Category Archives: Business

Business

US companies scramble to contain international ransomware attack | Hacking

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Businesses across the US rushed on Saturday to contain a ransomware attack that paralyzed computer networks around the world, a situation complicated in the US by offices being lightly staffed at the start of the Fourth of July weekend.

In Sweden, most of the grocery chain Coop’s 800 stores were unable to open because cash registers weren’t working, according to the public broadcaster. State railways and a major pharmacy chain were also affected.

Cybersecurity experts said the REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appeared to be behind the attack that targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud-service providers.

The privately held Kaseya is based in Dublin with a US headquarters in Miami.

The US federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) said it was closely monitoring the situation and working with the FBI. Cisa urged anyone who might be affected to “follow Kaseya’s guidance to shut down virtual system administrator servers immediately”.

The FBI linked REvil to an attack on JBS SA, a major global meat processor, over the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May. Active since April 2019, the group provides ransomware-as-a-service, meaning it develops the network-paralyzing software and leases it to so-called affiliates who infect targets and earn the lion’s share of ransoms.

The Brazil-based meat company said it paid the equivalent of a $11m ransom to the hackers, escalating calls by US law enforcement to bring such groups to justice.

Kaseya’s chief executive, Fred Voccola, said the company believed it had identified the source of the vulnerability and would “release that patch as quickly as possible to get our customers back up and running”.

John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs said he was aware of a number of managed-services providers – companies that host IT infrastructure – being hit by the ransomware, which encrypts networks until the victims pay off attackers.

“It’s reasonable to think this could potentially be impacting thousands of small businesses,” said Hammond.

Voccola said fewer than 40 Kaseya customers were known to be affected, but the ransomware could still be affecting hundreds more companies that rely on Kaseya clients that provide broader IT services.

Voccola said the problem was only affecting “on-premise” customers, organizations running their own data centers. It was not affecting cloud-based services running software for customers, though Kaseya shut down those servers as a precaution, he said.

The company said “customers who experienced ransomware and receive a communication from the attackers should not click on any links – they may be weaponised”.

A Gartner analyst, Katell Thielemann, said it was clear Kaseya “reacted with an abundance of caution. But the reality of this event is it was architected for maximum impact, combining a supply chain attack with a ransomware attack.”

Supply chain attacks infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically. Complicating the response this time is that the Kaseya attack happened at the start of a major holiday weekend in the US, when most corporate IT teams are not fully staffed.

That could leave organizations unable to address other security vulnerabilities, such as a dangerous Microsoft bug affecting software for print jobs, said James Shank, a threat intelligence analyst.

“Customers of Kaseya are in the worst possible situation,” he said. “They’re racing against time to get the updates out on other critical bugs.”

Shank said “it’s reasonable to think that the timing was planned” for the holiday.

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Business

Target closing San Francisco stores early in response to theft and safety concerns

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Target is changing the operating hours of its stores in the San Francisco area due to rising crime in the city.

Six stores in the San Francisco area will close at 6 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. due to concerns about the safety of their customers and rising theft, the company announced.

“For more than a month, we’ve been experiencing a significant and alarming rise in theft and security incidents at our San Francisco stores, similar to reports from other retailers in the area. Target is engaging local law enforcement, elected officials and community partners to address our concerns,” the retail giant said in a statement Friday. “With the safety of our guests, team members and communities as our top priority, we’ve temporarily reduced our operating hours in six San Francisco stores.”

40% OF SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENTS PLAN TO LEAVE DUE TO QUALITY OF LIFE: POLL

The pharmacy chain Walgreens will shutter 10 stores in the area in response to a surge in shoplifting, it announced in March.

A shoplifter went viral in June after he filled up a garbage bag full of Walgreens products and rode his bike out of the store with the items as a security guard stood by and watched.

