Raphael Stevens

In this articleFBInvestors selling stocks in reaction to the Biden administration’s rumored plan to hike taxes on investments are making a mistake, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday.”Please, do not fear the taxman. Don’t fixate on where a stock came from, only think about where it might be going,” the “Mad Money” host said, shrugging off the odds that the proposal would get through Congress as is.Stocks fell after a Bloomberg News report said that President Joe Biden could propose raising capital gains taxes on millionaires.Convinced that the situation is creating discounts in the market, Cramer is taking the other side of the trade.”Be ready to buy stocks that are getting crushed by tax fears that have nothing to do with the fundamentals and watch for stocks with good yields if you’re desperate for tax-efficient income,” he said.Cramer advised investors to not sell the news, given the hurdles Democrats have to push the policy through a Senate with a slim majority.”I can live with taxing capital gains as ordinary income – we don’t want higher taxes, but I can live with it – but the idea that Biden has 50 senators who’ll vote for this is just fanciful, frankly,” Cramer said.As reported, the plan would increase the capital gains tax to 39.6%, up from 20%, for wealthy Americans.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

In this articleNES.N-CHNestle is maintaining growth despite committing billions of dollars towards improving the company’s environmental footprint, CEO Mark Schneider told CNBC Thursday.”Today’s consumer asks even more than before for sustainability. They want to know that we are treating the planet well, they want to know we’re taking care of the next generation,” he said in an interview with Jim Cramer on “Mad Money.””I think there’s a good business case emerging and that’s what we’re pursuing,” said Schneider, whose interview landed on Earth Day.As laid out in its sustainability strategy, Nestle plans to reduce emissions within its business and supply chains, snuffing out its carbon footprint by 2050.In the near term, the Switzerland-based food and beverage maker, whose portfolio includes Gerber, KitKat and Nespresso, has announced moves to end its dependence on deforestation by next year and to shift operations completely to renewable electricity by 2025. The company operates in 187 countries.Meanwhile, Nestle is advocating for regenerative agriculture practices and campaigning to plant 20 million trees each year this decade, according to its website. KitKat on Thursday also pledged that by 2025 the chocolate brand would achieve carbon neutrality: a balance between emitting and absorbing carbon in the atmosphere.”The younger, the better educated and the wealthier consumer, the more interested they are in environmentally sound products and practices,” Schneider said. “Digital these days means that there’s total transparency about your supply chain, so people do understand what you’re doing for the planet and they reward the companies that are leading this trend.”The comments come after the consumer packaged goods company reported first-quarter results that well surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. Nestle, which is based in Switzerland, reported organic growth of 7.7% from the same quarter last year, more than double the expected growth rate of 3.3%.When compared to pre-pandemic levels, Nestle’s total revenue of almost $23 billion in the first three months was 5% higher from 2019.Shares of Nestle rose 2.38% Thursday, closing the session at $119.71.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 articleMATMattel Inc. Barbie brand dolls are displayed for sale at a Walmart Inc. store in Burbank, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019. A PWC survey shows that 36% of consumers surveyed plan to shop on Black Friday. Deals will ultimately dictate where spending and visits go.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesToymaker Mattel said Thursday that its sales nearly doubled as families spent more on toys for their children, helped by more disposable income due to government stimulus checks.The company’s stock rose more than 7% in extended trading.Typically, the first quarter is a weak period for toy sales, as it follows the influx of sales during the holiday quarter.Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz also credited the company’s turnaround efforts, and said it had grown its market share for three consecutive quarters.”We are strengthening our position as a consistent leader in the toy industry,” he said. “We believe we are very well-positioned to improve profitability and accelerate topline growth in 2021 and beyond.”Here’s what the company reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:Losses per share: 10 cents adjusted vs. 35 cents expectedRevenue: $874.2 million vs. $684.2 million expectedMattel’s net loss narrowed to $115.2 million, or 33 cents per share, from a loss of $210.7 million, or 61 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, Mattel lost 10 cents per share, which is less than the loss of 35 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenue rose 47% to $874.2 million from $594 million a year ago, beating analysts’ expectations of $684.2 million.The company continued to see strong sales of dolls in the latest period, with net sales of its American Girl brand rising 22%. Barbie, Mattel’s most known brand, also grew in popularity