Raphael Stevens

More stories

  • 125 Shares93 Views

    in Finance

    Watch CFPB Director Rohit Chopra speak at DC Fintech Week

    [The stream is slated to start at 11 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]
    Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will speak Wednesday at DC Fintech Week in Washington, D.C.

    The bureau finalized its personal financial data rights rule on Tuesday, a measure that would require financial services firms to unlock an individual’s personal financial data and then transfer it for free to another provider at the request of the customer.
    The rule would apply to data associated with a range of products, spanning from bank accounts and credit cards to payment apps and mobile wallets. The bureau said it would also allow customers to comparison shop more easily for favorable rates on deposits or credit.
    “By allowing consumers to permission their personal financial data, and make it over time more seamless, people can more easily sign up, switch accounts and take their financial history with them,” Chopra said Tuesday in prepared remarks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    The CFPB’s new rule garnered mixed reviews from trade groups. The American Bankers Association raised concerns around data security, while the Financial Technology Association — whose members include Plaid and PayPal — said the regulation “will increase competition, improve consumers’ choices, and drive momentum for future innovations that benefit customers.” More

  • 113 Shares121 Views

    in Business

    September home sales drop to lowest level since 2010

    The median price of an existing home sold in September was $404,500, an increase of 3% year over year.
    Inventory rose 1.5% month to month to 1.39 million homes for sale at the end of September.

    Sales of previously owned homes fell 1% in September compared with August, to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 3.84 million units, the slowest pace since October 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors.
    Sales were 3.5% lower than in September 2023. Sales fell in three out of four U.S. regions, with just the West region seeing a gain.

    This count is based on closings, representing contracts signed likely in July and August. Mortgage rates started July near 7% on the 30-year fixed and then fell slowly through August to just below 6.5%. Rates are now more than a full percentage point lower than they were a year ago.
    “Home sales have been essentially stuck at around a four-million-unit pace for the past 12 months, but factors usually associated with higher home sales are developing,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

    A “For Rent, For Sale” sign is seen outside of a home in Washington, U.S., July 7, 2022. 
    Sarah Silbiger | Reuters

    Inventory rose 1.5% month to month to 1.39 million homes for sale at the end of September. That represents a 4.3-month supply at the current sales pace. Inventory was 23% higher from September 2023.
    “More inventory is certainly good news for home buyers as it gives consumers more properties to view before making a decision,” Yun said. “However, the inventory of distressed properties is minimal because the mortgage delinquency rate remains very low. Distressed property sales accounted for only 2% of all transactions in September.”
    The pressure of still low inventory continues to push prices higher. The median price of an existing home sold in September was $404,500, an increase of 3% year over year and the 15th consecutive month of annual price gains.

    Cash continues to be king in this market, making up 30% of September sales. Pre-Covid, cash buyers made up about 20% of sales. Yun noted that it is not just investors using cash, as investors actually pulled back slightly in September to just 16% of sales, down from 19% in August.
    Homes are sitting longer, an average of 28 days compared with just 21 days a year ago. First-time buyers pulled back again, making up just 26% of September sales. That matches the all-time low from August.  More

  • 188 Shares168 Views

    in Finance

    AI on the trading floor: Morgan Stanley expands OpenAI-powered chatbot tools to Wall Street division

    Morgan Stanley is expanding the use of OpenAI-powered generative AI tools to its vaunted investment banking and trading division, CNBC has learned.
    The firm began testing a version of an AI assistant based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, called AskResearchGPT, this summer in its institutional securities group, according to Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley’s global director of research.
    Employees have been using it instead of getting on the phone or lobbing an email to the research department, Huberty said.

    A screen displays the trading information for Morgan Stanley on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), January 19, 2022.
    Brendan McDermid | Reuters

    Morgan Stanley is expanding the use of OpenAI-powered, generative artificial intelligence tools to its vaunted investment banking and trading division, CNBC has learned.
    The firm, which first rolled out an AI assistant based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology to its wealth management advisors in early 2023, began testing another version called AskResearchGPT this summer in its institutional securities group, according to Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley’s global director of research.