“Seventeen Walgreens over the last five years, almost every Gap retail outlet is gone, CVS is under assault,” said San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai about the crime surge.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Certain crimes have been spiking in San Francisco, including a surge in car burglaries, which are up as much as 700% in some areas, police statistics showed. Burglaries, car thefts, and arson cases rose dramatically in 2020 compared to the year before, and homicides rose 17%.

Forty percent of residents are planning to leave the city in the next few years, a poll conducted by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce suggested, and 8 out of 10 San Franciscans believe crime has worsened in the city, leading to a lower quality of life for them.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, San Francisco, Crime, Target, Business

Original Author: Andrew Mark Miller

Original Location: Target closing San Francisco stores early in response to theft and safety concerns

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Business

ETH prepares to set up higher high

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  • Ethereum price seems to be done with its retracement after bouncing off a support barrier at $2,045.
  • ETH could rally 15% to set up a higher high at $2,460.
  • A breakdown of the June 27 swing low at $1,804 will invalidate the bullish thesis.

Ethereum price experienced a minor pullback after a massive rally from the range low. The correction ended as ETH bounces off a critical support level.

Investors can expect ETH to slice through the mid-point of the range and tag the immediate resistance levels.

Ethereum price ponders a 15% rally

Ethereum price set up a swing high on June 30 and $2,287 and began retracing. The support level at $2,045 ended the pullback and reversed the trend to bullish.

So far, ETH has climbed only 7% but more seems to be on its way. A potential spike in buying pressure that pushes ETH to slice through the 50% Fibonacci retracement level at $2,320 will confirm the presence of buyers. 

In such a case, investors can expect the smart contract token to rally another 6% to tag the resistance level at $2,460. However, if the buying pressure continues to pour in, the subsequent supply barriers at $2,552 and $2,640 might be the next target for bulls.

In a highly bullish case, Ethereum price might also propel to tag the range high at $2,912.

ETH/USDT 4-hour chart

Regardless of the bullishness at the current levels, if Ethereum price slices through $2,045, it will indicate the lack of buying pressure. In this case, ETH might retest the next demand barrier at $1,965.

However, a breakdown of $1,804  followed by an inability to flip it will invalidate the bullish outlook. In such a case, ETH might slide to the range low at $1,728.

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Business

Obscure Altcoin Erupts 127% After Sudden Crypto Shout-Out From Elon Musk

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A new Dogecoin spinoff more than doubled in price after Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave the altcoin a shout-out on Twitter.

Musk has become a primary influencer of cryptocurrency moves in recent months, as price volatility spikes often follow his tweets about various coins.

 

On Thursday, Musk once again turned his attention to crypto, sharing a meme with his 57.7 million followers on Twitter, calling to “Release the Doge!”

Just an hour after the initial tweet, Musk followed up with a more direct Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE) shout-out in a playful twist on the kid-friendly musical YouTube sensation Baby Shark.

“Baby Doge, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,

Baby Doge, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,

Baby Doge, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,

Baby Doge”

Shortly after the tweet, BABYDOGE soared 127% from a low of $0.000000000916 to a high of $0.000000002088, according to CoinGecko. 

 

Baby Doge Coin, which runs on Binance Smart Chain, claims to be birthed by fans of the Dogecoin community.

“Baby Doge seeks to impress his father by showing his new improved transaction speeds and adorableness. He is hyper-deflationary with an integrated smart staking system built in so more baby doge are being added to your wallet. Simply Love, pet, and watch your baby doge grow.”

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How Moderna made its mRNA Covid vaccine so quickly: Noubar Afeyan

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Almost all people hospitalized for Covid-19 are not vaccinated — 99.9% as of May to be exact, according to a recent Associated Press report.

Yet 13% of U.S. adults said they will “definitely not” get a COVID-19 vaccine as recently as late May, according to Kaiser Family Foundation COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor. Another 12% wanted to “wait until it has been available for a while to see how it is working for other people.”

Vaccinating the majority of the population is the best way to help avoid further surges from constantly evolving variants, like the current delta variant, which is quickly spreading in the U.S. and other countries.

