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    EchoStar to sell Dish to DirecTV, combining major pay-TV providers

    EchoStar is selling its Dish TV provider and digital business Sling to rival provider DirecTV in a deal announced Monday.
    DirecTV agreed to pay a nominal fee of $1 for Dish, while assuming the company’s net debt.
    The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.
    Combined, DirecTV and Dish will serve close to 20 million customers.

    Hamid Akhavan, EchoStar CEO, speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Sept. 30, 2024.

    EchoStar is selling its Dish TV provider and digital business Sling to rival DirecTV in a deal announced Monday that brings together two of the largest pay-TV providers. EchoStar shares fell more than 11% Monday.
    DirecTV agreed to pay a nominal fee of $1 for Dish. The deal will see DirecTV assume about $9.75 billion in debt and is contingent on consent from some of Dish’s bondholders, according to a news release.

    The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025. Combined, DirecTV and Dish will serve close to 20 million customers, according to Reuters.
    “This was the right time to bring the companies together so we could create a company that ultimately had enough ability to negotiate better deals with the programmers and bring smaller packages to the market, more bite-sized packages, which the consumers are asking for,” EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday.
    “I think this was a scale game that kind of puts us in a level playing field with the competitors in the market,” he said.
    The content distribution industry as a whole has been on a major decline, Akhavan said, and distribution companies such as Dish and DirecTV have fallen behind other platforms with newer technologies and wider reach.
    He also said EchoStar was not able to fully support both its video distribution and core wireless internet businesses, and that this merger will allow the company to put all of its resources toward its core services.

    Also on Monday, AT&T announced it would sell its entire 70% stake in DirecTV to private equity firm TPG for $7.9 billion. The company sold 30% of its stake to TPG in 2021, then valued at $16.2 billion. AT&T originally bought DirecTV in 2014 for $48.5 billion.
    The possibility of a merger between Dish and DirecTV has been rumored for decades. The companies were close to a deal in 2002 in which EchoStar would have acquired DirecTV from General Motors’ Hughes Electronics, before the Federal Communications Commission shut it down. At the time, EchoStar beat out Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in a bidding war for DirecTV.
    Since then, the satellite TV industry has taken several major hits as consumers moved to streaming services. With a roughly $2 billion debt payment looming and just $521 million in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, according to public filings, EchoStar was increasingly facing the prospect of bankruptcy. The company recently attempted to refinance some debt, but failed to reach an agreement with bondholders, according to a Sept. 23 filing.
    Akhavan said EchoStar has secured enough capital for a bright future but will not be making many big moves soon as it is still digesting the recent changes. He said the company would prioritize customer acquisition over expanding services.
    “We are as competitive as anybody else in terms of our offerings, whether it be price, whether it be coverage, whether it be quality,” he said.
    — CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman and Reuters contributed to this report.

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    China stocks just had their best day in 16 years, sending related U.S. ETFs soaring

    A shareholder at a securities hall in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in east China, on Sept. 24, 2024.
    Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

    China stocks rallied Monday to their best day in 16 years, with related U.S. ETFs also rising after recent economic stimulus buoyed investor optimism in the market.
    The Shanghai Composite Index surged 8.06% in its best day since September 2008, and capping a nine-day win streak for the index. It ended September up 17.39%, its first monthly gain in five and its best monthly performance going back to April 2015.

    The Shenzhen Composite Index closed up 10.9%, its best day since April 1996. It gained 24.8% in September, its best month going back to April 2007.
    The China ADR index closed up 1.2%. It climbed nearly 6% earlier in the day.
    The U.S.-listed shares of online video company Bilibili and brokerage company Futu Holdings rose slightly.

    Stock chart icon

    China ADR Index

    The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) gained 0.6%.
    Chinese stocks have been on a tear after Beijing last week unveiled a slew of economic stimulus measures including interest rate cuts to support the weak property market. On Thursday, state media said Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top leaders affirmed the measures.

    “While we don’t know for sure if there’s going to be enough to really kick the economy back into gear, it’s certainly the right first step,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. “I think the impact of a strengthening China can’t be underestimated.”
    “On balance, this is going to be an ambiguous positive for markets going forward,” he added. “And I think that there’s a lot of investors are going to have to quickly recalibrate their expectations.”
    More U.S. investors are bullish on the market following the move. Last week, billionaire hedge fund founder David Tepper said he is overwhelmingly bullish on Chinese equities, having bought “everything” related to China following the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut.
    — CNBC’s Gina Francolla, Nick Wells, Lim Hui Jie and Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
    Correction: Art Hogan is chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. A previous version misstated his firm.

