Raphael Stevens

In this [email protected]@LCO.1A satellite image shows stranded container ship Ever Given after it ran aground in Suez Canal, Egypt March 25, 2021.CNES Airbus DS | ReutersThe Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, is still wedged in the Suez Canal, and the economic effects from the blockage — now in its fourth day — are beginning to unfold.White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the U.S. is monitoring the situation closely. “We’ve offered U.S. assistance to Egyptian authorities to help reopen the canal…those conversations are ongoing,” she said during a press briefing, before adding that there could be “some potential impacts on energy markets.”Oil prices jumped on Friday, amid speculation that dislodging the ship could take weeks. West Texas Intermediate crude futures and Brent crude each advanced more than 4%. The gains come after prices dipped on Thursday, despite the gridlock.”Traders, in a change of heart, decided that the Suez Canal blockade is actually becoming more significant for oil flows and supply deliveries than they previously concluded,” said Paola Rodriguez-Masiu, vice president of oil markets at Rystad Energy.A satellite image shows the Suez Canal blocked by the stranded container ship Ever Given in Egypt March 25, 2021, in this image obtained from Twitter page of Director General of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin. Picture taken March 25, 2021.Roscosmos | ReutersOf the 39.2 million barrels per day of crude imported by seaborne methods in 2020, 1.74 million barrels per day passed through the Suez Canal, according to data from research firm Kpler.This represents under 5% of total flows, but as the build-up stretches on, the impacts rise.Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the ship, said another attempt on Friday to re-float the cargo carrier proved unsuccessful.A specialized suction dredger that can shift 2,000 cubic meters of material every hour is now on the site, and “arrangements are also being made for high-capacity pumps to reduce the water levels in the forward void space of the vessel and the bow thruster room,” the firm said Friday.Stranded container ship Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, is seen after it ran aground, in Suez Canal, Egypt March 26, 2021.Mohamed Abd El Ghany | ReutersBernhard Schulte added that two additional tugboats will arrive by Sunday to help in the re-float operation.Douglas Kent, executive vice president of strategy and alliances at the Association for Supply Chain Management, noted that even after the ship is dislodged the impacts will continue to be felt. Ships will arrive at ports simultaneously creating new traffic jams, for instance. Cargo schedules created months in advance will need to be reshuffled with ships now sitting in the wrong place.More importantly, there’s a lack of visibility throughout the entire supply chain.”The whole knock-on effect through the multi-hierarchy of the supply base — we’re not going to know that,” Kent said. “Companies don’t have visibility into their supply chain.” While a company might know it has a product sitting on a ship that’s stopped, the impact of delays down the line are unknown.An excavator attempts to free stranded container ship Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, after it ran aground, in Suez Canal, Egypt March 25, 2021.Suez Canal Authority | ReutersThe Suez Canal handles around 12% of global trade, making it an essential point of passage. Each day of blockage disrupts more than $9 billion worth of goods, according to Lloyd’s List, which translates to about $400 million per hour.Some ship operators have already decided to re-route their vessels, anticipating that the Ever Given won’t be dislodged soon. Sending ships around the Cape of Good Hope adds more than a week of sailing, while also increasing costs.”It’s a terrible mess,” said Anthony Fullbrook, president of OEC Group’s North American region.The disruption caused by the backlog in the Suez Canal comes as global supply chains are already strained by Covid-19.”There’s already a shortage of equipment, of space, everything’s operating at peak capacity … It’s already slowly melting down, and this will just exacerbate it,” he added. More

In this articleIRSA3-ARLuis Alvarez | DigitalVision | Getty ImagesAmericans can get a tax break this filing season for masks, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes and other personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the IRS announced Friday.The tax code lets taxpayers deduct medical costs that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income each year. The IRS is counting costs incurred for PPE as a medical expense that qualifies for the tax break.More from Personal Finance:Filing separately may help get unemployment tax breakStudent loan borrowers could face a higher tax bill this yearIt’s harder to avoid reporting income from online salesFor example, individuals with $100,000 of income in 2020 can deduct medical costs of more than $7,500 from their tax bill. You need to itemize on your taxes to take advantage of this. Expenses reimbursed by insurance aren’t eligible.PPE costs are eligible to be paid or reimbursed in certain tax-preferred medical accounts, the IRS said. They include health savings accounts, health flexible spending accounts, Archer medical savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. Taxpayers typically have 2½ months after the year ends to spend unused FSA funds. The December relief law lets employers extend that grace period up to 12 months. More

