Crypto.com refunded someone $7.2 million by mistake - Engadget

When Australian woman Thevamanogari Manivel put in a Crypto.com refund request last year, she got far more than she bargained for. Manivel asked for a refund of $100 AUD (now worth around $68 USD). Instead, seemingly due to an employee entering her account number into a payment section of a refund form by mistake, the company dropped $10.5 million AUD ($7.2 million at current exchange rates) into her account instead.

According to a report from 7News (by way of The Verge) Crypto.com made the overly generous refund in May last year. However, it apparently did not identify the mistake until it carried out an audit in December, seven entire Gregorian calendar months later.

Manivel kept the money and reportedly transferred it to a bank account. A court granted Crypto.com a freeze on the account in February. The Guardian reports that most of the cash had been moved to other accounts by then, but those accounts were later frozen too. That same month, Manivel is said to have spent $1.35 million AUD (approximately $890,000) on a five-bedroom home and transferred ownership of it to her sister. A court has ordered the sale of the property as soon as possible and for the funds to be returned to Crypto.com with interest. The case will return to court in October.

Perhaps not too long ago, Crypto.com might have been more willing to write off the refund as a deeply unfortunate mistake. But the cryptocurrency market has been tanking this year and the company lost $34 million in a January hack. It also laid off hundreds of employees this summer due to the crypto downturn.

So, it's perhaps not too surprising that Crypto.com is trying to get the money back from Manivel. After all, it has a long-term arena sponsorship deal in Los Angeles, for which it's said to be paying $700 million over 20 years, and a Matt Damon to keep fed.

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Walmart-owned Sam's Club raises annual membership fee for the first time in nine years - CNBC

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A sign hangs outside a Sam's Club store on January 12, 2018 in Streamwood, Illinois.

Scott Olson |Getty Images

Walmart-owned Sam's Club said Wednesday it will raise its annual fees this fall, as the warehouse club's membership hovers at a record high and inflation-pinched shoppers seek deals on bulk items.

Fees will increase to $50 from $45 for club members and to $110 from $100 for members of its higher-tier level, "Plus," which includes some additional perks. The changes take effect Oct. 17.

It marks the first fee hike in nine years for the entry-level membership. Sam's Club has not raised the price of the "Plus" membership since it debuted in 1999.

That brings Sam's closer in price to rival Costco, which charges $60 a year for its basic membership and $120 for its higher-tier "Gold" membership.

Sam's Club is hiking annual fees as warehouse clubs benefit from budget-conscious customers. Shoppers turned to Costco, BJ's Wholesale Club and Sam's Club during the early months of the Covid pandemic to stock up on huge packs of toilet paper, household cleaners and cans of soup. In recent months, those shoppers have sought relief from inflation by seeking out cheaper gas and high volume discounts.

At the same time, inflation may make the increase sting. In a note to members Wednesday afternoon, Sam's Club CEO Kath McLay said the company is "mindful of the financial pressure on wallets right now."

With that in mind, she said, Sam's Club will pick up the tab this year by reimbursing the fee increase in Sam's Cash that can be used at its stores.

Investors have speculated about a potential hike in Costco's fees, too. The club last raised its fee in June 2017 and has historically bumped it up every 5½ years, which would put it on track for this year.

Costco CEO Craig Jelinek shook off talk of an increase on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" in July. "I can tell you that we think about it every year, but right now, in terms of the membership fee it's not on the table right at the moment," he said. "I've made it very clear. I don't think it's the right time."

Sam's Club has almost 600 stores across the U.S. and in Puerto Rico. It does not disclose its membership count, but said in the most recent quarter that it is at an all-time high. Membership income increased 8.9% in the quarter that ended July 31.

Its sales growth is outpacing other parts of Walmart's business. Same-store sales at Sam's Club grew 9.5% in the most recently reported quarter versus 6.5% at Walmart U.S.

Chief Member and Marketing Officer Ciara Anfield said Sam's Club decided to make the move because of investments in recent years, from elevating the quality of merchandise on its shelves to adding new and convenient ways to shop.

In recent years, it has added curbside pickup at stores, offered same-day home delivery, refreshed its Member's Mark private brand and launched Scan & Go, a smartphone app that people can use to ring up items as they walk through aisle. It has started carrying brands such as Eddie Bauer, La Mer and Banana Republic. And even some of its bakery treats have gotten a gourmet spin, such as cinnamon rolls made with a French baking technique.

She compared the rollout of those new perks to building a house or spending money on renovation projects.

"There's an expectation that after you invest in this home, it will be worth more," Anfield said. "We've made investments and we believe our proposition, our membership is now worth more."

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Coinbase, FTX, Binance get inquiries as Congress looks to crack down on $1 billion crypto fraud - CNBC

Twenty/20

In its first foray into the crypto sector, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform is dialing up the pressure on federal agencies and crypto exchanges to protect Americans from fraudsters.

In a series of letters sent Tuesday morning, the committee asked four agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Trade Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as five digital asset exchanges — Coinbase, FTX, Binance.US, Kraken, and KuCoin — for information and documents about what they are doing, if anything, to safeguard consumers against scams and combat cryptocurrency-related fraud.

More than $1 billion in crypto has been lost to fraud since the start of 2021, according to research from the FTC.

