Category Archives: Business

SpaceX accepts Dogecoin payment for DOGE-1 mission to the moon

SpaceX founder Elon Musk gestures to the audience after being recognized by U.S. President Donald Trump at NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building following the successful launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

Paul Hennessy | SOPA Images | Getty Images

Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” in the first quarter of 2022, with the company accepting the meme-inspired cryptocurrency as full payment for the lunar payload.

Geometric Energy Corporation announced the dogecoin-funded mission on Sunday, which SpaceX’s communications team confirmed in an email to reporters. The mission’s financial value was not disclosed.

DOGE-1 will fly a 40 kilogram cube satellite as a payload on a Falcon 9 rocket, with Geometric Energy Corporation saying its payload “will obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on-board with integrated communications and computational systems.”

SpaceX vice president of commercial sales Tom Ochinero said in a statement that DOGE-1 “will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce.”

“We’re excited to launch DOGE-1 to the Moon!” Ochinero said.

A Falcon 9 rocket launches the Transporter-1 mission in January 2021.

SpaceX

Musk previously announced the company’s plans, albeit in a tweet on April Fool’s Day.

“SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon,” Musk wrote.

The DOGE-1 mission comes after Musk, the self-proclaimed “Dogefather,” made his debut as host of “Saturday Night Live.” The price of dogecoin plunged during his appearance, falling below 50 cents, despite his references to the cryptocurrency.

For SpaceX, the announcement also comes on the day the company set a new record for its Falcon 9 series of rockets. After launching another batch of Starlink satellites into orbit, SpaceX landed the Falcon 9 rocket’s booster for a 10th time — a benchmark Musk has previously described as key in the company’s progress of reusing its rockets.

“It’s designed to do 10 or more flights with no refurbishment between each flight,” Musk told reporters in May 2018.

“We believe that the [Falcon 9] boosters are capable of on the order of at least 100 flights before being retired. Maybe more.”

A Falcon 9 rocket booster lands after launching the Sentinel-6 mission.

SpaceX

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As Dogecoin Rally Mutes, ‘Cheaper’ Ethereum, Bitcoin Look-Alikes Stike Massive Gains

Dogecoin (DOGE) traded nearly 17% lower on Thursday night at press time as the cryptocurrency took a breather from its recent upwards march, but Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) charted a different course.

What Happened: DOGE traded 17.10% lower at $0.53 ahead of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s scheduled appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

Musk promised on social media this week that he would “definitely” touch on “Summin about The DOGEFATHER” on the variety show.

Still, the Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency is up 71.69% over a seven-day trailing period, but the rise of DOGE has been eclipsed by others such as ETC and BCD.

See Also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

ETC has risen 288.47% over the period of seven days, while BCD has risen 200.1%. At press time, ETC traded 36.08% higher at $128.65 and BCD was up 79.82% at $6.76.

ETC reached an all-time high of $176.16 on Thursday and has declined 24.75% from those levels.

Why It Matters: Ethereum Classic emerged as a result of a hard fork of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain in 2016. Bitcoin Diamond is a fork of Bitcoin (BTC) that took place in 2017.

See Also: Why Is Ethereum Classic Surging, How Is It Different From Ethereum?

ETH traded 0.98% lower at $3,456.75 at press time, while BTC traded 1.3% lower at $56,292.17 at press time.

ETC’s year-to-date gains have outpaced those of both BTC and ETH and it has captured the attention of social media investors.

Synergia Capital’s head of research, Denis Vinokourov, said the appreciation in ETC “appears to be dominated by ‘cheaper’ Ethereum play and retail flow that has pushed DOGE to sky-high levels,”  according to CoinDesk.

There is a potential for investors to confuse various forks of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Recently a fork of Bitcoin — Bitcoin Gold (BTG) — may have appreciated because of its ticker’s similarity with a Bitcoin fund.

Read Next: Could Elon Musk’s SNL Hosting Tank Dogecoin Price With Profit-Booking?

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights
reserved.

