Raphael Stevens

In this articleMRNAA healthcare worker fills a syringe with Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. At the Giorgio Companies site in Blandon, PA where the CATE Mobile Vaccination Unit was onsite to administer Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines to workers Wednesday morning April 14, 2021.Ben Hasty | MediaNews Group | Getty ImagesShares of two Covid vaccine makers seesawed Thursday after the Biden administration said it would back a motion before the World Trade Organization to waive patent protections of the mRNA technology used to make the vaccines.Pfizer fell Thursday by as much as 5% from Wednesday’s close while Moderna dipped by almost 12% before both stocks recovered most of those losses. The companies use the same mRNA technology to make their shots.Pfizer, which is making its Covid-19 vaccine with German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, closed down by about 1% for the day, while Moderna lost about 1.4% for the day.South Africa and India are pressing U.S. officials and the WTO to temporarily waive patent protections so developing countries can produce the lifesaving vaccines until world leaders can get the pandemic under control. Human rights organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and Amnesty International have all signed on to a letter supporting the proposal.U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai released a statement Wednesday evening backing the waiver.”This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” she said. “The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.”Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told investors on an earnings call Thursday he “did not lose a minute of sleep” over the news and said that trader concerns were misguided.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest coverage of the Covid pandemic:Covid vaccine makers’ shares seesaw after Biden administration says it will back patent waivers Global Covid death toll more than double official estimates, says IHME Moderna says early data shows Covid vaccine is 96% effective in teens Russia authorizes use of ‘Sputnik Light,’ a one-shot Covid vaccine it says is 79% effectiveJohnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca both use an adenovirus, a common type of virus that typically causes mild cold symptoms, in making their Covid vaccines. Shares of both of those companies were little changed Thursday.President Joe Biden made a campaign promise last year to “absolutely, positively” waive vaccine patents. Waiving the patent protections could take months or even years.Critics of the move say that developing countries don’t have the infrastructure available to manufacture the vaccines, but others disagree.Analysts largely shrugged off the news.”We believe any new manufacturing operation could take 6 to 9 months to scale, effectively limiting the impact of other producers. Thus, while we expect pressure on MRNA from the headlines, we do not see significant practical implications from this news,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a research note Thursday.Analysts at Bank of America cited “barriers to vaccine development including sourcing raw materials, developing manufacturing and technical know-how.” They also note that “US support is not the same as approval where WTO decisions require consensus, and other members such as the EU, UK, Japan, and Switzerland currently oppose waiving IP.”Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, joined those countries Thursday in opposing the waivers. “The limiting factor in vaccine manufacturing is production capacity and high quality standards, not patents,” a spokeswoman for Merkel said in a statement.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen didn’t embrace the waiver plan, saying in a speech she is “ready to discuss any proposals that address the crisis in an effective and pragmatic manner.”Both Pfizer and Moderna already have plans in motion to produce billions of doses in the meantime, essentially leaving any competitors far behind in the manufacturing process. More

In this articleNCLHThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is allowing cruise ships to resume operations this summer, but Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Frank Del Rio says that will be unlikely given the agency’s tough requirements.”I seriously doubt we will be able to stand up a vessel out of a U.S. port in July. August is also in jeopardy and it’s all because of the disjointed guidelines from the CDC,” Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Frank Del Rio said on CNBC’s Closing Bell. “What we received yesterday was anything but a clear path to restarting.”The company announced international cruises will resume in July from Greece, Spain, Italy, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.The CDC issued technical guidance for the cruise industry last week and announced it was committed to allowing the industry to resume operations by mid-summer.Del Rio claimed the requirements put on the cruise industry are tougher than those for any other industry.”The unfair treatment that the industry has had to endure for over a year continues. It’s got to stop, it’s unfair, it’s un-American and certainly in contradiction with the goals set forth by