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    Why is Canada’s economy falling behind America’s?

    CANADA AND America’s economies are joined at the hip. Some $2bn of trade and 400,000 people cross their 9,000km of shared border every day. Canadians on the west coast do more day trips to nearby Seattle than to distant Toronto. No wonder, then, that the two economies have largely moved in lockstep in recent decades: between 2009 and 2019 America’s GDP grew by 27%; Canada’s expanded by 25%. More

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    Watch Fed Chair Jerome Powell speak live on economy, policy views

    [The stream is slated to start at 1:55 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]
    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak Monday to the National Association for Business Economists during the organization’s annual conference in Nashville.

    The central bank chair is delivering his assessment on the economy as well as his policy views.
    Following the speech, Powell will speak in a moderated discussion with Ellen Zentner, global head of thematic and macro investing at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
    The speech comes less than two weeks after the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee approved a half-percentage-point reduction in its key overnight borrowing rate, the first rate reduction in more than four years. Markets expect the Fed to follow up with additional cuts this year and in 2025 depending on the path of the economic data.
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    Why the Fed’s rate cut won’t immediately help car buyers or sales

    The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years is expected to boost new vehicle sales, but not as quickly or by as much as some may expect.
    Auto loan rates remain near decades-high levels of more than 9.61% for a new vehicle and nearly 14% for a used car or truck, according to Cox Automotive.
    Auto loan changes can be delayed because they’re really a function of longer-term bond yields that are based on loan performances.

    Alex Tovstanovsky, owner of used-car dealer Prestige Motor Works, checks on inventory with his general manager Ryan Caton in Naperville, Illinois, May 28, 2020.
    Nick Carey | Reuters

    DETROIT — The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years is expected to eventually boost new vehicle sales, but not as quickly or by as much as some may expect.
    The rate cut earlier this month by half a percentage point, or 50 basis points, will take time to trickle down to auto loan rates, which remain near decades-high levels of more than 9.61% for a new vehicle and nearly 14% for a used car or truck, according to Cox Automotive.

    “If the Fed is accurate in their forecasts, we will be living with rates more than two and a half points higher than most of the last 24 years,” said Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke. “In other words, conditions will be better than what we’ve endured for the last year, but affordability challenges will not be solved by this new path for rates.”
    The biggest near-term improvement in auto loan rates isn’t expected until early next year, according to Smoke. He said that unlike the cost of home loans, which has come down in recent months, auto loan rate changes can be delayed because they’re really a function of longer-term bond yields that are based on loan performances.
    Auto loan 30-day delinquency rates have risen considerably in recent years, according to a Thursday note from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Although they remain below the peak levels of the Great Recession, as of the end of 2023, auto loan delinquency rates exceeded pre-pandemic levels by about 60 basis points.

    In addition to the high interest rates, consumers continue to face near-record-high average new vehicle prices and inflated used vehicle prices. Both have fallen from peaks during the Covid pandemic and supply chain problems of recent years but remain elevated compared with historical levels.
    Edmunds.com reports average financing for a new vehicle was more than $40,700 in August, with a payoff term of 68.8 months, or 5.7 years. That compares with average financing before the pandemic of roughly $33,000 over 69.7 months, or 5.8 years, in September 2019.

    The difference in those payments over the terms of the deals is $3,162, or $178 more per month, according to Edmunds.
    “New vehicle sales fell slightly in Q3 as affordability challenges continued to loom large for American car shoppers in the form of historically elevated prices and interest rates,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ head of insights.
    Should rates continue to decline, consumers will see some relief in monthly payments. BofA Securities estimates each point decrease in the Fed benchmark rate equates to a roughly $20 decrease in an average monthly payment for a new vehicle.
    — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report. More

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    States forge ahead with Inflation Reduction Act energy rebates — so far, South Dakota is the only one to opt out

    The Inflation Reduction Act created two consumer rebate programs tied to energy efficiency.
    They’re respectively worth up to $8,000 and $14,000 for consumers, depending on criteria like income and specific efficiency-related upgrades or purchases.
    Arizona, Maine, New York, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Wisconsin started rolling out their rebate programs. Many others have applied. South Dakota has declined to participate.

    Owngarden | Moment | Getty Images

    A handful of states have rolled out rebates to consumers who make their homes more energy-efficient, just months after New York became the first state to do so, in May.
    Meanwhile, South Dakota officials in August declined the federal funding, which is tied to two new programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate law enacted in 2022.

