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Stocks pop after new US-Canada-Mexico deal

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New York
CNN Business
 — 

The stock market appears to like the new trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Stocks popped after all three countries agreed to an 11th hour deal to replace NAFTA.

The Dow rose 193 points, a gain of 0.7%. The S&P 500 gained 0.4%, and the Nasdaq lost 0.1%.

The reworked trade deal, announced late Sunday night, was reached after Canada agreed to give US dairy farmers greater access to the Canadian market.

The United States also agreed to make concessions on some automobile tariffs for cars and trucks built in Canada and Mexico as part of the agreement, which replaces NAFTA and will be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Shares in major automakers rose on the news. GM gained 1.6%, and Ford climbed 0.8%. Fiat Chrysler rose 2.7%.

Still, some market experts said investors may be overreacting to the USMCA deal. That’s because the United States still faces another major trade battle.

“While the U.S. has reached a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, growing trade conflict between China and the U.S. threatens economic growth in both countries,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist with JPMorgan Funds, in a report Monday.

Eric Winograd, senior economist with AB, also thinks that China-US tension will not be resolved this easily.

“The US relationship with China is much more complicated than its relationship with Canada. And of course the stakes are considerably higher when dealing with China—the Chinese have leverage over the US that Canada simply doesn’t have,” Winograd wrote, referring to China’s ownership of US Treasury debt as well as the fact that it’s a much bigger market for US exports.

“I certainly wouldn’t rule out an agreement being reached with China, but I don’t think that the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement provides a template that can be used in discussions with the Chinese,” Winograd added.

Others think that a US-China deal is inevitable, which makes the market’s reaction to the USMCA agreement, a logical one.

“Many investors are betting there’s room for a market friendly compromise after the US midterm elections in early November when the Chinese will have an incentive to deal to avoid the 25% tariff rate that kicks in on $200 billion in Chinese exports on January 1, 2019,” wrote Alec Young, managing director of global markets research for FTSE Russell, in a report.

It’s not just the trade deal helping move the markets.

The surprise ouster of General Electric CEO John Flannery and a deal between Tesla and the SEC are also having a big effect.

Shares of GE jumped 7% following the news that Flannery, who had only been CEO since August 2017, is being replaced by Larry Culp, a former head of industrial conglomerate Danaher.

Culp, who joined GE’s board in April, faces a difficult task in getting GE back on track. GE also announced Monday that it was taking a charge tied to its struggling GE Power unit. The stock had fallen 35% so far this year prior to Monday’s surge.

GE’s market value slipped below $100 billion last week for the first time in more than nine years. And the company was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in June after a more than 100-year stay in the iconic market barometer.

Tesla also rallied Monday after the electric car maker reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that will require Elon Musk to step down as chairman but allow him to stay on as CEO.

Shares of Tesla climbed 17%. The stock plunged 14% Friday on the news that the SEC had filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of making “false and misleading statements” earlier this summer when he tweeted that he had “funding secured” for a deal to take Tesla private.

As part of Tesla’s deal with the SEC, Musk did not admit to any wrongdoing. The company is also paying a $20 million fine.

Instagram gets a new chief: Facebook vet Adam Mosseri

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New York
CNN Business
 — 

Instagram has a new leader.

On Monday, the company announced that Adam Mosseri will head Instagram effective immediately. Last week, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced they would leave the company.

“We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a focus on craft and simplicity — as well as a deep understanding of the importance of community,” Systrom and Krieger said in a statement.

Mosseri – who joined Facebook, which owns Instagram, in 2008 – has held various roles at the company, including head of News Feed and design director for Facebook’s mobile apps. Most recently, he was Instagram’s VP of product. In his new role, Mosseri will oversee “all functions of the business” and will hire a new executive team, including a head of engineering, product and operations.

Mike Krieger, Adam Mosseri and Kevin Systrom.

Before their departures, Systrom was CEO and Krieger was the chief technology officer.

The duo founded the photo-sharing app in a co-working space in 2010. It became a big hit, attracting tens of millions of users before the co-founders sold it to Facebook (FB) in 2012 for $1 billion.

With Facebook’s backing, Instagram continued to grow and added new features like videos, disappearing posts and, most recently, a hub for long-form content called IGTV. According to Instagram, the app now has over 1 billion monthly active users.

While it’s not uncommon for founders to leave after their company is acquired, it’s notable that Systrom and Krieger stayed on for six years after Facebook acquired their company.

It’s unclear what the two will do next. In a statement last week, Systrom said: “We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again … Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.”