President [Joe] Biden,” said Del Rio.The CDC issued guidelines to start simulated trips and apply for Covid-19 conditional sailing certificates with restricted passenger voyages.”We have never seen this level of demand in the history of the company,” said Del Rio. “Not only do we have more bookings by a substantial amount for 2022 at this point, but they’re at hire prices.”The company said the time it needs to prepare its ships will delay the restart of cruises.”We are going to vaccinate 100% of everyone onboard our vessel. We are dumbfounded, quite frankly, as to why the CDC continues to put forth onerous requirements on our industry,” Del Rio said.The company’s stock closed down 6.8% Tuesday after Norwegian reported lower-than-expected quarterly losses and missed revenue expectations before the bell. Shares were up less than 1% in extending trading. More

In this articleGMDETROIT — Since taking over the helm of General Motors in 2014, CEO Mary Barra has meticulously cut costs, slashed about 64,000 jobs, exited unprofitable markets overseas and audaciously pledged to make GM an all-electric auto company by 2035.Though controversial at times, each of those decisions took GM one step closer to where it is today: poised for growth in new markets.Barra’s GM looks vastly different from the one she inherited out of the financial crisis. Leveraging its core business, GM is targeting trillions in future markets that stretch far beyond just selling cars and trucks.”This is just the beginning for the next generation of General Motors,” Barra told investors Wednesday during GM’s first-quarter earnings call. “We are well on track with our plans to transform our company and lead the industry into the future.”Leading much of the expansion is GM’s global growth and innovation team. New businesses from the team have included electric commercial vehicles, auto insurance, military defense and expanding services of its connected OnStar brand, with more new ventures on the way.$1.3 trillionThe Detroit automaker’s innovation division has identified $1.3 trillion in new market opportunities that it believes complements its core business and it has a right to “win in,” executives told CNBC. That does not include GM’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle unit Cruise, which could be an $8 trillion market in the future, or urban air mobility, which it predicts will be a more than $1 trillion market of its own.”Our whole goal is to grow the [total addressable market] through utilizing existing GM assets, know-how, IP where we have existing capabilities to solve new problems for maybe customers we have now, maybe customers that we don’t have now,” Pam Fletcher, GM vice president of global innovation, said during a video interview.The expansion plans, if successful, would alter how the company makes money and could help temper the boom-and-bust cycles of the automotive industry. GM would rely more on recurring revenue from software and services rather than simply producing and selling vehicles.GM’s innovation team has about 20 initiatives in its pipeline that target that $1.3 trillion in potential new markets, according to Alan Wexler, GM’s senior vice president of innovation and growth.Wexler said the team is evaluating urban air mobility — think flying cars and taxis — for the mid-2030s as well as more sustainable businesses such as recycling electric vehicle batteries to use as power generators.Renderings from GM of the “Cadillac halo portfolio” that includes concepts of an autonomous shuttle (right) and an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, also known as a flying vehicle.Screenshot via GMThe mission is to have the innovation unit, which was created in 2018, serve as a start-up incubator within the automaker, allowing each business to move more quickly than GM traditionally has. Wexler describes the end goal as creating a company that will be radically different from what it is today.”I think the most exciting thing and the reason why I’m here is we’re creating a company that doesn’t exist in the world, and frankly we’re creating an industry that doesn’t exist in the world, and we’re doing it for the sake of people on the planet,” he said during a video interview.Global growth strategyBoth Wexler, former CEO of consulting firm Publicis Sapient, as well as Fletcher, a GM veteran, have been tasked by Barra to lead the automaker’s growth into new segments.So far, the innovation division has launched a military defense unit and a new commercial EV business called BrightDrop and expanded GM’s decades-old OnStar connectivity brand into insurance, vehicle logistics and security services.”What we’re focused on doing here is to set the context for everything that we do,” Wexler said. “We’re not looking at the sideview or the rearview mirror, if I can use an auto analogy. We’re really looking toward the future.”Barra told investors this week that GM remains fully committed to investing in its new businesses as well as EVs despite the coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips.”The challenges we have with semiconductors right now are a temporary situation,” she said. “We will work through that and move beyond it, and it’s not impacting our transformation and growth strategy.”Barra’s intentions to reimagine the company largely began publicly in 