    The IRA earmarked $8.8 billion for consumers via two Home Energy Rebates programs.
    Consumers can access up to $8,000 of Home Efficiency Rebates, and up to $14,000 of Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates.
    More from Personal Finance:Take a look inside a $1.1 million ‘zero emissions’ homeHow EVs and gasoline cars compare on total costHow to buy renewable energy from your electric utility
    Together, the two rebate programs aim to defray — or in some cases fully offset — the cost of retrofitting homes and upgrading appliances to be more energy-efficient. Such tweaks can help consumers cut their utility bills while also reducing planet-warming carbon emissions, officials said.
    The two programs have varying rules that determine which consumers are eligible and how much money they can access. In some cases, rebates will depend on household income and a home’s overall energy reduction.

    Nearly every state has indicated it will launch a rebate program for residents, according to a U.S. Department of Energy spokesperson.
    State officials had an August deadline to officially decline the federal funds. They have a Jan. 31, 2025 deadline to submit a program application to the DOE.
    South Dakota is the only state so far to have signaled publicly that it won’t administer the rebates.
    “With good faith, we did look into this,” Jim Terwilliger, commissioner of the South Dakota Bureau of Finance and Management, said during a July 30 appropriations hearing. “We just don’t believe that it’s the right thing for South Dakota.”

    Here are the states that have applied

    States, which administer the federal funds, have some leeway relative to program design. They must apply for funding and can distribute rebates to consumers after their application is approved.
    New York launched the first phase of its rebates May 30.
    Five others — Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Wisconsin — have since launched rebate programs, too, according to U.S. Department of Energy data as of Sept. 24.
    “I’m expecting more and more to roll out,” said Kara Saul-Rinaldi, president and CEO of AnnDyl Policy Group, a consulting firm focused on climate and energy policy.

    Many more states, as well as Washington, D.C., have submitted applications or had them approved, according to DOE data: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
    Together, these 26 states plus the District of Columbia have applied for $4 billion in total funding so far, the DOE said.
    The rebates are a new program, and “complex government programs like these take time and coordination to set up,” according to a DOE spokesperson.
    “The Inflation Reduction Act put states in charge of designing and implementing Home Energy Rebate programs that fit their local needs,” the spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. “As each state has different resources and capabilities, each state’s timeline will be different.”  

    South Dakota is not participating

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem at the Republican National Convention on July 15, 2024.
    Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    However, South Dakota officials in August signaled they wouldn’t participate, the lone state so far to decline the federal rebate funding.
    “South Dakota will have no part in facilitating the Green New Deal,” Ian Fury, a spokesperson for Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, said in an e-mailed statement.
    States had an Aug. 16, 2024 deadline to officially decline the funds.
    “We don’t think the administrative burden and the expense of administering a program like that is the appropriate thing to do, and we generally disagree with the policy,” Terwilliger, of the South Dakota Bureau of Finance and Management, said in a July hearing.
    The Inflation Reduction Act allows states to use up to 20% of its funding for administrative purposes.
    Fifty-one states and territories have applied to DOE for early administrative funding, the agency said.
    The $68.6 million of federal money that had been set aside for South Dakota rebates will be redistributed among participating states.

    Fury also noted this isn’t the first time South Dakota has rejected federal spending. It was the only state to reject extended unemployment benefits in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, Fury said.
    The Green New Deal is a climate-change policy initiative supported by congressional Democrats starting around 2019. Bipartisan legislation to create an energy rebate program had existed almost a decade earlier, like the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act in 2010.
    The concept of consumer rebates tied to energy efficiency “predates the Green New Deal by many years,” said Saul-Rinaldi.

    Florida reverses course

    It appears Florida officials reversed course from their original stance on the rebates.
    Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023 had vetoed the state’s authority to spend about $5 million of federal funds to administer the energy rebate program. At the time, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services told CNBC that Florida wouldn’t be applying for the rebates as a result.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024.
    Robert Gauthier | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

    Now, Florida is preparing for a soft launch of the rebate programs in late 2024 and a full launch in early 2025, according to information on a state website.
    A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services didn’t return a request for comment on the change in position.

    ‘Every state is approaching [its program] differently’

    At a high level, consumers will be able to get the rebates at the point of sale, when they buy an appliance directly from a retailer or from a qualified contractor who’s helping a household complete an efficiency project.
    “Every state is approaching [its program] differently, for many reasons,” Saul-Rinaldi said.
    Many are rolling them out in phases. For example, New Mexico is starting by offering a $1,600 rebate for low-income consumers in single-family homes who buy insulation from a participating retailer.
    Similar to other states, qualifying New Mexico residents will be able to later access additional rebates such as:

    $8,000 for an ENERGY STAR-certified electric heat pump for space heating and cooling;
    $4,000 for an electrical panel;
    $2,500 for electrical wiring;
    $1,750 for an ENERGY STAR-certified electric heat pump water heater;
    $1,600 for air sealing; and
    $840 for an ENERGY STAR-certified electric heat pump clothes dryer and/or an electric stove.

