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    Inflation jumped by 9.1% in June, the fastest since 1981. How does your 'personal inflation rate' compare?

    Inflation jumped by 9.1% in June relative to a year earlier, the largest increase since the end of 1981.
    The Consumer Price Index, an inflation measure, gauges how quickly costs are rising for a broad basket of goods and services.
    But your personal basket likely differs from the CPI basket, meaning your personal inflation rate is different. Here’s how to calculate it.

    Grocery shopping in Rosemead, California on April 21, 2022.
    Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

    Inflation jumped to a new 40-year high in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. That means the prices Americans pay at the gas pump, grocery store and elsewhere have been rising much faster than normal this year.
    That may lead you to wonder: How much have my personal household costs increased, and how does that stack up against the average American’s?

    Calculating your personal inflation rate can help answer these questions.
    The Consumer Price Index is a common inflation measure. Households paid 9.1% more money in June 2022 for a broad basket of goods and services relative to that same basket in June 2021 — the largest annual jump since November 1981.
    More from Personal Finance:What Americans are doing to prepare for a recessionEven if you don’t drive, you’re getting stung by higher gas pricesThese 10 U.S. real estate markets are cooling the fastest
    However, your basket is likely different. For one, purchases and consumption habits vary from household to household, based on factors such as income, age and geography, according to Brian Bethune, an economist and professor at Boston College.
    This means your personal inflation rate likely diverges from the U.S. average, too.

    There are a few ways to calculate your inflation rate. The pitfalls of such a calculation came into focus earlier this month when Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, tweeted an incorrect estimate for a July Fourth cookout.
    Her tweet, which has since been deleted, pegged a barbecue as 67.2% more expensive relative to last year. By comparison, the American Farm Bureau Federation said costs had increased 17% — a much smaller rise, though still elevated. President Joe Biden cited that agriculture trade group in 2021 when the White House said costs for an Independence Day BBQ had decreased 16 cents relative to 2020.

    How to calculate your personal inflation rate

    Here’s the simplest way to get a rough estimate of your personal annual inflation rate, according to economists.

    The first step is to determine how much of your spending falls into certain categories or buckets, such as food, energy, clothing, housing and entertainment.To do this, you’ll need to consult your bank and credit card statements for the past year to find exact spending amounts. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a detailed list that can help you itemize your purchases by category.
    Calculate your category “weights.” This weighting is basically the share of your spending devoted to specific buckets. The consumer price index calls this weighting “relative importance.”To do this, tally your total spending within categories. Divide each number by your aggregate annual spending to calculate the category weight.For example, let’s say my total household spending from June 2021 to June 2022 was $50,000. I spent $17,000 (or 34% of the total) on rent and $6,000 (or 12%) on groceries. Their category weights would be 0.34 and 0.12, respectively.
    Reference the BLS table of detailed expenditure categories again. The “unadjusted percent change” column shows the average annual percent increase in price for each item.For example, rent payments increased 5.7% in the year through June. The price of food at home (groceries) rose 12.2% in the same period.
    Multiply the category weights in step 2 by the annual percent change for those categories in step 3. Using the above example, you’d multiply 0.34 x 5.7 for the rent calculation. Multiply 0.12 x 12.2 for food. And so on for all other spending categories.
    To determine your personal inflation rate, add up the category totals from step 4. (In the above example: 1.938 + 1.464 + etc.) This total is your annual inflation rate expressed as a percentage.
    Compare your rate to the national average. For annual spending through this June, a percentage that’s lower than 9.1% means your costs haven’t increased as much as the average American.A higher number means your costs have risen more in the past year. Of course, households generally think in terms of dollars and cents, not percentages.

