Raphael Stevens

Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg told CNBC on Thursday the return of business conventions to Las Vegas looks promising after a coronavirus pandemic-induced slowdown.”Our forward bookings both for the second half of this year and into [2022] are extremely strong,” Reeg said in an interview with CNBC’s Contessa Brewer on “The Exchange.” “Business groups are wanting to come back. We’ve just got to make sure that we can accommodate them,” added Reeg.Caesars is approaching future events with more uncertainty than before the pandemic, according to Reeg. One on the near-term horizon is the World of Concrete, which is set to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in early June. The event for the concrete and masonry industries has drawn over 60,000 people in pre-Covid years.”We’re presuming more attrition than normal for any group that is booked coming up. We just don’t know how quickly people are going to come back,” Reeg said.Caesars shares rose almost 4% in Thursday’s session to roughly $96 apiece. The stock is up 28% so far this year and up about 425% in the past 12 months.Las Vegas was hit hard by the pandemic as health restrictions meant to slow the virus spread led to mandatory closures of hotels, casinos and restaurants in the tourism-reliant city. After a relaxation, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak implemented more strict virus mitigation measures in November in response to rising coronavirus cases.”The case rates here were pretty scary, to be candid. As the cases pulled back, we’ve seen the restrictions ease and we’ve seen business come back,” Reeg said, adding he hopes continued improvement in the public health situation can lead to “further loosening that would allow us to offer full services to all of our group business that’s coming.””You’re certainly … going to be wearing masks for the foreseeable future,” he added.As Covid vaccinations have accelerated this year, casino operators are seeing positive signs for their businesses. Last month, Penn National Gaming CEO Jay Snowden told CNBC he was seeing “revenues and volumes that I haven’t seen in years.”Caesars — which says it’s the largest casino-entertainment company in the country — saw a really strong pickup in demand beginning in February, Reeg said. At its regional properties, located in numerous states including Indiana, Iowa and Arizona, the recovery has been “extraordinary,” Reeg said. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand out there.”Public health officials in the U.S. have continued to stress to Americans that, despite progress on vaccines, the nation’s Covid recovery still faces challenges, such as highly contagious variants. The trajectory of the pandemic in Michigan, in particular, is causing concern.”This is a critical moment in our fight against the pandemic,” CDC Director Dr. Rachelle Walensky said last week. “We can’t afford to let our guard down.” More

In this articleLEVISource: Levi’sBye-bye skinny jeans, hello “mom jeans.”The world might finally be entering into the early stages of a new denim cycle. One where tight-fitting pants are suddenly out of style, and instead shoppers young and old are flocking to loose-hanging, wide-leg and flared jeans, according to the CEO of Levi’s. It harkens back to a fashion trend that was especially prolific in the 1990s.”This is not the first time we’ve seen this resonating with consumers,” Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Chip Bergh told CNBC Thursday, about the more loose-fitting denim styles. “Cycles do come and go. And I think the pandemic definitely played a contributing role to consumers looking for a more comfortable, more relaxing denim.”Bergh said Levi’s started to notice an uptick in sales in these new styles of jeans when it launched two different fits early on last year: One pair of jeans that ballooned out at the bottom, and another that was high-rise at the waist and loose fitting.”They’re definitely taking off, and it is definitely a new trend,” Bergh said about the jeans, for both females and males.The shift has been driven in large part by younger consumers. Gen Z is all for the so-called mom jeans. Today, the style is all over teens’ favorite websites, including Shein, Princess Polly, Urban Outfitters and Revolve.In Piper Sandler’s biannual “Taking Stock with Teens” survey, released on Wednesday, “mom jeans” ranked as the No. 3 fashion trend for apparel among female teens. Baggy or saggy pants ranked No. 2, behind leggings.A separate note from UBS’ retail team earlier this week noted how fashion trends within the denim category are shifting. It recently completed a global, Google search analysis that found a significant spike in browsing online in Jan. 2021 compared with Jan. 2020 for new jean styles, including “baggy/wide jeans” and “straight jeans,” while searches for “skinny jeans” were less robust.”Some