Raphael Stevens

In this articleHLTAs people continue to get vaccinated across the U.S., travel demand is surging.Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta told CNBC on Tuesday the company notched a record-breaking number of bookings last Saturday, during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.”We had a blockbuster weekend,” Nassetta said in an interview on “Squawk Box.” “On Saturday night we were, across the U.S., almost 93% occupied, which is certainly the best since Covid hit.”Nassetta said summer reservations are surging past what the company’s bookings were in 2019.”Our bookings for this summer at this point are higher than we saw in 2019 at the peak,” Nassetta said. “People are getting out, they are feeling safer as vaccination rates go up and it should be a really good summer for travel.”Airlines are also seeing business pick up.”There is a sense that there has been a lot of pent-up demand. Seeing that in real bookings with customers buying tickets is very encouraging,” Ben Baldanza, former Spirit Airlines CEO, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Friday.The Hilton CEO expects bookings to rebound over the next two years, even for business-related travel.”I would bet a lot that when you get to ’23 and beyond that business travel and group travel in addition to the leisure business will be back where it was in 2019 and will be growing beyond that,” Nassetta said.Hilton is also doing well in China, where the number of daily Covid-19 cases has dropped significantly from the peak.”We are going to have one of the best years we’ve ever had in China this year because they are ahead of the curve relative to the U.S. and other parts of the world,” Nassetta said. More

Vesnaandjic | E+ | Getty ImagesAfter a year of lockdown, you may be ready to go out and start spending.Not so fast.”We’ve gone through what can be described as a major discretionary spending fast,” said Jim Wang, founder of the personal finance blog Wallet Hacks. “After a year of spending relatively little, you might want to make up for lost time.”Americans have already started spending big. Retail sales surged in March, thanks to the $1,400 stimulus checks that went out. Sales then stalled in April.More from Invest in You:Suze Orman: Here’s how you should calculate your net worthParents are sacrificing their financial wellness to help their kids: SurveyFeeling financial stress? Here’s how your employer may helpJamila Souffrant, creator of financial education podcast “Journey To Launch,” thinks some consumers will have this feeling of “YOLO-ATP”: You Only Live Once, After the Pandemic.”For some people, I think it’s going to be like, ‘Listen, I want to spend money in a way that I enjoy now because tomorrow is not promised,'” she recently said on her podcast.Others plan on staying the course. To that point, 32 % of U.S. adults said their financial discipline improved during the pandemic, and 95% expect those newfound habits to stick, according to a new report by Northwestern Mutual.Before you whip out your wallet, there are some steps you should take to shore up your finances and spend smartly, according to financial experts.Take stockDuring the past 15 months, your perspective may have changed. You may realize there are things you thought you couldn’t live without that you really don’t need.”Review your life and what brings meaning to it,” said certified financial planner Zaneilia Harris, president of Harris & Harris Wealth Management Group, based in the Washington metro area. “Write these things down.”Analyze your expenses to see if there are items you can eliminate because your perspective has changed,” she added.Budget, budget, budgetYellow Dog Productions | DigitalVision | Getty ImagesNot only is it crucial to craft a budget, you have to make sure you stay on top of it.Write down what money you have coming in and what you have going out. Also, think about what it is you want to start spending on, whether it is returning to regular nights out or traveling, and incorporate it into your budget.”It is really meant to help guide you so that you can have the best of both worlds: You can live your life in the now and still be financially responsible in a way that allows you to reach your mid- to long-term goals,” Souffrant told CNBC.If you aren’t using a budgeting app, start using one, Wang suggests.”Many are free and will have enough features to make sure you don’t overspend,” he said.While cutting expenses is the first thing that comes to mind when budgeting, Souffrant also suggests thinking about earning more income. Tap into skills that you have, such as tutoring or babysitting, she said.Save for emergenciesOne of the big lessons of the pandemic was the importance of having emergency savings.Make sure you have at least six months of expenses saved before you loosen up your spending habits, Wang advised.Reverse any Covid-related changesMaskot | Maskot | Getty ImagesIf you had to reduce your contributions to your retirement savings plan, make sure you set it back to normal, Wang advised.The same goes for paying off debt. If you reduced the amount you typically paid towards your credit cards, go back to your pre-pandemic plan.Also account for student loans, if you have them. Payments have been on pause during the pandemic and are set to resume on Oct 1.Take a pauseOnce you are ready to spend, do it with intention.”Always reflect when you buy,” Harris said.If it is online, leave it in your shopping cart for a day. If it is in a store or mall, walk away while you continue to shop. If you still want it, then consider purchasing it.She suggests using the Marie Kondo method, which is about holding onto things that bring you joy.”Go to your Zen place and spend money on items that bring you joy,” Harris said.Beware of rising pricesPrices are rising thanks to recent spikes in inflation, so be sure to shop around. You can do that with a price-comparison app or you can download a browser extension, which automatically finds coupons at checkout.For some big ticket items, like a car or a vacation, you may want to wait until prices cool off.”If you are looking to spend, see if that category is abnormally high and compare it to your needs,” Wang said. “Being willing to wait a few months could save you quite a bit.”SIGN UP: Money 101 is an 8-week learning course to financial freedom, delivered weekly to your inbox.CHECK OUT: I’m a mom of 3 whose side hustle is now a full-time job that brings in $5,000 a month: Here is my best advice via Grow with Acorns+CNBCDisclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns. More

