do over again. I didn't ever try to commit fraud on anyone."

Struck by Fate

To the FTX customers and investors whose finances are in disarray, he apologizes and tells them that he will do everything to help get their money back. They have to believe him, of course, as they did for three years, with the disastrous consequences that we see now.

Yes, from Bankman-Fried's perspective, he only made mistakes. He didn't want to defraud anyone. So what about the scathing criticism from his successor, who described his regime as a Wild West?

"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," John Ray, FTX's new CEO in charge of the restructuring, wrote in a 30-page document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware.

"From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented."

Again, that was just a mistake. Everything was a mistake for Bankman-Fried. He didn't know anything.

"I didn't knowingly commingle," he replied when asked whether FTX customer funds mixed with Alameda's.

Here's another excerpt: "I failed to pay nearly enough attention, and that's how we ended up here."

Who should have paid attention then?

The Circus Must Stop

But as any trader would tell you -- and Bankman-Fried is a former trader, having worked at Jane Capital -- traders track their positions and their underlying risk. But not him, of course.

The Bankman-Fried media offensive, which began on Nov. 30, painted the image that the former crypto kingpin and his cohort of communicators and advisers want to paint: that of a man who wanted to democratize financial services but got too big too fast and ending up making mistakes. And the subliminal message is: but who doesn't make mistakes?

They want to erase the Bernie-Madoff-of-crypto label, given by social media, as soon as possible.

He portrays himself as partly innocent, partly guilty, struck by fate. He is the hero of a tragedy by the Greek master Sophocles. He was trying to do good. But Bankman-Fried is more of a tragic hero in the tradition of French playwright Jean Racine: a hero full of contradictions, not a hero of destiny.

If he really wants to be viewed as a tragic hero, he should at least wait for the conclusion of the authorities' investigations. If they exonerate him, he can put on his cape. 

But we are still far from that point. Bankman-Fried cannot be the judge and the defendant. He can't decide that what happened with FTX and Alameda was just "mistakes."

Here's what happened in a nutshell:

As a crypto exchange, FTX executed orders for clients, taking their cash and buying cryptocurrencies on their behalf. FTX acted as a custodian, holding the clients’ crypto. 

FTX then used its clients’ crypto assets, through its sister company’s Alameda Research trading arm, to generate cash through borrowing or market-making. The cash FTX borrowed was used to bail out other crypto institutions in summer 2022.

At the same time, FTX was using the cryptocurrency it was issuing, FTT, as collateral on its balance sheet. This was a significant exposure, due to the concentration risk and the volatility of FTT.

The insolvency of FTX stemmed from a liquidity shortfall when clients attempted to withdraw funds from the platform. The shortfall appears to have been the result of FTX’s founder reportedly transferring $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research.

Had FTX clients been told that their cryptocurrencies were on loan to Alameda, for the hedge fund to do as it saw fit?

And why tell the world on Nov. 7 that everything was fine, when he had known, since the day before, that the situation was getting critical?

How about that $1 billion personal loan he got from FTX? Was FTX his personal bank?

Bankman-Fried thought he was king of the world since he sat on top of the future of finance. He recklessly played with the savings of millions of people and it went wrong. He should accept full responsibility and stop thinking about the image he will leave.

Either way, he will go down as the man who caused one of the biggest financial fiascos in history. A thousand TV shows and interviews won't erase that.

He will probably get a second chance. Financier Bill Ackman and other finance luminaries say they believe him. They will no doubt invest in him again. 

But Bankman-Fried must stop his media rush because it inflicts a second blow on his aggrieved FTX customers. 

It's time for the circus to stop.

And the dominos keep falling...

The stunning collapse of the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues to be felt throughout the crypto verse.

During The New York Times DealBook Summit, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has been calling for tighter government oversight of cryptocurrencies, compared FTX's situation to Lehman Brothers' collapse in 2008, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

Yellen said cryptocurrency "is an industry that really needs to have adequate regulation, and it doesn’t.”

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was also at the summit, making his first public appearance since his Bahamas-based empire collapsed on Nov. 11. He admitted to having made "a lot of mistakes."

"I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone,” he said via Zoom. "I saw it as a thriving business and I was shocked by what happened this month.”

FTX's top 50 creditors are claiming at least $3 billion from the company, according to court documents. 

Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi recently went the Chapter 11 route, following the likes of Voyager Digital and Celsius Network.

Amid all this, bitcoin was off slightly to $17,015.98 on Dec. 1, according to data firm CoinGecko. Ether, the native currency of the ethereum blockchain, was up modestly to $1,273.91, while dogecoin gained 0.5% to 0.102806. 

FTX 'Death Spiral'

Winston Ma, managing partner of CloudTree Ventures, said BlockFi's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing "underscores significant asset contagion risks in the crypto world."

"With the FTX 'death spiral' spreading to more crypto entities like BlockFi, the lack of investors’ fund protection in the crypto markets is further highlighted," said Ma, author of "Blockchain and Web3: Building the Cryptocurrency, Privacy, and Security Foundations of the Metaverse."

Ma said a regulatory crackdown on crypto seems inevitable, and the safety of consumer funds will probably be a big focus. The market may see tighter custodian rules for crypto assets from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and all related regulators, he said.

Prior to the events of this year, Ma said, BlockFi had raised $1 billion in venture funding from investors like Tiger Global and Bain Capital Ventures.

"The decision by BlockFi to file for Chapter 11 shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone," said James Edwards, a crypto specialist with Finder. "The lender was bailed out by FTX in the wake of the Celsius collapse earlier this year and had been signaling for some time that it would not be able to continue operations." 

Edwards said the big news is that BlockFi is owed about $1 billion by FTX and its sister company Alameda Research, which its bankruptcy lawyer says it will attempt to claw back from the failed firms.

"This revelation sparked theories that FTX purchased both BlockFi and Voyager earlier this year in order to hide its bad debt and delay any repayments," he said. "This is a major setback for the industry with no primary crypto lender left standing in the U.S." 

'Before the IRS Comes Knocking...'

David Lesperance, managing partner of immigration and tax adviser Lesperance & Associates, said that Bankman-Fried is not the only who should be worried about the future. 

"All U.S. FTX customers at the time of bankruptcy will be publicly listed as creditors, whether they like it or not," he said. "Those who “forgot” to note on their IRS 1040 tax returns that they 'at any time during 2021, I received, sold, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of any financial interest in any virtual currency' will be outed." 

Lesperance added that those who got their crypto out of FTX before the gates closed are not out of the woods either, as there is sure to be a detailed financial audit of all transactions that FTX undertook.

"Time to do a voluntary disclosure before the IRS comes knocking," he said. "Of course, this same problem exists for Celsius holders or any other crypto firms that have or will go into bankruptcy."

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Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has spoken out in an interview for the first time since the collapse of his crypto empire. 

In this interview of more than an hour, intended to give his version of what happened, Bankman-Fried tried to convey the idea that he had no intention of defrauding the customers and investors of his companies FTX and Alameda Research, a hedge fund that also acts as a trading platform. 

"I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone,” Bankman-Fried said contritely to Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times Dealbook Summit via Zoom on November 30. "I saw it as a thriving business and I was shocked by what happened this month.”

But when asked about the timeline, Bankman-Fried said he started worrying on November 6. It was on that day that he realized there was a serious problem.

"There was a potential, serious problem there," he said. "Alameda's position was big on FTX," and it had just taken a huge hit. There was suddenly a "run on the bank," with $4 billion in withdrawals every day.

'It Would Be a Bit Messy'

He added that FTX started calling potential financiers to shore up the business.

He went on to say he was nervous. Ross Sorkin then asked him if he was nervous because the company was going to collapse or because he was going to be caught. He replied that he was nervous because the situation would lead to substantial losses for Alameda. 

"It would be a bit messy" for Alameda, but the impact was going to be minimal for FTX, Bankman-Fried said. But by late evening, he was beginning to consider contingency scenarios.

On November 6, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, a rival of FTX, announced in a post on Twitter that his company had made the decision to sell $530 million worth of FTT coins, a cryptocurrency issued by FTX. Binance had received its coins when the firm sold its stake in FTX in 2021. In his announcement, Zhao added that the decision to liquidate FTT coins was due to recent revelations which appeared to be about Alameda's balance sheet.

In a November 2 article, Coindesk claimed that most of the balance sheet from Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's trading platform, was comprised of the FTT token, the cryptocurrency issued by FTX. Clearly, if the token collapsed, Alameda would be left with nothing. This revelation surprised investors who thought the firm had other assets.

The leaked balance sheet showed that Alameda listed $3.66 billion in unlocked FTT and $2.16 billion of FTT collateral. It also showed a total of $14.6 billion in assets and some $8 billion in liabilities, which included $7.4 billion worth of loans.

However, although he was worried about all these developments and was considering emergency scenarios as he revealed in the November 30 interview, Bankman-Fried said on November 7 that his companies had no liquidity problems.

"A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors. FTX is fine. Assets are fine," he posted on Twitter on November 7. "FTX has enough to cover all client holdings. We don't invest client assets (even in treasuries). We have been processing all withdrawals, and will continue to be."

The tweet has since been deleted. 

What is certain is that his admission of November 30 will not help restore public confidence in the crypto industry.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, engaged in a televised exercise, on November 30, to clear his name of accusations of fraud since the bankruptcy of his crypto empire.

Sporting a black t-shirt and occasionally sipping on a soda, the 30-year-old former trader answered questions for more than an hour about his downfall and the practices within his companies. 

In a simple setting -- a painting hanging on the wall to his right and a plant to his left -- Bankman-Fried was calm, even if he sometimes appeared confused when it came to explaining the incestuous relationship between FTX and Alameda Research, the hedge fund and trading platform that he founded.

'A Lot of Mistakes'

"I made a lot of mistakes," he said. "There are things I would give anything to be able to do over again. I didn't ever try to commit fraud on anyone," Bankman-Fried said contritely to Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times Dealbook Summit via Zoom. "I saw it as a thriving business and I was shocked by what happened this month.”

"Clearly, I didn't do a good job," he also said, acknowledging his duty to employees, customers, investors and regulators "to do right by them."

His goal throughout the interview appeared to be to convince viewers that there was no intention to deceive FTX customers and investors. It's hard to say whether Bankman-Fried, who follows up with another interview on December 1, has managed to change people's opinion of him. Financier Bill Ackman found him compelling, while social media put him down.

"Call me crazy, but I think @sbf is telling the truth," Ackman said.

"Bill Ackman is either deluded or falling for a sociopath (again) lmao. Cant make this up," commented one Twitter user.

'I Didn't Knowingly Comingle'

Bankman-Fried's empire was a central player in the cryptocurrency industry which is disrupting traditional financial services.

As a crypto exchange, FTX executed orders for clients, taking their cash and buying cryptocurrencies on their behalf. FTX acted as a custodian, holding the clients’ crypto. 

FTX then used its clients’ crypto assets, through its sister company’s Alameda Research trading arm, to generate cash through borrowing or market-making. The cash FTX borrowed was used to bail out other crypto institutions in summer 2022.

At the same time, FTX was using the cryptocurrency it was issuing, FTT, as collateral on its balance sheet. This was a significant exposure, due to the concentration risk and the volatility of FTT.

The insolvency of FTX stemmed from a liquidity shortfall when clients attempted to withdraw funds from the platform. The shortfall appears to have been the result of FTX’s founder reportedly transferring $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research.

Were FTX customer funds comingled with Alameda's? he was asked during the interview.

"I didn't knowingly comingle," he replied.

He said that, back in 2019, FTX had no bank accounts globally. So some customers who wanted to transfer funds to FTX, were wiring money to Alameda which then issued a credit on their behalf on FTX. Basically, customers deposited funds on FTX via Alameda accounts.

"Look, I wasn't running Alameda; I didn't know exactly what was going on. I didn't know the size of their position," the former trader claimed. He said he should have appointed someone to oversee the relationship between FTX and Alameda.

"I was nervous because of the conflict of interest, of being too involved," the former billionaire said, while acknowledging that he did live with one or two of Alameda's employees for a while.

Here is the timeline of the downfall of FTX and Bankman-Fried.

No Question On Personal Loans

His statements support the scathing criticism of John Ray, the new CEO of FTX in charge of the restructuring.

"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," Ray wrote in a 30-page document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware.

"From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented."

Ray said that many of the companies in the FTX Group, especially those incorporated in Antigua and the Bahamas, did not have appropriate corporate governance: "understand that many entities, for example, never had board meetings," the new Chief Executive Officer blasted.

Bankman-Fried received a personal loan of $1 billion from Alameda, according to Ray. The firm also gave a $543 million personal loan to Nishad Singh, and $55 million to Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, one of FTX's affiliates.

The former trader was not asked about the loans during the interview.

Add Coinbase to the list of companies recently expressing frustration with Apple's  (AAPL) - Get Free Report App Store policies.

Spotify  (SPOT) - Get Free Report CEO Daniel Ek, Facebook  (META) - Get Free Report CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk have all made critical statements about the policies during the past week.

Ek says the App Store is a threat to the Internet's future because it denies users choice.

"Apple offers the illusion of choice and gives developers the illusion of control," Ek wrote on Twitter.

"How many more consumers will be denied choice?" he asked. "There's been a lot of talk. Talk is helpful but we need action."

Zuckerberg expressed frustration that Apple limits the apps in its App Store.

Musk's complaints specifically refer to the 30% fee that Apple applies to in-app sales and in-app purchases.

"Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?" he asked on Twitter. "Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won't tell us why."

"Apple takes a 30% tax from app developers who make over $1 million through the ‌App Store‌ on an annual basis," replied @WatcherGuru. "Apple's App Store is the equivalent to a 30% tax on the Internet."

Apple Requires Coinbase to Disable NFT Trading

Coinbase said on the morning of Dec. 1 that Coinbase Wallet users using iOS will find they are unable to send non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The company announced this news in a series of tweets.

"You might have noticed you can't send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore," it said on Twitter using @CoinbaseWallet. "This is because Apple blocked our last app release until we disabled the feature."

The rest of the statements posted to Twitter by @CoinbaseWallet are as follows:

"Apple’s claim is that the gas fees required to send NFTs need to be paid through their In-App Purchase system, so that they can collect 30% of the gas fee." (A gas fee, or transaction fee, is simply what a user is required to pay for using the blockchain. Once the gas fee is paid, users can transfer cryptos from one address to another.)

"For anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchains work, this is clearly not possible. Apple’s proprietary In-App Purchase system does not support crypto so we couldn’t comply even if we tried."

"This is akin to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open Internet protocols."

"The biggest impact from this policy change is on iPhone users that own NFTs -- if you hold an NFT in a wallet on an iPhone, Apple just made it a lot harder to transfer that NFT to other wallets, or gift it to friends or family."

"Simply put, Apple has introduced new policies to protect their profits at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation across the crypto ecosystem."

"We hope this is an oversight on Apple’s behalf and an inflection point for further conversations with the ecosystem."

Apple Defends its 30% fee

In 2020, a study funded by Apple defended the fee that is currently under scrutiny.

"Our study shows that Apple’s App Store commission rate is similar in magnitude to the commission rates charged by many other app stores and digital content marketplaces," the study argued at the time. "The commission rates charged by digital marketplaces most similar to the App Store, such as other app stores and video game digital marketplaces, are generally around 30%."

