Raphael Stevens

Peter Dazeley | The Image Bank | Getty ImagesThe threat of losing unemployment benefits in two dozen states had a modest but short-lived effect on job search activity, according to an analysis published Thursday by job site Indeed.At least 24 states have announced their early withdrawal from pandemic-era unemployment programs since early May.Officials in the states, all led by Republican governors, claim enhanced benefits are keeping people from looking for work. Some are paying one-time bonuses up to $2,000 to people who find and keep a job.Job searches jumped by 5% the day each state announced its intent to pull out of the federal programs, according to Indeed data. (The increase is an average relative to the national trend.)More from Personal Finance:60,000 stimulus checks sent to dead people have been returnedInflation-proof your spending by avoiding these purchases54% of Americans support state cuts to unemploymentHowever, that slight uptick quickly tapered off — it vanished eight days after each state’s respective announcement.”To me, the [initial] effect looks modest” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab and author of the report. “And, notably, it’s temporary.”The quick drop-off was likely due to declining interest after the initial announcement, and less about people finding a job and therefore stopping their search for work, Kolko said.”We don’t know yet what the effect, if any, might be on hiring volumes or wages,” he added. “This is really a first indicator at what effect the early curtailing of the federal benefits might look like.”The report doesn’t include data on Florida and Nebraska, the most recent states to announce their withdrawal.The 24 states are cutting off federal jobless benefits as early as June 12. The American Rescue Plan offers them until Sept. 6.All workers in those states will see their aid reduced by $300 a week. The self-employed and long-term unemployed will lose benefits entirely in most of the states.The move affects about 3.5 million people, according to Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at job and recruiting site Glassdoor.That’s more than 1 of every 5 people receiving unemployment benefits, according to Labor Department data.It’s impossible to quantify the extent to which enhanced unemployment benefits are playing a role in any regional labor shortages, according to economists.Many, however, don’t think the federal benefits are playing a large or primary role in hiring challenges among businesses.Covid-related health risks likely present a bigger obstacle to people rejoining the labor force, especially for in-person work, they said. Less than half of working-age Americans are fully vaccinated.In addition, there are caregiving burdens while schools and daycare aren’t fully reopened. Many older workers also opted to retire early, reducing labor supply.Further, about 21% of unemployed workers were on temporary layoff (i.e., furloughed) in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That share is higher than the typical 10%-15% levels pre-pandemic, Kolko said.Since these workers expect to get recalled to their prior jobs, they’re less likely to be looking for work, he said.More than half (54%) of Americans think the state governors are doing the right thing by ending federal unemployment programs early, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. More

Workers load packages into delivery carts at a JD.com distribution center in Beijing on July 16, 2020.GREG BAKER | AFP | Getty ImagesBEIJING — In less than a year, Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has raised $12 billion through public offerings in Hong Kong and New York.The listings involved JD’s subsidiaries and its own secondary stock offering in Hong Kong. Bank of America was the only investment bank to participate in every single listing, according to public filings.Here are the four JD affiliates that have gone public since June:1. JD Logistics, the company’s delivery unit, went public in Hong Kong on Friday, and raised about $3.2 billion. Its vast network of warehouses and more than 200,000 delivery workers have given parent JD.com an edge in e-commerce against Alibaba.Shares closed 3.3% higher on the first day of trading, after surging more than 18% at one point.2. JD Health, which sells medicine and runs an online health consulting platform, raised about $4 billion in a Hong Kong listing in December last year. The stock is up more than 50% since the IPO.3. Parent JD.com raised a total of roughly $4.5 billion in a secondary listing in Hong Kong on June 18, 2020.The Hong Kong-listed stock is up about 25% since then. The New York-listed shares are up more than 280% since listing on the Nasdaq in 2014.Read more about China from CNBC ProMorgan Stanley picks China stocks for the second half of the yearGoldman Sachs picks the Chinese cloud stocks to buy as internet users soarForget high-flying tech stocks. Here’s a ‘safer way’ to play China’s fintech boom, fund manager says4. Grocery delivery company Dada Nexus — in which strategic investor JD gained majority ownership this year — raised $320 million in its public offering on the Nasdaq on June 5. The stock is up about 59% since its IPO.A gross total of $12.02 billion was raised by the four stock offerings.The four stocks, not including the New York parent, now have a market capitalization of about $198 billion, according data from Wind Information. Figures can vary slightly due to factors such as foreign exchange rates and calculation of bank fees. More

