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    American Airlines London-bound flight turns back to Miami after passenger refuses to wear mask

    American said Flight 38 to London returned over a dispute with a passenger who refused to wear a mask.
    The flight’s return follows a surge in reports of unruly travelers over the past year.
    Most of those disputes were tied to masks.

    An American Airlines Boeing 777-200 aircraft
    Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images

    American Airlines said a flight to London returned to Miami because a passenger refused to comply with the federal mask requirement, the latest flight disruption over a report of an unruly passenger.
    American Airlines Flight 38, a Boeing 777 with 129 passengers and 14 crew members abroad, turned back for Miami late Wednesday about an hour into the trip, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

    The return was “due to a disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement,” American said in a statement. “The flight landed safely at MIA where local law enforcement met the aircraft. We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
    The traveler has been banned from flying the airline pending an investigation, the carrier said. The Miami-Dade Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Reports of unruly behavior on planes surged to a record 5,981 last year, more than 71% tied to disputes over a federal mask mandate that went into effect early last year, though airlines had required them since the coronavirus pandemic began.
    Some incidents included physical assault against crews. In October, an American Airlines flight attendant was hospitalized after a passenger allegedly struck her in the face, forcing the cross-country flight to divert.

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    Fed releases long-awaited study on a digital dollar but doesn't take a position yet on creating one

    The Federal Reserve on Thursday released its long-awaited exploration of a digital dollar but took no position on the issuance of a central bank digital currency.
    Instead, the central bank’s 40-page document explores a plethora of issues and notes that public comment will be solicited.
    Fed Governor Lael Brainard, who has been nominated as vice chair, is the biggest advocate for the project, while other officials have expressed skepticism.

    The Federal Reserve on Thursday released its long-awaited study of a digital dollar, exploring the pros and cons of the much-debated issue and soliciting public comment.
    Billed as “the first step in a public discussion between the Federal Reserve and stakeholders about central bank digital currencies,” the 40-page paper shies away from any conclusions about a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The report originally was expected in the summer of 2021 but had been delayed.

    Instead, it provides an exhaustive look at benefits such as speeding up the electronic payments system at a time when financial transactions around the world already are highly digitized. Some of the downside issues the report discusses are financial stability risks and privacy protection while guarding against fraud and other illegal issues.

    Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaking at a re-nomination hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, on January 11, 2022, in Washington, DC.
    Pool / Getty

    “A CBDC could fundamentally change the structure of the U.S. financial system, altering the roles and responsibilities of the private sector and the central bank,” the report says.
    Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has been largely noncommittal in his public comments on the CBDC. The concept’s biggest advocate is Fed Governor Lael Brainard, who has been nominated to be vice chair of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee.
    Several other Fed officials have voiced skepticism over the digital dollar, saying the benefits are not obvious.
    One primary difference between the Fed’s dollar and other digital transactions is that current digital money is a liability of commercial banks, whereas the CBDC would be a Fed liability. Among other things, that would mean the Fed wouldn’t pay interest on money stored with it, though because it is riskless some depositors may prefer to keep their money with the central bank.

    The paper lists a checklist of 22 different items for which it is soliciting public feedback. There will be a 120-day comment period. Fed officials say the report is the first step in an extensive process but there is no timetable on when it will be wrapped up.
    “We look forward to engaging with the public, elected representatives, and a broad range of stakeholders as we examine the positives and negatives of a central bank digital currency in the United States,” Powell said in a statement.
    The paper released Thursday notes that the Fed’s “initial analysis suggests that a potential U.S. CBDC, if one were created, would best serve the needs of the United States by being privacy-protected, intermediated, widely transferable, and identity-verified.”

    Report ‘takes no position’

    However, the report also states that it “is not intended to advance a specific policy outcome and takes no position on the ultimate desirability of” the digital dollar.
    Some of the most noted benefits are the speed of a Fed-controlled system in the case of, say, a need such as the beginning of the Covid pandemic to get stimulus payments to people quickly. Providing financial services to the unbanked also has been cited as an asset.
    However, the Fed already is in the midst of developing what it touts as a “round-the-clock payment and settlement service” called Fed Now that is expected to come online in 2023.
    Advocates of the digital dollar, though, worry that the Fed’s delay in implementing a central bank currency will put it behind global competitors, specifically China, which already has moved forward with its own product. There have been suggestions that China’s lead in the space ultimately could threaten the U.S. dollar hegemony as the world’s reserve currency.
    However, Powell and other Fed officials say they are unconcerned with the speed of the project, stressing the need to get it right.
    “The introduction of a CBDC would represent a highly significant innovation in American money,” the report says. “Accordingly, broad consultation with the general public and key stakeholders is essential. This paper is the first step in such a conversation.”
    The Fed also said that it will not proceed without a clear mandate from Congress, preferably in the form of “a specific authorizing law.”

