In a letter to employees, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the changes will “turbocharge the Android and Chrome ecosystems” while helping to spur innovation.
The decision will place both operations under the oversight of Rick Osterloh, a Google executive who previously oversaw the company’s hardware group. Not long ago, Google insulated Android development from the hardware division, saying it wanted to avoid giving its phone designers an unfair advantage over the other major smartphone makers who used Android — including Samsung and Motorola, as well as Chinese companies such as Oppo and Xiaomi.
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Apple has removed WhatsApp and Threads from its Chinese app store following a government order.WhatsApp has been blocked in China since 2017 and its parent company Meta since 2009.Other Western platforms like Gmail, YouTube, Snap, and Spotify have also been censored in China.
Apple removed WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China after being told to do soby the Chinese government, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Check out the companies making headlines after the bell : Netflix — The streamer saw shares drop about 3% even after the company reported quarterly earnings that beat on the top and bottom line. Netflix said subscribers jumped 16% from the previous year, but added it would no longer report paid memberships starting next year. Intuitive Surgical — Shares of the provider of robotic-assisted surgical solutions rose 1% after the company posted stronger-than-expected results. Intuitive Surgical reported an adjusted EPS of $1.50 last quarter, higher than an estimate of $1.41, per LSEG. Revenue of $1.89 billion also came in slightly above expectations. Western Alliance — The regional bank stock fell less than 1% in extended trading after the firm posted disappointing earnings. Western Alliance posted an EPS of $1.60 for the latest quarter, 4 cents below a FactSet estimate. PPG Industries — The materials supplier saw shares edge down 0.8% in afterhours trading after its adjusted earnings of $1.86 per share matched expectations, per LSEG. PPG's revenue of $4.31 billion came in below an estimate of $4.43 billion. KB Home – The homebuilder advanced nearly 2% after announcing that its board of directors authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase. The move replaces an earlier authorization, which had $113.6 million remaining. KB Home also hiked its dividend to 25 cents a share from 20 cents, payable on May 23.
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Company says ‘we’re off to a good start in 2024’ as net income jumps 79% to $2.3bn, beating analysts’ expectations.
Profits at Netflix have surged as the world’s largest streaming service added millions of new paying subscribers.
The entertainment giant added 9.3 subscribers in the latest quarter – more than expected by analysts on Wall Street – leaving it with a record 269.6m worldwide.
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Simply getting to the almost totally sold-out monster hit “Macbeth” in Washington, D.C., which has already been staged in Liverpool, London, and Edinburgh, contains its own, particular adventure. Produced in the capital by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, which has two venues in D.C., the show is actually being mounted offsite, in an old television soundstage, basically a cavernous concrete hangar in one of the city’s industrial stretches. (This is perhaps why New York doesn’t get a stop on the “Macbeth” tour—our theatrical stock is insufficiently gritty.) Outside, audience members negotiate a wilderness of warehouses and big-box parking lots; inside, we spend time in a maze of dark, clubby rooms made luxe with velvety drapes. Finally, we walk to our seats via a path through a hyperrealistic no man’s land: rubble, the sound of distant bombs, and a soldier with a thousand-yard stare, sitting in front of a burnt-out car beneath a stunned and flickering street light.
Even just that lone taste of immersion promises both sensation and intimacy. The director Simon Godwin (who is also S.T.C.’s artistic director and an associate director at London’s National Theatre) delivers on the latter: the purpose-built theatre inside the more than forty-thousand-foot studio is actually relatively small, so the play’s stars—Ralph Fiennes as Macbeth and Indira Varma as his Lady—seem quite close. Both actors are also familiar, and come cloaked in associations of unalloyed evil and political homicide, respectively. Fiennes was nominated for an Oscar for his role as the Nazi Amon Göth in “Schindler’s List,” and is feared by legions of moviegoers for his viper-faced Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” films; Varma played the scheming mother of the murderous Sand Snakes on “Game of Thrones.” Of course this slithering pair will team up to kill their liege, King Duncan (Keith Fleming), at the vague prompting of three fortune-telling witches.
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This week has been one of Tesla’s worst. The company has cut 10 percent of its workforce, from sales advisers to engineers—the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history. Two top executives—vice president of public policy and business development, Rohan Patel; and senior vice president of powertrain and energy, Drew Baglino—also announced they were leaving. This comes against a difficult financial backdrop: Demand is dropping for electric cars in the US and Europe, just as competition in China intensifies and workers revolt in Europe. Investors are worried: In the past six months, Tesla’s stock has dropped 35 percent.