Sharebite CEO and cofounder Dilip Rao and co-founder Mohsin MemonSource: SharebiteThere’s no such thing as a free lunch – except when big companies want to get their employees back to the office during a pandemic.Employers including banks and asset managers, technology companies and law firms are ramping up back-to-work plans as more Americans get vaccinated and New York Mayor Bill De Blasio targets a July reopening for the city.JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has summoned his U.S. workers back to the office, at least on a part-time basis, by July. At Goldman Sachs, employees were told to be ready to return by mid-June. Other companies are targeting a return date for after the Labor Day holiday.For some firms, like Goldman, free meals began last year as a necessary convenience because so many local restaurants had shuttered, giving employees few lunchtime options. For others, the perk is a way to make offices more appealing for those who have grown used to remote work, according to Dilip Rao, CEO of a food-ordering platform called Sharebite with nearly 200 corporate clients.”A lot of these firms are reopening their offices and they’re using food as the carrot to bring people back,” Rao said. “Oftentimes when we talk to companies, they’re like, ‘I don’t care if it’s $20 a day [in food subsidies], I just want people back in the office.”Companies are grappling with how to safely welcome back the thousands of workers who have been toiling from their homes for more than a year. They’ve had to walk a tightrope in terms of convincing employees it’s safe to return while not yet outright mandating vaccinations. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that almost two-thirds of employees were uncomfortable with returning to work.Part of that equation is figuring out how employees will feed themselves, so companies have reconfigured cafeterias or signed up for software platforms like Sharebite that streamline orders.That makes free food, once a perk more common at tech giants like Alphabet and Facebook, one of the tools in getting workers to embrace office life again, says Rao.Among Sharebite clients including financial institutions, corporate law and professional services firms and technology companies, more than 90% subsidize at least part of employer meals, according to the New York-based start-up. High profile clients include McKinsey, WeWork, and Coinbase.That figure is even higher for financial firms like banks and hedge funds. Investment banks including Credit Suisse and Cowen and asset manager Neuberger Berman are subsidizing employee meals through Sharebite, according to a person with knowledge of the arrangement.A Sharebite station in a workplace.Source: SharebiteA problem Sharebite helped solve is that a flurry of orders around lunch time would result in lobbies crowded with delivery personnel. Employers signed up to the company, whose main competitor is Seamless, can instead group together orders from a list of approved restaurants, resulting in a single delivery to a Sharebite-branded station.”All our clients realized very quickly that you can reopen your office, but you need a plan to minimize the variability associated with people coming in and out of your building,” Rao said.  “You don’t want hundreds of delivery people waiting in the lobby during the lunch rush. You definitely don’t want thousands of employees going up and down crowded elevators.”Before the pandemic, banks and law firms would typically let employees expense meals in the evening or on the weekend to reward long hours, Rao said. Now, almost all of the orders on Sharebite are during the lunch rush, he said.Firms that don’t use Sharebite, like Goldman, have still decided to feed their employees.Goldman began offering free breakfast and lunch at its downtown Manhattan headquarters last year, according to spokeswoman Leslie Shribman. At locations that lack on-site cafeterias, like the firm’s Salt Lake City hub, employees get up to $20 per day in meal subsidies, she said.Other financial firms have also increased perks, though they may not last indefinitely.Bank of America employees receive meal and transportation subsidies for working on-site, but “those programs are evolving now,” according to a person with knowledge of the company. It was part of extra support given during the worst of the pandemic that included subsidized child and elder care, the person said.At Bloomberg, the Wall Street data-analytics company owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, employees have long enjoyed round-the-clock access to snacks. Now, lunches are more robust and individually wrapped, including salads, noodles and occasionally sushi, said people with knowledge of the company.Not all investment banks have gone this route, however. JPMorgan and Citigroup don’t currently offer meal subsidies beyond what investment banks have traditionally done, according to company spokespeople.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

