Raphael Stevens

Tinder has encouraged users to go on ‘virtual’ dates during the coronavirus pandemic.Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesAlong with asking about your perfect day or favorite vacation spot, popular dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Plenty of Fish will be asking members about sharing whether they’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19.The White House announced Friday that it is partnering with the apps to raise vaccine awareness among young adults and encourage them to get immunized.White House senior Covid official Andy Slavitt said one of the apps, OkCupid, says members who display their vaccination status “are 14% more likely to get a match. We have finally found the one thing that makes all of us more attractive, a vaccination.”More than 60% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose, but 42% of adults ages 18 to 34 say they are not willing to get vaccinated, according to a February Quinnipiac poll. Young adults ages 20 to 49 were responsible for 70% of the spread Covid last year, according to a study published in the journal Science. Doctors also report seeing more young adults admitted to hospitals with severe symptoms due to the spread of more dangerous variants.Slavitt revealed last week that his son, who is 19, suffers from “long-Covid,” a term used to describe those who continue to experience symptoms long after initial infection. Slavitt said his son still experiences shortness of breath and frequent flu-like symptoms six months after initial infection. Researchers say long-Covid has been observed in many young adults who experienced mild symptoms initially.With more variants emerging, summer weather approaching and mask mandates diminishing, efforts to reach hesitant young adults are intensifying.”The pandemic has also had a negative impact on young peoples’ social lives. Social distancing and dating were always a bit of a challenging combination,” Slavitt told reporters.As part of President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of U.S. adults vaccinated with at least one shot by the Fourth of July, Slavitt announced that dating apps Tinder, Plenty of Fish, OkCupid, BLK, Hinge, Match, Chispa, Bumble and Badoo will begin rolling out features to encourage vaccinations among users. The apps serve more than 50 million people combined in the U.S. and many are young adults.The apps will begin displaying badges that a user can display on their profile to note that they’ve been vaccinated or are planning to be vaccinated.Other features include access to premium content like “boosts,” “super likes” and “super swipes” for vaccinated people, and search filters so that users can specifically seek others who have been vaccinated or plan to be vaccinated.OkCupid said its features will be implemented on Monday; Chispa and BLK said theirs will be implemented on June 1. The other apps will begin to roll out the new features in the next few weeks.”In all seriousness, people are interested in other things in life besides their vaccine. But the vaccine enables people to get back to the things they enjoy in life,” Slavitt said, noting that people want to know that they can resume their normal lives in a safe way. More

Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks.DatabricksSan Francisco-based start-up Databricks was growing fast into a respected provider of cloud software for managing data on behalf of companies, doubling its revenue on an annualized basis. Then came the coronavirus pandemic.The health crisis strapped the film, hospitality, and travel sectors of the economy. But for the technology industry, Covid turned out to be a crucible, revealing which technologies were necessary and which were not.”There was a little bit, maybe a month or two, when everybody was frozen in time as to what was going to happen,” said Pete Sonsini, an investor at New Enterprise Associates who joined Databricks’ board in 2014.But after that initial period, Sonsini said companies rushed to start analyzing data in the cloud, where they could tap computing resources without having to worry about managing infrastructure in their own data centers.”They definitely accelerated through the pandemic,” he said, adding that acceleration would continue through 2021. Now, he said, the company will generate $1 billion or more in 2022 revenue.Databricks said in February it had raised $1 billion at a $28 billion valuation, with the top three U.S. cloud infrastructure providers — Amazon, Google and Microsoft — all participating. Investors were interested in sinking $2 billion to $3 billion into Databricks during the funding round, CEO Ali Ghodsi told CNBC at the time.Databricks is increasingly going after companies — such as Snowflake — that offer data-warehouse products used by large companies store data from several sources, Sonsini said. In September, Snowflake made a monster debut on the New York Stock Exchange, ending its first day of trading with a $70 billion market cap, up from $12 billion just seven months earlier. The stock has lost some of the momentum it gained after going public, but it’s still worth more than $60 billion.Snowflake’s revenue growth accelerated when the pandemic first arrived. Growth has since