"As stories of skyrocketing prices and overnight riches have attracted both professional and amateur investors to cryptocurrencies, scammers have cashed in," wrote Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D.-Ill., Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. "The lack of a central authority to flag suspicious transactions in many situations, the irreversibility of transactions, and the limited understanding many consumers and investors have of the underlying technology make cryptocurrency a preferred transaction method for scammers."

The letters ask that the federal agencies and crypto exchanges respond by Sept. 12 with information about what they are doing to protect consumers. The committee says that these responses could be used to craft legislative solutions.

In particular, the letters ask that the exchanges produce documents dating back through Jan. 1, 2009, which display efforts to combat crypto scams and fraud, as well as show attempts made to "identify, investigate, and remove or flag potentially fraudulent digital assets or accounts," as well as highlight discussions around "whether to adopt more stringent policies."

In one letter, addressed to Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO and founder of FTX, the committee notes that "while some exchanges review cryptocurrencies before listing them, others allow digital assets to be listed with little or no vetting."

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis found that 37% of crypto scam revenue last year went to "rug pulls," a type of scheme that involves developers listing a token on an exchange, pumping it up, and then vanishing with the funds.

Binance.US, which also received an inquiry from the committee on Tuesday, has been accused in a class action lawsuit of misleading consumers about the safety of investing in the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin known as terraUSD (or UST, for short) and its sister token, luna. At their height, luna and UST had a combined market value of almost $60 billion. Now, they're essentially worthless.

Concern over the safety of crypto funds parked on centralized platforms has also been gaining traction following the recent collapse of Voyager Digital and Celsius, both popular apps among retail traders because of the double-digit annual percentage yield once offered by the two companies. The subsequent bankruptcies of these two platforms have highlighted the question of who owns cryptocurrency assets when a custodial business goes belly up. In the bankruptcy proceedings of both Voyager and Celsius, customers are considered unsecured creditors, rather than federally-insured bank depositors, meaning there is no guarantee they will get any of their money back.

As for the relationship between investor and crypto exchange, the terms and conditions vary. In a financial filing released in May, Coinbase said its users would be treated as "general unsecured creditors" in the event of bankruptcy.

Krishnamoorthi also noted that the agencies often seem to be acting at cross-purposes and giving inconsistent guidance to private-sector players. "Without clear definitions and guidance, agencies will continue their infighting and will be unable effectively to implement consumer and investor protections related to cryptocurrencies and the exchanges on which they are traded."

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The US economy had more job openings than expected in July - CNN

Minneapolis (CNN Business)US employers aren't ditching their "help wanted" signs just yet, according to new data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The number of open positions ticked up unexpectedly in July, with around 11.2 million jobs available, slightly higher than June's revised total of 11 million openings, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Economists had expected there to be about 10.5 million jobs added, according to estimates from Refinitiv.

The June total was revised up by about 300,000 positions.

"This is a massive surprise to the upside," said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, noting that postings on online job sites have declined, job-seeker confidence levels have been cooling and reports of offers rescinded have been on the rise.

"We've seen all these headlines about layoffs and probably just experiences with inflation have a chilling effect on job seekers in recent months," she said. "And yet we see in this report that businesses appear to be hiring in full force."

There were close to two jobs available per job seeker in July, up from 1.8 in June, according to the data. That's not what the Federal Reserve was hoping for: The Fed views the near-record job openings as helping to drive wage increases, which in turn could potentially keep inflation elevated.

"The Fed will not be happy with this report," Mark Zandi, senior economist for Moody's Analytics, told CNN Business. "It is critical that the job market cools off, and this report suggests that it remained very strong in July."

Total hires and separations were down slightly from June. Just under 6.4 million people were hired in July, down about 74,000 from June. The number of workers who quit their job totaled 4.18 million, down from 4.25 million in June.

Layoffs were unchanged at 1.4 million.

"This increase [in openings] underscores that some employers will continue to face hiring challenges," said AnnElizabeth Konkel, senior economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. "Employer demand for workers is still robust."

In certain industries, that demand is more pronounced than others.

In the accommodations and food services sector, there were just 88,000 layoffs and discharges in July -- a new record low, Pollak said. Average monthly layoffs in that sector totaled 215,000 in 2019, BLS data shows.

"That is a very high-turnover industry; it's an industry that attracts people just starting off in the labor market and learning how to hold a job," she said. "So for that industry to be firing just about nobody is remarkable."

The former "one strike and you're out" rules now are more in the realm of 10 strikes, she said.

"[Employers] feel like they absolutely cannot afford to fire workers, because they can't afford to replace them," she said.

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The third richest man in the world behind Musk and Bezos is a college dropout whose fortune has surged $60 billion this year - MarketWatch

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Returns on Aug. 30 - Starbucks Stories

August 29, 2022 • 4 min read

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Also returning are customer favorites Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and Apple Crisp Macchiato – now made with oatmilk

The first sip of a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte or Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew cues the unofficial start of the fall season for many customers, and Starbucks is celebrating its return alongside a full menu of fall favorites.

Starting Tuesday, Aug. 30, the iconic Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL), is back for its 19th year. The handcrafted beverage combines Starbucks^® Signature Espresso and steamed milk with flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove to complement the real pumpkin in the sauce. Topped with whipped cream and pumpkin pie spices, PSL is available hot, iced or blended at U.S. stores throughout the season while supplies last.