"Marketplaces that distribute digital content such as videos, podcasts, eBooks, and audiobooks generally charge commission rates of 30% or more. Commission rates charged by e-commerce marketplaces vary by industry but sometimes exceed 30%," it continued. "Many sellers currently sell (or previously sold) their goods through brick-and-mortar stores and marketplaces. We find that sellers generally earn a substantially lower share of total revenue from the distribution through brick-and-mortar stores and marketplaces than through digital marketplaces such as the Apple App Store."

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Shares of Costco  (COST) - Get Free Report were getting hit, down 8.1% at Thursday’s low and off 6.6% at last check.

The moves came after disappointing November sales data. Specifically, November sales rose 5.7% year over year to $19.17 billion. That growth rate was slower than the 10.1% and 7.7% increases in September and October, respectively.

Further, today’s decline comes after Costco stock rallied roughly 2% on Wednesday and hit its highest level since September.

When we look at the chart, the shares were trading quite well until today. Costco stock was trading above all of its major daily moving averages while riding its 10-day moving average higher.

But it also comes on a day where other retail stocks are under pressure, like Dollar General  (DG) - Get Free Report after its disappointing earnings results.

Trading Costco Stock

Costco stock took a tumble this morning, but where it found support was no surprise.

The shares traded down to a low of $495-and-change, bouncing within pennies of the 50% retracement of the recent range. Further, this is also where the 50-day moving average and the weekly VWAP come into play.

For traders, this was a very clear line in the sand. Had Costco stock broken below these measures and failed to reclaim them, it would have opened the door down to the $475 area.

Now that the stock is back over $500, the $515 level is in play. That’s where both the 21-day and 200-day moving averages sit. Above that puts the gap-fill level in play at $522.

On the flip side, the major support area that held this morning would be back in play should Costco stock trade back below $500.

While many retail stocks have been trading well lately, not all of them are. Dollar General and Costco are two examples today.

If Costco cannot stay above major support, traders will likely benefit from shifting their focus to those that are doing well instead. 

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With such a high number of theme parks concentrated in cities like Orlando and Anaheim, visitors are left with a wealth of choice -- these parks have to compete for visitors' funds and vacation days by offering rides, shows, and experiences not available elsewhere.

Comcast  (CMCSA) - Get Free Report-owned Universal has invested significant funds into building an entirely new park. Universal Epic Universe is currently under intense construction to be ready for opening in the summer of 2025.

While Universal execs have so far kept quiet on what kind of rides and themed areas the park will have, it will certainly not be small in scale -- early plans show that the park is situated on a 750-acre plot of land a 15-minute walk from the north complex housing Orlando parks like Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and water park Volcano Bay.

"I'm especially excited for Epic Universe to open in the summer of 2025 which will transform Universal Orlando into a weeklong destination," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said during a fall earnings call. Roberts also mentioned future plans to open Super Nintendo World in Hollywood in 2023 as well as a Donkey Kong area in Japan's Super Nintendo World by 2024.

Disney Has An Answer to Universal's Investments

Less than a month after longtime CEO Bob Iger was brought back to replace Bob Chapek, the Walt Disney Company  (DIS) - Get Free Report has also committed to pouring significant funds into its parks.

Industry outlet Blog Mickey was the first to report that Disney plans to spend $6.3 billion on capital expenditure in the fiscal year of 2023 -- a 37% increase from the $4.7 billion spent in 2022.

Commonly referred to as CAPEX, capital expenditure is a finance term referring to money spent improving or increasing a company's physical assets. This means, in other words, that Disney plans to improve current parks with features like new rides or develop new ones.

If Disney ends up following through on the SEC filing, its CAPEX funding will be a significant increase from both 2022 and an earlier record of $4.22 billion in 2016. In the filing, the company said that the larger number is caused by "higher spending across the enterprise."

Bob Iger's Disney Vision Still Uncertain, But a Lot of Money is Going to Be Spent

Iger, who led Disney from 2005 to 2020, has been known to pour significant money into keeping up with the Joneses -- after Universal opened the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2016, Disney added "Pandora: The World of Avatar" to Animal Kingdom and both "Toy Story Land" and "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" to both its Florida and California parks.

The CAPEX commitment could go toward renovations and updates that are less exciting to the average visitor but, given the record-high number, it is safe to assume that at least some new rides are in store.

One major upcoming ride that Disney has been advertising to much fanfare is the "Tron Lightcycle Power Run" -- the roller coaster first opened at Disneyland Shanghai in 2016 and quickly became one of its highest-rated rides due to the extreme factor. It has multiple loops and gathers up a speed of up to 60 miles an hour.

The roller coaster is currently in the midst of safety testing and, after several pushbacks, is slated to open to the public in Orlando by the spring of 2023.

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The head of Morgan Stanley  (MS) - Get Free Report has been heaping some very heavy praise on Elon Musk -- at the Reuters Next forum in New York on Dec. 1, chief executive James Gorman called the Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report founder who recently acquired Twitter  (TWTR) - Get Free Report for $44 billion "an extraordinary executive."

"Who would not want to do business with a person who has that kind of capability?" Gorman said as first reported by Bloomberg, referring to Musk's leadership of Tesla and SpaceX. "Shame on an institution who'd walk away from that."

Gorman, who has been leading the investment firm since 2012, encouraged investors not to give up on Twitter after Musk's mass firings and frequent online spats led to an exodus of both high-profile users and advertisers.

"I wouldn't bet against Elon Musk," Gorman said while bringing up a past visit to the Tesla factory and comparing Musk to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Here's Who is Betting For And Against Musk

Even before Gorman's comments, the phrasing "betting against Elon Musk" has become a talking point among those against Musk's profit-driven and "hardcore" leadership style and those criticizing the crackdown.

But the debate also boils down to whether unconventional leadership that led Tesla and SpaceX to their success and helped Musk skyrocket his wealth will work for a social media platform that has been around for years and relies on advertisers as well as content from users. 

"I hear lots of people still say 'I wouldn't bet against Elon Musk,'" Gergely Orosz, a software engineer who worked at JP Morgan, Uber  (UBER) - Get Free Report, Microsoft  (MSFT,) - Get Free Report and Skype, wrote on Twitter. "I hadn't heard nearly as many people say 'I wouldn’t bet against Satya Nadella [the CEO of Microsoft].' Also, striking the difference in leadership style and treating of people -- employees, customers -- between the two."

Orosz's mention of the Microsoft CEO refers to Nadella's vision of leader 'humility' and listening to employee input -- a leadership that's also seen as highly unconventional by some.

Gorman is clearly a supporter of the former rather than the latter given that he has repeatedly pushed for a quicker return to the office amid the pandemic and said that working from home equated to being in "jobland" (compared to the office's "careerland.") 

While Musk has been known to outdo expectations in the face of naysayers, some predict that growing outrage over Musk's treatment of employees and veering toward the political right could end up being his downfall.

Gorman: Twitter's Business Potential Is 'Very Real'

Tesla stock is down more than 15% since Musk took over Twitter and started spatting with anyone who criticized his approach to staff, as well as the decision to reinstate banned users like former president Donald Trump.

It is also not insignificant that Morgan Stanley led the syndicate of banks that provided Musk with the $13 billion needed to complete the Twitter purchase. As Bloomberg reported, these banks "that jumped at the chance to help an important client now face losses running into several hundred million dollars on the unsold debt sitting on their balance sheets."

As such, Gorman is likely to stand behind Musk no matter how things go. At the conference, he repeatedly named Twitter "a great company."

"Institutions like ours are not stupid," he said at the conference. "We don't get behind that kind of business and that kind of opportunity unless it's real -- and it's very real."

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Cellphone usage continues to soar, with people deploying them for everything from watching movies to investing.

For mobile phones to work -- you’ve probably endured dropped calls from time to time -- telecommunications carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile need to have antennas on cellphone towers. The antennas enable customers to make calls and view content.

Cellphone-tower owners charge the carriers rent to place their antennas on the towers. And people use their cellphones in good economic times and bad, so the tower industry is largely recession-proof.

The three biggest tower companies are publicly traded real estate investment trusts, or REITs. And some experts see them as attractive buying opportunities now, after they declined earlier this year.

The group has rebounded since October, but all three remain down at least 20% year to date. Here are thoughts on the trio from Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin, listed in order of company size.

He gives each of the three a narrow moat, or durable competitive advantage. But he’s less enthusiastic than some other analysts.

American Tower

(AMT) - Get Free Report

Dolgin puts fair value for the stock at $210. It recently traded at $222 and has a dividend yield of 2.66%.

“We think American Tower's strategy to diversify its tower portfolio globally leaves it best positioned among the three U.S. tower companies, as it is primed to benefit from the continually increasing demand in mobile data worldwide,” he wrote in a commentary.

“However, we don't think veering into the data-center business, which it did with its acquisition of CoreSite, will pay off, and it distracts from the tower focus we liked for American Tower.”

Crown Castle

(CCI) - Get Free Report

Dolgin puts fair value for the stock at $135. It recently traded at $142 and has a dividend yield of 4.43%

“Crown Castle's strategy has deviated from that of its two biggest competitors, which focus almost exclusively on towers and have a multinational footprint,” Dolgin wrote in a commentary.

“Crown operates exclusively in the U.S.. and is aggressively investing in fiber to pursue small-cell communications sites,” he said. He doesn’t view that as a good thing.

“Crown Castle has adopted a high-risk strategy. We acknowledge the potential upside, but small cells require heavy initial investment and lack the competitive advantage that Crown has with its towers.”

SBA Communications

(SBAC) - Get Free Report

Dolgin puts fair value for the stock at $250. It recently traded at $301 and has a dividend yield of 0.95%.

“SBA focuses exclusively on towers and has some geographic diversification, but we think its strategy to use financial leverage so aggressively provides unnecessary risk and ultimately keeps it from deepening its presence in several of its developing markets,” he wrote in a commentary.

“That said, we like its business and think it will continue to grow at a fast clip, albeit not to the same extent as rival American Tower.”

The author of this story owns shares of American Tower, and his girlfriend works at SBA Communications.

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Dollar General  (DG) - Get Free Report investors must be disappointed with the stock’s reaction on Thursday.

The retailer's shares are down about 8% at last check and were down as much as 9.9% following the disappointing report.

The company beat on revenue expectations but missed on earnings estimates despite growing its bottom line 12% year over year.

Further, management said the cost pressures that weighed on it last quarter — although temporary — would persist into this quarter as well. 

Regardless, investors are voting with their dollars and it’s clear they didn’t like the quarter.

For what it’s worth, shares of Dollar Tree  (DLTR) - Get Free Report suffered a 7.8% decline on Nov. 22 following its earnings results. 

Let’s take a fresh look at Dollar General stock.

Trading Dollar General Stock

Shares of Dollar General gapped down to the 200-day moving average and knifed right through this measure. Worse, they cut through prior support in the $233 to $235 area as well.

While the stock is finding some buyers in the $230 area — and at the 38.2% retracement — it’s very discouraging to see it lose those prior levels.

This is what I call “deliberate price action,” meaning the stock is deliberately cutting through major support zones. It could have held support but opted not to. That’s sending a message.

Now, this can go two ways.

This could simply be a shakeout, where the stock breaks below key support and then bounces and reclaims these levels. If that’s the case, the bulls can be long and use the recent low as their stop-loss.

The flip side is the shares could remain below the $233 to $235 zone and, absent a wave of new buyers, could continue to trickle lower.

The dollar stores clearly aren’t doing all that well. At the same time, Walmart  (WMT) - Get Free Report stock is doing quite well, as are a few other retailers we looked at this week. So perhaps traders should be looking at these names instead of Dollar General or Dollar Tree. 

For Dollar General stock, keep an eye on $233 to $235. Back above this zone and the 200-day moving average opens the door up back to $240, then the 50-day moving average and the gap-fill near $250.

Below $230 opens the door down to the $220 to $222.50 zone. 

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Amazon (AMZN) - Get Free Report had a grand plan to infiltrate every home in America -- maybe in the world -- using its devices to put a store into everyone's living room. 

It was a simple idea, whereby the company would make easy-to-use voice-based devices that ran off a powerful artificial-intelligence system that would serve as a low-cost virtual assistant.

Everyone would buy Echo devices because they were cheap and useful. Amazon used its scale to keep prices cheap and Echo dots and other Echo speakers became common in homes across America.

The Echo-purchase part of the plan worked. The problem is that Alexa, the AI that powers the Echo devices, does not work all that well. 

It's a really good kitchen timer and it can tell you the weather, play music from your library, and maybe find a podcast. But that's pretty much the end of its usefulness.

For consumers, Alexa may not be the robot assistant we all hoped for, but it's a good value for the price. And the things that it does well, well, it does them really well. 

Echo devices are useful as smart speakers and kitchen assistants. What they aren't -- and this is a big problem for Amazon -- are stores that sit in our living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchens.  

Amazon wants Echo/Alexa to increase your purchases from Amazon. That hasn't happened and it may be time for the online retailer to give up on that dream.

Amazon Echo Is Very Limited

Echo launched in 2014 with great promise. That was back when we still believed that Apple's (AAPL) - Get Free Report Siri digital assistant might become a useful product, even after three years of it not being all that helpful. 

Amazon's devices, some of which sold for below $50, were a cheap way for everyone to get in on the AI/Digital assistant game while also adding a smart speaker to their home (something that is actually useful).

As of June 2021, more than two-thirds (69%) of smart speakers in use in the U.S. were Amazon’s Echo brand, with Google  (GOOGL) - Get Free Report Home at about 25% and Apple 5%, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners via a Retailwire report. More than 50 million U.S. homes had at least one Amazon Echo device. Over 20 million had multiple units.

That's stunning penetration -- but consumers did not use the devices the way Amazon intended. Alexa works for simple tasks, but using it to order products from Amazon is a clunkier process than simply going to your phone or computer to make the order.

Yes, you can say "Alexa, order me paper towels," and you may, a day or two later, get paper towels delivered, but what brand? What package size?

Alexa tried to solve a problem that phones were better suited for, something that's been obvious for quite some time. Yet Amazon continues to lose billions of dollars each year chasing the Alexa dream.

Amazon Echo Is a Really Good Smart Speaker

While Amazon's strategy of getting the devices into people's hands first, then making money as they bought more stuff, made sense, it simply hasn't worked.

"Alexa, which sells at cost, continues to be tapped for trivial tasks such as playing music or checking the weather and hasn’t become the core household shopping tool as hoped for to support its monetization," Retailwire's Tom Ryan wrote.

"Voice shopping’s continued inhibitors are the absence of screens on most devices and concerns over payment security and privacy." 

Basically, the company has created a device people like because of its ability to provide useful, but very basic, functions. That's good for consumers -- especially with Amazon selling them for very low prices -- but it makes it very hard for the online retailer to justify billions of dollars in losses.

The Echo devices may sell well at higher prices without the promise of AI offering much more than the things people actually use Alexa for. In theory, that could stem Amazon's losses as development costs could be cut while each Echo could be sold at a profit. But they won't drive further sales for the company.