Systrom and Krieger’s exodus come less than six months after Jan Koum stepped down as CEO of messaging platform WhatsApp, which Facebook purchased in 2014 for $19 billion.

Brian Acton, the other WhatsApp founder, left Facebook in 2017. He backed calls earlier this year for people to delete Facebook amid revelations that Cambridge Analytica accessed millions of users’ data without their knowledge.

Tesla calms fears with strong sales numbers

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New York
CNN Business
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A tumultuous quarter at Tesla ended with some very good sales numbers.

The company delivered 83,500 vehicles during the third quarter, a strong performance that should calm investor fears about logistical problems and a looming cash crunch. That included almost 56,000 of the lower-priced Model 3.

Production was a bit below that number: Tesla said it built about 53,000 Model 3s. But that was within the company’s projections.

Only three months ago, the company struggled to build 5,000 Model 3s in a week, a long-delayed target. Tesla did not maintain that pace, but production was still high enough to keep the company on track to turn a sustained profit for the first time.

Tesla was sorely in need of good news.

In August, CEO Elon Musk proposed, then abandoned, plans to take the company private. The SEC sued Musk last week, claiming he had deceived investors by claiming in a tweet that he had secured financing to go private.

On Saturday, the second to last day of the quarter, Musk reached a deal with the SEC to pay a $20 million fine and step aside as chairman of Tesla. He will remain as CEO, news that relieved Wall Street on Monday.

Executives have also left the company in recent months, including the chief accounting officer, who quit after less than a month on the job.

Tesla (TSLA) stock closed down about 3% following the production and sales report.

Tesla will release revenue and profit numbers later in the quarter. The report did not give details on where those figures would come in. It did say that all Model 3s sold at the end of the quarter were the more expensive all-wheel-drive models, powered by dual electric motors.

Musk also sent an email to all Tesla employees over the weekend saying that the company was close to its goal of being profitable.

“We are very close to achieving profitability and proving the naysayers wrong, but, to be certain, we must execute really well tomorrow (Sunday),” he wrote, referring to the last day of the quarter. “If we go all out tomorrow, we will achieve an epic victory beyond all expectations.”

The company has reported only two quarters of modest profits in its 10-year history. It has reported a total of $6 billion in losses during that time.

Tesla has $1.2 billion in debt maturing within the next six months, which has prompted some analysts to project the company would need to sell additional shares or debt to raise cash.

Musk has said revenue from sales would give Tesla the cash it needs. But he also has admitted that the company has run into problems delivering its cars. That added to investor concerns about a cash crunch.

“Sorry, we’ve gone from production hell to delivery logistics hell,” Musk tweeted two weeks ago to a customer who inquired when a promised car would be delivered. “This problem is far more tractable,” he added. “We’re making rapid progress.”

Goldman Sachs slants research to help Democrats, top White House adviser says

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New York
CNN Business
 — 

Kevin Hassett, one of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers, suggested that Goldman Sachs may be slanting its economic research to help Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

The Goldman Sachs economics team “almost at times looks like the Democratic opposition,” Hassett told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Tuesday.

The comment came after Harlow asked Hassett about a Goldman Sachs research report warning that a 25% US tariff on all imports from China could wipe out corporate profit growth in 2019.

Hassett said he hadn’t read the research, but went on to criticize Goldman’s track record. Hassett claimed its analysis of last year’s tax cuts was “really, really wrong and timed in a partisan way.” He said Goldman’s analysis predicted the tax cuts would be “really harmful” to the economy or have little impact before jacking up its forecast after they passed.

“So maybe they’re just trying to make a partisan point before the elections,” said Hassett, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Keep in mind that Goldman Sachs (GS), like other investment banks, charges clients to access their economic and market insights. Investors rely on that research to be nonpartisan.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment about the criticism.

It marks another chapter in Team Trump’s love-hate relationship with Goldman Sachs, the most powerful firm on Wall Street.

Trump blasted Goldman Sachs during the 2016 presidential campaign. He claimed Goldman Sachs had “total, total control” over his rivals Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz.

Trump’s closing campaign ad flashed an image of Lloyd Blankfein, then the CEO of Goldman Sachs, as the candidate’s narration condemned the “global power structure” for robbing America’s working class.

After the election, Trump reversed course.

He named former Goldman Sachs partner Steve Mnuchin to the powerful role of Treasury secretary. Trump hired Gary Cohn, a registered Democrat who was then president of Goldman Sachs, to be the face of his economic team. (Cohn left earlier this year because of a disagreement over trade.)