Joshua Trujillo

Also available for a limited time is the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, which returns to the menu for a fourth year. Crafted with Starbucks^® Cold Brew sweetened with vanilla syrup, the fan-favorite fall sip is topped with pumpkin cream cold foam and a dusting of pumpkin spice.

First introduced to the fall menu last year, the Apple Crisp Macchiato returns with a twist – now made with creamy oatmilk and Starbucks^® Blonde Espresso as the standard recipe. Inspired by the flavors of the warm and gooey apple crisp paired with a cup of coffee, the Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato combines layered flavors of apple, cinnamon, and brown sugar with a spiced apple drizzle.

“Crafting the Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato with Starbucks® Blonde Espresso gives the beverage a soft and smooth foundation that ties all the flavors together,” said Harvey Rojas Mora, Starbucks beverage developer. “The oatmilk adds a creaminess and brings forward the oat flavors of a traditional apple crisp topping.”

The Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato is available hot, iced and blended at U.S. Starbucks stores throughout the season while supplies last.

A bite of fall

Pumpkin is back in the bakery case with the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin and Pumpkin Scone, both available for a limited time, as well as the customer-favorite Pumpkin Loaf, which is available year-round.

Customers can also enjoy the new Owl Cake Pop, which combines vanilla cake and buttercream, dipped in purple chocolaty icing and finished with an owl design. Available for a limited time while supplies last.

New whole bean coffee packaging

Connor Surdi

For the first time in 10 years, Starbucks is debuting new designs on its whole bean coffee packages. Inspired by the people and stories associated with each blend, the new designs tell the unique story about the coffee’s origin and flavor profile. Learn more about the Starbucks designers’ inspiration behind the new packaging.

In addition to new packaging debuting in Starbucks stores, ​Starbucks packaged coffee sold in the grocery aisle also refreshed its look earlier this year. From the artwork and color scheme to the smaller details in between, each aspect of the design was thoughtfully chosen to help shoppers find the perfect coffee for brewing at home.

Enter the Pumpkin Portal to Fall

The fall festivities continue! Starbucks fans can celebrate the season and share their love of all things fall with the Pumpkin Portal to Fall, a fun game that tests customers’ knowledge of emojis, pop culture and Starbucks, revealing just how much of a fall expert they really are. Customers can take the quiz at www.starbuckspumpkinportal.com and share their results on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Festival fall merchandise

Starbucks is debuting a new selection of colorful drinkware that brings all the fall feels. With hot cups, cold cups, water bottles and more to choose from, customers can find the perfect drinkware to add some festive fall vibes to their daily coffee. New fall merchandise, all under $30, is beginning to roll out at participating Starbucks stores in the U.S. on Tuesday, Aug. 30 for a limited time, while supplies last. Don’t forget, Starbucks^® Rewards members who bring a clean, personal reusable cup into participating cafés will earn 25 Stars in addition to 10 cents off their beverage.*  

Starbucks Guatemala Casi Cielo^® returns

Back for its 18^th year, Starbucks Guatemala Casi Cielo^®, a partner (barista) favorite, this heavenly whole bean coffee is sourced exclusively from Guatemala’s high-altitude, volcanic Antigua region. This batch of Guatemala Casi Cielo^® represents Starbucks finest expression of one of its most beloved coffee origins. This medium roast coffee features floral aromas, lemon and cocoa nib notes to create a smooth bright cup.

Starbucks Reserve^® Coffees

Also available at select Starbucks stores and Starbucks Reserve^® locations, such as the Starbucks Reserve Roasteries, are two Starbucks Reserve® coffees, hand-selected seasonally from family farms and pioneering cooperatives, roasted daily at our Starbucks Reserve Roasteries.

New Starbucks Reserve^® Sun-Dried Zambia Ngoli Estate features a sparkling lemon acidity and notes of peach and ginger, produced by the Ngoli Estate in the remote Mafinga Hills.

Starbucks Reserve^® Vietnam Da Lat features bittersweet chocolate accented with notes of dried orange peel and cedar and a caramel sweetness, anchored by the city of Da Lat (nicknamed “The City of Eternal Spring”) in Vietnam’s Lam Dong Province.

Get all the fall feels at home

Customers can sip on the flavors of fall at home with new and returning Starbucks^® coffee and creamers available where groceries are sold. New this year is the canned Starbucks^® Nitro Cold Brew Pumpkin Cream and Starbucks^® Salted Caramel Mocha Flavored Roast and Ground Coffee. Read about the full lineup, available now on grocery store shelves for a limited time, here.

To learn more about Starbucks^® fall food and beverage menu items, visit starbucks.com/menu/featured.

*Customers can earn 25 Stars up to three times per day for bringing a clean, personal reusable cup into participating cafés.

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Tesla violated labor laws because it required employees to wear company uniform - TESLARATI

By Joey Klender

Posted on August 29, 2022

Tesla reportedly did not allow employees to wear pro-union clothing, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said, ruling the automaker broke labor laws. Tesla, in reality, required production workers to wear the company uniform, which is suggested for safety and quality control reasons.

Tesla has long held a stance that it operates more beneficially to its employees in a non-labor setting, and while CEO Elon Musk has been openly critical of unions, he has encouraged union groups to hold a vote at company facilities. No labor group has ever accepted this offer.