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    Nasdaq 100 futures fall after Netflix's earnings disappoint

    U.S. stock index futures were lower during overnight trading Thursday following a disappointing earnings report from Netflix, building on the major averages’ declines during regular trading.
    Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 14 points. S&P 500 futures were down 0.24%, while Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.6%.

    Shares of Netflix tumbled 19% during extended trading on Thursday after the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report showed a slowdown in subscriber growth. Peloton, meantime, plunged 23.9% during regular trading after CNBC reported that the company is temporarily halting production of its fitness products.
    During regular trading, the Dow shed 313 points, or 0.89%. At one point during the session, the 30-stock benchmark was up more than 450 points. A similar reversal played out for the other major averages. The S&P declined 1.1% after earlier advancing 1.53%. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day with a loss of 1.3%, reversing a prior move that had the tech-heavy index up 2.1%.
    “The market has been flashing faulty signals for the past few weeks and it seems as if the broader indices are finally breaking down,” said Scott Redler of T3 Live. The S&P 500 closed below 4,500 on Thursday for the first time since October 18, which Redler said is important from a technical standpoint and “opens the door for a targeted move to at least 4,320, which would take the S&P down 10%.”
    Thursday’s slide puts the Nasdaq Composite further in correction territory — more than 10% below its November record — as rising rates pressure technology stocks since future profits begin to look less attractive.

    Stock picks and investing trends from CNBC Pro:

    The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury touched 1.87% Thursday, ahead of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting next week.

    “While a handful of rate hikes over the next year or two would represent a shift in Fed policy, we wouldn’t consider policy restrictive and we don’t expect the initial rate increase to derail the economic recovery,” said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. However, he added that rate hikes will inject volatility into the market.
    Both the Dow and S&P 500 are on track for a third straight week of losses. The Nasdaq Composite is down nearly 5% on the week, putting it on track for its fourth-straight losing week and largest weekly loss since Oct. 2020. Small caps have also been hit hard, and the Russell 2000 is on track for its worst week since June 2020.
    Amid the sell-off in technology names, some believe there’s value to be had in select stocks.
    “With the broader Nasdaq in correction territory, we see opportunities in specific areas of the tech sector, such as semiconductors, cloud stocks and mega-cap stocks,” said Robert Schein, chief investment officer at Blanke Schein Wealth Management. But he was quick to note that he does not see the pullback as a “widespread buy the dip moment.”
    On the earnings front, Schlumberger will post results before the market opens on Friday.
    – CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed reporting.

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    Judge blasts PG&E as 'continuing menace' over wildfires as utility's probation ends

    A federal judge on Wednesday declared Pacific Gas & Electric a “continuing menace” to California over its role in igniting wildfires, as the utility is set to end a five year felony probation.
    During its probation, PG&E ignited at least 31 wildfires that burned nearly 1.5 million acres and killed 113 people, U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote in a report.
    Alsup has overseen PG&E’s probation since its conviction of crimes connected to a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion in California. The utility’s probation is set to end on Jan. 25.

    People take part in an event to hand-deliver 100,000 public comments from Californians throughout the state calling on Governor Newsom to reject proposals that penalize consumers for putting solar panels on their rooftops outside the California State Capitol Museum in Sacramento, California, on December 08, 2021.
    Aníbal Martel | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

    A federal judge on Wednesday declared Pacific Gas & Electric a “continuing menace” to California over its role in igniting deadly wildfires, as the utility is set to end a five-year felony probation. 
    During its probation, PG&E-owned equipment ignited at least 31 wildfires that burned nearly 1.5 million acres and killed 113 people, U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote in a report.

    During PG&E’s probation, all of the fires ignited by its distribution lines involved hazard trees. Alsup called the company’s backlog of unattended trees and vegetation at the outset of its probation “staggering,” and called on the company to stop outsourcing to independent contractors, who he said have performed “sloppy inspection and clearance work.”
    Alsup has overseen the company’s probation since its conviction of crimes connected to a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion in California. PG&E’s probation is set to end on Jan. 25.
    “PG&E has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California,” Alsup wrote.
    “In probation, with a goal of rehabilitation in mind, we always prefer that criminal offenders learn to accept responsibility for their actions,” Alsup wrote. “Sadly, during all five years of probation, PG&E has refused to accept responsibility for its actions until convenient to its cause or until it is forced to do so.”
    The company’s equipment has been blamed for many of the state’s wildfires in recent years. A recent state investigation found that PG&E transmission lines ignited the Dixie Fire in Northern California, which burned nearly 1 million acres and destroyed more than 1,300 homes last summer. It was the second-largest fire in California’s history.