    A more precise way to calculate your rate

    Jamie Grill | Getty Images

    The above calculation compares your household experience to the average American, based on the differences in goods and services, as well as the quantity, that each household buys. However, the formula leverages price averages for those goods and services — meaning it’s not a hyper-individualized calculation.
    Consumers can do some additional calculations to get a more precise understanding of how their individual household spending has changed from year to year:  

    Tally all expenses from your bank and credit card statements in the past 12 months, as well as for the prior 12-month period.
    Subtract the totals and divide by the first year’s spending. For example, let’s say my spending was $50,000 from June 2021 to June 2022, and it was $45,000 from June 2020 to June 2021. Divide the difference ($5,000) by $45,000.
    Multiply that number from step 2 by 100 to determine your personal annual inflation rate.

    In the above example, I’d multiply 0.111 by 100. My personal annual inflation rate over that period would have been 11.1%.

    Using cash, shopping sales can skew results

    There are a few caveats. For one, you’re likely unable to account for any spending made in cash. It’s also likely you’ve sought out less-expensive alternatives where possible — substituting less-expensive foods, for instance — or maybe you’re driving less to save on gasoline.
    This all means your calculation might not be 100% accurate, but it will be in the ballpark.

    Further, costs aren’t rising in a vacuum. If you’re working, your income has likely increased, too. Average wages are up 6.1% in the past year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. They haven’t kept pace with the average inflation rate, but more household income erodes some of the financial pain.
    “If you have to shell out more dollars just to get the same items and your income isn’t keeping up with that, then your quality of life is deteriorating,” Alex Arnon, associate director of policy analysis for the Penn Wharton Budget Model, said of inflation’s impact.
    Correction: Inflation rose at its fastest pace since November 1981. A previous version misstated the month.

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    Peloton competitor Tonal cuts 35% of workforce as it prepares for possible recession, IPO

    Tonal, the connected fitness equipment maker backed by Serena Williams and Amazon’s Alexa fund, is trimming 35% of its workforce.
    It is joining a list of companies, including competitor Peloton, which are reducing head count in order to slash expenses and readjust to new levels of consumer demand.
    Tonal CEO Aly Orady said the company is trying to become profitable so that it can successfully go public.

    Tonal in-home fitness.
    Source: Tonal

    Tonal, the connected fitness equipment maker that counts tennis superstar Serena Williams and Amazon’s Alexa fund as backers, is cutting 35% of its workforce, affecting all levels of its business, CNBC has learned.
    The company employs about 750 people today, compared with a little more than 110 before the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Executive Officer Aly Orady said in an interview.

    Orady also emphasized the need to be profitable, particularly as the company eyes an initial public offering. Tonal hasn’t been profitable in the past, he said. But the job cuts will put the company on track to make money in a matter of months, he added.
    Tonal, which sells wall-mounted workout devices for $3,495, experienced rampant growth in 2020 and 2021 as consumers were stuck at home and seeking ways to break a sweat. Tonal’s brand awareness also exploded as it tapped star athletes such as LeBron James and Williams to appear in its commercials. It has raked in $450 million in funding, to date, and at one point in 2021 was valued at as much as $1.6 billion.
    But for now, Tonal is tapping the brakes. It joins a list of businesses – including competitor Peloton – that are reducing head count in order to trim expenses and readjust to new levels of consumer demand for their products. Businesses are simultaneously grappling with red-hot inflation on everything from raw materials to fuel to workers’ salaries, and many are preparing for an economic slowdown, even if a recession isn’t certain.
    “As we head into a recession — and many of us believe we’re headed into a recession — it’s really important that we become a business that’s here for the long term,” Orady said in an interview. “What we’re doing is effectively going from a hypergrowth business … to more of a sustained-growth business.”
    Tonal didn’t disclose exactly how much money it plans to save through the layoffs. It also didn’t say if its valuation has been adjusted in the private markets.

