Business

Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said that most of the sellers have already left the market, which means that the turbulence in stocks could ease up.
“To me, this mad scramble to get out ahead of the negativity is a sign that the bad news … is mostly baked in,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said that most of the sellers have already left the market, which means that the turbulence in stocks could ease up.
“To me, this mad scramble to get out ahead of the negativity is a sign that the bad news … is mostly baked in,” he said.

“Everybody’s scrambling to get out of this market ahead of everybody else, but at this point, I think many people who were going to sell have already gone, which means we could get some pleasant surprises going forward,” he added.
The major indices fell Monday ahead of a jam-packed week of corporate earnings.
The “Mad Money” host said he has his eyes on the Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index and retail sales numbers coming out this week.
“I think those figures will be too hot. … But I also expect some early signs of cooling,” he said.
“These data points are what everyone’s afraid of. And when everyone’s petrified, it tends to be a nonstory, with buyers coming in after the big bad event passes,” he added.

He also reviewed this week’s slate of earnings. All earnings and revenue estimates are courtesy of FactSet.
Tuesday: PepsiCo

Q2 2022 earnings release at 6 a.m. ET; conference call at 8:15 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $1.74
Projected revenue: $19.51 billion

Cramer said he has faith the beverage giant will tell a good story since input costs including corn and aluminum are coming down in price.
Wednesday: Delta Air Lines

Q2 2022 earnings release at 6;30 a.m. ET; conference call at 10 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $1.66
Projected revenue: $12.25 billion

Consumers aren’t done spending money on travel, Cramer predicted.
Thursday: JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Conagra Brands, Cintas
JPMorgan Chase

Q2 2022 earnings release at 7 a.m. ET; conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $2.92
Projected revenue: $31.81 billion

Morgan Stanley

Q2 2022 earnings release at 7:30 a.m. ET; conference call at 9:30 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $1.57
Projected revenue: $13.44 billion

Cramer said he likes JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley ahead of their quarters.
Conagra Brands

Q4 2022 earnings release at 7:30 a.m. ET; conference call at 9:30 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: 63 cents
Projected revenue: $2.93 billion

“The value proposition is pretty compelling here, especially thanks to working from home,” he said.
Cintas

Q4 2022 earnings release before the bell; conference call at 10 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $2.68
Projected revenue: $2.01 billion

Cramer said recently he’s only tuned into the company’s conference calls to check the pace of job creation.
Friday: Wells Fargo, Citigroup, BlackRock, UnitedHealth
Wells Fargo

Q2 2022 earnings release at 7 a.m. ET; conference call at 10 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: 83 cents
Projected revenue: $17.54 billion

At the stock’s current price, “there is little to lose with Wells Fargo and a lot more to gain,” he said.
Citigroup

Q2 2022 earnings release at 8 a.m. ET; conference call at 11 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $1.67
Projected revenue: $18.34 billion

There are better banks to own than Citi, according to Cramer.
BlackRock

Q2 2022 earnings release before the bell: conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $8.07
Projected sales: $4.58 billion

Cramer said he likes BlackRock at its current price.
UnitedHealth

Q2 2022 earnings release at 5:55 a.m. ET; conference call at 8:45 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $5.21
Projected revenue: $79.68 billion

While he expects United Healthcare to turn out a great quarter, Cramer said he prefers Humana for the Charitable Trust.
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Humana, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

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Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said that the market could have a strong rally through late August, pointing to analysis from legendary market technician Larry Williams.
“Markets bottom when the hedge funds throw in the towel and the public throws in the towel. And based on the history, he suspects that’s exactly what’s happening right now,” Cramer said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said that the market could have a strong rally through late August, pointing to analysis from legendary market technician Larry Williams.
“The last time we spoke to him about the broader averages in late May, he predicted that after some choppy trading the market would have a strong rally through late August. Right now, what he’s seeing in the futures confirms that thesis,” he said.

To explain Williams’ analysis, the “Mad Money” host first noted that Williams believes commercial hedgers in stock futures, which are composed mainly of banks, mutual funds and governments, tend to have the best understanding of their industry compared to professional money managers and run-of-the-mill investors.
“When these guys get very bullish in their positioning … it’s often a great buying opportunity,” he said. 
“Especially at important bottoms, Williams points out that the commercial hedgers tend to be bullish, while the large speculators like money managers, and of course the public, tend to be bearish,” he added.
He highlighted this pattern by showing the weekly chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures from 2018 through today.

