Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, October 14, 2022.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Volatility and earnings
Last week, economic data fed the market’s volatility. Inflation remains red hot, so it doesn’t look like the Federal Reserve will ease back on its aggressive push to cool the economy. This week, earnings season gains momentum. Investors will get to see how companies are navigating high costs and price-conscious consumers, while monitoring how the strong dollar is weighing on overseas business. You can follow live markets coverage here. Meanwhile, Bank of America reported Monday (more on that below). Here are some of the other big names set to report this week:
2. Let’s try this again, shall we?
Jeremy Hunt is interviewed for Sophie Raworth’s ‘Sunday Morning’ at BBC Broadcasting House in London.
Tejas Sandhu | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Britain has a new finance minister, Jeremy Hunt, and he unveiled a new economic plan Monday. Hunt replaces Kwasi Kwarteng, who was sacked after just weeks on the job because his tax-cut-heavy economic plan sent UK bonds and the pound spiraling. Hunt on Monday said the new plan will eliminate almost all of the tax cuts proposed under Kwarteng’s budget. Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government, which has only been in office just over a month, is already on thin ice over the market turmoil, but it’s likely she will stay in office for the time being. UK Conservative Party rules say a new leadership election can’t be held for a year.
3. Bank of America beats
Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, speaking at the WEF in Davos, Switzerland on May 23rd, 2022.
Adam Galica | CNBC
Bank of America on Monday posted earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s expectations. The bank cited better-than-expected gains from fixed-income trading and interest income, which were fed by rising interest rates and market volatility. Bank of America’s results follow last week’s initial wave of big bank earnings. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo exceeded projections due to strong interest income. Citigroup also topped estimates, but Morgan Stanley fell short due to underwhelming investment management results. Goldman Sachs is set to report Tuesday.
4. Drones hammer Kyiv
A soldier is seen sitting on the ground after Russian attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 17, 2022. It was reported that at least four explosions were heard in Ukraineâs capital Kyiv on Monday as authorities reported attacks by Russian kamikaze drones.
Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Russia’s onslaught on Ukraine’s cities continues. Vladimir Putin’s military is relying more on drones to unleash attacks in urban centers. Kyiv’s mayor and other officials said drone attacks on the capital city’s central district killed people, including a pregnant woman, and damaged residential buildings. Fighting is fierce elsewhere in Ukraine. Russian forces have gone on the offensive in the eastern Donbas region in a bid to solidify its lines after Ukrainian forces seized back large chunks of occupied territory. Read live war updates here.
5. Ye pulls a Trump
Kanye West arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Feb. 9, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Evan Agostini | Invision | AP
Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has agreed to buy right-wing-friendly social media app Parler just days after Instagram and Twitter limited his accounts over his recent antisemitic remarks. The billionaire rapper and producer’s move is reminiscent of former President Donald Trump’s creation of Truth Social. He helped found the Twitter-like app after Twitter, Facebook and other platforms barred him for inciting violence on Jan. 6, 2021, when hundreds of his followers invaded the U.S. Capitol. Parler, like Truth Social and other conservative-friendly social networks, touts its dedication to “free speech,” which Ye pointed to in a statement provided by Parler’s parent company: “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.” Elon Musk, who has praised Ye and is set to acquire Twitter, albeit reluctantly, has vowed to make Twitter a “free speech” platform, as well. He has also said he would allow Trump back on the app.
– CNBC’s Yun Li, Jenni Reid, Holly Ellyatt, Hugh Son and Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
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A worker delivers Amazon packages in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Amazon on Thursday announced Prime members can access new fixed pricing for treatment of conditions like erectile dysfunction and men’s hair loss, its latest effort to compete with other direct-to-consumer marketplaces such as Hims & Hers Health and Ro.
Shares of Hims & Hers fell as much as 17% on Thursday, on pace for its worst day.
Amazon said in a blog post that Prime members can see the cost of a telehealth visit and their desired treatment before they decide to proceed with care for five common issues. Patients can access treatment for anti-aging skin care starting at $10 a month; motion sickness for $2 per use; erectile dysfunction at $19 a month; eyelash growth at $43 a month, and men’s hair loss for $16 a month by using Amazon’s savings benefit Prime Rx at checkout.
Amazon acquired primary care provider One Medical for roughly $3.9 billion in July 2022, and Thursday’s announcement builds on its existing pay-per-visit telehealth offering. Video visits through the service cost $49, and messaging visits cost $29 where available. Users can get treatment for more than 30 common conditions, including sinus infection and pink eye.
Medications filled through Amazon Pharmacy are eligible for discounted pricing and will be delivered to patients’ doors in standard Amazon packaging. Prime members will pay for the consultation and medication, but there are no additional fees, the blog post said.
Amazon has been trying to break into the lucrative health-care sector for years. The company launched its own online pharmacy in 2020 following its acquisition of PillPack in 2018. Amazon introduced, and later shuttered, a telehealth service called Amazon Care, as well as a line of health and wellness devices.
The company has also discontinued a secretive effort to develop an at-home fertility tracker, CNBC reported Wednesday.
Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning says censorship is still “a dominant threat,” advocating for a more decentralized internet to help better protect individuals online.