people have said that this is going to create a new denim cycle, and we think that that could very well be true,” Bergh told CNBC. “The last real denim cycle was driven by skinny jeans. And that cycle lasted about 10 years.””I don’t think skinny jeans are ever going to go away completely,” he went on. “But clearly right now we are seeing a very strong demand for these looser fits, both the men’s side of the business, as well as the women’s side of the business.”Earlier Thursday, Levi’s reported a double-digit sales decline for its fiscal first quarter, as ongoing store closures in Europe and weaker foot traffic in the U.S. due to the Covid pandemic weighed on results.But the denim maker boosted its sales and profit outlook for the first half of the year, assuming the global health crisis doesn’t become worse from here. CFO Harmit Singh said in an interview with CNBC that the company is anticipating sales will return to 2019, pre-pandemic levels by the fourth quarter.Levi’s shares are up nearly 25% year to date, as of market close Thursday. The company has a market cap of $10 billion. More

A child looks back at a banner for Roblox, displayed to celebrate the company’s IPO, on the front facade of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, March 10, 2021.Brendan McDermid | ReutersNew York’s top business leaders are gearing up for a potential mass exodus as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers prepare to raise their taxes.With the state budget set to increase the personal income tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers as well as hiking corporate taxes, some executives who fled the city for Florida temporarily due to coronavirus pandemic lockdowns are considering permanent relocation, according to business leaders briefed on the matter.Wealthy business leaders who have historically resisted moving at least some of their resources to Florida or other less-taxed states explained to CNBC that they are now seriously reconsidering as working from home becomes the norm, allowing more flexibility.Tracy Maitland, president of investment advisory firm Advent Capital Management, said that while he still loves his home base, he’s not ruling out departing.”It’s a consideration,” Maitland told CNBC in an interview Wednesday. “I love New York and I was born and raised in New York. I’m going to do whatever I can to try to steady the ship. If I can’t, then I’m going to have to make a decision,” he added.Florida does not tax personal income. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told CNBC that he has been in touch with some of New York’s biggest firms, including since details of the tax hikes were announced this week.”We have been,” Suarez said when asked if he’s heard from New York-based business executives in recent days. “I can’t give names but if you’re looking to know if we’re talking to the biggest firms in New York, we are.””Clearly, the toxic climate in New York has led businesses to look to Miami as an attractive place for long-term expansion and relocation,” Suarez said. He noted that he’s received a “very receptive” response to his pitch to New York executives and pointed to moves by Blackstone and Starwood Capital into Miami. Blackstone recently signed an office lease in Miami while Starwood moved its headquarters to the city.JetBlue, which is currently headquartered in Long Island City, New York, is looking at shifting some staff to Florida.”We’ve hit a critical mass of interest and excitement in Miami and with these big players coming here, people are beginning to understand that this is very real,” Suarez said.In the budget passed by state lawmakers in Albany and heading to Cuomo’s desk for signature, New York City’s executives would likely see combined local and state personal income tax rates that are higher than those on wealthy California residents.A spokesperson for Cuomo’s office did not return a request for comment before publication.Within the more than $200 billion state budget, the top tax rate gets bumped to 9.65% from 8.82% for single filers who make more than $1 million. Those who make between $5 million and $25 million would be taxed at around 10.3% and for those making more than $25 million the rate would be at 10.9%. Wealthy earners are expected to get hit with those new taxes in the next tax season, with the rates expiring in 2027.As New York executives consider their future living options, the wealthy across the country are facing the threat of the federal corporate tax rate going up under President Joe Biden’s administration. The president has said he wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% in order to pay for his infrastructure plan. Biden has said he’s willing to negotiate on the corporate rate. New York business leaders seeking tax relief via the elimination of the cap on the state and local tax deduction (SALT) have lobbied Biden’s advisors