due to new product launches and innovations.”Barbie’s cultural relevance truly has never been stronger,” said Richard Dickson, Mattel’s president and chief operating officer. “We’ve been leaning into diversity, inclusivity and social impact and we’ve seen this reflected in the success of Fashionistas, which also had double-digit increases.” He also added that products like Color Reveal and Barbie Extra grew incrementally in the first quarter.During a conference call with analysts, Mattel said it expects revenue to rise 6% to 8% this year, in constant currency. Previously, the company was aiming for a mid-single digit sales gain this year.The higher forecast reflects not only the strong sales in the first quarter, but the company said it was “off to a strong start in the second quarter.””We believe we are well-positioned to gain momentum for the full year,” said CFO Anthony DiSilvestro, in a press release.In addition, Mattel expects higher than anticipated cost inflation, citing plastics and ocean freight as two examples.Read the full earnings release here. More

In this articleDALEd Bastian, chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines Inc., attends a news conference at a mass covid-19 vaccination site at the Delta Flight Museum in Hapeville, Georgia, on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2021.Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDelta Air Lines on Thursday said it agreed to buy 25 more Airbus A321 planes, the latest carrier to order new jetliners after a historic slump in air travel.Delta exercised purchase rights for the jets; its total firm orders for the narrow-body planes stand at 125. It also added options for an additional 25 of them.”Adding these new efficient narrowbody jets to our fleet means more career opportunities for our pilots and more capacity to grow our network during the recovery, solidifying our leadership position as more customers return to fly with Delta,” John Laughter, Delta’s senior vice president and chief of operations, wrote in a memo to pilots, which was seen by CNBC.Other carriers have also been adding to their fleets this year as travel demand starts to perk up. U.S. carriers alone lost more than $35 billion last year. Delta and other airlines over the past week have noted a rebound in bookings, though it’s been led by domestic leisure travel, not business and international travel.Southwest Airlines last month announced its plans to buy 100 of Boeing’s smallest 737 Max plane, while Alaska Airlines and United Airlines have also increased their orders for Max jetliners this year.Delta said it expects to start taking delivery of the Pratt & Whitney-powered Airbus A321neos in the first half of 2022. More

In this articleHWINEWSTYour Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, N.J.Google EarthThe $100 million company that owns a New Jersey deli was delisted from an over-the-counter market platform because of public disclosure “irregularities,” according to the firm that booted that the mysterious delicatessen operator.OTC Markets Group executives also told CNBC on Thursday that they are now examining the filings of a second firm — E-Waste — a shell company that has multiple ties to deli owner Hometown International.Like Hometown International, E-Waste has an incredibly high market capitalization despite having little if any significant business operations.Hometown International’s market capitalization has topped $100 million despite owning only a Paulsboro, New Jersey, deli, which had sales of less than $37,000 combined in the past two years.Hometown International, which trades under the symbol HWIN, had a “buyer beware” label slapped on it Wednesday night when OTC Markets Group relegated it to Pink, a less prestigious over-the-counter platform.OTC Markets CEO Cromwell Coulson said in a tweet Wednesday that Hometown International’s demotion and warning label were due to “public interest concerns” – and for “not complying with the rules.”OTC Markets officials on Thursday would not say whether they have contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates publicly traded companies, about their concerns with Hometown International.But OTC Markets general counsel Dan Zinn noted that every suspension or action the firm takes against one of the 11,000 companies that trade on its over-the-counter market platforms is “all publicly available, so the SEC and FINRA [the regulator of broker-dealers] has access to all of these.””Frequently, we have a lot of back-and-forth with the SEC,” Zinn said in an interview. “We do it a lot, and we do it typically behind the scenes.”The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.Hometown International officials did not return requests for comment.Order upHometown Deli in Paulsboro, N.J.CNBCUntil Wednesday night, Hometown International had been listed on the OTCQB market, the trading platform designated as “The Venture Market” by OTC Markets Group.Hometown International was demoted to Pink, or “The Open Market.” It is where stocks go if they do not qualify for OTCQB or OTCQX, which is labeled “The Best Market” under OTC Markets.Hometown International drew scrutiny from OTC Markets after hedge fund manager David Einhorn mentioned the company as a cautionary example to retail investors, given its extremely high valuation without significant sales at the deli.”The pastrami must be amazing,” Einhorn cracked about the shop, which is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.Indeed, the