Raphael Stevens

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine was among the hundreds of drivers trapped for more than a day in traffic caused by heavy snows and iced-over roads outside Washington.
State authorities closed the I-95 interstate, with disabled vehicles and downed trees reported about 50 miles south of the city.
Some stranded drivers were forced to turn off their cars to conserve gasoline, even as temperatures plunged below freezing overnight, NBC News reported.

Sen. Tim Kaine arrived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon, more than a day after getting stuck in a brutal traffic jam caused by heavy snows and iced-over roads on a highway outside Washington.
A spokeswoman for Kaine confirmed to CNBC shortly before 4 p.m. ET that the senator had arrived at his D.C. office, nearly 27 hours after departing his home in Richmond, Virginia.

“I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1pm yesterday,” Kaine tweeted at 8:27 a.m. ET. “19 hours later, I’m still not near the Capitol.”
Still in his car around 10 a.m., Kaine tweeted, “A CT family returning in a packed car from Florida walked by in the middle of the night handing out oranges as we were stopped for hours on I-95. Bless them!”
“This has been a miserable experience, but at some point I kind of made the switch from a miserable travel experience into kind of a survival project,” Kaine said in a phone interview Tuesday morning with Washington radio station WTOP.
The Democratic senator, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 election won by former President Donald Trump, said he had intended to return to work Monday to continue Senate negotiations on a voting-rights deal. But more than 21 hours after leaving his home in Richmond, Va., he still had not passed the Stafford Airport, which is about 50 miles from Washington.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, I guess that’s all I can say,” Kaine said in the phone interview.

Stranded vehicles are seen in still image from highway traffic camera video as authorities worked to reopen an icy stretch of Interstate 95 closed after a storm blanketed the U.S. region in snow a day earlier, near Colchester, Virginia, January 4, 2022.
Virginia Department of Transportation | Handout | via Reuters

The Virginia Department of Transportation has closed the I-95 interstate, with disabled vehicles and downed trees being reported in the Fredericksburg area, about 50 miles south of D.C.
“We have an estimated 20-30 trucks stuck” on I-95 northbound, Virginia DOT Fredericksburg tweeted shortly before midnight.
Conditions are hazardous on other Virginia roads, as well, with VDOT warning Louisa County overnight of “several jack-knifed tractor-trailers” on U.S. Route 522.
“We wish we had a timetable, ETA or an educated guess on when travel will resume on I-95. It’s at a standstill in our area with multiple incidents. Its frustrating & scary,” VDOT Fredericksburg tweeted Monday evening.
NBC News’ Josh Lederman, who was also stuck in his vehicle overnight, called the scene “fairly dystopian” in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday morning.
“Nobody knows how long we’re going to be here or how we’re going to get out,” he reported from his car.
Other drivers stranded in the gridlock were forced to turn off their cars to conserve gasoline, even as temperatures plunged below freezing overnight, Lederman said.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tweeted Tuesday morning that “State and local emergency personnel are continuing to clear downed trees, assist disabled vehicles, and re-route drivers.”
“An emergency message is going to all stranded drivers connecting them to support, and the state is working with localities to open warming shelters as needed. While sunlight is expected to help @VaDOT clear the road, all Virginians should continue to avoid 1-95,” Northam tweeted.
Another reporter, CBS News’ Jim DeFede, said in a video posted at 10 a.m. that he had been stuck on I-95 near Quantico for nearly 18 hours.

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President Biden has doubled commitment of the Pfizer pill treatment to at least 20 million courses as the Covid omicron variant rages.
The U.S. also is accelerating delivery, with 10 million courses available by June, according to the White House.
Pfizer added the remaining 10 million courses will follow by the end of September.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said another batch of Pfizer’s Covid-19 treatment pills is shipping this week as the U.S. government doubles its order of the medication amid an unprecedented wave of infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Biden on Tuesday directed the government to buy an additional 10 million courses of Pfizer’s oral antiviral treatment, Paxlovid. With the new order, the U.S. has committed to purchase at least 20 million courses from Pfizer.

The Biden administration is speeding up the delivery of the first 10 million treatment courses to June from September, according to the White House. Pfizer, in a statement announcing the new U.S. order Tuesday, said the remaining 10 million courses will be shipped by the end of September.