and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.Those who declined to be named in this story did so in order to speak freely about ongoing private conversations.A Wall Street executive who has had stints at investment firm Evercore and other similar offices told CNBC that a few friends who already reside in Palm Beach, Florida, are contemplating making it their permanent residence.An executive at an investment firm noted he’s “thinking about it” when asked whether he’d leave New York altogether.A media executive who runs a massive public relations firm in New York explained that more than a dozen people he has spoken to are seriously considering leaving the state permanently with taxes for the rich on the rise.”Moving to Florida is an active and serious conversation with my peers,” this person said. “If my kids weren’t here I would move tomorrow.”Other locales are also getting a look these days.A corporate restructuring attorney said he’s considering moving to Washington, D.C., believing he could save money on property taxes there. Property taxes in Washington are drastically less than they are in New York, according to a 2019 study by USA Today.Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, with hundreds of members who represent businesses across the city, told CNBC that business leaders are hearing from employees and potential recruits about the need to set up offices in states outside of New York in order for them to avoid paying higher tax rates.”What I’m hearing is that those nonresident taxpayers are now demanding from employers that they set up an operation where they can be domiciled so that they don’t have to pay some New York taxes,” Wylde told CNBC in an interview. Wylde’s group sent a letter to Cuomo and state Democratic leaders last month, encouraging them not to raise taxes. The letter did not appear to have much of an impact.The partnership’s executive committee includes JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman.Wylde pointed to a conversation she had with an asset manager, which she declined to name, who told her that a potential recruit refused to live in New York City due to the tax increases and this executive is now planning to open offices in Florida.New York state law says that “if you are a nonresident, you are not liable for New York City personal income tax.” More

In this articleLEVIAn employee holds a shopping bag while ringing up a customer at the Levi Strauss & Co. flagship store in San Francisco, March 18, 2019.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesLevi Strauss & Co. on Thursday reported a double-digit sales decline for its fiscal first quarter, as ongoing store closures in Europe and lightened foot traffic in the U.S. due to the Covid pandemic weighed on results. But the denim maker boosted its sales and profit outlook for the first half of the year, assuming the global health crisis doesn’t become worse from here. CFO Harmit Singh said in an interview with CNBC that the company is anticipating sales will return to 2019, pre-pandemic levels by the fourth quarter. Its shares jumped more than 6% in after-hours trading. “These results point to really good evidence that we will emerge from the pandemic a stronger company,” CEO Chip Bergh told CNBC. “We beat our own expectations internally [and] beat external expectations, despite having a third of our stores closed in Europe over the entire quarter.”Here’s how the company did for its quarter ended Feb. 28, compared with what analysts were anticipating, based on a survey by Refinitiv:Earnings per share: 34 cents adjusted vs. 25 cents expectedRevenue: $1.31 billion vs. $1.25 billion expectedLevi’s net income declined slightly to $142.5 million, or 35 cents per share, from $152.7 million, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time charges, the company earned 34 cents per share, better than the 25 cents forecast by analysts, according to Refinitiv.Total revenue fell about 13% to $1.31 billion from $1.51 billion a year earlier. That came in better than the $1.25 billion forecast by analysts.The retailer said the double-digit drop in sales year over year was primarily due to the reduced foot traffic in its stores during the pandemic, as well as ongoing store closures in some markets where Covid restrictions have remained in place. In Europe, for example, more than 40% of Levi’s stores currently are closed, with others operating on reduced hours, the company said.Levi’s wholesale revenue fell 4% during the latest quarter, marking an improvement from the prior period.Direct-to-consumer sales were down 26%, due to fewer customers visiting Levi’s stores and especially in markets that rely on tourism. The decline was partially offset by a 25% increase in the company’s owned e-commerce sales during the quarter, Levi’s said. Total online revenue, which includes digital sales from wholesale partners, was up 41%.Though trends in the business are improving, earnings and sales are expected to continue to be “significantly adversely impacted” at least through the second quarter of 2021, Levi’s said.The company raised its outlook for both revenue and profit in the first half of the year, assuming that the pandemic doesn’t worsen.Sales are now expected to grow 24% to 25%, and adjusted earnings are forecast to be in a range of 41 cents to 42 cents, which implies earnings of 7 cents to 8 cents during the fiscal second quarter. Analysts had been calling for second-quarter earnings of 5 cents a share.Levi’s shares are up nearly 25% year to date. The company has a market cap of $10 billion.Find the full press release from Levi’s here. More

