Raphael Stevens

Edgewell Personal Care expects demand for the company’s care and grooming products to increase in the coming months, CEO Rod Little told CNBC on Tuesday.
That’s because more people will return to the office and go on vacation as the Covid situation improves, Little said.
Little also said he expects an uptick in materials costs to prove temporary and it is unlikely those are structural changes.

Edgewell Personal Care CEO Rod Little told CNBC on Tuesday he expects demand for the company’s care and grooming products to increase in the coming months, as the intensity of the coronavirus pandemic wanes.
“I would guess by the time we get to late spring, summer in our categories, you’re going to see more people back in the office. That’s more shaving, more daily grooming routines,” Little said in an interview on “Closing Bell.”

“And you’re going to see a lot of people getting out, going on vacation with leisure travel, which will drive sunscreen,” Little added. “We’re optimistic for the balance of the year.”
Edgewell — the parent firm of Banana Boat, Playtex and Schick — also should have an easier time meeting that demand, Little said. Late last year, the company’s production was limited as workers called out sick during the height of the Covid omicron wave. At the peak in December, Little estimated about 10% of Edgewell’s manufacturing workforce was out with Covid.
“But we’re beyond that now. The good news is, as I look at it today, the omicron outs are back to what I would call a normal rate, so I’m quite optimistic our ability to meet the demand going forward is going to be better,” Little said.
Little’s comments on CNBC came after Edgewell reported mixed first-quarter results before Tuesday’s market open. Revenue of $463 million missed Wall Street estimates of $465 million, according to Refinitiv, while per-share earnings of 42 cents topped forecasts by 1 cent.
Shares of Edgewell on Tuesday tumbled 13.2%, a steep decline that Little attributed to the company’s commentary on inflation. Management now expects 500 basis points of inflationary headwinds on the cost of goods sold, up from prior estimates of roughly 400 basis points. A basis point equals 0.01%.

Despite an uptick in inflationary pressures, Little said there is some good news for investors because it’s primarily related to increased materials costs. It is unlikely those are structural changes, he said.
Little said certain chemicals used in sun care products have jumped in price. However, he said previous spikes in other areas, such as resins, have already peaked. 
“Now it’s just, ‘How fast does it come back down?'” Little said. “So I think the new inflation up that we’ve seen, personally, is much more transitory in nature.”

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President Joe Biden on Tuesday acknowledged Tesla’s status as the nation’s largest producer of electric vehicles for the first time in his presidency.
Biden’s recognition of Tesla comes after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spent months insulting and criticizing the president, his policies and other elected officials in the Democratic party.
White House aides have said Biden’s antipathy towards Tesla stems from his belief that the company is anti-union.

Tesla vehicles at charging stations at a dealership in Rocklin, California, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged Tesla for the first time in his presidency on Tuesday, noting the company’s status as the nation’s largest producer of electric vehicles.
Biden’s mention of Tesla came during a speech to promote American companies expanding the nation’s EV infrastructure. It was sandwiched between shout-outs to legacy automakers General Motors and Ford Motor, as well as smaller EV companies Rivian Automotive and Proterra.

Biden had avoided mentioning the company so far as president, a decision White House aides say is driven by his perception that Tesla is anti-union.
The mention also comes after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has spent months heavily criticizing, even trolling, the president and other elected officials in the Democratic party on Twitter and during press interviews.
Musk has taken umbrage with Biden’s pro-union and infrastructure spending plans, as well as his apparent indifference to Musk, his companies and Tesla’s leadership in electric vehicle manufacturing and charging infrastructure.
Musk’s comments have ranged from calling Biden a “damp sock puppet in human form,” to accusing the president of being “controlled by unions.”
That swipe came after the Biden administration proposed an EV incentive package that allocated additional money for consumers who purchased electric vehicles, but only if the vehicles were built by unionized workers.

Musk has also voiced displeasure about Tesla not being invited to the White House to discuss electric vehicles alongside others such as GM and Ford.
Tesla’s supporters even launched a social media and outdoor advertising campaign to pressure the president to give a nod to Tesla or Musk.
Alongside Tesla and others, Biden also praised fast charging equipment manufacturer Tritium on Tuesday for establishing a new manufacturing facility in Tennessee. And he praised Intel for its plans to build a major semiconductor chip factory in Ohio.
“Those semiconductors, microchips power virtually everything in our everyday lives. Cellphones, automobiles, refrigerators, the internet, the electric grid. Without semiconductors those things cannot fully function,” he noted.
Increased domestic production of chips in the U.S., Biden said, would enable more manufacturing here and help ease inflation.