US Labor Sec: Elon Musk ‘not opposed’ to unionization ‘if workers were interested’

However, Tesla is now reportedly in hot water with the NLRB as it violated labor laws by not allowing company employees to wear “pro-union shirts,” Bloomberg is reporting. Chairman Lauren McFerran said that, after a 3-2 ruling by the agency, Tesla is officially in violation of labor rules, which encourages the “critical form of protected communication.”

The three voters in the NLRB said that Tesla’s encouragement of employees to wear the company uniform violated the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. Tesla argued that its dress code was meant to keep clothing from damaging cars during the production process. Tesla maintained that employees were free to display union insignia while working.

RELATED: 

Germany’s largest union claims Tesla Giga Berlin’s hiring challenges are due to low wages

In 2018, Tesla employees testified that managers told employees that they could not wear shirts supporting the UAW. Other employees wore various t-shirts, including sports team apparel, without being spoken to. The ruling in the case by the NLRB today will require Tesla to change its policy to allow any employee to wear a union shirt as long as it is black like other Tesla employee apparel.

Republican members of the NLRB said the decision “effectively declares illegitimate any employer uniform policy or dress code that prohibits employees from substituting union apparel for required clothing.”

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla violated labor laws because it required employees to wear company uniform

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Warren slams Jerome Powell over interest rate comments: 'I'm very worried that the Fed is going to tip this economy into recession' - CNN

(CNN)Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Sunday slammed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for suggesting interest rates should go up to combat inflation in the US, saying he could "tip this economy into recession."

"I am very worried about this because the causes of inflation -- things like the fact that Covid is still shutting down parts of the economy around the world, that we still have supply chain kinks, that we still have a war going on in Ukraine that drives up the cost of energy, and that we still have these giant corporations that are engaging in price gouging," Warren told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."

"There is nothing in raising the interest rates, nothing in Jerome Powell's tool bag, that deals directly with those, and he has admitted as much in congressional hearings when I've asked him about it," the senator continued, adding: "Do you know what's worse than high prices and a strong economy? It's high prices and millions of people out of work."

"I'm very worried that the Fed is going to tip this economy into recession," said Warren, who earlier this year opposed Powell's renomination to lead the Fed.

Fears of a recession in the US have been mounting for weeks, and Warren's comments come just two days after Powell, the head of the nation's central bank, hinted at a possible recession during a keynote speech at the Federal Reserve's annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Powell told investors during his remarks that the Fed was laser-focused on inflation and would continue its historic pace of rate hikes for the foreseeable future.

"While higher interest rates, slower growth, and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses," he said.

Like Warren, Wall Street also reacted negatively to the tone of Powell's speech, with the major indices dropping on the prospect of a sustained period of higher interest rates and the associated economic pain -- a word Powell invoked twice in his brief speech, referencing slower growth, higher unemployment and financial strain that tighter policy will inevitably visit on American homes and businesses.

Warren has previously urged Powell to proceed with rate hikes cautiously and avoid setting off a recession that would cost millions of jobs, including at a Senate hearing in June, when she expressed concern about the impact of the Fed's rate hikes on families and the risk of a recession and issued a warning similar to the one she gave Sunday.

"You know what's worse than high inflation and low unemployment? It's high inflation with a recession and millions of people out of work," she told Powell. "I hope you consider that before you drive this economy off a cliff."

CNN's Martha C. White and Matt Egan contributed to this report.

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Cash is king for EV makers as soaring battery prices drive up vehicle production costs - CNBC

Production of electric Rivian R1T pickup trucks on April 11, 2022 at the company's plant in Normal, Ill.

Michael Wayland / CNBC

In the transition from gas-powered vehicles to electric, the fuel every automaker is after these days is cold hard cash.

Established automakers and startups alike are rolling out new battery-powered models in an effort to meet growing demand. Ramping up production of a new model was already a fraught and expensive process, but rising material costs and tricky regulations for federal incentives are squeezing coffers even further.

Prices of the raw materials used in many electric-vehicle batteries — lithium, nickel and cobalt — have soared over the last two years as demand has skyrocketed, and it may be several years before miners are able to meaningfully increase supply.

Complicating the situation further, new U.S. rules governing EV buyer incentives will require automakers to source more of those materials in North America over time if they want their vehicles to qualify.

The result: new cost pressures for what was already an expensive process.

Automakers routinely spend hundreds of millions of dollars designing and installing tooling to build new high-volume vehicles — before a single new car is shipped. Nearly all global automakers now maintain hefty cash reserves of $20 billion or more. Those reserves exist to ensure that the companies can continue work on their next new models if and when a recession (or a pandemic) takes a bite out of their sales and profits for a few quarters.

All that money and time can be a risky bet: If the new model doesn't resonate with customers, or if manufacturing problems delay its introduction or compromise quality, the automaker might not make enough to cover what it spent.

For newer automakers, the financial risks to designing a new electric vehicle can be existential.

Take Tesla. When the automaker began preparations to launch its Model 3, CEO Elon Musk and his team planned a highly automated production line for the Model 3, with robots and specialized machines that reportedly cost well over a billion dollars. But some of that automation didn't work as expected, and Tesla moved some final-assembly tasks to a tent outside its factory.

