Raphael Stevens

Peloton shares tumbled to an all-time low Friday as investors lose hope that the company can turn itself around.
The company is set to report its quarterly results, now with Chief Executive Barry McCarthy at the helm, on Tuesday morning.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Peloton is targeting potential investors, including industry players and private equity firms, to take a stake in its business of around 15% to 20%.

In this photo illustration the Peloton Interactive logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.
Rafael Henrique | LightRocket | Getty Images

Peloton Interactive shares tumbled to an all-time low Friday as investors lose hope that the connected fitness equipment maker can turn itself around and post a profit, even under a new chief executive officer.
The stock at one point dropped more than 13%, amid a broader sell-off, to touch an all-time low of $14.70. That’s also well below Peloton’s IPO price of $29. Shares later recouped some of those losses to end trading down 8%.

Peloton is set to report its quarterly results, now with Chief Executive Barry McCarthy at the helm, on Tuesday morning.
Its market capitalization has tumbled from roughly $50 billion early last year to under $5 billion by Friday morning.
On Thursday evening, The Wall Street Journal reported that Peloton is targeting potential investors, including industry players and private equity firms, to take a stake in its business of around 15% to 20%. The fresh capital could help Peloton as it attempts a turnaround, but there is no guarantee that such a transaction will be successful, the Journal said.
A spokesperson for Peloton declined to comment.
“Though it might be nice to get a vote a confidence … we don’t see this being too encouraging for those who own the stock,” said Gordon Haskett analyst Don Bilson, regarding the Journal report. “Moves like this are rarely made from positions of strength. Desperation is more like it.”

Activist firm Blackwells Capital has been ramping up pressure on Peloton to sell itself, recently contending that the changes put into place so far under McCarthy aren’t enough. Blackwells has argued that a better owner might be Amazon or Netflix.
In a bid to win new customers and make more money from existing ones, Peloton recently dropped the prices of its Bike, Bike+ and Tread machines, while it plans to raise its monthly all-access subscription fee next month.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel said turbulence has been the “one true constant” at Peloton in recent months.
“From its initial success to its ongoing strategic tests, the company has yet to find a sense of normalcy that can smooth out the recurring volatility,” he said.
Peloton shares have fallen more than 55% so far this year.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

Starbucks is asking the White House for a meeting after President Joe Biden met with an organizer who is helping its coffee shops unionize.
Biden met with 39 national labor leaders on Thursday.
Starbucks, which criticized Biden’s meeting with the union representatives, is waging a campaign to curb the spread of unionization across its coffee shops.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on economic growth, jobs, and deficit reduction in the Roosevelt Room on Wednesday May 4, 2022.
Demetrius Freeman | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Starbucks is asking the White House for a meeting after President Joe Biden met with an organizer who is helping its coffee shops unionize.
The president met with 39 national labor leaders on Thursday, including Christian Smalls, who heads the Amazon Labor Union, and Laura Garza, a union leader at Starbucks’ New York City Roastery. Biden has been a vocal supporter of unions, from the campaign trail to his time in the Oval Office, during a time when high-profile labor drives at companies such as Amazon, Apple and Conde Nast are making headlines.

A.J. Jones, Starbucks’ head of global communications and public affairs, wrote in a letter Thursday that the decision to not invite any representatives from the company was deeply concerning.
“We believe this lack of representation discounts the reality that the majority of our partners oppose being members of a union and the unionization tactics being deployed by Workers United,” Jones wrote in the letter to Steve Ricchetti, one of Biden’s closest advisors. “As you know, American workers have the absolute right to decide for themselves to unionize, or not to unionize, without any undue influences.”
As of Wednesday, six Starbucks locations have voted against unionizing. But baristas at more than 50 Starbucks cafes across the U.S. have voted in favor of unionizing under Workers United over the last six months. Roughly 200 cafes are still waiting for their elections or to hear their votes counted.
Jones requested a meeting at the White House for the opportunity to introduce Biden’s administration to workers who have different perspectives than the union. The White House declined to comment.
Starbucks is waging a campaign to curb the spread of unionization across its coffee shops. Workers United has filed more than 100 unfair labor practices complaints against the company, alleging illegal retaliation and harassment. The National Labor Relations Board has filed at least three lawsuits against Starbucks. The company has denied those claims but has filed two of its own complaints against Workers United.

On Tuesday, Starbucks said it would spend $1 billion in fiscal 2022 on investments in its stores and workers. Those investments include another wage hike for tenured employees, doubling training for new workers and plans to add tipping for debit and credit card users.
“These benefits, including ones we’ve demanded since the beginning of our campaign, are a response to our organizing efforts and we should celebrate the hard work that partners who stood up to [CEO] Howard Schultz’s bullying put in to make this happen,” the Starbucks Workers United Organizing Committee said in a statement to CNBC on Tuesday. “Many of the proposed benefits have been proposed at the bargaining table in Buffalo.”
Schultz himself publicly flirted with running for president as an independent during the run-up to the 2020 election.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

The IRS may have the ability to automate nearly half of tax returns, according to a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The findings show the agency could correctly auto-fill an estimated 62 million to 73 million returns with information it already has, covering 41% to 48% of taxpayers.