Still, Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan understands the hesitation to get a new vaccine.

“The vaccines came out in such a [short] timeframe that people assumed automatically, it can’t possibly be safe,” Afeyan said during a talk at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May.

“In fact, many, many people were on television espousing the view that — experts for that matter — that if it’s done in less than five years, it’s got to be unsafe, all of which is untrue.

“Nevertheless, people get confused.”

What people might not understand is that extensive research was being done on mRNA technology and other mRNA vaccines for years. That decade plus of experience and the innovation of mRNA technology itself is what allowed Moderna to produce its Covid mRNA vaccine so quickly as the pandemic struck. And it could also change the future of medicine.

Here’s what you need to know about how the Moderna Covid-19 mRNA vaccine was developed.

The timeline: A vaccine in under a year

It is true that Moderna’s mRNA vaccine was ready remarkably fast, as was Pfizer’s.

Chinese scientists put the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus online on Jan. 11. Over the next two days, the NIH and Moderna used it to plot out a vaccine.

Afeyan remembers getting a key call about the development of the Covid-19 vaccine. “January 21st, my daughter’s birthday…. I got a call from Davos [during The World Economic Forum] from the CEO of Moderna,” he says. Bancel had been approached by a number of public health groups at the conference “urging” him to work on a vaccine.

“We literally Decided overnight…to try and do this,” Afeyan said at MIT.

Moderna delivered the first doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to the NIH for testing on Feb. 24, 2020, and “the first Moderna shot went into a volunteer’s arm in Seattle on March 16, 2020,” according to Afeyan.

After testing the Moderna vaccine on 30,000 volunteers, on Dec. 18, 2020, the FDA authorized it for emergency public use, and three days after that, the first Moderna vaccines were administered to front-line health workers, according to Afeyan.

Over a decade of research to innovate mRNA as a ‘bioplatform’

One of the reasons Moderna’s mRNA Covid vaccine development moved so quickly is because scientists had been working with mRNA for years.

“Messenger RNA technologies have been in development from a basic science perspective for over 15 years,” Kizzmekia Corbet, the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines & Immunopathogenesis Team at NIH, who helped make the vaccine possible, told the NIH Record.

And Moderna has been working with mRNA technology “since its inception in 2010 for myriad therapeutic areas,” including cancer therapies, Afeyan tells CNBC Make It (by way of a publicist), and with clinical development of mRNA-based antiviral vaccines since 2015.

What Moderna did over many of those years was develop mRNA as what scientists call a bioplatform, which allows for speedier vaccine development. Bioplatforms are systems that can easily be scaled and tailored for many different diseases.

Traditionally, developing any vaccine essentially has been a bespoke effort.

“The benefits of a bioplatform is the ability to quickly redeploy the platform once established and refined –in the case of Moderna’s mRNA platform, to create and test new vaccines based on new viral sequences,” Afeyan tells CNBC Make It (by way of a publicist).

All of this makes mRNA vaccines virtually programable. Corbet and Bancel describe the process as “plug and play.”

“MRNA is always made of four same letters, Bancel said on the December Andreessen Horowitz podcast, “Bio Eats the World.” (MRNA is genetic material, similar to DNA, so its “code” is expressed with letters.) It’s “the four letters of life, like zeros and one in software,” said Bancel. “This is like software or LEGO.”

“The only difference between” mRNA vaccines is “the order of the letter; the zeroes and ones of life,” Bancel said. “The manufacturing process is the same, the equipment is the same, with the same operators. It’s the same thing. And so this is why we could go so fast.”

Faster vaccine development in the future

Bioplatforms will effect change way beyond the Covid pandemic.

Judy Savitskaya and Jorge Conde, biotech investors for top Silicon Valley investment house Andreessen Horowitz liken how bioplatforms could change the biotechnology industry to what the advent assembly lines did for the auto industry: It “went from single ‘job shops’ in the early days of automobiles — where raw materials like steel and rubber crafted from start to finish by hand into a trickle of early cars — to assembly line production, with standard components that could be iterated for new models,” they wrote in a January blog post.