Tesla learned a lot of expensive lessons in the process. Musk said later called the experience of launching the Model 3 "production hell" and said it nearly brought Tesla to the brink of bankruptcy.

As newer EV startups ramp up production, more investors are learning that taking a car from design to production is capital-intensive. And in the current environment, where deflated stock prices and rising interest rates have made it harder to raise money than it was just a year or two ago, EV startups' cash balances are getting close attention from Wall Street.

Here's where some of the most prominent American EV startups of the last few years stand when it comes to cash on hand:

Rivian

Production of electric Rivian R1T pickup trucks on April 11, 2022 at the company's plant in Normal, Ill.

Michael Wayland / CNBC

Rivian is by far the best-positioned of the new EV startups, with over $15 billion on hand as of the end of June. That should be enough to fund the company's operations and expansion through the planned launch of its smaller "R2" vehicle platform in 2025, CFO Claire McDonough said during the company's earnings call on Aug. 11.

Rivian has struggled to ramp up production of its R1-series pickup and SUV amid supply chain snags and early manufacturing challenges. The company burned about $1.5 billion in the second quarter, but it also said it plans to reduce its near-term capital expenditures to about $2 billion this year from $2.5 billion in its earlier plan to ensure it can meet its longer-term goals.

At least one analyst thinks Rivian will need to raise cash well before 2025: In a note following Rivian's earnings report, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said that his bank's model assumes Rivian will raise $3 billion via a secondary stock offering before the end of next year and another $3 billion via additional raises in 2024 and 2025.

Jonas currently has an "overweight" rating on Rivian's stock, with a $60 price target. Rivian ended trading Friday at roughly $32 per share.

Lucid

People test drive Dream Edition P and Dream Edition R electric vehicles at the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, September 28, 2021.

Caitlin O'Hara | Reuters

Luxury EV maker Lucid Group doesn't have quite as much cash in reserve as Rivian, but it's not badly positioned. It ended the second quarter with $4.6 billion in cash, down from $5.4 billion at the end of March. That's enough to last "well into 2023," CFO Sherry House said earlier this month.

Like Rivian, Lucid has struggled to ramp up production since launching its Air luxury sedan last fall. It's planning big capital expenditures to expand its Arizona factory and build a second plant in Saudi Arabia. But unlike Rivian, Lucid has a deep-pocketed patron — Saudi Arabia's public wealth fund, which owns about 61% of the California-based EV maker and would almost certainly step in to help if the company runs short of cash.

For the most part, Wall Street analysts were unconcerned about Lucid's second-quarter cash burn. Bank of America's John Murphy wrote that Lucid still has "runway into 2023, especially considering the company's recently secured revolver [$1 billion credit line] and incremental funding from various entities in Saudi Arabia earlier this year."

Murphy has a "buy" rating on Lucid's stock and a price target of $30. He's compared the startup's potential future profitability to that of luxury sports-car maker Ferrari. Lucid currently trades for about $16 per share.

Fisker

People gather and take pictures after the Fisker Ocean all-electric SUV was revealed at Manhattan Beach Pier on November 16, 2021 in Manhattan Beach, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

Unlike Rivian and Lucid, Fisker isn't planning to build its own factory to construct its electric vehicles. Instead, the company founded by former Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker will use contract manufacturers — global auto-industry supplier Magna International and Taiwan's Foxconn — to build its cars.

That represents something of a cash tradeoff: Fisker won't have to spend nearly as much money up front to get its upcoming Ocean SUV into production, but it will almost certainly give up some profit to pay the manufacturers later on. 

Production of the Ocean is scheduled to begin in November at an Austrian factory owned by Magna. Fisker will have considerable expenses in the interim — money for prototypes and final engineering, as well as payments to Magna — but with $852 million on hand at the end of June, it should have no trouble covering those costs.

RBC analyst Joseph Spak said following Fisker's second-quarter report that the company will likely need more cash, despite its contract-manufacturing model — what he estimated to be about $1.25 billion over "the coming years."

Spak has an "outperform" rating on Fisker's stock and a price target of $13. The stock closed Friday at $9 per share.

Nikola

Nikola Motor Company

Source: Nikola Motor Company

Nikola was one of the first EV makers to go public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The company has begun shipping its battery-electric Tre semitruck in small numbers, and plans to ramp up production and add a long-range hydrogen fuel-cell version of the Tre in 2023.

But as of right now, it probably doesn't have the cash to get there. The company has had a tougher time raising funds, following allegations from a short-seller, a stock price plunge and the ouster of its outspoken founder Trevor Milton, who is now facing federal fraud charges for statements made to investors.

Nikola had $529 million on hand as of the end of June, plus another $312 million available via an equity line from Tumim Stone Capital. That's enough, CFO Kim Brady said during Nikola's second-quarter earnings call, to fund operations for another 12 months — but more money will be needed before long.

"Given our target of keeping 12 months of liquidity on hand at the end of each quarter, we will continue to seek the right opportunities to replenish our liquidity on an ongoing basis while trying to minimize dilution to our shareholders," Brady said. "We are carefully considering how we can potentially spend less without compromising our critical programs and reduce cash requirements for 2023."

Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner estimates Nikola will need to raise between $550 million and $650 million before the end of the year, and more later on. He has a "hold" rating on Nikola with a price target of $8. The stock trades for $6 as of Friday's close.

Lordstown

Lordstown Motors gave rides in prototypes of its upcoming electric Endurance pickup truck on June 21, 2021 as part of its "Lordstown Week" event.

Michael Wayland / CNBC

Lordstown Motors is in perhaps the most precarious position of the lot, with just $236 million on hand as of the end of June.

Like Nikola, Lordstown saw its stock price collapse after its founder was forced out following a short-seller's allegations of fraud. The company shifted away from a factory model to a contract-manufacturing arrangement like Fisker's, and it completed a deal in May to sell its Ohio factory, a former General Motors plant, to Foxconn for a total of about $258 million.

Foxconn plans to use the factory to manufacture EVs for other companies, including Lordstown's Endurance pickup and an upcoming small Fisker EV called the Pear.

Despite the considerable challenges ahead for Lordstown, Deutsche Bank's Rosner still has a "hold" rating on the stock. But he's not sanguine. He thinks the company will need to raise $50 million to $75 million to fund operations through the end of this year, despite its decision to limit the first production batch of the Endurance to just 500 units.

"More importantly, to complete the production of this first batch, management will have to raise more substantial capital in 2023," Rosner wrote after Lordstown's second-quarter earnings report. And given the company's difficulties to date, that won't be easy.

"Lordstown would have to demonstrate considerable traction and positive reception for the Endurance with its initial customers in order to raise capital," he wrote.

Rosner rates Lordstown's stock a "hold" with a price target of $2. The stock closed Friday at $2.06.

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Revised: Odds of falling home prices in your local housing market, as told by one interactive map - Fortune

“We saw [home] prices moving up very very strongly for the last couple of years. So that changes now. And rates have moved up,” Powell told reporters in June. “We are well aware that mortgage rates have moved up a lot. And you are seeing a changing housing market. We are watching it to see what will happen. How much will it really affect residential investment? Not really sure. How much will it affect housing prices? Not really sure.”

“I’d say if you are a homebuyer, somebody or a young person looking to buy a home, you need a bit of a reset. We need to get back to a place where supply and demand are back together and where inflation is down low again, and mortgage rates are low again.”

It’s clear the Fed’s “housing reset” will give homebuyers more options (i.e. rising inventory) and more breathing room (i.e. fewer bidding wars). The question mark—which Powell acknowledged in June—is will it push home prices lower? Historically speaking, home prices remain sticky until economics forces sellers’ hand.

To better understand where home prices might be headed, Fortune reached out to CoreLogic to see if the firm would provide us with their updated August assessment of the nation’s largest regional housing markets. To determine the likelihood of regional home prices dropping, CoreLogic assessed factors like income growth projections, unemployment forecasts, consumer confidence, debt-to-income ratios, affordability, mortgage rates, and inventory levels. Then CoreLogic put regional housing markets into one of five categories, grouped by the likelihood that home prices in that particular market will fall over between June 2022 and June 2023. Here are the groupings the real estate research firm used for the August analysis:

• Very high: Over 70% chance of a price dip
• High: 50%–70% chance
• Medium: 40%–50% chance
• Low: 20%–40% chance
• Very Low: 0%–20% chance

Between June 2022 and June 2023, CoreLogic predicts U.S. home prices are poised to rise another 4.3%. But that's nationally. Regionally, some markets are at high risk of falling prices.

Among the 392 regional housing markets it looked at, CoreLogic found 125 markets have a greater than 50% chance of seeing local home prices decline over the next 12 months. In July, CoreLogic found 98 markets had a greater than 50% chance of a home price decline over the next 12 months. In June, 45 markets were at-risk. In May, just 26 markets fell into that camp.

Why does CoreLogic keep slashing its risk assessment? It boils down to souring U.S. housing market data. On a year-over-year basis, existing home sales and new home sales are down 20.2% and 29.6%, respectively. That's the sharpest housing activity contraction since 2006.

“Probability of home price decline continues to intensify as mortgage rates hit a new high in June and housing demand took a considerable dip," Selma Hepp, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic, tells Fortune.

"Price decline risk remains concentrated in regions that saw exceedingly high home price growth over the last two years, but not the same level of population and income growth, and areas that are historically more sensitive to increase in mortgage rates and recession signals,"

Of those 392 regional housing markets that CoreLogic measured, 67 markets in August have "very low" odds of falling home prices over the coming year. Another 133 housing markets are in the "low" group and 67 markets are in the "medium" group. CoreLogic put 85 markets in the "high" camp. CoreLogic categorized 40 markets as having "very high" odds of falling home prices over the coming year. That includes major markets like Boise, San Francisco, and Lake Havasu City.

The real estate industry should always be on high alert when the Federal Reserve shifts into inflation-fighting mode. After all, the sector is the most rate sensitive sector in the economy. That said, some regional markets should be on higher alert than others. Historically speaking, when a housing cycle "rolls over," it's normally the significantly "overvalued" housing markets that are at the highest risk of home price corrections.