    The tool lets users extract answers from across the universe of Morgan Stanley’s research — including on stocks, commodities, industry trends and regions — collapsing what could otherwise be the cumbersome task of gleaning insights from the over 70,000 reports produced annually by the bank.
    “We see it as a game changer from a productivity standpoint, both for our research analysts and our colleagues across institutional securities,” Huberty said in an interview. The tool helps staff “access the highest quality, most insightful information as efficiently as possible.”
    Since its arrival as a viral consumer app in late 2022, OpenAI’s generative AI technology has been swiftly adopted by Wall Street’s largest players.
    Morgan Stanley says that close to half of its 80,000 employees are using generative AI tools created with OpenAI, while at rival JPMorgan Chase, about 60% of the firm’s 316,043 employees have access to a platform using OpenAI’s models, said a person with knowledge of the matter. The San Francisco-based startup recently raised money at a $157 billion valuation.
    At Morgan Stanley, a leader across investment banking and trading along with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, employees have gravitated toward AskResearchGPT, using it instead of getting on the phone or lobbing an email to the research department, Huberty said.

    Employees are asking the tool three times the number of questions as compared to a previous tool based on traditional AI that’s been in use since 2017, according to the bank.
    It’s most in-demand among salespeople and other client-facing staff who often send research highlights and field questions from hedge funds or other institutional investors, said Huberty.
    “We found that it takes a salesperson one-tenth of the time to respond to the average client inquiry” using AskResearchGPT, she said.
    In a recent demonstration, the GPT-4 based chatbot was able to summarize Morgan Stanley’s position on matters from copper to Nvidia to the finer points of standing up a data center, understanding industry-specific jargon and providing charts and links to source material.
    The bank wants to push adoption further in light of the productivity gains it’s seeing, Huberty said. The tool is embedded within workers’ browsers as well as Microsoft Teams and Outlook programs to make it readily available.
    Understandably, Huberty says she is often asked if AI could ultimately replace the analysts who are creating the reams of research published under Morgan Stanley’s banner.
    “I don’t see in the near future a path to just having the machine write the research report to generate the idea,” she said. “I really think that it’s humans who make the call and own the relationship, which is a really important part of the analyst job, or sales and trading job, or corporate banker job.” More

  • 125 Shares187 Views

    in Business

    Coca-Cola tops earnings estimates, as higher prices offset sluggish demand

    Coca-Cola posted earnings and revenue that topped expectations.
    Higher prices helped to offset sluggish demand for beverages.
    Coke said it now expects organic revenue growth of about 10% this year, the high end of its previous range.

    Coca-Cola on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations, thanks to a boost from higher prices that offset sluggish demand.
    Shares of the company fell 2% in premarket trading.

    Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: 77 cents adjusted vs. 74 cents expected
    Revenue: $11.95 billion adjusted vs. $11.60 billion expected

    Coke reported third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders of $2.85 billion, or 66 cents per share, down from $3.09 billion, or 71 cents per share, a year earlier.
    Excluding items, the company earned 77 cents per share.
    Adjusted net sales of $11.95 billion were roughly flat from a year earlier. Coke’s organic revenue, which strips out the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and currency, climbed 9% during the quarter.
    Unit case volume fell 1% in the quarter, driven by weakening demand in some international markets. The metric strips out the impact of pricing and foreign currency to reflect demand. Consumer companies, including Coke, have reported in recent months that customers are more price sensitive, leading to sluggish demand for its products as prices remain high.

    Even so, Coke in recent quarters has been besting rival PepsiCo, which has been dealing with the fallout from Quaker Foods recalls, in addition to a U.S. consumer who has been snacking and drinking less. Pepsi said volume for its North American beverage business fell 3% in its third quarter, fueled by weakening demand for energy drinks.
    Coke’s unit case volume in North America was flat for the quarter, as shrinking demand for its water, sports, coffee and tea products offset growth in its namesake soda, juice, dairy, plant-based beverages and sparkling flavors.
    But unit case volume fell 2% in both the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific regions. The company called out volume declines in China and Turkey specifically. Like North America, Latin America reported flat volume.
    Globally, volume for Coke’s sparkling soft drinks, like Sprite, and for its namesake soda were both flat for the quarter. The company’s juice, dairy and plant-based beverages division reported a 3% decline in volume. Its water, sports, coffee and tea segment saw volume fall 4%, fueled by a 6% drop in bottled water.
    Coke said its pricing rose 10%. Roughly 4% of that increase comes from markets experiencing intense inflation, like Argentina, while the rest is the result of price hikes and customers trading up to pricier options.
    For 2024, Coke now expects organic revenue growth of roughly 10%, on the high end of its prior range of 9% to 10%. The company reiterated its projection that comparable earnings per share will rise 5% to 6%.
    Coke will provide its full 2025 outlook when it reports fourth-quarter earnings, but the company is already expecting currency to hurt its results next year. Coke is projecting a low-single-digit headwind for comparable revenue and a mid-single-digit headwind for earnings per share.

    Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

  • 175 Shares102 Views

    in Business

    New Boeing CEO sets sights on ‘leaner’ future as quarterly loss tops $6 billion

    Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company must focus on its core business ahead of his first earnings call since taking the top job in August.
    Boeing’s more than 32,000 striking machinists will also vote on a new contract proposal on Wednesday that could end a more than five-week work stoppage.
    The manufacturer is bleeding cash and is preparing to raise billions in equity or debt after lost more than $6 billion in the last quarter.

    Workers picket outside the Boeing Co. manufacturing facility during a strike in Renton, Washington, US, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. 
    David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company needs to become leaner and improve quality, a vision he laid out for the troubled plane manufacturer ahead of his first quarterly call with analysts on Wednesday. At the same time, thousands of striking Boeing machinists will vote on a new labor contract, and Ortberg said he was hopeful for a deal.
    Boeing reported a more than $6 billion loss for the third quarter, its largest since 2020 when the pandemic halted most aircraft demand and its best-selling airplane was grounded after two crashes.

    Boeing had released preliminary third-quarter results earlier this month, showing revenue of $17.8 billion, down less than 2% from a year earlier, as well as a loss of $9.97 a share and an operating cash outflow of $1.3 billion. It disclosed charges of more than $5 billion across its commercial and defense units and said it ended the third quarter with $10.5 billion in cash and marketable securities.
    Its commercial airplane unit’s losses swelled to more than $4 billion from a $678 million loss a year before. The charges were related to the additional delay of the debut of its 777X wide-body aircraft to 2026 and another delay tied to the 767. Boeing plans to end production of the 767 when orders are fulfilled in 2027.
    Its defense unit lost $2.4 billion in the third quarter from $924 million in the same period of 2023, with charges tied to several programs, including the KC-46 tanker and the troubled Starliner. The Starliner capsule returned empty from the International Space Station this summer, without the two NASA astronauts it originally carried to space.
    Here’s what the company reported versus what Wall Street analysts surveyed by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv, expected:

    Loss per share: $10.44 adjusted. That may not compare with an adjusted loss of $10.52 expected by LSEG.
    Revenue: $17.84 billion vs $17.82 billion expected

    Ortberg, a former CEO of Rockwell Collins, took the helm of Boeing in August, tasked with restoring the company’s reputation and stamping out quality problems on aircraft and in other programs. In January, a door plug blew out minutes into an Alaska Airlines flight on a 737 Max 9 after key bolts weren’t reinstalled before the plane left Boeing’s factory. The near-catastrophe reignited safety concerns from regulators and customers.

    “We need to know what’s going on, not only with our products, but with our people,” Ortberg said Wednesday. “And most importantly, we need to prevent the festering of issues and work better together to identify, fix, and understand root cause.”
    Ortberg acknowledged that it will take some time to turn the ship.
    “We have employees who are thirsty to get back to the iconic company they know, setting the standards for the products that we deliver,” he said.
    Ortberg earlier this month said Boeing will slash 10% of its global workforce of about 170,000 people, hinting at a slimmer manufacturer. He is expected to face questions on the call about which units or projects the company will consider shedding.
    “We need to reset priorities and create a leaner, more focused organization,” he said in his prepared remarks.

    Read more CNBC airline news

    The most pressing issue for Boeing this week is ending a costly labor strike that has hobbled its factories in the Seattle area, where most of its aircraft are produced. More than 32,000 machinists walked off the job early Sept. 13, about two weeks before the quarter ended, after overwhelmingly voting down a contract that included 25% raises, among other changes. A new proposal, unveiled Saturday, included 35% raises over four years, a higher signing bonus and 401(k) contributions, and other improvements.
    The strike costs Boeing $1 billion a month, according to S&P Global Ratings, and getting to a speedy conclusion is crucial for the fragile aerospace supply chain, where furloughs are already beginning.
    “We have been feverishly working to find a solution that works for the company and meets our employees’ needs,” Ortberg said.
    The deal includes a commitment from Boeing to build its next aircraft in the Pacific Northwest. That has been a sore spot for unionized machinists after Boeing moved its 787 Dreamliner production to a non-union facility in South Carolina.
    “Boeing is an airplane company and at the right time in the future we need to develop a new airplane. But we have a lot of work to do before then,” Ortberg said Wednesday.
    Analysts are optimistic that the deal will pass. Results of the labor vote are expected late Wednesday night. More

  • 138 Shares149 Views

    in Finance

    Chinese smartphone companies tout AI features ahead of Apple Intelligence launch

    Honor, a spinoff from Huawei that focuses on higher-end devices, revealed Wednesday the latest version of its Android-based Magic operating system would focus on AI as an assistant.
    Telecommunications giant Huawei on Tuesday launched an upgrade to its HarmonyOS system that uses in-house AI to allow users to translate text, take notes and edit photos.
    Apple fell out of the top five smartphone players in China earlier this year, according to Canalys.

