Raphael Stevens

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday offered four stocks that he believes can keep investors steady through market turmoil.
“As someone who thinks it’s a good idea to stay in the market, I’m urging you to consider companies that fit the funnel … while avoiding almost anything else,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday named four stocks that he believes can keep investors steady through market turmoil.
“As someone who thinks it’s a good idea to stay in the market, I’m urging you to consider companies that fit the funnel … while avoiding almost anything else,” he said.

“It’s not that tough a prescription, but it’s the one that works while we work our way through the [Federal Reserve]’s aggressive tightening cycle,” he added.
The Fed said it plans to institute a series of interest rate hikes this year and tighten its balance sheet to offset soaring inflation.
The “Mad Money” host’s comments come after the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday increased 0.7% while the S&P 500 was mostly flat at 4,459.45. The Nasdaq Composite decreased 1.2%.
Cramer also repeated his mantra that investors must stick to companies that make profits, return value to shareholders and have stock with reasonable valuations.
Here are his four picks of companies that meet his expectations:

Disney

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“Unlike Netflix and its one-hit wonders, Disney has a massive, lucrative theme park complex, along with a stable of iconic franchises. … Disney should not be tarred with the same broad brush as Netflix,” Cramer said, referring to Netflix’s dismal latest quarterly results.
Procter & Gamble

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“Because Procter has some of the finest brands in the world, it was able to pass on those price increases at will. Procter is the classic stock for this moment: It makes things at a profit while being one of the great returners of capital,” Cramer said.
Johnson & Johnson

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“What is JNJ? How about the blue chip with the best balance sheet in America that has an amazing dividend and buyback,” Cramer said.
Morgan Stanley

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“Morgan Stanley is the bank that arguably performed the best, as well as maybe Bank of America,” Cramer said.
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Disney, Procter & Gamble and Morgan Stanley.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday that investors should stay away from Netflix stock and explore other options.
“Netflix seems lost at sea without a plan to find the shore, and I think its pullback actually was deserved,” the “Mad Money” host said.
“We bought some Disney today for the Charitable Trust. … I like the rest of the business and think the streaming service is taking share. I’m also intrigued, by the way, by Paramount Global,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday that investors should stay away from Netflix stock and explore other options.
“Netflix seems lost at sea without a plan to find the shore, and I think its pullback actually was deserved. As for the other streaming plays that were collateral damage, you’ve got my blessing to buy the ones with the cheap stocks and sound fundamentals,” the “Mad Money” host said.

Cramer said that there are two streaming companies, in particular, that stand out to him.
“We bought some Disney today for the Charitable Trust. … I like the rest of the business and think the streaming service is taking share. I’m also intrigued, by the way, by Paramount Global,” he said.
Cramer also named Disney as a stock that can endure the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle.
Netflix reported a 200,000 subscriber loss in its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, the first time the streaming giant has lost subscribers since 2011, and forecasted a 2 million global paid subscriber loss for the second quarter.
Shares of Netflix hemorrhaged 35% on Wednesday, reaching a new 52-week low earlier in the day.

Citing headwinds including suspended service in Russia and password sharing among users, Netflix also warned that it could crack down on nonpaying users. The company also said it is considering offering lower-priced membership tiers with ads.
“I don’t think Netflix has much visibility into how business will unfold going forward, and they sure don’t seem to have a plan to right the ship, at least not any time soon. I say no thank you,” Cramer said.
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Disney.
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Two mutated strains of the highly transmissible omicron variant of Covid-19 are the main culprits behind a “rising tide” of infections in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
State health experts have seen no evidence that the new strains are more severe than others, and so far they are not expecting a repeat of last winter’s surge in cases.
New York will also keep in place its mask requirements for public transit and other similar settings, at least for now.

Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, speaks during a news conference in New York, on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021.
Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Two mutated strains of the highly transmissible omicron variant of Covid-19 are the main culprits behind a “rising tide” of infections in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
“We did identify two subvariants of omicron, which is driving the current spike in cases,” Hochul said during a press event in Syracuse.