2017, when the company acquired Cruise and launched mobility initiatives such as its now defunct Maven mobility brand. It did so while making significant cuts to its business operations, including exiting Europe, Russia and other markets.Read moreGeneral Motors unveils EV van as part of new commercial business unitGM shares hit record high as automaker reveals electric van and delves into flying carsGM to offer auto insurance that uses data from connected vehicles to price ratesInvestors finally reward General Motors’ shift to EVs even as it cuts emerging mobility plans”When you look at our core business, it is truly the foundation for the transformative opportunities that are right in front of us,” Barra told investors during a Barclays conference in November 2017. Later she added: “Make no mistake, we are here to win.”That desire to “win” is a guiding principle along with the company’s “triple zero” vision to eliminate crashes, emissions and congestion with products developed by its innovation team, according to Fletcher.”We always want to do more faster, but I think we’ve got a lot of great things in motion and that are going to be game-changing for people,” she said.’A lot of upside’The new initiatives, coupled with GM’s plan to become an all-electric vehicle company by 2035, have led shares of the company to recent record highs.”I like all the verticals they’re pursuing,” Morningstar analyst David Whiston told CNBC. “I don’t think they’re frivolous science projects or anything like that.”He said many of the businesses could have “a lot of upside” that’s probably not being priced in to its stock because it’s early and it’s unclear just how big they could become.General Motors plans to launch a new all-electric van called the EV600 by the end of this year. The first 500 vehicles will be sold to FedEx.GMMorgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas called GM a “SPACtopus” because of its new business units addressing many sectors of an influx of start-up companies going public through reverse mergers with special purpose acquisition companies, also known as SPACs.In an investor note, Jonas called the businesses “hidden gems,” including some more traditional business operations such as Corvette, Cadillac and its financial arm.Bank of America Global Research analyst John Murphy described the new business units, specifically BrightDrop, as proof GM “has class-leading technology internally to compete” against SPACs in a note earlier this year. He told investors that the new verticals could be “separated and monetized over time.”GM’s stock is up more than 160% during the past year. Shares are at more than $57, up about 38% so far this year. Its market cap is about $84 billion. Barra said Wednesday the company will host a meeting this fall focused on its futuristic growth initiatives.”We’ll use this event to go deeper into our growth strategy and financial opportunities and everything that drives them, including software, hardware and services along with our strong brands,” Barra said.— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report. More

An illustrative image of Amazon Shopping app seen on a mobile phone screen in front of an old (L) and a new (R) Amazon Shopping app icons displayed on a screen. Amazon has quietly changed its new Amazon Shopping app icon, replacing the blue ribbon on top that drew some unfavorable comparisons. On Wednesday, March 3, 2021, in Dublin, Ireland.Artur Widak | NurPhoto | Getty ImagesAmazon’s advertising business is soaring.The company’s massive “other” business category, which is primarily (but not exclusively) ad revenue, grew 77% in the first quarter to $6.9 billion in revenue.Apple’s recent privacy changes, which make it easier for users to block advertisers from tracking them, could add more fuel to its growth. Amazon holds an enormous amount of in-depth consumer data — as of last month, the company said it had more than 200 million global members in its Prime program. As Apple’s App Tracking Transparency changes goes into effect, Amazon’s data will likely become a more rare and valuable commodity for marketers. Apple’s changes to iOS 14.5 mean that iPhone and iPad users can opt out more easily from the kind of tracking that helps advertisers target ads or measure whether ads worked. Although Amazon will also have to show this prompt to its customers, it matters less for the e-commerce giant. When users are logged in to Amazon properties, the company can still track what they’re doing in the app, which ads they saw or clicked or purchased from, regardless of whether a user opted in or not.It’s not yet clear how much other major players who rely more on third-party information (like Facebook) will be hurt by Apple’s changes, or for how long. Ad agency leaders told CNBC their client budgets for the most part are staying stable as they wait and see how these changes will impact their campaigns’ performances.But many in the marketing world said they see Amazon, and similar data-rich ad offerings from companies like Walmart or Target, as a reliable way to keep getting the kind of data they rely on to target ads and measure performance. Amazon’s strong first-party relationship with consumers means it could still collect activity across its various properties. If shoppers watch an ad on Prime Video, for instance, and