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FTSE recovers from Yellen-driven sell-off

TipRanks

These 3 Cathie Wood Stocks Are Set to Rip Higher By 40% (Or More)

The markets lately are a mix of gains and volatility, and it’s tough, sometimes, for investors to make sense of it. In times like these, it makes sense to turn to the experts. Cathie Wood is one such expert, an investor whose stock choices have consistently outperformed the overall markets. A protégé of famed economist Arthur Laffer, market guru Wood has built her reputation on her clear view of the markets. Her firm is Ark Invest, whose Innovation ETF has over $52 billion in assets under management, making it one of the largest institutional investors on the scene. And better yet, Wood’s stock choices paid back during the ‘corona year;’ the ETF’s overall return in 2020 was an astounding 170%. With returns like that, it’s clear Cathie Wood knows what she’s talking about when she picks a stock. So, we’re taking a look at three of her stock choices, all from the ‘top 10’ of her firm’s holdings, by percentage weight within the portfolio. Using the TipRanks platform, we’ve found that, according to some Street analysts, each has at least 40% upside potential for the coming year. Let’s get the lowdown. Teladoc Health, Inc. (TDOC) The first stock on our list, Teladoc, was one of the ‘early adopter’ companies in the telehealth sector, making remote medical care available for non-emergency issues. Patients can use Teladoc to consult on ear-nose-throat matters, lab referrals, basic diagnoses and medical advice, and prescription refills for non-addictive substances. Teladoc bills its service as offering remote house calls by primary care doctors. Despite the obvious benefits of Teladoc’s service during the pandemic year, and steadily rising revenues, the company’s stock has underperformed the broader markets in the last 12 months. A look at the most recent quarterly report – for 1Q21 – will shed some light. The company reported $453.6 million at the top line, up an impressive 150% year-over-year. Earnings, however, told a different story. At $199.6 million, the net loss in Q1 was much deeper than the year-ago quarter’s $29.6 million loss. Per share, the loss came to $1.31, compared to just 40 cents one year earlier. The losses weighed on investors’ minds, but the company guidance was more worrisome. Management predicts that paid membership will be flat yoy in 2021. The stock fell 10% after the earnings release. Cathie Wood, however, started buying shares, taking advantage of the dip in price to increase her holdings of TDOC. Her firm bought up more than 716K shares, worth over $122 million at the time of purchase. Teladoc is Ark’s #2 holding, making up over 6% of the fund’s portfolio. While BTIG analyst David Larsen notes investors’ concerns, he believes the long-term outlook for the company remains positive. “The issue that may weigh on the stock, is 2021 membership guidance of 52 – 54M (+2% y/y) was left unchanged,” Larsen said. “Despite this headwind we still like the company and the stock. Management highlighted that the ‘pipeline for membership’ is now up more than 50% y/y, which is higher than what was reported in 4Q:20, and many of these deals are progressing. TDOC also won a large BCBS plan in the north-east due to the “whole person” model, and it’s a competitive take-away. We believe that management’s comments around membership pipeline are very calculated, and we would expect 2022 membership growth to be far better than 2021’s growth rate.” In line with his comments, Larsen rates TDOC as a Buy, and his $300 price target implies an upside of 83% for the year ahead. (To watch Larsen’s track record, click here.) Overall, Teladoc gets a Moderate Buy from the analyst consensus, a rating derived from 23 reviews that include 14 to Buy and 9 to Hold. The shares are priced at $163.21 and have an average price target of $243.68, making the one-year upside a robust 49%. (See Teladoc’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM) Next up, Zoom, needs no introduction. This tech-based video communications company had a low profile in 2019, but in the corona crisis of 2020 Zoom came of age. The company saw a tremendous expansion, in use and user base, and its stock peaked in November 2020 with a price well above $500 per share. It has since declined – but even after that decline, ZM shares still show a one-year gain of 121%. The share price decline in Zoom may be best seen as temporary volatility in a stock that is otherwise sound. Zoom went public in April of 2019, and has reported sequential revenue and earnings gains in every quarter since – with the gains accelerating last year. For Q4 of fiscal 2021, the last reported, Zoom reported $882.5 million at the top line, up 13.5% sequentially and a whopping 368% year-over-year. EPS in the last quarter was 87 cents; this compares to just 5 cents per share income the year before. Zoom reported $377.9 million in free cash flow for 4Q21, compared to $26.6 million one year earlier. In customer metrics, Zoom reported equally strong growth. It had more than 467K customers with more than 10 employees, growth of some 470% yoy, and 1,644 customers who paid more than $100,000 in the trailing 12 months, up 156% yoy. As for Cathie Wood, she thinks that Zoom will continue growing, saying, “I think it’s going to usurp a lot of the old telco infrastructure.” Two of Wood’s Ark funds own shares of Zoom, over 2.4 million shares in total, Zoom makes up roughly 3.40% of Ark’s portfolio. 