“We’re taking this very seriously,” the Democratic governor said. “You don’t know, every single variant that comes, is it going to be worse than the last one?”
But Hochul stressed that state health experts have seen no evidence that the new strains are more severe than others, and so far they are not expecting a repeat of the massive, omicron-fueled surge in cases last winter.
“We’re not panicking about this, we’re not changing, but we also want to make sure that we’re smart about this,” she said.

New York’s data currently shows 40 Covid cases per 100,000 people, which Hochul said is a more informative measure to follow than the total infection rate. The governor noted that while that figure was “quite a bit lower” in recent weeks, the current level is significantly below the winter peak of 461 cases per 100,000 people.
“We’re a long way from that peak, but I don’t even want to get close to that peak,” she said.

Across the U.S., cases are nowhere near the pandemic peak of about 808,000 new cases a day that were reported in mid-January. New infections are currently averaging about 35,000 a day, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. While that is a fraction of the peak, cases have started edging up nationwide in recent weeks and some areas of the country are seeing localized surges.
Statewide, there are about 1,400 people hospitalized with Covid, Hochul said. Near the pandemic’s peak, 12,000 people in New York were hospitalized with the virus, she said.
The number of hospitalizations, which have been a key data point in the state’s response to the health crisis, are even more crucial to monitor, with the prevalence of at-home testing for Covid clouding total testing figures, the governor said.
She also said that about half the cases of people hospitalized with Covid are people who were admitted for other reasons, and then tested positive once they arrived.
On the plus side, the warming weather should play a part in slowing the spread of infections, Hochul said, because more people will socialize outdoors rather than in confined spaces.
New York also will keep in place its mask requirements for public transit and other similar settings, at least for now. “Let’s just be smart about it,” Hochul said.
That decision comes two days after a federal judge’s ruling struck down the mask mandates for public transportation that had been issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Biden administration has said it will appeal that ruling if the CDC deems a mask mandate remains a public health necessity.
Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city on Monday to reinstate its Covid-19 mask mandate for indoor activities as the highly contagious omicron BA.2 subvariant drives new Covid cases higher across the U.S.
Hochul said if it weren’t for the new subvariants, “I suspect we would have been able to say goodbye to masks in all settings. But we’re going to get there. We will get there.”

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United joined Delta in forecasting a 2022 profit thanks to a resurgence in travel demand.
United and other carriers are seeing a surge in fuel costs but fares are keeping apace.
The airline expects to fly a schedule that’s 87% of 2019 levels in the second quarter.

United Airlines expects to turn a profit in 2022 for the first time since before the pandemic as bookings rise and passengers appear willing to pay more to fly.
United’s shares rose more than 7% in after-hours trading Wednesday after it releasing an upbeat outlook.

The forecast suggests airlines are at a turning point in the pandemic recovery, as a drop in Covid cases has spurred renewed demand for travel and a public that hasn’t yet shied away from higher ticket prices, despite inflation hitting household budgets.
“I’ve never seen in my career, and I’ve been in this industry a long time … such a hockey stick increase of demand,” CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC Wednesday, referring to both business travel and leisure bookings.

Boeing 777ER United Airlines. Aircraft to Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
Massimo Insabato | Mondadori Portfolio | Getty Images

For the second quarter, United is forecasting a 10% operating margin, and the highest quarterly sales in its history, with revenue per passenger mile up 17% over 2019, as higher fares help cover an increase in expenses.
The Chicago-based airline is the second major U.S. carrier to report results and provide an outlook for the peak spring and summer travel season, when airlines generate the bulk of their annual revenue. Delta Air Lines last week reiterated that it foresees a return to profitability this year.
Despite strong demand, United is challenged to add capacity. Its 52 Pratt & Whitney-powered Boeing 777s, some of the biggest planes in its fleet have been grounded since an engine failure in February 2021 and won’t return until mid-May at the earliest, CNBC reported earlier this month. And deliveries of new Boeing 787 Dreamliners have been suspended for much of the past 18 months because of manufacturing flaws.

The airline is also facing a pilot shortage, particularly at regional carriers that feed its hubs, a problem across the sector.
Here’s how United performed in the first quarter compared with what Wall Street expected, based on average estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

Adjusted loss per share: $4.24 versus an expected $4.22.
Total revenue: $7.57 billion versus expected $7.68 billion.

