Pasteleosa: June 2022

Thursday, June 30, 2022

The FCC authorizes SpaceX's Starlink system to be used on vehicles in motion - The Verge

Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted SpaceX authorization to use its Starlink satellite internet system on vehicles in motion — including cars, trucks, boats, and aircraft. It’s a big win for SpaceX’s Starlink system, potentially opening up the service to a more diverse range of use cases and customers.

SpaceX requested regulatory approval from the FCC in March of last year to allow Earth Stations in Motion (ESIM) Starlink terminals to be used in moving vehicles. To tap into the system and receive broadband internet coverage, customers must purchase a personal ground-based antenna, or user terminal, that is designed to connect with any orbiting Starlink satellites that happen to be overhead. Up until now, those dishes have had to remain in a fixed location in order to access the system.

Now, the FCC has granted SpaceX’s request — as well as one from another satellite company, Kepler Communications — paving the way for a new class of user terminals that can connect to broadband-beaming satellites while on the move. While doing so, the FCC chose to deny a petition from Dish Network that sought to prevent the companies from using frequency in the 12GHz band. However, the FCC will continue to conduct analysis as it moves forward with rulemaking on the presence of ESIM devices in the 12GHz band and said Kepler and SpaceX will be subject to any future rules it sets.

The FCC argues that approving the new capability is in the public’s interest. “We agree with SpaceX and Kepler that the public interest would benefit by granting with conditions their applications,” the FCC wrote in its authorization, dated June 30th. “Authorizing a new class of terminals for SpaceX’s satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move, whether driving an RV across the country, moving a freighter from Europe to a U.S. port, or while on a domestic or international flight.”

Starlink is SpaceX’s ambitious initiative to launch a constellation of thousands of satellites into low- to medium-Earth orbit in order to provide low-latency broadband coverage to the Earth below. The company has more than 2,400 satellites in orbit so far, and after coming out of beta testing near the end of last year, the company recently boasted that it had 400,000 users. Customers who want to order Starlink must purchase the kit — which comes with a user terminal — for $599 and then pay a monthly fee of $110.

SpaceX has made it clear that it wants to expand Starlink beyond just residential customer use, though. The company has been negotiating with various airlines about using Starlink internet service and has deals with Hawaiian Airlines and private jet service JSX to start providing internet connectivity on their aircraft over the next couple of years. Additionally, Starlink just rolled out a new special service tier for RVs, allowing users to connect with Starlink satellites from multiple locations like campsites or vacation cabins, with no assigned “home” address for an extra fee. Though, at the time of the announcement, subscribers could not use the dishes while their RVs or vans were moving.

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The FCC authorizes SpaceX's Starlink system to be used on vehicles in motion - The Verge
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Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Amazon limits sales of Plan-B contraceptives amid Supreme Court fallout - Fox Business

Check out what's clicking on FoxBusiness.com.

Amazon has placed a weekly purchase limit on Plan B or "morning after" pills as demand for contraceptives surges following the end of Roe v. Wade.

Amazon will limit customers to purchasing three Plan B pills per week, according to Business Insider. The move comes less than a week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, allowing states to regulate abortion for the first time since 1973.

More than a dozen states are poised to ban most or nearly all abortions in the coming months as "trigger laws" take effect.

While the court allowed states to ban abortion procedures, contraceptives of all kinds remain available.

WHAT IS MIFEPRISTONE? ABORTION MEDICATION IN FOCUS AFTER SUPREME COURT ROE V. WADE DECISION

Supporters of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade celebrate the abortion ruling in Washington, D.C. (Joshua Comins/Fox News Digital / Fox News)

US DOCTORS PUSH FDA TO ALLOW OVER-THE-COUNTER BIRTH CONTROL AS END OF ROE V WADE LOOMS

Amazon's announcement came days after several brick-and-mortar retail stores also began limiting purchases of Plan B.

CVS, Walmart and Rite Aid each announced some level of restrictions on purchases. The pills were out of stock or nearly so on the companies' websites on Monday.

Walmart limited purchases to four or six per week.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

Women can take Plan B pills within three days of having unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. They can be purchased over-the-counter and are different from abortion pills, which require a weeks-long regimen and a prescription.

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Amazon limits sales of Plan-B contraceptives amid Supreme Court fallout - Fox Business
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Highest Mortgage Rates Since 2008 Housing Crisis Cool Sales - The New York Times

As the Federal Reserve tries to fight high inflation, costly mortgage rates have begun to price people out of the housing market.

For the past two years, anyone who had a home to sell could get practically any asking price. Good shape or bad, in cities and in exurbs, seemingly everything on the market had a line of eager buyers.

Now, in the span of a few weeks, real estate agents have gone from managing bidding wars to watching properties sit without offers, and once-hot markets like Austin, Texas, and Boise, Idaho, are poised for big declines.

The culprit is rising mortgage rates, which have spiked to their highest levels since the 2008 housing crisis in response to the Federal Reserve’s recent efforts to tame inflation. The jump in borrowing costs, adding hundreds of dollars a month to the typical mortgage payment and coming on top of two years of home price increases, has pushed wishful home buyers past their financial limits.