deli has won raves for its Sicilian and Italian hoagies from several curious customers, including Pete Genovese, a food critic at New Jersey’s Star-Ledger newspaper. There’s no pastrami on the menu, however.Einhorn also had noted that the company’s CEO is a high school principal, Paul Morina, who also is the head coach of Paulsboro’s extremely successful high school wrestling team.OTC Markets’ interest in Hometown International was further fueled by CNBC articles detailing regulatory sanctions against the firm’s accountants, first lawyer and a former broker connected to the father of the company’s chairman. Those articles also detailed criminal convictions of people connected to the firm, and legal issues surrounding the father of the chairman.Jason Paltrowitz, executive vice president for corporate services at OTC Markets, said that “the simple thing, that it’s a deli trading at an obscene valuation” is not the reason the company was delisted.”However, what concerned us here were the things that were being publicly disclosed,” Paltrowitz added. “There were irregularities in what was out in the public domain … if you dug deeper into the filings.””It wasn’t simply that it was a highly valued deli. That stuff happens,” he said. “But that did cause the review.”Asked about the nature of the irregularities OTC Markets discovered in Hometown International’s paperwork, Zinn said, “We’re not going to get hyper-specific about any one company.”OTC Markets said Hometown International may not reapply to be listed again on OTCQB for at least 90 days.”The Caveat Emptor designation will remain until OTC Markets Group believes there is no longer a public interest concern,” OTC Markets said.That designation includes a “skull-and-crossbones” icon next to a stock’s trading symbol “to inform investors that there may be reason to exercise additional care and perform thorough due diligence before making an investment decision in that security,” the company’s policy says.E-Waste in the spotlightHours before OTC Markets delisted Hometown International from the OTCQB, an article by CNBC detailed E-Waste’s connections to the deli owner.The stock of E-Waste, which is being traded on the Pink market, is priced at more than $8 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of more than $80 million despite not having any ongoing business.Like Hometown International, E-Waste’s stock has as a rule traded in very small share amounts each day compared with the millions of shares each company has outstanding.SEC filings indicate that Hometown International loaned E-Waste $150,000 late last year. Global Equity Ltd., a Hong Kong entity, is the biggest shareholder of both firms. Each company also has consulting agreements with a North Carolina company run by Peter Coker Sr., the father of Hometown International’s chairman.The companies also use the same New York law firm for filings. Coker Sr.’s office in North Carolina is used as a mailing address for E-Waste.E-Waste’s CEO is John Rollo, a Grammy-winning recording engineer and producer, and former operations vice president of a New Jersey switching and sensor manufacturer. He more recently has worked as a patient transporter at a northern New Jersey hospital.Rollo has not returned requests for comment. Neither has Coker Sr.OTC Markets’ Paltrowitz said that there is no “caveat emptor” label on E-Waste.But he also said the firm’s status on the Pink market is “being reviewed.” It trades under the ticker symbol EWST.Zinn said that OTC Markets has limited power over the stocks on its exchanges beyond relegating them to less-prestigious markets or slapping them with a warning label.”We don’t have that power to say that symbol is revoked,” Zinn said.Only the SEC has that power, he added. More

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Endeavour,” atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, leaves the SpaceX integration hangar adjacent to NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A for rollout to the launch pad on April 16, 2021.SpaceXSpaceX is set to make history, as Elon Musk’s space company prepares to launch the Crew-2 mission for NASA on Friday morning.NASA and SpaceX completed a series of reviews ahead of the mission, which is set to liftoff from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:49 a.m. EDT on Friday. The launch marks SpaceX’s third crew launch in the past 12 months, and the first time it is launching both a reused rocket and a reused capsule.”It’s super cool to have the opportunity to do this so quickly. In fact … we’ll in less than a year have flown as many people in this partnership with NASA as were flown in the Mercury program,” SpaceX senior director Benji Reed said during a press briefing earlier this week.Mercury, begun in 1958, was the first U.S. human spaceflight program and included launching Alan Shepard as the first American in space. The Mercury program flew six people to space across five years, a total which SpaceX matched with its Demo-2 and Crew-1 missions last year.The Crew-2 mission will bring SpaceX’s astronaut count to 10.”A lot of firsts and a lot of good stuff happening,” Reed said. “In less than 11 months, the joint NASA and SpaceX team were able to certify reuse, so we are flying … NASA astronauts on a flight-proven Dragon and a flight-proven Falcon.””Flying on reused vehicles, on flight proven vehicles is key towards greater flight reliability and lowering the cost of access to space, which