Raphael Stevens

GM is ending its in-vehicle “Marketplace” app that allowed drivers to order and pay for goods and services such as gasoline or coffee through their vehicle.
The company had high expectations for the industry-first feature when it launched in late 2017, but it suffered from low usage rates and lack of growth.

GM is ending its in-vehicle “Marketplace” app that allowed drivers to order and pay for goods and services such as gasoline or coffee through their vehicle.

DETROIT – General Motors is ending its in-vehicle “Marketplace” app that allowed drivers to order and pay for goods and services such as gasoline or coffee through their vehicle.
GM had high expectations for the industry-first feature when it launched in late 2017, but it suffered from low usage rates and never grew into the full suite of features executives hoped it would.

The automaker decided to discontinue Marketplace starting next month following a recent evaluation of its services, according to GM spokeswoman Stephanie Obendorfer. She said the company has no replacement to announce at this time.
“We routinely evaluate our services to ensure they provide the best experience for our members. In this spirit, we have decided to discontinue our Marketplace services,” GM said in an email notification sent to vehicle owners Friday.

Since it launched, Marketplace was offered across GM’s lineup of Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles in the U.S. through their infotainment systems.
Obendorfer declined to discuss usage rates, but an engineer after the feature launched described active user rates in the “thousands” out of millions of vehicles.
The free technology included partnerships with dealers for service appointments and coupons, Shell and Exxon Mobil for gas, and Dunkin’, among others.

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French luxury goods brand Hermes said Friday it has “no strategy” to significantly increase prices despite disappointing fourth quarter results.
Speaking to CNBC, CEO Axel Dumas said the company’s hand-crafted production model means it is less exposed to inflationary pressures than some rivals.
The company fell flat on fourth quarter results, which saw sales in its leather goods and saddlery division fall 5.4% due to capacity constraints.

French luxury goods brand Hermes said Friday it has “no strategy” to significantly increase prices of its prized products despite disappointing fourth quarter results which saw supply fail to meet demand.
Speaking to CNBC, CEO Axel Dumas said the company’s hand-crafted production model means it is less exposed to inflationary pressures, such as increasing energy costs, than many of its rivals that have warned of price hikes.

“There is no strategy at all to create growth through unnecessary price increases,” Dumas told Charlotte Reed.
“We have very limited inflation because our main tool to create our bags is hand stitching,” he continued, noting that price hikes are largely driven by wage increases for the artisans who create the company’s famed Birkin and Kelly handbags.
Full year results Friday showed Hermes increased global prices by 3.5% on average in 2021, above the usual rate of 1.5%, reflecting a rise in production costs and currency fluctuations. That’s well below the more aggressive price increases of competitors, such as Louis Vuitton, which hiked prices by an average of 7% worldwide.

A model wears a Hermes double-sided scarf in Paris on December 4, 2019.
Alain Jocard | AFP | Getty Images

Still, the company — typically one of the industry’s strongest names — fell flat on fourth quarter results, which saw sales in its leather goods and saddlery division fall 5.4% due to capacity constraints. Overall sales rose to 2.38 billion euros ($2.71 billion) in the three months to December, below the consensus forecast of 2.53 billion euros 
Hermes shares fell as much as 7% in early trade, recording their worst day since September 2016 and their lowest price in more than eight months.

Dumas defended the self-imposed production caps, which limit volume growth in its leather goods production at 6% to 7%, saying it was more important “to keep the value of craftmanship.” However, he said that one “bad quarter” was not indicative of any wider downturn.
“It is difficult to make a precise prediction. What I do see now is there’s no change of trend,” he said.