“We’ve reached the point where people just can’t afford a house,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, a national real estate brokerage.

Weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate

More than any other part of the economy, housing — a purchase that for most buyers requires taking on huge amounts of debt — is especially sensitive to interest rates. That sensitivity becomes even more pronounced when homes are unaffordable, as they are now. As a result, home prices and new construction are a central component of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow rapid inflation by raising interest rates, which the central bank has done several times this year. But the Fed’s moves come with an inherent risk that the economy will spiral into a recession if they stifle home purchases and development activity too much.

While housing does not account for a huge amount of economic output, it is a boom-bust industry that has historically played an outsize role in downturns. The sector runs on credit, and new home purchases are often followed by new furniture, new appliances and new electronics that are important pieces of consumer spending.

“We need the housing market to bend to rein in inflation, but we don’t want it to break, because that would mean a recession,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Home prices are still at record levels, and they are likely to take months or longer to fall — if they ever do. But that caveat, which real estate agents often hold up as a shield, cannot paper over the fact that demand has waned considerably and that the market direction has changed.

Sales of existing homes fell 3.4 percent in May from April, according to the National Association of Realtors, and construction is also down. Homebuilders that had been parsing out their inventory with elaborate lotteries now say their pandemic lists have shriveled to the point that they are lowering prices and sweetening incentives — like cheaper counter and bathroom upgrades — to get buyers over the line.

“There was this collective belief that housing was invincible — that it was so undersupplied and demand so high that nothing could stop price growth,” said Ali Wolf, chief economist with Zonda, a housing data and consulting firm. “A very rapid increase in interest rates and home prices has proven that theory to be false.”

It is a stark change for a market that blossomed soon after the initial shock of the pandemic, which for many people turned out to be a perfect time to buy a home. Rock-bottom mortgage rates lowered borrowing costs, while the shift to home offices and Zoom meetings opened up new swaths of the country to buyers who had been struggling to penetrate the market near the jobs they once commuted to.

That caused prices to explode in far-flung exurbs and once-affordable places like Spokane, Wash., where a crush of new home buyers decamped from pricey West Coast cities. People became so willing to move long distances to buy a home that “the normal laws of supply and demand didn’t apply,” Mr. Kelman said.

After two years of swift price increases, however, places that once seemed cheap no longer are. Home values have risen about 40 percent over the past two years, according to Zillow, forcing buyers to stretch ever further in price even as they run out of geography.

Now add in mortgage rates, which have nearly doubled this year. And inflation, which is eating into savings for some families as it increases household expenses. And a wobbly stock market, which has reduced the value of portfolios that many buyers intended to tap for a down payment.

Todd Anderson for The New York Times

Larisa Kiryukhin and her family were long ago priced out of the San Francisco Bay Area, where they had lived for decades. Ms. Kiryukhin, 44, is a medical assistant who was tied to her hospital, but the pandemic gave her husband, who works in information technology, the flexibility to move to a more affordable city. So Ms. Kiryukhin switched jobs, and this year the couple and their two children moved to Tampa, Fla., in hopes of buying a home.

In April, the family went into contract on a $425,000 house and was quoted an interest rate of 4 percent. Then the closing date was extended because the seller wanted time to find a new home. Then interest rates jumped, adding about $700 to the monthly payment, and the family backed out.

“I moved here just to buy a house, and here we go: The prices got so high we can’t afford it,” Ms. Kiryukhin said.

The typical home buyer makes about $70,000 a year, according to Moody’s Analytics. A $600-a-month increase in housing costs — about how much rising interest rates have added to the typical mortgage payment — is more than most people can shoulder.

Steve Silbar, a real estate agent in Spokane, Wash., said he had seen a sharp deterioration in interest among buyers looking for homes under $500,000. Those buyers typically have less cash, so rising mortgage rates “have moved them out of the market,” he said.

Rajah Bose for The New York Times

Heather Renz and her husband, clients of Mr. Silbar’s, were preparing to buy a home for $360,000. Ms. Renz is her mother’s caregiver. To qualify for a mortgage, her husband, who works as a technician at an aerospace company, was going to pull money out of his retirement account and bolster their down payment. But the recent stock market declines pushed the amount he could withdraw below what they needed to qualify.

“We were three-quarters of the way through the process,” Ms. Renz said.

The interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage has risen to 5.81 percent from 3.22 percent in the first week of January, according to the mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Some of that adjustment anticipated future Fed interest rate increases. Officials raised rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in June alone, the largest increase since 1994, and have signaled that a similarly large move is on the table in July. Any further surprises could push mortgage rates even higher.

Inflation is running at the fastest pace in 40 years, forcing the Fed to stake out an aggressive policy response to try to bring it under control.

Because higher interest rates slow down big purchases made on credit, from homes and cars to business equipment, they can limit demand and allow supply to catch up, tempering price increases across the economy.

Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting.