5-star analyst Daniel Bartus, from Merrill Lynch, also likes ZM shares, and writes of the company’s model, “In our view, Zoom’s superior video experience has solidified its position as the go-to meetings platform post-COVID. As the pandemic lingers and enterprises adopt more flexible workforces, we believe 2021 will be another good year for Zoom. Post-pandemic, we believe Zoom remains well-positioned as the new communications standard and the upsell of Zoom Phone, Rooms, and additional features across the 467k customer base offsets the churn risk across smaller customers.” Bartus puts a Buy rating on the stock, with a $480 price target suggesting a potential upside of 52% for the coming year. (To watch Bartus’s track record, click here.) Wall Street’s views on Zoom offer a bit of a conundrum. The analyst consensus here is a Hold, based on reviews that include 6 to Buy, 10 to Hold, and 2 to Sell. On the other hand, the stock’s $444.40 average price target implies an upside of 41% on the one-year horizon. (See Zoom’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) Shopify, Inc. (SHOP) Last on our list of Wood’s picks, Shopify, is a Canada-based e-commerce giant that needs no introduction. Shopify has been around for 15 years, and was an early leader in providing e-commerce platforms to third parties. The company’s services include payment processing, marketing, shipping, and customer engagement. Shopify grossed $2.93 billion last year, and has seen sequential revenue gains in each of the last four quarters. While the stock has found 2021 more of a slog, it is still up by 77% over the past 12 months, handily beating the S&P 500’s 47% one-year gain. Starting out 2021, Shopify reported 110% year-over-year revenue growth for the first quarter, with the top line reaching $988.7 million. The company’s EPS in Q1, $9.94 per share, was inflated by unrealized gains from an equity investment, making comparison difficult, but the company also reported $7.87 billion in cash holdings as of the end of March, compared to $6.39 billion at the end of December. The solid gains in revenues and cash holdings are supported by a growing user base. Shopify’s mobile app, Shop, now has over 107 million registered users, of whom 24 million are monthly active users. And, the company has good word-of-mouth advertising; 45,800 of its ‘partners’ referred a fellow merchant to the service in the previous 12 months, a yoy gain of 73%. Looking at all of this, Cathie Wood thinks we may be seeing the start of the ‘next Amazon.’ She says, referring to the company’s position in the marketplace and its prospects for growth, “Shopify doesn’t care who wins. It’s going to be involved with many, if not most, of all of the sites that are going to be powering up commerce.” Her Ark funds are gobbling up shares of SHOP – they own over 690K, worth more than $754 million at current valuation. Colin Sebastian, 5-star analyst with Baird, agrees that Shopify is a stock to buy. He writes, “we view higher spending levels as supporting the enormous e-commerce market opportunity, sustaining a high level of innovation in platform services, and maintaining a high level of scalability. As such, we would be buyers of shares on any pullbacks related to margin commentary… We believe that Shopify will continue to be a key beneficiary of the migration toward multi-channel e-commerce as companies leverage and integrate a broad range of consumer touch-points to drive sales — including traditional offline, online, in-store, mobile, kiosks and call centers.” Sebastian’s price target here, $1,550, suggests an upside of 42% for the next 12 months. His rating is Outperform (i.e., a Buy). (To watch Sebastian’s track record, click here.) High-profile tech companies tend to attract a lot of attention, and Shopify has picked up no fewer than 30 analyst reviews in recent weeks. These break down to 16 Buys, 13 Holds, and just a single Sell, making the analyst consensus a Moderate Buy. The shares are priced at $1,092.01, and the average price target of $1,482.21 implies they have room to gain 36% this year. (See Shopify’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Warren Buffett says trading platforms like Robinhood encourage a ‘gambling impulse’

Warren Buffett on Saturday criticized stock trading platforms like Robinhood that allow buying and selling for free as encouraging a “gambling impulse.”