A Pfizer employee checks the boxes containing Paxlovid, COVID-19 treatment pills, at a distribution facility in Memphis, Tennessee, in this undated handout picture.
Pfizer | Reuters

“I’m pleased to say that on Christmas Eve, we shipped out the first batch of these pills that we purchased and received, and more will be shipped this week,” Biden said in a televised speech about his strategy to combat omicron.
While the president said production is in “full swing,” he noted that the complex chemistry involved in manufacturing the pills means it can take a significant amount of time from production to patients.
The White House, in a statement, said the U.S. government is receiving the pills as soon as they come off the production line. Biden is also prepared to offer Pfizer any resources it needs to make the pills, including using the Defense Production Act if needed, according to the White House.
“These pills are going to dramatically decrease hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19,” Biden said. “They’re a game changer and have the potential to dramatically alter the impact of Covid-19.”

The U.S. recorded more than 1 million new infections on Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The record single-day total could be due in part to a delay in reporting over the holiday weekend, when a number of states did not publish new cases.
However, the seven-day average of new infections also hit a record of more than 480,000 cases, nearly double the previous week, according to a CNBC analysis of the data from Hopkins.

CNBC Health & Science

Pfizer’s treatment, Paxlovid, was 89% effective at preventing hospitalization and death from Covid in a study of more than 2,000 high risk adults, according to the company.
The Food and Drug Administration cleared the treatment in December for patients 12 and older with mild to moderate Covid who are at the highest risk of hospitalization or death. The twice-daily, five-day treatment is available by prescription only.
Paxlovid is administered as three pills, two nirmatrelvir tablets and one tablet of ritonavir. Nirmatrelvir blocks an enzyme the virus needs to replicate while ritonavir, an HIV drug, helps slow the patient’s metabolism to allow Pfizer’s pill to remain active in the body longer to fight the virus.
The treatment could help alleviate strain on health-care systems by keeping people, particularly those who are unvaccinated, out of hospitals as Covid cases continue to surge.
Biden said the unvaccinated should be “alarmed” by omicron, warning that many people who have not received shots will become infected and suffer serious illness.
“Some will die — needlessly die,” Biden said. “Unvaccinated are taking up hospital beds and crowding emergency rooms and intensive care units. That’s displaced other people who need access to those hospitals.”
Biden said people who are fully vaccinated, and particularly those who have received booster doses, are highly protected against severe illness from omicron. He again encouraged everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and boosted.
“You can still get Covid but it’s highly unlikely, very unlikely, that you’ll become seriously ill,” Biden said of those who have taken precautions. “We’re seeing Covid-19 cases among vaccinated workplaces across America, including here at the White House, but if you’re vaccinated and boosted — you are highly protected.”
About 98,000 Americans were hospitalized with Covid-19, according to a seven-day average of data from the Department of Health and Human Services as of Jan. 3, up 32% from a week earlier.
— CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

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Macy’s is shortening store hours for the rest of the month as coronavirus cases spike in the United States and retailers grapple with staffing shortages.
From Monday to Thursday, Macy’s department stores hours systemwide will be revised to 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the remainder of January. Previously, some locations would open at 10 a.m. and close at 9 p.m., according to Macy’s website.
Retailers and restaurant chains around the country are drafting new plans to handle the latest wave of Covid cases, fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant.

Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square in New York, Dec. 23, 2021.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Macy’s is shortening store hours for the rest of the month as coronavirus cases spike in the United States and retailers grapple with staffing shortages.
From Monday to Thursday, Macy’s department store hours systemwide will be revised to 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the remainder of January. Previously, some locations would open at 10 a.m. and close at 9 p.m., according to Macy’s website.

Store hours will remain unchanged Friday through Sunday, said a company spokeswoman. She added, Macy’s in-store staff will continue to work their usual allotted hours. The retailer operates 516 full-line Macy’s department stores and 33 Bloomingdale’s shops, according to its website.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and follow the CDC and jurisdictional guidelines as well as keep enhanced safety and wellness procedures in place,” said the spokeswoman, in an emailed statement.
Macy’s didn’t comment on whether or not it was seeing more of its workers testing positive for Covid-19.
On Monday, the U.S. reported 1 million new Covid infections. The record single-day number of daily new infections may have been boosted due to lags in reporting data over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, but the highly contagious Covid variants are also driving up the tally.
Americans were also more likely to spread the virus as they gathered with friends and family, and traveled over the holiday period. Early studies have suggested that Covid vaccines are less effective against omicron compared with the delta strain and other variants.