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Highest Mortgage Rates Since 2008 Housing Crisis Cool Sales - The New York Times
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Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Bankman-Fried Warns: Some Crypto Exchanges Already “Secretly Insolvent” - Forbes

After throwing lifelines to troubled digital currency platforms BlockFi and Voyager Digital, Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old billionaire founder of FTX, warns that some crypto exchanges will soon fail.

The question on everybody’s mind in the crypto world is whether we’ve reached the market bottom. Nearly $2 trillion in crypto market value has evaporated since November. Two bellwether digital assets Luna, a $40 billion crypto asset associated with TerraUSD, a $16 billion stablecoin designed to maintain parity with the U.S. dollar, have collapsed. Earlier this month bitcoin traded for below $20,000, its lowest level since December 2020.

But the fallout is far from complete. Earlier this month, Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a highly levered crypto trading firm with $200 million of exposure to Luna revealed that it was nearly insolvent. Three Arrows’ had borrowed large sums from numerous crypto firms including New Jersey’s Voyager Digital and New York-based BlockFi. In order to survive Three Arrows default, the two digital asset exchanges turned to billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX and the richest person in crypto, worth some $20.5 billion. Between FTX and his quantitative trading firm Alameda, he provided the companies with $750 million in credit lines. There is no guarantee that Bankman Fried will recoup his investment. “You know, we're willing to do a somewhat bad deal here, if that's what it takes to sort of stabilize things and protect customers,” he says.

“We’re willing to do a somewhat bad deal here, if that’s what it takes to sort of stabilize things.”

Sam Bankman-Fried

Bankman Fried’s cash infusions are far from altruistic. He has emerged as a smart vulture capitalist in the beleaguered crypto market, knowing full well that his own fortune depends on its healthy rebound and growth. Bankman Fried has also bought into crypto brokerage Robinhood, where FTX has already accumulated a 7.6% stake, and is rumored to be considering an acquisition.

Bankman Fried denies any active merger talks with Robinhood but tells Forbes that more crypto exchange failures are coming. “There are some third-tier exchanges that are already secretly insolvent,” says Bankman Fried.

Fried’s FTX, along with Coinbase, Kraken and Binance, are giants among digital asset exchanges. They have millions of customer accounts and functionally they operate similarly to online stock brokerages. But outside of these whales, there are more than 600 crypto exchanges around the world operating in a largely unregulated frontier. Never heard of AAX, Billance and Hotbit? You aren’t alone, but like Coinbase they trade bitcoin, ether and dogecoin and offer generous margin loans–as much 20 times their initial capital— to their clients. Lacking any meaningful regulatory oversight many crypto exchanges have been vulnerable to scammers and hacks.

Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked for $530 million in crypto in 2018, Singaporean exchange KuCoin lost $275 million in 2020, and then in December 2021 Cayman Island-based Bitmart was breached for $200 million. Back in 2016, Bitifinex was hacked to the tune of nearly 120,000 bitcoin worth $2.5 billion now.

But, despite the generous bailouts, not even Bankman-Fried is able, or willing, to throw good money after bad in perpetuity. “There are companies that are basically too far gone and it's not practical to backstop them for reasons like a substantial hole in the balance sheet, regulatory issues, or that there is not much of a business left to be saved,” says Bankman-Fried, who declined to name any specific crypto exchanges.

As Forbes reported in its analysis of the world’s best 60 crypto exchanges, the digital asset exchange business generally lacks standards to certify a new entity before or after they start soliciting client funds. The SEC doesn’t regulate the exchanges and the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission has oversight of only a handful of crypto derivatives markets. In the United States there is no member organization like FINRA to self- regulate crypto exchanges.

Bankman Fried is worried about continued failures because during the euphoria of rising crypto prices, exchanges kept upping the ante to attract customers with generous yields for deposits. BlockFi or Voyager were promising yield payments to customers, upwards of 12% per year that had to be paid for either by charging at least that much more interest to borrowers or more likely, by putting that money to work in decentralized finance DeFi applications. That worked fine when crypto was going nowhere but up. It looks disastrous now.

“There are companies that are basically too far gone and it's not practical to backstop them.”

—Sam Bankman-Fried

Like J.P. Morgan during the stock market panic and crash of 1907, Bankman-Fried is taking advantage of the crypto chaos to expand his empire. He recently closed the acquisition of Liquid, a troubled Japanese exchange. BlockFi and Voyager Digital are in his grip and despite his denials, Robinhood may be next. According to sources familiar with his loans to Voyager, Alameda is likely to lose at least $70 million of the credit it has already extended. In 2021, publicly-traded Voyager’s Digital had a market value of more than $3 billion. Today it shares trade for pennies and its market cap of $62 million points to an imminent bankruptcy filing.

Despite the carnage, Bankman-Fried tells Forbes that FTX remains profitable and has been for the past 10 quarters. FTX’s biggest rival Coinbase lost $432 million in the first quarter of 2022 and its stock is down almost 90% from its all-time high.

Bankman-Fried also has his eye on crypto miners, many of whom leveraged their balance sheet at breakneck pace to quickly scale and take advantage of this 21st century digital gold rush. The stocks of publicly-trading crypto miners including Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Blockchain are down more than 60% year to date.

