Raphael Stevens

IOT: Powering the digital economy

Energy markets have been roiled in recent months, with gas and oil prices surging and fears over security of supply heightened following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last week Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said he thought we were “in the middle of the first global energy crisis.”
During a recent CNBC-moderated discussion at the World Economic Forum, a panel of experts and business leaders addressed how best the world could find a way out of the tumultuous situation it faces.  

From the Covid-19 pandemic and supply chain shocks to rising inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, governments and businesses around the world are attempting to tackle and solve major crises — many of them interlinked — on multiple fronts.
Against this challenging backdrop, energy markets have been roiled, with gas and oil prices surging and fears over security of supply — Russia is a major exporter of hydrocarbons — heightened following the war in Ukraine.

All the above is taking place at a time when major economies and big firms are formulating plans to move away from fossil fuels to low and zero-emission alternatives.
Events in Europe over the past few months have thrown the fragility of this planned energy transition into sharp relief. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said he thought we were “in the middle of the first global energy crisis.”

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During a separate discussion at Davos moderated by CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick, a panel of experts and business leaders addressed how best the world could find a way out of the tumultuous situation it now faces.  
“We are at a crossroads,” María Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition, said. “One could think that, because of the energy crisis, it makes sense to invest in fossil fuels, but it’s rather the opposite,” she said.
Gas was now more expensive than solar or wind, Mendiluce argued. The goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels — a key part of the Paris Agreement — was, she said, “pretty much dead unless we accelerate the transition.”

Clean energy, Mendiluce said, provided energy security, jobs, a healthy environment and was cost competitive. “So it is now or never … if you’re going to invest, you’d rather invest in renewables than … in an asset that might become stranded pretty soon.”

Patrick Allman-Ward is CEO of Dana Gas, a natural gas firm listed in Abu Dhabi. Appearing alongside María Mendiluce on CNBC’s panel, Allman-Ward, perhaps unsurprisingly given his position, made the case for gas’ continued use in the years ahead.
“As you can imagine, I’m a firm believer in gas as a transition fuel and the combination, particularly of gas together with renewable energy, to solve the intermittency problem,” he said.
“Because yes, we have to go with renewables as fast as we possibly can in order to achieve our net zero objectives. But … wind doesn’t blow all the time, and the sun doesn’t shine all the time. So we have to solve that intermittency problem.”
The idea of using gas as a “transition” fuel that would bridge the gap between a world dominated by fossil fuels to one where renewables are in the majority is not a new one and has been the source of heated debate for a while now.
Critics of the idea include organizations such as the Climate Action Network, which is headquartered in Germany and consists of over 1,500 civil society organizations from more than 130 countries.

In May 2021, CAN laid out its position on the matter. “The role of fossil gas in the transition to 100% renewable energy is limited,” it said, “and does not justify an increase in fossil gas production nor consumption, nor investment in new fossil gas infrastructure.”
Back in Davos, Mendiluce reflected on the arguments put forward for the use of gas. “I get your point, you know, that maybe now the market will demand more gas,” she said.
“But when I speak to companies that are now dependent and have a high risk in gas, they’re looking at ways to shift it. Maybe they can’t do it in the short term, but they know that they’re going to do it in the mid-term.”
Renewables, she went on to state, were a “competitive source of energy,” adding that speed of deployment was now key. “So if I was to invest … I would be very careful not to invest in infrastructure that will become stranded.” More

Walmart will open four new fulfillment centers over the next three years that the company says will let it pack and ship online orders more quickly.
The first one will open this summer in Joliet, Illinois, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago.
The company says the system at the new facility will simplify work for employees.

Walmart is building four high-tech fulfillment centers that will simplify and speed up the picking and packing of online orders. The first one will open this summer in Joliet, Illinois.

Walmart is building warehouses with a high-tech spin in hopes of delivering items to customers more quickly and growing its online business.
The retailer said Friday it plans to build four new fulfillment centers that use automation to pack and ship online orders more efficiently, with the first location opening this summer in Illinois. For customers, the new warehouses will mean next-day or two-day delivery could be more common for items including cereal and T-shirts.