According to CoreLogic, 75% of the nation's regional housing markets are "overvalued" relative to underlying economic fundamentals. Many of these frothy markets, like Boise, are at the highest risk of a price correction. However, there's one big exception: San Francisco. While CoreLogic says the Bay Area is at "very high" risk of falling home prices, it says the market isn't overvalued. What's going on? High-cost tech hubs, like San Francisco and Seattle, are getting hit hard by the tech slowdown. Not only are their high-end real estate markets more rate sensitive, but so are their tech sectors.

A growing chorus of research firms agree with CoreLogic that markets like Boise and San Francisco are at-risk of falling home prices. However, CoreLogic putting Phoenix—a market where inventory has spiked back to 2019 levels—as "low risk" for a price decline is eyebrow raising. Research groups like Moody's Analytics and John Burns Real Estate Consulting predict home prices will fall in Phoenix over the coming year.

"People don't expect prices [in Phoenix] to increase fast, or at all, anymore. The median metro Phoenix house price fell the last two months. If prices continue to fall for long enough, people will eventually expect prices to continue to fall in the future and then we could see the flip side of the 2021 housing market," John Wake, an independent real estate analyst based in Phoenix, tells Fortune.

Hungry for more housing data? Follow me on Twitter at @NewsLambert.

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Revised: Odds of falling home prices in your local housing market, as told by one interactive map - Fortune
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Fall Vaccination Campaign Will Bring New Shots, Worse Access - The New York Times

Updated Covid vaccines, expected soon after Labor Day, were designed to thwart Omicron variants. But money to distribute them has dried up.

Long past the point when pollsters said there were no more Americans willing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, Coral Garner kept finding them.

An organizer of mobile clinics for the Minnesota Department of Health, she arranged to provide vaccines and booster shots to people who had resisted them, setting up in a retrofitted city bus outside a Nigerian church, a Hmong senior center, a Somali mall and dozens of other sites.

But even as the United States now prepares for a critical campaign to deliver Omicron-specific booster shots, Ms. Garner’s job no longer exists. In June, her contract position was canceled because the state said funding had dried up.

At the very moment a better coronavirus vaccine is expected to finally become available, America’s vaccination program is feeling the effects of a long period of retreat.

Local programs to bring shots to the places where Americans gather and the institutions they trust have folded, a consequence in some cases of congressional resistance to more pandemic response spending.

The same local health department workers responsible for Covid and flu shots this fall have also, without new staffing, been juggling a monkeypox outbreak and childhood immunization deficits that have left some places susceptible to polio.

And some state health officials, citing weak demand for vaccines and increased survival rates of late, said in interviews that they had stopped aggressively pushing coronavirus shots.

With the virus killing far fewer people than it once did and many Americans reverting to their prepandemic ways, the country’s no-expenses-spared attitude to saving lives has evolved into a response that has put a greater onus on individuals to protect themselves. In keeping with that approach, many health officials believe the vaccine machinery is in place to meet what they expect, lamentably, to be tepid demand this fall.

Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

But others are worried that the country is surrendering a decisive opportunity to stoke that demand and restore the more robust vaccination efforts that lifted last year’s initial rollout.

“We are watching the dismantling of the hyperlocal infrastructure that actually brought needles to arms in the most vulnerable communities in the country,” said Stephen Thomas, the director of the Center for Health Equity at the University of Maryland. “To this day, vaccine uptake in the United States is embarrassing.”

The Biden administration said some 70,000 sites were prepared to vaccinate people this fall. While 60 percent of those are pharmacies, they also include doctor’s offices, community health centers and rural health clinics.

States can also seek money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for certain vaccination-related expenses, like setting up sites, buying equipment and offering translation or transportation services.

Having shifted much of the rollout to private sites, though, states have been promised FEMA reimbursements on a relatively modest $550 million in vaccination spending so far this year. Last year, that figure was $8.5 billion.

And while providers are supposed to vaccinate everyone for free, with or without insurance, the federal government ran out of money this spring to offer reimbursements for shots for uninsured people, making it more difficult for them to receive boosters.

Sonya Bernstein, a senior policy adviser for the White House Covid response team, said federal spending to support vaccination efforts was being held back by a stalemate in Congress over the administration’s request for billions of dollars in additional pandemic aid. Republicans have said that additional coronavirus spending could be covered with funding already approved by Congress, an assertion that some state health officials say is false.

“We are working with less because Congress has not provided us with that funding,” Ms. Bernstein said. “But that has not gotten in the way of our preparations. We’re working day in and day out to make sure states and our partners have the resources and support they need.”

The United States is leaning ever more heavily on vaccines to defend against the virus at a time when health officials are pulling back on other preventive measures, like masking, distancing and quarantining.

The fall vaccination campaign, which is expected to begin soon after Labor Day, could be crucial. Many Americans have gone months since their last Covid vaccine or infection, allowing immune defenses to wane. More indoor gatherings are on the horizon, and epidemiologists are predicting roughly 100,000 to 165,000 additional Covid deaths by the spring.

And, for the first time, the government has bought vaccines that were reformulated in response to the virus’s evolution. Manufacturers may finally have gained on the pathogen: The Omicron subvariant that the updated shots were designed to protect against remains dominant in the United States.

But, at the same time, the vaccination campaign is lagging. While two-thirds of Americans have completed the primary vaccine series, only about one-third have received boosters. The country’s per capita booster coverage trails that of some 70 other nations, according to Our World in Data.