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“One of the reasons automobiles cost so much is—they’re responsible for one-fifth of the recent inflation — is because they lack semiconductors,” said Biden. “They’re not able to build ’em quick enough, so the price goes up higher because there’s fewer to sell.”
Then Biden named Tesla as an example of a company that has invested in American manufacturing.
“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America. From iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, to innovative younger companies like Rivian building electric trucks or Proterra, building electric buses,” Biden said.
Biden uncharacteristically did not discuss unions much during the Tuesday event. While GM, Ford and Proterra have unionized workers, Tesla’s workforce in the U,S. isn’t unionized. Workforces for Rivian, and other EV start-ups also aren’t organized today.
Biden did say, “Other countries recognize what’s happening here. They want to buy American as well. They’re ready to bet on America and American workers, workers who built the middle class earning good pay and benefits and the right to organize.”
Musk has vociferously opposed unions throughout his career as the CEO of Tesla.
In 2021, the US National Labor Relations Board found that Tesla had violated the National Labor Relations Act after the company prohibited employees from speaking with press without authorization, and after Musk said in a post on Twitter that unionizing would cause employees to lose stock options.
On Tuesday, following the president’s speech, Musk appeared peevish and unimpressed. He posted a link to a story on a Tesla fan-site to the president’s attention on the social media platform to emphasize that Tesla was the best-selling battery electric vehicle maker worldwide in 2021.
— CNBC’s Christina Wilkie contributed to this story.

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Alfa Romeo’s new subcompact Tonale SUV will include a NFT and blockchain technology, the company said Tuesday.
The company said the NFT will record vehicle data, generating a certificate that can be used to assure the car has been properly maintained, with a positive impact on its residual value.
The 2023 Tonale, including a plug-in electric hybrid, is the beginning of the end for Alfa Romeo vehicles with an internal combustion engine.
The brand plans to go all-electric by 2027.

2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale
Alfa Romeo

Italian auto brand Alfa Romeo is bringing NFTs, which recently rose to popularity in digital art, to its new Tonale SUV, the company said Tuesday for the vehicle’s unveiling.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are unique digital assets that can’t be replaced with something else and are verified and stored using blockchain technology, which makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system.

NFTs have become common with digital artwork but can be used for everything from music to a website domain, and now cars.
Alfa Romeo – owned by Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) – says the Tonale NFT, which it claims to be an industry-first, certifies the car upon purchase then essentially records and stores data during the car’s life cycle.
“Digitalization is a key enabler of our metamorphosis. Tonale is the first car ever to keep a blockchain, non-fungible token. NFTs are based on the same distributed information logic that protects your Bitcoin,” Francesco Calcara, head of Alfa marketing and communication, said during a media briefing. “It records all data on the blockchain.”

2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale
Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo said the NFT will record vehicle data, generating a certificate that can be used to assure the car has been properly maintained, with a positive impact on its residual value. However, the car must be serviced by a certified Alfa Romeo dealer to record the data.

EV-exclusive

The 2023 Tonale subcompact SUV is the beginning of the end for Alfa Romeo vehicles with a traditional internal combustion engine, according to Larry Dominique, head of the company’s North American operations.

The more than 110-year-old brand plans to exclusively sell EVs by 2027. Between now and then, Dominique said the company plans to launch five new or replacement vehicles, including the first all-battery electric vehicle, or BEV, for the brand for North America in 2025.
“Everything from that day forward will be pure BEV,” he told CNBC during an online interview. “By end of 2027 … I won’t be selling any more internal combustion engine vehicles at all.”

2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale
Alfa Romeo

For the U.S., the Tonale will be offered with a base 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine rated at 256 horsepower and 295 foot-pounds of torque. A plug-in hybrid electric version with a 1.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 272 horsepower and an electric range of more than 30 miles also will be available.
The vehicle shares some design characteristics of current Alfa Romeo vehicles. It’s heavily based off a concept vehicle the company unveiled with the same name in 2019.
Alfa Romeo said orders for the Tonale open in the fourth quarter, followed by availability in the first quarter of 2023. The company did not announce pricing.