Retailers and restaurant chains around the country are drafting new plans to handle the latest wave of Covid cases, fueled by the omicron variant. Big-box retailer Walmart temporarily shut nearly 60 U.S. stores in coronavirus hotspots last month to sanitize them.
Apple, meantime, has limited service at some of its shops in the New York area, including its Fifth Avenue flagship. The electronics retailer has also cut operating hours and limited the number of customers allowed inside its stores, according to its website.
Craig Rowley, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry and head of the firm’s retail practice, said the recent wave of Covid cases putting staff out of work has exacerbated what was already a shortage of labor in the retail and restaurant industries.
He said the silver lining is that retailers mostly made it through the thick of the holiday buying season before widespread outbreaks of the virus started occurring again. Covid-19 cases began to skyrocket in New York City in mid-December.
“Retailers like where they can plan and anticipate and structure, and with this they can’t,” said Rowley.
Also in New York City, an employee at the Nike location on the Upper East Side said that store hours have been cut to noon to 5 p.m. this week, compared with a typical 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule. An Athleta location also on the Upper East Side is now closing at 7 p.m. rather than 8 p.m., said a store worker over the phone.
Nike and Athleta’s parent company Gap didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about store hours.
According to Rowley, these adjustments might not have a material impact on sales, so long as retailers can operate well enough on the weekends.
“Most retail sales [in stores] occur toward the weekend,” he said. “A lot of restaurants are no longer open seven days a week. … If somebody really needs something, they can order it online and have it delivered to your home the next day.”

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Ford still has more room to run in 2022, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday.
The “Mad Money” host said he believes Ford can do 200,000 battery-powered vehicles this year.
Cramer’s latest optimism came as Ford announced plans to nearly double annual production capacity of its upcoming electric F-150 pickup.

Ford still has more room to run in 2022 after a stellar performance last year, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday.
Shares of Ford surged another roughly 10% to more than $24 on the second trading day of the year. They hit a fresh 52-week high — building on Monday’s nearly 5% jump, which followed last year’s 136% increase.

“The sky is the limit for Ford this year. It’s going to be terrific,” Cramer said on “Squawk Box.”
Ford was left for dead on Wall Street before the Covid-19 outbreak, hitting a pandemic low around $4 a share in March 2020. But the automaker got a new CEO in Jim Farley on Oct. 1, 2020 — since then, the stock has more than tripled.
Cramer’s latest optimism around Ford came as the automaker announced plans to nearly double annual production capacity of its upcoming electric F-150 pickup to 150,000 vehicles per year by mid-2023. The “Mad Money” host said he believes Ford can do 200,000 battery-powered vehicles this year.

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“I’ve been a big backer of Ford as part of the charitable trust. Farley has done a remarkable job. He’s ahead of Musk when it comes to the pick-up truck,” Cramer said, referring to Elon Musk’s Tesla, which has repeatedly pushed back production of its planned Cybertruck. It now looks like it won’t start until 2023.
Ford also said Tuesday it restarted reservations for the F-150 Lightning after Farley told Cramer during last month’s “CNBC Investing Club” special that reservations had to be paused due to high demand.

In a November interview in Automotive News, Farley said Ford plans to increase EV production capacity to 600,000 units globally by 2023.
Cramer said Tuesday that the Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV “does make a lot of money.” He added Farley “doesn’t like to make things that don’t make money.”
Last month, Ford said it expects to triple the output of the Mach-E to more than 200,000 units per year by 2023.
But Ford has a long way to go to achieve those lofty Mach-E and F-150 Lightning goals. For all of last year through November, Ford sold just 24,791 Mach-Es.
By contrast, Tesla delivered a record 936,172 electric vehicles last year. That’s an 87% increase versus 2020, when the EV maker reported its first annual profit on deliveries of 499,647.
— Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer’s every move in the market.
Disclaimer

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened the recommended waiting period for people who completed their primary Covid-19 vaccination series with Pfizer’s shots.
The agency also now recommends that children ages 5 to 11 who have moderate or severely compromised immune systems receive a third shot as part of their primary vaccination series.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee has scheduled a meeting Wednesday to review the FDA’s recommendation to distribute boosters to all adolescents aged 12 to 15.

OptimuMedicine registered nurse Crystal Okano (L) gives GoBEST Vice President Adia Foster a Moderna booster shot at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club on December 21, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images

People who received the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid vaccine can now get a booster shot five months after their second dose, a month sooner than the federal government’s previous guidance.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday updated its recommended waiting period for people who completed their primary Covid-19 vaccination series with Pfizer’s shots.