slowed down, although the company is still doubling revenue every quarter, making for an obvious competitive target.Snowflake and Databricks initially focused on different things. Engineers relied on Databricks to clean up large volumes of data and prepare it for analysis, while data analysts often looked to Snowflake to execute queries on the data and learn about it. But the two have converged somewhat. Databricks introduced in November technology for querying data stored in its software using the popular SQL query language.In 2019, when Snowflake tapped former ServiceNow CEO Frank Slootman to replace former Microsoft executive Bob Muglia as Snowflake’s chief executive, Muglia’s separation agreement said he could not work with Databricks — or, for that matter, the world’s top cloud-infrastructure companies. “They were a great partner, but wanted to do more of what we do,” Snowflake CFO Mike Scarpelli said in a fireside chat hosted by JMP Securities in March.It’s gotten to the point that data science consulting company Datagrom published a blog post in November titled, “Snowflake vs. Databricks: Where Should You Put Your Data?” The image at the top of the post was a Venn diagram showing what the two companies have in common.Ghodsi tried to distinguish Databricks from competitors in his February CNBC appearance. Databricks doesn’t require clients to copy data into its software in order to work with it. Instead, data can stay where it already is, such as in Amazon Web Services’ widely used S3 object-storage system, and Databricks can still crunch the data, he said. More

CNBC’s Jim Cramer is eager to begin focusing back on the stock market, but the cryptocurrency craze is still capturing Wall Street’s attention.He expects that bitcoin and other speculative coins will continue to be top of mind, and the big declines being witnessed in crypto markets will drag on stocks. This could create buying opportunities for investors in stocks as another packed week of earnings rolls through.”All in all, this is a historically slow week, but there are enough new companies reporting that it’s now jam-packed,” Cramer, discussing his game plan for next week, said on “Mad Money” Friday.The week ahead will close out trading for the month. With the exception of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the major U.S. indexes are down month to date. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is down 3.5% in May, while the S&P 500 has lost 0.6% over that time period. The Dow is up about 1% in May. Cramer gave viewers a preview of the upcoming corporate earnings reports he has circled on his calendar.”Maybe, just maybe, that can overshadow bitcoin, as long as Elon Musk can keep his mouth shut about crypto,” he said.Projections for revenue and earnings per share are based on FactSet estimates:Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsMonday: Lordstown Motors earningsLordstown MotorsQ1 2021 earnings release: after market; conference call: 4:30 p.m.Projected losses per share: 28 centsProjected revenue: $0″Right now, this market despises all the pre-revenue SPAC plays because they burned people so badly over the last few months,” Cramer said. “Lordstown’s stock’s down roughly 70% from its highs. I don’t know how they can get their mojo back, but, you know, maybe they’ll surprise me.”Tuesday: Autozone, Intuit, Toll Brothers earningsAutozoneFiscal Q3 2021 earnings release: before market; conference call: 10 a.m.Projected EPS: $20.13Projected revenue: $3.27 billion”This is a very reliable company, so you can get in the zone both before and after earnings,” Cramer said.IntuitFiscal Q3 2021 earnings release: after market; conference call: 4:30 p.m.Projected EPS: $6.51Projected revenue: $4.42 billion”Intuit’s stock hit an all-time high today,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to deter buyers.”Toll BrothersFiscal Q2 2021 earnings release: after market; conference call: Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.Projected EPS: 80 centsProjected revenue: $1.78 billion”If Toll tells a story of strong orders and … expanding gross margins, I think the stock can get its groove back,” the host said. “But everything has to be perfect, including assurances from management that lumber and appliance costs are indeed under control.”Wednesday: Dick’s Sporting Goods, American Eagle Outfitters, Williams-Sonoma, Nvidia, Snowflake, Okta, Workday earningsDick’s Sporting GoodsQ1 2021 earnings release: before market; conference call: Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.Projected EPS: $1.16Projected revenue: $2.2 billion”I bet they deliver astounding numbers because all sorts of sporting goods are in short supply as Americans venture outdoors en masse,” Cramer said.American Eagle OutfittersQ1 2021 earnings release: 4:15 p.m.; conference call: 4:30 p.m.Projected EPS: 46 centsProjected revenue: $1.02 billion”I think we could see similar strength from American Eagle, as it’s currently the hottest apparel chain on earth,” he said.Williams-SonomaQ1 2021 earnings release: after market; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected EPS: $1.72Projected revenue: $1.5 billion”I expect great numbers, but it’s been tagged as a stay-at-home stock of late, which is the