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    BetMGM wagers that new technology, football can lead to a resurgence

    BetMGM is trying to regain market share after losing ground in sports betting and online casino games.
    It’s banking on technology like modeling and predictive AI features, and a digital wallet that allows people to take home what they win in Nevada.
    CEO Adam Greenblatt told CNBC the company has had a 125% increase in first-time depositors in Las Vegas so far this NFL season.

    As BetMGM tries to regain momentum in the gaming market, it’s banking in part on gains in NFL betting and the draw of new technology.
    The company is the third largest U.S. sportsbook by market share, but has lost ground in recent years in both sports gambling and igaming, or online casino gambling, where it once held the number one position.

    CEO Adam Greenblatt is counting on newly launched technology to woo customers, he told CNBC on Tuesday at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
    He cited the company’s integration this year of Angstrom, which uses modeling and predictive AI for data analytics, risk and pricing. During the spring baseball season, BetMGM credited the new tech for powering a 209% increase in MLB home run betting over the same time frame a year earlier.
    BetMGM in August launched a single, digital wallet for betting in Nevada. It means customers can take home what they win in the same app, which reduces friction. And Greenblatt said it’s already boosting results this football season.
    “What we are seeing now, year on year, season to date for NFL, 125% increase in first-time depositors in Vegas. And what’s particularly exciting is that more than 50% of those players who signed up for the first time with BetMGM in Nevada are playing when they get to their home states,” Greenblatt told CNBC.
    Though BetMGM fell from first to third place in the lucrative igaming segment, where margins are higher and the potential total addressable market is greater, the company’s chief executive is optimistic he has a winning formula.
    “Our players are coming back from week to week in a way, in a more engaged way than in prior periods,” he said. More

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    Spirit Halloween to open 10 new ‘Spirit Christmas’ stores catering to holiday shoppers

    Spirit Halloween will open locations through the holiday season as “Spirit Christmas,” a spokesperson confirmed with CNBC.
    Each store will feature a wide variety of holiday decorations and gifts, along with a real-life Santa and a life-sized gingerbread village.
    The company’s flagship store in May’s Landing, NJ, will open on Oct. 18, while the other nine locations will open in early November.

    A family exits a Spirit Halloween store operating in a former Best Buy. 
    Paul Weaver | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Some Spirit Halloween locations will be busy for longer than usual this year.
    Spirit Halloween will operate 10 stores through the entire holiday season as “Spirit Christmas,” a spokesperson confirmed with CNBC.

    Instead of the company’s usual strategy of renting abandoned storefronts only long enough to host the Halloween-specific retailer, 10 stores around the Northeast will open through the end of the year. The company’s flagship store in Mays Landing, N.J., will open on Oct. 18, while the other nine locations will open in early November, the spokesperson said. Not all stores will be converted from existing Spirit Halloween locations.
    “Spirit Christmas is a new concept for us, and we’re hopeful it will resonate with our customers,” a spokesperson for Spirit Halloween told CNBC. “Our goal is to create a festive retail experience that captures the spirit of the season, much like we do for Halloween.”
    Each store will have holiday inflatables and decor, but they will not all have the same experiences. The new stores won’t just replace fake skulls and costumes with wrapping paper and stockings, they will also have activities like photographs with a real-life Santa and letter writing to the North Pole.
    The first 10 locations will act as a test to see whether customers will stay invested through the holiday season.
    Holiday sales are a lucrative space, but not certain bet for the company. Spending grew 3.8% year over year to $964.4 billion in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation.

    Deloitte estimates that holiday retail sales will increase 2.3% to 3.3% in 2024, but expects a higher jump of 7% to 9% for e-commerce, which the Spirit Christmas test stores will not support. Amazon is already sizing up for the holidays with plans to hire 250,000 workers for the season, the same number as last year.
    Holiday spending could also be affected by a tense presidential election in November and a historically tumultuous season of hurricanes in progress. More

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    Boeing delivers 33 jets in September but strike impact looms

    Boeing’s deliveries are down year over year through September.
    The company handed over 27 of its bestselling 737 Max aircraft last month.
    A machinist strike is now in its fourth week, halting work at Boeing’s factories in the Seattle area.