Her comments come amid ongoing tension linked to online safety rules, with some tech executives recently seeking to push back over content moderation concerns.
Speaking to CNBC’s Karen Tso at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday, Manning said that one way to ensure online privacy could be “decentralized identification,” which gives individuals the ability to control their own data.
“Censorship is a dominant threat. I think that it is a question of who’s doing the censoring, and what the purpose is — and also censorship in the 21st century is more about whether or not you’re boosted through like an algorithm, and how the fine-tuning of that seems to work,” Manning said.
“I think that social media and the monopolies of social media have sort of gotten us used to the fact that certain things that drive engagement will be attractive,” she added.
“One of the ways that we can sort of countervail that is to go back to the more decentralized and distribute the internet of the early ’90s, but make that available to more people.”
Nym Technologies Chief Security Officer Chelsea Manning at a press conference held with Nym Technologies CEO Harry Halpin in the Media Village to present NymVPN during the second day of Web Summit on November 13, 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Asked how tech companies could make money in such a scenario, Manning said there would have to be “a better social contract” put in place to determine how information is shared and accessed.
“One of the things about distributed or decentralized identification is that through encryption you’re able to sort of check the box yourself, instead of having to depend on the company to provide you with a check box or an accept here, you’re making that decision from a technical perspective,” Manning said.
‘No longer secrecy versus transparency’
Manning, who works as a security consultant at Nym Technologies, a company that specializes in online privacy and security, was convicted of espionage and other charges at a court-martial in 2013 for leaking a trove of secret military files to online media publisher WikiLeaks.
She was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but was later released in 2017, when former U.S. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.
Asked to what extent the environment has changed for whistleblowers today, Manning said, “We’re at an interesting time because information is everywhere. We have more information than ever.”
She added, “Countries and governments no longer seem to invest the same amount of time and effort in hiding information and keeping secrets. What countries seem to be doing now is they seem to be spending more time and energy spreading misinformation and disinformation.”
Manning said the challenge for whistleblowers now is to sort through the information to understand what is verifiable and authentic.
“It’s no longer secrecy versus transparency,” she added.
LISBON, Portugal — British online lender Zopa is on track to double profits and increase annual revenue by more than a third this year amid bumper demand for its banking services, the company’s CEO told CNBC.
Zopa posted revenues of £222 million ($281.7 million) in 2023 and is expecting to cross the £300 million revenue milestone this year — that would mark a 35% annual jump.
The 2024 estimates are based on unaudited internal figures.
The firm also says it is on track to increase pre-tax profits twofold in 2024, after hitting £15.8 million last year.
Zopa, a regulated bank that is backed by Japanese giant SoftBank, has plans to venture into the world of current accounts next year as it looks to focus more on new products.
The company currently offers credit cards, personal loans and savings accounts that it offers through a mobile app — similar to other digital banks such as Monzo and Revolut which don’t operate physical branches.
“The business is doing really well. In 2024, we’ve hit or exceeded the plans across all metrics,” CEO Jaidev Janardana told CNBC in an interview Wednesday.
He said the strong performance is coming off the back of gradually improving sentiment in the U.K. economy, where Zopa operates exclusively.
Commenting on Britain’s macroeconomic conditions, Janardana said, “While it has been a rough few years, in terms of consumers, they have continued to feel the pain slightly less this year than last year.”
The market is “still tight,” he noted, adding that fintech offerings such as Zopa’s — which typically provide higher savings rates than high-street banks — become “more important” during such times.
“The proposition has become more relevant, and while it’s tight for customers, we have had to be much more constrained in terms of who we can lend to,” he said, adding that Zopa has still been able to grow despite that.
A big priority for the business going forward is product, Janardana said. The firm is developing a current account product which would allow users to spend and manage their money more easily, in a similar fashion to mainstream banking providers like HSBC and Barclays, as well as fintech upstarts such as Monzo.
“We believe that there is more that the consumer can have in the current account space,” Janardana said. “We expect that we will launch our current account with the general public sometime next year.”
Janardana said consumers can expect a “slick” experience from Zopa’s current account offering, including the ability to view and manage multiple account bank accounts from one interface and access to competitive savings rates.
IPO ‘not top of mind’
Zopa is one of many fintech companies that has been viewed as a potential IPO candidate. Around two years ago, the firm said that it was planning to go public, but later decided to put those plans on ice, as high interest rates battered technology stocks and the IPO market froze over in 2022.
Janardana said he doesn’t envision a public listing as an immediate priority, but noted he sees signs pointing toward a more favorable U.S. IPO market next year.
That should mean that Europe becomes more open to IPOs happening later in 2026, according to Janardana. He didn’t disclose where Zopa would end up going public.
“To be honest, it’s not the top of mind for me,” Janardana told CNBC. “I think we continue to be lucky to have supportive and long-term shareholders who support future growth as well.”
Last year, Zopa made two senior hires, appointing Peter Donlon, ex-chief technology officer at online card retailer Moonpig, as its own CTO. The firm also hired Kate Erb, a chartered accountant from KPMG, as its chief operating officer.
The company raised $300 million in a funding round led by Japanese tech investor SoftBank in 2021 and was last valued by investors at $1 billion.