“There is nothing illegal to it, there’s nothing immoral, but I don’t think you build a society around people doing it,” he said at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting held virtually from this year due to the coronavirus, The Guardian reported. 

Buffett lamented that many novice stock traders treat the market like a “casino” and said that choosing a stock that is successful long-term is more difficult than it sounds.

He pointed out that there were more than 2,000 car companies in 1903 and although motor vehicles revolutionized society nearly all of the companies went out of business, according to The Guardian.

WARREN BUFFETT TOUTS US ECONOMY’S UNEXPECTED STRENGTH AS BERKSHIRE REBOUNDS

FILE – In this May 5, 2019, file photo Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, smiles as he plays bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb. Buffett spent Saturday afternoon fielding questions a

“There’s a lot more to picking stocks than figuring out what will be an incredible industry in the future,” he said. “I just want to tell you that it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

He said owning an S&P 500 index fund is a better bet for most people. 

Robinhood has “become a very significant part of the casino aspect, the casino group, that has joined into the stock market in the last year or year and a half,” he said, according to CNBC. 

Buffett said American corporations can be a good place for solid investments but they also make great “gambling chips.”

“If you cater to those gambling chips when people have money in their pocket for the first time and you tell them they can make 30 or 40 or 50 trades a day and you’re not charging them any commission but your selling their order flow or whatever…I hope we don’t have more of it,” CNBC reported. 

The Robinhood app found itself in hot water earlier this year during the GameStop buying frenzy.  

The Berkshire meeting is usually held in Omaha and can attract around 40,000 investors but was held in Los Angeles this year to accommodate vice-chairman Charlie Munger.

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Munger agreed with Buffett’s assessment of Robinhood. “I think it’s just god awful that something like that brought investments from civilized men and decent citizens,” he said, according to CNBC. “It’s deeply wrong. We don’t want to make our money selling things that are bad for people.”

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Amazon’s pay raise for over 500,000 workers comes at an interesting time

Amazon has announced that over 500,000 of its workers will get a permanent increase in their hourly wages starting in mid-May, from as low as an additional 50 cents an hour to as much as three extra dollars per hour (via GeekWire). That’s a substantial chunk of its 1.3 million person workforce getting at least a small pay bump, and the company shared that it’s investing over $1 billion in these pay increases. Amazon said that it’s also on a hiring spree for “tens of thousands of jobs across our operations in the US.”

Amazon previously recognized its warehouse and delivery workers with a $2 pay bump last March as the company worked to meet increased demand during the pandemic, but that was a temporary raise that disappeared in May 2020, shortly after the United States had reached 100,000 deaths; the coronavirus pandemic has killed over 400,000 additional people in the United States since then. The company confirmed to The Verge that the pay bumps announced Wednesday are permanent, however, and new hires will be eligible for them as well.

Here’s the full text of Amazon’s announcement, from Amazon’s Darcie Henry:

Amazon is hiring now for tens of thousands of jobs across our operations in the U.S., and we’re looking for great people to join our Customer Fulfillment, Delivery, Package Sortation, and Specialty Fulfillment teams. In support of this effort, we pulled forward our annual fall pay review for these teams and will be rolling out increases from mid-May through early June.

More than 500,000 people will see an increase between at least 50 cents and $3 an hour, which is an investment of over $1 billion in incremental pay for these employees. This is on top of our already industry-leading starting wage of at least $15 an hour and the more than $2.5 billion that we invested last year in additional bonuses and incentives for front-line teams. These jobs come with a range of great benefits, like medical, dental, and vision coverage, parental leave, ways to save for the future, and opportunities for career advancement—all in a safe and inclusive environment that’s been ranked among the best workplaces in the world.

Other teams are continuing with their regular annual compensation review plans, which will occur throughout the remainder of 2021.

Wednesday’s news comes just a day before the company’s earnings tomorrow, April 29th. It also arrives as a fired Amazon worker is attempting to unionize other warehouse employees after the failed union vote in Bessemer, Alabama.