In the 2016 race, Clinton received $388,426 from individuals at Goldman Sachs, more than any other candidate, according to OpenSecrets. Trump received $5,607, according to OpenSecrets. Then again, Goldman Sachs employees contributed more to Republicans than Democrats overall in 2016 federal races.

Blankfein backed Clinton in the election.

However, after the election, Blankfein gave Trump credit for the soaring American economy.

“If the president didn’t win, and Hillary Clinton won … I bet you the economy is higher today than it otherwise would be,” Blankfein told CNN in February.

Veterans of Goldman Sachs have gone on to work in Republican and Democratic administrations. Robert Rubin, the former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, served as Treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton.

Hank Paulson had been the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs before leading the Treasury Department under former President George W. Bush during the 2008 financial crisis.

Volkswagen dumps jailed Audi CEO amid emissions probe

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London
CNN
 — 

Volkswagen has severed ties with suspended Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, who has been jailed since June in connection with an emissions investigation.

Stadler has left the board of management of Audi parent company Volkswagen (VLKAF) and stepped down as chairman of the premium brand’s management board, the autos group said in a statement Tuesday.

“Due to his ongoing pretrial detention, he is unable to fulfill his duties as a member of the board of management and wishes to concentrate on his defense,” the statement said of Stadler.

Munich prosecutors said in June that Stadler, who has worked for Volkswagen since 1990, had been detained because of concerns he could influence witnesses in an ongoing investigation.

He is the highest ranking Volkswagen executive to be arrested in connection to a costly diesel emissions scandal that burst into public view in 2015.

Volkswagen previously said that Stadler would be considered innocent until proven guilty. Audi tapped its top sales executive to lead the company after Stadler was detained.

The German carmaker has admitted that it rigged millions of diesel engines to cheat on emissions tests.

Diesel cars from Volkswagen and its Audi subsidiary cheated on clean air rules with software that made emissions look less toxic than they actually were.

The scandal sent its share price plunging, and trashed confidence among consumer and regulators in diesel technology. The episode has already cost Volkswagen more than $30 billion in recalls, legal penalties and settlements.

In a separate announcement on Tuesday, Volkswagen said it would offer incentives to customers in Germany who wanted to swap older diesel cars for cleaner models.

Martin Winterkorn, the former chief executive officer of Volkswagen, was indicted by US prosecutors in May. He was charged with wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud American customers and violate the Clean Air Act.

Matthias Mueller, who was brought in to replace Winterkorn, stepped down earlier this year and was replaced by BMW (BMWYY) veteran Herbert Diess.

Diess acknowledged at a press conference in April that Volkswagen had “lost a great deal of trust,” and that it would take years to restore public confidence in the automaker.

S&P downgrades debt-riddled GE and GE Capital

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New York
CNN Business
 — 

New General Electric boss Larry Culp just got a fresh reminder of the debt-riddled balance sheet he’s inheriting.

Barely 24 hours after Culp became CEO, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the credit ratings of GE (GE) and GE Capital. Moody’s and Fitch warned they could do the same.

All three ratings firms cited GE’s elevated leverage and shrinking cash flows – an alarming trend exacerbated by serious problems at GE’s power division. GE said on Monday that plunging profit at GE Power will cause the parent company to miss targets in 2018.

S&P pointed to “deep near-term challenges” at GE Power, which has been hurt by the shift towards renewable energy. More recently, GE disclosed mechanical problems with its gas turbines.

Culp surely has a long to-do list as he starts work as the first outsider CEO in GE’s history. But at the top of the list must be repairing GE’s once-sturdy balance sheet. GE had a perfect AAA credit rating as recently as 2009. S&P lowered it on Tuesday from “A” to “BBB+”.

Over the years, GE has piled on tons of debt caused by poorly-timed deals, a massive pension deficit and misguided share buybacks.

Underscoring the scale of the problem, Moody’s said that GE’s “very elevated leverage” could lead it to downgrade the company’s rating by multiple notches. Ratings downgrades can make it more expensive for companies to borrow money.

The good news is that S&P updated its outlook on GE to “stable” because the firm expects leverage and cash flow will improve in the coming years.

Still, GE’s debt problems may force the company to reexamine its $4.2 billion dividend. GE cut the dividend last year for just the second time since the Great Depression.

But GE’s finances have deteriorated further. S&P listed the dividend as one of several levers Culp could pull to reduce debt.

In a statement, GE said it has a “sound liquidity position” that includes cash and operating credit lines.

Repeating comments made by Culp on Monday, GE said it remains “committed to strengthening the balance sheet including deleveraging.”