The 16th Electron launch in November 2020, when the company recovered the rocket after splashdown for the first time.Rocket LabThe next mission for small launch leader Rocket Lab will feature its second attempt to recover an Electron rocket booster after liftoff by splashing it down in the ocean.The company is working toward reusability of its rockets—the same way Elon Musk’s SpaceX currently does.”Where we’re trying to get, is to the point where we can literally catch this thing and then repeat,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told CNBC. “Launch, catch, repeat.”The next mission, its 20th to date, is scheduled to launch in May from the company’s private facility in New Zealand. The primary goal of the mission is to deploy two satellites in orbit for BlackSky.Beck’s company wants to recover the boosters so it can launch more often, while also reducing the cost of each mission. But Rocket Lab’s approach to recovering its boosters is different from SpaceX, which uses the rocket’s engines to slow down during reentry and deploys wide legs to land on large pads.Rocket Lab, instead, is testing a technology Beck calls an “aero thermal decelerator”—using the atmosphere to slow down the rocket. After reaching space, Rocket Lab’s onboard computer guides the booster through reentry—where it travels at up to eight times the speed of sound and is subject to heat in excess of 4,350 degrees Fahrenheit.Then a parachute deploys from the top of the booster to slow it down and, like its first recovery in November, splash down in the Pacific Ocean. The splashdown is expected to occur about 400 miles from the launch site, where a Rocket Lab ship will then scoop it out of the water. Beck said this is the second of three planned splashdown recoveries, before the company moves to its full reuse plan: Plucking the booster with its parachute from the sky with a helicopter.The Electron rocket booster for the company’s 20th launch and second attempted at a splashdown recovery.Rocket LabRocket Lab is in the process of combining with Vector Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal which values the space company at $4.1 billion. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter, when Rocket Lab will list on the Nasdaq and the SPAC’s shares, which currently trade under the ticker VACQ, will convert to RKLB as the combined company.A SPAC is a shell company that’s set up to raise money via an initial public offering in order to merge with an existing private company and take it public.Learnings from the first splashdownRocket Lab CEO Peter Beck on TwitterBeck said the Electron booster for this next mission will feature a “beefed up heat shield,” as the heat shield on the prior recovery mission “took a real beating” during the intense reentry. Overall, the rocket booster “was in remarkable shape,” and the company now “understands the load” on the heat shield better, he added.Beck said there will be one more major upgrade before the third splashdown recovery mission. The external changes are minimal, he noted, with most of the updates affecting “subtleties around control and managing the thermal load” on the booster.Rocket Lab’s goal is to “do the minimum amount of refurbishment possible” with the boosters it recovers, so it can turn them around quickly between launches. The company is reusing parts from the first Electron booster it recovered, which is now “severely disassembled,” Beck said. While the booster took “a quick dunk in the saltwater for a few hours,” he said Rocket Lab has yet to find any lasting problems with parts that it plans to requalify and launch on other rockets.Rocket LabOnce the company completes all three splashdown tests this year, it will move to the mid-air recovery attempts. Rocket Lab demonstrated that it can catch a booster with a helicopter in a test last year, which Beck noted they did on the first try.Ramping up the launch rateRocket Lab’s Electron rocket has carried more than 100 small satellites to orbit over the past couple of years. The company has also built a spacecraft manufacturing business.Beck’s company has launch facilities in New Zealand and Virginia. Rocket Lab’s first launch from the