Tyler Wade #14 of the New York Yankees turns a double play as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. #27 of the Toronto Blue Jays falls to the ground during the sixth inning of Game Two of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on May 27, 2021 in the Bronx borough of New York City.Sarah Stier | Getty ImagesMajor League Baseball is entering the NFT space with the help of Fanatics Chairman Michael Rubin and the formation of a new company called Candy Digital.The firm agreed to a multiyear licensing agreement with MLB to produce nonfungible tokens. The first digital collectible will be an exclusive Lou Gehrig NFT, which will be available for bidding on the Fourth of July. It will honor Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” speech on July 4, 1939, when the ironman New York Yankees first baseman retired after contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that impacts the nervous system.The Lou Gehrig NFT will also commemorate MLB’s first Lou Gehrig Day on Tuesday. The league wants to raise more awareness to help combat ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Specific terms of Candy Digital’s agreement with MLB were not made available. But in licensing deals, MLB earns a royalty from primary and secondary sales of its assets. Candy Digital will earn revenue through primary sales of MLB’s assets and from NFT trading fees.NFTs are tied to a blockchain, a digital ledger similar to the blockchains used for digital currencies like bitcoin. This effectively gives each NFT a unique and nonhackable certificate of authenticity. Candy Digital will run its baseball NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. MLB will make its entire digital catalog available. So one day, Candy Digital could make NFTs of legends like Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson.Lou Gehrig #4 of the New York Yankees is shown before the mic delivering his farewell speech on Lou Gehrig Day on July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.The Stanley Weston Archive | Archive Photos | Getty Images”From trading cards to autographed balls, baseball fans have demonstrated their passion for the sport and its players through collectibles for decades,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “In working with Candy Digital to offer NFTs to MLB fans, we’re delivering an exciting new addition to the robust baseball collectible market.”Candy Digital declined to reveal its enterprise value or how much it raised to start. But in comparison, Dapper Labs, a similar firm that launched NFT product NBA Top Shots, raised $12.9 million via a Series A in 2018, according to Crunchbase. Dapper is valued at over $7 billion, according to The Information.Founders of Candy Digital include Rubin, who is also a part of the Philadelphia 76ers ownership group, and Mike Novogratz, founder of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. Entrepreneur and VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk will serve as a board member and advisor. Fanatics will serve as the majority owner of Candy Digital, and Scott Lawin is interim CEO.Asked if MLB is an investor in Candy Digital, the company declined to comment. But the league is an investor in Fanatics through prior sports merchandise dealings.The NFT sector exploded this year, with NBA Top Shots one of the main attractions. In March, Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski was one of the first athletes to release his version of the digital collectible. And boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. also joined the NFT space last month.Candy Digital says it will start will sports NFTs but wants to expand into entertainment and music.”At its core, Candy Digital is about allowing everyone to own a piece of their passion — whether that be sports or gaming, fashion or art, music or pop culture, the goal is to broaden the fanbase of digital collectibles,” Rubin said in a statement. More

