Raphael Stevens

Tom Brady announced his retirement from the NFL, saying it’s “for good” this time.
Brady made the same announcement last year, but returned to play another season as quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady, widely regarded the greatest quarterback of all time, won seven Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and Buccaneers

Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers waves to the crowd as he runs off the field after defeating the New England Patriots in the game at Gillette Stadium on October 03, 2021 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Adam Glanzman | Getty Images

Tom Brady on Wednesday announced his retirement from the National Football League, a year after he made the same announcement, but then returned to play another season.
“I know the process was a pretty big deal last time,” Brady said in a 53-second video. “You only get one super emotional retirement essay and I used mine up last year.”

Brady is widely considered the greatest quarterback of all time. He finishes with numerous NFL records and seven Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The 45-year old Buccaneers quarterback announced his retirement on the same day last year after playing 22 seasons. Brady returned to the field less than two months after making that announcement to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, marking his 23rd season. The Bucs lost in the playoffs.
Pledging that his retirement is “for good” this time, Brady ends his career with seven Super Bowl wins under his belt. Brady played for the New England Patriots from 2000 to 2019 and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020.
The NFL and the Patriots sent Brady support on Twitter – while also poking fun at the fact that this is his second retirement announcement – by recycling the well wishes they used last year.
Brady exits the NFL after a tough year with the Bucs, the first losing season in his entire career.

Outside the NFL, Brady has faced other losses mainly pertaining to his investments with the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He and his wife at the time, Gisele Bündchen, collectively owned 2 million shares of the crypto exchange and also did public endorsements for the firm.
Bündchen and Brady finalized their divorce in October, just before the crypto firm officially collapsed.
Brady is facing lawsuits from FTX investors who say that the brand’s ambassadors should have done more due diligence before promoting it.

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“We are just at the dawn of the robotics age. And I would say artificial intelligence and battery technology are all a part of that movement as well,” Cathie Wood said.
Amazon had more than 1.6 million workers at the end of 2021, according to its most recent annual report.
Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) just finished its best month ever, but is still down dramatically over the past two years.

Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Ark Invest, gestures as she speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
Marco Bello | Getty Images

The growth of automation in the workplace will accelerate this decade, with robot workers possibly surpassing human employees at one of the world’s biggest companies, according to Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood.
Amazon’s use of automated robots will dramatically change the company’s workforce in the coming years, the portfolio manager said Wednesday.

“Amazon is adding about a thousand robots a day. … If you compare the number of robots Amazon has to the number of employees, it’s about a third. And we believe that by the year 2030 Amazon can have more robots than employees,” Wood said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“So we are just at the dawn of the robotics age. And I would say artificial intelligence and battery technology are all a part of that movement as well,” she added.
The robot revolution will not be limited to Amazon; it will spread across manufacturing, Wood said, as improving technology and falling costs speed up the transition.
“If you look at the cost declines, which drive all of our models … for every cumulative doubling in the number of robots produced, the cost declines are in the 50-60% range,” she said.
Amazon had more than 1.6 million workers at the end of 2021, according to its most recent annual report. The company is expected to release fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.

However, like many other tech companies, Amazon has begun to lay off workers in recent months. Amazon announced more than 18,000 job cuts in January, though that leaves company still well above its pre-pandemic level of employees.

Wood’s bets on new technologies made her a star investor in 2020, when the Fed cut interest rates and the work from home boom fueled interest in high-growth tech stocks. Some of those stocks are back in favor again, as Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) just finished its best month ever, rising 27.8% in January.
However, the rally only made a small dent in the fund’s losses over the past two years. The ETF is still more than 70% below its peak from February 2021.

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Peloton’s net losses narrowed from a year earlier, but it’s the eighth straight quarter the company has failed to turn a profit.
The exercise equipment company, which sells the Bike and Bike+, made more in sales from its subscriptions than its connected fitness products for the third quarter in a row.
CEO Barry McCarthy, a former Spotify and Netflix executive, called the results a potential “turning point.”

Brody Longo works out on his Peloton exercise bike on April 16, 2021 in Brick, New Jersey.
Michael Loccisano | Getty Images

Peloton said Wednesday its net loss narrowed year over year, and, for the third quarter in a row, subscriptions revenue was higher than sales of the company’s connected fitness products.
CEO Barry McCarthy called the results a possible “turning point” for the business, which has spent much of the past year executing an aggressive turnaround strategy. 