Arrows pointing outwards

The red line represents the net position of commercial hedgers. Cramer noted that commercial hedgers and money managers have been going in the opposite direction recently.

“While the former get more bullish, the latter have gotten more bearish, shorting the futures aggressively. That matters because, historically, when the commercials and the hedge funds are going in opposite directions, you’re much better off betting with, yes, the commercials,” he said.
“Markets bottom when the hedge funds throw in the towel and the public throws in the towel. And based on the history, he suspects that’s exactly what’s happening right now,” he added.
For more analysis, watch Cramer’s full explanation in the video below.

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Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

It’s that time again! “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he’s giving his answers to callers’ stock questions at rapid speed.

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23andMe Holding Co: “I am shocked that this stock’s at $2. … At $2, I think that the risk is priced in.”

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Scotts Miracle-Gro Co: “Let’s hold off buying more. … Anything that is cannabis-related is no-go in my book.”

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A10 Networks Inc: “Not proprietary enough, too much like other companies. Let’s stay away from that.”

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Pembina Pipeline Co: “I don’t know why that stock’s as low as it is. I think that’s a terrific investment. … I would be a buyer of that.”

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Traders on the floor of the NYSE, June 27, 2022.
Source: NYSE

U.S. stock futures were little changed after hours Monday as Wall Street looks ahead to what many expect will be the start of a volatile second quarter earnings season this week.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 12 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.03% and 0.03%, respectively.

Shares of Gap fell more than 3% in extended trading after the apparel retailer said CEO and president Sonia Syngal is stepping down from her position.
The Dow on Monday’s session shed 164.31 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 fell 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost nearly 2.3%.
Those moves come as investors prepare for companies to start reporting their latest results. Market participants will watch for downside risk to earnings forecasts as companies grapple with rising interest rates and greater inflationary pressures, and as Wall Street debates the likelihood of a recession.
“In terms of S&P earnings, for instance, we think we’re already moving towards an earnings recession,” Marathon Asset Management’s Bruce Richards said Monday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”
“Companies are getting squeezed at all sides, they’re getting squeezed on cost of goods and the wages and all things that go into input from our manufacturing goals or services. And on the other end, we think revenues are starting to flatten before turning down at a time when interest cost is going up…That’s a lot of downgrades, a lot of potential defaults coming from the system as a result of higher charges.”

On the earnings front, traders will pore through several major corporate reports this week. On Tuesday, PepsiCo is set to report earnings before the market opens. Other companies due to report include Delta Air Lines on Wednesday, and JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup on Thursday and Friday.
Market participants will carefully assess June’s consumer price index report on Wednesday. The headline inflation number, including food and energy, is expected to rise to 8.8% from May’s level of 8.6%, according to estimates from Dow Jones.

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Gap CEO and President Sonia Syngal is stepping down, effective immediately, the apparel retailer announced on Monday.
The retailer also named a new chief for its Old Navy business to succeed Nancy Green who departed the post in April.
Gap added that higher promotional activity had a negative impact on its gross margin; it now forecasts its adjusted operating margin percentage in the second quarter at zero to slightly negative.

Sonia Syngal, president and chief executive officer of Old Navy Inc., speaks during the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Gap CEO Sonia Syngal is stepping down, effective immediately, the company announced on Monday, as the apparel retailer battles supply chain challenges and slumping sales.
Syngal will stay at the company during a brief transition period, and Bob Martin, the company’s current executive chairman of the board, will serve as interim president and CEO, Gap said.

Gap shares fell more than 4% in extended trading on the news.
Syngal said in a statement that she is “thankful to have the board’s support in stepping down, ushering in a new opportunity for fresh perspective and rejuvenated leadership to carry Gap Inc. forward.”
Syngal was previously the leader of Gap’s Old Navy business before she took over as CEO in March 2020, just days before Covid-19 started spreading across the U.S. She has been with the retailer since 2004. 