For many employees, the layoffs were a surprise. On Friday, Angela’s boss told her how great she was doing at her job, selling Teslas direct to customers in the US state of Georgia. Three days later, her role had been eliminated, effective immediately. “I expected more from Tesla, to at least give people a week or two’s heads-up,” says Angela, who requested to use a pseudonym in case she gets the chance to work for Tesla again. Angela says 40 percent of her team was laid off, and in shock. Around 14,000 people received that same email, which blamed rapid growth for the duplication of job roles. “We have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount globally,” the email said.
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Washington — Sen. Maria Cantwell, a key senator who has held up legislation regulating TikTok endorsed the House's latest version of a measure that could lead to a ban of the social media app in the U.S.
Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, announced her support late Wednesday for an updated measure that would force TikTok's Chinese parent company to divest of the widely popular short-form video platform within one year.
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Can a company with a market cap of over $2.5 trillion ever be considered an underdog? Perhaps not, but compared to most of its "Magnificent Seven" peers, tech giant Apple (AAPL -0.81%) looks like one.
The iPhone maker hasn't performed well this year, with its shares down by 9% since January. It is lagging behind all the other members of the Magnificent Seven, except Tesla. Apple is facing various issues scaring away some investors, but if it can navigate through them, it could still deliver outsized returns in the long run. Is it worth it to buy shares of Apple today?
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Nordstrom Inc.’s founding family has notified the board of its interest in taking the company private.
The department-store chain formed a special committee to evaluate any proposal from Chief Executive Officer Erik Nordstrom and Pete Nordstrom, the company’s president, the retailer said in a statement Thursday.
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A hack that caused a small Texas town’s water system to overflow in January has been linked to a shadowy Russian hacktivist group, the latest case of a U.S. public utility becoming a target of foreign cyberattacks.
The attack was one of three on small towns in the rural Texas Panhandle. Local officials said the public was not put in any danger and the attempts were reported to federal authorities.
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Sometime next year, the Ford Motor Company will begin to produce electric trucks at BlueOval City, a sprawling manufacturing complex in an impoverished rural area of western Tennessee. The multibillion-dollar project, which received a federal loan through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Biden signed in 2021, has already created thousands of construction jobs that pay substantially more than locals are accustomed to earning. Landing a job at BlueOval City “changed my life,” one worker recently said. Another was able to begin the process of buying her first home, a plan she’d delayed for years.
As a report published by the Center for American Progress noted, these workers were hired under a project-labor agreement, a collective-bargaining contract that requires construction projects to pay employees union-level wages and benefits. Inserting prevailing wage standards and other worker-friendly rules into domestic-spending programs is one of the reasons that many scholars and union officials have come to view Joe Biden as the most pro-labor President since Franklin Roosevelt, a designation he has proudly embraced. And yet awareness of these policies hasn’t always filtered down to the rank and file. Employees at BlueOval City interviewed in the CAP report praised Ford for investing in their region, but none thanked President Biden, whose role seemed to escape their notice. According to the report, “Workers are inclined to support everyone associated with the project yet likely to need additional education to understand the role that politicians who supported it played.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is splitting Ukraine and Israel aid into separate votes.Democrats have generally opposed this, but are now willing to go along with it.But progressive Democrats — who increasingly oppose Israel aid — are cheering the move.
House Speaker Mike Johnson's unconventional plan to hold separate votes on Israel and Ukraine aid is designed primarily to appease House Republicans who don't want to vote for more aid to Ukraine.
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The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage just broke 7% for the first time this year, the highest since November 2023. Higher-for-longer interest rate outlooks have pushed up borrowing costs, keeping affordability low. Home purchase mortgage applications surged by 5% this week as buyers rushed to get through a narrowing window of opportunity.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage just broke 7% for the first time this year, shooting up from 6.88% to 7.10% this week, according to government-sponsored mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac.
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"The rally has been fueled by a powerful cocktail of safe-haven and hedge fund purchases," said James Steel, chief precious metals analyst at HSBC Securities.
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Pair also join two other siblings on board, further strengthening family’s control of French luxury goods company.
Two sons of the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, have joined the board of LVMH after a shareholder vote, further cementing the family’s control of the French luxury goods company.
The pair joined their elder siblings on the board of directors of the company, which houses brands such as Dior and Louis Vuitton, meaning four of Bernard Arnault’s five children now sit on the board.
