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“THE WORLD wants you to be typical …Don’t let it happen,” Jeff Bezos warned in April in his last annual shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon. Hence bewilderment that his e-empire is to adopt a retail format that is very typical indeed: the department store. Having helped drive many chains out of business, it is now eyeing the format to boost its own retail fortunes.As a company, Amazon is entering a more mature phase. Now with a new chief executive, Andy Jassy, it is being forced to recognise that pure e-commerce has limits. It is also facing fresh competition from conventional retailers like Walmart and Target that are belatedly showing that they, too, can do the internet well.Amazon’s high-street presence is small. Since 2015 it has opened 24 bookshops in America. Its 30 “4-star” shops, which stock items customers rate highly, function like a walk-in website. Whole Foods, an upmarket grocer it bought in 2017, contributes the bulk of its physical-store revenues, which accounted for just 4% of Amazon’s total sales in the most recent quarter. Its new Amazon Fresh grocery chain and Amazon Go cashierless stores barely chip in.So the new 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-metre) retail spaces it is reportedly envisaging mark a departure. Amazon has neither confirmed nor denied its plans. But leaked details on the stores’ size and locations suggest substance behind the reports. The first are to open in California and Ohio. If they go well, Amazon is expected to roll out more.Why invest in the high street just as covid-19 has lifted e-commerce? The growth rate of sales on Amazon’s platforms, including third parties, had slowed before the crisis, from nearly 30% a year to below 20%. The trend reasserts itself as people return to shops. In the past quarter Amazon’s own online sales grew by only 16%, short of investors’ (muted) expectations.In future customers will want “omnichannel” retail that combines online and physical shopping, says Mark Shmulik of Bernstein, a broker. As for Amazon’s move into department stores, he has one question: “What took them so long?” The firm’s motive is also defensive. Walmart has made omnichannel work well during the pandemic by melding its formidable physical network with its website and offering a same-day “click-and-collect” service.Getting more physical may not be easy. Amazon’s bricks-and-mortar performance has been ho-hum. Whereas most other big American grocers’ sales have doubled or even tripled in the pandemic, those of Whole Foods have barely budged, notes Sucharita Kodali of Forrester, a research firm. Amazon’s total physical-store revenues last year were 6% lower than in 2018.Making Amazonmarts appeal to shoppers may be harder than Amazon anticipates. It reportedly wants them to sell its cheap private-label garments and gadgets, which is at odds with its aspirations for the stores to offer high-end fashion, where it has struggled online. It is unclear if the outlets will mimic existing examples of the department-store canon, as Amazon Fresh shops resemble conventional grocers, or if Amazon plans to shake things up.Another question is how the move will affect returns for shareholders. Amazon should be able to rent or buy locations cheaply—bankruptcies have left many department-store properties up for grabs. Yet investors may be disappointed that Amazon will devote ever more resources to retail. Many prefer its faster-growing, vastly more profitable and techier businesses: digital ads and cloud computing. “Why tackle a dying industry?” asks Ms Kodali, suggesting that Amazon could have another crack at making smartphones.Amazon’s share price is down by 8% since its latest results. As well as posting slower online sales for the second quarter it forecast slowing total sales in the next. It also warned that costs will rise sharply in the future as it ramps up investing. Physical retail would claim some of the dosh. The irony would not be lost on Sears and other defunct department stores. ■For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Jeff and Andy’s” More
Omicron patients at Kaiser Permanente Southern California were 74% less likely to end up in ICUs and 91% less likely to die than delta patients, a study found.
No patients with omicron required mechanical ventilation, according to the study.
Hospital stays for patients with omicron also were about three days shorter than those for delta patients.
A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 test in San Francisco, California, on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Patients at a large health system in Southern California who had the Covid omicron variant were much less likely to need hospitalization, intensive care or die than people infected with the delta strain, a study found this week.
Infectious disease experts found omicron patients at Kaiser Permanente Southern California were 74% less likely to end up in ICUs and 91% less likely to die than delta patients. None of the patients with omicron required mechanical ventilation, according to the study.

What’s more, the risk of hospitalization was 52% lower in omicron patients than delta sufferers, according to the study, which has not been peer reviewed. Researchers are publishing studies before they are reviewed by other experts due to the urgency of the pandemic.
Hospital stays for patients with omicron were also about three days shorter than their delta counterparts. Unvaccinated patients were also less likely to develop severe disease, according to the data.
“Reductions in disease severity associated with omicron variant infections were evident among both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, and among those with or without documented prior SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the team of researchers found.