Sales

The Tonale is only the fourth product from Alfa Romeo since its return to the U.S. after a roughly 20-year hiatus in 2014. Since then, the brand has struggled to gain much momentum due to a lack of new products.
The luxury automaker has sold less than 19,000 vehicles a year since 2019, down from a peak of 23,800 cars in 2018. BMW, which Alfa Romeo was supposed to rival, sold 93,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter of last year in the U.S

2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale
Alfa Romeo

Following the merger of Fiat Chrysler and French automaker PSA Groupe to create Stellantis in January 2021, Dominique said the company has been focused on stabilizing Alfa Romeo and its upcoming pivot to electrification.
When Alfa Romeo returned to the U.S., the company had grand ambitions for the brand to competitively compete against BMW and other luxury brands, but those plans quickly diminished amid executive turnover and a lack of new products and investments.
“It’s true, product drives brands and, and our products that we have are great, they’re amazing, but because they’re limited vehicles in a limited number of segments, just not enough people are looking at it,” Dominique said. “Hopefully with Tonale, we’ll address that.”

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Prosecutors have decided not to criminally charge Los Angeles Dodgers superstar pitcher Trevor Bauer for an alleged brutal sexual attack on a woman.
The L.A. District Attorney’s Office had been probing the woman’s claims against Bauer, which were made last summer.
Bauer, the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner, has denied any wrongdoing.

Trevor Bauer screengrab from video
Source: Trevor Bauer

Prosecutors said Tuesday that they will not criminally charge Los Angeles Dodgers superstar pitcher Trevor Bauer for an alleged brutal sexual attack on a woman last year at his home.
The L.A. District Attorney’s Office had been probing the woman’s claims against Bauer, which he had denied.

The D.A.’s office on Tuesday released a form explaining the decision not to charge Bauer.
“After a thorough review of all available evidence, including the civil restraining order proceedings, witness statements and the physical evidence, the People are unable to prove the relevant charges beyond a reasonable doubt,” that form says.
Prosecutors informed Bauer’s representatives that they will not press charges against the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner, those representatives said.
However, the 31-year-old Bauer remains the subject of an ongoing investigation by Major League Baseball, which in a statement noted that fact, and said, “We will comment further at the appropriate time.”

Los Angeles Dodgers Starting pitcher Trevor Bauer (27) reacts in sixth inning of the MLB game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 28, 2021, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA.
Kiyoshi Mio | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The Dodgers said in their own statement said, “MLB is continuing their investigation. We will have no further comment until it concludes.”

Bauer was placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball after the allegations came to light. He never returned to play during the 2021 season as that leave was continued. He last pitched in late June.
Marc Garelick, a lawyer representing Bauer’s accuser, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An emotional Bauer, in a videotaped statement lasting more than seven minutes that was posted on YouTube, said, “Both my representatives and I have expected this outcome from the beginning, and we are grateful that each of these neutral, third party arbiters have reviewed the relevant information and made clear and informed decisions on this matter.”