    PG&E pleaded guilty in 2019 to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history. It faces five felony and 28 misdemeanor counts in the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. It also faces a slew of other civil and criminal actions for its alleged responsibility in causing wildfires.
    The judge wrote that California will “remain trapped in a tragic era of PG&E wildfires” as the company has neglected to conduct proper hazard-tree removal and vegetation clearance, which are required by California’s Public Resource Code.
    “PG&E has blamed global warming, drought, and bark beetles. It’s true that those things made the wildfires worse,” Alsup said. “But they were reasons to step up compliance rather than slack off. And, those things didn’t start those fires. PG&E did that.”
    PG&E spokesperson James Noonan said in a statement that the company has welcomed feedback from the court, the federal monitor and other stakeholders and recognizes the shared to goal to keep its coworkers and customers safe.
    “PG&E has become a fundamentally safer company over the course of our probation,” Noonan said. “We are focused every day on making our system safer and pursuing our stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop. We are committed to doing that work, now and in the years ahead.”
    Earlier this year, the company announced plans to bury 10,000 miles of power lines starting in the highest fire threat districts in an effort to minimize the role of its equipment in starting fires.

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    McDonald’s expands test of McPlant burger created with Beyond Meat

    McDonald’s is expanding its test of the plant-based McPlant burger created with Beyond Meat.
    Starting Feb. 14, the fast-food giant will roll out the burger at roughly 600 locations in the San Francisco Bay and Dallas-Fort Worth areas.
    The McPlant burger uses a patty made from peas, rice and potatoes that mimics the taste and texture of beef.

    McDonald’s McPlant burger
    Source: McDonald’s

    McDonald’s is expanding its test of the plant-based McPlant burger, created as part of its partnership with Beyond Meat.
    Starting Feb. 14, the fast-food giant will roll out the burger at roughly 600 locations in the San Francisco Bay and Dallas-Fort Worth areas to learn more about consumer demand for the potential menu item. The test began in November with just eight restaurants, so the chain could get a sense of how the change would impact its operations.

    The announcement is the latest step in McDonald’s cautious approach to the plant-based meat trend. The company has taken its time to assess the potential longevity of consumer demand toward meat substitutes, even as rivals race to add the item to their menus. For example, Burger King, which is owned by Restaurant Brands International, added the Impossible Whopper to its menu more than two years ago.

    The McPlant burger uses a patty made from peas, rice and potatoes that mimics the taste and texture of beef. Toppings include mayonnaise and American cheese. Customers in the two test markets will be able to buy the burger for a limited time, while supplies last.
    For Beyond Meat, a wider-scale test is a massive opportunity to impress consumers with its meat substitutes, although it represents just a small fraction of McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants. Wall Street analysts have grown bearish on the stock, saying the company is struggling with competition and falling U.S. grocery sales.
    In preparation for a larger launch with McDonald’s and other fast-food menu items this year, Beyond hired Tyson Foods veteran Doug Ramsey as its chief operating officer in December. At Tyson, Ramsey oversaw the company’s supply relationship with McDonald’s.
    McDonald’s and Beyond announced a three-year partnership in February. The burger chain has already started selling McPlant burgers in some international markets, including Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. 

    Before the official announcement of the McPlant line, the chain tested a meatless burger that used a Beyond patty in several dozen Canadian restaurants in September 2019. By the following April, the chain had ended the pilot and has since said that it has no plans to bring back its so-called P.L.T. (plant, lettuce, tomato) burger.
    Shares of Beyond Meat were up 2% in premarket trading. The stock has fallen 54% in the last 12 months, cutting its market value down to $4.08 billion.
    McDonald’s stock was up less than 1% in premarket trading. The burger chain’s stock has climbed 19% during that same time, giving it a market value of $197 billion.

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    The biggest travel trend of 2022: Go big, spend big

    CNBC Travel

    ‘New sense of urgency’ to hit the road

    There’s a “new sense of urgency” to travel, said Stephanie Papaioannou, a vice president at the luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent. 
    “Guests feel they have lost two years, and older clients are concerned about having fewer healthy years left to travel,” she said.