Kaiser Permanente Southern California provides care to more than 4.7 million people. The study analyzed more than 52,000 omicron cases and nearly 17,000 delta cases.
The large U.S. study adds to a growing body of data from the United Kingdom and South Africa indicating that the omicron variant, while more contagious, doesn’t make people as sick as the delta variant.
CNBC Health & Science
However, officials at the World Health Organization emphasized that omicron, although generally less severe than delta, still poses a threat to the lives of the unvaccinated, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
“We can definitely say that an omicron variant causes, on average, a less severe disease in any human being — but that’s on average,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, during a Q&A livestreamed Tuesday on the WHO’s social media channels.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people around the world in hospital as we speak with the omicron variant, and for them that’s a very severe disease,” Ryan said. He warned that omicron still poses a “massive threat” to the lives and health of the unvaccinated, encouraging them to get vaccine shots so they have protection as the variant rapidly spreads.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said a lower proportion of people are dying from omicron, but the variant still presents a serious health risk to the elderly and those with underlying conditions.
“We do know that mortality increases with omicron with increasing age,” Van Kerkhove said Tuesday. “We also have data from some countries that show that people with at least one underlying condition are at an increased risk of hospitalization and death, even if you have omicron as compared to delta.”
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, said the U.S. is reporting about 1,600 Covid deaths per day on average, a 40% increase over the previous week. However, Walensky told reporters during a White House Covid briefing that those deaths are likely due to the delta variant, because the reporting of new fatalities generally lags new infections.
The U.S. reported a pandemic record of almost 1.5 million new Covid infections on Monday with an average of about 750,000 new daily infections over the last week, according to CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That compares with a seven-day average of about 252,000 new cases a day a year ago.
Hospitalizations are also higher than last winter’s peak — before the widespread distribution of vaccines — and continue to rise. More than 152,000 people in the U.S. were hospitalized with Covid as of Wednesday, up 18% over the last week, according to data tracked by the Department of Health and Human Services.
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President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has told his administration’s negotiators to end coronavirus stimulus talks with Democrats until after the Nov. 3 election.
The declaration halts an ongoing push to send trillions of dollars more in relief to Americans as the outbreak rampages through the U.S. and the economy struggles to recover from virus-related shutdowns. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke for an hour about a relief package on Monday and planned to talk about a possible agreement again Tuesday. Trump, who has Covid-19 himself, had only three days ago urged the sides to complete a deal after taking no direct role in the talks for months.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Trump tweeted Tuesday.
The president added that he has asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to “focus full time” on confirming Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, which Senate Republicans have pushed to do before the election amid several Covid-19 cases within their ranks. Trump spoke with Republican congressional leaders about stimulus plans earlier in the day.
Trump appeared to contradict his earlier message in a tweet Tuesday night. Responding to a headline about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell calling for more fiscal stimulus and saying Congress has a low risk of “overdoing it,” the president wrote, “True!”
Pelosi and Mnuchin talked Tuesday afternoon, and the Treasury secretary confirmed that Trump pulled out of the discussions, the speaker’s spokesman Drew Hammill said in a tweet. Pelosi “expressed her disappointment in the President’s decision,” Hammill wrote.
In a statement responding to Trump’s tweets, Pelosi said the president “showed his true colors: putting himself first at the expense of the country, with the full complicity of the GOP Members of Congress.” She added that “walking away from coronavirus talks demonstrates that President Trump is unwilling to crush the virus.”
Investors punished stocks in response to Trump’s tweets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed more than 300 points, or 1.3%, lower after the announcement.
Though talks made little progress for months, traders had grown more hopeful that the sides could reach a deal before the election as many individuals and businesses struggle during the ongoing outbreak.
Congress has failed to deliver new relief money to Americans for months as millions of people left jobless by the pandemic struggle to pay for food and housing. Lifelines that sustained the economy throughout the early stages of the pandemic, including the $600 per week unemployment benefit and the window to apply for Paycheck Protection Program small business loans, lapsed weeks ago.
In his tweets Tuesday, Trump appeared to argue the U.S. economy does not need any more stimulus. He wrote that “we are leading the World in Economic Recovery, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
While the U.S. quickly regained many of the jobs lost earlier this year, a weaker-than-expected nonfarm payrolls gain of 661,000 in September fueled more concerns about the U.S. economic recovery slowing. The unemployment rate fell to 7.9%, still significantly higher than before the pandemic hit.