The fitness equipment company’s fiscal second quarter revenue beat Wall Street’s expectations, but the company posted wider losses per share than expected. Peloton’s stock jumped about 7% in premarket trading.
Here’s how Peloton did in the three months that ended Dec. 31 compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Loss per share: 98 cents vs. 64 cents expected
Revenue: $792.7 million vs. $710 million expected

The company’s reported net loss for the three-month period that ended Dec. 31 was $335.4 million, or 98 cents per share, compared with a loss of $439.4 million, or $1.39 per share, a year earlier. While it’s the eighth quarter in a row the exercise company has reported losses, it’s the narrowest loss Peloton has marked since its 2021 fiscal fourth quarter. 
Revenue dropped 30% compared to the year ago period but exceeded the company’s expected range of $700 to $725 million. Connected fitness product sales, which are typically strong during Peloton’s holiday quarter, dropped 52% year-over-year while subscription revenue jumped 22%. 
“This is the time of year when, if we’re going to sell a lot of hardware, we have so you would expect there to be lots of hardware related revenue, and you would expect that maybe that revenue would exceed subscription,” McCarthy told CNBC. “It didn’t. It’s why in the letter [to investors], I call it out, as it may be a turning point.”

In his letter to investors, McCarthy said he expects the trend to continue. 
The company ended the quarter with 6.7 million total members and 3.03 million connected fitness subscriptions, which is a 10% jump compared to the year ago period. The company counted 852,000 subscribers to its app, a 1% drop compared to the year ago period. It has a goal of getting 1 million people to sign up for trials of its app over the next year.
Peloton is losing money on Bikes, Treads and other machines, but its subscription business has once again kept its overall margins above water. Gross margins for its connected fitness products were negative 11.2%, but gross margins for subscription sales were 67.6%. The total gross margin was 29.7%, up from 24.8% in the year ago period. It declined from the previous quarter, however, driven in part by increased promotions in the holiday quarter.
Peloton expects revenue to be lower but margins higher in the next quarter. The company is forecasting sales between $690 million to $715 million and a total gross margin of about 39%. Wall Street analysts pegged their revenue estimate for the quarter at $692.1 million.
The company is also expecting connected fitness subscribers to be between 3.08 million and 3.09 million. 

Next phase of the turnaround

Peloton, which boomed during the earlier days of the pandemic, has been in the midst of a broad turnaround strategy under McCarthy, who took the helm of the business a year ago. 
The company’s stock is up about 62% so far this year, closing at $12.93 on Tuesday, giving it a market value of about $4.4 billion. Shares are well off their 52-week high of $40.35, which they hit around the time McCarthy became CEO.
“The viability of the business was very much in doubt when I walked in,” said McCarthy, a former Spotify and Netflix executive. “It probably wouldn’t be an overstatement to say there were some people who didn’t expect us to survive this long.”
Since he took over, McCarthy has cut Peloton’s workforce by more than half, expanded its Bike rental program nationwide, started selling certified pre-owned Bikes, debuted a rowing machine and partnered with Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods to sell its Bikes and Treads. 
McCarthy’s top priority was to manage cash flow and get the company out of the red, a goal he said the company has nearly accomplished. Free cash flow was negative $94.4 million, compared with negative $246.3 million in the previous quarter and negative $546.7 million in the year-ago period. 
McCarthy said he’s ready to pivot from trying to keep the company alive to growing it, he told CNBC. 
“Now that we’ve addressed the viability issues, let’s get back to thinking about growth and the future of the business, like full stop,” said McCarthy. 
“So there are a bunch of initiatives that we’ve announced that position us to pursue growth,” he added. “And the question we need to answer for investors now that we’re not talking about viability is how fast, how profitable, where’s it coming from, and over time we’ll begin to address some of those questions.”

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Total mortgage application volume fell 9% last week compared with the previous week.
Even with rates well off their recent highs, applications to refinance a home loan fell 7% for the week and were 80% lower than the same week one year ago.

A “For Sale” sign outside a house in Albany, California, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

After a stronger start to the year, mortgage demand plunged last week, despite another drop in interest rates.
Total mortgage application volume fell 9% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