(Andreessen Horowitz is not an investor in invested in Moderna, Pfizer or BioNTech, according to a firm spokesperson.)

The Covid-19 vaccine is one example of how mRNA can be used.

Moderna has 24 mRNA vaccines and therapeutics under investigation, and 14 have begun clinical studies, according to the company’s quarterly investment documents published in May. Moderna’s pipeline of mRNA treatments include a zika vaccine, HIV vaccine and a cancer vaccine, to name a few.

The same dynamic enabled Pfizer and BioNTech, who collaborated to create the other mRNA Covid vaccine currently in use in the U.S., “to rapidly redirect its mRNA technology platform from cancer to COVID in a matter of weeks; the company estimates it can manufacture updated versions against emerging mutant strains in as little as six weeks,” Savitskaya and Conde write.

Pfizer and BioNTech are also working on an mRNA vaccine to prevent the flu.

“[T]hese programs are just the first in a long list coming that will benefit from the same underlying [bio]platforms,” wrote Savitskaya and Conde. “The rise of productive platforms will impact much more than just vaccines. It will transform all areas of biotech, from small molecule discovery, protein engineering, genome editing, gene delivery, cell therapy, and more.”

Even with all this hard work and innovation, even Afeyan says Moderna got lucky to be able to move as quickly as it did.

“I’m quite actually amazed,” Afeyan said at MIT. “Murphy’s Law was on vacation, was on sabbatical for a whole year, and so many things that could have gone wrong, simply did not.”

See also:

This biotech start-up is working overtime to develop a mutation-resistant Covid-19 vaccine

Merck CEO on success: I was one of a ‘few inner city black kids’ who rode bus 90 minutes to school

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt: How to protect the U.S. from climate change and future pandemics

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Business

NPR Cookie Consent and Choices

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NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or service providers.
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Business

Dow Jones Futures: Apple, Google, Tech Titans Drive Stock Market Rally; Three Are In Buy Range

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Dow Jones futures will open on Sunday afternoon, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally showed solid gains in the major indexes, fueled by strong gains by the five trillion-dollar tech giants: Apple stock, Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Facebook (FB) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL).




X



Apple (AAPL) broke out past a buy point late last week. Google stock moved higher in its buy zone, while Amazon flashed at least an early entry. Microsoft stock moved out of its buy zone while Facebook stock looks extended. All FB stock did last week was hit a record high and a $1 trillion valuation for the first time. —

The megacap techs, along with big-cap chip winners such as Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD), fueled the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite to record highs, while the Dow Jones set a record close.

But many growth stocks had nasty sell-offs or reversals. On the plus side, some growth stocks had more-gentle pauses, forging new buy points. Still, while the stock market rally is in a confirmed uptrend, investors need to follow their buy and sell rules.

Microsoft stock and Google are on IBD Leaderboard and IBD Long-Term Leaders.

Dow Jones Futures Today

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

U.S. stock exchanges are closed Monday, July 5, in observance of the Fourth of July holiday. But Dow Jones futures will trade normally on Monday, along with stock markets around the world.

OPEC+ will continue talks on Monday, after failing to reach an agreement on Thursday-Friday. Most of the oil ministers back a plan to gradually increase output starting in August, but the United Arab Emirates has some objections. The modest production hike likely would only partially offset rising demand, as the global economy ramps up.

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

Join David Ryan analyzing actionable stocks in the stock market rally on IBD Live.

Coronavirus News

Coronavirus cases worldwide reached 183.95 million. Covid-19 deaths topped 3.98 million.

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. have hit 34.58 million, with deaths above 621,000.

Stock Market Rally

The stock market rally had a solid week, capped Friday by a jobs report showing strong hiring was also not sparking inflation concerns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% in last week’s stock market trading. The S&P 500 index climbed 1.7% and the Nasdaq composite 1.9%. The small-cap Russell 2000 retreated 1.35% on smaller financials and some sharp growth-stock losses.