Trump’s push to stop negotiations came only hours after Powell urged Congress to approve more fiscal stimulus. He said a lack of sustained support from the federal government could “lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses.”
The president decided to pull away from negotiations only weeks before an election in which his struggle to contain the virus outbreak and curb the economic damage from it have harmed his chances of winning a second term in the White House. While Congress faced an uphill path to passing aid before the election, Trump’s decision to suddenly call off active talks shocked political and business observers alike.
“Nobody gets it,” a senior Wall Street executive who declined to be named told CNBC of the decision.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has supported more stimulus as the Democratic presidential nominee, has targeted Trump for failing to limit the economic destruction caused by the coronavirus. Jared Bernstein, a former economic advisor to Biden and an informal advisor to his presidential campaign, criticized Trump for postponing the talks.
“With literally millions of people facing hunger and evictions, and with job growth downshifting, this is no time for the president to stop negotiating,” he said. “His lack of leadership throughout the process has been and continues to be a huge stumbling block.”
Democrats and the Trump administration had struggled to agree on what provisions a fifth aid package would include and how much the proposal would cost. Democrats passed a $2.2 trillion relief bill last week, while Republicans had offered a $1.6 trillion package.
Democratic leaders repeatedly argued the GOP did not recognize the gravity of the crisis. Republicans, who grew wary of spending federal money, insisted Democrats proposed an unnecessarily expensive plan that embraced liberal priorities unrelated to the pandemic.
After Trump’s announcement, McConnell told reporters that “I think his view was that they were not going to produce a result and that we needed to concentrate on what’s achievable.” Asked if he supported the decision, the senator responded, “I do.”
Democrats and the White House appeared to have agreed on a range of relief provisions, including another $1,200 direct payment to most Americans, funds for a second round of small business loans, money for schools and $25 billion to help cover airline payrolls as companies plan tens of thousands of furloughs. But the sides failed to overcome fundamental disputes about several other issues.
Democrats most recently proposed $436 billion in relief for state and local governments, while Mnuchin offered $250 billion in aid. Pelosi pushed to reinstate the $600 per week jobless benefit until January, but the White House proposed $400 weekly. Republicans also wanted liability protections for businesses and schools, which Democrats oppose.
In his tweets, Trump claimed the proposed state and municipal aid is a “bailout” of Democratic-run states that is “in no way related to COVID-19.” The bipartisan National Governors Association has pushed for at least $500 billion more in federal relief as governments consider cuts to education and essential services while they face increased costs and lower revenue during the pandemic.
The president also said Pelosi “is not negotiating in good faith” after the White House made its $1.6 trillion offer.
Polls have consistently found voters want Congress to pass more aid ahead of the election. A new CNBC/Change Research poll released Tuesday asked likely voters whether one of two statements came closer to their views: “The economy is struggling and we need more financial relief from Washington,” or “The economy is recovering and we do not need any more financial relief from Washington.”
Nationally, 66% of respondents said the country needs more aid, while 34% answered that it does not need more assistance. In six swing states — Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — 63% of likely voters said America needs more financial relief from the federal government, while 37% said it does not.
At least three GOP members of Congress quickly questioned Trump’s decision. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who faces one of the Senate’s toughest reelection bids, called for lawmakers to pass another aid bill before Nov. 3.
“Waiting until after the election to reach an agreement on the next Covid-19 relief package is a huge mistake,” she said in a statement. “I have already been in touch with the Secretary of the Treasury, one of the chief negotiators, and with several of my Senate colleagues.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a statement that “I strongly believe negotiations should continue.”
Rep. John Katko, a New York Republican running in a potentially competitive race in November, tweeted that he wants the president “to rethink this move.”
“I disagree with the President. With lives at stake, we cannot afford to stop negotiations on a relief package,” he wrote.
— CNBC’s Brian Schwartz contributed to this report. More
Boeing and NASA are moving forward with a June 1 launch attempt of the company’s Starliner capsule despite a “stable” leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
The mission, marking the first time Starliner carries U.S. astronauts, was postponed earlier this month.
“We know we can manage this [leak], so this is really not a safety of flight issue,” Boeing Vice President Mark Nappi said on Friday.
In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen illuminated by spotlights on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test on May 4, 2024 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Joel Kowsky | NASA | Handout | Getty Images
Boeing and NASA are moving forward with the launch of the company’s Starliner capsule, set to carry U.S. astronauts for the first time, despite a “stable” leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
“We are comfortable with the causes that we’ve identified for this specific leak,” Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and manager of the company’s Commercial Crew program, said during a press conference on Friday.