United posted a loss of $1.4 billion in the first quarter on revenue of $7.57 billion. That revenue level is well off the $9.59 billion it reported three years earlier but more than double the $3.22 billion from a year ago.
Adjusting for one-time items, it posted a loss of $4.24 per share.
The company paid $2.88 a gallon for fuel in the first quarter, up from $2.05 in 2019 and $1.74 last year. Excluding fuel, its costs jumped 18% over the same period of 2019.
For the second-quarter, United expects costs excluding fuel to rise 16% versus 2019.
Airline bookings, broadly, surged after Covid cases peaked and then subsided this winter, easing the rocky start to 2022 for carriers. Airline executives expect that after more than two years of pandemic, many travelers who were cooped up will continue to fuel travel demand, even though fares have climbed.
United plans to fly 87% of its 2019 schedule during the second quarter. Along with Delta, United has been more cautious on adding capacity compared with rivals like American Airlines and fast-growing budget airlines like Spirit Airlines.
“As the company’s Pratt & Whitney-powered Boeing 777 aircraft are expected to gradually return to service, the company will continue to add back capacity based on its ability to best serve customers and will take a long-term view of profitability by not sacrificing operational reliability,” United said in an earnings release.
Some carriers, however, like Spirit, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways are trimming spring and summer schedules for wiggle room to navigate disruptions like bad weather or staffing shortages.
American Airlines’ new CEO Robert Isom told staff last week that reliability is paramount this season. Customers on American and other carriers faced massive deals and cancellations last year after carriers struggled with routine disruptions and staffing shortfalls.
United executives will discuss results with analysts and media on a 10:30 a.m. ET call Thursday. American Airlines will report its results before the market opens Thursday and hold a call at 8:30 a.m. ET.

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A federal judge knocked down the Biden administration’s public transportation mask mandate on Monday.
Flight attendants have faced the brunt of opposition to the mandate and are showing relief that they won’t be tasked with enforcement.
But not everyone agrees that the change is a positive one.

Passengers at LaGuardia Airport on April 19, 2022.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC

The Biden administration’s transportation mask mandate was one of the most divisive policies of the Covid pandemic. Its sudden end this week has been just as contentious.
A federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down the mandate, which for more than a year required that travelers in the U.S. wear masks on planes, trains and other shared modes of public transportation, as well as at airports and rail and bus stations, in an effort to help slow the spread of Covid-19.

The rule was due to expire after May 3, though the Biden administration said it plans to appeal this week’s court ruling if the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deems masks still necessary on public transportation.
Still, the abrupt reversal stemming from Monday’s decision threw travelers, airlines and crews into a gray area.
The Transportation Security Administration said it would no longer enforce the rule and airlines quickly said face masks would be optional, effective immediately. Some pilots announced the decision midflight, to applause.
Some airports and public transportation systems such as those in New York and Philadelphia will still require masks even though they wouldn’t be required to do so by airlines or the federal government.

Divisive issue

In the two days since the ruling, views are varied on whether the change is a good or a bad thing.

An AP-NORC poll, conducted from April 14 to April 18 and published Wednesday, showed 56% of people strongly or somewhat strongly support face mask requirements for transportation, while 24% oppose it and 20% neither favor nor oppose it.
“I was disheartened to hear,” Scott Reeves, 71, a musician and retired music professor, said at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Tuesday. Reeves said he will “absolutely” continue to wear a mask when he flies, saying it’s “not a big deal. Being sick is a big deal.”
Armanda Marin, 36, arrived at LaGuardia from Dallas on Tuesday, her first maskless flight of the pandemic.
“I really don’t care, as long as everyone has a vaccination,” she said.
Lucas Dietrich, a 39-year-old insurance salesman, said he was relieved to leave the masks behind.
“I can’t stand them,” he said, adding that he feels safe given the benefits of aircraft-filtration systems. “It feels like we’re coming to the end of this thing.”