U.S. has been delayed by regulatory reviews and is not expected to be complete until later this year.The additional launch facility will be key, as Rocket Lab last year said it had 26 missions booked for 2021. Having both facilities gives the company as many as 132 launch opportunities per year.Last November, Beck said Rocket Lab was building Electron boosters in under 30 days, and told CNBC that the company is now down to 26 days—with its goal to get production to a rate of one rocket every 18 days.Planning for the larger Neutron rocketRocket LabRocket Lab also unveiled plans for a second, larger rocket called Neutron to lift more payloads than its current Electron rocket. The launch marketplace is divided into three sections: small, medium and heavy lift. Neutron will target that medium section.Neutron, which is expected to launch in 2024 for the first time, will stand at 131 feet tall and will be capable of carrying as much as 8,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. Rocket Lab did not disclose how much Neutron is expected to cost per launch.The company expects Neutron to cost about $200 million to develop. Its first launch will come from NASA’s Wallops flight facility in Virginia. Rocket Lab plans to build a Neutron-specific factory in the region.Neutron will also have a reusable booster, but the new rocket will “land on an ocean platform” using a propulsive landing. Electron “was always designed to be really, really manufacturable rather than really, really reusable,” Beck said.Musk, shortly after Rocket Lab unveiled its plan for Neutron, commented that the rocket “looks familiar” but is “nonetheless, the right move.” SpaceX conducted multiple short flight tests of prototypes as it perfected landing its Falcon 9 rocket booster, a route Beck isn’t sure Rocket Lab will take.”Whether or not we see the need for hop tests is really to be determined, but our kind of current baseline doesn’t have us doing that,” Beck said. More

In this articleTA still from Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla vs. Kong.”Source: Warner Bros.WarnerMedia’s biggest movies will play on the big screen in 2022.CEO Jason Kilar, in a Vox podcast “Recode Media with Peter Kafka,” reaffirmed the studio’s commitment to cinemas. This reverses Warner Bros.’ 2021 strategy of releasing films in movie theaters and on its streaming service HBO Max on the same day.”I think it’s very fair to say that a big, you know, let’s say a big DC movie, … it’s very fair to say that that would go exclusively to theaters first and then go to somewhere like an HBO Max after it’s in theaters,” Kilar told Kafka in the interviewed that aired Thursday.Warner Bros. has made several deals with movie theaters that would permit it to bring blockbuster films to its streaming service or premium video on-demand in as little at 45 days starting next year. This cuts the previous theatrical window in half.Kilar’s comments to Kafka echo those provided to CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in March.”I suspect you’re going to see two types of motion pictures,” Kilar said. “When it comes to strategy from WarnerMedia, one of which is going to be the big and epic in scope movies that you’ve come to expect from us which has an exclusive theatrical run.””But clearly, when you think about, you know the world of DC and Harry Potter and things like that big, epic scope movies, I think deserve and will have an exclusive theatrical run,” he said. “But there will be other movies, a large number of movies that will go to HBO Max at the same day that those same movies were made available to exhibitors and cinemas around the world. So again, you’re going to see, kind of, kind of different, different movies in different distribution strategies in terms of going forward.”The decision to back away from day-and-date releases for major blockbusters isn’t terribly surprising. After all, Warner Bros., in partnership with Legendary, just had the biggest box office opening of the pandemic with “Godzilla vs. Kong.”The film secured $32.2 million over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of its domestic opening weekend and $48.5 million for the five-day Easter weekend. Since opening last week in foreign markets, the film has tallied $285.4 million.As more moviegoers are able to be vaccinated and become more comfortable in theaters, ticket sales are expected to continue to increase. Not to mention, local guidelines will begin to loosen once Covid case numbers fall, allowing more people to attend showings. More