“We know we can manage this [leak], so this is really not a safety of flight issue,” Nappi added.
Boeing is now targeting June 1 for the first crewed launch of its spacecraft, with backup opportunities on June 2, June 5 and June 6.
The mission, known as the Starliner Crew Flight Test, is intended to serve as the final major development test of the capsule by delivering a pair of NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station before flying routine missions.
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Starliner’s crew debut has been delayed by years, with SpaceX’s competing Dragon capsule flying astronauts for NASA regularly since 2020 under the agency’s Commercial Crew program. To date, Boeing has eaten $1.5 billion in costs due to Starliner setbacks, in addition to nearly $5 billion of NASA development funds.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is seen before docking with the International Space Station on May 20, 2022 during the uncrewed OFT-2 mission.
NASA and Boeing called off a launch attempt on May 6 about two hours before liftoff due to an issue detected with the Atlas V rocket that will lift Starliner into orbit. Atlas V is built and operated by United Launch Alliance, or ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
During the press conference Friday, a ULA official noted that the rocket’s problematic valve was replaced a week after the launch was postponed.
But after calling off the launch attempt, a “small” helium leak with Starliner was identified, causing Boeing and NASA to begin new assessments of the capsule and its safety for the mission. NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox, one of the agency’s most senior officials, explained to the press on Friday that “it’s taken a while for us to be ready to discuss” the helium leak problem.
“It’s so complicated. There’s so many things going on. We really just needed to work through it as a team,” Bowersox said.
After analysis, NASA and Boeing believe the source of the leak is a seal in one of the flanges of the spacecraft’s helium propulsion system. In testing after the May 6 postponement, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said that teams “have seen that the leak rate isn’t changing.”
Stich explained that the plan is to monitor the leak in the lead-up to launch and, after reaching the International Space Station, reassess the leak rate.
“We don’t expect the other [seals] to leak, and I think that’s a confidence that we have,” Stich said.
Stich also emphasized that NASA has “flown vehicles with small helium leaks” before, including “a couple of cases” from missions flown by the Space Shuttle and SpaceX’s Dragon.
NASA, Boeing and ULA will hold another review on May 29 to review the leak. They plan to roll the rocket and capsule out to the launch pad on May 30 for the June 1 attempt. More
Bobby Bonilla was an outfielder for several baseball teams, notably the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets. Getty Images As the New York Mets have done for the last eight years, the club completed a transaction Wednesday, paying former Major League Baseball slugger Bobby Bonilla more than $1 million as part of a deferred […] More
“THE WORLD wants you to be typical …Don’t let it happen,” Jeff Bezos warned in April in his last annual shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon. Hence bewilderment that his e-empire is to adopt a retail format that is very typical indeed: the department store. Having helped drive many chains out of business, it is now eyeing the format to boost its own retail fortunes.As a company, Amazon is entering a more mature phase. Now with a new chief executive, Andy Jassy, it is being forced to recognise that pure e-commerce has limits. It is also facing fresh competition from conventional retailers like Walmart and Target that are belatedly showing that they, too, can do the internet well.Amazon’s high-street presence is small. Since 2015 it has opened 24 bookshops in America. Its 30 “4-star” shops, which stock items customers rate highly, function like a walk-in website. Whole Foods, an upmarket grocer it bought in 2017, contributes the bulk of its physical-store revenues, which accounted for just 4% of Amazon’s total sales in the most recent quarter. Its new Amazon Fresh grocery chain and Amazon Go cashierless stores barely chip in.So the new 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-metre) retail spaces it is reportedly envisaging mark a departure. Amazon has neither confirmed nor denied its plans. But leaked details on the stores’ size and locations suggest substance behind the reports. The first are to open in California and Ohio. If they go well, Amazon is expected to roll out more.Why invest in the high street just as covid-19 has lifted e-commerce? The growth rate of sales on Amazon’s platforms, including third parties, had slowed before the crisis, from nearly 30% a year to below 20%. The trend reasserts itself as people return to shops. In the past quarter Amazon’s own online sales grew by only 16%, short of investors’ (muted) expectations.In future customers will want “omnichannel” retail that combines online and physical shopping, says Mark Shmulik of Bernstein, a broker. As for Amazon’s move into department stores, he has one question: “What took them so long?” The firm’s motive is also defensive. Walmart has made omnichannel work well during the pandemic by melding its formidable physical network with its website and offering a same-day “click-and-collect” service.Getting more physical may not be easy. Amazon’s bricks-and-mortar performance has been ho-hum. Whereas most other big American grocers’ sales have doubled or even tripled in the pandemic, those of Whole Foods have barely budged, notes Sucharita Kodali of Forrester, a research firm. Amazon’s total physical-store revenues last year were 6% lower than in 2018.Making Amazonmarts