    Boeing 737s on the ground in Renton, Washington.
    Leslie Josephs | CNBC

    Boeing delivered 33 airplanes in September, six more than during the same period a year earlier, as the company and its customers keep an eye on the impact of a machinist strike, now in its fourth week.
    Through September, Boeing has handed over 291 aircraft, well below the 371 it had delivered in the first nine months of 2023. Rival Airbus has delivered 447 airplanes this year through August,

    Last month’s deliveries were led by 27 of Boeing’s bestselling 737 Max aircraft to customers including United Airlines, which received five, and Ryanair and Southwest Airlines, which each each took three. Deliveries are key to Boeing. It’s already burned through more than $8 billion this year since customers pay the bulk of the price when they receive the airplane.
    The aircraft are produced in Renton, Washington, one of the factories where machinists walked off the job on Sept. 13 after workers overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement the company had reached with their union. The two sides are back at the negotiating table this week, though the union dismissed a sweetened offer from Boeing last month.

    Read more CNBC airline news

    All but 10 of the 27 Maxes were handed over before the strike began, according to Jefferies aerospace analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu. In a note Monday, she forecast that Boeing will be producing 25 Max aircraft per month if the strike ends in October but the company’s planned ramp-up to 38 Maxes a month will be delayed by a year.
    Boeing is scheduled to report quarterly results on Oct. 23, when it will detail the financial impact of the strike.
    September deliveries also included four 787 Dreamliner planes, which are made in Boeing’s nonunion factory in South Carolina. For the month, Boeing logged 66 gross orders for new aircraft.

    Boeing has spent much of this year dealing with fallout after a near catastrophe on one of its new 737 Max 9s in January, when a door plug that was missing key bolts blew out.
    The company’s backlog is 5,456 aircraft.

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    PepsiCo trims revenue outlook as North American snacking, key international markets lag

    PepsiCo reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street’s estimates, but its revenue was weaker than expected.
    The food and beverage giant lowered its full-year outlook for organic revenue.
    Recalls related to its Quaker Foods North America business continued to weigh on its sales.

    A truck with Pepsi logo on a semitrailer is seen at Interstate 95 highway in Maryland, United States, on October 21, 2022.
    Beata Zawrzel | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    PepsiCo on Tuesday lowered its full-year outlook for organic revenue after its second straight quarter of weaker-than-expected sales.
    The repercussions of the Quaker Foods North America recalls, weakening demand in the U.S. and business disruptions in some international markets weighed on the company’s performance in the quarter, CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a statement.

    For 2024, Pepsi now expects a low-single-digit rise in organic revenue, down from its prior outlook of 4% growth. The company reiterated its forecast for an increase of at least 8% for its core constant currency earnings per share.
    Shares of the company fell less than 1% in premarket trading.
    Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: $2.31 adjusted vs. $2.29 expected
    Revenue: $23.32 billion vs. $23.76 billion expected

    Pepsi reported third-quarter net income attributable to the company of $2.93 billion, or $2.13 per share, down from $3.09 billion, or $2.24 per share, a year earlier.
    Excluding items, the company earned $2.31 per share.