kiss of death in this post-pandemic market,” the host said.NvidiaFiscal Q1 2022 earnings release: after market; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected EPS: $3.28Projected revenue: $5.39 billion”I think the chipmaker has a lot going for it, but I still want to hear how confident they feel about getting regulatory permission for the Arm Holdings acquisition,” he said.SnowflakeFiscal Q1 2022 earnings release: after market; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected losses per share: 16 centsProjected revenue: $360 millionOktaFiscal Q1 2022 earnings release: after market; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected losses per share: 12 centsProjected revenue: $309 million”They’re two of the fastest-growing companies on earth,” Cramer said. “I expect great numbers from both, but you should only buy them if you think this market will change its attitude toward high-flying growth names that don’t trade on earnings — they trade on sales.”WorkdayFiscal Q1 2022 earnings release: after market; conference call: 4:30 p.m.Projected EPS: 73 centsProjected revenue: $1.16 billion”Workday should deliver still one more stunning quarter as they use cloud-software to automate back-office jobs in human resources and finance,” he said.Thursday: Best Buy, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Medtronic, Gap, Ulta Beauty, Costco, Salesforce, Dell earningsBest BuyFiscal Q1 earnings release: 7 a.m.; conference call: 8 a.m.Projected EPS: $1.36Projected revenue: $10.32 billionDollar GeneralFiscal Q1 earnings release: TBD; conference call: 10 a.m.Projected EPS: $2.13Projected revenue: $8.16 billionDollar TreeQ1 2021 earnings release: TBD; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected EPS: $1.40Projected revenue: $6.4 billion”I like all three and think they’re good stimulus plays, but their stocks have become awfully controversial and I don’t really care for controversy,” Cramer said. “There are easier ways to make money.”MedtronicFiscal Q4 2021 earnings release: 6:45 a.m.; conference call: 8 a.m.Projected EPS: $1.42Projected revenue: $8.14 billion”I bet they report a stellar number because its medical devices are being installed in record numbers post-pandemic,” he said. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand from people who delayed surgery until they could get vaccinated.”GapQ1 earnings release: 4:15 p.m.; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected losses per share: 6 centsProjected revenue: $3.41 billion”Gap is very much back, something you can tell if you visit their stores: crisp, clean and reasonable prices,” the host said.Ulta BeautyQ1 2021 earnings release: after market; conference call: 4:30 p.m.Projected EPS: $1.95Projected revenue: $1.65 billion”Ulta’s a big winner once everyone can take their masks off,” he said.CostcoFiscal Q3 2021 earnings release: 4:15 p.m.; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected EPS: $2.31Projected revenue: $43.64 billion”Costco has a tendency to run up into the quarter and then sell off immediately even if the numbers are great. Doesn’t matter what they print,” Cramer said. “I love Costco the store, I love Costco the stock … but you don’t want to buy it until after you see the results — let this one come to you.”SalesforceFiscal Q1 2022 earnings release: after market; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected EPS: 88 centsProjected revenue: $5.89 billion”Salesforce reported a barnburner last time and nobody seemed to care, maybe because they still need to close the Slack acquisition,” he said.DellQ1 2022 earnings release: 5:30 p.m.; conference call: 5:30 p.m.Projected EPS: $1.71Projected revenue: $23.80 billion”You can buy it ahead of time because [CEO] Michael Dell’s going to tell a fantastic story,” the host said. “I bet they’ll have a terrific quarter.”Friday: Big Lots, Hibbett Sports earningsBig LotsFiscal Q1 2021 earnings release: TBD; conference call: 8 a.m.Projected EPS: $1.69Projected revenue: $1.54 billionHibbett SportsQ1 2022 earnings release: after market; conference call: 5 p.m.Projected EPS: $2.56Projected revenue: $404 million”I’m betting both will be terrific,” Cramer said.Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Salesforce, Nvidia and Costco.DisclaimerQuestions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More

Artist drawing of a supersonic jet designed to fly at speeds up to Mach 1.4 or approximately 1,000 miles per hour.Aerion CorporationAerion Supersonic, the Nevada-based company that planned to build business jets capable of silently flying nearly twice as fast as commercial aircraft, is shutting down, the company confirmed to CNBC on Friday.”In the current financial environment, it has proven hugely challenging to close on the scheduled and necessary large new capital requirements” to begin production of its AS2 supersonic jet, the company said in a statement.”Aerion Corporation is now taking the appropriate steps in consideration of this ongoing financial environment,” the company said.Florida Today first reported the company’s abrupt closure.Aerion aimed to fly its first AS2 jet by 2024, with the goal of beginning commercial services by 2026. The company developed a patented technology it calls “boomless