Maybe Voice Assistants Are a Dud

When was the last time you used Apple's Siri for something beyond a very basic task (or even at all)? Do you even remember the name of Microsoft's  (MSFT) - Get Free Report voice assistant (Cortana), or Samsung's (Sam)?

And are you familiar enough to know that one of those is wrong? Samsung's voice assistant is actually named Bixby.

Voice assistants offered so much promise, but at best they're mildly useful and at worst they're the handwriting recognition on the Apple Newton.

"In theory Amazon should make money from subscription services like Audible and streaming music services, but take up has been relatively low," commented GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders on the Retailwire story. 

"Another possibility is to use Alexa to advertise, but this is a virtual non-starter because people’s tolerance of Alexa parroting advertisements is extremely low. Then there is voice shopping, which hasn’t taken off in the way some predicted -- mainly because it has a lot more friction than traditional online shopping."

Alexa has become mostly a novelty, and with Amazon laying people off, it might make sense to focus on getting the devices division to breakeven while waiting for someone else to develop a useful AI voice assistant. 

When the technology gets perfected (which may be a few weeks before sentient robots rise up to throw off their human oppressors), the retail giant would be in a good place to acquire or license it.

For now, we're simply not going to shop with Alexa. 

Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report is recalling more than 435,000 cars in China to fix a rear light problem, according to news reports.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said that a total of 142,277 Model 3 sedans and 292,855 Model Y vehicles could be affected by the issue in which a software defect stops the rear lights on the car from illuminating, CNBC reported on Dec. 1.

Tesla will issue software updates remotely to fix the problem.

Some commenters on social media slammed CEO Elon Musk for spending too much time with Twitter  (TWTR) - Get Free Report, the microblogging site he purchased for $44 billion, rather than on the electric vehicle company.

"If only Musk focused on Teslas as much as he focuses on trolling people on Twitter this could've been avoided," one person tweeted.

Tesla's Second Recall in China

Others complained about the use of the word "recall" when the issue is being resolved with a software update.

"One day you will learn the ancient phrase 'over the air' (OTA) update and stop acting like Tesla is dragging 500k cars back and forth from the dealership every two weeks," one commenter said.

This is Tesla's second major recall in China in the last week. On Nov. 25, the company said it was recalling more than 80,000 cars in China over seatbelt and software issues.

Tesla recalled a total of 67,698 imported Model S and Model X vehicles produced between Sept. 25, 2013, and Nov. 21, 2020.

The company also recalled 2,736 imported Model 3 vehicles produced between Jan. 12, 2019, and Nov. 22, 2019, as well as 10,127 of the China-made version of the car due to a potentially faulty seatbelt.

China is Tesla's second-largest market. During the company's third-quarter earnings call in October, Musk said that "China is experiencing a recession of sorts mostly in the property market."

Tesla posted softer-than-expected third sales and said full-year deliveries may fall just shy of its 50% growth target.

Days after the earnings report, Tesla cut prices for its Chinese-made cars for the first time this year, suggesting softening demand in the world's biggest market.

Tesla Has Had U.S. Recalls as Well

Last month Tesla recalled more than 321,000 vehicles in the U.S. due to a taillight problem.

The recall was issued on Nov. 15, according to a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and covers certain 2023 Model 3 vehicles and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles. 

Tesla said it will deploy an over-the-air update to correct the problem at no charge to customers.

Earlier this week, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said that despite falling 48% year-to-date, Tesla's stock price "remains high on almost every valuation metric" compared with traditional automakers "due to its unique growth profile." 

That said, the stock trades at a lower multiple than Ferrari and its valuation looks attractive on a price/earnings to growth ratio versus high-growth tech stocks, Sacconaghi said in a research note.

However, Sacconaghi said that Tesla's tech comparables have higher margins "and are arguably less cyclical than automotive companies."

Sacconaghi has an underperform rating on the shares with a $150 price target. He said that he sees Tesla's current risk/reward "as more balanced, though still modestly negative."

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Experienced cruisers generally dislike change. Every ship seems to have a contingent lamenting how things aren't what they used to be. 

And that attitude prevails as well on a variety of Facebook message boards devoted to cruising.

A few times each week you'll see an exchange where someone asks about dress-code enforcement in the main dining room or on formal nights. Someone invariably replies that the rules have gotten pretty loose and, at least on Royal Caribbean (RCL) - Get Free Report or Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) - Get Free Report, anything short of a bathing suit probably will be ignored.

Some who remember the days when everyone dressed for dinner endlessly complain that these rules have loosened. And standards of dress aren't the only changes longtime, and even more recent, cruisers complain about. 

Cruising has a certain amount of ritual to it, and any changes make a lot of regular passengers wary.

That's why Royal Caribbean has been treading very carefully when it comes to making changes to its main dining room menus. These menus, which have been largely unchanged for years, appear set for a major overhaul, but only after the cruise line extensively workshops the changes.

Royal Caribbean Tests Major Main Dining Room Changes   

Currently, Royal Caribbean ships offer a standard menu format in the main dining room. Each night has a rotating selection of choices served alongside "classics," which include chicken, New York strip steak, spaghetti bolognese, and appetizers like shrimp cocktail, escargot, and French onion soup.

The setup gives a number of choices to people who want something new each night while it offers familiar favorites to the less daring. The menus may vary slightly by ship, but the core concept of a rotating menu next to a fixed one (along with some added-fee options from the Chops steakhouse) is always the same.

Now, Royal Caribbean has been testing a new format on Symphony of the Seas, Essentially, the cruise line wants to simplify its main-dining-room offering while cutting down on food waste. To do that it has tested the idea of dropping the "classics" section and having a different menu theme each night.

The cruise line has also surveyed some past customers on potential main-dining-room changes, and it's clear that changes won't be made lightly.

Here's What Royal Caribbean's New Main Dining Room Menu May Look Like

While some of the new menus have appeared in the Royal Caribbean app and others were shared via the email survey, Royal Caribbean Blog tracked down six printed menus that have been served on Symphony of the Seas.

In addition to new choices, the menus also have a new format. Each night has a theme like Mexican, Italian, or "Royal Night." The new menus offer "Chef's Recommendations" for each course at the top, with a more limited selection of choices below.

The themes aren't absolute. Italian Night and Mexican Night offer some choices that are neither of those. In addition, some of the classic choices make the menu, but they're offered on a rotating basis, not every night..

Royal Caribbean says this test on Symphony of the Seas is designed to garner feedback from guests, the Royal Caribbean Blog, which is not affiliated with the cruise line, reported. 

Royal Caribbean "emphasized the importance of 'swiftness of service' when it comes to eating in the dining room. By having more consistency of what's being prepared in the kitchen, they can produce food faster," the blog reported.

The cruise line has not shared a timeline for making a decision, and, of course, these changes might not be implemented or might be implemented in a lesser form.

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Elon Musk and Tesla changed the way consumers think about and look at cars.

They pushed the entire automotive industry to convert to electric vehicles and make the technology the future of the sector, which is crucial in the economy.

Today, almost every carmaker -- legacy automakers, upstarts, luxury brands, sports-car manufacturers -- offers an electric or plug-in-hybrid model. The groups are investing billions of dollars to develop electric vehicles.

Consumers are also following developments, since their demand for these green vehicles is rising sharply even as the cars remain expensive and the numbers of charging stations continue to lag. Charging is still time-consuming, and EV owners must plan their trips according to the geography of charging stations, which is a particular headache.

Overall, the view of EVs has changed dramatically and positively, and the authorities are increasingly encouraging consumers to buy electric vehicles by extending tax credits in major legislation. One of the key objectives of the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act is to encourage the development of affordable electric vehicles.

'We Plan to Challenge Tesla' -- Ford's Farley

All these factors mean that Tesla's competitors have gradually begun to narrow the wide market gap between them and Musk's group. 

One such rival is Ford  (F) - Get Free Report. The Blue Oval is one of the few vehicle manufacturers that publicly have made clear that their main rival is Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report.

"We plan to challenge Tesla and all comers to become the top EV maker in the world," Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said last April. "That's something that no one would have believed just two years ago from us."

Ford has given itself the means to compete with the market leader: Farley began by separating the company's production activities for gasoline vehicles from those of electric vehicles. He created Ford Blue for traditional cars and Ford Model e for EVs.

The goal is to enable Ford Model e to operate like a startup tech company, able to quickly make changes and adapt to any situation. Ford, like most automakers, has also adopted recipes that work at Tesla.  

One example is over-the-air delivery of software updates in vehicles with new features and functionality. 

When an update comes available, vehicle owners are notified and given instructions on how to do it themselves. This keeps their vehicles up-to-date with the latest innovations and gives the car manufacturer a steady source of income through subscriptions for the service updates.

Farley has also deployed a profitable strategy concerning the first models to be developed. He chose vehicles that resonate with consumers. Two of Ford's first electric models are the electric version of the iconic F-150 pickup and the green counterpart of the Ford Mustang.

The first is the F-150 Lightning, a vehicle seen as the one that would seduce America into converting to electric vehicles.

'Congratulations Jim Farley' -- Tesla's Musk

The Ford Mustang Mach-E plays on the sentimentality and memories that surround the nearly 60-year-old Mustang, the internationally iconic sports car. 

The company has just announced that it has developed the 150,000th Mustang Mach-E since production began almost two years ago. That's a significant achievement in view of the supply-chain issues that have been disrupting the industry, plus the sharp price rises for raw materials like nickel and cobalt that are essential to EV batteries.

This is "a significant milestone as the company scales EV production to a rate of 600,000 annually by late 2023 and more than 2 million annually by 2026," the company said in a news release.

The vehicle will be available in 37 countries for 2023, up from 22 in its first year, and Ford plans to sell it in additional countries.

"Almost all of Mustang Mach-E’s growth to date is coming from customers replacing an internal combustion vehicle with electric – more than 8 in 10 U.S. customers and 9 in 10 European customers," Ford said.

Musk, who is well aware how difficult mass-production of an electric vehicle is, is an industry-team player and has just hailed Ford's accomplishment. 

It is rare to see the Techno King, his title at Tesla, praise his competitors, even if he believes that the more electric cars ride the roads, the more his legacy is established.

"Congratulations @jimfarley98 @Ford!" the billionaire tweeted at Ford and Farley on Nov. 30.

"Thanks, @elonmusk. Lots of work ahead ⚡️" Farley responded.

It's important to remember, however, that if Tesla has ceded market share to its rivals, the company is still by far the leader in EVs, holding two-thirds (65%) of the market in the U.S., according to data from S&P Global Mobility.

Of the more than 520,000 electric-vehicle registrations in the U.S. in the first nine months of 2022, about 340,000 were Teslas.

Its rivals still have a long way to go.

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McDonald's (MCD) - Get Free Report, at least in the U.S., tends to play it very safe with its menu and limited-time offers. 

Restaurant Brands International's (QSR) - Get Free Report Burger King endlessly releases new, often super-weird, versions of its iconic Whopper and pioneered Chicken Fries, Satisfries, and the unique Mac n' Cheetos, McDonald's tends to stay basic.

Essentially, McDonald's plays like a soccer team that has a 1-0 lead. It doesn't need to be aggressive because it's the clear market leader. The chain has leaned into ideas like celebrity meals and menu hacks, which don't require new ingredients or place any stress on its kitchen.

In a broad sense, McDonald's has made smart choices when it comes to being conservative. Its franchise operators push back whenever the chain wants to complicate the menu. That's why the company has not brought back Snack Wraps or All-Day Breakfast even as customers openly clamor for both things.

It's a boring recipe -- but it's one that has worked. While Burger King has focused on being outrageous, McDonald's has focused on execution and building its digital reach.

Again, that's the case in the U.S. If you look at the Golden Arches menu in Japan, however, you occasionally find innovations that make the wildest Whopper look about as exciting as a Big Mac with an extra slice of cheese.

McDonald's Japan Has a Very Unusual Sandwich     

Sometimes McDonald's adds menu items in global markets that seem as if they'd fit really well in the U.S. 

The Fuwa-toro Egg Demi-glace Gracoro is not one of them.

Gracoro is a  McDonald's-created word that mashed up “gratin” and “croquette.” A croquette is a sort of dumpling that uses a binder combined with a filling that's then deep fried. 

Usually, a thick sauce, mashed potatoes, or flour is the binder and pretty much anything is a possible filling. Gratin is a broiled dish topped with bread crumbs. Potatoes au gratin is the best-known example, but anything can be under the golden, broiled crust.

That's a lot of words and cooking techniques for a fast-food sandwich, but the Fuwa-toro Egg Demi-glace Gracoro is not your typical McDonald's offering.

"This is a burger with a croquette filled with the mixture of macaroni and white sauce that Japan calls gratin. There’s also shrimp inside the croquette, which seems like an odd thing to exclude from a product name where brevity clearly wasn’t the goal," Japan Today reported.

The sandwich has been offered in a variety of versions, but this latest take, which is available only in Japan, comes topped with a "fluffy" egg and a demi-glace sauce.   

McDonald's May Need More Daring in the U.S. 

While McDonald's has been bold around the world, its recent U.S. promotions include the fake retirement of the McRib, adult Happy Meals featuring collectible toys, and the return of Halloween buckets. 

None of these promotions have involved menu innovation and it's actually hard to think of the last time McDonald's introduced something new or daring in its home market.

That's not an accident. The pandemic led the chain to redouble its focus on efficiency so it can be a bigger player in delivery while optimizing its takeout model. Those efforts worked -- but they have enabled Wendy's (WEN) - Get Free Report to build a breakfast business, adding another contender to McDonald's throne.

In addition, McDonald's has largely ceded the new product/innovation headline to its rivals. Each move on its own doesn't really hurt the king of the fast-food market but taken together, it could be death by a thousand paper cuts. 

The U.S. may not need (or want) the Fuwa-toro Egg Demi-glace Gracoro, but it could use something new from under the Golden Arches.

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More on Today's Top Stories:

Stock Market Today: Stocks Extend Gains On Soft PCE Inflation Data, Supporting Dovish Powell

Five Below Stock Surges On Q3 Earnings Beat, Improving Sales Trends

Costco Stock Slides On Muted November Sales Ahead Of Q1 Earnings

Salesforce Stock Slumps As Co-CEO Bret Taylor's Departure Clouds Q3 Profit Beat

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Updated at 4:15 pm EST

Socks finished mixed Thursday, following on from one of the strongest rallies on Wall Street in two months, as investors looked to a key inflation reading that could add weight to a long-awaited clarification on rate hikes from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

Powell set markets alight yesterday during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, where he said that the central bank could consider smaller rate hikes, likely as early as December, as it monitors the impact of its inflation fight on the broader economy.

"Monetary policy affects the economy and inflation with uncertain lags, and the full effects of our rapid tightening so far are yet to be felt," Powell said. "Thus, it makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down.

The remarks, as well as his suggestion that the Fed could execute a so-called 'soft landing' for the economy that includes slowing inflation while avoid recession, triggered a sharp turnaround in stocks yesterday, with the S&P 500 rising 3.09% to close above its 200-day moving average -- a key measure of performance for technical analysts -- for the first time since early April.

His comments were given added support from a softer-than-expected reading of the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the PCE Price Index, for the month of October.