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SEC enforcement chief resigns over role in Indonesian torture case

Oh walked away from the job as Gensler faced growing concern from progressives on Capitol Hill and in the activism community about his decision to hire a long-time corporate lawyer for one of the government’s most powerful posts for overseeing the finance industry.

The episode marked a surprising political backlash from progressives who had cheered Biden’s nomination of Gensler, after the former Goldman Sachs partner emerged as a tough banking regulator when he chaired the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama administration.

Before it was announced last week that she would join the SEC, Oh worked for two decades at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where she represented Fortune 100 companies facing government investigations, with clients including Bank of America and ExxonMobil.

Oh was part of a legal team defending ExxonMobil in a lawsuit seeking to hold the company liable for murder and torture by the Indonesian military during civil unrest between 1999 and 2001. Villagers said ExxonMobil should face liability because it hired soldiers to guard natural gas facilities in the country.

Following complaints about the conduct of ExxonMobil’s lawyers, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on Monday admonished Oh and others defending the company. The lawyers for the villagers had told the court that ExxonMobil’s defense team had characterized them as “agitated, disrespectful and unhinged.”

The SEC did not respond to a request for comment about when they were aware of the issues involving Oh and ExxonMobil. Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp defended Oh in a statement: “Alex is a person of the utmost integrity and a consummate professional, with a strong ethical code.”

Following Oh’s resignation, Gensler announced that SEC lawyer Melissa Hodgman will return to the role of acting director of the agency’s enforcement division. She had served in the position before Oh’s appointment.

Oh’s departure followed a letter that three leading progressive advocacy groups sent to Gensler on Tuesday saying that they were “surprised and disappointed” by his decision to recruit her. They urged him to withdraw her hiring.

Demand Progress, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and the Revolving Door Project took aim in their letter at Oh’s years of work at law firm Paul Weiss.

The groups questioned whether Oh “will change her entire legal philosophy toward fully enforcing the very laws and regulations whose enforcement she has built a career of defending against.”

“We therefore ask you to immediately reconsider your decision to name Alex Oh for this position, and instead to select an attorney with a proven track record of public-oriented service, of which there is no shortage,” they said. Oh spent four years working as a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York before turning to corporate work.

Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, said Wednesday that “Gary Gensler and the SEC dodged a bullet in avoiding having a seemingly overzealous defender of ExxonMobil’s interests over Indonesian villagers entrusted with the powerful SEC Enforcement Division.”

The complaints from leading progressive groups came as some of Gensler’s allies on Capitol Hill had also begun to question his decision to hire Oh.

“There’s a lot of skepticism that someone who spent two decades helping big corporations dodge the SEC is the person to lead an aggressive revival of SEC enforcement,” said one aide to a progressive Senate Democrat before Oh’s resignation. “A lot of people will be closely watching what she does and now watching Gensler more closely, too.”

The concerns expressed about Oh stem in part from long-running disappointment among progressive groups and lawmakers about lax Wall Street enforcement by the SEC, particularly in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Former SEC Chair Mary Jo White — an Obama nominee who was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before going into private practice — faced intense criticism from the left, particularly Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), for not doing enough to challenge the finance industry. Oh worked under White during her time as a federal prosecutor.

To be sure, Gensler has aligned with progressives and Wall Street reformers in recruiting some key staffers. His new policy director is Heather Slavkin Corzo, who previously served as director of capital markets policy at the AFL-CIO.

Before Oh’s resignation, some of Gensler’s allies urged critics to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Barbara Roper, the Consumer Federation of America’s director of investor protection, said she was withholding judgment until she could see how he acts as a regulator.

“Ultimately, I trust Gensler to be tough on Wall Street, so I expect his enforcement director will share that goal, regardless of her background,” Roper said before Oh’s resignation was announced. “If that proves not to be the case, we won’t be shy about expressing our views.”