Now that he’s in charge, Culp will need to decide if he wants to go forward with former CEO John Flannery’s plans to break-up GE. Flannery’s turnaround plan included exiting various businesses, including oil and gas, health care and the century-old railroad division. Proceeds from the sales would then be used towards paying down debt.

But shrinking GE also makes the company more dependent on the rest of its portfolio – with GE Power being the biggest remaining business. That means slumping power profit gives GE less firepower to pay down debt.

Amazon announces $15 minimum wage for all US employees

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New York
CNN Business
 — 

Amazon is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all US employees.

The change takes effect November 1 and applies to full-time, part-time and temporary workers. Amazon (AMZN) says the $15 minimum wage will benefit more than 250,000 Amazon employees, plus 100,000 seasonal workers.

“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

The change applies to Whole Foods and all other subsidiary employees.

Amazon also said its public policy team will begin lobbying for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.

“We’ll leave it to Congress and professionals to decide what the right number is,” Dave Clark, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, told CNN’s Christine Romans. “But for us, that number is $15.”

The size and explosive growth of Amazon give the decision importance far beyond the hundreds of thousands of people who will benefit directly.

Amazon is among the largest employers in the United States, and it has added more American jobs in the past decade than any other company.

The decision also raises the stakes for potential workers at Amazon’s next headquarters. The company is planning to create a second headquarters, known as HQ2, with as many as 50,000 jobs. Amazon has named 20 cities as finalists, including Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Critics, including independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have said that Amazon does not pay workers enough. They have drawn a contrast with Bezos’ spectacular wealth: He is the richest person alive, worth an estimated $165 billion.

“I want to give credit where credit is due,” Sanders said on Tuesday. “I want to congratulate Mr. Bezos for doing exactly the right thing.” He said he looked forward to working with Bezos to push for a $15 federal minimum.

Bezos responded by thanking the senator. “We’re excited about this, and also hope others will join in,” he wrote in a tweet.

Workers across the country have pushed for a $15 minimum wage, most notably as part of the movement known as Fight for $15.

Supporters say it’s a remedy for widening wage inequality and will boost consumer spending, while opponents counter that it could reduce opportunities for employment, particularly for teenagers and others looking for entry level or low-skilled jobs.

Some companies have responded to the public pressure.

Target raised its minimum wage for new hires to $12 an hour in September and plans to raise its minimum to $15 by the end of 2020. Disney reached a deal with its unions to pay a minimum of $15 an hour at Disneyland in California in 2019 and at Disney World in Florida by 2021.

And Walmart, the country’s largest private-sector employer, which has more than 1 million US workers, raised its minimum wage to $11 in February.

Clark said that Amazon wanted to make its change sooner.

“We decided, why wait? We should really do this now,” he told Romans.

Paul Sonn, state policy program director for the National Employment Law Project, said Amazon’s announcement would put pressure on other companies to raise pay, and on Congress to lift the national minimum. Twenty-nine states have their own minimum wages higher than the federal $7.25.

Neil Saunders, managing director of the consultancy GlobalData Retail, said that higher minimum pay could also help Amazon recruit workers.

“Without a rise in wages, Amazon would be placing itself at a disadvantage in the labor market,” Saunders said. The company’s rapid growth requires “a lot of recruitment which is becoming increasingly difficult in a tight labor market,” he said. “This is especially so over the holiday season.”

Saunders added that the decision was “politically savvy.”

Last month, Amazon said that the average hourly wage for a full-time associate in its fulfillment centers was already more than $15 per hour.

Amazon median pay last year was $28,446, according to a company filing. That comes to $13.68 an hour. The company noted that the figure includes international and part-time employees.

The company also announced that it is increasing the minimum wage for UK employees starting November 1. The new minimum wage is £10.50 ($13.60) for the London area and £9.50 ($12.30) for the rest of the country. More than 37,000 employees, including seasonal workers, will be affected by the change.

The current UK minimum wage for adults over 25 is £7.83 ($10.15).

JCPenney names Jill Soltau as its new CEO

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Editor’s Note: This story originally published on October 2, 2018.


New York
CNN Business
 — 

Jill Soltau, a veteran retail leader most recently in charge of Joann fabric and craft stores, will be tasked with turning around JCPenney.

The company announced on Tuesday that Soltau will take over as its chief executive beginning on October 15. JCPenney has been leaderless since Marvin Ellison left in May to take the top job at Lowe’s.

Soltau, 51, will be the 25th woman currently leading a Fortune 500 company, according to Fortune magazine. She will become Penney’s fifth chief executive in the past decade.