The September core PCE Price Index rose 5% from last year, down from the 5.1% pace recorded in September and essentially matching the consensus Street forecast of 5%. The core index was up 0.2% on the month, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported, a big decline from September that came in inside analysts' forecasts

Traders are now re-setting assumptions for the Fed's next policy meeting, which ends on December 14, and are now pricing in a 77% chance of a 50 basis point rate hike, an increase that would take the Fed Funds rate to a range of between 4.25% and 4.5%.

The U.S. dollar index extended its retreat in overnight trading, falling another 1.16% to 104.72 in late Thursday trading, the lowest since early August, while benchmark 10-year notes backed up to 3.505%.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended off 195 points, or 0.6%, to 34,395, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.13%.

• Stocks Dip Lower, Salesforce, Costco, Five Below And General Electric In Focus - Five Things To Know

In terms of individual stocks, Salesforce  (CRM) - Get Free Report fell 8.1% after it said co-CEO Bret Taylor will leave the enterprise software group, clouding a firmer-than-expected third quarter earnings report.

Dollar General  (DG) - Get Free Report shares were also sharply lower, ending down 7.5%, after the discount-focused retailer posted weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings, while cutting its full-year outlook, as transport costs and supply chain disruptions clipped profit margins. 

On the flipside, Five Below  (FIVE) - Get Free Report shares surged 16.6% after it posted stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings and noted the sales continued to accelerate over the final weeks of the period.

Overnight in Asia, reports of planned changes in China's Covid policies, including an allowance for home quarantine and reduced mass testing, revived hopes of a broader re-opening in the new year and lifted stocks in both Shanghai and elsewhere.

The region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index was marked 1.4% higher by the close of trading while Europe's Stoxx 600  ended 0.76% higher in Frankfurt trading as part of a follow-on rally to last night's close on Wall Street. London's FTSE 100 closed 0.2% lower in London as the pound rose to 1.2249 against the fading greenback. 

The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of U.S. inflation slowed again in October, data published Thursday indicated, adding further support to Chairman Jerome Powell's indication of smaller near-term rate hikes following his closely-watched speech yesterday in Washington.

The September core PCE Price Index rose 5% from last year, down from the 5.1% pace recorded in September and essentially matching the consensus Street forecast of 5%. The core index was up 0.2% on the month, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported, a big decline from September that came in inside analysts' forecasts.

The headline PCE index rose 0.3% on the month and eased to 6% on the year, with both readings falling below analysts forecasts. Personal incomes rose by 0.7% while real personal spending rose by 0.8%, the BEA noted, matching the Street consensus forecast of a 0.8% advance.

• Stocks Dip Lower, Salesforce, Costco, Five Below And General Electric In Focus - Five Things To Know

Powell told the Brookings Institution Wednesday that the path ahead for inflation is "highly uncertain", even following what he called the "welcome surprise" of a slower-than-expected October CPI reading.

"There is considerable uncertainty about what rate will be sufficient, although there is no doubt that we have made substantial progress," Powell said of the Fed's cumulative 3.75% rate increases this year. "and the full effects of our rapid tightening so far are yet to be felt. Thus, it makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down."

U.S. stocks turned higher in pre-market trading following the data release, with futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicating a 70 point opening bell gain and those linked to the S&P 500 showing an 18 point advance.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yields fell 7 basis points to 3.58% following the data release, while 2-year notes were pegged at 4.314%.

The CME Group's FedWatch tool is now showing a 77% chance of a 50 basis point rate hike from the Fed later this month in Washington, with the bulk of bets pointing to a Fed Funds rate of between 5% and 5.25% in early spring.

Founded in 1873, Holland America observes its 150th anniversary this season. And it's offering passengers a chance to celebrate the occasion.

Throughout its history, the company's ships have sailed into ports and across oceans with more than 150 vessels over time.

In 2020, the cruise line had to pause its global operations because of the coronavirus pandemic. There was only one other time the company's operations were ever forced to stop.

It was during World War II. All its passenger voyages ceased as the company's ships were called to serve in the Allied war effort.

Fast-forwarding to 2022, operations are now largely back from the pandemic interruption, and the cruise line is offering promotions and deals in honor of the milestone anniversary.

Holland America 'Heritage Cruises' are Introduced

This year, Carnival Corporation's (CCL) - Get Free Report Holland America Line is rolling out 48 "Heritage Cruises," with itineraries in Alaska, the Caribbean, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, South America, and Mexico.

"As a beloved company that’s been around for 150 years, these special Heritage Cruises allow us to continue celebrating Holland America Line with our guests in a meaningful way," said Gus Antorcha, president of Holland America Line, in a press release. "We have a deep connection to ports around the world, and we’re excited to show how each highlighted destination has shaped our brand."

Holland America Line says it is emphasizing its history with special attention to ports it has long been associated with.

"With a history that spans centuries and continents, Holland America Line’s cruises have called at hundreds of ports around the world," the company writes. "The Heritage Cruises shine a spotlight on 56 ports of call and delve into the region-specific stories that connect these locales to the cruise line."

The company says it's sharing its history with passengers now with new features on board for the occasion.

"Shipboard display screens will showcase the ports’ historical moments, photos and fun facts, while other touches like region-specific drinks and menu items bring the destinations to life on board," Holland America Line says.

Specific Ports are Highlighted During the Promotion

The company began primarily as a means of transportation between Holland and the United States. It was founded in Rotterdam.

Called Dutch-American Steamship Company, it sailed its first trip from the Netherlands to New York City on October 15, 1872. Soon, other ports followed, including in Baltimore and South America.

Transportation and shipping were the company's first major services. In 1895, it began vacation cruises, soon including one from New York to Palestine in 1910.

Following are the ports the cruise line will be showcasing during the historical promotion.

• Alaska: Sitka, Skagway, Tracy Arm, Juneau, Icy Strait, Ketchikan, Prince Rupert.
• Northern Europe: Copenhagen, Eidfjord, Ålesund, Geiranger, Bergen, Oslo, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
• Mediterranean: Trieste, Naples, Rome, Florence, Dubrovnik, Sarande, Katakolon, Nice, Le Havre, Barcelona, Cartagena and Libson.
• Caribbean: Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, Curaçao, San Juan, Oranjestad, Philipsburg and Colon.
• Hawaii: Hilo, Honolulu, Kona and Maui.Mexico: Ensenada, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas.
• West Coast: San Diego.
• South America: Lima, Pisco, La Serena, Santiago, Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt.
• Australia/New Zealand: Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington, Auckland, Hobart and Port Chalmers.
• Panama Canal.

Updated at 10:16 am EST

Dollar General  (DG) - Get Free Report shares slumped lower Thursday after the discount-focused retailer posted weaker-than-expected third quarter earnings, while cutting its full-year outlook, as transport costs and supply chain disruptions clipped profit margins. 

Dollar General said earnings for the three months ending on October 28 rose 12% from last year to to $2.33 per share, but came in well shy of the Street consensus forecast of $2.54 per share. Group revenues rose 11.5% to $9.5 billion, topping analyst's estimates, as same-store sales were up 6.8% compared to last year.

The group said cost pressures, while temporary, would likely extended into the final quarter of the year, and noted that while it sees same-store sales growth in the region of 6% to 7%, diluted earnings are expected between $3.15 and $3.30 per share, implying a growth rate of around 7.5%, well south of its prior 13% forecast.

• Stocks Dip Lower, Salesforce, Costco, Five Below And General Electric In Focus - Five Things To Know

“Despite the cost pressures we experienced during the quarter, as well as challenges within our internal supply chain resulting in higher-than-anticipated distribution and transportation costs, our team was resilient and worked hard to deliver double-digit diluted EPS growth," said CEO Jeff Owen. "We believe the majority of these and other gross margin pressures are largely temporary, and we are confident in our plans to drive greater supply chain efficiencies moving forward.”

“We continued to make progress on our strategic initiatives and operating priorities during the quarter, including executing nearly 800 real estate projects," he added. "We are excited about our plans to extend our ability to serve more customers, and believe we are well-positioned to continue delivering long-term sustainable growth and value for our shareholders.”

Dollar General shares were marked 9.5% lower in early Thursday trading to change hands at $231.11 each, a move that would erase all of the stock's year-to-date gains.

Updated at 11:44 am EST

Five Below  (FIVE) - Get Free Report shares surged higher Thursday after the discount-focused retailer posted stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings and noted the sales continued to accelerate over the final weeks of the period.

Five Below, which recently began selling items for as much as $10, said said earnings for the three months ending in October fell 32% from last year to 29 cents per share, topping Street forecasts by 15 cents, as revenues rose 6.2% to $645 million. Comparable sales were down 2.7%, but that tally was well inside Street forecasts of a 7.8% slump.

The solid momentum, which contrasts many of its retail-sector rivals, allowed Five Below to boost its full-year profit forecast to between $2.97 and $3.02 per share, with revenues coming in just over $3 billion.

• Stocks Dip Lower, Salesforce, Costco, Five Below And General Electric In Focus - Five Things To Know

"We had a better-than-expected third quarter and are off to a good start for the fourth quarter. It remains a dynamic economic environment. However, Five Below is a resilient retailer," CEO Joel Anderson told investors on a conference call late Wednesday.

"Our goal, especially this holiday inflation-induced season, is to drive even more value for our customers, and we will continue to selectively pursue opportunistic buys that will drive traffic and attract new customers to Five Below," he added.

Five Below shares were marked 14.8% higher in early Thursday trading to change hands at $185.03 each, a move that would extend the stock's six-month gain to around 45%.

"While the investing landscape for consumer/retail remains difficult at this time, we believe FIVE has strong merchandising and store remodeling opportunities to help navigate the next two to three years," said KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Bradley Thomas, who carries and 'overweight' rating on the stock and boosted his price target by $4, to $188 per share, following last night's earnings report. 

"As such, we believe FIVE remains one of the most compelling growth opportunities in retailing as we look out long-term," he added. "With the ability to triple its store fleet, we see FIVE as a retailer with among the most favorable growth profiles in our coverage."

Updated at 11:42 am EST

Costco Wholesale  (COST) - Get Free Report shares moved lower Thursday after the bulk-discount retailer reported weaker-than-expected November sales amid what could be a broader pullback in consumer spending over the final months of the year. 

Costco said sales for the four weeks ending on November 27, which included Black Friday, rose 5.7% from last year to $19.17 billion, a sharply slower rate than the 7.7% pace recorded over the month of October and the 10.1% advance the group booked in September.

Same-store sales for the 13 week period were up 6.4%, Costco said, while U.S. comp sales were up 8.8%. For the four weeks ending on November 27, those figures were 4.3% and 6% respectively.

The late autumn slowing echoes comments Brian Cornell, CEO of big box rival Target  (TGT) - Get Free Report, who told investors on November 16 that the group saw a "change in shopping behavior in the back half of October leading into November" that he characterized as consumers "working with their budget, shopping very carefully, looking for value, and recognizing they've got to start with core staples before they spend dollars in discretionary categories."

Costco may have also suffered from the overall decline in U.S. gas prices, which have fallen more than 30% since hitting an all-time high of $5.10 per gallon earlier this summer. U.S. same-store sales, in fact, were up 15.8% over the three months ending in August, Costco reported, a surge many analysts put down to its offering of cheaper gas to club members.

• Stocks Dip Lower, Salesforce, Costco, Five Below And General Electric In Focus - Five Things To Know

"We believe the higher gas prices this summer and early fall helped Costco take share at the pump and drive incremental traffic as consumers will bypass competitors to take advantage of the clubs lower pricing," said D.A. Davidson analyst Michael Baker, who carries a 'neutral' rating and a $455 price target on the stock. "This in turn drove incremental store traffic."

"But as gas prices moderate and become less of a consumer pressure point, the clubs incremental gallon share gains seems to be moderating, which eliminates a potential traffic driver," he added.  

Costco shares were marked 6.4% lower in late-morning trading to change hands at $504.86 each, a move that would trim the stock's six-month gain to around 10.45%. 

Costco will publish earnings for the three months ending in November, its fiscal first quarter, on December 8, with investors looking for a bottom line of $3.12 per share on overall revenues of $53.92 billion.

Diluted earnings for the three months ending on August 28, its fiscal fourth quarter, rose 11.7% from last year to $4.20 per share as total revenues rose 15% to $72.091 billion. Membership fees were up 7.5% to $1.33 billion.

Updated at 10:14 am EST

Salesforce  (CRM) - Get Free Report shares slumped lower Thursday after it said co-CEO Bret Taylor will leave the enterprise software group, clouding a firmer-than-expected third quarter earnings report.

Taylor, who had been with Salesforce for the past six years but began serving as co-CEO only a year ago, will step down the group on January 31, leaving Marc Benioff as the sole CEO and chairman.

"After a lot of reflection, I've decided to return to my entrepreneurial roots," Taylor said. "Salesforce has never been more relevant to customers, and with its best-in-class management team and the company executing on all cylinders, now is the right time for me to step away.”  

Taylor's departure cast a pall over an otherwise solid third quarter earnings release for Salesforce, which reported a Street-beating bottom line of $1.40 per share as demand for its work-flow solutions remained solid. Group revenues, Salesforce said, rose 14% from last year to $7.84 billion, essentially matching analysts' estimates. 

The group's remaining performance obligation, or RPO, a tally of its total deferred revenue and product backlog and a key industry metric, rose 11% from last year to $20.9 billion. 

Salesforce repeated its forecast for full-year revenues in the region of $30.9 to $31.00 billion with non-GAAP earnings are expected to come in between $4.92 to $4.94 per share, a 19 cent bump from its August forecast.

• Stocks Dip Lower, Salesforce, Costco, Five Below And General Electric In Focus - Five Things To Know

"Starting in July of this year, the buying environment became more measured and foreign exchange headwinds were becoming increasingly complex," Benioff told investors on a conference call late Wednesday. "And we're not assuming that this economy gets any better anytime soon."

"We're following our playbook to make sure it works well positioned to gain market share, to increase our profitability, to focus on our operating margin, to focus on the growth of our revenue, and be able to continue to invest, especially when the economy recovers," he said, adding the group needs to adopt a "beginner's mind" as it navigates “an even more challenging buying environment”.

Salesforce shares were marked 10.7% lower in early Thursday trading to change hands at $142.98 each, a move that would extend the stock's year-to-date decline to around 44%.

Five things you need to know before the market opens on Thursday December 1:

1. -- Stock Futures Drift Lower After Powell-Induced Rally 

U.S. equity slipped lower Thursday, following on from one of the strongest rallies on Wall Street in months, as investors looked to a key inflation reading that could add weight to a long-awaited clarification on rate hikes from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

Powell set markets alight yesterday during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, where he said that the central bank could consider smaller rate hikes, likely as early as December, as it monitors the impact of its inflation fight on the broader economy. 

"Monetary policy affects the economy and inflation with uncertain lags, and the full effects of our rapid tightening so far are yet to be felt," Powell said. "Thus, it makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down.

The remarks, as well as his suggestion that the Fed could execute a so-called 'soft landing' for the economy that includes slowing inflation while avoid recession, triggered a sharp turnaround in stocks yesterday, with the S&P 500 rising 3.09% to close above its 200-day moving average -- a key measure of performance for technical analysts -- for the first time since early April.