Apple stock and Microsoft, the only two members of the $2 trillion club, are in the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite. FANG stocks Facebook, Google and Amazon are all in the S&P and Nasdaq.

The 10-year Treasury yield tumbled 11 basis points to 1.43%, the lowest since March. Crude oil futures hit fresh three-year highs.

Growth stocks generally powered higher, despite some big individual losers.

Among the best ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) fell 2.1% last week with a few high-profile growth names such as Digital Turbine (APPS) selling off hard. The Innovator IBD Breakout Opportunities ETF (BOUT) added 0.7%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) climbed 1.7%. Microsoft stock is a major IGV component. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) jumped 2.6%.

Meanwhile, other sectors were mixed.

SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) edged up 0.9% and Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) 0.15%, after both had big rebounds in the prior week. U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) slumped 2.2%, as Delta coronavirus fears and restrictions slam travel names. SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) rose 2.4%, continuing to rebound after several weeks of weakness. The Energy Select SPDR ETF (XLE) fell 1.2% amid profit-taking, and the Financial Select SPDR ETF (XLF) was just about break-even.

Reflecting more-speculative story stocks, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) rose 2.1% and ARK Genomics ETF (ARKG) 2.2%, but both closed in the bottom third of their weekly ranges.

Five Best Chinese Stocks To Buy And Watch Now

Google Stock Moves Higher In Buy Zone

Google stock rose 2.2% last week to 2,505.15, hitting a new high. On Friday, shares rose 2.3%, clearing a lot of recent action just above and below the 2,431.48 flat-base buy point. Volume was below average for the week while Friday’s was a little less so.

The relative strength line for Google stock is just below a record high. That reflects the internet giant’s outperformance vs. the S&P 500 index.

Apple Stock Breaks Out

Apple stock cleared a 137.17 cup-base buy point this week, jumping 5.15% for the week to 139.96. Volume was anemic, though Friday’s trade was almost average. The RS for AAPL stock is improving, near consolidation highs, but well off all-time levels.

Amazon Stock Offers Early Entry

Amazon stock rose 3.2% last week to 3,510.98. That’s just below a 3,524.96 cup-with-handle buy point, according to MarketSmith analysis. But investors could have bought AMZN stock as it broke a mini-downtrend in the handle on Friday.

The RS line for AMZN stock recently hit consolidation highs, though it’s still off all-time levels.

Microsoft Stock Powers Out Of Buy Zone

Microsoft stock advanced 4.8% last week to 277.65, moving out of a 5% buy zone. Shares cleared the 263.29 buy point on June 22. It was a shallow cup, part of a base-on-base pattern.

The latest breakout pushed Microsoft stock above a $2 trillion market cap, now at $2.09 trillion. That’s second only to Apple stock, at $2.34 trillion.

The RS line for MSFT stock is now at a 10-month high. Could this Long-Term Leader be ready for another run?

Facebook Stock Tops $1 Trillion

Facebook stock popped 3.9% last week to 354.70, thanks to a 4.2% jump on Monday to record highs. Facebook won two antitrust suits on Monday, pushing FB stock above a $1 trillion valuation.

Market Rally Analysis

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite are at record highs, while the Dow Jones is on the cusp of doing so. The small-cap Russell 2000 retreated.

The Nasdaq composite is 5.5% above its 50-day line, while the Nasdaq 100 is 6.4% above that key level. When the Nasdaq is 6% or more above its 50-day, the odds of a pullback rise, with the risks that any such retreat will be larger. However, the Nasdaq is arguably in the early stages of a new uptrend, when getting extended is less of a concern. Also, recent history has shown that the Nasdaq can become significantly more extended for a lengthy time before succumbing to a notable pullback.

Megacap and big-cap tech stocks fueled the major indexes last week. That’s masked some weakness in the Nasdaq and NYSE advance-decline line, signaling a lack of breadth in the recent move. Further, the fierce selling or reversals in a number of growth stocks, including APPS stock, UP Fintech (TIGR) and Star Bulk Carriers (SBLK), was a little troubling.