    “The public markets are no longer rewarding hypergrowth when it comes at the expense of profitability. And as such, private market investors are no longer investing as many dollars or as aggressively to support businesses through hypergrowth,” Orady said. “Those dollars just aren’t out there the way they were a year ago.”
    Investors are increasingly shying away from money-losing entities, he said. It shows in the stocks of some of the publicly traded companies that fit this bill.
    Shares of Peloton, for example, hit a fresh all-time low Wednesday of $8.66, having dropped more than 70% year to date. Peloton’s losses in the three-month period ended March 31 widened to $757.1 from a loss of $8.6 million a year earlier.
    Allbirds, a shoemaker that has booked losses since going public last year, has watched its stock price tumble more than 65% this year. Shares of eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker, which went public via a direct listing in 2021 and is also losing money, are down more than 70% year to date.
    Orady said Tonal is focused on cutting customer acquisition costs, and it will do that in part by scaling back on advertising. He said he attributes any slowdown in sales in the past 90 days to Tonal pulling back on marketing, but overall demand has remained steady.
    The company also recently hiked the price of its equipment by $500, to $3,495 from $2,995.
    All of Tonal’s employees who are impacted by the job cuts will receive a minimum of eight weeks of continued pay, the company said, as well as health-care benefits through the end of September.
    Tonal also said in its memo to workers that it is offering extended equity vesting for all employees to become shareholders, including accelerated stock option vesting and an extension on the window of time that option holders have to exercise their stock options for up to four years.

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    The euro hit parity with the U.S. dollar for first time since 2002. Here's how travelers can take advantage of the exchange rate

    The euro hit parity with the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, meaning they had a 1:1 exchange rate. The last time the currencies were equal in value was 2002.
    Americans traveling to one of the 19 European Union countries that accept the euro are essentially getting a 15% discount on purchases today relative to a year ago due to the exchange rate.
    There are certain ways travelers can use their debit and credit cards to boost those savings, however.

    The value of the euro relative to the U.S. dollar hit a two-decade low on Wednesday — and that’s good news for Americans traveling to Europe this summer.
    A favorable exchange rate means travelers’ dollars will go further when making purchases abroad.

    “Right now, your money goes further in Europe than it has in quite a few years, and it’s a great time to have that dream trip you’ve been putting off to Italy, France or Spain,” said Kate McCulley, a travel writer who lives in the Czech Republic and publisher of travel site AdventurousKate.com.

    Parity approach ‘is like getting a 15% discount’

    Not all European countries use the euro — it’s the official currency for 19 out of 27 European Union members.
    Those countries are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
    The euro hit parity with the U.S. dollar Wednesday morning, meaning the two currencies had a 1:1 exchange rate. That hasn’t occurred since 2002, when the euro was in its infancy.
    At the currency’s low point on Wednesday, €1 was briefly worth $0.9999 before a slight rebound. It was trading at $1.0058 as of 10:40 a.m. ET.

    More from Personal Finance:These 5 metros have the most million-dollar homesWhy experts say a higher federal minimum wage is long overdueHow to calculate your personal inflation rate
    Triggers for the relative decline of the euro include the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has fueled fear of an energy crunch and recession, as well as U.S. interest rates moving sharply higher, pushing investors toward the dollar and from the euro.
    One euro is down 11% from nearly $1.13 at the beginning of the year and down 15% from about $1.18 on July 13 last year.
    As an example, an American who bought a €15 sandwich in Paris a year ago would have paid about $17.70. Today, that traveler would pay just over $15.
    “It’s kind of like getting a 15% discount,” according to Sara Rathner, a travel expert at NerdWallet. “It’s more gentle on people’s travel budgets,” she added.
    The U.S. dollar has also gained strength relative to many other currencies in the past year, such as the the Australian dollar, British pound, Chinese renminbi, Indian rupee and Japanese yen.

    Inflation is raising travel costs

    Brabo Fountain and City Hall, Antwerp, Belgium.
    Shaun Egan | The Image Bank | Getty Images

    That discount comes at a good time: Stubbornly high inflation has made it an expensive time to travel almost anywhere.
    Costs at home in the U.S. for items like airfare, lodging, recreation and meals were up almost 19% in May relative to the same time in 2019, before the pandemic, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Price Index. (Domestic travel costs are also up more than 19% versus last year, but that partly reflects a comparison to low pandemic-era prices, the association said.)
    Meanwhile, Americans’ appetite for international travel appears to be growing, spurred by factors like the recent scrapping of a Covid-19 testing requirement for international travelers flying to the U.S., as well as the lifting of a separate mask mandate on airplanes.