One bell weather crypto asset Bankman Fried is not worried about is Tether, world’s largest dollar-pegged stablecoin with a market cap exceeding $70 billion. Many industry watchers have deemed it a ticking time bomb with questionable collateral whose failure would almost certainly be an existential threat to the entire cryptocurrency market. Tested during the Luna collapse Tether briefly lost its $1 peg and fell to a price 95 cents. However, it successfully processed over $10 billion worth of withdrawals and has since recovered.

Says Bankman-Fried, “I think that the really bearish views on Tether are wrong…I don’t think there is any evidence to support them.”

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Bankman-Fried Warns: Some Crypto Exchanges Already “Secretly Insolvent” - Forbes
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Disney extends CEO Bob Chapek's contract by three years - CNBC

In this article

Bob Chapek, Disney

Jeff Gritchen | MediaNews Group | Orange County Register via Getty Images

Disney has extended CEO Bob Chapek's contract for three years, the company announced Tuesday.

Chapek's contract was set to expire in February next year, three years after he unexpectedly took the reins from Bob Iger. The board, which met Tuesday in Florida, voted unanimously to extend Chapek's tenure to July 2025.

"Disney was dealt a tough hand by the pandemic, yet with Bob at the helm, our businesses — from parks to streaming — not only weathered the storm, but emerged in a position of strength," said Susan Arnold, chairman of the board, in a statement Tuesday.

She added: "In this important time of growth and transformation, the Board is committed to keeping Disney on the successful path it is on today, and Bob's leadership is key to achieving that goal. Bob is the right leader at the right time for The Walt Disney Company, and the Board has full confidence in him and his leadership team."

Chapek has experienced his share of difficulties during his so-far brief tenure. Disney's stock, which was unchanged in after-hours trading, is down about 38% this year as of Tuesday's close.

Chapek was also at the center of a dispute between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over comments made about the state's HB 1557 law, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill. The feud led DeSantis to rally Republican legislators to repeal Disney's Reedy Creek special district, which it has held for decades.

Earlier this month, Chapek made headlines for firing Peter Rice, Disney's most senior television content executive. The board said at the time that Chapek had its full support.

The timing of Disney's transition from Iger to Chapek came just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic forced different facets of the entertainment industry to shutter, including movie theaters and theme parks.

Without revenue from these divisions, Chapek rallied around the company's fledgling streaming service Disney+. Success of shows like "The Mandalorian" had made the platform popular with consumers, and Chapek held fast to the company's goal of reaching 230 million to 260 million Disney+ subscribers by 2024.

As of the end of Disney's fiscal second quarter, the service had more than 137.7 million subscribers.

Chapek, 63, has worked for the Walt Disney Company for nearly 30 years and is its seventh CEO. Previously, he was the chairman of Disney's parks, experiences and products division.

CNBC's Alex Sherman contributed to this report.

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How long will stocks stay in a bear market? It hinges on if a recession hits, says Wells Fargo Institute - MarketWatch

Monday, June 27, 2022

Why this company will cover travel and health care for employees seeking an abortion - CNN

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich speaks with Miriam Warren, the chief diversity officer at Yelp, to learn more about why large businesses will financially support employees seeking an abortion. She also speaks with one woman about her economic decision to get an abortion.

Source: CNN

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Robinhood shares jump 14% on report FTX may be exploring a deal - CNBC

A woman holds a smartphone with the Robinhood logo in the background.

Rafael Henrique | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Robinhood shares jumped on Monday after Bloomberg News reported crypto exchange FTX was considering acquiring the trading app.

The stock soared 14% to its session high and was briefly halted after a report that FTX was discussing a takeover plan internally, but no offer has been made to Robinhood, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, denied the report later Monday, however.

"We are excited about Robinhood's business prospects and potential ways we could partner with them, and I have always been impressed by the business that Vlad and his team have built," Bankman-Fried said. "That being said there are no active M&A conversations with Robinhood."

Robinhood declined to comment.

Last month, Bankman-Fried took a 7.6% stake in Robinhood worth $648 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing said Bankman-Fried acquired the shares in the belief that they "represent an attractive investment."

Shares of Robinhood have dropped about 48% this year amid shrinking revenue and declining users. During the first quarter, its revenue fell 43% from a year ago to $299 million. Robinhood said its monthly active users declined to 15.9 million, down from 17.7 million a year ago.

FTX is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world and offers derivatives products for more sophisticated traders as well as spot trading. FTX has become a rival to Coinbase and Binance, though it doesn't offer its services in the U.S.

In recent weeks, Bankman-Fried's companies signed deals to bail out small players in the crypto space. FTX agreed to provide crypto lender BlockFi with a $250 million revolving credit facility. Alameda, his quantitative trading firm, committed $500 million in financing to Voyager Digital, a crypto brokerage.

Robinhood attracted a huge number of retail investors during the pandemic trading boom, while the young broker also experienced success when it rolled out its crypto trading platform in 2018. Crypto trading has since become important for the company's bottom line when its stock trading activity slowed down.