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GLOBAL-MARKETS-High-flying stocks wait on Fed signals, Apple results

(Updates to U.S. open)

* Equities lack trend as earnings roll in, bond yields creep up

* Fed expected to stay course but outlook is improving

* Apple, Facebook, Ford, earnings due

* Graphic: Global asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn

* Graphic: World FX rates http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

*

By Matt Scuffham and Marc Jones

NEW YORK/LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) – World shares cosied up close to record highs and the dollar and global bond yields nudged up on Wednesday, as traders waited to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve utters the dreaded ‘T’ word later – tapering of its mass stimulus programme.

The broad expectation is that it won’t want to unsettle markets for now, and with a packed day of corporate earnings, economic data and U.S. President Joe Biden’s first address before a joint Congress session, there was plenty to navigate.

MSCI’s broadest index of world shares was sidestepping towards its best month of the year so far.

The index, which tracks shares in 49 nations, rose 0.54 point, or 0.08 percent, to 706.08.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 113 points, or 0.33%, to 33,871.93, the S&P 500 gained 5.3 points, or 0.13%, to 4,192.02 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 23.69 points, or 0.17%, to 14,066.53.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.11%

The dollar was on course for its first unbroken two-day run of gains of the month – April is currently set to be its cruellest month since last July.

Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 2/32 in price to yield 1.6289%, from 1.622% late on Tuesday.

“The thing that we are going to watch most closely is if the Fed says anything along the lines of tapering of asset purchases,” said Jim Caron, a senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

“As long that doesn’t get mentioned, we are all good,” he said, explaining that with the coronavirus pandemic still worsening in many parts of the world, investors would view any move towards tapering as premature.

Most Fed watchers expect Chairman Jerome Powell to repeat the bank’s recent message that its low interest rates and support programmes will remain in place for a long time yet.

Biden will also address Congress and is likely to underscore his administration’s plans for infrastructure and stimulus spending.

These developments would normally be positive for stocks, but analysts say so much economic optimism is already priced into the equity market that it is difficult to budge equities from current levels.

Otherwise, Europe’s traders were waiting to hear from ECB President Christine Lagarde and other top policymakers. Economic data releases showed an unexpected drop in Germany’s GfK consumer confidence reading for May though an equivalent in France at least stayed steady for April.

APPLE EYED

U.S. earnings later include tech and internet giants Apple , Facebook and Qualcomm, as well as Ford .

Facebook is expected to report a revenue rise due to online advertising demand during the COVID pandemic, while Apple is expected to post a more than 32% jump in revenue, driven by 5G phone demand.

There was a mixed bag of earnings from Tesla, 3M , Microsoft, and Google-parent Alphabet on Tuesday.

In the FX markets, the dollar index rose 0.144%, with the euro down 0.21% to $1.2065.

As well as the rise in Treasury yields helping the dollar higher, break-even rates on 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, a measure of expected annual inflation for the coming decade, rose to 2.41%, the highest since 2013.

In the cryptocurrency market there was excitement as the European Investment Bank said it would sell a two-year digital bond worth 100 million euros ($120 million) on the ethereum blockchain network.

Rival cryptocurrency Bitcoin fell 0.6%.

In commodities, spot gold dropped 0.4% to $1,769.84 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.72% to $1,765.20 an ounce.

($1 = 0.8278 euros)

(Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Steve Orlofsky)

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Tesla shares drop after muted Q1 results as a global chip crunch persists

Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) fell more than 4% on Tuesday as its first-quarter earnings results failed to alleviate investor concerns about its lofty evaluation, as well as a prolonged global chip shortage and rising competition.

The electric car maker’s quarterly revenue made it barely past estimates, relying mostly on sales of environmental credits sold to other automakers and the liquidation of 10% of its $1.5 billion bitcoin investment.

“Tesla’s performance was OK but it wasn’t a Elon Musk slam dunk…I don’t think people are into Tesla because of bitcoin,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity Patriarch Organization, which has an underweight stance on Tesla.

“Investors are rejecting the stock short term,” he said, saying Tesla’s performance has fallen short of catching up its “astronomical valuation.”

Musk, the company’s CEO, did earn options payouts worth $11 billion based on targets reached by the company.

Shares of the automaker closed down 4.5% at $704.74, down more than 20% from its intraday high reached in January. They had surged more than 700% last year, making Tesla the world’s most valuable automaker.