    Consumers and contractors should consult their state energy department website to learn more about their specific programs and eligibility, Saul-Rinaldi said.
    The U.S. Energy Department suggests households don’t wait to accomplish necessary home energy upgrades or projects if their state hasn’t formally rolled out rebates. They may be eligible for other federal programs, “including tax credits, the Weatherization Assistance Program, and other state, local, and utility programs,” the agency said. More

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    Laurene Powell Jobs is betting on these 11 AI startups

    Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective has invested in at least 11 AI-related startups since 2022, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, the private wealth intelligence platform.
    Emerson is mainly focused on education, the environment and health care. According to Fintrx, Emerson has made over 130 investments in total, with more than half in technology.
    The Emerson Collective has participated in AI funding rounds totaling more than $1 billion, According to Fintrx.

    Laurene Powell Jobs speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)
    Steve Jennings

    A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
    News that Laurene Powell Jobs is investing in a new artificial intelligence “computing device” highlights her growing appetite for AI startups, according to fresh data.

    The Emerson Collective, Powell Jobs’ family office, investment company and philanthropy, has invested in at least 11 AI-related startups since 2022, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, the private wealth intelligence platform.
    Emerson’s AI bets span the globe and the industry, including a New York-based AI medical company, a San Jose, California-based image analyzer, a French developer of large language models and a Norwegian creator of AI presentations used by teachers.
    The dollar amounts of Emerson’s AI investments aren’t disclosed. According to Fintrx, the Emerson Collective has participated in AI funding rounds totaling more than $1 billion.
    A representative for the Emerson Collective declined to comment.

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    Emerson doesn’t disclose its total assets under management. Powell Jobs, the philanthropist, investor and widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has a net worth of $11.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

    Emerson is mainly focused on education, the environment and health care. According to Finxtrx, Emerson has made over 130 investments in total, with more than half in technology, 48 in health care and life sciences, and the rest in energy, agriculture, education and human services, media, and other categories. Raffi Krikorian, former executive at Uber and Twitter, is Emerson’s chief technology officer.
    The New York Times reported this week that Jony Ive, the celebrated Apple designer who worked closely with Steve Jobs and left the company in 2019, is teaming up with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to create a new “computing device” for using AI. Their venture aims to raise up to $1 billion by the end of the year, and the Emerson Collective is one of its founding investors along with Ive, according to the report.
    AI has become the most popular investment theme for family offices in 2024. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report, 78% of family offices surveyed plan to invest in AI in the next two to three years — the most for any investment category.
    Powell Jobs started investing in AI even before OpenAI launched ChatGPT, which kicked off the current AI investment and consumer craze. In June 2022, Emerson invested in an $80 million C-round investment in Proximie, a health tech company whose platform is used to connect operating rooms. In August 2022, it invested in a $14 million Series A round for Atropos Health, which provides physicians with clinical data.
    Emerson went on to invest in AI startups around the world, including a $4.6 million seed round for Norway’s Curipod, which helps teachers create interactive lessons, and a $415 million Series A round for Mistral, the French maker of large language models.
    Emerson’s two most recent AI investments are Formation Bio, an AI pharma company, which raised $372 million in June, and a $33 million follow-on round for Atropos. 

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    ‘No challenges can stop China’s progress’ Xi Jinping says in 75th anniversary speech

    Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that no challenges can stop the country from moving forward.
    He also reiterated Beijing’s aims for reunification with Taiwan.
    Xi was speaking at a reception commemorating the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, which was founded on Oct.1, 1949.

    China’s President Xi Jinping speaks during an awards ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept. 29, 2024, ahead of China’s National Day.
    Adek Berry | Afp | Getty Images

    BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that no challenges can stop the country from moving forward and reiterated Beijing’s reunification aims with Taiwan.
    He was speaking at a reception commemorating the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, which was founded on Oct.1, 1949.

    “The path ahead will definitely see challenges,” Xi said, before calling on the country to overcome uncertainties and risks. “No challenges can stop China’s progress.”
    The comments were translated by CNBC from a Chinese state media broadcast.
    The brief speech, aired during the state broadcaster’s daily evening news program, noted that Xi and other top Chinese leaders entered the reception shortly after 5 p.m. local time on Monday. More