Tom Werner | DigitalVision | Getty Images

The IRS may have the ability to automate nearly half of tax returns, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The agency could correctly auto-fill an estimated 62 million to 73 million returns with information it already has, covering 41% to 48% of taxpayers, researchers from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Minneapolis Federal Reserve and Dartmouth College found.

“Our results suggest that pre-populated returns would be accurate for a substantial share of U.S. taxpayers,” the authors wrote.
More from Personal Finance:TurboTax owner Intuit to pay $141 million to customers ‘unfairly charged’Here’s what the Fed’s half-point rate hike means for your moneyNearly risk-free I bonds to deliver a record 9.62% interest for the next six monthsBased on a random sample of 344,400 individual returns from 2019, the paper says accuracy is “much higher for low- and moderate-income taxpayers,” with errors more likely to occur as itemized deductions increase.
Former President Donald Trump’s signature tax overhaul nearly doubled the standard deduction, reducing the number of filers who itemize. In 2019, almost 90% of taxpayers used the standard deduction, according to the IRS.
“I absolutely agree with these findings,” said Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida, pointing to other countries with automated tax filing systems.

It would save so many people the stress and headache of figuring out what documents they need, or how they are going to pay for their return to be done.

Tommy Lucas
Financial advisor at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo

“It would save so many people the stress and headache of figuring out what documents they need, or how they are going to pay for their return to be done,” he said.

Indeed, 36 countries have return-free filing as of May 2020, including Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, the Tax Policy Center estimates.
Countries with return-free filing may use either “exact withholding,” where employers try to set aside precisely what employees owe, or “tax agency reconciliation,” involving a tentative pre-filled return for the taxpayer to approve, according to the Tax Foundation.
However, it may be more difficult in the U.S., which relies on the tax code to deliver social programs, taxes households “as one unit” and charges regular income taxes on some investments that aren’t subject to withholding, the Tax Foundation argues.

Still, the paper suggests automated returns may save time and money for those with simple filings.
“Pre-population is particularly successful for taxpayers who are single, young and lack dependents,” the NBER authors wrote.
What’s more, auto-filled returns may be helpful for non-filers, including those due to receive the earned income tax credit or child tax credit, “potentially nudging them into claiming refunds or paying taxes due.”
“The first thing that stuck out to me was that $9 billion of refunds were due to 12 million Americans due to non-filing,” Lucas said.
Some of those may include high school or college kids working a part-time job making less than the income threshold required to file, or low-income Americans without the resources to process returns, he said.
Although roughly 70% of Americans — those with an adjusted gross income of $73,000 or less — are eligible for IRS Free File, only 2.6% used it in 2019, according to the IRS.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

Churchill Downs, which owns the Kentucky Derby, is moving away from online sports betting to focus on horse race betting.
The company says it is switching its strategy because sports betting became too costly.
Churchill Downs is also looking internationally for its next big growth area.

Churchill Downs, which owns the Kentucky Derby, is changing its strategy when it comes to sports wagering.
The company is doubling down on horse race betting and moving away from online sports betting and iGaming digital casino games, CEO Bill Carstanjen told CNBC.

“We saw an environment for our company where we didn’t see positive margins on the horizon. So we switched strategies we we are focused on running our horse racing business,” Carstanjen tells CNBC.
Following a Supreme Court decision in 2018 that allowed states to legalize sports betting, Churchill Downs entered the crowded and competitive field. Carstanjen said the company discovered online sports betting profit margins are unattractively small. Expenses too high, according to the CEO, especially the massive costs for the technical infrastructure and the costs to attract and retain players. Other sportsbook companies are dealing with similar issues.
Churchill Downs, which is behind the Twinspires racing app, is looking for potential partners for its iGaming content and customer database, Carstanjen said.
“Our approach is to to be in a position to partner with those long-term winners who are willing to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars to build out that business unprofitably in the in the near and midterm,” he said.
Carstanjen said wagering on horse racing online has been great business for his company, with margins of around 30% historically. “We remain absolutely committed and excited about TwinSpires Horse Racing as its top line, bottom line and margins to continue to demonstrate that this is a special online business with a sustainable, scalable and unique business model,” he said during the company’s recent earnings call.