    Net sales fell 0.6% to $23.32 billion. Organic revenue, which strips out acquisitions, divestitures and currency changes, rose 1.3% in the quarter.
    Demand for Pepsi’s snacks and drinks dropped this quarter. The company reported that volume for both its food and beverage divisions declined 2%. Last quarter, executives said shoppers across all income levels are changing their behavior.
    In particular, weak demand in North America weighed on Pepsi’s overall volume. Shoppers in the U.S. have grown more cautious, snacking less and making fewer purchases at convenience stores. And Mexican sales slowed, which Laguarta attributed in part to the country’s election in June.
    Quaker Foods North America reported the steepest drop-off in volume, with a 13% slide. The company issued its first recall for potential salmonella contamination in December, then widened it in January. In June, Pepsi officially closed a plant tied to the recalls, although production had already stopped.
    The consequences of the recalls are now diminishing, Laguarta and Pepsi CFO Jamie Caulfield said in prepared remarks.
    Frito-Lay North America reported a 1.5% decline in volume. The company has been trying to offer more value to consumers and improve in-store availability with its snacks, which include Cheetos, SunChips and Stacy’s pita chips. While the division’s volume is improving sequentially, the broader category has slowed down compared with historical performance.
    “After outperforming packaged food categories in previous years, salty and savory snacks have underperformed year-to-date,” Pepsi executives said in their prepared remarks.
    This fall and winter, Pepsi plans to invest more in Doritos and Tostitos, helped by the football season. The company is offering bonus packs for Tostitos and Ruffles that offer 20% more chips.
    Pepsi is also broadening its portfolio in the hopes of appealing to more health-conscious consumers. A week ago, the company announced its purchase of Siete Foods for $1.2 billion. The brand makes Mexican-American food, usually with accommodations for different dietary concerns.
    Volume for Pepsi’s North American beverage business fell 3%. Brands like Gatorade and Pepsi saw revenue growth in the quarter, but the energy drink category — including Pepsi’s Rockstar — has seen demand weaken as traffic to convenience stores falls.
    “I think it’s part of the economic cycle that we’re in, and that will reverse itself in the future, once consumers feel better,” Laguarta told analysts on the company’s conference call.
    The Latin America and Africa, Middle East and South Asia markets also reported shrinking volume for both food and drinks.

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    China state planner lays out further actions to boost economy but no new plans for major stimulus

    Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, pledged a raft of actions to bolster the country’s economy during a highly-anticipated press conference.
    But he stopped short of announcing any new major stimulus plans, underwhelming investors and weakening a long rally.

    Two women sit on the sidewalk of Qiansimen Jialing River Bridge, decorated with Chinese national flags, on October 3, 2024 in Chongqing, China. National Day Golden Week is a holiday in China commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. 
    Cheng Xin | Getty Images

    Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, on Tuesday pledged a raft of actions to bolster the country’s economy during a highly-anticipated press conference.
    But he stopped short of announcing any new major stimulus plans, underwhelming investors and weakening the rally in the mainland Chinese markets.

    China will speed up special purpose bond issuance to local governments to support regional economic growth, the senior NDRC official said.
    Zheng said ultra-long special sovereign bonds, totaling 1 trillion yuan, have been fully deployed to fund local projects, and he vowed that China will continue to issue ultra-long special treasury bonds next year.

    BEIJING, CHINA – JUNE 22: Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), meets with Robert Habeck (not in the picture), German vice chancellor and minister for economic affairs and climate action on June 22, 2024 in Beijing, China. 
    Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

    The central government will release a 100 billion yuan investment plan for next year by the end of this month, ahead of schedule, a senior official added.
    The NDRC head was speaking at a press briefing with four other key officials of the country’s economic planning agency. The briefing came as markets in mainland China returned from Golden Week, a weeklong holiday that started Sept. 30.
    The rally in Chinese markets lost steam as policymakers held back from delivering more stimulus measures. The CSI 300 blue chip index pared gains to a 5% rise, after skyrocketing over 10% on open. The Shanghai Composite Index and SZSE Component Index similarly dialed back gains to around 5% and 8%, respectively.

    Stock chart icon

    Shanghai Composite Index

    Underwhelming stimulus

    China is “fully confident” that it will achieve the full-year economic growth target this year, Zheng said, while pledging some measures to support the property market and boost domestic spending.
    “The absence of specific figures may not be a negative sign”, Yue Su, principal economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said in a note. China’s “pro-growth policy stance remains unchanged.”
    The economist kept her growth forecast for China unchanged at 4.7% this year and 4.8% in 2025, while anticipating that Beijing could arrange another 1 trillion to 3 trillion yuan of additional fiscal support to boost the real economy.
    “Many western investors will take profits off the table today and wait to see if more money comes in,” Shaun Rein, partner and managing director at China Market Research Group told CNBC. They have had “too much froth as they hoped the government would launch a massive stimulus.”
    “If there’s no fiscal stimulus with real meat and details, the rally will fade,” he added.