Flight attendants ditch mask police role

One group is feeling a particular relief. Flight attendants have faced the brunt of public opposition to the mandate and now won’t be tasked with enforcement.
“We are done enforcing it,” said an American Airlines flight attendant, who declined to give his name because he isn’t permitted to speak with the media.
The Federal Aviation Administration last year received a record number of reports of unruly travelers on planes. More than 70% of the incidents were tied to disputes over masks. Flight attendants have reported verbal abuse and passenger disputes while they worked, some even rising to physical violence, throughout the pandemic.
The FAA last year instituted a zero tolerance policy that promised stricter consequences like hefty fines for unruly passenger behavior, in place of softer responses like warnings or counseling. On Wednesday, it said the policy will continue despite the end to the mask mandate.
“We fully recognize that enforcement of the mandate has placed an incredible burden on flight attendants,” the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union representing American Airlines flight attendants, told its members on Monday.
Lyn Montgomery, president of TWU Local 556, which represents Southwest Airlines flight attendants, wrote to the Biden administration prior to this week’s ruling advocating for an end to the mandate.
“It’s not that we’re antimask,” she told CNBC on Tuesday. But the decision to end the mandate is a “step toward normalcy” for flight attendants whose jobs during the pandemic have been “exhausting and stressful.”
Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the country’s largest flight attendant union, said while there are cabin crews in favor of ending the policy, others aren’t on board.
Crew members with young children who aren’t vaccinated, for example, or who are immunocompromised, aren’t necessarily cheering the change.
“The only reason this has been an issue is because it was so politicized,” Nelson said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday. “We did not take a position on extending the mask mandate.”

Passengers and crews can still wear masks if they prefer.
“If there’s anything we’ve learned from this it has to be about common courtesy and recognizing that you might not have the same situation someone else has,” Nelson said.

Banned passengers to return

Airlines, for their part, have repeatedly pushed the Biden administration to end the mask mandate, as well as the predeparture Covid test requirement for arriving international passengers, which is still in place.
Airlines required passengers to wear masks starting in spring 2020, just as the pandemic took hold and quickly began banning passengers who refused to comply. That, too, is in the process of changing.
Alaska Airlines said it has banned more than 1,700 travelers for failing to follow masking policies, but many of those passengers will now be welcomed back.
“Now that the mask policy has been overturned, guests who were banned solely for mask noncompliance will be allowed to purchase tickets on our flights,” the airline said in a statement. “However, some guests whose behavior was particularly egregious will remain banned.”
United Airlines issued a similar update: “On a case-by-case basis, we will allow some customers who were previously banned for failing to comply with mask-related rules to fly United again — after ensuring their commitment to follow all crew member instructions on board,” the company said.
Delta Air Lines said it plans to allow customers it banned for failing to follow masking rules now that they are optional “only after each case is reviewed and each customer demonstrates an understanding of their expected behavior when flying with us.
“Any further disregard for the policies that keep us all safe will result in placement on Delta’s permanent no-fly list,” Delta said. “Customers who demonstrated egregious behavior and are already on the permanent no-fly list remain barred from flying with Delta.”
American Airlines declined to comment but will likely address that topic when it reports quarterly results Thursday morning.

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Starbucks filed two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday alleging that the union organizing its baristas broke federal labor law.
Workers United has filed dozens of complaints against Starbucks with the NLRB.
Rossann Williams, president of Starbucks’ North American operations, wrote in a letter to workers that the company filed the complaints to protect workers’ physical safety and well-being.

Michelle Eisen, a barista at the Buffalo, NY, Elmwood Starbucks location, the first Starbuck location to unionize, helps out the local Starbucks Workers United, employees of a local Starbucks, as they gather at a local union hall to cast votes to unionize or not, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in Mesa, Ariz.
Ross D. Franklin | AP

Starbucks filed two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday alleging that the union organizing its baristas broke federal labor law.
This marks the coffee chain’s first time on the other side of accusations around lawbreaking behavior amid the union battle.

Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, has filed dozens of complaints of its own against Starbucks with the NLRB, alleging that the company has illegally retaliated against, harassed and fired organizers in cafes across the country.
The government agency has similarly filed three complaints against Starbucks, according to Workers United, alleging in part that in Phoenix it threatened employees and fired organizers in retaliation. Starbucks has denied all allegations of union busting.
More than 200 of the coffee chain’s locations have filed paperwork to unionize under Workers United since August. To date, 24 stores have voted to unionize, with only two locations so far voting against.
In the complaints filed with the NLRB, Starbucks alleges that Workers United “unlawfully restrained and coerced partners in the exercise of their rights,” citing incidents that occurred at two cafes in Denver and Phoenix.
Starbucks claims in the filings that organizers physically blocked the entrances and exits of those stores, made threats and physically intimidated baristas who didn’t support the union drive.