    About 34% of U.S. travelers are likely to travel abroad this year, up 6 percentage points in a month, according to Destination Analysts, a tourism market research firm. The firm polled 4,000 travelers June 15-23.
    When asked to list the foreign destinations they most want to visit in the next 12 months, European destinations comprised 6 of the top 10 most commonly named, according to Destination Analysts.
    Flight searches to some top European destinations increased by double digits from July 3-11 relative to the previous week, according to Expedia data. Searches for Paris and Frankfurt flights each jumped 25%, while interest in Brussels and Amsterdam each rose 20%, and Dublin, 15%.
    Lodging interest was also elevated in some cities, according to Hotels.com. Searches for lodging in Copenhagen rose 30%, and were up 15% for Athens and 10% for Madrid.
    “It’s become an expensive time to travel,” Rathner said. “But people want to get back out there.
    “People are ready to travel again,” she added.

    How to take advantage of favorable exchange rates

    Manarola fishing village in Cinque Terre, Italy
    Matteo Colombo | Moment | Getty Images

    Americans who want to take advantage of the favorable exchange rate should use a credit card without a foreign transaction fee whenever possible. Those fees can add 3% to the cost of each purchase, thereby eating into the euro-dollar savings, Rathner said.
    Bring a backup credit card (if you have one) in addition to your primary in case yours isn’t accepted in certain establishments, she advised. This is generally due to card brands — while Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted around the world, that’s less true of American Express and Discover, Rathner said.
    Further, travelers booking hotels or tours in advance (and have the option to be charged now or later) may wish to pay now to make sure they’re taking advantage of the low rate, McCulley said. It’s not a given the exchange rate will continue to get more favorable.
    Travelers using cash should generally avoid converting their currency ahead of a trip, according to experts. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s unnecessary, and you’ll get a worse conversion rate,” said McCulley.
    Instead, travelers typically get a better rate by withdrawing money from an ATM in their destination country, experts said.

    There are some caveats, however. For one, travelers should call their bank to make sure foreign ATMs accept their debit card. Banks also generally charge fees to withdraw money from ATMs overseas; travelers can assess how much cash they’ll need for the whole trip and make one big withdrawal instead of several smaller withdrawals to reduce those fees, according to Rathner.
    Further, ATM operators may ask if users want money “with or without conversion,” or a similarly worded prompt. Basically, this practice, called “dynamic currency conversion,” means the ATM operator does the currency conversion instead of the bank.
    However, travelers should decline the conversion offer since the ATM operator’s exchange rate is often worse, experts said. The same principle applies to local merchants that ask a similar question relative to credit or debit card transactions.

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    Nike is making a strategic shift in how it manufactures NCAA fan apparel in deal with Fanatics

    Sports merchandise platform Fanatics is entering into a long-term partnership with Nike to manufacture college sports fan apparel.
    Manufacturing is set to begin in summer 2024, according to sources familiar with the matter.
    Fanatics confirmed the news to CNBC, saying in a statement from Fanatics Commerce CEO Doug Mack that it is “excited to maximize the value of Nike’s college partnerships,” but declined further comment.

    A Nike logo shown on a Baylor University long sleeve shirt. Nike, which has apparel and equipment deals with many college sports programs, is entering into a deal with Fanatics for college fan apparel.
    Maddie Meyer | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

    Sports commerce platform Fanatics is entering into a long-term partnership with Nike to manufacture college sports fan apparel.
    The partnership will involve collaboration with the Fanatics College division, which already partners with most of the Nike-sponsored colleges and universities. Manufacturing is set to begin in summer 2024, according to sources familiar with the matter.