    Chinese smartphone company Honor on Wednesday revealed new AI features. Pictured here is CEO George Zhao speaking in Shanghai on June 26, 2024.
    Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    Honor, a spinoff from Huawei that focuses on higher-end devices, revealed Wednesday the latest version of its Android-based Magic operating system would focus on AI as an assistant.
    A company demo showed how even with a vague voice command — such as “I’m tired, order something” — the phone was able to automatically order coffee without requiring the user to touch the device. It used AI to mimic actions on a touchscreen. Human intervention was only needed to complete the payment.

    The AI assistant could also identify documents and send them to contacts, or make calls via social media app WeChat, all without requiring the user to touch the phone.
    For devices in China, Honor works with Baidu and other Chinese companies for some AI functions, while developing others on its own. Honor works with Google for devices sold overseas.
    The new AI features are slated for release on Honor’s forthcoming Magic 7 smartphone, due for launch on Oct. 30. Honor plans to roll out AI capabilities to all its devices by the first few months of next year.
    The Magic 7 will use Qualcomm’s newly announced Snapdragon Elite 8 chip for phones. Honor on Monday had teased its new AI features at the chipmaker’s annual event.
    Chinese home appliance and smartphone company Xiaomi will also launch a new phone this month that uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite 8 chip. Xiaomi has been less vocal about its AI features for smartphones.
    The AI features have climbed to a new level, Toby Zhu, senior analyst, Canalys, said in a phone interview Wednesday after Honor’s event. He said the new features have greater potential to convince consumers to switch to another device.
    “Apple faces challenges in China but from our data it won’t face a significant decline,” he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.

    Apple’s falling China sales

    Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei have all launched foldables, a category Apple has yet to enter.
    About 17% of Apple’s revenue came from Greater China in the quarter ended June 29. That’s down from 19% in the year-ago period. Apple is scheduled to release quarterly results on Oct. 31 local time.
    Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong on Wednesday to discuss data security and cloud services, according to the ministry. Apple did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
    Since launching on Sept. 20, Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max has dropped slightly in value on second-hand shopping platform Xianyu. The device was selling between 8,000 Chinese yuan ($1,122) and 10,000 yuan Wednesday, compared with 10,500 yuan to 16,300 yuan last month.
    Huawei had launched its trifold Mate XT on the same day. As of Wednesday, second-hand prices for the device had dropped to the mid-20,000 yuan range, nearly half the price it was selling for on Sept. 20.
    — CNBC’s Dylan Butts and Sonia Heng contributed to this report. More

  • 175 Shares159 Views

    in Finance

    Crypto firm Circle expects the UK to introduce stablecoin laws in ‘months, not years’

    Dante Disparte, Circle’s global head of policy, said that he sees the U.K. bringing in legislation for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to government currencies, soon.
    “I think we’re within months, not years” of formal U.K. laws for the stablecoin market being introduced, Disparte told CNBC in an interview last week during a visit to London.
    He added that the U.K. has some catching up to do with the European Union, which has begun enforcing regulation of stablecoins under its MiCa, or Markets in Crypto Assets, regulation.

    Launched in 2018 by crypto firm Circle, USDC is now the second-biggest stablecoin globally, with more than $30 billion worth of tokens in circulation.
    Nurphoto | Getty Images

    LONDON — The U.K. is likely to see stablecoin laws introduced in a matter of “months, not years,” according to crypto firm Circle’s top policy executive.
    Dante Disparte, Circle’s global head of policy, said that he sees the U.K. will soon bring in legislation for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that aims to maintain a constant peg to government currencies such as the U.S. dollar or British pound

    “I think we’re within months, not years” of formal laws for the stablecoin market being introduced, Disparte told CNBC in an interview last week during a visit to London.
    The Treasury and the Bank of England were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
    Disparte suggested the U.K.’s lengthier approach to introducing laws targeted at crypto may have been a good thing given events that transpired in 2022, such as the collapse of FTX, a crypto exchange once worth worth $32 billion, as well as other industry crises.

    “You could also look back, and I think many in the U.K. and in other countries would argue that they’re vindicated in not having jumped in too quickly and fully regulating and bringing the environment onshore because of all the issues we’ve seen in crypto over the last few years,” Disparte said.
    However, he added that more recently, there’s been a sense of urgency to introduce formal regulations for stablecoins, as well as trading in digital assets and other crypto-related activities.

