Raphael Stevens

In this articleFFord CEO Jim Farley takes off his mask at the Ford Built for America event at Fords Dearborn Truck Plant on September 17, 2020 in Dearborn, Michigan.Nic Antaya | Getty ImagesDETROIT – Ford Motor beat Wall Street’s expectations for the first quarter but CEO Jim Farley warned an ongoing semiconductor chip shortage would worsen before it gets better.The company said Wednesday it now expects to lose about 50% of its planned second-quarter production, up from 17% in the first quarter. The increase is largely due to a fire at chip supplier Renesas Electronics for Ford and other automakers in Japan, according to the automaker.”There are more whitewater moments ahead for us that we have to navigate,” Farley told investors during the company’s first-quarter earnings call. “The semiconductor shortage and the impact to production will get worse before it gets better.”Ford CFO John Lawler provided some optimism regarding the situation, saying the company believes that the semiconductor issue will bottom out during the second quarter, with improvement through the remainder of the year.Lawler said the company expects to lose about 1.1 million units of production in 2021 due to the shortage.Shares of Ford were down about 3% in after-hours trading. The company’s market cap is more than $48 billion.Here’s how Ford did compared with what Wall Street expected based on average estimates compiled by Refinitiv.Adjusted earnings: 89 cents versus an expected 21 centsAutomotive revenue: $33.55 billion versus $32.23 billionThe chip shortage has led automakers to shutter factories for varying periods of time across the globe, leading to tight vehicle inventories on dealer lots. However, the lower supplies have led to higher profits per vehicle, allowing automakers to continue to perform well despite the shortage.Ford said Wednesday its full-year adjusted pretax profit is expected to be between $5.5 billion and $6.5 billion, including an adverse effect of about $2.5 billion from the semiconductor issue. Adjusted free cash flow for the full year is projected to be $500 million to $1.5 billion.The company had estimated it would earn between $8 billion and $9 billion in adjusted pretax profits in February. That didn’t factor in the shortage of semiconductor chips, which the automaker has publicly said could lower earnings by $1 billion to $2.5 billion this year.Lawler said Ford was able to offset earnings losses from its reduced production in the first quarter through reduced incentives on vehicles sold, prioritizing production of more profitable vehicles and lower manufacturing costs, among other cost reductions. The automaker also benefited from higher profits from its financing arm Ford Credit.Farley on Wednesday vowed Ford would maintain lower vehicle inventories, assisting its profit per vehicle, following the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and chip shortage.The chip shortage is expected to cost the global auto industry $60.6 billion in revenue, according to consulting firm AlixPartners.Correction: Ford maintained its guidance for 2021. A previous version of the story misstated the guidance. More

In this articleCRMSalesforce CEO Marc Benioff on Wednesday encouraged employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19.”I think it’s important for everyone to get vaccinated and to get safe,” he said in a CNBC “Mad Money” interview with Jim Cramer. “Here in the United States, or in other countries like the United Kingdom or even Israel, you can see how vaccinations have made a dramatic difference in the organization.” Salesforce has previously recommended that its employees be inoculated against coronavirus, though it won’t be mandatory for them to return to the office after transmission rates reach safer levels. It will allow employees to continue working remotely through the rest of the year.The software giant plans next month to begin welcoming inoculated workers who volunteer to work in its 61-story office tower in downtown San Francisco, where the company is headquartered. The cloud software giant will later allow workers in its offices who do not receive a protective shot against coronavirus. Salesforce, whose workforce includes more than 56,000 people across the globe, is the largest employer in San Francisco.The stock has run double digits since late March, though it remains about 16% under its record close in September.Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Salesforce.Questions 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