An AMC theatre is pictured amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 27, 2021.Carlo Allegri | ReutersShares of AMC Entertainment jumped double digits in premarket trading on Friday as Reddit traders kept piling into the speculative name this week.The stock popped 17% in early trading following a 35% advance in the previous session. Shares have already rallied nearly 120% week to date, bringing its monstrous 2021 rally to 1,150%.AMC was the most active stock on the New York Stock Exchange by far on Thursday with nearly 700 million shares changed hands. Its 30-day trading volume average is just above 100 million shares, according to FactSet.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards”The retail trader is at it again,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. “AMC500k and AMCSqueeze were trending on Twitter yesterday and that momentum took the stock price above the end of January high that we saw during the peak of meme stock mania.” The movie theater chain has replaced GameStop to become the most popular stock in the infamous WallStreetBets Reddit forum, according to Bank of America’s analysis of stock mentions on the platform.Enthusiastic Reddit traders are encouraging each other to double down on AMC’s stock and call options by sharing screenshots of their portfolio and touting massive return. One trending post on WSB Friday reads: “$AMC YOLO UPDATE : 4948 shares, 10 calls, across 4 brokerages, and I still ain’t selling!”GameStop, which was the star of the show amid the January retail trading mania, is up a relatively mild 40% this week.AMC’s surge this week has already inflicted a $1.3 billion loss for short sellers, according to data from S3 Partners.Short covering could be fueling AMC’s massive rally this week. When a heavily shorted stock jumps higher in a rapid fashion, short sellers are forced to buy back borrowed shares to close out their short position and cut losses. The forced buying tends to accelerate the rally even further.AMC is a heavily shorted name with about 20% of its float shares sold short, compared with an average of 5% short interest in a typical U.S. stock, according to S3 Partners.While its business started to recover amid the economic reopening, AMC is still facing steep headwinds including theater capacity and the competition from streaming services.The company, which has around $5 billion in debt and $450 million in deferred lease repayments, has seen revenue slashed significantly due to the coronavirus pandemic.”All that really matters here long term, this company is never going to make cash again,” Rich Greenfield, co-founder of LightShed Partners, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday. “They will never generate cash with their current capital structure. It traded at 7 times EBITDA pre-pandemic. It’s now trading at 25 times EIBITA right now and it’s in worse position today with the changed industry. This just defies all logic.”— CNBC’s Sarah Whitten contributed to this article.Enjoyed this article?For exclusive stock picks, investment ideas and CNBC global livestreamSign up for CNBC ProStart your free trial now More

Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:AMC Entertainment (AMC) – The movie theater operator’s shares jumped another 15.4% in premarket trading, following four straight days of gains and a nearly 36% surge in Thursday’s session alone. AMC – popular among the so-called “meme” stocks – has more than doubled this week.Ulta Beauty (ULTA) – Ulta Beauty reported quarterly earnings of $4.07 per share, more than twice the $1.95 a share consensus estimate. The cosmetics retailer reported better-than-expected revenue as well and Ulta raised its full-year guidance, with cosmetics sales rising as the pandemic recedes. Its stock jumped 6% in premarket action.Salesforce.com (CRM) – Salesforce shares rallied 5.2% in the premarket after it reported quarterly earnings of $1.21 per share, topping the 88 cents a share consensus estimate. The business software giant’s revenue exceeded analysts’ forecasts as well, helped by strength in its “Customer 360” platform.Boeing (BA) – Boeing fell 1.2% in the premarket on news that the jet maker had halted deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner. Federal regulators