“I have cooperated with the Pasadena Police Department’s investigation and my version of events has not wavered because it’s the truth. I also never ‘materially misled’ the court, as it was found that this woman did,” he said.
“While this is not the time or the place to address every single lie or falsehood that this woman or her lawyers made to the court, I do want to be crystal clear about a few things. I never punched this woman in the face. I never punched her in the vagina. I never scratched her face. I never had anal sex with her or sodomized her in any way,” Bauer said.
“I never assaulted her in any way at any time. While we did have consensual rough sex, the disturbing acts and conduct that she described simply did not occur,” he added.
 “You may not be my biggest fan or agree with everything I’ve said over the years, and that’s ok – I’m not a perfect person. If you want to judge me for engaging in rough sex with a woman that I hardly knew, that’s ok too,” Bauer said.
“In evaluating my life over recent months, it’s clear I’ve made some poor choices, particularly in regards to the people that I’ve chosen to associate with, but I am not the person that this woman, her lawyers, and certain members of the media have painted me to be.” 
The 27-year-old accuser had said in a request for a restraining order last summer that she consented to have sex with Bauer at his Pasadena, California, home on two different occasions earlier in 2021, but said he did things to her that she did not consent to, including sexual conduct during one of the encounters.
The woman alleged that Bauer choked her until she passed out and punched her in the face and genitals.
An attorney for Bauer later challenged the woman’s claims at a court hearing when she sought to extend the restraining order against the pitcher, according to media accounts.
The lawyer, Shawn Holley, noted that the woman had got back into bed with Bauer and slept next to him after the alleged attack.
Holley also argued that the woman had indicated to Bauer that she agreed to how he treated her during their encounters.
An L.A. judge in August denied the woman’s request to issue a permanent restraining order against Bauer, citing evidence that the woman sought out Bauer for their sexual encounters and the judge’s belief that they would not meet again.
Bauer’s agent, Jon Fetterolf, told NBC News last year Bauer “had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship” with the woman earlier this year that she initiated.
“Her basis for filing a protection order is nonexistent, fraudulent, and deliberately omits key facts, information, and her own relevant communications,” Fetterolf said at the time.
“Any allegations that the pair’s encounters were not 100 percent consensual are baseless, defamatory, and will be refuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Bauer won the Cy Young Award while playing for the Cincinnati Reds.
In February 2021, he agreed to a three-year contract with the Dodgers that could pay him a total of $102 million, which makes him one of the highest-paid baseball players.
—CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this story.

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The U.S. Army on Tuesday unveiled its first climate strategy focused on protecting and training soldiers amid worsening climate disasters like floods, heat waves.
The Army’s plan also directs the service to slash its emissions from 2005 levels in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Department of Defense warned last year that climate change poses a critical threat to U.S. military operations and will lead to new sources of global political conflict.

Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth testifies before the House Armed Services Committee about the FY2022 defense budget request in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, June 29, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

The U.S. Army on Tuesday unveiled its first climate strategy focused on protecting and training soldiers amid worsening climate disasters like floods, heat waves and drought and cutting the service’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The Army’s plan, a response to President Joe Biden’s executive orders calling on agencies to adapt to climate change, directs the service to slash its emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

As part of the strategy, the Army plans to install a microgrid on all of its installations by 2035 and have an fully electric non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2035. It will also work to cut emissions from buildings and include climate change threat mitigation into its land management decisions.
The service has already started or completed 950 renewable energy projects, including a 2.1 megawatt solar field at Fort Knox in Kentucky, and 25 microgrid projects scoped and planned through 2024, according to the strategy.
The Department of Defense warned last year that climate change poses a critical threat to U.S. military operations and will lead to new sources of global political conflict. Water shortages, for instance, could become a main source of conflict between U.S. military overseas and the countries where troops are based, according to the department.
A rise in extreme weather events has already cost the department billions of dollars and will prompt more demand for U.S. troops while damaging military bases, degrading mission capabilities and putting service members at risk.
“Climate change threatens America’s security and is altering the geostrategic landscape as we know it,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in a statement.

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“For today’s soldiers operating in extreme temperature environments, fighting wildfires, and supporting hurricane recovery, climate change isn’t a distant future, it is a reality,” Wormuth said.
The strategy also calls for the Army’s leader development and workforce training to incorporate climate change topics no later than 2028 and to publish climate change lessons and best practices starting in 2024.
“We face all kinds of threats in our line of work, but few of them truly deserve to be called existential. The climate crisis does,” Wormuth said. “Climate change is making the world more unsafe and we need to act.”

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WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove said the omicron subvariant BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, currently the dominant version of omicron worldwide, and will likely become more common.
Dr. Abdi Mahamud, the WHO’s Covid incident manager, said it’s unclear whether BA.2 can reinfect people who previously had BA.1.
Van Kerkhove emphasized that there’s no indication of a difference in illness severity between BA.2 and BA.1, though she noted that research is ongoing.

RT: Maria Van Kerkhove, Head a.i. Emerging Diseases and Zoonosis at the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, January 29, 2020.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters

The World Health Organization expects a more transmissible version of omicron to increase in circulation around the world, though it’s not yet clear if the subvariant can reinfect people who caught an earlier version of the omicron strain.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said Tuesday the global health agency is tracking four different versions of omicron. Van Kerkhove said the BA.2 subvariant, which is more contagious than the currently dominant BA.1 version, will likely become more common.

“BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around the world,” Van Kerkhove said during a question and answer session livestreamed on WHO’s social media platforms Tuesday.

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The WHO is monitoring BA.2 to see if the subvariant causes an increase of new infections in countries that saw a rapid increase and then a sharp decline in omicron cases, Van Kerkhove said.
Van Kerkhove emphasized that there’s no indication of a difference in the severity of infections caused by either subvariant, though she noted that research is ongoing. Omicron generally doesn’t make people as sick as the alpha and delta variants, though it does spread faster.

Researchers in Denmark have found found that BA.2 is about 1.5 times more transmissible than BA.1 and it is more adept at infecting people who are vaccinated and even boosted. However, people who are fully vaccinated are less likely to spread it than the unvaccinated.
Van Kerkhove said the shots remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and death, though they don’t prevent all infections. She called on people to get vaccinated and wear masks indoors.

Dr. Abdi Mahamud, the WHO’s Covid incident manager, said it’s unclear whether BA.2 can reinfect people who previously had BA.1.
That could have a significant impact on how much the virus is able to spread. A study in the U.K. found that two-thirds of people who caught omicron said they had Covid before.
Most states in the U.S. have confirmed the presence of BA.2, though it’s circulating at a low level with 460 total cases confirmed so far, according to an international data base that tracks Covid variants.

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Former Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy is replacing Peloton co-founder John Foley as chief executive officer of the fitness company.
McCarthy, 68, previously served as chief financial officer for both Spotify and Netflix.
He’s credited with pushing Spotify to pursue a direct listing to go public rather than the traditional initial public offering.

Barry McCarthy, chief financial officer at Spotify, attend annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 11, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Peloton is looking to experienced tech executive Barry McCarthy to lead the company back into investors’ good graces and stabilize its business after a few roller coaster years.
McCarthy, who previously served as CFO of Spotify, is replacing Peloton co-founder John Foley as chief executive of the fitness company, while Foley becomes executive chairman. The company also cut its revenue forecast, announced plans to slash 2,800 jobs and overhauled its board in a flurry of news Tuesday morning.

“Barry is a proven leader, well known for his financial acumen and record of driving transformative change at iconic companies including Netflix and Spotify,” Karen Boone, lead independent director of Peloton’s board and former RH CFO, said in a statement.
The changes are effective this week, Foley said on a post-earnings conference call, adding that he plans to work closely with McCarthy on Peloton’s turnaround. McCarthy and his wife are also big Peloton riders and have long been fans of the brand, according to Foley.
In a separate SEC filing detailing McCarthy’s employment offer, Peloton agreed to pay him an annual base salary of $1 million. He is also getting a maximum of $150,000 for relocation expenses to move his family to New York. McCarthy has the option to purchase 8 million shares of Peloton’s Class A common stock, according to the letter.
McCarthy, 68, began working at Spotify in 2015, a year after he joined the company’s board. He’s credited with pushing the company to pursue a direct listing to go public, helping the company avoid the traditional fees and hoops of an initial public offering. McCarthy left the music streaming company in early 2020 but rejoined its board. He also currently serves on the board of Instacart.
Prior to joining Spotify, McCarthy was Netflix’s CFO for more than a decade under co-founder Reed Hastings. He took the company public while it was still known for shipping DVDs to customers’ mailboxes. By the time he left the company in late 2010, Netflix had begun streaming television shows and movies on its website and was about to split subscription plans for renting DVDs and streaming.

“He’s not only recognized as an expert in running subscription business models and helping category-leading digital streaming companies flourish, but he has also had tremendous success in partnering with founder CEOs at other brands. I’m excited to learn from him and work alongside him as Executive Chair,” Foley said in a statement.
Between his stints at Netflix and Spotify, McCarthy briefly served as chief operating officer for Clinkle, a mobile payments company. He has also sat on the boards of Eventbrite, Pandora, Rent the Runway, Chegg and NatureBox. His first CFO role was at Music Choice, a music programming company, from 1993 to 1999.
Peloton shares closed Monday up more than 25%, at $37.27, bringing the company’s market cap to $12.2 billion.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Barry McCarthy was Netflix’s CFO for more than a decade.

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