    A couple pose in front of Machu Picchu, a destination in Peru that tops many travelers’ bucket lists.
    Marina Herrmann | Moment | Getty Images

    Lee Thompson, co-founder of the adventure travel company Flash Pack, agreed.
    “People are desperate to get away,” he said. “They’ve been waiting to get back out there and are not shying away from those international destinations and big, once-in-a-lifetime adventures.”

    The year of the ‘GOAT’

    Expedia is calling 2022 the year of the GOAT, or the “greatest of all trips.”

    In a survey of 12,000 travelers in 12 countries, the company found that 65% of respondents are planning to “go big” on their next trip, according to a company representative. As a result, it named the desire for exciting and extravagant trips “the biggest travel trend” of the year.

    A survey of 12,000 travelers by Expedia found that Singapore residents were the least likely to have traveled during the pandemic (59%) and the most likely to want to splurge (43%) on their next trip.
    Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images

    Amadeus is seeing a jump in searches to “epic destinations,” according to a company report published in November. Searches to Tanzania (+36%), flights to Jordan’s Petra (+22%) and bookings to cities near Machu Picchu (nearly +50%) rose from 2020 to 2021, according to the report.
    These trends are expected to grow this year, along with interest in islands in the Indian Ocean as well as Antarctica, according to the report.
    The pandemic has changed the “mood of travelers,” said Decius Valmorbida, president of travel at Amadeus.
    “We have people just say: “Look, what if another pandemic happens? What if I’m locked in again?'” he said. There’s “a psychological effect that now is the moment.”

    Searches for stays in vacation homes abroad are now on pace with 2019 levels, according to HomeToGo’s travel trends report, released in late November.
    The international destinations drawing the biggest search increases this year, compared with 2019, are Tuscany, Italy (+141%), the Bahamas (+129%), French Polynesia’s Bora Bora (+98%), the Maldives (+97%) and the south of France (+88%), according to the report.  

    The top-searched international destinations for Americans for 2022 travel are Rome, Bali, London, Paris and Mexico’s Riviera Maya — which includes Playa del Carmen and Tulum — according to Expedia.
    Emily Deltetto / EyeEm | EyeEm | Getty Images

    Research shows that those aged 18 to 34 are driving the trend, and families are also getting in on the act, said Abercrombie & Kent’s Papaioannou.
    “Families are choosing destinations they have always dreamt of, especially those centered around outdoor experiences like Nile River cruises, Machu Picchu, safaris and barge cruises in Europe,” she said.

    Loosening purse strings

    While financially devastating for some, the pandemic has allowed others — namely, professionals who have been able to work from home — to sock away more savings.
    Some 70% of leisure travelers in major countries — such as the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Japan and Spain — plan to spend more on travel in 2022 than they have in the past five years, according to a November joint report by the World Travel & Tourism Council and travel website Trip.com.

    Travelers are “more willing than ever before” to splurge on future travels, according to Expedia.
    James O’Neil | The Image Bank | Getty Images

    Globally, HomeToGo’s average booking expenditures increased by 54% last year, compared with 2019, according to company data. But average nightly rates haven’t gone up nearly that much — around 10% — for bookings this year compared with before the pandemic, said the company’s co-founder and CEO Patrick Andrae.
    “Pent-up demand for travel led to travelers taking longer vacations, many opting to do so in a spacious vacation rental versus a hotel,” he said.
    U.S. travelers are also seeking quieter, more luxurious destinations this summer — Maui over Honolulu, Nantucket over Cape Cod — despite the higher costs, according to HomeToGo’s data.

    Arrows pointing outwards

    Travelers may be willing to pay more to go to certain places, rather than to make the trip itself more luxurious. Twice as many U.S. respondents indicated they were willing to spend more to see “bucket list” destinations (32%) rather than book luxury experiences (15%) or room or flight upgrades (16%), according to Expedia.
    The willingness and ability to spend more are likely a good thing, since travel costs have increased in some places. The U.S. Travel Association’s December Travel Price Index, which measures travel costs in the United States, shows that prices have increased for food (+10%), hotels (+13.3%) and motor fuel (+26.6%), compared with 2019.
    Airfare, however, was lower than 2019 levels (-17%), according to the index — but that may soon change, partly because of rising jet fuel costs.

    Family reunions and ‘friendcations’

    People are celebrating missed milestones, often with extended family, said Papaioannou. Abercrombie & Kent’s data shows a 26% increase in future bookings of five or more guests as compared with 2019, she said.
    Family reunion-style vacations will be popular this year, agreed Mark Hoenig, co-founder of the digital travel company VIP Traveler.