Last fall, Robinhood said it was testing a crypto wallet and revealed that the waitlist for it had topped 1 million customers.

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Sunday, June 26, 2022

Dow Jones Futures: Market Rally Gains Steam; 9 Stocks To Watch - Investor's Business Daily

Dow Jones futures will open Sunday evening, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally attempt gained momentum, with the major averages running up sharply Friday and for the week.

UnitedHealth (UNH), Shockwave Medical (SWAV), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), Enphase Energy (ENPH), Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM), Quanta Services (PWR), Northrop Grumman (NOC) are stocks to watch. All have relative strength lines at or near highs.

Shockwave stock broke out on Friday, with Ulta and PWR stock arguably offering early entries. UnitedHealth, Northrop, SQM and ENPH stock aren't far from buy points.

Also keep an eye on Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and EV giant Tesla (TSLA). Google stock and Tesla are nowhere close to old highs, but these megacaps are rallying above key levels after holding above their May lows this month.

NOC stock is on IBD Leaderboard, with PWR stock on the Leaderboard watchlist. GOOGL stock is on IBD Long-Term Leaders. UnitedHealth, Ulta Beauty, SQM and ENPH stock are on the IBD 50. UNH stock and Ulta are on the IBD Big Cap 20.

UnitedHealth was Thursday's IBD Stock Of The Day. SQM was Tuesday's Stock Of The Day.

Dow Jones Futures Today

Dow Jones futures open at 6 p.m. ET, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures.

Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.

Join IBD experts as they analyze actionable stocks in the stock market rally on IBD Live

Stock Market Rally

The stock market rally attempt delivered big weekly gains in a short week, the major indexes closing Friday at their best levels.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt 5.4% in last week's stock market trading. The S&P 500 index gained 6.5%. The Nasdaq composite surged 7.5%. The small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 6%.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell 11 basis points to 3.12%, rebounding from just above 3% at Thursday's lows.

U.S. crude oil futures dipped 0.3% to $104.27 a barrel last week, rebounding 3.2% on Friday.

Among the best ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) fell 1.5% last week, with commodity-related names weighing on FFTY. The Innovator IBD Breakout Opportunities ETF (BOUT) rose 1.7%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) surged 10.3%. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) popped 5.1%.

SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) fell 1% last week, even with a big bounce Friday. The Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) gained 3.6%. U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) leapt 5%. SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) shot up 7.6%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF (XLE) slid 2.6% and the Financial Select SPDR ETF (XLF) climbed 4.6%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) raced up 7.8%, with UNH stock a major holding.

Reflecting more-speculative story stocks, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) vaulted 18.25% last week and ARK Genomics ETF (ARKG) 18.1%, both moving above their 50-day line. Tesla stock remains a top holding across Ark Invest's ETFs.

Five Best Chinese Stocks To Watch Now

Stocks Near Buy Points

Shockwave stock soared 6.4% on Friday and 25% for the week to 197.69. That cleared a 194.41 cup-with-handle buy point, with Friday's move coming on above-average volume for SWAV stock. Shockwave Medical has been profitable the past three quarters while revenue growth has been in the triple digits for the last five quarters.

UnitedHealth stock leapt 9.6% for the week to 495.64, but pulled back below its 50-day line on Friday. UNH stock has a double-bottom base with a 507.35 buy point, only slightly above Thursday's intraday high. Several other health insurer stocks are setting up.

Ulta Beauty stock rose 3.7% on Friday and for the week to 410.70. On Friday, shares reclaimed their 50-day line. Arguably, that offered an aggressive entry. ULTA stock has an odd-looking cup-with-handle base with an official buy point of 429.58.

ENPH stock advanced 7.4% to 198.39 last week. That's above a recent 193 buy point that is no longer valid, though investors could see an early entry here. Enphase stock is working on a 217.33 handle entry. While solar stocks have been strong in recent weeks, Enphase and its peers tend to have big daily swings.

SQM stock fell 1.1% for the week to 89.28, but bounced Friday to reclaim its 50-day line. The lithium giant, which also has significant fertilizer market exposure, round-tripped a 27% gain recently. But a strong move above the 50-day line, perhaps crossing the 21-day, would offer an aggressive entry. SQM earnings and revenue growth is exploding.

Quanta Services stock leapt 10.65% to 125.98, rebounding from the 200-day line and above the 50-day. That arguably offers an aggressive entry within a cup-with-handle base. The official buy point is 138.56 for PWR stock, according to MarketSmith analysis. Quanta provides infrastructure services to electric utilities.

Northrop stock rose 4.45% last week to 463.70, almost all on Friday. That's back above the 50-day line. NOC stock is starting a new consolidation after a failed breakout from a cup-with-handle base. A strong move from the 50-day line would offer an early entry. The old 477.36 buy point is no longer valid, but a lot of trading has taken place near there for the past four months.

Northrop and Raytheon Technologies (RTX) won separate Pentagon contracts to continue developing missiles to intercept hypersonic weapons, Reuters reported Friday

Tesla Vs. BYD: Which EV Giant Is The Better Buy?