Tesla posted record deliveries in the first quarter despite a global chip shortage that has slammed auto sector rivals. But analysts said a prolonged shortage of chips and batteries could threaten to dampen its growth prospect.

“A global shortage of computer chips is expected to limit production from all manufacturers in the immediate future, and Tesla won’t be exempt,” said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Given the ongoing importance of its production ramp up, it may even be more heavily impacted.”

Regarding supply chain instability, Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said on Monday, “We believe that this landscape is improving, but it does remain difficult, and it’s an evolving situation.”

Roth Capital Partners said it holds a neutral rating on Tesla, saying that Tesla’s large premium “seems to rest on the specious assumption that the hundreds of EVs slated for launch by ’25 will all be flops.”

“Tesla does not operate in a vacuum,” it said in a report.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Tool shows how changes could affect you

A Social Security Administration office in San Francisco.

Getty Images

It’s no secret the funds Social Security uses to pay benefits are running low.

New proposals on Capitol Hill aim to fix the program’s solvency.

Just how dramatic those changes will need to be depends on how soon changes are put through.

Likewise, people who are planning for their retirement now may also want to make adjustments based on unforeseen events that could pop up down the line.

That includes any potential cuts to Social Security retirement benefits.

More from The New Road to Retirement:

Here’s a look at more retirement news.

“When you’re looking at all these ‘what ifs,’ the adjustments you make now in order to plan for something later are much smaller,” said Joe Elsasser, founder and president of Covisum, a Social Security claiming software company.

To that end, Covisum has developed a calculator to help both consumers and financial advisors gauge just how impactful any Social Security benefit cuts could be to their bottom line in retirement.

To be sure, benefit cuts are not a given.

One year ago on Thursday, the Social Security Administration released projections indicating its trust funds could become depleted in 2035, at which point 79% of promised benefits would be payable.

An official update is expected to be released soon with the agency’s annual trustees report. Meanwhile, other projections have already speculated that the expiration date could be sooner due to economic after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

To fix that shortfall, experts generally expect some changes. Benefit cuts are among the possibilities, as well as potential payroll tax increases, or a combination of both.

In 1983, when President Ronald Reagan ushered in the last major Social Security reform to fix the program’s then ailing finances, that included gradually raising the retirement age to 67 and imposing some taxes on benefits for the first time.

The key for anyone who is looking toward claiming Social Security retirement benefits now is not to base the decision on worries of what changes could be coming.

“The temptation may be to act on fear,” Elsasser said. “It’s rarely the best track for financial planning.”

“Having a realistic understanding of the impact, even in a bad case, is better than going in with your eyes closed,” he said.

Covisum’s new calculator helps advisors evaluate Social Security claiming decisions. For many people, that is the cornerstone of their retirement plan, Elsasser said.

The calculator can stress test clients’ plans against benefit cuts and other negative scenarios such as poor market performance or negative health situations to see if their plan would still be ok.

“If it is, then you don’t have to act on fear,” Elsasser said.

If it is not, then adjustments like reducing lifestyle expenses or working longer may be necessary.

There is also a free version of the calculator available to consumers.

That version requires four data points: year of birth, benefit amount at full retirement age, percentage of a hypothetical benefit cut and the year that cut occurs.

Then it compares results of a person’s lifespan in five-year increments based on how early they claim — from age 62 or as late as 70 — and how that would be impacted if benefit reductions are put in place or not.

Ultimately, the results can be a starting point for people to evaluate what the potential results could be, which will hopefully lead them to avoid claiming early — and therefore take reduced benefits for life — just because they are afraid of benefit cuts, Elsasser said.

Research indicates those cuts would likely be less than 25%, if they happen at all, he said.

Notably, the calculator does not factor in the idea that benefits could go to zero. Because current tax revenues still support the program, that’s a highly unlikely scenario, Elsasser said. Even younger generations should continue to see income from the program in the future.

“The likelihood of it going to zero is as close to zero as you can get,” Elsasser said.

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Europe Proposes Strict Rules for Artificial Intelligence

The European Union unveiled strict regulations on Wednesday to govern the use of artificial intelligence, a first-of-its-kind policy that outlines how companies and governments can use a technology seen as one of the most significant, but ethically fraught, scientific breakthroughs in recent memory.

