Raphael Stevens

The Biden administration’s recently announced restrictions on travelers from India are unlikely to play a significant role in limiting new coronavirus cases in the U.S., Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday.”Will it have an impact? Perhaps a minor impact on the margins in terms of reducing introductions. It’s not going to dramatically affect our trajectory at this point,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said on “Closing Bell.”  “It’s probably going to do more harm to India than any good that it attributes to us.” Gottlieb, who sits on the board of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer, said he thinks the White House’s primary rationale for restricting travel from India is concern over the coronavirus variant known as B.1.617. It was first detected in the country and is believed to be highly contagious.”But that variant is here anyway and the best way to reduce the risk of that variant is, frankly, to get more Americans vaccinated,” said Gottlieb, who led the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. “That’s going to be the best backstop against the spread of that variant, not restricting travel at this point.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier Friday announced the travel restrictions, which go into effect Tuesday. India has been experiencing a major surge of Covid cases in recent weeks, straining its health-care system as daily death counts hit new records.The travel order is expected to apply to non-U.S. citizens or permanent residents who have recently been in India, according to a person familiar with the matter. That means the restrictions will take a similar format to those that been implemented on much travel to the U.S. from China, Brazil and the European Union, effectively barring most visitors from India to the U.S.”There are some studies that show when you implement travel restrictions — and most of the studies that have been done have looked at this in the context of an influenza pandemic — that you can delay introduction of a virus into a new region, that you slow the introduction and maybe reduce the peak of the epidemic that another country is going to experience,” Gottlieb said.If the U.S. would have put in place travel restrictions “that weren’t so leaky” earlier in the pandemic, Gottlieb said, it’s possible that it would’ve taken longer for the coronavirus to enter into the country and limit the severity of the outbreak.”But at this point, we have enough virus here in the United States that we’re not going to prevent introduction of the virus from India,” he said.The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Gottlieb’s remarks.Coronavirus cases in the U.S. have continued to decline as more Americans are vaccinated against Covid. On Friday, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that more than 100 million Americans have been fully vaccinated.The pace of new vaccinations each day has been slowing down, however, and states are working to find ways to appeal to Americans who are not particularly eager to get a Covid shot.”I think we can continue to chip away at it,” Gottlieb said, suggesting that a drop off in average shots per day “doesn’t mean we’re doing a bad job.” He added, “I think it’s inevitable that it’s going to start to slow as you get into softer demand.””Things like vaccination buses where they just drive up into communities and people can show up and get vaccinated on site with no wait. That’s the way we’re going to get more people vaccinated,” Gottlieb added. “Also delivering vaccines through worksites, that’s going to help as well.”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 Inc. and biotech company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ and Royal Caribbean’s “Healthy Sail Panel.” More

Just weeks after announcing that Kobe Bryant’s estate has parted ways with Nike, the late NBA star’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, announced on Friday the introduction of her Mambacita clothing line.Bryant said on her Instagram account that she will release the collection May 1, what would have been the 15th birthday of Gianna, or “Gigi,” Kobe and Vanessa’s daughter who died along with Kobe in a Jan. 26, 2020, helicopter crash. Bryant said that 100% of the proceeds will go to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, the nonprofit started in the memory of Kobe and Gigi to benefit underserved youth in sports.Gigi’s nickname was Mambacita.It’s unclear whether this is the beginning of a bigger launch, but Bryant said that unisex and children’s sizes will be available. The website offering the collection was down Friday afternoon, saying “internal error.”Since May 2020, the Kobe Bryant estate has filed more than a dozen trademark applications, according to Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney and founder of Gerben Intellectual Property. “Over the past year, Vanessa Bryant, via a corporate entity in Kobe’s name, has been making trademark filings which indicate a desire to build a brand around Kobe and Gianna’s legacy,” he said. Gerben said three trademarks are used in the pictures she posted that include the word Mambacita, the M logo and the 2 hearts logo. “Based on trademark filing activity … I would also expect to see more products launched soon,” he said. “Ultimately, creating a clothing and footwear brand without a large corporate partner will be challenging. It is certainly not outside the realm of possibility, but there are challenges on the business side that make a partnership with an established company still seem like a strong possibility,” Gerben said.Vanessa Bryant and Nike were at odds, according to sources. She was unhappy with the lack of availability of his products, a strategy shoe companies often use to spur demand. On April 20, Bryant told fans that despite leaving Nike, her hope is that Kobe’s fans will be able to wear his products for years to come.”I will continue to fight for that,” she said in the post. “Kobe’s products sell out in seconds. That says everything.” More