Tesla Stock

Tesla stock leapt 13.35% for the week to 735.15, moving above its 21-day moving average. TSLA stock is modestly below its 50-day line and early June peak, which roughly coincide right now. The EV giant has a long way to go to reach its 200-day line. But, relative to most megacap names, Tesla stock is showing some glimmers of hope.

At the end of this coming week, Tesla will likely release second-quarter production and delivery figures.

Google Stock

Google stock is doing even better, reclaiming its 50-day line on Friday, close to its early June high. Shares ran up 10.1% for the week to 2,359.50. Google stock has a long way to reach its 200-day line. That roughly coincides with a downward-sloping trendline from the Feb. 2 peak of 3,030.93. That could offer an early or Long-Term Leader entry.

Market Rally Analysis

The major indexes rebounded after fierce losses for much of the month. It was the best week for the Nasdaq since mid-March, while the S&P 500 and Dow had their best week since the last full week of May. Keep in mind that after that late May bounce, the market moved sideways for several sessions before plunging to new lows.

The Nasdaq showed strong action Thursday, but volume ended up fractionally lower. Also, the gain didn't really stand out amid recent big market moves, while much of the market struggled.

On Friday, all the major indexes had big price gains in a broad, powerful advance. Volume, which was running slightly lower on the Nasdaq and NYSE for most of the session, skyrocketed at the close thanks to the annual Russell rebalancing.

The Nasdaq composite jumped above its 21-day moving average on Friday, along with the Dow Jones and S&P 500. Above that, the 50-day line and early June highs loom as resistance.

Breaking above those levels decisively would offer stronger evidence that the recent upswing is more than a tradable rally.

High inflation, Fed rate hikes and recession fears remain major headwinds for the market.

The medical sector looks the strongest. Health insurers and some product makers like UnitedHealth and Shockwave are coming up after several drug plays flashed buy signals. China stocks have been running up in recent weeks, but they generally look extended or still recovering.

Commodity plays have been hard hit, despite Friday's bounce, reflecting recession fears.

Many of the past week's winners were beaten-down growth plays

Time The Market With IBD's ETF Market Strategy

What To Do Now

With the market rally gaining momentum, investors could choose to add a little exposure, either via individual stocks or a broad market ETF.

There's nothing wrong with waiting for a follow-through day.

Of course, the market has had several confirmed market rallies in 2022 that quickly reversed. Even after a follow through day, investors should still look to take partial profits and cut losses quickly.

Work on your watchlists. Focus on stocks that are actionable or nearly so, but have a broader list of names showing relative strength, even if out of position.

Read The Big Picture every day to stay in sync with the market direction and leading stocks and sectors.

Please follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.

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Dow Jones Futures: Market Rally Gains Steam; 9 Stocks To Watch - Investor's Business Daily
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Did corporate greed fuel inflation? It's not biggest culprit - The Associated Press - en Español

WASHINGTON (AP) — Furious about surging prices at the gasoline station and the supermarket, many consumers feel they know just where to cast blame: On greedy companies that relentlessly jack up prices and pocket the profits.

Responding to that sentiment, the Democratic-led House of Representatives last month passed on a party-line vote — most Democrats for, all Republicans against — a bill designed to crack down on alleged price gouging by energy producers.

Likewise, Britain last month announced plans to impose a temporary 25% windfall tax on oil and gas company profits and to funnel the proceeds to financially struggling households.

Yet for all the public’s resentment, most economists say corporate price gouging is, at most, one of many causes of runaway inflation — and not the primary one.

“There are much more plausible candidates for what’s going on,” said Jose Azar an economist at Spain’s University of Navarra.

They include: Supply disruptions at factories, ports and freight yards. Worker shortages. President Joe Biden’s enormous pandemic aid program. COVID 19-caused shutdowns in China. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And, not least, a Federal Reserve that kept interest rates ultra-low longer than experts say it should have.

Inflation

Most of all, though, economists say resurgent spending by consumers and governments drove inflation up.

The blame game is, if anything, intensifying after the U.S. government reported that inflation hit 8.6% in May from a year earlier, the biggest price spike since 1981.

To fight inflation, the Fed is now belatedly tightening credit aggressively. On June 15, it raised its benchmark short-term rate by three-quarters of a point — its largest hike since 1994 — and signaled that more large rate hikes are coming. The Fed hopes to achieve a notoriously difficult “soft landing” — slowing growth enough to curb inflation without causing the economy to slide into recession.

For years, inflation had remained at or below the Fed’s 2% annual target, even while unemployment sank to a half-century low. But when the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession with startling speed and strength, the U.S. consumer price index rose steadily — from a 2.6% year-over-year increase in March 2021 to last month’s four-decade high.

For a while at least — before profit margins at S&P 500 companies dipped early this year — the inflation surge coincided with swelling corporate earnings. It was easy for consumers to connect the dots: Companies, it seemed, were engaged in price-gouging. This wasn’t just inflation. It was greedflation.