    Fanatics provided CNBC with a statement from Fanatics Commerce CEO Doug Mack saying that it is “excited to maximize the value of Nike’s college partnerships,” but declined further comment.
    Nike said in a statement it is making a strategic shift in how it serves NCAA university partners, and extending its licensing relationships with Fanatics and Branded Custom Sportswear, another collegiate partner, to include Nike NCAA retail fanwear and sideline products.
    Nike has some of the largest contracts with top college sports programs to outfit their school teams, worth millions of dollars. According to the Sports Business Journal, Nike and its Jordan Brand outfitted 48 teams in the most recent NCAA basketball tourney, its highest total ever. It also outfits more than half of the Division I football programs.
    Nike will continue to manufacture apparel and merchandise for its college team partners, including on-field apparel, according to sources.
    Fanatics will manufacture fan apparel, replica jerseys, sideline apparel, headwear and women’s fan gear, among other items. The new Fanatics’ deal will include a select group of Nike’s college and university partners, with Ohio State, Georgia, Clemson, Oregon, Oklahoma and Penn State among likely participants, according to sources, and investment in the growth of the women’s apparel business is among the aims of the partnership.

    Fanatics already has exclusive licensing deals with the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, as well as various colleges and universities. Several of those deals, including the NFL, NBA and MLB, also overlap with Nike jersey and apparel deals.
    Fanatics is a major hub for sports merchandise, as well as sports-themed home, office and automotive consumer products. The company is expanding into online sports betting, too. The three-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company has a private valuation of $27 billion.
    It has completed several acquisitions in recent years as a closely held company. In 2020, it acquired sports merchandise manufacturer WinCraft, and earlier this year it bought trading card company Topps for $500 million. Last month, CNBC reported that Fanatics is in talks to buy sports betting company Tipico, though a deal hasn’t yet been reached.
    Topps will launch a line of trading cards that features college athletes this upcoming fall season, in a deal that parent company Fanatics said will cut some players in on the profits and pair them up with school logos on cards for the first time. The program will include more than 150 schools featuring both current and former athletes. The company also has deals with more than 200 individual student-athletes at those schools to use their names and likenesses. And the plan is to keep adding schools and athletes, Fanatics said.
    The majority of the Power Five conference schools will participate in the new Fanatics trading cards deal, including Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, and Texas A&M.
    The recently expanded name, image, and likeness rules have allowed college athletes to sign sponsorship deals, opening additional opportunities around apparel and merchandise. Fanatics recently struck a deal that would allow fans to purchase customized college football jerseys with names and number of active players who would be compensated for it. More

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    Spirit Airlines delays vote on Frontier deal again amid concerns about lack of shareholder support

    Spirit Airlines has delayed a vote on its planned tie-up with Frontier Airlines for a fourth time.
    Concerns are mounting about a lack of shareholder support.
    Spirit said Wednesday it now plans to hold the vote, most recently scheduled for Friday, on July 27.

    Passengers check in at the Spirit Airlines counter at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on February 07, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
    Joe Raedle | Getty Images

    Spirit Airlines has delayed a vote on its planned tie-up with Frontier Airlines for a fourth time as concerns mount about a lack of shareholder support.
    Spirit said Wednesday it now plans to hold the vote, most recently scheduled for Friday, on July 27 so it can continue deal talks with Frontier and with JetBlue Airways, whose competing bid for Spirit has thrown the original deal into question.

    Over the weekend, Frontier Airlines’ CEO, Barry Biffle, wrote to his Spirit counterpart to ask for a delay on the vote.
    “We still remain very far from obtaining approval from Spirit stockholders,” Biffle said in the letter.
    In the event Spirit breaks its deal, first agreed to in February, and finds JetBlue’s offer superior, Spirit would owe Frontier a break-up fee of more than $94 million.
    Spirit previously rebuffed JetBlue’s all-cash takeover offers, even in light of repeatedly sweetened terms, in favor of the original Frontier deal. But it most recently said it is negotiating with both airlines, raising doubts about the fate of the tie-up with Frontier.
    JetBlue and Frontier didn’t immediately comment Wednesday.
    Either combination of airlines would create the fifth-largest U.S. carrier.