Eataly NYC Downtown reopens with Color Factory for La Pizza & La Pasta A Colori art installation created by artist Eric Rieger (AKA HOTTEA) on April 21, 2021 in New York City.Noam Galai | Getty ImagesNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that indoor dining capacity in New York City will be increased to 75% on May 7, finally matching indoor dining capacity regulations in the rest of the state.”After a long and incredibly difficult fight, New York State is winning the war against Covid-19, and that means it’s time to loosen some restrictions put in place to protect the public health and help our local businesses,” the governor said.The announcement comes a day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would fully reopen by July 1 after more than a year of restrictions. Cuomo said he thinks the city could reopen sooner.Restaurants won’t be the only businesses getting a capacity upgrade. Fitness centers and personal care services will be opening their doors to a higher flow of patrons as well.New York City gyms and fitness centers will expand to 50% capacity beginning May 15, while hair salons, nail salons, barbershops and other personal care services will expand to 75% capacity beginning May 7.The governor announced Wednesday that bar seating restrictions will be lifted on May 3. Outdoor dining curfews of 12 a.m. are set to end by May 17, and indoor dining curfews will expire May 31.Casinos and gaming facilities will increase from 25% to 50% capacity, and offices will increase from 50% to 75% capacity.”We need to reopen and rebuild our economy as the data and the science improves in our favor, and these new announcements will help New Yorkers get back on their feet after an incredibly tough year,” Bronx Chamber of Commerce President Lisa Sorin said in a press release.Severe restrictions on bars and restaurants that began in March of last year left the city suffering widespread unemployment, with more than 1,200 restaurants closing their doors permanently as of July 2020, according to the New York City comptroller.The announcements come as the city records a seven-day average of 1,480 new cases. Almost 6.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the city, with 30% of city residents fully vaccinated, according to the city’s department of health.Correction: This article has been updated to clarify that 30% of New York City residents have been fully vaccinated, according to the city’s department of health. More

In this articleLLoews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch told CNBC on Friday that he sees indications that large events will return soon, a key piece of the hospitality industry’s recovery from coronavirus pandemic-induced woes.”We are starting to see groups come back. We are very optimistic about group business in Q3, Q4, next year in 2022,” Tisch said in an interview on “Power Lunch.” “We’re starting to see investment banks book a couple of our hotels with big meetings. That is very optimistic.”After the pandemic brought travel in the U.S. largely to a halt last spring, the resumption of activity has largely been concentrated among people taking leisure trips, Tisch noted. However, business travel and group events like conventions and conferences are crucial for airlines and the hospitality sector.”We probably won’t see a return to business travel numbers that we’re going to be pleased with until after Labor Day. International [travel] is a big question … and these events are real important,” said Tisch, who also is co-chairman of Loews Corp. Loews Hotels is a subsidiary of the New York-based conglomerate.The continued rollout of Covid vaccinations in the U.S., where 100 million people have now been fully inoculated, according to CDC data, is considered critical for those sizable events to return in earnest.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends “avoiding large events and gatherings,” according to its website. The public health agency earlier this week relaxed its guidance for fully vaccinated Americans and small gatherings.Large events are already taking place, or are scheduled to be held soon, in some parts of the U.S., such as Texas and Las Vegas, Tisch noted, but it’s geographically uneven.”When you look at the numbers in New York, we’re getting there but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Tisch, also a co-owner of the NFL’s New York Giants.”We think, when you can hopefully have an event like the U.S. Open with fans, when can you have the U.N. General Assembly with participants, when you can have the New York City Marathon with 35,000 runners, that’s going to be the moment when we know we’re back.” More

In this articleKSSTGTWMTAMZNA contractor working for Amazon.com cleans a delivery truck in Richmond, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAmazon confirmed on Thursday that its annual Prime Day deals event will be shifting earlier this year, as the e-commerce giant looks to boost spending in what is normally a slower time in the retail calendar.The company has yet to confirm the specific date. The two-day shopping extravaganza originally has been held in July, but Amazon said it will now take place in its second quarter, implying a June event.Amazon has provided a second-quarter outlook for revenue of $110 billion to $116 billion — which surpassed Wall Street’s projection of $108.6 billion, as it included an expected bump from Prime Day.During an earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said Amazon intended to hold Prime Day earlier in the year in 2020, but those plans were thwarted by the Covid pandemic. Instead, the event was delayed until October, resulting in an earlier-than-ever kickoff to the holiday shopping season.”There’re a number of factors,” Olsavsky said about why Amazon is moving the event up. Among those reasons, the CFO cited the Olympics taking place in July, as well as it being a “vacation month” for many families.”It might be better — for customers, sellers and vendors to experiment with a different time period,” he said. “We experimented the other way … in 2020, by moving it into October. But we believe that it might be better timing later in Q2. So that’s what we’re testing this year.”In past years, Prime Day has prompted retailers like Walmart, Target and Kohl’s to offer competing promotions. And it likely will do so again.”It creates excitement out of nowhere, right out of a vacuum,” Marketplace Pulse founder and CEO Juozas Kaziukenas said about Prime Day.”People will just buy more things … and maybe it is a good time to do it in June, earlier,” he said. “Because there’s a lot of excitement about things getting back to normal, and people probably are going to be buying more clothing items and more travel-related items — that they have not been buying for a very long time.”In the past, Amazon has used Prime Day to push and promote its fashion offerings, a growing part of its business. This could be its biggest opportunity to do so, as many Americans are emerging from their pandemic cocoons and are refreshing their wardrobes.The new timing could also prompt an earlier kickoff to back-to-school shopping for many parents. After the winter holidays, the back-to-school season is the second-busiest retail occasion.By moving Prime Day into the second quarter, Amazon also could be looking to soften the comparisons it will face as it laps the stay-at-home lockdowns of last spring, when business boomed. In 2020, Amazon’s second-quarter revenue surged 40% to $88.91 billion, thanks in large part to shoppers’ stockpiling during the health crisis.”They’ve got a big number to beat,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. “All retailers are going to suffer from this. It’s not manipulation, but it’s definitely putting the trade where it needs to go to make the numbers look very positive.”Other retailers, such as Walmart and Target, also saw a second-quarter surge in sales since they were deemed essential retailers and remained opened last spring. Others had to shut down stores temporarily due to Covid restrictions.Amazon didn’t disclose the amount of sales it rang up on Prime Day last year, but it said third-party sellers on its marketplace earned more than $3.5 billion, an increase of nearly 60% compared with 2019 and a record for the small and midsize businesses that make up the marketplace.”Prime Day is kind of a fake holiday,” Kaziukenas said. “But I think it has enough excitement and enough marketing that whatever they put out, will sell.”—CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this reporting. More