She will make a base salary of $1.4 million, with a $6 million signing bonus and will be eligible for annual performance-based bonuses.

In a sign that Soltau has Wall Street’s approval to start, shares rose 10% in extended trading.

Soltau will face a daunting task: turning around JCPenney (JCP), a former retail heavyweight that has fallen more than 50% this year and slipped to close to $1.50 a share. Penney is currently without its chief financial officer. Jeffrey Davis resigned last week only 14 months after taking the job.

The challenges at JCPenney are enormous. It is more than $4 billion in debt and has posted a profit in only two quarters during the past four years. Penney lost $101 million in its most recent quarter.

JCPenney’s decline comes at a moment when rival department stores Nordstrom (JWN), Kohl’s (KSS) and Macy’s (M) have demonstrated an ability to reinvent their businesses for the digital shopping era.

Soltau will have to make tough decisions about Penney’s store footprint. The company has 860 stores and hundreds of them are in struggling malls. JCPenney also has a glut of clothing piling up at its warehouses and stores.

Penney has been searching for a leader with merchandising experience to help it make better decisions about which brands to sell in stores.

“We wanted someone with rich apparel and merchandising experience and found Jill to be an ideal fit,” board director Paul Brown said in a news release.

Soltau took over at Joann in 2015. She has also held positions at Shopko, Sears, and Kohl’s.

Penney selecting Soltau signals the company wants to break from Ellison’s strategy.

Ellison was a former Home Depot executive and led Penney into the appliance business. But his tenure had mixed results: Washers and dryers were not major draws for customers and its clothing assortment suffered.

Penney believes its core shoppers are middle-aged women. Earlier this month, Penney introduced Artesia, a new women’s chic brand for less than $30.

Tencent Music plans to public on US exchange

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This story originally published on October 2, 2018.


New York
CNN Business
 — 

Tencent Music has filed plans to go public in the United States in what could be one of the biggest recent US IPOs by a Chinese company.

The company set a placeholder target of $1 billion, which could value the company between $25 and $30 billion, according to its SEC filing.

That amount would mark the third largest Chinese IPO to list in the United States since the beginning of 2018, according to data provider Dealogic. The Netflix-like video platform iQIYI raised $2.3 billion and social shopping app Pinduoduo raised $1.6 billion.

Tencent Music dominates the music streaming market in China through its Spotify-like apps. The company revealed in its SEC filing that its music apps have more than 800 million monthly active users. Spotify owns a 9% stake in Tencent Music.

The entertainment subsidiary of Tencent reported a profit of $263 million for the first six months of 2018, with revenue of $1.3 billion.

“We are pioneering the way people enjoy online music and music-centric social entertainment services,” it said in a filing, adding that it predicts the number of people that pay for music in China will “more than quadruple between 2017 and 2023.”

The symbol would be TME, but the company hasn’t yet decided which listing exchange to trade. It could choose either the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange.

CNN first reported that Tencent Music was mulling an IPO in the United States in July.

Tencent Music’s IPO follows a flurry of big listings by Chinese tech companies in recent months, including smartphone maker Xiaomi and online services provider Meituan Dianping.

Toys ‘R’ Us brand may be brought back to life

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New York
CNN Buiness
 — 

Toys “R” Us may be coming back.

The company closed all of its US stores in June as part of a bankruptcy liquidation. But the owners of the company’s remaining assets are looking into restarting the business, as well as the related Babies “R” Us brand, the company disclosed in a court filing this week.

Toys “R” Us had planned to auction off the rights to its name and the Babies “R” Us brand. Bidders had already made offers for them, according to the filing. But the company’s owners decided to cancel the auction.

The company said it is considering “a new, operating Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ‘R’ Us branding company,” the filing said. The plan would “create new, domestic, retail operating businesses under the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us names, as well as expand its international presence and further develop its private brands business.”

The details of when and how the brand would be brought back to life were not disclosed.

The fact that other bidders were interested in buying the name doesn’t necessarily mean that others were looking to bring it back to life. Companies often buy the brands of out-of-business competitors in bankruptcy court to make sure the brand can’t be used again by a new rival. Details of who was looking to buy the Toys “R” Us brand also was not disclosed in the bankruptcy filing.

Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy a year ago, with the plans to use the reorganization process to shed debt and remain in business. But after a disastrously bad Christmas shopping season the company announced in March that it would close its remaining 800 US stores and go out of business.

That cost about 31,000 workers their jobs. The 70-year old retailer shut down in June.

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