Traders are also re-setting assumptions for the Fed's next policy meeting, which ends on December 14, and are now pricing in an 81.8% chance of a 50 basis point rate hike, an increase that would take the Fed Funds rate to a range of between 4.25% and 4.5%.

The U.S. dollar index extended its retreat in overnight trading, falling another 0.39% to 105.535, while benchmark 10-year notes were holding firm at 3.629% following yesterday's 9 basis point decline.

Investors will likely focus their attention on the release of PCE Price Index data for the month of October, set for 8:30 am Eastern time, to consolidate Powell's remarks. Economists are looking for the core deflator, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, to ease to 0.3%, with modestly higher readings for spending and incomes.

Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures tied to the S&P 500 are priced for a modest 9 point opening bell dip while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are indicating a 70 point pullback. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is priced for a 40 point decline.

Overnight in Asia, reports of planned changes in China's Covid policies, including an allowance for home quarantine and reduced mass testing, revived hopes of a broader re-opening in the new year and lifted stocks in both Shanghai and elsewhere. 

The region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index was marked 1.58% higher heading into the close of trading while Europe's Stoxx 600 rose 0.66% in early Frankfurt trading as part of a follow-on rally to last night's close on Wall Street. 

2. -- Salesforce Slumps As Co-CEO Steps Down, Clouding Q3 Earnings Beat

Salesforce  (CRM) - Get Free Report shares slumped lower in pre-market trading after it said co-CEO Bret Taylor will leave the enterprise software group, clouding a firmer-than-expected third quarter earnings report.

Taylor, who had been with Salesforce for the past six years, will leave the group on January 31, leaving Marc Benioff as the sole CEO and chairman.

For the three months ending in October, Salesforce posted a Street-beating bottom line of $1.40 per share as demand for its work-flow solutions remained solid, with sales rising 14% from last year to $7.84 billion.

Salesforce repeated its forecast for full-year revenues in the region of $30.9 to $31.00 billion with non-GAAP earnings are expected to come in between $4.92 to $4.94 per share, a 19 cent bump from its August forecast.

Salesforce shares were marked 6.86% lower in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $149.25 each.

3. -- Costco Slides After Softer November Sales Data

Costco Wholesale  (COST) - Get Free Report shares moved lower in pre-market trading after the bulk-discount retailer reported weaker-than-expected November sales

Costco said sales for the four weeks ending on November 27 rose 5.7% from last year to $19.17 billion, a sharply slower rate than the 7.7% pace recorded over the month of October and the 10.1% advance the group booked in September.

Costco will publish earnings for the three months ending in November, its fiscal first quarter, on December 8, with investors looking for a bottom line of $3.12 per share on overall revenues of $53.92 billion.

Costco shares were marked 2.9% lower in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $523.50 each. 

4. -- Five Below Surges After Q3 Earnings Beat, Solid Outlook

Five Below  (FIVE) - Get Free Report shares surged higher in pre-market trading after the discount-focused retailer posted stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings and noted the sales continued to accelerate over the final weeks of the period. 

Five Below, which recently began selling items for as much as $10, said said earnings for the three months ending in October fell 32% from last year to 29 cents per share, topping Street forecasts by 15 cents, as revenues rose 6.2% to $645 million.

The solid momentum, which contrasts many of its retail-sector rivals, allowed Five Below to boost its full-year profit forecast to between $2.97 and $3.02 per share, with revenues coming in just over $3 billion.

Five Below shares were marked 8.95% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $175.25 each.

5. -- General Electric  

General Electric  (GE) - Get Free Report shares edged higher in pre-market trading after the industrial icon issued final approval of its plans to spin-off its healthcare division into a stand-alone public company.

GE shareholders will receive one share of GE HealthCare for every three shares of the main group they own, with the distribution set to take place after the close of trading on January 3. The following day, GE said, GE HealthCare shares will debut on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GEHC. 

GE Vernova, the group's power and renewables division, will likely spun-out into the public markets through a tax-free deal in 2024. That will leave GE Aerospace as the final piece of the group's breakup, which will be run by CEO Larry Culp. Shares in the group will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.  

GE shares were marked 0.43% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $86.34 each.

Elon Musk took time out from his Twitter wars to demonstrate the latest developments at Neuralink, the company he co-founded to develop brain implants to link people to computers. 

The move comes amid an increasingly frenetic period for Musk, who took control of Twitter a month ago and has been highly active, and controversial, in his moves since. 

For instance, earlier on Wednesday, Musk  appeared to have made peace with Apple CEO Tim Cook, a day after a series of tweets from Musk complained about fees Apple charges on in-app transactions and that the tech giant was threatening to pull Twitter from the app store. Musk tweeted a brief video thanking Cook for a tour of Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.  

At a Neuralink event a year ago, Musk showed a monkey playing pong using thoughts transmitted through an implant. 

Since then the monkey has received an upgraded implant without complications. 

"We've been working hard to be ready for our first human," Musk said. "We've submitted most of our paperwork to the FDA, and we think that probably in about six months we should be able to have our first Neuralink in a human."

The initial goals for the company are to restore vision and reverse paralysis. Musk said it would be possible to restore vision even in people who were blind at birth. He added that the company ultimately sees "no physical limitation to enabling full body functionality," in people who have suffered a severed spinal cord. 

While creating mind and machine interfaces is the stuff of science fiction, Musk said it's crucial to counter the accelerating development of artificial intelligence. 

"What do we do about digital super intelligence?" Musk asked. "How do we mitigate that risk?"  

And even if artificial intelligence turns out to be benign, how can humans take full advantage of it and "go along for the ride," Musk asked.  He said humans are extremely limited in their ability to interact with laptops and phones, inputing data at between 10 and 100 bits per second in the best case. Computers, by contrast, can now speedily deal with terabytes of data. 

"We are already cyborgs in a way, in that your phone and your computer are extensions of yourself," Musk said. 

Peace seems to have returned to Silicon Valley...for now. 

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, declared war on Apple  (AAPL) - Get Free Report, the largest company in the world, on November 28. 

The battle between the two giants was beginning to fascinate business circles and social networks where everyone took sides and wondered which of the two giants was going to give in.

In a series of tweets, Musk accused Apple of becoming America's free speech censor. He claimed, without providing details and evidence, that the iPhone manufacturer had threatened to stop distributing the Twitter app on the App Store. 

"Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why," Musk said on Twitter on November 28.

'Good Conversation'

The obvious reason, however, is that the philosophies of the two companies diverge on the management of disinformation and hateful, racist and anti-Semitic content.

The billionaire also posted a photomontage showing a car a moment before taking a highway exit. The direction sign shows that by continuing straight the car would have paid 30%, but by leaving the highway the vehicle would go to war. 

Musk wrote that he was the vehicle. The 30% was a reference to the fee that the maker of the iPad and the Apple Watch applies to in-app sales and purchases.

"The Musk vs Apple new battle is not what investors want to see," commented Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. "The Street wants less drama, not more as this Twitter situation remains the gift that keeps on giving for the Tesla bears with every day a new chapter."

This message seems to have resonated with the two belligerents since, 48 hours later, Musk has just announced that he met Cook at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino on November 30 and that their disputes are now settled.

"Good conversation," the Techno king wrote on Twitter. "Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store."

He added: “Tim [Cook] was clear that Apple never considered doing so."

The serial entrepreneur also published another post accompanied by a video apparently taken at Apple headquarters.

"Thanks @tim_cook for taking me around Apple’s beautiful HQ," Musk said.

How Long Will Peace Last?

For a long time, the two rivals never turned to direct confrontation, preferring to challenge each other indirectly. But when Musk became the owner of Twitter  (TWTR) - Get Free Report on October 27, the clash became inevitable. 

That's because Apple is an app distributor, and its content policy diverges from the approach of Musk, who regards himself as a "free-speech absolutist", even when it comes to hate speech.

In the name of free speech, Musk has reactivated former President Donald Trump's account and accounts known for anti-transgender posts like those of the conservative satirical site Babylon Bee and the Canadian conservative psychologist Jordan Peterson. 

Musk also announced a general amnesty for all banned accounts, after having run a survey on the platform.

The problem is that this strategy clashes with the philosophy of Apple and Alphabet. As app distributors, Apple via Apple Store and Google via Google Play, both companies have strict policies regarding hateful speech. 

"When people install an app from the App Store, they want to feel confident that it’s safe to do so — that the app doesn’t contain upsetting or offensive content, won’t damage their device, and isn’t likely to cause physical harm from its use," the iPhone maker says in the App Store guidelines. "If you’re looking to shock and offend people, the App Store isn’t the right place for your app."

The question now is whether the peace between Musk and Apple will last. In the past, the billionaire made agreements that he later denounced. This was the case with the acquisition of Twitter which was strewn with multiple twists.

In October, Musk predicted that Tesla's  (TSLA) - Get Free Report valuation would reach at least $4.5 trillion in the next few years. 

Apple is currently the world's most valuable company, with a market value of $2.35 trillion at last check, according to companiesmarketcap.com. Saudi Aramco, which is benefiting from soaring oil prices, has a market value of $1.96 trillion. 

Between them, the two largest companies in the world are worth $4.3 trillion.

Currently, Tesla, the EV maker, has a market capitalization of more than $606 billion. The manufacturer of electric vehicles had, at one point, crossed the symbolic valuation threshold of $1 trillion.

Walt Disney World's Epcot has never been known as a great thrill ride theme park. Rides and attractions at the Florida park that first opened in 1982 have been more geared toward adults with the World Showcase collection of areas with themes of different countries and various themed pavilions sponsored by corporations.

Epcot has a few rides to offer younger thrill-seeking adults or teens, such as recently opened Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the always popular Test Track, presented by Chevrolet and maybe even Soarin' Around the World.

For younger kids, Epcot offers the extremely popular Frozen Ever After ride in the Norway Pavilion or maybe Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros in the Mexico Pavilion.

Adults will often head to the World Showcase, featuring 11 different pavilions representing countries including Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, United Kingdom and United States. Each of these areas include shopping, drinking, dining and certain attractions related to each specific country.

Disney's  (DIS) - Get Free Report Epcot consists of 305 acres, almost three times the size of Disney World's Magic Kingdom. With all of the required walking from country to country at Epcot, guests have plenty of opportunities to stop at pavilions to sit down and rest with a drink, snack or a meal.

Epcot Festivals Offer Unique Events

The international theme park also presents four different festivals throughout the year to provide guests with interesting exhibits and high quality musical acts, as well as a break from walking around the massive property.

Currently, Epcot is featuring the International Festival of Holidays through Dec. 30. The festival includes a Candlelight Processional, special dining packages, holiday foods, snacks and drinks and well as holiday-themed gifts and merchandise.

Earlier in the year from July 14-Nov. 19, 2022, Epcot featured the International Food & Wine Festival, offering special foods and beverages around the park's global marketplaces, family activities and live music. Prior to the Food & Wine Festival, Epcot sponsored the International Flower & Garden Festival March 22-July 4, 2022, with gardens, exhibits and sculptures and various dishes, desserts and beverages.

The fourth event that Epcot presents is the Epcot International Festival of the Arts which runs Jan. 13-Feb. 20, 2023, and includes culinary arts, performing arts and visual arts. As part of the festival, the theme park is bringing back its popular annual Disney on Broadway Concert Series in the American Gardens Theatre.

Top Performers Take the Stage

Disney on Broadway will feature two Broadway performers staging three shows each day at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 8 p.m. This year's lineup includes 12 Broadway stars who have performed in Disney musicals on Broadway in New York.

Leading off the series are Kara Lindsay and Kevin Massey on Jan. 13, 15, 16, 19 and 20. Lindsay has played Katherine Plumber in "Newsies" at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, as well as Glinda in "Wicked." Massey has played the title role in "Tarzan" in the original production at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway.

Next, Arielle Jacobs, who played Princess Jasmine in "Aladdin" from 2018-2020 at the New Amsterdam Theatre and her older brother Adam Jacobs, who originated the title role in "Aladdin" from 2014-2017, will perform Jan. 14, 17, 18, 21 and 22 at Epcot. 

Patti Murin, who played Princess Anna in "Frozen" in 2018 at the St. James Theatre on Broadway, and Robert Creighton, who played Weselton in "Frozen" from March 2018-Aug. 2019 at the St. James Theatre, perform Jan. 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, Feb. 2 and 3 at Epcot.

Mandy Gonzalez, who has performed in "Aida" and "Wicked" on Broadway, and L. Steven Taylor who played Mufasa in "The Lion King" on Broadway, perform Jan. 24, 27, 28, 31, Feb. 1, 4 and 5.

Ashley Brown, who originated the title character in "Mary Poppins" on Broadway in 2006, and Michael James Scott, who played Genie in "Aladdin" on Broadway in 2013 perform Feb. 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16 and 17.

Kissy Simmons, who played Nala in "The Lion King" on Broadway in 2003, and Josh Strickland who played the title role in "Tarzan" at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in 2006, perform Feb. 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18 and 19.

A special final performance will be held Feb. 20 with Brown, Scott, Simmons and Strickland.

Stocks rose Wednesday after dovish comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 737.24, or 2.18% to 34,589.77.

The S&P 500 rose 122.48, or 3.09% to 4,080.11. Winners outpaced losers 475 to 24 in the S&P 500. .Within the S&P 500, financials stocks led, while consumer staples lagged.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 484.22, or 4.41% to 11,468.

Stocks of Interest

Among stocks of particular interest to readers of TheStreet, shares of Etsy Inc  (ETSY) - Get Free Report rose 8.38% to $132.09. For more information on what Real Money columnists are saying about Etsy Inc, please click here. 

Shares of eBay Inc  (EBAY) - Get Free Report rose 4.34% to $45.44.

Shares of Tractor Supply Co  (TSCO) - Get Free Report rose 3.33% to $226.31. Tractor Supply is one of the stocks Real Money columnists are following closely. 

Chip Stocks Gain

Chip stocks were higher Wednesday.

Winners outpaced losers among notable stocks in the sector.

Shares of NVIDIA Corporation  (NVDA) - Get Free Report rose 8.24% to $169.23. Nvidia reported earnings in mid-November. Real Money's Bret Kenwell looked at ways to trade the stock. 

Shares of the iShares Semiconductor ETF  (SOXX) - Get Free Report rose 6% to $388.03.

Shares of the VanEck Semiconductor ETF  (SMH) - Get Free Report rose 5.7% to $227.73.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Stocks Gain

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway stocks were higher Wednesday.

Winners outpaced losers 39 to 3 among stocks held by Berkshire Hathaway  (BRK.A) - Get Free Report according to its latest SEC filing.

Shares of StoneCo Ltd  (STNE) - Get Free Report rose 6.96% to $11.68. For more information on what Real Money columnists are saying about StoneCo Ltd, please click here. 

Shares of Apple Inc  (AAPL) - Get Free Report rose 4.86% to $148.03. Real Money's Eric Jhonsa recently looked at Apple and other mega cap tech names in light of their declines this year. 

Shares of Snowflake Inc  (SNOW) - Get Free Report rose 4.63% to $142.90. To learn more profitable trading ideas from Real Money columnists about Snowflake Inc, please click here.

Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation  (OXY) - Get Free Report rose 0.55% to $69.49. To learn more profitable trading ideas from Real Money columnists about Occidental Petroleum Corporation, please click here.

Cannabis Stocks Trade Higher

Cannabis stocks were higher Wednesday.

Winners outpaced losers 8 to 1 among notable stocks in the sector.

Shares of Tilray Inc  (TLRY) - Get Free Report rose 4.03% to $3.87. To learn more profitable trading ideas from Real Money columnists about Tilray Inc, please click here. 

Shares of Cronos Group Inc  (CRON) - Get Free Report rose 2.64% to $3.11. For more information on what Real Money columnists are saying about Cronos Group Inc, please click here. 

Gold Stocks Gain

Gold stocks were higher Wednesday.

Winners outpaced losers 4 to 0 among notable stocks in the sector.

Shares of Royal Gold Inc  (RGLD) - Get Free Report rose 3.31% to $112.33. For more information on what Real Money columnists are saying about Royal Gold Inc, please click here. 

Shares of the iShares Gold Trust  (IAU) - Get Free Report rose 1.27% to $33.60.

Shares of the SPDR Gold Trust  (GLD) - Get Free Report rose 1.28% to $164.81.

Gaming Stocks Trade Higher

Gaming stocks were higher Wednesday.

Winners outpaced losers 18 to 3 among notable stocks in the sector.

Shares of Monolithic Power Systems Inc  (MPWR) - Get Free Report rose 7.61% to $381.96. For more information on what Real Money columnists are saying about Monolithic Power Systems Inc, please click here. 

Shares of NXP Semiconductors NV  (NXPI) - Get Free Report rose 6.77% to $175.84. For more information on what Real Money columnists are saying about NXP Semiconductors NV, please click here. 

Shares of the VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF  (GMBL) - Get Free Report rose 3.39% to $45.11.

Shares of the Global X Video Games & Esports ETF  (HERO)  rose 4.11% to $19.23.

The overnight implosion of 30-year-old Sam-Bankman-Fried's crypto empire on November 11 sent shock waves through the cryptocurrency industry. 

Ongoing investigations by regulators are still trying to piece together the root causes of this debacle. 

But what has emerged so far is that there was a conflict of interest between Bankman-Fried's two flagship companies: the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and Alameda Research, a hedge fund that is also a trading platform. Roughly speaking, retail investors were on FTX and institutional investors and professional traders were on both FTX and Alameda. 

The two companies were supposed to be independent. But in fact it appeared that they were very closely intertwined.

'I Didn't Knowingly Comingle'

As a crypto exchange, FTX executed orders for clients, taking their cash and buying cryptocurrencies on their behalf. FTX acted as a custodian, holding the clients’ crypto. 

FTX then used its clients’ crypto assets, through its sister company’s Alameda Research trading arm, to generate cash through borrowing or market-making. The cash FTX borrowed was used to bail out other crypto institutions in summer 2022.

At the same time, FTX was using the cryptocurrency it was issuing, FTT, as collateral on its balance sheet. This was a significant exposure, due to the concentration risk and the volatility of FTT.

The insolvency of FTX stemmed from a liquidity shortfall when clients attempted to withdraw funds from the platform. The shortfall appears to have been prompted by FTX’s founder reportedly transferring $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research.

In his first interview, on November 30, since his empire went bankrupt, Bankman-Fried admitted that FTX client funds were in Alameda accounts.

Was there a comingling of funds? Were FTX customer funds comingled with Alameda's? He was asked by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times Dealbook Summit via Zoom.

"I didn't knowingly comingle," he replied.

He said that, back in 2019, FTX had no bank accounts globally. So some customers who wanted to transfer funds to FTX, were wiring money to Alameda which then issued a credit on their behalf on FTX. Basically, customers deposited funds on FTX via Alameda accounts.

"I think that was a substantial sum," Bankman-Fried said. 

'I Was Nervous'

When did the comingling of funds begin? Ross Sorkin asked.

"Looking through this now, I think that position size for Alameda got substantially larger in 2022," Bankman-Fried responded. He said that the two companies had been reducing their relationship: Pre-pandemic, Alameda was the primary liquidity provider on FTX, and in 2022 it was one of the smallest liquidity providers. 

But "I failed to pay nearly enough attention, and that's how we ended up here,” he concluded.

Bankman-Fried, who obviously wasn't comfortable answering the question despite his contrite tone, then tried to explain that he didn't run Alameda and therefore didn't have access to all the data. The problem is that he was the majority shareholder of the hedge fund.

"Look, I wasn't running Alameda; I didn't know exactly what was going on. I didn't know the size of their position," the former trader claimed. He said he should have appointed someone to oversee the relationship between FTX and Alameda.

"I was nervous because of the conflict of interest, of being too involved," the former billionaire said, while acknowledging that he did live with one or two of Alameda's employees for a while.

"Obviously that's a pretty big mistake... that I wasn't more aware." 

He said FTX and Alameda were tied together more closely than he understood it to be.

Airlines aren’t all the same, though you’d be forgiven for thinking that way.

Every airline prides itself on its unique corporate philosophy and values, and many of them emphasize certain traits. The oft-criticized Spirit is all about rock-bottom prices (and not much else), while Southwest has a culture built around first-rate customer service (though employees allege that reputation is currently being undermined by the management).

Of course, like with credit cards, many consumers don’t really notice or care much about the corporate philosophy of any business. They mainly want to get where they want to get to at the cheapest rate possible. 

So in order to get potential customers to favor them over a competitor, airlines will constantly offer perks that will help them stand out in a customer’s mind. The ultimate goal is to get people to sign up for a customer loyalty program, thus ensuring repeat business, as it’s always more cost-effective to retain an existing customer than to spend money to get a new one.

Bonus miles are the most common perk for members of loyalty programs, and flight upgrades are also popular. But lately airport lounges, which are often a perk that comes from signing up for a loyalty program or getting a co-branded credit card, have been having a bit of a moment, and not always a positive one.

Earlier this year, a tweet about the Sky Club went viral in which a woman complained that she and her husband were allowed in Sky Club, but their four-year-old child had to wait outside or pay a fee, as the child was “not a card holder.”

The resulting online debate crystallized the gripe many people have about airport lounges; that they feel elitist and exclusionary and a symbol of how the airline industry tries to get every last dollar out of its customers.

But there are two sides to this debate, and the argument for lounges is that they can make life easier for people whose jobs require constant travel and therefore constantly find themselves at airports. For these frequent flyers, lounge perks such as showers, fresh food, free Wi-Fi, and flight assistance are worth the extra money. 

But regardless of how you feel about them, lounges aren’t going away anytime soon. No airline can afford to fall behind in the race to secure customers who are willing to shell out a little extra for comfort, which is why a variety of companies have introduced new lounges lately.

American Airlines, Delta Adding New Lounges

Delta  (DAL) - Get Free Report opened four new SkyMiles clubs this year and recently made some changes to the way people can access them by introducing priority access lanes. Additionally, the airline has announced a number of new clubs set to open in 2023 and 2024. 

April 2023 will see the debut of the G concourse Club at the Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport. It will measure 21,000 square feet, nearly twice the size of the current F/G Club, and will include seating for 450 guests, as well as an indoor/outdoor bar that extends to a year-round Sky Deck.

• In June 2023, Delta will open a nearly 14,000-square-foot Club in Terminal 4, with planned seating for over 200 guests.  

• In September of 2023, Delta will add 2,200 square feet and 90 seats to the Sky Club’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

• In the summer of 2023, the lounge at the Boston Logan International’s E Concourse will add nearly 21,000 square feet, with planned seating for over 400 guests.

• In the fall/winter of 2023, the Delta Sky Club at Terminal B of Newark Liberty international Airport will relocate to Terminal A.

• In December of 2023, the lounge at Miami International Airport will get an expansion to measure over 12,000 square feet with planned seating for 320 guests. 

• In the winter of 2023, the lounge at the Hartsfield-Jackson International’s E Concourse Club will be renovated to measure over 18,000 square feet and hold 353 guests, and will include self-serve check-in kiosks.

Not to be outdone, American Airlines  (AAL) - Get Free Report and British Airways recently unveiled the newly renovated Terminal 8 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Starting on December 1, the $400 million investment includes five new widebody gates, four new widebody parking positions, an expanded, upgraded baggage handling system, and approximately 130,000 square feet of additional and refurbished space. 

American Express Also Has New Lounges

American Express isn’t an airline, but they often partner with them, because credit card companies are just as competitive for new customers as airlines are. 

The company has announced details of its upcoming American Express Centurion Lounges, and as reported by CNBC, they will include shower suites, high-speed Wi-Fi, spa services, semi-private work stations, and “gourmet seasonal food and craft cocktails curated by popular local chefs.” 

But to enter, you have to have either The Platinum Card from American Express, The Business Platinum Card from American Express, the Centurion® Card from American Express, the Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card, or the Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business Card.

Here’s where the lounges are currently located:

• Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Between Concourses D and E.
• Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Terminal D across from Gate D12.
• Denver International Airport, Concourse C (post-security), near gate C46.
• Houston - George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Terminal D, take the elevator from the Duty-Free Shop near Gate D6.
• Las Vegas - Harry Reid International Airport, Concourse D, across from Gate D1.
• Los Angeles International Airport, Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT), on the left after security.
• Miami International Airport, Concourse D, on the fourth floor near Gate D12.
• New York City - LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B (post-security) on the fourth floor just before the pedestrian bridge.
• New York City - John F. Kennedy International Airport, Terminal 4, just past security, to the left of the escalators.
• Philadelphia International Airport, Terminal A West near Gate A14.
• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Terminal 4 across from Gate B22.
• San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 3 next to Gates F1 and F2.
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Concourse B across from Gate B3.

But that’s not all, as a number of lounges are set to open by the end of this year or in 2023.

• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, near Terminal B, post-security; opening late 2022.
• Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in Concourse E between the domestic and international terminals; opening 2023.
• Newark Liberty International Airport, on the third floor of the new Terminal A building; opening 2023.

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Some hotels are just places to stay while you explore a city. But many hotels pride themselves on being attractions unto themselves. They usually cost more, but they deliver a more stylish experience, with elevated food and experiences.

One of the main names in the boutique sector is the Dream Hotel Group, which includes properties such as Thee Dream Hotels. They often feature fashion forward collaborations with with musical artists and vibrant nightclubs that rival anything the cities they’re located in can offer, the Broadway-centered Chatwal Hotels, which have a 1905 style theme, as well as the Unscripted Hotels, which cater to progressive travelers with a focus on local cuisine. 

Dream Hotel Group has a reputation for quality, which no doubt explains why Hyatt Hotels Corporation  (H) - Get Free Report, one of the biggest names in the hotel industry, has decided to acquire it. 

Hyatt To Acquire The Dream Hotel Group

Hyatt has announced an agreement to acquire Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle hotel brand and management platform.

The deal will include 12 of Dream’s managed or franchised lifestyle hotels, with another 24 long-term management agreements for hotels expected to open in the future.

This move will add 1,700 rooms to Hyatt’s lifestyle portfolio and increase Hyatt’s room count in New York City by more than 30%. 

Upon closing, Hyatt will pay a base purchase price of $125 million, with up to an additional $175 million over the next six years as additional properties start to open. 

“We have tremendous respect for what Dream Hotel Group founder Sant Singh Chatwal and Chief Executive Officer Jay Stein and their team have created and are grateful for the trust being placed in us by Dream Hotel Group to care for their brands and carry their success forward into the future,” said Mark Hoplamazian, president and chief executive officer, Hyatt in a statement.

 “We look forward to continuing our growth journey with more than 600 new Hyatt family members who will further elevate our lifestyle expertise and expand the success of our dedicated lifestyle division. We are excited to offer even more inspiring experiences and celebratory programming to our guests and loyalty members and bring the value of the Hyatt network to a growing number of discerning hotel owners and developers around the world.”

Sant Singh Chatwal, chairman and founder, Dream Hotel Group, added that “Hyatt has a proven track record of preserving what makes lifestyle hotels special and is the ideal new home for our growing Dream Hotel Group brands.

 “As an owner of Dream Hotel Group properties, I look forward to the next part of our journey and am confident there is a bright future ahead for our hotels, owners, guests and team members as part of the Hyatt family.”

The Deal Includes A Soon To Open Vegas Hotel

As part of the deal, Hyatt will acquire the Dream Las Vegas, a 20-story, 531-room hotel-casino that is still under construction, but is expected to open on the Las Vegas Strip in late 2024, and will be located near the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign.

The $550 million development is set to feature seven dining and nightlife venues, 12,000 square feet of meetings and event space and a 20,000-square-foot casino, as noted by Travel Weekly. It will also include a third-level pool and day club; a coffee cafe and gelateria on the street level; and a fitness center by TechnoGym.

In the late 19th century a confederate colonel named John Pemberton, who owned a pharmacy south of Atlanta, had recently developed a wine drink he called Pemberton's French Wine Coca nerve tonic.

Pemberton had been wounded in the Civil War and was said to be addicted to morphine. He had a medical degree and aspired to develop an alternative to the troublesome opiate.

When Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition laws in 1886, Pemberton developed a non-alcoholic version of the tonic called Coca-Cola  (KO) - Get Free Report.

Its name referred to coca leaves and kola nuts, two of its original ingredients.

Even without the prohibition legislation that was gaining support politically at the time, the movement to abstain from alcohol was growing in popularity socially as well. In response, Pemberton marketed Coca-Cola as "the temperance drink."

During the 20th century, Coca-Cola grew to become not only the most popular soft drink in the U.S., but also quickly spread across the world to dominate the global market.

In 2022, Coca-Cola remains the most popular soft drink in the world. Its low calorie version, Diet Coke, has a large following as well.

Diet Coke consumers include some powerful people from the worlds of business and politics, including former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump as well as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Elon Musk Reveals a Taste For Coke

In a recent tweet, Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report CEO and new Twitter owner Elon Musk revealed his soft drink of choice. The post attracted media attention for a photo of two guns on his nightstand, but four open cans of caffeine-free Diet Coke appeared next to it as well.

"My bedside table," wrote Musk, describing what was seen in the photo.

Then a Musk tweet from April 27 resurfaced on Nov. 28, as it became public knowledge that framed printouts of tweets hang in the lobby of a San Francisco Twitter building. One of them was a joke Musk made two days after Twitter's board first accepted Musk's buyout offer of $44 billion.

"Next I'm buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in," the tweet said.

Dave Beckett, a Senior Staff Site Reliability Engineer at Twitter, posted a photo of the framed printouts. The photo shows the Musk tweet in the middle of two others.

"WTF," he writes as Twitter user @dajobe.

Twitter Users React to Musk's Coke Joke

Responses to the photo of the printed out tweets appeared soon on the microblogging site.

"Look at all the free advertisements he gets," writes @DannyWi53843838. "All he has to do is make a statement on anything, anyone, and then the people who like reply and the people who don't like him make a post."

"It’s a metaphor. A joke," says @PillerLoren. "I know you programmers are literal but understand that the English language unlike programming languages has a lot more slop so that we can laugh more often. Get a real life or at least disengage from the borg for part of the day."