is ultimately what helps us make life multiplanetary,” Reed added.NASA and SpaceX are watching the weather, both in the local area in Florida and in the Atlantic Ocean. The flight was previously scheduled to launch on Thursday, but rough seas delayed the launch. The ocean needs to be calm in the direction the rocket is launching, in case a mid-flight abort leads to the capsule splashing down after liftoff.”Downrange weather is a little bit trickier, as this high pressure system moves over the Arkansas area that combined with this front [and] is causing some pretty high winds in some of the areas downrange and some pretty high waves,” NASA’s International Space Station program manager Joel Montalbano said.The Crew Dragon capsule must meet up with the ISS in orbit, so if SpaceX doesn’t launch on Friday then the company will wait two days to Monday for the next launch opportunity.SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon spacecraft and fine-tuned its Falcon 9 rocket under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which provided the company with $3.1 billion to develop the system and launch six operational missions.Commercial Crew is a competitive program, as NASA also awarded Boeing with $4.8 billion in contracts to develop its Starliner spacecraft — but that competing capsule remains in development due to an uncrewed flight test in December 2019 that experienced significant challenges.Crew-2 represents the second of those six missions for SpaceX, with NASA now benefiting from the investment it made in the company’s spacecraft development.NASA emphasizes that, in addition to the U.S. having a way to send astronauts to space, SpaceX offers the agency a cost-saving option as well. The agency expects to pay $55 million per astronaut to fly with Crew Dragon, as opposed to $86 million per astronaut to fly with the Russians. NASA last year estimated that having two private companies compete for contracts saved the agency between $20 billion and $30 billion in development costs.The company completed a full dress rehearsal for Crew-2 on Sunday, with the quartet of astronauts practicing suiting up and driving out to the launchpad in the pair of Tesla Model Xs that SpaceX uses for crew transportation.The astronauts from NASA, JAXA and ESAFrom left: Mission specialist Thomas Pesquet of the ESA, pilot Megan McArthur of NASA, commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA, and mission specialist Akihiko Hoshide of JAXA.SpaceXThe Crew-2 mission will carry an international group of four astronauts: NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.Kimbrough, the spacecraft’s commander, was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2004. Crew-2 will mark his third trip to space, having flown on the Space Shuttle in 2008 and a Russian Soyuz in 2016. He’s completed six spacewalks and has spent more than six months total in orbit. Kimbrough came to NASA by way of the U.S. Army, where was a helicopter platoon leader and served in Operation Desert Storm.McArthur, the Crew-2 pilot, was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2000. A California native, McArthur came to the space agency after completing a doctorate in Oceanography as U.C. San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She flew on the Space Shuttle for the final Hubble space telescope servicing mission in 2009, working as a flight engineer.Remarkably, she will also be sitting in the same seat as her husband and fellow astronaut Bob Behnken did in May of last year, as he piloted SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission. Their 7-year-old son Theo will have watched both his parents launch to the space station in the past year, a fact SpaceX’s Reed highlighted.”In my heart, I know there’s a little boy out there whose mom is flying, and this is something that we pay a lot of attention to. We ask ourselves all the time: Would we be willing to fly our families on these vehicles?” Reed said.NASA astronaut Bob Behnken gives a distanced hug goodbye to his wife and fellow astronaut Megan McArthur and their son Theo before the SpaceX Crew-1 launch in May 2020.Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesHoshide is flying as a Crew-2 mission specialist. He’s the leader of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) astronaut group, and has flown to space twice before, on the Space Shuttle in 2008 and Russia’s Soyuz in 2012.Pesquet is also flying as a Crew-2 mission specialist, having been selected as a European Space Agency astronaut in 2009. He has also flown to space before, having launched on a Soyuz in 2016.The four astronauts entered the traditional pre-launch quarantine on April 8 to prepare for the flight.Known as the “flight crew health stabilization” within NASA, the quarantine ensures the astronauts stay healthy and protected in the two weeks before launch.The spacecraft: Crew Dragon ‘Endeavour’The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is lifted onto the SpaceX GO Navigator recovery ship shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020.NASA/Bill IngallsSpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule has been reused after having flown the Demo-2 mission last May. Named “Endeavour” by astronauts Behnken and Doug Hurley, the spacecraft has undergone a thorough inspection and testing process to make sure it’s fit to launch the Crew-2 mission.”We’ve completed thousands and thousands of tests to get to this day, just like we