In this articleMC-FRTiffany & Co. announced the debut of its first-ever men’s engagement ring.Source: Tiffany PRHe said “yes.”Tiffany & Co. announced Friday the debut of its first-ever men’s engagement ring, as it looks to tap into a new market for its high-end jewelry amid a rise in same-sex marriages globally and gender-fluid fashion trends.The retailer, now owned by the luxury products group LVMH, has named the new line after the company’s founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany. The rings feature round-brilliant and emerald-cut diamonds that measure up to 5 carats.Tiffany said its aspiration for the men’s engagement line was to offer products in support of love and inclusivity, while “paving the way for new traditions to celebrate our unique love stories and honor our most cherished commitments to one another.”The design of the men’s ring is a departure from the traditional wedding band since it features a striking center diamond, Tiffany said.Source: Tiffany PRIn 1886, Tiffany introduced its first solitaire diamond engagement ring for women. For decades since, couples have visited the jeweler’s stores around the world in search of engagement rings for women, as well as wedding rings. But Tiffany is looking to change that, as it embraces a new wave of couples more than a century later.The design of the men’s ring is a departure from the traditional wedding band, since it features a striking center diamond, Tiffany said.And with the new offering, Tiffany hopes it can find another solid stream of revenue growth. The company did more than $4 billion in jewelry sales last year, with women’s engagement rings representing about 26% of total revenue.The French group and Louis Vuitton-owner LVMH completed its $15.8 billion acquisition of Tiffany in early January, following a bitter legal dispute. When LVMH reported its first-quarter financial results earlier this month, it said its watches and jewelry division’s sales rose by 138%, benefiting from the consolidation of Tiffany.Starting next month, Tiffany said the men’s engagement rings will be available at select stores globally. They’re already available for sale online. More

Chauphuong Ly Dinh, 50, is given a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination, in Los Angeles, California, April 12, 2021.Lucy Nicholson | ReutersWhite House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Friday urged Americans to make sure they receive their second dose of the Covid-19 vaccines, saying the second shot provides “dramatic” benefits.Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid vaccines require two doses given three to four weeks apart. Both vaccines are about 95% effective against the virus, but that strong protection doesn’t kick in until two weeks after the second dose, officials say.Fauci said Friday that about 8% of Americans who received one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna Covid vaccines have not returned for their second shot. But skipping the second dose could cause problems for those Americans, he said, because a single shot of the vaccine triggers a weaker immune response compared with two.Fauci cited numerous scientific studies, including a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Wednesday that found the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are 64% effective at preventing hospitalizations in the elderly after one shot, but 94% effective after two doses. The study evaluated 417 hospitalized adults across 14 states from January to March. “If you’re having a two-dose regimen, make sure you’re getting that second dose,” he said during a White House briefing on the coronavirus pandemic.Early on, officials and public health experts said they worried it would be difficult for some Americans, especially working-class people who cannot as easily take time off, to return for a second dose. Still, officials have said the uptake of second shots is better than expected.On Friday, Fauci also urged health-care providers to make sure they quickly reschedule canceled visits for second shots.Fauci’s remarks come as the U.S. is experiencing its first true slowdown in the rate of daily vaccinations after months of a steady climb. The country is averaging 2.6 million reported vaccinations per day over the past week, CDC data shows, down from a peak of 3.4 million reported shots per day on April 13.His comments also come as the U.S. is tracking highly contagious new variants of the virus. Fauci has previously said two doses of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s Covid vaccines are better than one to protect against variants.Earlier this month, Fauci offered advice for those who have reported being diagnosed with Covid after receiving their first vaccine shot and before receiving their second shot.He said people who get infected with the coronavirus between Covid-19 vaccine shots can get their second dose after they’ve recovered from the illness and are no longer considered contagious.– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report. More