Zandon during the morning training for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 04, 2022 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Andy Lyons | Getty Images

Nonetheless, the pandemic caused major disruption to the horse racing industry, exacerbating recent declines. This year’s “Run for the Roses” will be the first normal Derby with a full capacity crowd since 2019. Carstanjen said they are expecting record Derby results based on advance reserve-ticket sales.
He expects this year’s Derby, which is scheduled for Saturday, could break records when it comes to the total amount wagered, also known as the handle, as long as the weather stays dry. Rainy weather often means horses get scratched from the race and bets get refunded.
The Churchill Downs boss also shared with CNBC his strategy for international growth which is being helped in part by a horse from Japan, Crown Pride, running in this year’s Derby.
Traditionally, Japanese laws prevent locals from placing bets on the Derby, but betting is permitted this year because a Japanese-bred horse is running.
“The horse racing business in Japan is huge. It’s approximately three times the size of what it is in the United States,” Carstanjen says.
He said connecting with the horse racing communities internationally helps Churchill Downs build new revenue streams through gambling, ticket sales, sponsorships and content deals.
“It’s just building a specific connection to our race and to our brand and giving them access to come to our event,” the CEO said.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

Watch Daily: Monday – Friday, 3 PM ET

Nvidia will pay $5.5 million as part of a settlement with the SEC that it did not properly inform investors about how cryptocurrency miners were stoking demand for its graphics cards.
Graphics cards, like those Nvidia makes, are well-suited to mine ethereum.

A sign is posted in front of the Nvidia headquarters on May 10, 2018 in Santa Clara, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Nvidia will pay $5.5 million as part of a settlement with the SEC that it did not properly inform investors about how cryptocurrency miners were stoking demand for its graphics cards.
Nvidia failed to disclose how cryptocurrency mining drove growth in the second and third fiscal quarters of 2018, which took place in 2017, the SEC said in a filing.

The settlement represents the end to a saga in which Nvidia, best known for making graphics cards for gaming, found itself with a surprise revenue boost from cryptocurrency miners which later declined to become immaterial. Nvidia declined to comment.
Graphics cards, like those Nvidia makes, are well-suited to mine ethereum. In 2017, ether prices rose from under $10 to over $800, prompting miners to buy new hardware to cash in.
Nvidia’s gaming category, which is how the company reports those sales, rose 52% on an annual basis in the second quarter of its 2018 fiscal year (which ended June 30, 2017), and by 25% in the following quarter — but Nvidia failed to disclose cryptocurrency’s effect on that growth, the SEC says.

Nvidia was aware that cryptocurrency mining was driving part of its business, according to the SEC filing.
The company’s sales staff in China at the time believed the increase in demand for gaming GPUs was because of miners, and Nvidia’s senior management wanted to go after the crypto mining market, according to the SEC filing.

But cryptocurrency may have ended up being a distraction for Nvidia as demand grew for its graphics cards for their intended uses, gaming and artificial intelligence.
In 2021, Nvidia released new cards intended for mining called Cryptocurrency Mining Processor, and added software to its graphics cards to prevent them from being used for mining. Nvidia’s graphics cards were in extremely short supply in 2020 and 2021 as gaming demand driven by the pandemic prompted users to upgrade their home gaming PCs.
However, CMP sales have declined sharply since their introduction. In the most recent quarter, CMP revenue was only $24 million, down from $266 million in the August 2021 quarter.
“Our GPUs are capable of cryptocurrency mining, though we have limited visibility into how much this impacts our overall GPU demand,” Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said in earnings commentary in February. More

The NCAA enacted an interim name, image and likeness policy almost a year ago, which allows athletes — many of whom have big social media followings — to make deals with local car dealerships, and in some instances, with major retail and media brands.
Several states have written their own individual laws to regulate compensation in name, image and likeness, commonly known as NIL. Some states, though, have stayed on the proverbial sidelines. Meanwhile, the NCAA has asked Congress for federal legislation that lays out a framework that encompasses compensation for all college athletics.

“It was either an economics rights issue, a civil rights issue, a racial justice issue and, for some, all of those, that it was just unfair that these student-athletes were generating so much money but unable to be compensated for it,” said Gabe Feldman, a sports law professor at Tulane University.
Watch the video above to find out more about how college athletes have been using NIL deals to earn tens of thousands of dollars, the growing pushback against these policies, and what’s next for college athletes now that they can turn their fame into dollar signs.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

SpaceX returned the astronauts of NASA’s Crew-3 mission to Earth early Friday morning.
Crew Dragon capsule Endurance splashed down off the coast of Tampa in the Gulf of Mexico.
The SpaceX-launched mission carried a team of four: NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule Endurance splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida on May 6, 2022.

SpaceX returned the astronauts of NASA’s Crew-3 mission to Earth early Friday morning, marking the completion of its sixth human spaceflight.
Crew Dragon capsule Endurance splashed down off the coast of Tampa in the Gulf of Mexico.

“On behalf of the entire SpaceX team, welcome home,” Sarah Gillis, SpaceX lead operations engineer, said on a webcast after splashdown. “It’s been an absolute honor to support you on your mission, Endurance crew, and thanks for flying SpaceX.”
“That was a great ride,” Crew-3 commander Raja Chari said.
Crew-3 spent 177 days in space, with nearly all of that time spent on board the International Space Station. The SpaceX-launched mission carried a team of four: NASA astronauts Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer.

From left to right: ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron inside the SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance after splashdown on May 6, 2022.
Aubrey Gemignani | NASA

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More