But beyond Apple, Google or Amazon, there are still a lot of actionable stocks or quality names setting up.

Some growth names had more gradual pauses and are forming handles, such as Shopify (SHOP) and Zscaler (ZS). Several apparel retailers are hovering at buy points, including L Brands (LB) and American Eagle Outfitters (AEO). Housing-related stocks are starting to shape up, with Tempur-Sealy (TPX) breaking out last week.

Time The Market With IBD’s ETF Market Strategy

What To Do Now

Don’t get too concentrated in a particular stock or sector. If you do have a big position, be careful with any adds. Make sure to use proper buy points and keep your overall cost basis low. For new positions, definitely don’t buy extended, especially in highfliers.

On this long Fourth of July weekend, take time to celebrate with family and friends, and enjoy the fireworks. But the price of liberty, and financial independence, is eternal vigilance.

The stock market rally is offering opportunities and setups, but investors have to be disciplined. That means running screens to build up your watchlists, buying stocks at the right time and then staying alert to your holdings and overall market. Most of all, follow your sell rules.

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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IBD Digital: Unlock IBD’s Premium Stock Lists, Tools And Analysis Today



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Britain’s Morrisons agrees $8.7 bln offer from Fortress-led group

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A Morrisons store is pictured in St Albans, Britain, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra//File Photo

  • Fortress-led group offers 254 pence a share
  • Tops CD&R’s proposal of 230 pence
  • Some investors want 270 pence
  • Morrisons says Fortress would be suitable owner
  • Fortress says it will be ‘good steward’

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) – Morrisons has agreed to a takeover led by SoftBank (9984.T) owned Fortress Investment Group, valuing Britain’s fourth largest supermarket chain at 6.3 billion pounds ($8.7 billion) and topping a rival proposal from a U.S. private equity firm.

The offer from Fortress, along with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Koch Real Estate Investments, exceeds a 5.52 billion pound unsolicited proposal from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), which Morrisons (MRW.L) rejected on June 19. read more

Including Morrisons’ net debt of 3.2 billion pounds, Fortress’ offer gives the group an enterprise value of 9.5 billion pounds.

“We have looked very carefully at Fortress’ approach, their plans for the business and their overall suitability as an owner of a unique British food-maker and shopkeeper with over 110,000 colleagues and an important role in British food production and farming,” said Morrisons Chairman Andrew Higginson.

“It’s clear to us that Fortress has a full understanding and appreciation of the fundamental character of Morrisons.”

The Fortress deal underlines the growing appetite from private funds for British supermarket groups, seen as attractive because of their cash generation and freehold assets.

Fortress, an independently-operated subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, is a global investment manager with about $53 billion in assets under management as of March. It purchased British wine seller Majestic Wine in 2019.

“We are committed to being good stewards of Morrisons to best serve its stakeholder groups, and the wider British public, for the long term,” said managing partner, Joshua A. Pack.

Fortress intends to retain Morrisons’ existing management team led by CEO David Potts and execute its existing strategy. It said it was not planning any material store sale and leaseback transactions.

RECOMMENDATION

Under the terms of the deal, which Morrisons’ board is recommending to shareholders, investors would receive 254 pence a share, comprising 252 pence in cash and a 2 pence special cash dividend. CD&R’s proposal was 230 pence a share, worth 5.52 billion pounds.

Last week JO Hambro, a top ten shareholder in Morrisons, said any suitor for the group should offer about 270 pence a share or 6.5 billion pounds. read more

Morrisons, based in Bradford, northern England, started out as an egg and butter merchant in 1899. It now only trails market leader Tesco (TSCO.L), Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) and Asda in annual sales.

Morrisons owns 85% of its nearly 500 stores and has 19 mostly freehold manufacturing sites. It is unique among British supermarkets in making over half of the fresh food it sells.