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The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.19% from 6.20%, with points falling to 0.65 from 0.69 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. The rate was 3.78% the same week one year ago.
Even with rates well off their recent highs, applications to refinance a home loan fell 7% for the week and were 80% lower than the same week one year ago. Homeowners may have jumped back briefly after the holiday lull, causing demand to rise over much of January, but overall there are still very few borrowers who can benefit from a refinance at today’s rates, so demand is now falling again.
Mortgage applications to buy a home fell 10% for the week and were 41% lower year over year. While both home prices and mortgage rates are coming down steadily, the supply of homes for sale is still quite low, and that may be keeping mortgage demand under pressure.
“Purchase activity is expected to pick up as the spring homebuying season gets underway, bolstered by lower rates and moderating home-price growth,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist. “Both trends will help some buyers regain purchasing power.”
Mortgage rates have been moving in a narrow range for the last few days, but that could all change depending on commentary expected from the chairman of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. The central bank is expected to hike its interest rate, but that doesn’t necessarily raise mortgage rates. The monthly employment report Friday could also move rates decidedly, depending on what it says about the state of the economy, recession and inflation.
“There are also several important economic reports that could lead traders to revise their assessment of the Fed’s likely course of action,” noted Matthew Graham, chief operating officer at Mortgage News Daily. “In other words, even after the Fed-induced volatility, traders could find new reasons to buy/sell bonds at an even faster pace, thus causing bigger movement in rates for better or worse.”

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The deal for the Argentine surpasses the £100m Manchester City paid for Jack Grealish from Aston Villa 18 months ago.
The 22-year-old, who only joined Benfica last summer for around £10m, has signed an eight-and-a-half-year deal at Stamford Bridge to keep him at the club until the summer of 2031.

Chelsea had been in talks to sign the World Cup winner throughout January, but Benfica had refused to do business unless the Blues paid his €120m release clause.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Chelsea have signed midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for a British-record £106.8m.
The deal for the Argentine surpasses the £100m Manchester City paid for Jack Grealish from Aston Villa 18 months ago.

The 22-year-old, who only joined Benfica last summer for around £10m, has signed an eight-and-a-half-year deal at Stamford Bridge to keep him at the club until the summer of 2031.

The Premier League’s record buys

Enzo Fernandez – Benfica to Chelsea, January 2023 – £106.8m
Jack Grealish – Aston Villa to Manchester City, summer 2021 – £100m
Romelu Lukaku – Inter Milan to Chelsea, summer 2021 – £97.5m
Romelu Lukaku – Everton to Manchester United, summer 2017 – £90m
Paul Pogba – Juventus to Manchester United, summer 2016 – £89m
Mykhailo Mudryk – Shakhtar Donetsk to Chelsea, January 2022 – £88.5m

Chelsea had been in talks to sign the World Cup winner throughout January, but Benfica had refused to do business unless the Blues paid his €120m release clause.
But Chelsea agreed a deal of €121m at 9.15pm on Deadline Day after 12 hours of talks led by Chelsea’s co-owner Behdad Eghbali from London.
The Blues will pay a first instalment of £30m with the rest of the fee paid in five further instalments.
Fernandez was left out of Benfica’s squad for their game against Arouca on Tuesday night, with the 22-year-old undergoing a medical in Portugal ahead of his switch to Stamford Bridge.

According to Portuguese broadcaster SIC, Fernandez will fly to the UK on Wednesday morning, with a private jet scheduled to leave Lisbon airport at 10.20am.
Fernandez will help to replace Jorginho, who joined Chelsea’s London rivals Arsenal on Deadline Day in a £12m deal.

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Sky Sports’ Ron Walker:
“Fernandez’s attributes make it clear how he can help. Still only halfway through his first season with Benfica, he has racked up the second-most assists in the Primeira Liga, and created 30 chances for his team-mates – some of them particularly eye-catching, and a stunning pinpoint set-up for Goncalo Ramos against Sporting earlier this month perhaps the pick of the bunch.
“It is that kind of playmaking potential which had Manchester City and Real Madrid interested in bringing him in from boyhood side River Plate last summer before he settled on a move to Lisbon.
“No one in the Portuguese top flight has made more passes than the Argentine, and if he does prove to replace Jorginho at Stamford Bridge, he will also provide something extra in the final third where he tops the charts for passes too.
“Should Chelsea want to play with a midfield two, he would offer a better option there too. Fernandez has already taken responsibility without the ball at Benfica, slotting into an anchorman role regularly as required. He has been one of the league’s top tacklers, and only 10 players across the division have won the ball back more in the middle third despite his considerable output further up the pitch.”
Read the full feature here
How much did Chelsea spend in January?
Following the arrival of Fernandez, Chelsea spent £323.3m in January. Here are the deals the Blues made:

Benoit Badiashile – Monaco, £35m
David Datro Fofana – Molde, undisclosed (reported £10m deal)
Andrey Santos – Vasco da Gama, undisclosed (reported £18m deal)
Joao Felix – Atletico Madrid, £9.7m loan
Mykhailo Mudryk – Shakhtar Donetsk, £88.5m
Noni Madueke – PSV Eindhoven, £29m
Malo Gusto – Lyon, £26.3m
Enzo Fernandez – Benfica, £106.8m

Chelsea have splashed over £323m in this January transfer window after completing a British record deal for Benfica’s Enzo Fernandez – so how are they able to spend such huge sums and stay within Financial Fair Play rules?
The UEFA FFP regulations are designed to limit excessive spending and there are also Premier League rules which put a cap on the losses a club can suffer over a three-year period. Large fines or points deductions can be dished out as punishment to clubs which don’t adhere to the rules.
But with the Blues agreeing a £106.8m transfer for Fernandez, new Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly will have overseen a spend £600m since the takeover in May 2022 – and they appear to have stayed within the guidelines.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire spoke to Sky Sports News to explain.