2021 sales up 42% driven by U.S., China demand

The dip follows stellar performance in the company’s prior three quarters. Despite ongoing covid-19 restrictions, overall 2021 sales were up by 42% on the prior year and 33% from 2019 levels.
That growth was largely driven by the U.S., China and the rest of Asia. France was the only market not to see revenues exceed pre-pandemic levels.
“China has been one of our buying markets lately, with the U.S. and with the rest of Asia,” said Dumas. “There we see a very strong appetite,” he said, citing China’s growing millennial middle class, who account for 80% of its buyers in China.
Dumas added that the company continues to see strong growth through its digital channels, with 78% of online sales being to new customers.
“After lockdown, when the stores reopened, the dynamics of the ecommerce didn’t change,” he said.

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Walt Disney World Resort is raising ticket prices for guests visiting the parks for multiple days.
This is the first major adjustment to the Orlando, Florida-based theme parks’ ticket pricing since March 2019.
Prices for these passes are up between 2% and 6%.

A guest takes a selfie at Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort on July 11, 2020.
(Photo by Olga Thompson/Walt Disney World Resort via Getty Images)

Walt Disney World Resort is raising ticket prices for guests visiting the parks for multiple days. This is the first major adjustment to the Orlando, Florida-based theme parks’ ticket pricing since March 2019.
Prices for base tickets for those attending any of Disney’s four theme parks in Florida for between one and three days have not been altered, according to WDW News Today, a prominent Disney theme park media site. But prices of multiday passes for between four and 10 days are up between 2% and 6%.

For example, four-day multiday passes used to range between $435 and $597, depending on if the ticket was for a child or an adult. Now, those passes cost between $447 and $597.
Park Hopper passes for one to two days have not changed, but a similar price increase has been added to these tickets for three- to 10-day spans. These passes allow visitors to move between the theme parks in the same day.
A four-day Park Hopper pass now costs between $540 and $687, up from between $525 and $687.
Representatives from Disney did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Correction: A four-day Park Hopper pass now costs between $540 and $687, up from between $525 and $687. An earlier version misstated one of the figures.

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Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday his children “won’t be wearing a mask” when their local school district’s Covid face-covering mandate lifts later this month.
“If it becomes optional, I think most kids won’t,” the current board member of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer and a former FDA chief said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it wants to give people a break from mask-wearing, and it’s reviewing its guidance on the matter.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday his children “won’t be wearing a mask” when their local school district’s Covid face-covering mandate lifts later this month.
“If it becomes optional, I think most kids won’t. Some will, and we need to respect that. Some parents are going to continue to wear masks,” said Gottlieb, a board member of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer and a former head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Connecticut, where Gottlieb lives, will be lifting its mask statewide mandate on Feb. 28, allowing schools to decide for themselves whether to continue to require masks. He said, “My local school district lifted its mask ordinance” in line with state guidance.
Gottlieb’s comments on “Squawk Box” came as both states and local communities are starting to allow people to go maskless as the omicron variant wave dies down and daily Covid cases continue to decline.
The latest U.S. seven-day average of 118,323 new infections per day dropped 44% from a week ago, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Recognizing that improving case count situation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it wants to give people a break from mask-wearing. The CDC is reviewing the agency’s guidance, focusing on Covid hospitalizations, which are also on the decline, as a key metric for deciding on safety protocols.
On CNBC earlier this month, Gottlieb called for the CDC to change its mask guidance, contending it was time for schools to consider dumping mandates when considering the high levels of immunity in the general U.S. population. He warned that prolonging the wait could result in a missed opportunity at normalcy before students go on summer break.
When it comes to entering public places, however, Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday he’ll be keeping his mask on to ease others’ worries about contracting the virus.

CNBC Health & Science

“I’ll probably continue to wear it a little bit longer than perhaps I need to based on the overall risk, just because I think it’s a matter of etiquette,” he said. “I think when I go into a store or pharmacy and other people are there who feel uncomfortable, who feel vulnerable, if they see a lot of people around them wearing masks it makes them more comfortable.”
“I’ll do that in my community,” Gottlieb added. “I think it’s a community standard and a community norm now. But I think a lot of people are going to take the option not to wear.”
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus, health-care tech company Aetion and biotech company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ and Royal Caribbean’s “Healthy Sail Panel.”