In this articleMRNAA medical worker from Parrish Medical Center holds a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a drive through vaccination clinic for employees of Port Canaveral, workers at local hotels and restaurants, and residents of the Port Canaveral community.Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty ImagesModerna on Tuesday asked the Food and Drug Administration for full U.S. approval of its Covid-19 vaccine — the second drugmaker in the U.S. to seek a biologics license that will allow it to market the shots directly to consumers.The mRNA vaccine is currently on the U.S. market under an emergency use authorization, which was granted by the FDA in December. It gives conditional approval based on two months of safety data. It’s not the same as a biologics license application, or a request for full approval, which requires at least six months of data. Over 100 million of the shots have already been administered, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”We are pleased to announce this important step in the U.S. regulatory process for a Biologics License Application (BLA) of our COVID-19 vaccine,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a press release. “We look forward to working with the FDA and will continue to submit data from our Phase 3 study and complete the rolling submission.”Shares of Moderna were essentially flat in premarket trading.The FDA approval process is likely to take months.Moderna will continue to submit data to support the BLA to the FDA on a rolling basis over the coming weeks, the company said Tuesday.Once companies submit applications to the FDA, agency scientists painstakingly look through the clinical trial data, including for any discrepancies or safety concerns, said Dr. Paul Offit, a voting member of the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. “They want to make sure that the company has fairly and accurately displayed all those data,” he said.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest coverage of the Covid pandemic:Nearly half of Americans have at least one vaccine shot as Covid case counts fall further EU regulator endorses Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for adolescentsDr. Scott Gottlieb: Covid risk should be low in the U.S. this summer, but will rise in the fallUK approves Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid vaccine for use Cases of Indian Covid-19 variant in England double in one week Australia’s Victoria state to enter Covid-19 lockdown after ‘highly-infectious’ outbreakFull U.S. approval will allow Moderna’s vaccine to stay on the market once the pandemic is over and the U.S. is no longer in a public health emergency, said former FDA commissioner Dr. Robert Califf. It also sets the stage for the company to begin advertising the shots on TV and other media platforms, he said, which is not permitted under an EUA.Moderna is the second company to seek full U.S. approval of its Covid vaccine. On May 7, Pfizer and partner BioNTech said they started the process of seeking full approval for their vaccine for use in people 16 and older in the U.S.If the FDA grants Moderna’s request, it would be the Massachusetts-based company’s first-ever approved product.Moderna’s vaccine, which requires two doses given four weeks apart, has been found to be more than 90% effective at protecting against Covid and more than 95% effective against severe disease up to six months after the second dose. The company said in an earnings report on May 6 that it planned to begin the process of seeking full FDA approval soon.In addition to seeking full approval, the company is also expected to ask the FDA to expand the emergency use of its Covid vaccine for adolescents as young as 17. The company said last week its shots were found to be 100% effective in a study of kids ages 12 to 17. More

In this articleAMCShares of AMC Entertainment surged again Tuesday after the theater chain sold more than 8 million shares to an investment firm, the latest in a series of capital raises for the struggling company turned meme stock.AMC said in a securities filing that it raised $230.5 million through a stock sale to Mudrick Capital Management. The theater company said it would use the funds for potential acquisitions, upgrading its theaters and deleveraging its balance sheet.Shares were up 17% in premarket trading.AMC’s business was effectively halted during the pandemic, with movie theaters shut in most of the country for months and major studios delaying releases during the pandemic. However, the stock became a favorite of traders on Reddit and has seen wild swings in recent months.The shares doubled last week on incredibly high volume as the speculative activity by retail traders driven by message board chats ramped back up once again.The company has taken advantage of those price surges by selling additional shares to raise cash. The stock is up more than 1,000% year to date.”Given that AMC is raising hundreds of millions of dollars, this is an extremely positive result for our shareholders,” CEO and President Adam Aron said in a filing. “It was achieved through the issuance of only 8.5 million shares, representing less than 1.7% of our issued share capital and only a small portion of our typical daily trading volume.”AMC has around $5 billion in debt and needed to defer $450 million in lease repayments as its revenue largely dried up during the pandemic. Theaters were closed for months to help stop the spread of the virus, and when the company reopened its doors, few consumers felt comfortable attending screenings, and movie studios held back new releases.Now, as vaccination rates rise and the number of coronavirus cases decline, consumer confidence in returning to movie theaters has spiked. Not to mention, studios are finally releasing new content.Over the weekend, John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place Part II,” the sequel to his 2018 blockbuster, garnered $48.4 million over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the highest three-day haul of any film release during the pandemic.For the full four-day Memorial Day weekend, the North American box office tallied nearly $100 million in ticket sales.Still, while initial box-office receipts are promising, fundamental elements of the movie theater business have changed in the last year, including theater capacity, shared release dates with streaming services and the number of days that movies play in theaters.The securities filing from AMC, which closed Friday with a $11.8 billion market cap, also has a risk warning for investors: “Our market capitalization, as implied by various trading prices, currently reflects valuations that diverge significantly from those seen prior to recent volatility and that are significantly higher than our market capitalization immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to the extent these valuations reflect trading dynamics unrelated to our financial performance or prospects, purchasers of our Class A common stock could incur substantial losses if there are declines in market prices driven by a return to earlier valuations.”—With reporting by CNBC’s Sarah Whitten.Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro. Get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews and access to CNBC TV. Sign up to start a free trial today. More