Hannah Beier for The New York Times

Partly as a result, scientists said, Americans this year have died from Covid at a rate 80 percent higher than Canadians and 30 percent higher than residents of the European Union.

“We have criticisms of the way the initial vaccine rollout happened, but there was really a very significant effort to get everyone vaccinated,” said Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a University of Minnesota sociologist, who mentioned mandates, financial rewards and large events. “None of that really exists with boosters.”

With Covid deaths having plateaued around 480 a day, policymakers are grappling with whether renewed investments are needed. Some states believe they are not.

In Alabama, where one-fifth of residents are boosted, Dr. Burnestine Taylor, the state’s medical officer for disease control and prevention, said officials had pared back health department clinics and become more reliant on pharmacies as demand dropped. The decision to receive additional shots, she said, now fell to individuals.

“At this point, we’re not doing a hard push,” Dr. Taylor said. “It’s a personal decision.”

Even some more proactive efforts have run into a wall of complacency. In Camden County, N.J., health workers have visited community events and knocked on doors, but they have not encountered as many takers as they had hoped, said Paschal Nwako, the health officer there.

But other health workers said that they were still winning converts, if fewer than last year, including those who had been confused about boosters or unable to find clinics with evening availability.

In Madison, Wis., Aaron Perry, a former police officer, said that $100 stipends provided by the state have helped draw a dozen or so booster recipients to his health clinic every Friday, many from Black barbershops where he also runs health screening centers.

In San Bernardino, Calif., Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir, a pharmacist at Loma Linda University, said clinics late this spring could still attract as many as 30 first dose recipients.

And in Bismarck, N.D., Renae Moch, the public health director, said organizations like food pantries and homeless shelters still wanted to host regular clinics. But with surge staffing over, workers exhausted and positions harder to fill, she said she could only hold monthly pop-up clinics at a limited number of sites — and none in September, when back-to-school immunizations would consume the staff.

Of the hundreds of barbershops nationally that once hosted vaccination events, nine out of 10 are struggling to keep offering shots, said Dr. Thomas, of the University of Maryland, who has helped organize them. In some cases, he said, hospitals or pharmacies that eagerly used to send doses or staff have reported not having the money to partner with barbershops again or being concerned that small turnouts will not make it worth their while.

Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times

“The health care providers lost interest in us,” said Mike Brown, a barber outside Washington, D.C. “But I don’t think now is the time to give up the fight. People are still dying.”

For poorer Americans, the decrease in public vaccination sites could reduce the number who receive shots this fall, experts said.

In New York, Emily Gerteis, who arranges shots for people living on the street or in shelters at the Center for Urban Community Services, recalled convincing a patient this summer to be vaccinated. But when she suggested a pharmacy, the patient refused, preferring to hold out for city clinics and their $100 incentives, Ms. Gerteis said.

The problem was that those offerings no longer existed. The patient was not vaccinated.

“A year ago, there was all this money for advertising, and they were throwing money at vaccines,” said Dr. Zeke McKinney, a physician in Minneapolis who had helped to organize vaccinations at his local barbershop until funding dried up. “Now, it’s like nobody cares.”

The White House is still seeking more funding from Congress, which it says is also needed to produce tests and develop next-generation Covid vaccines.

For now, some health officials said they were prepared to rev back up shuttered sites in the event demand surged, even if their workers were increasingly depleted. On some days recently, Dr. Mysheika Roberts, the health commissioner in Columbus, Ohio, said she needed to divert two-thirds of her Covid vaccination specialists to monkeypox clinics.

“It’s a bit overwhelming for some of our staff members,” she said.

Experts said that restoring health workforces and maintaining vaccine outreach could help break a boom-and-bust cycle in public health spending that has especially hurt marginalized Americans. Early investments, for example, helped narrow racial gaps in primary series vaccination rates. But in the booster rollout, considerable racial disparities have re-emerged.

The relaxation of federal Covid guidance and the reluctance to incentivize booster shots has not made it any easier to persuade people of the benefits of additional doses, some health officials said.

“There’s a lot of messaging from federal sources that things are good and we’re back to normal,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, West Virginia’s Covid czar. “It’s mixed messaging.”

Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

Health experts encouraged making Covid shots a routine part of people’s medical care, including by enlisting more primary care doctors in the rollout. More creative marketing could also help generate demand, said Dr. Kevin Schulman, a Stanford University professor.

One example, he said, would be a campaign framed around protecting older relatives at fall or winter holiday gatherings. Despite the scientific uncertainties, he also said the time had to come to promise Americans that they would not be asked back for further Covid vaccines for at least a year — and that, when they were, it would be for an “annual Covid vaccine,” rather than a “booster.”

“Marketers spend huge amounts of time trying to figure these things out,” Dr. Schulman said. “Unfortunately, we just haven’t seen effort devoted in that direction.”

Ms. Bernstein, the White House adviser, said the administration was regularly surveying people about booster shots and using the results to inform messages it suggested to on-the-ground partners.

Ben Weston, Milwaukee County’s chief health policy adviser, said the nation’s underfunded booster campaign had hurt the same vulnerable and often nonwhite residents who have long struggled to gain access to good medical care.

“It’s putting up barriers,” he said, “particularly for populations that are more susceptible to those barriers.”

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Fall Vaccination Campaign Will Bring New Shots, Worse Access - The New York Times
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