always have in the past and will continue to do. We talk a lot about these kinds of reviews that we do; we call them ‘paranoia reviews,'” Reed said.Crew Dragon is an evolved version of the company’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft, which has launched to the space station 21 times. Just as Cargo Dragon was the first privately developed spacecraft to bring supplies to the ISS, so Crew Dragon is the first privately developed spacecraft to bring people. Crew Dragon is designed to carry as many as seven passengers to space at a time.SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, named Endeavour, is lifted and mated to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A beginning April 13, 2021.SpaceXSpaceX plans to continue to reuse its Crew Dragon capsules, with Reed noting that the company is working with NASA to check components and determine whether other qualifications need to be made between flights.The rocket: Falcon 9A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen as it is rolled to Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Crew-2 mission, Friday, April 16, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA/Aubrey GemignaniCrew Dragon will launch on top of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with the booster (the large, lower section of the rocket) having previously launched the Crew-1 mission in November before it landed on the company’s floating autonomous barge in the Atlantic Ocean.SpaceX performed a static fire of the rocket on Saturday, in which its nine engines were fired for seven seconds while standing on the launchpad.Falcon 9 has become the workhorse of SpaceX’s growing fleet. The rocket stands at nearly 230 feet tall and is capable of launching as much as 25 tons to low Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 series is qualified to fly up to 10 flights and SpaceX continues to push the boundary of reusability with satellite launches.”Right now we’re working with NASA [and] we’re certified for this upcoming reuse,” Reed said. “We’re continuing our work together as a team, to assess how many more flights we’d be able to reuse Falcons for.”NASA’s Steve Stich noted that the agency and SpaceX did resolve one issue with the rocket, discovering that there was more liquid oxygen loaded onboard than was needed. However, NASA and SpaceX “concluded that that amount of liquid oxygen in the first stage was well within family of the guidance,” Stich said, so the company will move forward with the launch as planned.The launch planSpaceXFour hours before liftoff, the astronauts will suit up. About a half an hour later, the crew will walk out to their Model X rides, complete with NASA logos, which will drive from the astronaut quarters out to the launchpad.With 2½ hours to go, the astronauts will strap into their seats in Crew Dragon and begin checking that all systems are good to go. Then, with just under two hours until launch, the hatch to the spacecraft will be closed. SpaceX will begin loading the rocket with fuel 35 minutes before launch, which will initiate a final series of processes and checks.A few minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9′s booster stage will return and attempt to land on the company’s barge stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.If anything were to go wrong in the last half hour before the launch or even during the launch, Crew Dragon will abort and fire its emergency escape system. The company tested that system in January with no one inside the spacecraft. In that test, SpaceX triggered the system during the most intense part of the launch to show that it could be done at any time.Crew-2 is scheduled to dock with the ISS about 24 hours later, at around 5:10 a.m. EDT on Saturday. The Crew-1 astronauts are still on board, with their Crew Dragon ‘Resilience’ docked with the ISS. NASA is prepared for the combined crews to spend between five and 20 days together before Crew-1 comes back to Earth.”Well have some temporary sleeping arrangements for the crew members because we have so many people,” Montalbano said.Crew-2 will then performed a full duration mission on the ISS, spending about six months onboard. More

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci talks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla | Getty ImagesPeople 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, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.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.Some people have reported being diagnosed with Covid after receiving their first vaccine shot and before receiving their second shot. When that happens, Fauci said, they can get their second dose after they have recovered from the disease and have met the criteria for discontinuing isolation.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who have had Covid-19 can be around others after a minimum of 10 days, 24 hours with no fever and when other symptoms, if any, are improving.Fauci also noted a small percentage of fully vaccinated people are still expected to contract Covid-19 – called “breakthrough cases.” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday that U.S. health officials confirmed fewer than 6,000 cases of Covid-19 out of 84 million Americans with full protection against the virus.Fauci said officials don’t yet understand the risk of developing lingering symptoms, also known as “long Covid,” after a breakthrough case post-vaccination. More