    By not bringing forth stablecoin-specific rules, the U.K. would risk missing out on the benefits of the technology. He added that the U.K. has some catching up to do with the European Union, which has begun enforcing regulation of stablecoins under its MiCa, or Markets in Crypto Assets, regulation. Singapore has also agreed formal laws for the stablecoin industry.
    “In the spirit of protecting the U.K. economy from excess risk and crypto, there’s also a point in time in which you end up protecting the economy from job creation and the industries of the future,” Disparte said. He stressed that “you can’t have the economy of the future unless you have the money of the future.”
    Among the benefits cited by Disparte are innovation in the wholesale banking industry, real-time payments, and the digitization of the British pound.
    Officials at the Bank of England are currently exploring whether or not to introduce a digital version of the pound, which has previously been dubbed “Britcoin” by the media.

    Dante said he had met with officials from the Bank of England recently and was reassured by their approach to so-called central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.

    What has the UK done so far?

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s predecessor, Rishi Sunak, had previously envisioned Britain becoming a global crypto hub.
    When the Conservative Party was in power, U.K. government officials had signaled that new legislation for stablecoins as well as crypto-related services such as staking, exchange and custody would be in place as early as June or July.
    In April, the former government announced plans to become a “world leader” in the crypto space, outlining plans to bring stablecoins into the regulatory fold and consult on a regime for regulating trading of cryptoassets, like bitcoin.
    Last October, Sunak’s administration issued a response to a consultation on regulation of the crypto industry, saying it would aim to introduce “phase 2 secondary legislation” in 2024, subject to parliamentary approval.
    The new Labour government hasn’t been as vocal as the Conservatives were on crypto regulation. In January, the party released a plan for financial services, which included a proposal to make the U.K. a securities tokenization hub.

    Securities tokens are digital assets that represent ownership of a real-world financial asset, such as a share or bond.
    Stablecoins are a multibillion industry, worth more than $170 billion, according to CoinGecko data. Tether’s USDT token is the largest stablecoin by value, with a market capitalization of over $120 billion. Circle’s USDC is the second-largest, with the combined value of coins in circulation worth over $34 billion.
    However, the market has been shrouded in controversies in the past. In 2022, Tether’s USDT dropped from its $1 peg after a rival stablecoin, terraUSD, collapsed to zero. The events raised doubts over whether USDT was truly backed 1:1 by an equal amount of dollars and other assets in Tether’s reserves.
    For its part, Tether says its coin is backed by dollars and dollar-equivalent assets, including government bonds, at all times. More

  • 125 Shares104 Views

    in Business

    WNBA Finals Game 5 draws highest viewership in 25 years

    The fifth game of this year’s WNBA Finals was the most viewed WNBA Finals game in 25 years.
    Viewership peaked at 3.3 million during Game 5.
    The impressive viewership caps off a WNBA season that saw ratings, engagement and attendance up across the board.

    The New York Liberty celebrate after wining the 2024 WNBA Championship against the Minnesota Lynx during Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals on October 20, 2024 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. 
    David Sherman | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

    It was a big finish for the 2024 WNBA season.
    The fifth game of this year’s WNBA Finals between the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty was the most-viewed WNBA finals game in 25 years across all networks, according to ESPN, citing Nielsen data. The game aired on ESPN and topped out at 3.3 million viewers.

    The viewership for Game 5 is especially impressive considering the competition for attention Sunday night. Both the National Football League’s “Sunday Night Football” and Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series aired at the same time.
    Viewership across the entire WNBA Finals series more than doubled in comparison to last year, a continuation of the growing popularity for the WNBA and women’s sports more broadly.
    This year’s finals were helped even more by a close battle between a perennial WNBA powerhouse in the Lynx and a previously championship-less contender in the Liberty. Four of the five games were decided by 5 or fewer points, and two games, including the final, went into overtime. The Liberty eventually prevailed, winning 67-62 in front of their home crowd.
    The impressive viewership caps off a WNBA season that saw viewership, engagement and attendance up across the board.
    The league is also fresh off a new media rights deal, which is negotiated as part of the National Basketball Association’s agreement with broadcast partners. The leagues’ new deal is worth $2.2 billion over 11 seasons, with an agreement to reevaluate the terms after the 2028 season, CNBC previously reported.

    And there’s room to run for the WNBA: Several new teams will debut over the next couple of seasons, with the Golden State Valkyries beginning play in the 2025 season. Next year will also have 44 regular season games instead of 40, as well as a seven-game finals instead of five.
    The Women’s National Basketball Players Association said Monday it would opt out of the collective bargaining agreement it had earlier reached with the league. The current CBA will still be in place for the 2025 season, according to the Associated Press. More