In this articleTSLACRMMarc Benioff, Co-CEO of SalesForce speaking at the WEF in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22, 2019.Adam Galica | CNBCChainalysis, a start-up that sells blockchain data analytics tools, announced Friday that it’s raised $100 million in an investment round valuing the company at $2 billion.That’s double what Chainalysis was worth just four months ago. The round was led by crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, with additional backing from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who invested through his investment fund Time Ventures. Existing shareholders Addition and Ribbit increased their holdings, Chainalysis said.Unlike some in Silicon Valley, Benioff hasn’t been that vocal about bitcoin. However, Time Magazine — which the billionaire bought last year — recently posted a job listing for a chief financial officer who is “comfortable with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.” Benioff declined to comment on his views about bitcoin when asked by CNBC.What is Chainalysis?Founded in 2014, Chainalysis helps governments and private sector companies detect and prevent the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in illicit activities like money laundering with its investigations and compliance software. The New York-based company competes with Ciphertrace, which is based in California, as well as London-headquartered firm Elliptic.Chainalysis co-founders Michael Gronager and Jonathan Levin.ChainalysisChainalysis, Elliptic and CipherTrace aim to legitimize the cryptocurrency market, which has been fraught with high-profile hacks and other illicit activities. Last year, Chainalysis helped track down $1 billion worth of bitcoin linked to the darknet marketplace Silk Road, which was then seized by the U.S government.Michael Gronager, Chainalysis’ CEO and co-founder, told CNBC that the company’s latest financing round came at a time of heightened momentum for cryptocurrencies, with institutional investors and companies like Tesla piling into bitcoin.”When we raised our last round, we were basically seeing a lot of that in its infancy,” Gronager said in an interview. “What we see right now is that the market is growing and that some often traditional players are embracing crypto in a way that we haven’t seen before.””What has changed over the last four months is the opportunity and the speed by which we will grow into more customers and more revenue has simply gone up,” Gronager added. “That means we need to do a lot more building now.”Chainalysis said its annual recurring revenue more than doubled over the past year — without disclosing an exact sum — while its client base has also doubled. The company now has 233 employees, according to LinkedIn, and plans to use the fresh cash to hire hundreds more.Is bitcoin becoming mainstream?Major Wall Street players have warmed to bitcoin in recent months as the cryptocurrency’s price surged to new records. Goldman Sachs restarted its cryptocurrency trading desk earlier this year, while Morgan Stanley last week became the first U.S. bank to offer wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds.Bitcoin notched a fresh record price of more than $61,000 earlier this month. It’s currently trading around $53,000, yet is still up around 80% so far in 2021. Some investors say it’s appealing as an asset thanks to its scarcity, with total supply capped at 21 million units, and it’s also seen as a potential hedge against inflation.Still, skeptics question the sustainability of bitcoin’s rally. The digital coin has been known to be wildly volatile in the past, having once climbed to almost $20,000 in 2017 before plunging 80% the following year. Meanwhile, officials like U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde have sounded the alarm about bitcoin’s use in illegal transactions.”We are involved in conversations with regulators in the U.S. and the rest of the world,” Gronager said. “What is important to note is that this space has changed a lot and the amount of criminal activity is dropping a lot. It’s getting more and more legitimate use cases.”Illicit activity made up just 0.34% of all cryptocurrency transaction volume last year, according to a report from Chainalysis, down from roughly 2% a year earlier. However, ransomware incidents — where hackers encrypt files and then demand a ransom to restore access — increased by 311% year over year as criminals exploited people working from home during the pandemic. More