cruise,” which it said would allow AS2 to fly without creating a sonic boom – an issue that plagued the supersonic Concorde jets of the past.The AS2 was priced at $120 million per jet. Aerion CEO Tom Vice said at a UBS conference in January 2020 that he expected it would cost the company about $4 billion to develop AS2, with $1 billion having been spent at the time to develop an engine.The company had accrued multiple partnerships along the way – including with Boeing, General Electric, and Berkshire Hathaway-owned NetJets – and boasted an $11.2 billion sales backlog for its AS2 jets. Earlier this year Aerion, in press conference with Florida governor Ron DeSantis, unveiled it would build a $375 million manufacturing facility at the Orlando Melbourne International Airport.An Aerion spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on what will happen to Aerion’s assets.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

More Americans are vaccinated against Covid everyday, but that’s not the only reason coronavirus cases in the U.S. keep falling, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday.In an interview on “Closing Bell,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said additional factors contributing to declining infection levels include warming weather and the fact that a portion of the unvaccinated population has already been infected with Covid.Gottlieb’s comments Friday came as the country’s seven-day average of daily new coronavirus infections fell below 30,000 for the first time in almost a year; in late March, that figure was around 66,000.The case decline has coincided with an expansion of vaccine availability. As of Friday, nearly 50% of the U.S. population has received at least one Covid vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In late March, that number was slightly less than 30%.However, the percentage of Americans who have some immunity against coronavirus is higher than the vaccination rates, Gottlieb said, estimating that at least one-third of the population has been infected. The U.S. has had around 33 million total confirmed Covid cases, but Gottlieb has repeatedly said the official tally is an undercount.”We don’t have data on this, but my guess would be that the infection level among the unvaccinated population is probably higher because a lot of people probably aren’t getting the vaccine because they knew they were previously infected,” Gottlieb said.People who have recovered from Covid do have natural antibodies, but the CDC and other experts recommend they also get the vaccine. In fact, people who had the disease and receive the Covid shot may develop stronger protection against virus variants.People who have yet to be vaccinated might have been less concerned about the virus during the pandemic and spent less time at home as a result, Gottlieb added.”So, if you assume that the percent of prior infection among the unvaccinated population is more than that third, and it probably is, and you assume that we’ve given at least one dose to around half the population right now, we’re approaching pretty high levels of immunity,” said Gottlieb, who led the FDA from 2017 to 2019 in the Trump administration. He now serves on the board of vaccine maker Pfizer.And while states are lifting many pandemic-era restrictions, such as capacity limits at restaurants, Gottlieb said, some people have not returned to their pre-Covid behavior, which is helping with case reductions.”People are being more cautious, generally, even though we’re starting to take masks off and go out and about,” Gottlieb said. “People are more cautious about their interactions, so some of that is still having a downward effect on transmission.”Gottlieb predicted the country’s case counts will continue to decline in the coming weeks, while cautioning the pandemic is unlikely to be declared “over.” He added, “I think we’re going to have a very quiet summer with respect to coronavirus spread and then have to contend with it again as we head into the winter.”Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus, health-care tech company Aetion and biotech company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ and Royal Caribbean’s “Healthy Sail Panel.” More

In this articleDALDelta Air Lines Airbus A330neo or A330-900 aircraft with neo engine option of the European plane manufacturer, as seen departing from Amsterdam Schiphol AMS EHAM International airport.Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty ImagesDelta Air Lines named on Friday longtime General Electric executive Dan Janki as its new CFO. The announcement comes as the carrier seeks to stem losses after the coronavirus pandemic decimated travel demand.The airline’s former CFO, Paul Jacobson, left the Atlanta-based airline last year and was named CFO of General Motors in October. Gary Chase and Bill Carroll served as interim co-CFOs at Delta.Janki, 53, had joined General Electric in 1992 and was most recently a senior vice president and CEO of GE’s power unit. He is set to start at Delta on July 12 and receive an annual base pay of $650,000 along with a cash signing bonus of $1.5 million, Delta said in a filing.Delta’s shares closed Friday down 0.4% at $45.21 and are up 12% so far this year. More