    More’s needed

    Last month, China’s top leaders had signaled a sense of urgency in confronting a long and painful economic downturn that has thrown into doubt the country’s ability to hit an annual growth target of “around 5%.”
    Before the holiday, Chinese authorities had called for strengthening fiscal and monetary policy support at a monthly meeting of top Communist Party officials, and unveiled a flurry of stimulus measures aimed to put an end to the sliding property prices.

    The stimulus blitz came as growth in the world’s second largest economy had slowed after a disappointing recovery from Covid-19 lockdowns, weighed down by lackluster domestic demand and a protracted property downturn.
    In the first half of the year, China’s economy grew by 5.0% from a year earlier, meeting the central government’s target, while in the April-June quarter, its GDP growth missed expectations and grew by 4.7%, marking its slowest growth since the first quarter in 2023.

    China’s latest consumer price index rose by 0.6% year on year in August, missing expectations of 0.7%, while the core-CPI, which strips out food and energy prices, climbed by 0.3%, a slower rise for a second-straight month.
    Among a barrage of disappointing economic data, China’s factory activity also contracted for the fifth consecutive month in September, with the official PMI coming in at 49.8 in September. A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion in activity, while a reading below that level points to contraction.
    The Caixin PMI was 49.3 in the same period, the sharpest contraction in 14 months, driven by declining demand and a weakening labor market.
    In March, Zheng said at a high-level press conference that China will “continue to strengthen macroeconomic policies.” It would involve coordination of fiscal, monetary, employment, industrial and regional policies, he said, as China continues to step up macro economic policy adjustment.
    The NDRC chief also acknowledged that “there are still many difficulties and problems” in the process of achieving the country’s expected growth targets, according to CNBC’s translation of his Mandarin-language remarks. More

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    Could war in the Gulf push oil to $100 a barrel?

    EVER SINCE Hamas’s attacks on Israel a year ago, the biggest fear in oil markets has been that tensions would escalate into a full-blown regional war pitting Israel against Iran, the world’s seventh-largest producer of crude. Until recently both countries seemed keen to avoid it. That explains why, despite war in Gaza and Houthis firing missiles in the Red Sea, initial jitters on oil markets after October 7th last year soon gave way to the low and stable prices that have prevailed for much of this year. More

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    Crypto relationship scams pose ‘catastrophic harm,’ SEC official says. Here’s how to avoid them

    Crypto relationship scams have become a common type of investment fraud tied to cryptocurrency like bitcoin and ethereum.
    Criminals use social media, networking and other sites like Instagram, WhatsApp and LinkedIn to build trust and entice people to buy fake crypto investments, federal officials said.

    krisanapong detraphiphat | Moment | Getty Images

    Investors are at a heightened risk of cryptocurrency scams tied to fake relationships established over social media, dating apps and networking sites, federal officials warn.
    Such frauds occur when scammers use dating apps, social media platforms, professional networking sites or encrypted messaging apps to pose as a romantic interest, old friend, investment professional or other acquaintance.

    Fraudsters gain the trust of targets over time. At some point, they broach the idea of investing in crypto — and then defraud victims via fake investments.
    More from Personal Finance:How to avoid the top scam of 2023FBI: ‘Financial sextortion’ of teens is ‘rapidly escalating threat’How this 77-year-old widow lost $661,000 in a common scam
    “Relationship investment scams, including those involving crypto asset investments, pose a risk of catastrophic harm to retail investors, and the threat is increasing rapidly as these scams become more popular with fraudsters,” Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, said in a press statement.
    Last month, the SEC brought its first-ever enforcement actions tied to crypto relationship frauds. The SEC alleged criminals pilfered millions of dollars of investors’ money in two separate schemes tied to WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Instagram and fake crypto asset trading platforms NanoBit and CoinW6.