appeal to shoppers may be harder than Amazon anticipates. It reportedly wants them to sell its cheap private-label garments and gadgets, which is at odds with its aspirations for the stores to offer high-end fashion, where it has struggled online. It is unclear if the outlets will mimic existing examples of the department-store canon, as Amazon Fresh shops resemble conventional grocers, or if Amazon plans to shake things up.Another question is how the move will affect returns for shareholders. Amazon should be able to rent or buy locations cheaply—bankruptcies have left many department-store properties up for grabs. Yet investors may be disappointed that Amazon will devote ever more resources to retail. Many prefer its faster-growing, vastly more profitable and techier businesses: digital ads and cloud computing. “Why tackle a dying industry?” asks Ms Kodali, suggesting that Amazon could have another crack at making smartphones.Amazon’s share price is down by 8% since its latest results. As well as posting slower online sales for the second quarter it forecast slowing total sales in the next. It also warned that costs will rise sharply in the future as it ramps up investing. Physical retail would claim some of the dosh. The irony would not be lost on Sears and other defunct department stores. ■For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Jeff and Andy’s” More
Omicron patients at Kaiser Permanente Southern California were 74% less likely to end up in ICUs and 91% less likely to die than delta patients, a study found.
No patients with omicron required mechanical ventilation, according to the study.
Hospital stays for patients with omicron also were about three days shorter than those for delta patients.
A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 test in San Francisco, California, on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Patients at a large health system in Southern California who had the Covid omicron variant were much less likely to need hospitalization, intensive care or die than people infected with the delta strain, a study found this week.
Infectious disease experts found omicron patients at Kaiser Permanente Southern California were 74% less likely to end up in ICUs and 91% less likely to die than delta patients. None of the patients with omicron required mechanical ventilation, according to the study.

What’s more, the risk of hospitalization was 52% lower in omicron patients than delta sufferers, according to the study, which has not been peer reviewed. Researchers are publishing studies before they are reviewed by other experts due to the urgency of the pandemic.
Hospital stays for patients with omicron were also about three days shorter than their delta counterparts. Unvaccinated patients were also less likely to develop severe disease, according to the data.
“Reductions in disease severity associated with omicron variant infections were evident among both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, and among those with or without documented prior SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the team of researchers found.
Kaiser Permanente Southern California provides care to more than 4.7 million people. The study analyzed more than 52,000 omicron cases and nearly 17,000 delta cases.
The large U.S. study adds to a growing body of data from the United Kingdom and South Africa indicating that the omicron variant, while more contagious, doesn’t make people as sick as the delta variant.
CNBC Health & Science
However, officials at the World Health Organization emphasized that omicron, although generally less severe than delta, still poses a threat to the lives of the unvaccinated, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
“We can definitely say that an omicron variant causes, on average, a less severe disease in any human being — but that’s on average,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, during a Q&A livestreamed Tuesday on the WHO’s social media channels.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people around the world in hospital as we speak with the omicron variant, and for them that’s a very severe disease,” Ryan said. He warned that omicron still poses a “massive threat” to the lives and health of the unvaccinated, encouraging them to get vaccine shots so they have protection as the variant rapidly spreads.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said a lower proportion of people are dying from omicron, but the variant still presents a serious health risk to the elderly and those with underlying conditions.
“We do know that mortality increases with omicron with increasing age,” Van Kerkhove said Tuesday. “We also have data from some countries that show that people with at least one underlying condition are at an increased risk of hospitalization and death, even if you have omicron as compared to delta.”
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, said the U.S. is reporting about 1,600 Covid deaths per day on average, a 40% increase over the previous week. However, Walensky told reporters during a White House Covid briefing that those deaths are likely due to the delta variant, because the reporting of new fatalities generally lags new infections.
The U.S. reported a pandemic record of almost 1.5 million new Covid infections on Monday with an average of about 750,000 new daily infections over the last week, according to CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That compares with a seven-day average of about 252,000 new cases a day a year ago.
Hospitalizations are also higher than last winter’s peak — before the widespread distribution of vaccines — and continue to rise. More than 152,000 people in the U.S. were hospitalized with Covid as of Wednesday, up 18% over the last week, according to data tracked by the Department of Health and Human Services.
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