eventually make a purchase later on, it should be able to offer marketers that intel.With that status in the market, Amazon looks poised to keep expanding its role in the ad ecosystem. It could from its traditional role as a place where consumer packaged goods marketers push specific products to potentially expanding into a brand advertising powerhouse.Representatives from Amazon declined to comment on the iOS 14.5 changes and its potential impact on the company’s ad revenue.What Apple’s change means for Amazon’s ads Apple released iOS 14.5 last week, a regular update to its iPhone and iPad operating system. The update included a new framework giving users more transparency and control over apps that want to track them for advertising. When users on the new iOS open an app, they see a pop-up asking if the app can access their unique device ID for advertisers. That pop-up will ask if they want to be tracked, and will show why the app wants you to opt in. For instance, an app might say you’ll get ads that are more relevant to your interests if you allow tracking.The impact is likely to vary. In January, MKM Partners released a study based on a framework to determine IDFA risk to online companies, based on seven factors. Of the companies examined, Amazon would be among the lowest tier of exposure, they said. Experts largely see the “walled gardens” of Facebook, Google and Amazon as suffering less from the changes happening in the industry. Though advertising will lose much of the data the players have relied on, the large ones still have data around what people are doing on their own properties.But even on the tier of the walled gardens, the impact will depend, and social networks may have less data that marketers want than an e-commerce player like Amazon.”Not all walled gardens are created equal,” Mindshare chief data strategy officer Shane McAndrew said.When it comes to Amazon’s bread-and-butter ad products – ads that let companies buy placement within Amazon sites and apps – advertisers are likely to see little impact, said Will Tjernlund, chief marketing officer of Goat Consulting, a firm that focuses on brands selling on Amazon. “The traditional, older advertising products within Amazon will see no effect. It should be just as good as normal,” Tjernlund said. “Since they use Amazon’s own data, they attract people within Amazon’s own websites or own apps.” And if users are logged in across different Amazon properties, that data shouldn’t be impacted. For instance, if someone was logged in to Amazon’s IMDb TV upcoming app, that data could be used for marketing purposes on the Amazon app, even if that user had opted-out of sharing their ad identifier on their phone. “All that data is fair game for use in targeting ads to Amazon users on Amazon-owned properties,” analyst and owner of website Mobile Dev Memo Eric Seufert said.Where advertisers could start to run into some difficulty with Amazon in a post-IDFA world involves the company’s ad products that involve off-site tracking, which aren’t a huge proportion of its business. For instance, Amazon may struggle somewhat with its demand-side platform, which advertisers can use to reach consumers both on Amazon properties and on third-party sites.Amazon doesn’t break out revenue for its various products publicly, but experts believe ads running off-site are a fairly small proportion of its ad business. EMarketer estimates 89% of Amazon’s net digital ad revenues in the U.S. are from e-commerce channel ads, meaning on-site ads likely constitute the vast majority.Following the changes by Apple and Google, which is planning to deprecate third-party tracking cookies, tracking off-site is not going to be as easy.”It’s going to be a challenge for them to be able to buy media off-site off of their properties, using their data. We know that’s going to be an issue on desktop, it’s going to be an issue on mobile,” Forrester senior analyst Collin Colburn said. “The headwind is certainly going to be off-site, which has been a category that they’ve been trying to grow.”The pandemic and the rise of ‘retail media’Amazon sits at the forefront of another trend in marketing.With so many consumers at home and not purchasing in stores at the beginning of the pandemic, brands were looking for even more intel into who their customers are and how they were buying. Walmart, Target, CVS, Kroger and a slew of other companies have ad offerings in the “retail media” space – the ability to target ads for products where consumers are actually buying them on those sites. Forrester Research estimates brands spent at least $5 billion on retail media in 2020. Though some of these offerings have existed for years, retailers like Walmart have been doubling down in the area.”It’s booming. I mean, it’s absolutely huge at this point,” Colburn said. “We were very conservative in saying that brands spent at least $5 billion on retail media in 2020. It’s much more than that.” In a world where advertisers have a more difficult time tracking consumers across sites, retail media solutions are a way to get more insight at the point of purchase.  “The problem is when you click on a Google ad or a Facebook ad, you don’t know if it’s converting or not,” former Amazon employee and CEO of CommerceIQ Guru Hariharan said. CommerceIQ advises brands on their Amazon business. “You know it got clicked but you don’t know who clicked it. So we’re seeing a bunch of those dollars moving.”Following Apple’s changes, “the ability for me to target you as a profile or a consumer is reduced, which means it becomes even less measurable, whereas Amazon and Walmart are becoming more and more measurable,” Hariharan said. “If you’re General Mills, Walmart becomes a lot more interesting to you because grocery shopping is still happening more on Walmart than on Amazon.”Moving up the funnel Advertisers want to know they’re getting their money’s worth. So even if they’re running a big branding effort that doesn’t necessarily urge a consumer to buy a pair of shorts or download an app right away, they want to know the advertising did something. Brands may be looking for environments to advertise that gives them those answers once that ability becomes more difficult, once they can no longer rely on as much third-party data. Amazon, with its extensive first-party data relationships with so many consumers, is increasingly positioning itself as one solution.Amazon’s booming advertising business is primarily being driven right now by purchase-driven advertising. This includes “low-hanging fruit” like sponsored ads in search or elsewhere on the site, Mediaocean chief marketing officer Aaron Goldman said. But Amazon is increasingly making a play for more brand-driven advertising as well, which could accelerate growth significantly.Amazon has already signaled it’s deepening its brand advertising initiatives. During its inaugural NewFronts presentation on Monday, the company highlighted opportunities for marketers to tap into its video properties, including streaming platforms Prime Video, IMDb TV and Twitch, as well as big-ticket events like “Thursday Night Football.” To that end, Amazon said its ad-supported video content now reaches more than 120 million monthly viewers. Marketers and industry analysts told CNBC they believe it won’t be long before Amazon ramps up audio advertising as well. The company said as much last month at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual leadership meeting, where it teased its upcoming moves in the podcast ads space. The company can leverage its recent purchase of podcasting start-up Wondery and its ad-supported Amazon Music service to drive additional advertising revenue, by allowing brands to buy ads alongside audio content. Amazon is also growing brand advertising on its core e-commerce platform by featuring sponsored video ads within search, which is a valuable tool for small and big businesses that sell products on Amazon.”I think this is a massive opportunity,” Mindshare’s McAndrew said. “You’re going to see them move purposefully into the brand advertising area in ways they haven’t before. They’ve got all the ingredients,” to win in this realm, he said.But there’s still work to be done in this realm, MightyHive go-to-market director Nicholas Seo said.”For some of these more creative formats that are more involved executions and integrations, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done at the back end,” he said. “I think the interest is definitely there, at least from our clients, but more so Amazon has prioritization to do as to where they want to focus. But we definitely see a lot of things ramping up on that side.”And it could promote even higher growth.”I still think they can keep growing at 70% just off the backs of direct response, I think they can get north of 100% once they start fully monetizing the brand opportunity,” Goldman said, pointing to opportunities like video and audio ads.  More

In this articleTPRCoach Signature handbagSource: CoachCoach and Kate Spade owner Tapestry is seeing signs that consumers are returning to celebrating love, gathering with friends and going back into offices.”We are starting to see where people have put off weddings for over a year — some of those life events — people are coming out and engaging in the real world again,” Chief Executive Joanne Crevoiserat said in an interview Thursday.Tapestry, which also owns Stuart Weitzman, is quickly restocking merchandise in the bridal category, Crevoiserat noted. More shoppers are scouting for dressier heels and clutch bags to take to events such as weddings and showers.”But it’s all about balance,” the CEO explained. “We’re also introducing newness in casual, as well. We are seeing positive signs and encouraging signs of a recovery as the vaccination efforts progress.”Coach President Todd Kahn said another key opportunity for the brand in the months ahead will be selling shoppers back-to-work bags that are big enough to hold laptops, tablets, planners and other office accessories.”Particularly in North America, as the consumer goes back, we see two opportunities,” Kahn explained. “One is the bag that I need for work, which I haven’t replaced in maybe a year and a half, and then that fun bag to go out with.”Tapestry reported fiscal third-quarter sales and earnings that topped analyst estimates, boosted by digital growth and demand for luxury goods roaring back in China. In North America, its sales returned to pre-pandemic levels.But Tapestry shares were falling around 4% in early afternoon trading Thursday, as its overall revenue remained below 2019 levels. The retailer has yet to offer a full-year outlook. More