In this articleFFord CEO Jim Farley said on CNBC Wednesday that he expects the chip shortage impact on business to get worse before it improves, but the automaker will be set up for a strong 2022.”Second quarter is going to be the trough for us,” he told Jim Cramer in a “Mad Money” interview. “We think this quarter is going to be our most difficult.”Farley, who began leading the Dearborn, Michigan-based company in October, is counting on the landscape to brighten later this year.”We do count on a rebound in our production in the second half,” he said, adding that 2022 “is going to be an incredible year for us.”The comments come after Ford reported numbers from the first quarter at the end of the trading day. The company beat Wall Street’s estimates on the top and bottom lines.Ford said it expects the global shortage of semiconductors, which hit manufacturing across various industries, to have about a $2.5 billion effect on the fiscal year. The parts problem impacted about 17%, or 200,000 units, in the first quarter, Farley said. In a press release, Ford said it expects to lose about 1.1 million units of production this year due to the shortage.”In the first quarter, we offset all of those production cuts in terms of incremental pricing and cost control and we did not mortgage the future to do that. We actually accelerated spending on EV,” he said.Farley said that the shortage could extend into the second half of 2021, but the company is in a position to weather the pain.Shares of Ford closed 0.48% lower on Wednesday at $12.43. The stock was down about 3% in after-hours trading.Questions 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

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (L) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) participate in a news conference about the Senate vote on methane regulation outside of the U.S. Capitol on April 28, 2021 in Washington, DC.Sarah Silbiger | Getty ImagesThe U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to reverse former President Donald Trump’s move to weaken Obama-era regulations designed to reduce climate-changing methane emissions from oil and gas fields. The 52-42 vote sets up the first official reinstatement of one of more than 100 climate regulations dismantled by the Trump administration. Regulating methane, a primary component of natural gas, is critical for advancing President Joe Biden’s goal to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half from 2005 levels over the next decade and achieve a net-zero economy by 2050.Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, Angus King, I-ME, and Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced the resolution under the Congressional Review Act, a law which allows Congress to quickly overturn a previous administration’s regulations with a simple majority vote and a signature from the president.The Democratic-held House is expected to approve the measure and send it to President Joe Biden. The White House supports the passage of the bill, according to a statement on Tuesday from the Office of Management and Budget.Passing the bill would reinstate the 2012 and 2016 Oil and Natural Gas New Source Performance Standards set by the Obama administration. The Trump administration’s rollback last year eliminated federal requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and repair methane leaks from pipelines, storage facilities and wells. In a briefing before the Senate vote, Schumer said the vote was one of the most important steps Congress can take to fight climate change. “This is a very big deal,” Schumer said. “Methane is one of the most poisonous things we can put in our atmosphere.”Three Republican senators voted for the bill: Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio. On his first day in office, Biden in an executive order directed the Environmental Protection Agency to reverse Trump’s methane rollback and propose new regulations for industry producers.Trump’s effort to dismantle the rule was a victory for the oil and gas industry, which comprises nearly 30% of U.S. methane emissions. Smaller oil and gas companies and fossil fuel lobbyists who supported Trump’s rollback have argued that methane regulations are too expensive.Major oil and gas companies like BP, Shell and Exxon, who have promoted natural gas as a cleaner fuel than coal, have voiced support for methane regulation.A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s largest trade group, said the group is working with the Biden administration “in support of the direct regulation of methane for new and existing sources through a new rulemaking process.””We have an opportunity to build on the progress the industry has made in driving down methane emissions through technological advancement, and we are committed to finding common ground on cost-effective government policies,” the spokesperson said.CNBC PoliticsRead more of CNBC’s politics coverage:Biden’s families plan excludes Medicare expansion, drug price changes backed by DemocratsBiden to unveil $1.8 trillion plan for children and families — here’s what’s in itLive updates: Biden’s first speech to CongressThe Senate vote was also welcomed by scientists and environmental groups who have long said that curbing methane emissions is vital is avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.Methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide and accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Methane also doesn’t last as long as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which makes it a good target for reducing global warming more quickly, in addition to efforts to slash carbon emissions.”This vote reinforces President Biden’s direction, in his Day One executive order, for EPA to set strong limits on the rampant methane leakage from both new and existing oil and gas operations across the country,” said David Doniger, senior strategic director of the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.Carbon dioxide and methane emissions hit record highs in 2020 despite worldwide lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Such a sustained increase in emissions could heat up the atmosphere by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, significantly higher than the Paris climate accord target to keep warming below 2 degrees.A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters suggests that a push to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, agriculture other human sources could slow global warming by as much as 30%.”Today’s bipartisan vote marks the beginning of the restoration of sensible methane policy at the federal level,” said Dan Grossman, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund.”Oil and gas producers, environmental advocates and members of both parties agree that we need to get methane regulation back on track,” Grossman said. 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Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes told CNBC on Wednesday he believes the U.S. government should take a more active role in building an economic system that delivers broad prosperity.In an interview on “Squawk Box,” Hughes said the new kind of capitalism he envisions is hardly an outlier position following decades of widening disparities between rich and poor Americans.”What I’m trying to do is describe the broad common sense in America, which, I think, believes that capitalism can work but that there are many varieties of capitalism,” Hughes said, adding the way it has been operating “has not worked for most people.””Instead, we need to have a capitalism where markets are managed, where we have smart regulation, where we have public investment, where we have macro economic management,” said Hughes, who left Facebook more than a dozen years ago to work for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.Hughes is now co-chair of the Economic Security Project, which is focused on advancing projects and research around a guaranteed income and tougher antitrust enforcement in the U.S.Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook.Olivia Michael | CNBCHughes said antitrust is actually an area where some elements of the capitalist system he’s describing are already embraced by people on both sides of the American political spectrum.”There’s a new majority on the left and the right that says government has got to step in, not to penalize any big company for doing something wrong but to create a fair market in the first place so that small businesses can flourish,” said Hughes, who two years ago called for Facebook to be broken up.He has said he liquidated his Facebook stock in 2012 and acknowledged he made a fortune from his time working at the company. However, he wrote in a 2018 LinkedIn post that his ability to “make half a billion dollars for three years of work” demonstrates that something “is profoundly wrong with our economy.”Hughes said he sees Americans from various backgrounds “throwing out the idea that markets were ever free.” The concept of a truly free market in the U.S., he added, is really just “a turn of phrase. It’s an idea. It’s a myth that’s sort of dominated the discourse.”People in the U.S. also are recognizing “we need to have public investment to create the kind of prosperity that the country needs to see,” he said. As evidence, he pointed to the government’s crucial support for the U.S. economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the Great Recession before it.”The idea that if you can just let markets go that they’re sort of natural or beautiful or chaotic, that just doesn’t work,” Hughes said. “Government steps in every time that they come apart.” More