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    Delta posts profit despite jump in costs, vows to improve reliability after airline 'pushed too hard'

    Delta is the first of the U.S. airlines to report second-quarter earnings this season.
    Delta posted a quarterly profit thanks to travelers willing to pay up to fly, more than making up for higher costs.
    The carrier said its third-quarter capacity would be 83% to 85% of 2019 levels.

    An Airbus A330-323 aircraft, operated by Delta Air Lines.
    Benoit Tessier | Reuters

    Delta Air Lines on Wednesday reported a quarterly profit thanks to travelers willing to pay up to fly, more than making up for higher costs.
    The carrier also vowed to improve reliability after an increase in delays and cancellations prompted it to scale back its summer schedule.

    The airline industry “was starved for revenue for the last two years,” CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday after the carrier released results. “We pushed too hard. We scaled back a bit … and in July we’re running a great operation.”
    The company’s shares were lower in premarket trading after Delta’s adjusted results fell short of analyst estimates.
    Delta said its third-quarter capacity would be 83% to 85% of 2019 levels, suggesting the airline is sticking with a conservative schedule compared with some rivals. The company expects a third-quarter profit and reiterated its forecast for full-year profitability.
    It expects to see third-quarter sales 1% to 5% higher than three years ago, along with increased costs.
    Delta is the first U.S. airline to report earnings for the second quarter. United Airlines and American Airlines announce next week.

    Here’s how the company performed in the second quarter compared with what analysts expected, according to average estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

    Adjusted earnings per share: $1.44 versus $1.73 expected.
    Revenue: $13.82 billion versus $13.57 billion expected.

    Despite issues during the start to the summer travel season, demand rose for both business and leisure travel, Delta said. Domestic corporate travel sales are 80% recovered from before the Covid pandemic, up 25 percentage points from the first quarter of the year, it said.
    Delta’s costs for each seat it flew a mile, excluding fuel, were up 22% from 2019 for the three months ended June 30. Its fuel expense rose 41% from three years ago to $3.2 billion.

    A surge in travel demand helped the airline post $735 million in net income. In a measure of how high fares have risen, Delta flew 18% less capacity in the second quarter than it did in the same period of 2019, but it generated $13.82 billion in revenue, 10% more than three years ago.
    Revenue for domestic travel was 3% higher, Delta said, noting it also logged improvements in trans-Atlantic travel.
    Delta and other airlines have been comparing their results to 2019 to show their progress in getting back to pre-pandemic performance.

    ‘Rough six weeks’

    Executives at Delta and its fellow airlines will face questions from investors about a rocky peak travel season and higher costs. Staffing shortages have exacerbated routine issues like bad weather, driving up the rates of flight cancellations and delays.
    Bastian said Delta is limiting its capacity and that it has already improved its performance.
    “We had a rough six weeks,” Bastian said, apologizing to customers for the disruptions. “We’ve issued compensation and the appropriate level of apology.”
    Over the key July Fourth holiday weekend, Delta allowed travelers to change their flights without paying a difference in fare, an unusual waiver that the airline said would allow customers to avoid potential flight disruptions.
    Airline executives and the Federal Aviation Administration have blamed each others’ staffing issues for contributing to the delays. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg publicly admonished airlines for not being prepared for summer travel.
    Bastian said Delta added 18,000 employees since the start of 2021 to bring it to 95% of its 2019 staffing. Delta urged and convinced a similar number of employees to take buyouts or early retirement packages earlier in the pandemic, an effort to cut costs.
    The carrier is in the process of training many of its new employees.
    Delta executives will discuss results with analysts and media at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday.

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    Polestar says it's still on track to deliver 50,000 vehicles this year despite Covid-19 disruptions

    Polestar confirmed that it still expects to deliver 50,000 vehicles in 2022.
    The company delivered just over 21,000 in the first half, as Covid-19 lockdowns hurt production in China.
    Its next new model, the U.S.-built Polestar 3 electric SUV, is on track to launch this fall.