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TSMC sees growth in the microchip industry slowing to 10%, it said in a post-earnings call. The dimmed outlook comes on slowdown expectations for automotive chips. But the firm still projects strong AI-led revenue growth in the second-quarter.
Microchips aren't making the inventory comeback industry optimists have hoped for, compelling the world's top chip producer to dim its outlook.
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Bitcoin is a "fraud," a "Ponzi scheme," and cannot serve as a currency, Jamie Dimon said.The JPMorgan CEO said cryptos that enable smart contracts and blockchain apps might have value.Dimon has dismissed bitcoin as a "pet rock" in the past, and slammed it for enabling criminals.
Bitcoin is a scam and fails as a currency, Jamie Dimon said.
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The nation is rapidly approaching "peak 65" as younger baby boomers turn 65 this year, initiating the biggest wave of retirements in U.S. history. Yet most of those Americans are financially unprepared to stop working, and many risk living in poverty, according to a new analysis.
The retirements of the youngest boomers — those born between 1959 and 1965 — are likely to reshape the U.S. economy, and not in entirely positive ways, according to the study from the ALI Retirement Income Institute, a non-profit focused on retirement education.
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The Yahoo Boys are experienced scammers—and they openly brag about it. Photos and videos of their conning and recruitment can be found all across social media, from Facebook to TikTok. However, the cybercriminals, who have links back to Nigerian prince email scams, are arguably their most open on Telegram.
In groups containing thousands of members, Yahoo Boys organize and advertise their individual skills for a smorgasbord of scams. They’re skilled social manipulators, who can have long-lasting impacts on their victims. Business email compromise, crypto scams, and impersonation scams are all touted in hundreds of posts per day. Members claim to be selling photo and video editing skills and entire albums of explicit photographs that can be used to build a convincing persona. Fake IDs and legitimate-looking social media profiles are for sale. Scam “scripts” are free to download.
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Don’t ignore smaller economies in the semiconductor supply chain. The chipmaking hubs of Taiwan and South Korea get plenty of attention as the home of leading-edge chip manufacturing, while the U.S. and Japan are spending billions to revive their domestic chip sectors. But places like Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines are also trying to carve an important niche in the semiconductor supply chain.
The Southeast Asian country of Malaysia has a long history with chips, as the home of U.S. chipmaker Intel’s first-ever non-U.S. plant. It has about 13% of the global market for chip packaging, assembly, and testing, according to a government report.
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Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has been enjoying a strong year, with the digital currency hitting all-time highs in 2024. But that bullishness hasn't been paying off for crypto mining stock Riot Platforms (RIOT -1.12%), whose shares are down 45% since the start of the year. Now nowhere near its 52-week high of $20.65, the excitement around the stock appears to be fading.
But could the upcoming Bitcoin halving event help rally the crypto stock? While it will reduce the rewards for Bitcoin mining companies, the net effect could be a positive one for Riot Platforms.
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Google fired twenty-eight employees Wednesday after they participated in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel’s government that also includes Amazon.
Workers at both companies have claimed the deal makes advanced technology available to Israel’s security apparatus that could contribute to the killing or harm of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The Intercept and Time have reported that Project Nimbus provides services that can be tapped by the Israel Defence Forces.
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A California lawmaker wants to require business owners and landlords to disclose their identities under legislation aimed at cracking down on opaque ownership structures that have enabled some companies to skirt state laws without facing consequences.
Limited liability companies and similar corporations in the United States are often formed to protect a business owner’s personal assets. In California, the world’s fifth largest economy, such businesses are already required to register with the Secretary of State and share information including the name of the business, its address and the names of its executives or representatives.
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A Boeing engineer for over 30 years, Salehpour testified that he tried to warn personnel of safety issues over the course of three years, including writing memos that reached the desks of Mark Stockton, senior director for 787 engineering, and Lisa Fahl, a vice president of the company. Instead of addressing his concerns, he said Boeing brass shut him down, part of a broader trend within the company of brushing off safety concerns in the name of productivity and the bottom line.
“I was ignored. I was told not to create delays,” he said. “I was told, frankly, to shut up.”
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The British tycoon and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club owner pledged his yacht along with his private jet to secure his release following his arrest in July.
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The case in federal civil court over the two deaths is the first of numerous lawsuits against the Texas-based railroad corporation to reach trial over its past operations in Libby, Montana.
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Apollo Global Management Inc. and Sony Group Corp. are considering a joint offer for Paramount Global, sparking a jump in shares of the film and TV giant as investors weigh the potential for a bidding war with technology mogul David Ellison.
Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra has held discussions with Apollo over the past week about teaming up on an offer, a person familiar with the matter said. But the pair haven’t submitted an official proposal, the person added, asking to not be identified discussing private conversations.
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These AI stocks trade at attractive valuations, and they could take off impressively over the long run.
Many of the companies benefiting from the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) have seen their share prices rise impressively since the beginning of 2022, making it difficult for investors to find worthy AI stocks trading at reasonable or relatively attractive valuations.
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Bad news for Apple: iPhones have yet another new competitor in China.Huawei just released a new line of smartphones called the Pura 70.The devices give Chinese consumers another reason to abandon their iPhones.
Tim Cook would like you to think everything is going swimmingly for Apple in China.
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Taylor Swift released her new album, "The Tortured Poets Department," at midnight ET on Friday.Two hours later, she surprise-released a deluxe edition with 15 extra songs.Four of the extra songs were already teased as vinyl exclusives, while the others were kept hidden.
Taylor Swift packed a one-two punch early Friday morning, releasing two versions of her new album mere hours apart.
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China's fiscal stimulus is losing its effectiveness and is more of a strategy to buy time for industrial and consumption policies, S&P Global Ratings said.
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Oil prices jump and stocks sink on reports of escalating Middle East tensions.Israel struck Iran early Friday morning, multiple agencies reported, citing US officials.Potential wider conflict in oil-rich Middle East could disrupt energy supplies.
Oil prices jumped while stocks sold off after reports of an escalation in Middle East tensions.
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The open source Llama 3 AI model released by Meta today is just the start, according to the company’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun. He said a new, much larger version is in the works.
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It turns out that, eight years into the Trump takeover of the Republican Party, there are still a few surprises left. On Wednesday morning, Mike Johnson, the accidental Speaker of the House, finally made the choice that he had spent months evading and released the text of long-stalled legislation to send over sixty billion dollars in assistance to Ukraine, among other national-security priorities. He promised a vote this weekend. The threat was real that, if he proceeded, a small faction of the most extreme Trumpists in the House—a loudly pro-Russia lot—would soon force him out of the post that he would not have got in the first place without Trump’s support.
And yet, by Wednesday afternoon, there was Johnson, speaking to the cameras in the Capitol’s ornate Statuary Hall. His words were unexpectedly passionate, his delivery crisp. Invoking this “critical” moment in the world, Johnson said, “I can make a selfish decision”—namely, keeping his job by not moving forward on the aid for Ukraine and, once again, caving to the sort of angry nihilists who have bullied the past three Republican Speakers out of the House. “But I’m doing here what I believe to be the right thing.” He talked about why aid for Ukraine was “critically important,” adding, “I really do believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten.” This was yet another heresy for many Republicans, who, following Trump, have spent years tearing down the truthfulness and reliability of America’s intelligence agencies.
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"Their job is to protect our investments," said one man whose bank account was drained of $15,000. "Otherwise, what's the point of putting it with a bank?"
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Wayfair is laying off more than 1,600 workers Wayfair is opening its first physical store next month in suburban Chicago, the Boston-based online furniture and home furnishings seller announced on Thursday.
The 150,000-square foot large-format store is located in Edens Plaza in Wilmette, Illinois, and will open its doors on May 23. Reminiscent of Ikea's store format, Wayfair's location will include a restaurant called "The Porch," the company said.
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Tesla shares on Thursday dipped below $150 a piece, relinquishing a year's worth of gains as the automaker struggles with decelerating electric vehicle sales and mounting competition.
Continuing a dismal year for Tesla investors, the stock on Thursday fell $5.52, or 3.5%, to close at $149.93, leaving shares down more than 39% this year. The stock last traded at the $150 level in January 2023.
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Ever dream of working from the picturesque Amalfi Coast? You might now be able to with a new "digital nomad" visa that Italy is offering foreigners who wish to pack up their laptops and venture abroad.
The Italian government signed the program into law in March 2022, but only opened applications on April 5 — nearly two years later. In doing so, Italy follows dozens of other countries in establishing a program to attract foreign remote workers who want to experience a European lifestyle while keeping their earnings tied to U.S.-based companies.
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Darwin Fan | Moment | Getty Images Visitors to national parks will get free admission on April 20 as the federal government waives entrance fees to commemorate the start of National Park Week.
National Park Week runs for nine days, from April 20 to April 28.
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Investing in semiconductors may be the most efficient way to play the artificial intelligence boom, according to VanEck's CEO.