The plans come as Walmart competes with online retail giant Amazon, which has made it easy for customers with Prime memberships to order a wide range of items and have them delivered within a day or so. With more of Walmart’s sales coming from its website in recent years, it already has 31 facilities that prepare online orders. More than 3,500 of its stores, or about 75% of its locations, also fulfill online orders.
But at Walmart’s existing fulfillment centers, employees can walk nine miles or more a day to pluck items off shelves and lug them back to areas for packaging, said Michael Prince, Walmart’s vice president of supply chain innovation and automation.
That won’t be necessary at the new warehouses, where an automated system will retrieve items from an expanded storage space and shuttle it to an area where an employee packs it in a box, which will be custom made to fit the order’s measurements. Walmart tested the concept at a fulfillment center in Pedricktown, New Jersey.
Amazon, Kroger and others have also tapped automation to expand capacity and speed. A decade ago, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems, which created wheeled robots for its warehouses. It has tested robots to reduce strenuous jobs for workers and in April launched a $1 billion fund to invest in companies developing supply chain technologies.
Last year, Kroger began opening giant robot-powered fulfillment centers in the U.S. through a partnership with British online grocer Ocado.

Walmart’s first new fulfilment center will open in Joliet, Illinois, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, and ship to customers across Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Three more will follow in McCordsville, Indiana; Lancaster, Texas; and Greencastle, Pennsylvania in the next three years, the company said.
Walmart said it will hire 4,000 people to work at the new facilities. The current starting pay at existing warehouses is $16 to $28 per hour and wages at the new ones will be at the higher end of that range, the company said. The retailer declined to share construction costs.
Walmart stores will still play a role in the company’s supply chain and handle online orders with popular items along with chilled and frozen groceries, Prince said. Fulfillment centers will handle orders with a broader assortment of products, including pantry staples and other dry groceries.
Other pieces of Walmart’s supply chain are getting a makeover, too. Dozens of stores are becoming mini automated warehouses for online grocery orders. And last week, Walmart said it will add robotics in coming years to its 42 regional distribution centers, which replenish store shelves.

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Two weeks after announcing that it was pausing hiring, Coinbase said it’s extending the freeze for the “foreseeable future.”
Coinbase has lost more than 70% of its value this year as turmoil in the economy and a plunge in cryptocurrencies led to a decline in users.
“We have decided to pause hiring for as long as this macro environment requires,” the company said.

Brian Armstrong, cofounder and CEO of Coinbase speaks onstage during ‘Tales from the Crypto: What the Currency of the Future Means for You’ at Vanity Fair’s 6th Annual New Establishment Summit at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on October 23, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California.
Matt Winkelmeyer | Getty Images

Two weeks after announcing plans to slow hiring, crypto exchange Coinbase now says the freeze will extend into the “foreseeable future.” The company will also be pulling some accepted job offers.
Coinbase said it was informing prospects of the rescinded offers by email on Thursday. The company also said it was extending its severance policy to those individuals and will help them with job placement and resume review.

“After assessing our business priorities, current headcount, and open roles, we have decided to pause hiring for as long as this macro environment requires,” L.J. Brock, Coinbase’s chief people officer, wrote in a blog post on Thursday. “The extended hiring pause will include backfills, except for roles that are necessary to meet the high standards we set for security and compliance, or to support other mission-critical work.”
Coinbase has lost more than 70% of its value this year as the selloff in cryptocurrencies coupled with economic turmoil has spurred a decline in users and shrinking revenue. The pain is being felt across much of the tech sector, with Uber and Facebook parent Meta taking similar steps, and Robinhood cutting headcount by about 9%.
Prior to the 2022 downturn, Coinbase had been among the highest flyers in the tech industry. The company tripled the size of its staff last year to 3,730 employees. Following its Nasdaq debut in April 2021, Coinbase reported a 12-fold increase in second-quarter sales to $2.28 billion, while profit climbed 4,900% to $1.6 billion.
But the tech companies with the highest growth rates last year have been hit the hardest this year as investors rotate into assets deemed safer in a world of rising interest rates and soaring inflation. With bitcoin down by more than one-third this year and ethereum off by 50%, fewer people are racing to Coinbase to open accounts and make transactions.
Coinbase said last month that revenue in the latest quarter fell 27% from a year earlier, while total trading volume declined from $547 billion in the fourth quarter to $309 billion in the first three months of 2022.

“We always knew crypto would be volatile, but that volatility alongside larger economic factors may test the company, and us personally, in new ways,” Brock wrote in Thursday’s post. “If we’re flexible and resilient, and remain focused on the long term, Coinbase will come out stronger on the other side.” 
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Frontier is offering a $250 million reverse breakup fee to Spirit.
JetBlue Airways is trying to acquire Spirit and has launched a hostile takeover attempt.
JetBlue’s offer includes a $200 million reverse breakup fee.