want more information about Boeing’s proposed solutions to previously identified quality control issues.Big Lots (BIG) – The discount retailer initially gained ground but then fell 1.5% in premarket trading, despite reporting a better-than-expected quarter. Big Lots earned $2.62 per share, compared to a consensus estimate of $1.69 a share. Revenue topped estimates as well. Comparable-store sales rose 11.3%, compared to a consensus FactSet estimate of 5.7%.Hibbett Sports (HIBB) – The sporting goods retailer’s shares surged 5.8% in the premarket after it reported quarterly earnings of $5.00 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $2.77. Revenue exceeded expectations as well amid an 87.3% surge in same-store sales. Hibbett also raised its full-year forecast in anticipation of benefiting from pent-up demand.Dell Technologies (DELL) – Dell earned $2.13 per share for the first quarter, topping the $1.61 consensus estimate. The computer maker’s revenue beat estimates as well. Dell continues to benefit from the ongoing surge in demand for desktop PCs and notebooks, but did note the possible impact of the computer chip shortage on supplies.HP Inc. (HPQ) – HP also benefited from elevated computer demand, beating estimates by 4 cents a share with quarterly profit of 93 cents per share. Revenue topped estimates as well. HP also benefiting from better-than-expected results in its printer business. HP raised its full-year guidance, but also warned of the possible chip shortage impact, prompting a 5.6% drop in the stock in the premarket.Box (BOX) – Box beat estimates by a penny a share, with quarterly earnings of 18 cents per share. Revenue also topped Wall Street forecasts for the cloud computing company. Box also raised its full-year forecast.Costco (COST) – Costco earned $2.75 per share for its latest quarter, compared to a consensus estimate of $2.35 a share. The warehouse retailer saw revenue beat forecasts as well. Costco also warned of increasing costs for products and worker salaries.Gap (GPS) – Gap reported a quarterly profit of 48 cents per share, surprising analysts who had expected a loss of 5 cents per share. The apparel retailer’s revenue also beat estimates, and the company issued an upbeat forecast amid strength in categories like activewear and dresses. Despite the upbeat results, Gap fell 1.3% in the premarket.Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) – The drugmaker received Food and Drug Administration approval to use its Zeposia drug to treat ulcerative colitis. The oral treatment – acquired when Bristol Myers bought Celgene for $74 billion in 2019 — is already approved to treat multiple sclerosis. More

In this articleGSBACJPMU.S. banks are likely to report “record level” earnings in 2021 as the American economy recovers and financial markets remain buoyant, according to the Institute of International Finance, an industry association.Tim Adams, chief executive of the IIF, said Friday that the improving economy will help bank lending and fee income to pick up while more investing activity will boost trading revenue.”I think we’re going to see record-level earnings this year so it’s a good year for banks. We see it in the bank stocks, and I think it’ll continue to reflect those underlying, really strong fundamentals for at least the rest of this year,” Adams told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”Matteo Colombo | DigitalVision | Getty ImagesBank stocks in the U.S. have climbed higher this year. Among the big banks, shares of Goldman Sachs have jumped 40.8% so far this year as of Thursday’s close, while Bank of America and JPMorgan have gained around 40.4% and 29.3%, respectively.   Many of the big U.S. banks last month reported first-quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ expectations on several financial metrics.    Fed to ‘run this economy hot’  The improved performance of banks comes as the U.S. economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic slump. The recovery spurred worries among investors that a quicker rise in inflation could prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy sooner than it had hoped to.The U.S. consumer price index rose 4.2% in April from a year ago — the sharpest increase since 2008.Adams said it’s time the Federal Reserve starts talking about the possibility of tapering monetary policy. But there’s been little indication that Fed Chair Jerome Powell would do that soon, he added.”I think they’re going to run this economy hot. I think they’re going to run it hot for a very long time and they’re going to wait and see inflation and how sustained inflationary pressures are rather than just transitory, which is what we’re seeing now,” said Adams.The Fed had previously said that any jump in inflation would be temporary, given that it’s compared against last year’s pandemic-hit economy. The central bank also indicated that it would keep monetary policy loose. More