"Semiconductors have become the heart of the AI trade," Jan van Eck told CNBC's "ETF Edge" this week.
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After spending 15 years working at internet startups, Arron Kallenberg returned to his fishing roots and used his technological knowledge to create the subscription-based Wild Alaskan Company. The mission is simple: the service delivers wild-caught seafood from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to everywhere in the US, except Hawaii.
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It seems as though we’ve arrived at the moment in the AI hype cycle where no idea is too bonkers to launch. This week’s eyebrow-raising AI project is a new twist on the romantic chatbot—a mobile app called AngryGF, which offers its users the uniquely unpleasant experience of getting yelled at via messages from a fake person. Or, as cofounder Emilia Aviles explained in her original pitch: “It simulates scenarios where female partners are angry, prompting users to comfort their angry AI partners” through a “gamified approach.” The idea is to teach communication skills by simulating arguments that the user can either win or lose depending on whether they can appease their fuming girlfriend.
The central appeal of a relationship-simulating chatbot, I’ve always assumed, is that they’re easier to interact with than real-life humans. They have no needs or desires of their own. There’s no chance they’ll reject you or mock you. They exist as a sort of emotional security blanket. So the premise of AngryGF amused me. You get some of the downsides of a real-life girlfriend—she’s furious!!—but none of the upsides. Who would voluntarily use this?
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Investor confidence is rebounding for this reliable dividend stock. Shares of automotive and industrials parts maker Genuine Parts (GPC 12.22%) jumped on Thursday even though it's normally a sleepy stock. The company reported financial results for the first quarter of 2024 and raised its full-year profit guidance, which is why Genuine Parts stock was up 12% as of 11 a.m. ET. Investor confidence is on the rise
In Q1, Genuine Parts' sales increased by less than 1% to $5.8 billion and its earnings per share (EPS) plunged by 17% to $1.78. Some investors might be surprised that these numbers were met with such enthusiasm today. But there's a good explanation.
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Here's why record financials are likely. Investors who bought shares of coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX 0.58%) decades ago have enjoyed life-changing investment gains. It's been one of the great stocks of the last 30 years.
However, those who bought shares of Starbucks just five years ago are experiencing lackluster performance. Even when including the positive boost from dividends, Starbucks stock is underperforming the S&P 500 by a wide margin as seen in the chart below.
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Daily Cartoon Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, April 16th“First, Goldilocks said the interest rates were too high. Then, Goldilocks said they were too low. Then, in agreement with the Federal Reserve Board, she finally said they were just right.”
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Peloton has just admitted that its big plan isn't working as well as it had hoped. There's not much left to like here.
Peloton Interactive's (PTON 2.10%) stock price has declined around 65% over the past year, and it is now down 98% from its 2021 highs. The time when the name Peloton inspired envy among consumers because of waiting lists for its connected exercise bikes is long over. And its current business model probably isn't worth buying into.
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Medtronic (MDT -0.21%) is a leading global medical device company with a massive presence that spans more than 150 countries. Its products assist patients with over 70 different health conditions. Investing in the stock is a potentially great way to gain exposure to the healthcare industry as a whole.
Over the past five years, however, its shares have been a lackluster investment, falling by 8%. What should you do with Medtronic stock: buy, sell, or hold it?
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Gigantic bill apparently reflected using 9.5 gigabytes of data on a phone that had not been set up for international roaming.
A Florida man was stunned to come back from a European trip and – upon checking his phone bill – realize that he had been charged a staggering $143,000 by his phone company for using his device while overseas.
ABC Action News reported that Rene Remund and his wife had toured Switzerland last September and had even gone to a T-Mobile store to share his travel plan with his phone provider before leaving.
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When it comes to fun investment ideas, few companies are as fun as PepsiCo (PEP 1.18%). With a portfolio of products that includes Mountain Dew, Cheetos, Quaker Oats, Mug Root Beer, Doritos, Gatorade, and more, there's likely a PepsiCo product for every investor.
However, loving a company's products and investing in the stock are two different propositions. Therefore, investors need to be careful that they're evaluating PepsiCo based on the business and not based on their taste buds. Here's what investors need to consider about this business.
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Investors searching for high dividend yields may find NextEra Energy Partners' (NEP 1.41%) 12% payout alluring. However, the renewable energy provider has faced a significant setback in the past year as management cut the company's growth forecast as a result of higher interest rates.
NextEra has since taken steps to bolster its financial position and continue offering investors an appealing dividend. But the stock remains down 54% from a year ago. Could it now provide an attractive upside for patient investors? Let's see.
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