A Frontier Airlines plane near a Spirit Airlines plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 16, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Frontier Airlines’ parent company on Thursday said it would pay a $250 million reverse breakup fee to Spirit Airlines if regulators don’t approve the planned combination of the two discount carriers for antitrust reasons, an effort aimed at convincing investors to approve the deal next week as rival JetBlue Airways tries to buy Spirit outright.
“The combination of a higher reverse termination fee and a much greater likelihood to close in a Frontier merger provides substantially more regulatory protection for Spirit stockholders than the transaction proposed by JetBlue,” Mac Gardner, Spirit’s chairman said in a news release.

New York-based JetBlue offered $33 a share, or $3.6 billion cash for Spirit, in April, above the $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal that Spirit and Frontier announced in February.
Spirit’s board rejected JetBlue’s advances, and JetBlue last month made a tender offer of $30 a share and has urged Spirit shareholders to vote against the deal.
Spirit said a deal with JetBlue wouldn’t likely be approved by regulators. JetBlue’s offer includes a $200 million reverse breakup fee if regulators don’t approve the acquisition.
On Tuesday, proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services advised Spirit shareholders to vote against the Frontier deal, raising concerns about the lack of a reverse termination fee.
Spirit’s shareholder meeting is set for June 10.

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It’s that time again! “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he’s giving his answers to callers’ stock questions at rapid speed.

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Upstart Holdings Inc: “I didn’t like the loans on the balance sheet. If it gets rid of the loans … or it makes me convinced that they’re good, then all is forgiven and I’m cool with it.”

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The FDA is expected to make its decision on Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid shots for infants through preschoolers soon after the agency’s committee of independent experts reviews the data on June 15.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator, said the shots would start shipping after the FDA makes its decision, with vaccinations starting as early as June 21.
Jha said it will take some time for the vaccination program to ramp up, but added that every parent should be able to get an appointment within weeks of the rollout.

Covid vaccinations for children under age 5 are expected to begin as early as June 21, a senior Biden administration health official said on Thursday.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator, said the Biden administration will initially make 10 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available to states, pharmacies and community health centers. States can begin placing orders on Friday, Jha said, but the vaccine doses will ship only after the Food and Drug Administration authorizes the shots.

The FDA is expected to make its decision on Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid shots for infants through preschoolers soon after the agency’s committee of independent experts reviews the data on June 15, Jha said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would then issue its recommendations quickly after the FDA decision, which would allow vaccinations to begin after the Juneteenth federal holiday, he said.

A nurse administers a pediatric dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to a girl at a L.A. Care Health Plan vaccination clinic at Los Angeles Mission College in the Sylmar neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, January 19, 2022.
Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images

Jha said it will take some time for the vaccination program to ramp up, but added that every parent should be able to get an appointment within weeks of the rollout.
“We’re going to ship doses out as fast as possible,” Jha told reporters during White House press briefing. “We’re going to make sure that supply is always meeting demand. And we’re going to do everything we can to make it easy for providers and parents alike to get their kids vaccinated.”
Parents have been waiting months for the FDA to authorize the shots for kids under age 5, which is the only group left in the U.S. not eligible for Covid vaccination. Though Covid is normally less severe in children than adults, hospitalizations of kids under age 5 were five times higher during the winter omicron surge compared to the peak during the previous delta wave, according to the CDC.
Pfizer said its three-dose vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years old was 80% effective at preventing illness from the omicron variant. The shots are three micrograms, one-tenth the dosage level for adults.

Moderna said its two-dose vaccine was about 51% effective against infection from omicron in children under 2 and about 37% effective among those 2 through 5. However, Moderna Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Burton said the antibody levels observed in the children should translate to high levels of protection against severe illness. Moderna’s shots are 25 micrograms, much smaller than the 100 micrograms currently approved for adults.
If FDA authorizes the shots in June, parents would have a few months to get their kids vaccinated ahead of the fall. Public health officials are expecting another wave of Covid infections then with people spending more time indoors in the colder weather.
Covid infections and hospitalizations have increased again in recent weeks as more transmissible omicron subvariants sweep the U.S. The nation is currently reporting more than 103,000 new infections per day on average as of Tuesday, according to CDC data. More than 3,700 people with Covid are admitted to hospitals per day on average, according to the data.

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