A medical worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) inserts a Covid-19 test tube into a box at a drive-thru testing site at the Alemany Farmers Market in San Francisco, California, Nov. 19, 2020.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesStanford University researchers have identified five new cases of a “double mutant” Covid-19 strain that was recently discovered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Doctors suspect it could be more contagious than earlier strains and may be resistant to existing vaccines.The new variant originated in India where it’s credited with a recent 55% surge in cases in the state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, after months of declining cases.It contains two key mutations, which scientists call E484Q and L452R, that have been found separately in other variants but not together in a single strain, according to Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, medical director of Stanford’s clinical virology laboratory, which discovered the new variant in the U.S.CNBC Health & ScienceRead CNBC’s latest coverage of the Covid pandemic:Researchers identify five new cases of ‘double mutant’ Covid variant in CaliforniaOfficials rush to defend AstraZeneca Covid vaccine after UK, EU blood clot guidanceTop Indian vaccine maker’s production capacity is reportedly ‘stressed’ as Covid-19 cases riseGoldman downgrades India’s growth forecast as Covid cases spike “There’s a decent amount of information of how these mutations behave in viruses on their own, but not in combination,” Pinsky said in an interview.In other variants, the L452R mutation has been shown to make the virus more transmissible. There is also evidence that antibodies don’t recognize that mutation, which has been found in other strains to reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.The E484Q mutation has also been shown to be less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies, which help fight the coronavirus. It’s still too early to tell if the mutation makes the virus more contagious.”But you’d expect that in combination with L452R that there may be an increase in transmission as well as reduction in antibody neutralization,” Pinsky said.If the mutation makes the virus more resistant to antibodies, that could reduce the effectiveness of both vaccines as well as antibody treatments that have become a critical tool for doctors in fighting Covid-19, according to Pinsky.”I suspect that existing vaccines will be slightly less effective in preventing infection by this new variant,” he said, “but all of the vaccines are extremely effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths.”Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab antibody treatment has been shown to be less effective in treating strains that contain the E484Q or L452R mutations. U.S. health regulators halted distribution of that antibody treatment last month, saying it wasn’t that effective against the new variants.The double mutant variant “has known mutations in the scariest place to have a mutation — the receptor binding domain, where the virus uses to latch on to cells in our bodies in order to enter,” said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at the University of California San Francisco. “The mutations are either identical or eerily similar to mutations in variants that we already know about that have been scientifically proven to be more transmissible and/or evade vaccines. Hence many believe that this Indian variant will also have these superpowers.”Dr. Tom Kenyon, chief health officer at Project HOPE and former director of global health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said scientists are finding more mutations, at least in part, because new CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky directed the agency to increase surveillance. “So the more that we look for these, the more we’re going to find them,” he said.”There’s something about the world ‘double’ that scares people and makes it sound like it’s double bad,” Kenyon said in an interview. “Any mutation affecting transmissibility or viral replication would be dangerous.”There’s a possibility the new variant will stay in the Bay Area, unlike the B.1.1.7 variant from the United Kingdom that has become the predominant strain just about anywhere it goes, Chin-Hong said.”If the U.K. variant went into a boxing ring with the Indian variant, the U.K. variant will probably emerge victorious. But only time will tell,” Chin-Hong said.The longer it takes to vaccinate the world, the more opportunities the virus has to mutate into even worse strains, scientists say. Walensky has warned of “impending doom” in the U.S. as states roll back Covid-19 restrictions. She’s urged people to get vaccinated and continue following public health precautions, including wearing masks and practicing social distancing.”The variants that scare me the most are the ones that haven’t been invented as yet … the more the virus replicates, we will continue to see these escape mutants,” Chin-Hong said. “We need global vaccination equity and continued battles against pandemic fatigue.”California is set to lift most Covid restrictions by June 15 but still plans to keep a mask mandate in place. More