"Super funny and thanks for sharing," remarks @Catboy02. "I just hope you don't get Das Boot for sharing photos from inside the company -- I know lots of H.R.-type people/rules don't exactly appreciate that sort of activity."

Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, has spoken for the first time since his crypto empire went bankrupt on Nov. 11. 

The deposed CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX gave his first interview on November 30. 

For more than an hour he was questioned about the overnight implosion of his empire made up of FTX and Alameda Research, a hedge fund that is also a trading platform. The question aimed to explain how FTX which was valued at $32 billion in February ran out of cash within days.

"I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone,” Bankman-Fried said contritely to  Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times Dealbook Summit via Zoom. "I saw it as a thriving business and I was shocked by what happened this month.”

"Clearly, I didn't do a good job," he also said because he had duty to employees, customers, investors and regulators "to do right by them."

He admitted to having made "a lot of mistakes."

The intention throughout the interview appeared to be to show that there was no intention to deceive FTX customers and investors.

Bankman-Fried was wearing a black t-shirt, sitting on a chair in a room that was hard to tell if it was a bedroom. There was a painting hung on the wall to his right and a plant to his left. He was live from the Bahamas where he lives and where FTX is headquartered.

Bankman-Fried's empire was a central player in the cryptocurrency industry that is disrupting financial services.

As a crypto exchange, FTX executed orders for clients, taking their cash and buying cryptocurrencies on their behalf. FTX acted as a custodian, holding the clients’ crypto. 

FTX then used its clients’ crypto assets, through its sister company’s Alameda Research trading arm, to generate cash through borrowing or market-making. The cash FTX borrowed was used to bail out other crypto institutions in summer 2022.

At the same time, FTX was using the cryptocurrency it was issuing, FTT, as collateral on its balance sheet. This was a significant exposure, due to the concentration risk and the volatility of FTT.

The insolvency of FTX stemmed from a liquidity shortfall when clients attempted to withdraw funds from the platform. The shortfall appears to have been prompted by FTX’s founder reportedly transferring $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research.

Long before multiple streaming services were an everyday part of lives across the world, Netflix  (NFLX) - Get Free Report was the king of original content. Hit shows like 2013's "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black" kept viewers subscribed for the long haul. Monthly membership fees stacked up over several seasons, dropping whole seasons immediately available for binge-watching.

Not unexpectedly, other studios and media companies caught on to the idea. Original content took over the streaming world, with hits like Amazon  (AMZN) - Get Free Report Prime Video's "The Boys" and the "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" motivating viewers to upgrade their regular Prime account to include the service's streaming channels. In 2019, Walt Disney  (DIS) - Get Free Report released its own service, bringing with it the massive universes of Marvel comics and the Star Wars franchise. Just after the world was told to stay at home thanks to the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Warner Brothers Discovery  (WBD) - Get Free Report released HBO Max, hosting popular IPs like "Game of Thrones" and Batman.

All of these and more streaming options have made subscribers more selective about the services. With the premiere of each new must-see show or movie, Netflix's place as the streaming service became more tenuous as the platform struggled to establish an IP that could fuel multiple projects.

In 2016, Netflix struck gold with the 80s-nostalgia-fueled supernatural series “Stranger Things”. This year has been a great year for the streamer's original content growth--and the success of its newest release is a great opportunity for Netflix to grow its library.

Netflix's "Wednesday" Breaks "Stranger Things" Record

Netflix reported that the premiere of “Wednesday” broke the streamer’s record for the most-viewed English-language show in a week. Viewers spent a collective 341.23 million hours with Wednesday Addams and the misanthropic Addams Family.

Earlier in the year, the fourth season of “Stranger Things” absorbed 335 million hours of watch time. But while “Wednesday” is now outranking its 80s-themed predecessor in views, the show does share some common ground with “Stranger Things”. Both IPs have built a fictional world on a foundation of nostalgia delivered with modern sensibilities.

“Wednesday” also holds a lot of promise for future projects. The show features the production talents of Tim Burton, whose signature visual style has been fueling media and merchandise success for three decades. And of course, the Addams family has massive pop-culture staying power, starting as a New Yorker comic strip in the 1930s and moving to television in the 1960s, then film in the 1990s.

The Streamer is Making Big Changes to Stay on Top

"Wednesday" and "Stranger Things" aren't Netflix's only IPs with the potential to spawn multiple films and series. The streamer has big plans for its all-ages properties like the Power Rangers and even the Teletubbies. The recent release of author Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series was well-received by viewers and critics in August and has a vast well of content to pull from when it comes to potential spin-offs.

2022 has also seen some functional changes for the streaming service. Netflix recently introduced the idea of an ad-supported tier, a move aimed at retaining subscribers on a budget. The company is also cracking down on password sharing, hoping to boost subscriptions by offering profile transfer options.

What Is Hydroelectric Power?

Hydroelectric power, or hydropower, is electricity generated by the flow of water. In simple terms, hydroelectric power is generated when moving water passes through a turbine, which spins to produce electricity.

According to the Energy Information Administration, hydroelectricity accounted for about 6.3% of total U.S. utility-scale (at least 1,000 kilowatts of capacity) electricity generation and 31.5% of total utility-scale renewable electricity generation. In 2021, utility-scale electricity generation amounted to 4,108 billion kilowatt hours (kWh).

Hydropower’s share of total electricity production has fallen over the years due to the increased use of other types of power production such as solar and wind, but its contribution to the renewable energy mix remains significant. Globally, hydropower accounts for 16% of total electricity production, according to the International Finance Corporation.

How Does Water Produce Electricity?

Hydroelectric power traces its roots to hundreds of years ago when flowing water was used to turn a wheel that ground wheat into flour. Water was also used to turn leather belts that moved saws for processing lumber. Nowadays, there are various systems designed to divert the flow of water through hydro turbines that spin to generate electricity. That power can then be captured and stored in batteries for future use as electricity.

River and Storage Systems

Conventional hydroelectric facilities include a run-of-the-river system, in which a river's current flows through a turbine, and a storage system, in which water from a reservoir is released, but controlled, into turbines.

A pumped-storage hydropower facility involves pumping water into a reservoir, usually at an elevation higher than the water’s source, and then releasing the water in a controlled manner such that it flows into a turbine. However, pumped storage systems tend to use more power than they produce, resulting in net negative electricity generation.

Most hydropower facilities in the U.S. have dams and storage reservoirs, but dams built decades ago weren’t designed for electricity generation—with a small fraction now able to do so.

Wave Energy

Wave energy is a method of producing electricity by capturing the kinetic energy of waves to turn a turbine. This process is mainly used offshore in open water. Wave energy facilities aren’t very widespread compared to river hydropower systems, but the EIA estimates that the annual energy potential of waves off American coasts could amount to as much as 2.64 trillion kWh annually.

Which Areas in the U.S. Are Ideal for Hydroelectricity?

Hydropower relies on facilities being near a source of water. Some areas of the U.S. are ideal because of plentiful rainfall or snowfall. The Pacific Northwest, for example, has more rainfall than most other parts of the continental U.S. Snow collects in mountains during wintertime, and in spring, that snowmelt feeds into rivers and tributaries, where hydropower plants can be built to take advantage of the flow or storage of water to turn turbines.

Almost all of the hydropower in the U.S. comes from land-based facilities, with very little offshore production. In 2021, just five states accounted for more than half of the total hydroelectric power production across the U.S.: Washington (27%), Oregon (11%), New York (11%), California (6%), and Tennessee (5%).

Almost all of the hydroelectric power generation in New York comes from the Niagara River, which feeds into Niagara Falls. The state-controlled utility’s power plants at Niagara Falls produce 28.7 billion kWh of electricity each year, which is enough to power 287 billion 100-watt light bulbs.

How to Invest in Hydroelectric Power

There are not many publicly traded companies that focus solely on hydroelectric power, and dedicated indexes and exchange-traded funds are hard to come by. That may mean focusing on indexes and ETFs for alternative renewable energy. Stocks are typically utilities that can build large-scale electricity-generation facilities. Additionally, there are few listed companies available for trading since many utilities that engage in hydropower are state-controlled.

Hydroelectric Stocks to Consider

• Brookfield Renewable Partners LP (NYSE: BEP) focuses on renewable energy and operates in more than 30 countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Hydroelectric power accounted for about 75 percent of its total revenue in 2022.

• IDACORP (NYSE: IDA) controls Idaho Power Company, a regulated electric utility that operates 17 hydropower plants that draw water from a river and its tributaries in the state. Its renewable energy mix also includes geothermal generation.

• Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (NYSE: OPTT) develops systems that generate electricity by harnessing the renewable energy of ocean waves.

• Portland General Electric Company (NYSE: POR) is expanding its use of renewable energy, shifting away from coal and other fossil fuels. Because the focus is on Oregon and there are few rivers and tributaries on which to build, potential construction of additional hydropower facilities within the state is finite.

Are There Limits to Increasing Hydroelectric Power Production?

Environmentalists oppose the development of water resources in certain areas due to concern over the impact power-generating facilities can have on fish, wildlife, and plant life. That opposition may be a barrier to the construction of new facilities unless legislation or court rulings allow for such development.

Since hydroelectric power plants depend on water, drought or low rainfall or snow can have a major impact on hydropower. With no water available, turbines are idle.

Water sources and the force of the flow of water in rivers also can limit the potential doe the construction of new facilities. The Midwest provides little potential for hydropower construction, but eastern and western states, with their proximity to mountains, provide more potential.

As you’re well aware, a lot of alcoholic beverages get consumed during the holidays.

So Morningstar put together a list of booze stocks that are currently undervalued and have strong long-term outlooks. The list includes:

Anheuser-Busch InBev  (BUD) - Get Free Report: Morningstar analyst Philip Gorham assigns the company a wide moat and puts fair value for the stock at $90. It recently traded at $59.

“We continue to think that the scale of the business and ABI’s strong relationships with its vendors make this a high-quality franchise,” he wrote in a commentary.

“Management's strategy is to buy brands with a promising growth platform, expand distribution, and ruthlessly squeeze costs from the business.”

Further, “AB InBev has one of the strongest cost advantages in our consumer defensive coverage and is among the most efficient operators,” Gorham said.

“Vast global scale, along with monopoly-like positions in Latin America and Africa give AB InBev significant … procurement pricing power.”

Boston Beer  (SAM) - Get Free Report: Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz gives the company a narrow moat and puts fair value for the stock at $670. It recently traded at $385.

“Though much smaller than the brewing behemoths, Boston Beer is well positioned in malt categories, boasting a meaningful growth profile that mainstream beer lacks,” she wrote in a commentary.

“The firm has shown a remarkable proclivity to not only augment its portfolio in alignment with the latest growth vectors, but also to capture a disproportionate share of the economic rents generated from this growth by being one of the first movers.”

As examples, she cited Boston Beer’s pioneering activity in craft beer, cider, and more recently, hard seltzer.

Brown-Forman  (BF.B) - Get Free Report: Morningstar analyst Sean Dunlop assigns the maker of Jack Daniel’s a wide moat and puts fair value for the stock at $78. It recently traded at $71.

“Brown-Forman has established itself as a stalwart in matured spirits, an enclave of the distillation industry that we view as particularly attractive,” he wrote in a commentary.

“In addition to brand recognition and distribution, companies in this industry benefit from scarcity value, the result of the consumer perception surrounding the aging of this type of alcohol and the pricing power that this begets.”

Given that, “we believe Brown-Forman’s portfolio, anchored by the Jack Daniel’s brand, boasts some of the highest cachet globally,” Dunlop said.

Constellation Brands  (STZ) - Get Free Report: Katz gives the seller of Corona and Modelo a wide moat and puts fair value for the stock at $274. It recently traded at $256.

The company is “one of the most stellar brewers across our global coverage,” she wrote in a commentary. Its Corona and Modelo brands put Constellation’s Mexican beer portfolio “auspiciously at the confluence of unwavering secular and demographic trends,” Katz said.

“With an enviable growth profile and best of breed margins, we have confidence that the [company’s] beer business can thrive even amid an evolving industry landscape.”

Constellation “continues to expand its addressable market by widening the gamut of categories in which it competes,” Katz said. 

Since Elon Musk became the owner of Twitter on October 27 in exchange for $44 billion, the billionaire has been working to reshape the platform in his image.

To mark the break with his predecessors, he calls his Twitter, Twitter 2.0.

Within a month, the Techno King pretty much tried to get rid of everything he disliked on the platform when he was an outsider. He fired many of the top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and the senior managers in charge of the content management policy. 

He eliminated half of the 7,500 jobs in one day, and caused the departure of more than a 1,000 additional employees, following an ultimatum demanding that everyone agree to work long hours.

The CEO of the premium electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report, mainly touched on two emblematic facets of the platform: the blue check mark and the content policy.

He decided to revamp Blue, Twitter's subscription service, by adding the check mark indicating that the person, company or institution behind the account is who they say they are. In doing so, Musk raised Blue's price to $7.99 per month. The blue authentication badge was previously free and was loved by brands, celebrities and politicians as it limited impersonations.

Mismanagement

Musk also did a complete 180 degree turn on what are acceptable messages on Twitter. Before him, the company had implemented a policy aimed at banning or temporarily suspending accounts that were guilty of hateful, racist and anti-Semitic posts or published false information. 

Musk, who calls himself a "free speech absolutist," threw it all away, opting for a laissez-faire approach. He reactivated former President Donald Trump's account and announced a general amnesty for all banned accounts. He also put an end to the rules prohibiting misinformation on COVID-19.

He also began to launch numerous accusations against the former team of Twitter. He accused them of waste and mismanagement.

"Twitter spends $13M/year on food service for SF HQ," he wrote on November 13. "Badge in records show peak occupancy was 25%, average occupancy below 10%. There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast. They don’t even bother serving dinner, because there is no one in the building."

He accused them of having been opponents of free speech.

"The more I learn, the worse it gets. The world should know the truth of what has been happening at Twitter. Transparency will earn the trust of the people," he tweeted on November 23, commenting on a post that read "Twitter should be clear and consistent about its rules and penalties for breaking them, enforcement should be unbiased, and the mechanisms of enforcement shouldn’t be easily abused by people who have an agenda."

Twitter Files + Elections

Five days later, Musk promised revelations on how Twitter blocked free speech.

"The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself," Musk promised on November 28. "The public deserves to know what really happened …"

He didn't give a timeline.

In the meantime, he has just launched a more serious accusation. He accuses the pre-Musk Twitter of interfering in the elections, without providing evidence. He does not specify whether it was an election in the United States or elsewhere and when it happened. Nor does he specify what the nature of these interferences was. 

It should be noted that Musk's political criticism is directed more against Democrats than Republicans.

It all started on a thread on Twitter.

"Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust," a Musk fan posted on the platform, below a story from Reuters saying that the platform is not safer under Musk. "The past team of 'trust and safety' is a disgrace, so it doesn’t have any right to judge what is being done now. They had a chance, but they sold their souls to a corporation."

To which, Musk responded by throwing accusations at the former team.

"Exactly," the billionaire said. "The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections."

He added: "Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed."

Is Musk referring to the fact that Twitter had banned accounts proliferating misinformation about the US election? 