    Attendees view a Polestar 2 electric vehicle (EV) during the Electrify Expo in Irvine, California, U.S., on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.
    Jill Connelly | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar said Wednesday that it still expects to deliver 50,000 vehicles in 2022, in line with its earlier guidance, despite Covid-related production challenges at its factory in China.
    Polestar said in a statement that it delivered about 21,200 vehicles in the January-to-June period, up 123% from the same period in 2021.

    That total was limited by government-mandated Covid-19 lockdowns that idled Polestar’s Chinese assembly line for several weeks in the first half. The factory is now up and running on two shifts, Polestar said, and it will aim to make up the lost production over the next several months.
    Polestar is a joint venture between Sweden’s Volvo Cars and Volvo Cars’ corporate parent, the Chinese automaker Geely. The company went public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in June. It plans to begin production of its third model, an electric SUV called the Polestar 3, at a U.S. factory owned by Volvo this fall.
    CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a statement that the Polestar 3’s launch will be “an important next step” toward the company’s standing goal of selling 290,000 vehicles worldwide in 2025. Two more Polestars will follow the 3: a smaller coupe-like SUV called the Polestar 4, and the Polestar 5, a flagship luxury sedan based on the company’s well-regarded Precept concept car. Both are expected to launch before the end of 2025.
    Polestar also provided an update on its growing retail network. The company is now operating a total of 125 retail locations in 25 countries, up from 103 locations in 19 countries at the end of 2021. It expects to open about 30 more stores by the end of this year.

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    Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Delta Air Lines, Twitter, Snap and more

    Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
    Delta Air Lines (DAL) – Delta shares slid 2.9% in the premarket after reporting a mixed quarter. The airline earned an adjusted $1.44 per share for the second quarter, shy of the $1.73 consensus estimate. Revenue exceeded estimates on strong travel demand, but margins took a hit from higher fuel prices and higher operational costs.

    Twitter (TWTR) – Twitter added 2% in premarket trading after the company sued Elon Musk to force him to adhere to the terms of their $44 billion takeover. Musk said earlier this week he was backing out of the deal, alleging that Twitter had violated the terms of their agreement.
    Snap (SNAP) – The social media company is set to introduce a feature that would allow NFT artists to showcase their designs on Snapchat, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke to the Financial Times. Snap initially rose 1.7% in premarket action before paring those gains.
    Stitch Fix (SFIX) – The clothing styler’s shares rallied 9.5% in the premarket following news that Benchmark Capital’s Bill Gurley bought one million shares. Gurley paid an average of $5.43 per share, according to an SEC filing. Gurley, who serves on the Stitch Fix board, already owned 1.22 million shares prior to the latest purchase.
    Unity Software (U) – The provider of interactive software technology announced an all-stock merger agreement with ironSource (IS), an Israel-based software publisher. The transaction values ironSource at approximately $4.4 billion. Unity also announced it was cutting its full-year revenue guidance. Unity slumped 8.2% in premarket trading, while ironSource soared 57%.
    Novavax (NVAX) – The drug maker’s stock added 2.4% in premarket action after Politico reported the company’s Covid-19 vaccine could receive FDA approval as soon as today.

    DigitalOcean (DOCN) – The cloud computing company’s stock received a double-downgrade at Goldman Sachs, which cut its rating to “sell” from “buy.” Goldman’s move is based on expectations of softening demand, especially in international markets, as well as fading tailwinds in segments that have done well over the past 12 to 18 months. DigitalOcean fell 3.5% in the premarket.
    Gap (GPS) – The apparel retailer’s stock fell 1.3% in the premarket as Deutsche Bank downgrades the stock to “hold” from “buy.” Deutsche Bank said there is little visibility about a sales recovery at Old Navy, as well as concern about an elevated level of promotions at both Gap and Old Navy. The stock fell 5% Tuesday following news that CEO Sonia Syngal was stepping down.
    Fastenal (FAST) – The maker of industrial fasteners saw its stock slide 7% in premarket trading after it said it saw signs of softening demand in May and June. Fastenal’s comments came as it reported quarterly numbers that were generally in line with analyst forecasts.

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