It said the Fortress offer represented a premium of 42% to its closing share price of 178 pence on June 18 – the day before CD&R’s proposal. The stock closed at 243 pence on Friday.

Morrisons’ directors, who own 0.23% of the group’s equity, would make 14.3 million pounds from selling their shares to Fortress.

CD&R, which under British takeover rules has until July 17 to come back with a firm offer, had no immediate comment.

Morrisons has a partnership agreement with Amazon (AMZN.O) and there has been speculation it too could emerge as a possible bidder.

FIVE PROPOSALS

Morrisons said an initial unsolicited proposal was received from Fortress on May 4 at 220 pence a share. This offer was not made public. Fortress then made four subsequent proposals before it offered a total value of 254 a share on June 5.

The bids for Morrisons follow February’s purchase by Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital of a majority stake in Asda from Walmart (WMT.N). The deal valued Asda at 6.8 billion pounds. read more

That transaction followed Sainsbury’s failure to take over Asda after an agreed deal was blocked by Britain’s competition regulator in 2019.

In April, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky raised his stake in Sainsbury’s to almost 10%, igniting bid speculation.

read more

($1 = 0.7235 pounds)

Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Jane Merriman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Bitcoin mining difficulty drops after hashrate collapse in China

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Bitcoin mine on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau near Sichuan, China. The mine is strategically placed next to a hydraulic power generator.

Getty Images

It just became a whole lot easier and much more profitable to mine for bitcoin.

The world has known for months that more than half the world’s bitcoin miners would be going dark as China cracked down on mining. Now that it’s happened, the bitcoin algorithm has adjusted accordingly to make sure miner productivity doesn’t continue to fall off a cliff. 

That adjustment – which took effect early Saturday morning – also means that way more cash is going to the bitcoin miners who remain online.

“This will be a revenue party for miners,” said bitcoin mining engineer Brandon Arvanaghi.

“They suddenly own a meaningfully larger piece of the pie, meaning they earn more bitcoin every day.”

Mining made easier

A bitcoin miner runs a program on a computer to try to solve a puzzle before anyone else does. Solving that puzzle is what completes a block, a process that both creates new bitcoin and updates the digital ledger keeping track of all bitcoin transactions. 

China had long been the epicenter of bitcoin miners, with past estimates indicating that 65% to 75% of the world’s bitcoin mining happened there, but a government-led crackdown has effectively banished the country’s crypto miners. 

“For the first time in the bitcoin network’s history, we have a complete shutdown of mining in a targeted geographic region that affected more than 50% of the network,” said Darin Feinstein, founder of Blockcap and Core Scientific. 

More than 50% of the hashrate – the collective computing power of miners worldwide – has dropped off the network since its market peak in May.

Fewer people mining means that fewer blocks are solved each day. Typically, it takes about 10 minutes to complete a block, but Feinstein told CNBC the bitcoin network has slowed down to 14- to 19-minute block times.

This is precisely why bitcoin re-calibrates every 2016 blocks, or about every two weeks, resetting how tough it is for miners to mine. On Saturday, the bitcoin code automatically made it about 28% less difficult to mine – a historically unprecedented drop for the network – thereby restoring block times back to the optimal 10-minute window. 

The bitcoin algorithm is programmed to handle an increase or decrease in mining machines, according to Mike Colyer, CEO of digital currency company Foundry. “It is a self-regulating market that does not require any outside committee to determine what to do. This is a very powerful concept,” he said.

Fewer competitors and less difficulty means that any miner with a machine plugged in is going to see a significant increase in profitability and more predictable revenue.

“All bitcoin miners share in the same economics and are mining on the same network, so miners both public and private will see the uplift in revenue,” said Kevin Zhang, former Chief Mining Officer at Greenridge Generation, the first major U.S. power plant to begin mining behind-the-meter at a large scale. 