In this articleSFYAnthony Noto, CEO of SoFi Adam Jeffery | CNBCOnline finance start-up SoFi is lowering the barrier for amateur investors to buy shares of companies as they go public.These IPO shares have historically been set aside for Wall Street’s institutional investors or high-net worth individuals. Retail traders don’t have a way to buy into newly listed companies until those shares begin actually trading on the exchange. By that time, the price has often gapped higher.”Main Street will have access to investing in a way they wouldn’t have before,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said in a phone interview. “It gives more differentiation, and more access so people can build diversified portfolios.”SoFi itself will be an underwriter in these deals, meaning it works with companies to determine a share price, buys securities from the issuer then sells them back to certain investors. It’s common for brokerage firms to get a portion of IPO shares in that process. But they don’t typically offer them to the everyday investor.Noto worked on more than 50 IPOs, including Twitter’s debut, in his former role as partner and head of the technology media and telecom group at Goldman Sachs. Firms like Goldman generate revenue from Wall Street funds, which often choose to get in on an IPO “based on the access they get to that unique product,” he said.”Individual investors don’t generate those types of revenues, therefore they don’t get access to the unique product,” Noto said. “The cost of serving retail, if they did decide to do that, would be too high.”SoFi clients who have at least $3,000 in account value will be able enter the amount of shares they want as a “reservation.” The app will alert them when it’s time to confirm an order.Trading app Robinhood is working on a similar platform to offer access to initial public offerings, including its own upcoming debut, according to Reuters. Robinhood declined to comment.SoFi is set to go public by merging with a blank-check company run by venture capital investor Chamath Palihapitiya. The merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Corp V valued SoFi at $8.65 billion. The company was founded in 2011 with a focus on student loan refinancing for millennials and now offers stock and cryptocurrency trading, personal and mortgage loans and wealth management services.SoFi’s IPO product comes on the heels of record levels of new, younger traders entering the stock market during the pandemic. That surge has continued into 2021, marked by frenzied trading around so-called meme stocks like GameStop.Noto said less than 1% of SoFi accounts are “active traders” that trade more than three times per day and the company has held off on offering margin or options trading. Still, he acknowledged the current risk appetite of some retail investors and the dangers of diving into new, unproven companies as they go public.”Investing early is inherently … risky, and those are less-proven companies,” Noto said. “In the same way as cryptocurrency, we disclose to people that these come with a higher degree of risk.”Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world. More

In this articleAXPPilot’s founders Jessica McKellar (CTO), Waseem Daher (CEO), Jeff Arnold (COO)PilotAccounting start-up Pilot raised a new round of funding from Jeff Bezos and other Silicon Valley investors to help small businesses outsource back-office tasks.The San Francisco-based company closed a $100 million funding round this week, doubling its valuation to $1.2 billion. The round was led by Bezos’s venture capital firm Bezos Expeditions and hedge fund Whale Rock Capital, with participation from Sequoia and Index Ventures. Stripe and its founders, Patrick and John Collison, as well as former VMware CEO Diane Greene had previously invested in Pilot.Its co-founder and CEO Waseem Daher interned at Amazon sixteen years ago before starting two other companies. One was bought by Oracle, the other by Dropbox. He likened Pilot’s use case to a problem solved by Amazon Web Services: let developers focus on building a business instead of figuring out how to host a website.”There’s all of this annoying, tedious, scary and important back-office stuff that you need to do as a small business owner,” Daher told CNBC in an interview. “Owners should focus on running a company at scale, and Pilot should be doing the back office stuff for you.”Pilot’s employees — mostly former accountants — are assigned to work directly with a small business. They take on administrative tasks like payroll, book-keeping, taxes and bills. The start-up has partnered with companies including American Express, Bill.com, Gusto and Stripe. Daher describes it as “tech-enabled,” but Pilot itself is not a software company. The company makes money from subscription fees.Pilot’s revenue roughly doubled up during the pandemic despite small businesses bearing the brunt of Covid-related shutdowns. The company’s revenue has roughly tripled every year since it was founded in 2017, Daher said.He attributed recent growth to awareness of automation as people run their companies from home. More millennials are also starting small businesses, and tend to be more open to outsourcing through a tech platform, Daher said.”People want to do this virtually. They don’t want to have to go down to Main Street with their box of receipts and visit their accountant’s office,” he said.Pilot is Daher’s third company with co-founders Jeff Arnold, Pilot’s COO, and Jessica McKellar, the company’s CTO. The group met as undergraduates at MIT in the computer club.Index Ventures partner Mark Goldberg, an early investor in Pilot, first met the group of founders at Dropbox nearly a decade ago. While the narrative in Silicon Valley right is “focused on using software to optimize for everything,” Goldberg said Pilot is taking the “opposite approach” by adding people back in the mix.”Nobody starts a company to deal with BS in the back office. You want someone to extract that pain point,” Goldberg said. “People don’t want software, they want peace of mind.” More