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Bill Gates told CNBC Friday that the risks of severe disease from Covid-19 have “dramatically reduced” but another pandemic is all but certain.
Speaking at Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference, Gates said that a potential new pandemic would likely stem from a different pathogen.
Advances in medical technology could cut vaccine production times to six months, Gates added.

Bill Gates said Friday that the risks of severe disease from Covid-19 have “dramatically reduced” but another pandemic is all but certain.
Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference, Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said that a potential new pandemic would likely stem from a different pathogen to that of the coronavirus family.

But he added that advances in medical technology should help the world do a better job of fighting it — if investments are made now.
“We’ll have another pandemic. It will be a different pathogen next time,” Gates said.
Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Gates said the worst effects have faded as huge swathes of the global population have gained some level of immunity. Its severity has also waned with the latest omicron variant.

However, Gates said that in many places that was due to virus itself, which creates a level of immunity, and has “done a better job of getting out to the world population than we have with vaccines.”
“The chance of severe disease, which is mainly associated with being elderly and having obesity or diabetes, those risks are now dramatically reduced because of that infection exposure,” he said.

Gates said it was already “too late” to reach the World Health Organization’s goal to vaccinate 70% of the global population by mid-2022. Currently 61.9% of the world population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
He added that the world should move faster in the future to develop and distribute vaccines, calling on governments to invest now.
“Next time we should try and make it, instead of two years, we should make it more like six months,” Gates said, adding that standardized platforms, including messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, would make that possible.
“The cost of being ready for the next pandemic is not that large. It’s not like climate change. If we’re rational, yes, the next time we’ll catch it early.”
Gates, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has partnered with the U.K.’s Wellcome Trust to donate $300 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which helped form the Covax program to deliver vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.
The CEPI is aiming to raise $3.5 billion in an effort cut the time required to develop a new vaccine to just 100 days.

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Texas led the country in new renewable energy projects last year, according to a report released this week by the American Clean Power Association.
Texas installed 7,352 megawatts of new wind, solar and energy installation projects last year, significantly outpacing California, which installed 2,697 megawatts of storage projects.
Republicans for decades have overseen the the energy sector in Texas, which still ranks 10th in the country for fossil fuel consumption, as nearly 90% of its energy is derived from fossil fuels.

Transmission towers are shown on June 15, 2021 in Houston, Texas. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which controls approximately 90% of the power in Texas, has requested Texas residents to conserve power through Friday as temperatures surge in the state.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Texas led the country in building new renewable energy projects last year, according to a report released this week by the American Clean Power Association, continuing a promising trend in a state that’s largely dependent on planet-warming fossil fuels.
Texas installed 7,352 megawatts of new wind, solar and energy installation projects in 2021, significantly outpacing California, which installed 2,697 megawatts of storage projects. Oklahoma, Florida and New Mexico were the other top producing states.

Texas also surpassed other states in the amount of storage it has under construction or in advanced development, reaching nearly 20,000 megawatts, followed by California at nearly 14,000 megawatts.
Texas is experiencing a rise in renewable energy deployment not necessarily due to concerns over human-caused climate change, but rather because of the low costs of renewable energy sources like solar and wind development.
Republicans for decades have overseen the the energy sector in Texas, which still ranks 10th in the country for fossil fuel consumption, as nearly 90% of its energy is derived from fossil fuels and only about 7% derived from renewable sources.
Texas has avoided federal regulation by establishing its own power grid that’s nearly cut off from the rest of the country. During a winter storm in 2021, the system collapsed amid a surge in demand and frozen utility plants, which then increased energy prices and triggered the state’s worst blackouts in decades.
During the state’s grid failure, Gov. Greg Abbott, along with other conservative state leaders, falsely blamed the outages on renewable energy sources like wind and solar. However, most of the outages stemmed from problems with limited natural gas production and frozen supplies at natural gas, coal and nuclear facilities, and not from solar and wind failures.