Asked to name the culprits behind the spike in gasoline prices, 72% of the 1,055 Americans polled in late April and early May by the Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government blamed profit-seeking corporations, more than the share who pointed to Russia’s war against Ukraine (69%) or Biden (58%) or pandemic disruptions (58%). And the verdict was bipartisan: 86% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans blamed corporations for inflated gas prices.

“It’s very natural for consumers to see prices rising and get angry about it and then look for someone to blame,” said Christopher Conlon, an economist at New York University’s Stern School of Business who studies corporate competition. “You and I don’t get to set prices at the supermarket, the gas station or the car dealership. So people naturally blame corporations, since those are the ones they see raising prices.’’

Yet Conlon and many other economists are reluctant to indict — or to favor punishing — Corporate America. When the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business asked economists this month whether they’d support a law to bar big companies from selling their goods or services at an “unconscionably excessive price” during a market shock, 65% said no. Only 5% backed the idea.

Just what combination of factors is most responsible for causing prices to soar “is still an open question,” economist Azar acknowledges. COVID-19 and its aftermath have made it hard to assess the state of the economy. Today’s economists have no experience analyzing the financial aftermath of a pandemic.

Policymakers and analysts have been repeatedly blindsided by the path the economy has taken since COVID struck in March 2020: They didn’t expect the swift recovery from the downturn, fueled by vast government spending and record-low rates engineered by the Fed and other central banks. Then they were slow to recognize the gathering threat of high inflation pressures, dismissing them at first as merely a temporary consequence of supply disruptions.

One aspect of the economy, though, is undisputed: A wave of mergers in recent decades has killed or shrunk competition among airlines, banks, meatpacking companies and many other industries. That consolidation has given the surviving companies the leverage to demand price cuts from suppliers, to hold down workers’ pay and to pass on higher costs to customers who don’t have much choice but to pay up.

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston have found that less competition made it easier for companies to pass along higher costs to customers, calling it an “amplifying factor” in the resurgence of inflation.

Josh Bivens, research director at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, has estimated that nearly 54% of the price increases in nonfinancial businesses since mid-2020 can be attributed to “fatter profit margins,” versus just 11% from 1979 through 2019.

Bivens conceded that neither corporate greed nor market clout has likely grown significantly in the past two years. But he suggested that during the COVID inflationary spike, companies have redirected how they use their market power: Many have shifted away from pressuring suppliers to cut costs and limiting workers’ pay and have instead boosted prices for customers.

In a study of nearly 3,700 companies released last week, the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute concluded that markups and profit margins last year reached their highest level since the 1950s. It also found that companies that had aggressively raised prices before the pandemic were more likely to do so after it struck, “suggesting a role for market power as an explanatory driver of inflation.″

Yet many economists aren’t convinced that corporate greed is the main culprit. Jason Furman, a top economic adviser in the Obama White House, said that some evidence even suggests that monopolies are slower than companies that face stiff competition to raise prices when their own costs rise, “in part because their prices were high to begin with.”

Likewise, NYU’s Conlon cites examples where prices have soared in competitive markets. Used cars, for example, are sold in lots across the country and by numerous individuals. Yet average used-car prices have skyrocketed 16% over the past year. Similarly, the average price of major appliances, another market with plenty of competitors, jumped nearly 10% last month from a year earlier.

By contrast, the price of alcoholic beverages has risen just 4% from a year ago even though the beer market is dominated by AB-Inbev and spirits by Bacardi and Diageo.

“It is hard to imagine that AB-Inbev isn’t as greedy as Maytag,” Conlon said.

So what has most driven the inflationary spike?

“Demand,” said Furman, now at Harvard University. “Lots of government spending, lots of monetary support — all combined together to support extraordinarily high levels of demand. Supply couldn’t keep up, so prices rose.’’

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco estimate that government aid to the economy during the pandemic, which put money in consumers’ pockets to help them endure the crisis and set off a spending spree, has raised inflation by about 3 percentage points since the first half of 2021.

In report released in April, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis blamed global supply chain bottlenecks for playing a “significant role” in inflating factory costs. They found that it added a staggering 20 percentage points to wholesale inflation in manufacturing last November, raising it to 30%.

Still, even some economists who don’t blame greedflation for the price spike of the past year say they think governments should try to restrict the market power of monopolies, perhaps by blocking mergers that reduce competition. The idea is that more companies vying for the same customers would encourage innovation and makes the economy more productive.

Even so, tougher antitrust policies wouldn’t likely do much to slow inflation anytime soon.

“I find it helpful to think about competition like diet and exercise,” NYU’s Conlon said. “More competition is a good thing. But, like diet and exercise, the payoffs are long term.

“Right now, the patient is in the emergency room. Sure, diet and exercise are still a good thing. But we need to treat the acute problem of inflation.”

___

AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

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Did corporate greed fuel inflation? It's not biggest culprit - The Associated Press - en Español
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French energy giants urge consumers to cut energy use - Reuters

A couple of stork stands in a nest on the top of a pylon of high-tension electricity power lines in front of a smoke stack of the Electricite de France (EDF) coal-fired power plant of Cordemais in Bouee, France, February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

PARIS, June 25 (Reuters) - The heads of France's big energy companies on Sunday urged individuals and businesses to limit power consumption immediately to prepare for a looming energy crisis.