The draft rules would set limits around the use of artificial intelligence in a range of activities, from self-driving cars to hiring decisions, bank lending, school enrollment selections and the scoring of exams. It would also cover the use of artificial intelligence by law enforcement and court systems — areas considered “high risk” because they could threaten people’s safety or fundamental rights.

Some uses would be banned altogether, including live facial recognition in public spaces, though there would be several exemptions for national security and other purposes.

The 108-page policy is an attempt to regulate an emerging technology before it becomes mainstream. The rules have far-reaching implications for major technology companies including Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft that have poured resources into developing artificial intelligence, but also scores of other companies that use the software to develop medicine, underwrite insurance policies, and judge credit worthiness. Governments have used versions of the technology in criminal justice and allocating public services like income support.

Companies that violate the new regulations, which could take several years to move through the European Union policymaking process, could face fines of up to 6 percent of global sales.

“On artificial intelligence, trust is a must, not a nice to have,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission executive vice president who oversees digital policy for the 27-nation bloc, said in a statement. “With these landmark rules, the E.U. is spearheading the development of new global norms to make sure A.I. can be trusted.”

The European Union regulations would require companies providing artificial intelligence in high-risk areas to provide regulators with proof of its safety, including risk assessments and documentation explaining how the technology is making decisions. The companies must also guarantee human oversight in how the systems are created and used.

Some applications, like chatbots that provide humanlike conversation in customer service situations, and software that creates hard-to-detect manipulated images like “deepfakes” would have to make clear to users that what they are seeing is computer generated.

For the past decade, the European Union has been the world’s most aggressive watchdog of the technology industry, with its policies often used as blueprints by other nations. The bloc has already enacted the world’s most far-reaching data-privacy regulations, and is debating additional antitrust and content-moderation laws.

But Europe is no longer alone in pushing for tougher oversight. The largest technology companies are now facing a broader reckoning from governments around the world, each with their own political and policy motivations, to crimp the industry’s power.

In the United States, President Biden has filled his administration with industry critics. Britain is creating a tech regulator to police the industry. India is tightening oversight of social media. China has taken aim at domestic tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent.

The outcomes in the coming years could reshape how the global internet works and how new technologies are used, with people having access to different content, digital services or online freedoms based on where they are located.

Artificial intelligence — where machines are trained to perform jobs and make decisions on their own by studying huge volumes of data — is seen by technologists, business leaders and government officials as one of the world’s most transformative technologies, promising major gains in productivity.

But as the systems become more sophisticated it can be harder to understand why the software is making a decision, a problem that could get worse as computers become more powerful. Researchers have raised ethical questions about its use, suggesting that it could perpetuate existing biases in society, invade privacy, or result in more jobs being automated.

Release of the draft law by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, drew a mixed reaction. Many industry groups expressed relief the regulations were not more stringent, while civil society groups said they should have gone further.

“There has been a lot of discussion over the last few years about what it would mean to regulate A.I., and the fallback option to date has been to do nothing and wait and see what happens,” said Carly Kind, director of the Ada Lovelace Institute in London, which studies the ethical use of artificial intelligence. “This is the first time any country or regional bloc has tried.”

Ms. Kind said many had concerns the policy was overly broad and left too much discretion to companies and technology developers to regulate themselves.

“If it doesn’t lay down strict red lines and guidelines and very firm boundaries about what is acceptable, it opens up a lot for interpretation,” she said.

The development of fair and ethical artificial intelligence has become one of the most contentious issues in Silicon Valley. In December, the co-leader of a team at Google studying ethical uses of the software said she was fired for criticizing the company’s lack of diversity and the biases built into modern artificial intelligence software. Debates have raged inside Google and other companies about selling the cutting-edge software to governments for military use.

In the United States, the risks of artificial intelligence are also being considered by government authorities.

This week, the Federal Trade Commission warned against the sale of artificial intelligence systems that use racially biased algorithms, or ones that could “deny people employment, housing, credit, insurance, or other benefits.”

Elsewhere, in Massachusetts, and in cities like Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; and San Francisco, governments have taken steps to restrict police use of facial recognition.

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