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The decision to reduce the number of turbines for the Scoop Hill Community Wind Farm follows a period of consultation for the project.
If built, the project will have 60 turbines instead of the 75 that were originally proposed.
The tip height of four turbines in the development, in Dumfries and Galloway, will also be lowered.

A golden eagle photographed in Scotland. The bird of prey is protected under the U.K.’s Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Education Images | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Plans for an onshore wind farm in Scotland have been revised after a number of concerns, including those related to how the project might affect golden eagles.
If built, the Scoop Hill Community Wind Farm will have 60 turbines instead of the 75 that were originally proposed.

The tip height of four turbines in the development, in Dumfries and Galloway, will also be lowered.
In a project update last week, the firm behind the Scoop Hill Community Wind Farm said revisions to the development had been made after “extensive and iterative discussions” with both the local community and consultees.
“During the consultation period, comments were raised by consultees and local residents, primarily relating to landscape and visual impacts, residential amenity, cultural heritage, dark skies and golden eagles,” Community Windpower said.

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The company said it would now submit additional documentation to the Scottish government’s Energy Consents Unit in the spring.
“We have taken on board comments raised by consultees and the local community and have made significant, positive changes to the proposed layout,” said Rebecca Elliott, senior project manager for the Scoop Hill facility.

Elliott added that she looked forward to “discussing the updated proposal with the community in the coming months.”
Golden eagle concerns
The decision to reduce the number of turbines for Scoop Hill follows a period of consultation for the project.
Those responding to the consultation included RSPB Scotland, a charity focused on conservation. In a letter sent to the Energy Consents Unit in Jan. 2021, it voiced its opposition to the plans.
Among other things, the letter expressed unease about the facility’s potential effect on the golden eagle, a bird of prey protected under the U.K.’s Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.   
“We have significant concerns about the impact that this proposal will have on golden eagle through collision risk, habitat loss, the potential for complete abandonment of a territory and impact on roost sites,” the organization’s letter said.
“Furthermore, we believe that the assessment of such impacts through both construction and operation is incomplete, and as such we object to this application,” it added. “We also have concerns regarding osprey and black grouse.”
Balancing act
The decision to reduce the size of the Scoop Hill project represents the latest example of how concerns about the interaction between wind farms and the natural world can create hurdles for companies looking to build out renewable energy projects.  In Dec. 2022, for example, plans for a major new wind farm in Australia were given the thumbs up on the proviso its turbines went offline for five months a year to protect a parrot species.
Brussels-based industry body WindEurope says the effects of projects can be prevented “by adequately planning, siting, and designing wind farms.”
“The impact of wind farms on birds and bats is extremely low compared to the impact of climate change and other human activity,” it adds.
In a statement sent to CNBC, a spokesperson for RSPB Scotland said it hadn’t had “any direct communication with Community Windpower about golden eagles, only through submitting our response to the windfarm application in January 2021.”
“The Applicant did get in touch in November 2022 to provide an update that further work had been undertaken including proposed changes to the wind farm’s design and layout,” they added.
“However, further information on the details was not provided at that time, so we have not been able to fully consider the changes yet.”
“We understand that full details have not been published of the revised proposals so we do not yet know whether this revision might address our concerns,” the spokesperson went on to state. “We will consider the amended proposal carefully, particularly in relation to golden eagles.”

The spokesperson added that while RSPB Scotland supported renewable energy generation, wind farms “must be carefully sited and designed to avoid unacceptable impacts on species of highest conservation concern.”
“There is some research which suggests that golden eagles will avoid areas where wind farms have been constructed, so they are then displaced from the area,” they added.
The organization was aware of at least three collisions involving golden eagles and wind farms located in Scotland but noted there was “no systematic recording of collisions, so this number could be higher for golden eagles and other species.”
“A key concern in relation to Scoop Hill is likely loss of the available land that golden eagles would have access to where they can forage and find food, which could result in the existing territory being abandoned,” the spokesperson said.
Community Wind Power did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the RSPB’s remarks ahead of this story’s publication. More