People who received the Moderna vaccine must still wait at least six months after their second dose before getting a booster, while those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine must wait at least two months after their first shot before getting a booster.

The CDC also now recommends that children ages 5 to 11 who have moderate or severely compromised immune systems receive a third shot as part of their primary vaccination series 28 days after their second dose. Currently, Pfizer is the only recommended and authorized vaccine for kids in that age group.

CNBC Health & Science

The CDC’s new recommendations come a day after the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer boosters at five months and third shots for kids 5 to 11 with compromised immune systems. The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee has also scheduled a meeting Wednesday to review the FDA’s recommendation to distribute boosters to all adolescents aged 12 to 15.
The shortened waiting period for Pfizer boosters reflects the greater urgency federal health authorities in the U.S. have placed on getting third shots in people’s arms as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads at an unprecedented pace throughout the country.
“Today’s recommendations ensure people are able to get a boost of protection in the face of Omicron and increasing cases across the country, and ensure that the most vulnerable children can get an additional dose to optimize protection against COVID-19,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement, strongly urging people to get a third dose or booster if eligible.

Real-world data from the United Kingdom and lab data from Pfizer have demonstrated that booster doses significantly increase protection against infection from omicron. A study published by the U.K. Health Security Agency last week found that boosters are up to 75% effective at preventing symptomatic infection.
The original two-dose series still provides good protection against severe illness. However, the shots are only about 10% effective at preventing symptomatic infection from omicron 20 weeks after the second dose, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency study.
Covid infections are increasing at a pace unseen at any previous point in the pandemic. The U.S. reported more than 1 million new cases on Monday alone, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 56 million people in the U.S. have been infected since the start of the pandemic, and more than 827,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.

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Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of four charges in her criminal fraud trial.
Theranos isn’t the only bad apple out there; it’s just the most recent example of one.
There are lessons that investors can learn from this latest case.

Sometimes an investment is too good to be true.
Take Elizabeth Holmes’ health-care start-up, for example. On Monday, the founder and former CEO of Theranos was found guilty of four charges in her criminal fraud trial.

Nearly a decade ago, Holmes raised $945 million from high-profile investors including the family of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family of Walmart fame.
To lure investors, witnesses testified that Holmes’ claims about the company’s blood-testing technology were either exaggerated or false. In the end, jurors convicted Holmes of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
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“The Theranos story is an important lesson for Silicon Valley,” Jina Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco regional office, said at the time charges were filed. 
“Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday.”

Because Theranos never went public, it wasn’t under the same government and public scrutiny as other more established companies. That gave investors an opportunity to get in while it was on the rise, but also put the burden on them to vet the blood-testing startup largely independently.

Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes arrives at the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose, California on Dec. 16, 2021.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Theranos isn’t the only bad apple out there; it’s just the most recent example of one.
Other black eyes for the industry have included uBiome, which was investigated by the FBI for fraudulent billing, and Outcome Health, a health-care advertising company that provided misleading information to drugmakers on where their ads were showing up and how they performed.
Of course, fraud extends far beyond health care.
Corporate malfeasance comes in waves, said Len Sherman, professor of business at Columbia Business School. From Enron and WorldCom to Bernie Madoff and now Theranos, “we are in another era that has conditions that are conducive to promoting fraud.” 

How to spot a problem

“It’s important that we don’t assume that every company is like a Theranos; we just need to ask the right questions,” said Ruby Gadelrab, founder and CEO of MDisrupt, a medical due diligence company for the health-tech industry, which aims to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.
“Health care, as a whole, is complex,” Gadelrab said. “It’s probably the hardest area to invest in.”
To help investors vet health technology companies, Gadelrab suggests first establishing if the product is clinically and commercially viable.
“Investors do technical and financial diligence using experts, in health care we need to do medical diligence using health-care experts.”

Spend as much time looking at what’s in your portfolio as you would booking your next vacation.

