Author: Steven Sahiounie

The high rate of inflation in the US is likely to be “far stickier” and longer-lasting than many have predicted, the chief investment officer at Smead Capital Management, Bill Smead, told CNBC on Tuesday. The comments come ahead of a much-anticipated US inflation report by the Labor Department due later in the day. “The enthusiasm… right now is the hope that we’ll get a friendly Fed out of a soft landing, and we do not believe that is going to be the case,” Smead stated. “We think the inflation is going to be far stickier and longer-lasting – in fact, a decade,…

Zillow Group — Shares advanced 4.57% after Evercore ISI upgraded the stock to outperform from in line, saying investors should buy shares ahead of what could be a “rapid recovery” in the housing market. The firm also boosted its price target to $61 from $34, suggesting about 44% upside from Friday’s close. Microsoft — The technology corporation’s shares rose 3.12% on Monday, pushing its market cap over $2 trillion once again, after Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating for the stock. Microsoft announced its new artificial intelligence-powered Bing search browser last week. Twilio — The cloud communication software marker gained 2.08% after announcing plans to cut…

Avis — The car rental company gained 3.5% after beating both top- and bottom-line estimates from analysts polled by Refinitiv. Avis posted adjusted earnings per share of $10.46 on revenue of $2.77 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates of $6.79 in per-share earnings on revenues of $2.69 billion. The company cited strong demand and said that has continued in the current quarter. Amkor Technology — Shares of the semiconductor stock slid 5% after missing per-share earnings estimates while beating expectations for revenue, according to FactSet. The company also gave first-quarter guidance that was below analysts’ expectations. Cadence Design — The software company gained 4%…

After China’s reopening and a deluge of positive data surprises in recent weeks, economists are upgrading their previously gloomy outlooks for the global economy. Data releases last week showed signs of inflation slowing and less severe downturns in activity, prompting Barclays on Friday to raise its global growth forecast to 2.2% in 2023, up 0.5 percentage points from its last estimate in mid-November. “This is largely driven by the 1.0pp increase in our China growth prediction to 4.8% from last week, but also reflects a 0.7pp increase for the euro area (to -0.1%, largely on a much better Germany) forecasts, and, to lesser extent,…

U.S. inflation is likely to be “far stickier” and could last a decade, according to Bill Smead, chief investment officer at Smead Capital Management. Wall Street is gearing up for key inflation data later Tuesday, when the Labor Department releases its January consumer price index. It is a widely followed inflation gauge that measures the cost for dozens of goods and services spanning the economy. “The enthusiasm … right now is the hope that we’ll get a friendly Fed out of a soft landing, and we do not believe that is going to be the case,” Smead told CNBC’s “Streets Sign Asia.” “We…

The first time Gabriel Trompiz heard about the FTX student ambassador program was through a LinkedIn message. He had been identified as someone who could represent and promote the crypto exchange at his college. Trompiz promptly applied through the link he was sent and became an FTX campus ambassador shortly afterward. No contracts were signed, and Trompiz says he wasn’t paid. But he was given a task: promoting the company to fellow students to help build its userbase in Europe. FTX was already running a campus ambassador program in Africa, with the same goal of advertising the exchange to fellow students.…

Mark Cuban may be entertained by chatbots like Microsoft-backed ChatGPT and Google’s upcoming Bard — but he isn’t ready to trust them. Online misinformation “is only going to get worse” as artificial intelligence platforms evolve and spread, the billionaire tech entrepreneur and investor said on a recent episode of comedian Jon Stewart’s podcast, “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” Right now, misinformation tends to spread through social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter — and that’s with some semblance of human guardrails in place, Cuban said. But with ChatGPT and other similar platforms, the machines are in control. “Once these things start taking on a life of their…

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. U.S. markets rose, expecting inflation to moderate further. They might be surprised by tomorrow’s consumer price index. What you need to know today The bottom line Months of steadily declining prices have given investors the sense that inflation is on a linear, downward trend. But inflation is more complex than it initially seemed and could surprise markets still. Economists are expecting January’s consumer price index to rise 0.4%…

What you need to know The bottom line Months of steadily declining prices have given investors the sense that inflation is on a linear, downward trend. But inflation is more complex than it initially seemed. Economists are expecting January’s consumer price index to rise 0.4% on a monthly basis — that’s a jump from December’s -0.1% figure, which means that prices actually fell. So far, market chatter is that service inflation — the price of travel, dining out and hospitality, for example — has proven more persistent than goods inflation, largely because of an extremely tight labor market. But logistic…

DETROIT – Ford Motor said Monday it will collaborate with a Chinese supplier on a new $3.5 billion battery plant for electric vehicles in Michigan, despite tensions between the U.S. and China. The anticipated announcement of the deal between Ford and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, follows Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin saying he was withdrawing the state from a competitive process to attract the planned Ford plant over its connection to the Chinese company. Lisa Drake, Ford’s vice president of EV industrialization, said the automaker will own the new facility through a wholly owned subsidiary instead of operating it as a joint venture with CATL,…