    Crypto scam losses ‘can be huge’

    Crypto, examples of which includes bitcoin and ethereum, is a digital currency. Its use has grown among criminals, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    Consumers lost an estimated $5.6 billion from crypto-related scams in 2023, up 45% from 2022, the FBI said in a recent fraud report.
    Investment scams accounted for about 71% of those total losses in 2023, the agency said.

    There are “many variations” of crypto investment fraud, but the most prominent last year was the relationship scam, the FBI said.
    “The dollar losses can be huge,” Kim Casci-Palangio, head of the romance scam recovery group at the Cybercrime Support Network, said on a recent podcast published by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a federal brokerage regulator.
    “For our program, the dollar losses average about $178,000 a person,” Casci-Palangio said.

    These frauds are often ‘long cons’

    Criminals have turned to crypto more readily as an outlet for fraud because of its decentralized nature, the speed of irreversible transactions and ability to move money around the world, the FBI said.
    Advancements in artificial intelligence will likely make romance scams tied to crypto harder to detect, said Micah Hauptman, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.
    These frauds are often “long cons,” Hauptman said.
    Jules, a victim of a crypto relationship scam, detailed her experience with the crime on a new FINRA podcast. FINRA only used Jules’ first name to protect her identity. It’s unclear how much total money she lost, but disclosed it was “thousands of dollars of transactions.”
    Jules, who grew up in the Seattle area, began messaging a supposed romantic interest on a dating app in spring 2022 while finishing the final few weeks of her undergraduate degree.

    After a “couple of weeks of regular communication” via text, the man “slowly” began to introduce the idea of investing into bitcoin, she said.
    “This person was really kind. We had really good interaction,” Jules said. “It started with a friendship. It started with communication. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, give me your money.'”
    The romantic interest — who was a scammer hiding his identity — provided information to build the illusion he was a knowledgeable crypto investor, such as fake screenshots of thousands of dollars in a digital wallet, Jules said.
    She took out personal loans to fund crypto investments, she said. Initially, she started with a “little bit” of money,” around $1,000, eventually moving into “larger dollar amounts,” Jules said.

    How to protect yourself from crypto scams

    Crispin La Valiente | Moment | Getty Images

    Here are tips from the FBI, SEC and financial experts on how to protect yourself from crypto romance scams:

    Be cautious of investment advice or promotions from someone you meet online and have never met in real life, even if you have spoken on the phone or video chatted — and no matter how trustworthy they seem.
    Look out for domain or website names that impersonate legitimate financial institutions, especially cryptocurrency exchanges. Fraudsters often use websites that mimic those of real financial firms (but are often slightly different) to convince people of legitimacy.
    Don’t download or use suspicious-looking apps to invest unless you can verify their legitimacy.
    If someone is pitching you can investment, don’t gain a false sense of security by being able to make early withdrawals or seeing “profits.”
    Beware of fake testimonials from people claiming to have made money.
    If an investment sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
    Double check that an investment firm is registered on BrokerCheck. More

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    Rolls-Royce opens VIP showroom in NYC to cater to its top-tier clients. Take a look inside

    Rolls-Royce has opened its first U.S. “Private Office,” a secret VIP design studio for ultra-wealthy clients who want highly personalized cars.
    It’s central to the fabled British automaker’s new strategy of growing sales and profits from selling more customized, higher-priced vehicles rather than boosting production.
    Once select customers order a car from a dealer, they can go to the Private Office to work with a designer to create an entirely personalized car.

    Rolls-Royce has opened its first U.S. “Private Office,” a secret VIP design studio for ultra-wealthy clients who want highly personalized cars.
    The Private Office, in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District, is central to the fabled British automaker’s new strategy of growing sales and profits from selling more customized, higher-priced vehicles rather than boosting production. Rolls-Royce produced 6,032 cars last year, less than half the production of Ferrari, yet continues to generate strong profit growth for its parent company BMW.