Assuming fixed power costs, Zhang estimates revenues of $29 per day for those using the latest-generation Bitmain miner, versus $22 per day prior to the change. Longer-term, although miner income can fluctuate with the price of the coin, Zhang also noted that mining revenues have dropped only 17% from the bitcoin price peak in April, whereas the coin’s price has dropped about 50%.

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“We are expecting a period of much higher mining profitability for Compass Mining clients,” said Whit Gibbs, CEO and founder of Compass, a bitcoin mining service provider. “We expect miners to be approximately 35% more profitable.”

Blockcap’s Feinstein agrees. “We are expecting a revenue and profit increase for the foreseeable future.  This was an unexpected gift to the network, not just on revenues but on decentralization and sustainable energy metrics.”

Although the difficulty drop benefits all miners, those using new-generation equipment stand to benefit the most.

Feinstein tells CNBC that most of the gear in China that was turned off was old-generation equipment, which is inefficient and runs on much smaller profit margins.  

Six-month surge

It is hard to predict how long the hashrate deficit will last. Barbour said that it is totally possible that Beijing could simply reverse their policy, and this could only be a short-term interruption. 

If not, most mining crypto experts agree that it will take anywhere from six to 15 months for all of that idle and displaced mining hardware to migrate. “It’s going to take a long time for the surplus to find a home,” said Barbour. 

Gibbs thinks miners should see heightened revenue for at least the rest of 2021.

“Every day the Chinese miners are searching globally for places to turn their machines back on. There is very limited space at the moment,” said Colyer.

Part of the problem, according to Feinstein, is that even before China cut off mining, there was already a lack of infrastructure to house the new-generation miners being deployed monthly by Beijing-based manufacturer Bitmain.

Now that the market is flooded with an over-supply of used mining rigs, it is tough to say how fast countries will be able to absorb the influx of gear. 

“Some mining companies have had everything built and were just waiting for these ASICs to plug in, which would only take a couple days,” explained Arvanaghi.

“Others may need to build containers, extend warehouses, or increase their power capacity. We won’t see the hashrate reach what it used to be overnight, but we’ll see it tick back up over the next few months,” he continued.

Of all the possible destinations for this equipment, the U.S. appears to be especially well-positioned to absorb this stray hashrate. CNBC is told that major U.S. mining operators are already signing deals to patriate some of these homeless Bitmain miners. 

U.S. bitcoin mining is booming, and has venture capital flowing to it, so they are poised to take advantage of the miner migration, Arvanaghi told CNBC. 

“Many U.S. bitcoin miners that were funded when bitcoin’s price started rising in November and December of 2020 means that they were already building out their power capacity when the China mining ban took hold,” he said. “It’s great timing.”

But Barbour believes that much smaller players in the residential U.S. also stand a chance at capturing these excess miners. 

“I think this is a signal that in the future, bitcoin mining will be more distributed by necessity,” said Barbour. “Less mega-mines like the 100+ megawatt ones we see in Texas and more small mines on small commercial and eventually residential spaces. It’s much harder for a politician to shut down a mine in someone’s garage.”



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Business

California man issued ticket for driving with Starlink antenna on his car

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A California driver was caught with an apparent SpaceX Starlink antenna bolted to his car’s hood — and he gave cops an out of this world excuse.

The motorist was pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer because of the “visual obstruction,” the agency said in a Facebook post Friday.

The officer asked: “Does it not block your view while driving?”

“Only when I make right turns,” the driver replied.

Police ticketed the motorist, who was behind the wheel of a red Toyota Prius, for a moving violation, according to CNBC.

The motorist reportedly told cops they used the antenna to get Wi-Fi for a business they operate out of the vehicle.

“Yes, it is in fact illegal to mount a satellite dish to the hood of your vehicle, obstructing your view under section 26708(a)(2) of the California Vehicle Code,” CPH Antelope Valley wrote on Facebook.

“You also may not hang things from your rear view mirror, mount a GPS or cell phone in an unapproved location on your windshield, or display a handicap placard while the vehicle is in motion under this section.

“It’s about safety folks.”

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