Blockchain startups raise funding from a vibrant ecosystem

Wellfound, formerly AngelList Talent, recently released another tally of rapidly-scaling blockchain startups. Some names you may recognise, whilst others are just breaking into the space: Gemini, Injective Labs, Fold, RabbitHole, Futureswap, 0x, CoinAlpha. These startups are part of a growing ecosystem of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial projects, each using blockchain technology to address a slightly different challenge.

A broader community helps founders launch these types of projects. Although the path to building a profitable venture seems pricey, founders rarely fund their ideas alone: they receive support from corporations, venture capitalists, blockchain protocols, and governments. Mastercard invites crypto and blockchain startups into its global accelerator programme. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance runs programmes to expand its blockchain ecosystem. Venture capital firms CoinFund, Orange DAO, and Shima Capital each invest millions of dollars in crypto and web3 startups.

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Venture capital funding for blockchain startups

One of the top ways blockchain entrepreneurs fund their projects is through venture capital (VC) funding. Although initial coin offerings (ICOs) once represented a primary funding source for blockchain projects, intense regulatory scrutiny of ICOs has shifted the balance of power. As shown in the chart below, venture capital plays a significant role in entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial blockchain projects, even during periods of depressed valuation. 

Evaluating options besides venture capital

But venture capital isn’t the only source of blockchain startup funding. Since the blockchain space is highly decentralised and community-driven, blockchain entrepreneurs have a few more options than those in other fields. Many blockchain networks, for example, will fund or support projects to expand their network’s reach. As a result, blockchain startups can access multiple VC alternatives, such as accelerators, incubators, and network-supported grants.

Alternative sources of blockchain startup funding

• Accelerators offer funding coupled with strategic support. Although not the most common method of fundraising in the blockchain industry, popular accelerators like DeFi Alliance, GBV Capital, Binance Labs, Tribe Accelerator, and Impossible Finance provide blockchain startups with valuable recognition and opportunities for mentorship.
• Incubators provide the ability to build, network, and collaborate with industry experts. Unlike accelerators, incubators don’t often fund startups, but they do offer strategic guidance and high-profile networks. Many of these incubators are linked to governments, universities, and corporations. For example, Singapore’s government supports LongHash Ventures, enterprise technology provider R3 provides a Venture Development Programme, and Telangana, an Indian state, recently announced that it would partner with the Indian School of Business and IIIT-Hyderabad to launch a new incubator for blockchain startups.
• Network-supported funds (grants) support projects that focus on a specific blockchain network. Borderless Capital funds projects that drive users to adopt the Algorand blockchain, Dash Investment Foundation funds traditional businesses through the Dash DAO, and Gitcoin funds projects in Ethereum. These grant programs help bootstrap new projects whilst expanding the network’s community. If you’re already intending to use a specific blockchain protocol, research the community to see if it offers a similar grant programme.

Selecting a funding source

Between venture capital, ICOs, accelerators, incubators, and network-supported funds, no one right solution exists. As with any startup, funding sources vary depending on your startup’s stage, and more nuanced funding strategies often combine several funding channels to balance risk, reward, and growth.

To select an initial funding source or sources, review your startup’s short- and long-term goals. Ask yourself whether you need connections, resources, control over the project, or a mix of all three. Then map your core funding needs. 

Funding your blockchain startup

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Whether it's an email for an order that you didn't place or someone offering a "refund" through Zelle, scams impersonating Amazon  (AMZN) - Get Free Report will be a common sight this holiday season.

Online scams are on the rise in general and many are specifically tapping into the chaos around last-minute gift orders. In 2021, the e-commerce giant took down more than 20,000 phishing websites and 10,000 phone numbers being used as part of these impersonation schemes.

"While consumers should always be vigilant of potential scam communications, the holiday season is a particularly important time for consumers to be careful as they are likely shopping more and receiving more order confirmations and other communications from retailers," Amazon's VP of Selling Partner Services Dharmesh Mehta told TheStreet.

Mehta answered some of TheStreet's questions about how Amazon is fighting holiday scams and what shoppers can do to avoid becoming a victim. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TheStreet: What are some common scams popping up on Amazon this holiday season?

Mehta: Scammers are targeting consumers with fake orders for purchases they didn't make pretending to be Amazon. It's the number one scam reported to us this year by our customers.

Impersonation scams happen when a scammer pretends to be a trusted company and reaches out to try to get access to sensitive information like social security numbers, bank information, or Amazon account details. This year, we found that fake order confirmations accounted for more than 50% of the Amazon impersonation scams reported by our customers. These unsolicited communications often refer to a purchase (that you didn't make) and ask you to act urgently to confirm the purchase. When you try to cancel the fake order by clicking a link or calling the supposed "customer service" number, scammers then try to steal your personal or financial information. We invest significant resources to protect consumers and stores from these scammers.

Are shoppers particularly vulnerable during the holidays?

Anyone can get baited on social media, receive a call offering to provide fake tech support or be asked to confirm a transaction for something they didn't buy.

What can shoppers do to avoid losing money by falling prey to scammers?

We encourage our consumers to use these tips when shopping this holiday season:

-Verify purchases on Amazon. If you receive a message about the purchase of a product or service, do not respond to the message or click on any link in the message; instead, log into your Amazon account or use the Amazon mobile app and confirm that it is really in your purchase history before taking any action.

-Trust Amazon's app and website. We will not ask for payment over the phone or email -- only in our mobile app, on our website, or in one of our physical stores. We will not call and ask you to make a payment or bank transfer on another website.
Be wary of false urgency. Scammers often try to create a sense of urgency to persuade you to do what they're asking.

-Don't be pressured into buying a gift card. We will never ask you to purchase a gift card, and no legitimate sale or transaction will require you to pay with gift cards. Learn more about common gift card scams on our help pages.

-Contact us. If you’re ever unsure, it's safest to stop engaging with the potential scammer and contact us directly through the Amazon app or website. Do not call numbers sent over text or email, or found in online search results. Remember Amazon will not ask you to download or install any software to connect with customer service nor will we request payment for any customer service support.

-Check what others are saying. See if anyone else has reported a similar situation. In the U.S., Amazon has partnered with the Better Business Bureau to provide consumers with a searchable Scam Tracker that enables you to search suspicious communications reported by others by email, URL, phone number, and more.

Let's say a shopper identifies something fraudulent and steers clear. Why should they report it even if they don't end up suffering damages?

Many scams don't just take advantage of the brand that is being impersonated. The scammer has broken through additional trusted service providers to execute their scam such as TelCo companies, financial institutions, and payment apps. Many trusted entities have been violated in the wake of scammers' crimes.

The more consumers report scams to us, the better our tools get at identifying bad actors so that we can take action against them and protect consumers.

What is Amazon doing to fight the prevalence of this type of fraud?

We are diligently working to help educate consumers to avoid scams, ensure consumers know it’s us, and ensure scammers are held accountable. We realize this is an industry-wide issue and we are eager to partner with and learn from others who share our objectives in protecting consumers from scams.

Earlier this year, we adopted industry-leading email verification technology across more than 20 countries to make it easier for customers to identify phishing emails and harder for scammers to commit fraud. Customers using Gmail, Yahoo! -- that email is really from us.

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Jessie Powell got right to the point.

The co-founder and CEO of Kraken tweeted his feelings on Nov. 30 after the cryptocurrency exchange announced that it was laying off about 1,100 employees, or 30% of its workforce, "in order to adapt to market conditions."

"Rough day at @krakenfx," Powell said. "Headcount rolled back 12 mos. Macro was already tough and we held out but recent industry woes diminished near-term optimism about a crypto rebound. Better positioned now. Glad we were able to take good care of our former colleagues. Been a privilege." 

In a company blog post entitled "Kraken Takes Steps to Weather Crypto Winter," Powell said that since the start of this year, "macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have weighed on financial markets."

"This resulted in significantly lower trading volumes and fewer client sign-ups," Powell wrote. "We responded by slowing hiring efforts and avoiding large marketing commitments. Unfortunately, negative influences on the financial markets have continued and we have exhausted preferable options for bringing costs in line with demand."

Powell said that "all departing Krakenites" would receive comprehensive support, including 16 weeks of base pay, four months of healthcare continuation coverage for eligible employees, and outplacement support.

"I’m confident the steps we are taking today will ensure we can continue to deliver on our mission which the world needs now more than ever before," he wrote.. "I remain extremely bullish on crypto and Kraken." 

It was a different story back in June, when Powell said that "we have over 500 roles to fill to during the remainder of the year, and believe bear markets are fantastic at weeding out the applicants chasing hype from the true believers in our mission."

'A Major Transition'

"We recognize that hurt feelings are inevitable in a global organization that is optimizing for team outcomes above individual sentiment," he wrote on June 15. "The ideal Krakenite is thick-skinned and well intentioned."

Frank Corva, senior analyst for digital assets at Finder, said Kraken "is undergoing a major transition right now," especially since Powell, announced in September that he would step down from his chief executive role.

"It’s been rumored that the company – which is valued at approximately $10 billion – plans to go public under the guidance of its new CEO Dave Ripley, who was the former COO of the company," Corva said. 

"Ripley might be making cuts to staff in preparation for the company to go public, as, especially after a challenging year in the crypto industry, the exchange will need to show that its cash flow is positive as it approaches its potential valuation by the public market," he added.. 

The layoff announcement comes just days after the U.S. Treasury Department said Kraken had settled with the government and agreed to pay more than $360,000 for apparently violating America's sanctions laws related to Iran

The company failed to prevent more than 820 individuals in Iran from conducting more than $1.6 million worth of crypto transactions on its platform between October 2015 to June 2019, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

OFAC, however, assessed that Kraken's conduct was "non-egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed," significantly reducing the settlement it paid.

'Driven by His Beliefs'

The company has also signed on to spend $100,000 on improving its sanctions compliance system, which includes instituting an automated internet protocol address blocking system that would prevent users in Iran from accessing Kraken for crypto transactions in the future.

"Under Ripley, you’ll likely see less issues like the exchange violating certain sanctions, as he seems to be a bit less of a crypto purist than Powell," Corva said. "Powell – a self-avowed libertarian – was often driven by his beliefs that the state should have a minimal role in people’s financial affairs and less by his desire to adhere to state-sponsored sanctions."

David Lesperance, managing partner of immigration and tax adviser Lesperance & Associates, said "the employees of Kraken suffered the consequences not just of the crypto winter…but also their founders' misconception that international sanctions rules didn’t apply in the crypto sphere."

"With $360,000 taken out of the company to pay OFAC’s fine for Iran sanctions violations, deeper cuts had to take place," he said. "That is a precedent which other exchanges who may have engaged in similar past behavior will need to include in their future budget predictions."

The news stirred up powerful responses on social media.

"So basically there is nowhere to safely buy crypto," one person tweeted. "Yeah, that's a healthy market ready for mass adoption. People will be paranoid to just transfer cash to purchase for fear of getting locked out. I know I am."

'A Great Business Decision'

"No this is a great business decision," another person said. "Layoffs happen every best market cycle. Should have happened sooner imo."

"They make money off of fees from trades," another tweet read. "if trading/exchanging is down they probably need to cut for budget reasons."

The layoffs are just the latest bit of bad news to wallop the crypto sector. Investors are still contending with the collapse of FTX cryptocurrency exchange earlier this month.

Earlier this month, Powell noted that there were "red flags" in the company's books and blasted FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for his "ego purchase" of the naming rights to American Airlines Arena in Miami, frequent trips to Washington, D.C., to "buy political favor" and generally "being overeager to please D.C.," along with being a " 'media darling' seeking out puff pieces."

"I pray for everyone who got caught up in this mess," Powell said in a Nov. 10 tweet.. "I hope it doesn't turn you off of crypto. I hope you take care of yourself and continue to be a part of this community. These are growing pains. Money can be made again. Stay with me."

"I remain your humble servant, Jesse"

The peace plan proposed by Elon Musk to end the war between Russia and Ukraine after the Feb. 24 unprovoked Russian invasion still does not pass among the Ukrainians. 

Under the terms, the Ukrainians would have ceded Crimea to Russia, which was annexed by the Russians in 2014. Ukraine also would've had to renounce becoming a member of NATO and the European Union, two organizations that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers threats to his country's sovereignty.

The Ukrainians saw it as a proposed capitulation. The plan gave the impression that Musk was pro-Russian, as it mirrored Russia's demands for a dialogue with Ukraine.

The peace plan was unsurprisingly rejected by the Ukrainians. 

"Which @elonmusk do you like more?" the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky  asked in a poll-like tweet. A direct criticism of the form used by Musk to evoke his peace plan.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany had gone so far as to use an expletive.

'Come to Ukraine'

Musk appeared taken aback by the heavy criticism of his initiative. He seemed surprised that the Ukrainians, whom he'd supported from the beginning of the conflict in words and actions, turned against him.

The billionaire had tried without convincing to explain that his proposal was due to the fact that he feared that the conflict would turn into a Third World War with the potential use of nuclear weapons.

The initiative left a sour taste for Ukrainians who considered Musk their hero. This is what President Zelensky has just suggested during a Zoom interview at the New York Times Deal Book summit on Nov. 30.

Zelensky invited Musk to visit Ukraine to see first-hand the damage Russian bombings have done to the country.

"If you want to understand what Russia has done here, come to Ukraine and you will see this with your own eyes,” the Ukrainian president said referring to Musk. "After that, you will tell us how to end this war, who started and when we can end it.”

He then rejected the idea that Russia would use nuclear weapons if it found itself in a position to lose this conflict which has lasted for many months and has caused many deaths and displaced millions of others.

"I don’t think he will use nuclear weapons,” Zelensky said. "This is my opinion.”

He added that Musk and the West should be more concerned that Putin might expand his expansionist ambitions to other countries if he were to defeat Ukraine.

Musk has yet to respond to the invitation as of this writing.

The tech tycoon burst into geopolitical affairs in March by throwing its support behind Ukraine. He provided, through his aerospace company SpaceX, Starlink to Ukraine.

Starlink is a secure and independent satellite internet access service. It is used particularly by civilians in areas under attack by Russia and in areas where infrastructure has been destroyed. 

Starlink Drama

Faced with Russian attacks against Ukrainian infrastructure, Starlink has become the only means of communication for the Ukrainian armed forces on the front.

"Starlink is the primary communications system of the Ukrainian army on the war front. If anyone else wants this job, please be my guest..." Musk posted on Twitter on Oct. 14.

The Ukrainian authorities have confirmed the crucial role currently played by Starlink in this war, which also includes the messaging. Starlink allows the Ukrainian authorities to continue to have control over part of the narrative of this war, at a time when they are inflicting defeats on Russia in key regions of the country.

A controversy over Starlink funding, however, erupted after revelations that Musk and SpaceX had asked the U.S. government through the Department of Defense to provide some funding for Starlink. The United States supports Ukraine militarily and logically via NATO. 

Musk and SpaceX felt that since Starlink had become an essential "military" tool in this war, it was up to the government to fund the portion of the service provided to Ukraine. They therefore threatened to cut the service if the Pentagon refused.

SpaceX loses $20 million a month related to Starlink in Ukraine, Musk said.

At the end, Musk made an about-face: He agreed to provide Starlink for free to Ukraine, even if the service causes financial loss to SpaceX.

"The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free," Musk announced on Twitter on Oct. 15.