Winnie Sun
managing director of Sun Group Wealth Partners

Then, determine if there’s evidence to back up the founders’ scientific claims.
The technology should be validated, Gadelrab said. “Show me the data.” For example, “does it actually pick up a disease or biomarker when it’s present and doesn’t pick it up when it’s not?”
“Not all data is created equal,” she added. Good data is done externally with scientists and research labs, great data is published in peer-reviewed journals and excellent data is published and replicated.
Finally, look at the team structure. “Do they have clinical experts in senior positions? On their boards, as their investors, in their C-suite?”
“Make sure health experts have a seat at the table and a voice in the process,” Gadelrab said.
The secrecy surrounding the Theranos technology and the intense attention given to its CEO was part of the mystique and also a major red flag, according to Sherman. “I hope the next time that kind of stuff happens, someone says ‘wait a sec.'”

Lessons learned

With any investment, whether publicly traded or otherwise, you should do your due diligence, advised Winnie Sun, managing director of Sun Group Wealth Partners in Irvine, California.
For starters, Google the company and read consumer reviews, she said. In addition, check Twitter to see how customers are responding. “That’s going to factor in to whether you want to own that company,” Sun said.
If you are working with a broker or financial advisor, then you have an additional layer of protection — as long as that person meets a minimum level of credentials and background to work in the industry. (Check that financial advisors are licensed or registered with a firm through the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website or that the broker is listed on The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s resource, BrokerCheck.)

“If you are doing this on your own, you have to do a little more due diligence, especially if it’s an investment idea you heard about from a friend or on the internet,” Sun added. “Spend as much time looking at what’s in your portfolio as you would booking your next vacation.”
Otherwise, invest in an exchange-traded fund or mutual fund rather than picking individual stocks.
Most experts say diversifying with these asset classes is the best way to manage risk and improve long-term performance.  
“As investors, it comes back to the core philosophy of diversification,” Sun said.

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Manhattan real estate posted its best year ever, rebounding from the pandemic with $30 billion in sales, according to real estate reports.
The strength shows no signs of slowing in 2022, with sales topping $6.7 billion in the last quarter, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman.
The median price for an apartment jumped 11% in the fourth quarter compared to the year-earlier period.

Manhattan real estate posted its best year ever in 2021, rebounding from the pandemic with $30 billion in sales, according to real estate reports.
The 16,000-plus signed contracts were also a record, according to a report from Corcoran.

The banner year marks a dramatic turnaround from 2020 when fears of population losses, rising crime and high taxes weighed on sales. Many observers thought at the time the days of bidding wars and falling inventory were over.
But sales have now eclipsed pre-pandemic totals, and are showing no signs of slowing in 2022. Fourth-quarter sales topped $6.7 billion, a mark not seen since such records were kept, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman.
The average price for an apartment in Manhattan is now $1.95 million. The median price — which many consider to be a more accurate indicator of the market — jumped 11% in the fourth quarter compared to the year-earlier period, close to pre-pandemic levels.
“Clearly, the pace of the recovery in 2021 was faster than I think most people anticipated,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. “It’s been startling.”
Based on shrinking inventory and continually strong financial markets, the Manhattan market is likely to remain robust into the first half of this year, Miller said. “Because New York was late to the party with the return of real estate demand, there could be several quarters ahead with elevated or higher-than-normal activity,” he said.

Brokers say the “pandemic discount” in Manhattan is now largely gone. Prices fell between 6% and 7% during the market bottom, but in some segments, especially condos, prices have rebounded. According to Brown Harris Stevens, apartments are now selling at 97.6% of their last asking price, the highest since 2017.

The sun sets on lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City on the day the sun set at its earliest possible time of the year on December 7, 2021, as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

And bidding wars are back, too, hitting their highest levels since 2018, according to Miller Samuel.
The comeback has largely been driven by the top of the market — such as ultra-wealthy buyers snapping up penthouses and large full-floor units in new developments. Inventory of new property plummeted by a third in the fourth quarter, and apartments priced at $10 million or more sold the fastest — averaging just 97 days on the market, according to data from Serhant.
There were at least eight sales last year for more than $50 million, according to Miller Samuel. Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai’s purchase of two full floors at 220 Central Park South for $157 million was the largest. That address — home to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s $238 million penthouse, the most expensive ever sold in the U.S. — accounted for three of the eight $50 million-plus deals in 2021.
Jeff Bezos continued to snap up apartments at 212 Fifth Ave., with purchases totaling $119 million for five apartments.
Brokers say many buyers are nonresidents looking for a pied-a-terre or an investment property. With riches created during the pandemic from gains in stocks, asset values and cryptocurrency, many individuals are looking to shift their wealth into hard assets like real estate.
More than half of the deals in Manhattan last year were all-cash, according to brokers.

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