More from CNBC Climate:

More broadly, energy from fossil fuel production accounts for more than 80% of total consumption across the country, despite the growing investment in renewables, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The U.S. last year installed 27,773 megawatts of wind, solar and energy storage, down 3% from the previous year, according to the American Clean Power Association report. Cumulative wind, solar and energy storage capacity hit 200,000 megawatts, which is equivalent to 200 gigawatts. Solar power was also up 19%, energy storage was up 196% and wind was down 25% compared to the previous year.
“Surpassing over 200 gigawatts of clean energy is a significant milestone for the United States and shows that we can achieve even more with strong public policy support for the industry,” Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in a statement.
“Although the U.S. has reached this incredible achievement, more needs to be done, at a faster pace, to reach the climate goals and targets our country needs to achieve,” Zichal said.
House Democrats recently reupped calls for President Joe Biden to move ahead with the $555 billion in climate and clean energy investments already passed by the House as part of the Build Back Better Act.
The climate portion of the legislation represents the largest-ever federal investment in clean energy and would help the U.S. get roughly halfway to meeting Biden’s pledge to slash emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030, according to the nonpartisan analysis firm Rhodium Group.

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Victoria’s Secret’s Love Cloud collection will be promoted by 18 models from diverse backgrounds.
Sofia Jirau, a Puerto Rican model with Down syndrome, is among those touting the brand.
The company is looking to be more inclusive because its sales had suffered in recent years as consumers rejected its overly sexualized imagery.

Sofia Jirau, a 24-year-old Puerto Rican woman with Down Syndrome, stars in Victoria’s Secret’s latest campaign for its lingerie.
Source: Victoria’s Secret

Victoria’s Secret said Friday it is launching a new intimates collection, Love Cloud, that will be promoted by 24-year-old model Sofia Jirau.
Jirau is the first model with Down syndrome to be featured by the intimates retailer. The Puerto Rican-born model, who began modeling three years ago, told the Wall Street Journal that she would love to inspire others.

“Even if they have Down syndrome, they can still model, they can still have jobs,” she told the Journal.
Jirau has her own campaign, Sin Limites, that raises awareness about Down syndrome.
The Love Cloud collection, which was created for all day comfort, will be promoted by 18 models of different backgrounds. The campaign focuses on celebrating all women, according to Victoria’s Secret.
“With this new line, we are launching high-quality bras and panties in shapes that fit women’s daily needs, in our ongoing effort to develop products that champion women and support their individual journeys,” said Chief Design Officer Janie Schaffer, in a statement.
Recently, Victoria’s Secret has expanded its brand to feature more diverse models like Valentina Sampaio of Brazil, the intimates retailer’s first transgender model, is also part of this campaign. There have also been more plus-size hires in recent years, as the company aims to become more inclusive. On Thursday, Victoria’s Secret’s Pink announced a new plus-size brand ambassador, TikTok star Remi Bader.

The company is looking to be more inclusive because its sales had suffered in recent years as consumers rejected its overly sexualized imagery. Although it had remained the dominant brand in the lingerie category, rivals such as American Eagle’s Aerie, Cuup and ThirdLove, were gaining more market share. Last July, it unveiled a comeback plan, which included an apology from its CEO, Martin Waters.
“We got it wrong,” Waters said at the time. “We lost relevance with the modern woman.” 

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[The stream is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, joins CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on a panel at Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference to discuss what action needs to be taken to bring an end to the pandemic.

It comes as the World Health Organization warns that it is dangerous to assume the omicron Covid variant, which has sent global cases to over 420 million, will mark the end of the pandemic’s most acute phase. Indeed, the U.N. health agency recently described worldwide conditions as ideal for more variants to emerge more than two years after declaring the virus a public health emergency of international concern.
Also on the panel is Melanie Joly, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Ann Linde, Sweden’s foreign affairs minister and Comfort Ero, CEO of the International Crisis Group. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers the introduction.
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. 

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