The complaint alleges that organizers also yelled profanity at customers and hit cars with a picket sign as they tried to enter and exit the Denver location. The complaint does not detail when that incident occurred, but workers at the Denver cafe named in the filing held a strike March 11 to protest what they called unfair working conditions.
The Phoenix location mentioned in the filings is the same cafe that is at the center of some of the NLRB’s complaints against Starbucks.
Starbucks Workers United said the allegations are a “continuation of Starbucks’ war against its own partners.”
“It takes a lot of gall for a company that’s launched one of the most aggressive & intense anti-union campaigns in modern history to file these charges,” the union said in a statement to CNBC.
Rossann Williams, president of Starbucks’ North American operations, wrote in a letter to employees viewed by CNBC, said the company was filing the claims to protect its workers.
“We’re doing this to protect the physical safety and emotional wellbeing of our partners and to make it very clear that the behavior we’re seeing from some union organizers is not acceptable and we won’t tolerate it,” Williams said. “I want every partner to know we respect and honor all their rights — the right to choose a union, and the right to choose to speak for themselves.”

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Motif asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to revoke a patent held by Impossible protecting the company’s heme technology.
Impossible sued Motif in March, claiming that the start-up’s heme-based beef alternative too closely imitates its own version.
Both companies are privately owned, although Impossible is much larger, with a valuation of $9.5 billion.

Plant-based burgers developed by Impossible Foods Inc. are seen at the 2nd China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on November 6, 2019 in Shanghai, China.
China News Service | Getty Images

Plant-based meat maker Impossible Foods could be at risk of losing a key patent as part of an ongoing legal dispute with competitor Motif FoodWorks.
Motif asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to revoke a patent held by Impossible protecting the company’s heme technology. Impossible sued Motif in March, claiming that the start-up’s heme-based beef alternative too closely imitates its own version.

Impossible’s beef and pork substitutes use soy leghemoglobin, which is produced from genetically modified yeast, to imitate the taste and aroma of real meat.
Both companies are privately owned, although Impossible is much larger, with a valuation of $9.5 billion. Along with publicly traded Beyond Meat, Impossible has helped rejuvenate the market for vegetarian burgers. Losing its patent on heme could mean even stiffer competition within the meat alternative market.
Motif filed a petition with the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Wednesday to ask a panel of judges to review Impossible’s patent and weigh whether it should be revoked.
“We are confident the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will agree with our view that the patent never should have been issued and revoke it,” a Motif spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. “Our industry should work together to grow the plant-based category for the greater good — to benefit people and the planet. Competition is healthy. And it should play out in the marketplace, not the courts.”
An Impossible spokesperson told CNBC in a statement the company is confident in the strength of its patent and that its expects to prevail in court and before the patent office.

“Motif’s stunt is a baseless and meritless attempt to distract from the fact that they have infringed on our patent and are unlawfully using our technology to build their business,” the spokesperson said.
Motif has raised $343.5 million from investors including Bill Gates and was valued at $1.23 billion last year, according to Pitchbook. It was spun out of biotech start-up Ginkgo Bioworks.
When Motif launched in 2019, Ginkgo co-founder and CEO Jason Kelly told CNBC that Impossible’s success inspired the formation of Motif, which develops key ingredients for making plant-based proteins and leaves the rest to food companies.
Impossible alleges that Motif’s Hemami product infringes on its patent for a beef replica using heme, a molecule found in traditional beef burgers that Impossible and Motif both use as an ingredient. Motif’s version uses bovine myoglobin as its heme source.
In its original complaint, Impossible said its patent covers the invention of a beef substitute that uses a muscle replica including a heme-containing protein, at least one sugar compound and one sulfur compound. It also protects against the invention of a meat alternative that mimics meat through a fat tissue replica that uses at least one plant oil and a denatured plant protein.

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