"We need to work collectively to reduce our consumption in order to regain room to manoeuvre," the chief executives of Engie (ENGIE.PA), EDF (EDF.PA) and Total (TTEF.PA) said in an open letter published by weekly newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

The letter signed by Engie's Catherine MacGregor, EDF's Jean-Bernard Levy and TotalEnergies' Patrick Pouyanne cited sharp declines in Russian gas shipments as well as limited electricity generation because of maintenance issues.

France aims to fill its gas storage facilities by early autumn, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Thursday. The country's gas storage sites are 59% full at present.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has thrown the spotlight on the Europe's reliance on Russian gas, prompting a scramble to find alternative energy sources.

French media reported in March that the government was in talks with TotalEnergies about boosting capacity to receive LNG after the United States said it was prepared to increase deliveries to Europe.

"Taking action as soon as this summer will allow us to be better prepared at the start of next winter, notably for preserving our gas reserves," the energy company executives said in their letter, adding that efforts to limit consumption should be "immediate, collective and massive".

They cited their own efforts to find new sources of gas and build a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the northern port of Le Havre.

France recently extended its mechanism for regulating gas prices to the end of the year. Originally scheduled to run through to the end of June, the system is meant to limit the effects of soaring energy prices on cosumers' purchasing power.

Reporting by Nicolas Delame, Benjamin Mallet and Mimosa Spencer Editing by Sandra Maler and David Goodman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Saturday, June 25, 2022

Recession is challenging inflation as top fear among stock and bond investors - MarketWatch

Pfizer’s Omicron-Targeting Covid-19 Vaccines Generate Stronger Immune Response - The Wall Street Journal

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE vaccines modified to target the Omicron variant produced a significantly larger immune response than the companies’ currently available vaccine in a study, they said.

A modified booster shot targeting Omicron specifically increased neutralizing antibody levels 13.5 to 19.6 times higher than the current shot in study volunteers a month after administration, depending on the dose, the companies said Saturday.

A booster targeting both Omicron and the original virus increased neutralizing antibody levels 9.1 to 10.9 times, depending on the dose, the companies said.

Both of the tweaked vaccine candidates were well tolerated by subjects in the study, the companies said.

The results, coming after Moderna Inc. also found its Omicron-targeting booster produced a stronger immune response, suggest possible benefit to modifying the shots to improve protection against an evolving virus.

Federal health authorities are trying to decide whether to stick with the current shots for a fall vaccination campaign or use a tweaked version. Studies have found that the current vaccines don’t work as well against Omicron as they did against earlier strains.

“Based on these data, we believe we have two very strong Omicron-modified candidates that elicit a substantially higher immune response against Omicron than we’ve seen to date,” Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said.

The study didn’t measure whether and how well the shots reduced the risk of Covid-19. Pfizer and BioNTech announced the results by news release. The findings haven’t been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Omicron is the most recent strain of the virus to come to predominate in the U.S. and many other countries.

An expert panel will meet soon to advise the FDA on whether and how to modify Covid-19 vaccines; a Covid-19 testing and vaccination site in New York in April.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

During a wave of Omicron cases, hospitalizations rose to record highs, including among children, and some treatments and vaccines were found to be less effective than they had been against earlier strains.

Current vaccines did reduce the risk of hospitalization and death, however, according to their makers.

While the winter’s Omicron wave has receded, health authorities express worry that a new subvariant or variant could emerge even better able to evade existing vaccines.

To strengthen their inoculations, vaccine makers have been working on tweaking their shots, including developing shots that target more than one strain of the virus.

Pfizer and BioNTech “remain vigilant and are prepared to rapidly adapt our Omicron-based vaccine to emerging sublineages if epidemiological and laboratory data suggest,” BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin said.

The companies tested their two modified vaccines in a late-stage trial with 1,234 subjects who were 56 years and older.

Pfizer and BioNTech tested two doses—30 micrograms and 60 micrograms—of each modified shot. Adults get a 30 microgram dose of the companies’ current shot.

A month after giving the shots, the companies compared the levels of neutralizing antibodies produced by the doses to the levels generated by the current Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Neutralizing antibodies are among the immune system soldiers protecting against a virus.

Early lab testing showed the modified vaccines were also effective against the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, but lost some of their power, generating about three times lower antibody levels against those subvariants than against the original Omicron subvariant, according to the companies. Pfizer and BioNTech said they would collect more data related to the sub variants in the coming weeks.

A panel of vaccine experts is scheduled to meet Tuesday to advise the Food and Drug Administration on whether and how to modify the Covid-19 vaccines, and representatives from Moderna and Pfizer are expected to discuss the data from testing on their modified shots.

Write to Jared S. Hopkins at jared.hopkins@wsj.com and Jonathan D. Rockoff at Jonathan.Rockoff@wsj.com

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