    While Rolls-Royce customers have been customizing their rides for decades, the Private Office brings the concept of a personalized Rolls to a whole new level. Once select customers order a car from a dealer, they can go to the Private Office to work with a designer to create an entirely personalized car — from special paint colors to their favorite fabrics, woods, lighting schemes and other materials.
    “They may want the exterior of their Rolls-Royce to match the color of their dog’s eyes,” said Rolls-Royce CEO Chris Brownridge. “They may want to have interior panels in the car with the mother-of-pearl from their private collection. We can bring those sorts of requests to life through having direct access to the team. And the possibilities really are endless.”

    Rolls-Royce CEO Chris Brownridge.

    Rolls-Royce calls its top level of personalization the “Bespoke” program. Creating a Bespoke Rolls can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the sticker price, which for a Rolls-Royce Phantom is just under $500,000, bringing the total sale price of some cars to more than $1 million.
    The Private Office is reserved for the most complicated — and expensive — Bespoke projects. It’s not a dealership and there are no actual cars displayed. To get into the Private Office, customers press a black security screen outside an unmarked building and take a secure elevator to the top floor.
    With its sleek black kitchen, low sofas, a dining table, outdoor terrace, and turntable with stacks of classic rock and jazz vinyl records, the Private Office looks more like a billionaire’s pied-a-terre than a car showroom. The only hint that it’s a Rolls-Royce facility is a row of shelves along the back wall displaying samples of paint colors, threads, leathers, metals and a row of the famous “Spirit of Ecstasy” hood ornaments in different finishes.

    The Rolls-Royce Phantom Syntopia.
    Courtesy: Rolls-Royce

    The New York Private Office is the company’s third worldwide, following Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which opened in 2022, and Shanghai in 2023. The company is about to open its fourth, in Seoul, Korea.
    The idea, Brownridge says, is to bring the expertise and design capability of its Goodwood, U.K., factory to clients around the world. That’s especially important as client requests become more unusual and complex.
    One Rolls-Royce client wanted a car inspired by flowers. The Rolls team created an extended-wheelbase Phantom with a headliner covered with more than 1 million embroidered roses. Another client who loves Hawaii and has a favorite rocking chair made of rare Koa wood wanted a Koa-themed Rolls. Since Koa wood is protected in Hawaii, only dead or naturally fallen Koa trees can be harvested. Rolls spent three years waiting and hunting for the right tree, then built a Koa Phantom, with the wood used on the dashboard, center console and doors. The company even made a matching picnic hamper and table. The whole package took more than 500 hours to create.

    Interior of the custom Rolls-Royce Koa Phantom.
    Courtesy: Rolls-Royce

    “A lot of these clients would never, ever sell their cars,” Brownridge said. “It’s so personal and it means to much to them.”
    To keep up with the surging demand for custom cars, Rolls-Royce is also expanding its Bespoke workshops in Goodwood. Brownridge said the goal isn’t to produce more cars, but to produce higher-value, more customized cars.
    “As our commissions have become more sophisticated, our business has become more successful,” Brownridge said. “Our mission is really to create value for our shareholder, to create value for our retail partners, but most importantly, to create value for our clients. Because when you produce a masterpiece for them, it means so much more than just a motorcar. I often say that the fact that they have four wheels is almost a nice-to-have, because they really are a work of art.”
    Brownridge said when customers are building their special Rolls-Royces, they not only visit the factory in Goodwood, but they also get to know the paint shop specialists, the woodworkers, the embroidery experts and other members of the team.
    “Every single client that I’ve met, they all say, what makes Rolls Royce Special is that they feel that they are part of a family,” he said. “They’re not customers to us, they’re part of Rolls Royce. Many of our clients will come to Goodwood, and they will know the people that are making their cars. It’s not just the personal connection to the motorcar. It’s the personal connection to the whole team who are producing these magnificent things.”

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