In this articleDISVIACEmily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe star in “A Quiet Place Part II.”Paramount PicturesThe box office is bouncing back.Over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, North American cinemas tallied nearly $100 million in ticket sales, the best performance since the start of the pandemic.Although less than half of the $232 million haul garnered over the same weekend in 2019, this weekend is a bellwether for the movie theater industry.”Any studio executive’s belief that a movie belongs on streaming, that model is shattered with the numbers [from this weekend],” said Joseph Masher, chief operating officer of Bow Tie Cinemas, on CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” Tuesday. “The profitability of [movies] is exclusive to the theater. We’ve proved it this weekend.”The weekend boasted a $48.4 million three-day haul for Paramount’s “A Quiet Place Part II,” the highest film debut during the pandemic. For the full four-day holiday weekend, the film garnered $57 million.The film opened just shy of the first “A Quiet Place,” which took in $50 million across its first Friday, Saturday and Sunday in theaters in 2018. Notably, only 72% of theaters were open for the sequel.The film’s strong opening suggests “the demand for theatrical experiences has returned even as some movie theaters in the country continue to operate under certain restrictions,” Alexia Quadrani, analyst at JPMorgan, wrote in a research note to investors Tuesday.Emma Stone stars as Cruella de Vil in Disney’s “Cruella.”DisneyDisney’s “Cruella” added another $27 million for the four-day weekend, a more muted result as the film was made available in theaters and on Disney+ for $30.A number of studios began experimenting with different release strategies during the pandemic as they waited for movie theaters to recover. Disney created premiere access, a $30 one-time cost to watch a new blockbuster feature. As cinemas have reopened and vaccination rates have increased, the company has opted to release more films in theaters and offer this at-home streaming option at the same time.Warner Bros.’ made the decision earlier this year to release its entire slate on HBO Max and in theaters on the same day. Meanwhile, Universal and Paramount have struck deals with movie theater chains for shorter theatrical windows that allow the studios to place features on streaming services earlier than in previous years.But Masher expects that trend to reverse as the pandemic eases. “Sitting in the room with strangers, even post pandemic, is something you can’t get some place else,” Masher said. “‘The Conjuring’ is coming this week. It will do well. ‘In the Heights’ is in two weeks. It will be available on streaming services as well. The studios are realizing that theater exclusive is the way to go.”In fact, while Disney will release “Black Widow” and “Jungle Cruise” in theaters and on Disney+ for $30, its September release “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” will be a theatrical exclusive.Other major blockbuster releases coming this summer and fall include “F9,” “Dune,” “Snake Eyes,” “Free Guy,” “Eternals,” “The Green Knight,” “The Suicide Squad,” “Venom: Let there be Carnage,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “No Time To Die.””We are back and not going anywhere,” Masher said. More

A rendering of Archer’s planned electric aircraft, which the company says will be capable of 60 miles at speeds of up to 150 mphArcherArcher Aviation wants a judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it violated trade secrets to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.In a brief filed with the U.S. District Court for Northern California, Archer says a lawsuit filed by Wisk Aero has no merit.”Wisk improperly seeks to interfere with Archer’s billion-dollar transactions with this baseless lawsuit and simultaneous media campaign, both launched just after the transactions were announced. That is because while Archer has soared, Wisk is at risk of crashing,” according to a brief Archer is filing with the court in response to the Wisk suit. “Despite the breathless innuendo and baseless speculation to which Wisk devotes its entire complaint, Archer’s eVTOL aircraft design is not only the best eVTOL aircraft around, it is entirely Archer’s design.”The case revolves around the rapidly developing, but still unproven, world of eVTOLs. Multiple companies have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to build electric aircraft designed to carry passengers short distances. While it’s unclear when regulators will ultimately certify eVTOLs for commercial service, the British consulting firm IDTechEx estimates the eVTOL market could grow to $14.7 billion over the next two decades.Archer, which started in 2018, made a big splash in February announcing plans for a $3.8 billion merger with Atlas Crest Investment Corp., special purpose acquisition company. Among those backing the deal was United Airlines, which ordered 200 Archer eVTOLs.Less than two months later, Wisk Aero sued Archer, alleging the company had access to more than 50 trade secrets after hiring former Wisk employees. Wisk was founded in 2019 through a joint venture backed by Boeing and Kitty Hawk, a start-up created by Alphabet co-founder Larry Page. Wisk has announced plans for an urban air-mobility partnership with Blade that will center around eVTOL aircraft Wisk is developing.In a motion filed in mid-May seeking an injunction to stop Archer from developing an eVTOL, Wisk attorneys wrote: “The similarities between the two companies’ designs could not have been a coincidence or the result of independent development by Archer.”Archer’s attorneys say Wisk’s claims don’t add up. In its brief, Archer argues, “there is not a shred of evidence that Archer ever used, or even was aware of, any Wisk trade secret. Despite its 73 pages and over 200 paragraphs, Wisk’s complaint does not even specifically identify a single Wisk trade secret, let alone any trade secret ever used by Archer.” More