    People are expected to travel more with friends and family this year.
    Hinterhaus Productions | DigitalVision | Getty Images

    “People are still catching up for lost time with family,” he said. “Destinations that provide for large multi-generation families, such as those with a high inventory of large villas — including the Caribbean, Mexico and Maldives — are seeing an uptick in bookings.”
    The U.K. saw an explosion of bookings by large groups once restrictions eased, according to Amadeus. Bookings to party spots, such as Las Vegas; Cancun, Mexico; and the Spanish island of Ibiza, led the company to name “friendcations” a top travel trend for 2022.

    Renewed demand for travel agents

    Big trips often require big plans, which is resulting in a renewed demand for travel agents, said Elizabeth Gordon, co-founder of the tour and safari operator Extraordinary Journeys.
    Professional planners can help travelers navigate “Covid-19 tests, restrictions, changes in entry requirements, visas, flights, accommodation, activities and backup plans,” she said.
    Even “DIY travelers,” who normally plan their own trips, are nowadays seeking professional help to make sure their upcoming travels are seamless, said VIP Traveler’s Hoenig. More

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    Shares of autonomous driving tech company Luminar surge on Mercedes-Benz deal

    Mercedes-Benz has signed a deal to use lidar technology from start-up Luminar in its next generation of vehicles, the companies said Thursday.
    As part of the agreement, the German automaker is expected to acquire up to 1.5 million shares of Luminar over time as milestones are met.
    Luminar is preparing for serial production of its lidar technology later this year.

    Austin Russell, Luminar founder and CEO, with Markus Schäfer, Mercedes-Benz AG chief technology officer at Mercedes-Benz’ Sindelfingen, Germany plant.
    Mercedes-Benz

    Mercedes-Benz said Thursday it plans to use lidar technology from Luminar in its next generation of vehicles, driving shares of the start-up to increase by as much as 25% during intraday trading Thursday.
    As part of the agreement, the German automaker is expected to acquire up to 1.5 million shares of Luminar over time as milestones are met. The companies also agreed to share data.

    Luminar is preparing for serial production of its lidar technology later this year. The companies declined to say when Mercedes-Benz, a unit of Daimler, plans to begin using the lidar technology in its vehicles, but Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell said it would be in “the not too distant future.”

    Luminar CEO and founder Austin Russell discusses how the company’s Iris lidar system is able to “see” its surroundings. It displays them in colorful lines representing how far the objects are from the vehicle.
    Michael Wayland / CNBC

    “It’s a huge deal for Luminar,” he said during an online interview from Germany. “It’s another major OEM [original equipment manufacturer] announcement and a major commercial win for us.”
    Luminar last year announced Volvo would be the first automaker to offer Luminar’s lidar technology as standard on a new electric flagship SUV that’s scheduled to be unveiled this year. Russell described the deal with Mercedes-Benz as “similar in many respects” to Luminar’s deal with Volvo.
    Lidars, or light detection and ranging systems, can sense surroundings and help cars avoid obstacles. They use light to create high-resolution images that provide a more accurate view of the world than cameras or radar alone.
    Luminar’s stock closed Thursday at $15 a share, up 11.5%. Shares of Luminar, which went public through a SPAC deal in December 2020, are down 11.3% this month. Its market cap is $5.4 billion.

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    Supreme Court deals a setback to abortion providers' bid to quickly block Texas law

    The Supreme Court denied a request from Texas abortion providers to immediately send their case challenging the state’s strict abortion law back to a lower court.
    “The Court may look the other way, but I cannot,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a fiery dissent, joined by the two other liberal justices, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

    Pro-choice demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on November 01, 2021 in Washington, DC.
    Drew Angerer | Getty Images

    The Supreme Court on Thursday denied a request from Texas abortion providers to immediately send their case challenging the state’s strict abortion law back to a lower court.
    Doing so likely would have allowed the abortion providers and advocates to proceed more quickly with their case against the law, which bans most abortions in Texas after as early as six weeks of pregnancy. Instead, the ruling is likely to prolong the legal battle.

    The high court in December said that a lawsuit against the ban could proceed, while keeping the law in effect.
    Opponents of the ban wanted the case to return to a federal district court. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sent the case to the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court, and it is unclear how soon that court will take it up.
    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Thursday afternoon order denied the abortion providers’ request to compel the 5th Circuit to return the case to the district court.
    The three liberal justices on the nine-member bench dissented to the order.
    “Instead of stopping a Fifth Circuit panel from indulging Texas’ newest delay tactics, the Court allows the State yet again to extend the deprivation of the federal constitutional rights of its citizens through procedural manipulation,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.
    “The Court may look the other way, but I cannot,” Sotomayor wrote.

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