In this articleNCLHThe Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Jewel, right, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises Inc. Splendor ships sit idle near the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, U.S., on Monday, April 13, 2020.Tim Rhue | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesNorwegian Cruise Line announced Wednesday its plans to resume its summer sailings outside of the United States.The company’s intentions put a focus on voyages in parts of the Caribbean and Europe this summer, as sailings from the U.S. remain restricted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has not yet released a set date when cruise lines can resume operations. It has said research shows Covid-19 can spread easily on cruise ships.Norwegian, the smallest of the three major cruise ship lines, proposed plans in early April to resume voyages from its U.S. ports starting July 4, but is still waiting for approval.The company intends to start sailing again in August with its Oceania Cruises traveling to Scandinavia and Western Europe, followed by its Regent Seven Seas Cruises departing from the United Kingdom in September.It will begin to phase in trips to the Mediterranean in September. The brand previously announced plans to sail to the Caribbean and Europe in July and August. It is adding some ships to the Mediterranean and canceling other voyages.”We are simultaneously planning for a potential resumption of cruising from U.S. ports while we await further discussion with the CDC regarding our proposal for a July 4th restart,” said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian, in a press release.Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state will file a lawsuit against the CDC, demanding cruise ships be allowed to resume sailing from the U.S. immediately.The company’s shares closed down less than 1%. More