Gap also named a new chief for its Old Navy business to succeed Nancy Green who departed the post in April. Horacio “Haio” Barbeito, most recently president and CEO of Walmart Canada, is expected to take over the Old Navy business on Aug. 1.
In tandem with the C-suite shake-up, Gap updated its fiscal second-quarter guidance, saying it still expects sales to decline in the “approximately high single-digit range.”

But Gap added that higher promotional activity had a negative impact on its gross margin; it now forecasts its adjusted operating margin percentage in the second quarter at zero to slightly negative.
The company still expects to incur an estimated $50 million of costs during the quarter related to air freight expense and inflation.
Gap is set to report results for that period on Thursday, Aug. 25.
The retailer in recent months has grappled with supply chain obstacles that have left it with jumbled up sizes and styles that don’t fit what its customers are looking for. In the latest quarter, an imbalanced mix of clothing sizes, following a push into plus-size styles, coupled with an uptick in price-lowering promotions put a dent in Old Navy’s performance, specifically.
Gap swung to a net loss of $162 million in the three-month period ended April 30, compared with a profit of $166 million during the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell roughly 13% to $3.48 billion.

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Federal law pre-empts state abortion bans in cases where women face medical emergencies associated with pregnancy, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told health care providers.
States that have banned abortion generally make exceptions if the woman’s life is in danger, but U.S. health officials are concerned physicians will wait too long to treat complications.
Hospitals that decline to provide abortions in these cases could have their Medicare provider agreements terminated or face financial penalties, Becerra said.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss reopening schools during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., September 30, 2021.
Shawn Thew | Pool | Reuters

Physicians must provide abortions in medical emergencies under federal law and will face penalties if they decline to offer the procedure in these cases, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to health care providers on Monday.
Becerra said federal law pre-empts state abortion bans in cases where women face medical emergencies associated with pregnancy under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. If an abortion is necessary to treat a woman facing a medical emergency, physicians must offer the procedure, the health secretary wrote.

Hospitals that decline to provide abortions in these cases could have their Medicare provider agreement terminated or face financial penalties, Becerra said. Individual physicians could also be cut from Medicare and state health programs if they refuse to offer abortions in medical emergencies, he added. Physicians can also use federal law as a defense if they face state prosecution when providing abortions in emergencies, according to HHS.
Becerra said such medical emergencies include but are not limited to ectopic pregnancies, complications from miscarriages and hypertensive disorders such as preeclampsia that usually occurs after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Preeclampsia results in high blood pressure, severe headaches and blurred vision. The condition can lead to fatal complications if untreated.
“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care,” Becerra said. “We are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care.”
President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday directing HHS to protect abortion access. At least nine states have banned abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, which protected access to the procedure as a constitutional right for nearly 50 years. Several other states have tried to ban abortion but their laws have been blocked by state courts.
Although state abortion bans generally make exceptions for when the woman’s life is in danger, reproductive rights activists fear the laws will have a chilling effect on patients seeking care as well as physicians who fear prosecution. U.S. health officials worry that wary doctors could wait too long to treat ectopic pregnancies and complications from miscarriages while awaiting legal guidance.

All of the state abortion bans make performing an abortion a felony that carries prison time, the length of which varies depending on the state. Women who receive abortions are generally exempt from prosecution under the state bans, but reproductive rights group are concerned that states will move to criminalize receiving an abortion as well.
Biden also has directed HHS to take action to make the abortion pill, mifepristone, as widely available as possible and protect access to contraception.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the abortion pill more than 20 years ago as a safe and effective way to end a pregnancy before the 10th week. In December, the FDA permanently allowed the pill to be sent by mail from licensed pharmacies and health care providers. But states banning abortion are also outlawing health care providers from administering the pill.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and Democratic lawmakers have called for the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency in response to states banning abortion.
The president told reporters over the weekend that he has asked health officials in the administration to look at whether he has the legal authority to declare such an emergency to protect abortion access and what impact using the powers would have. But Jen Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said the administration concluded that declaring an emergency was not the best position to respond to states banning abortion.
“When we looked at the public health emergency, we learned a couple things.  One is that it doesn’t free very many resources. It’s what’s in the public health emergency fund, and there’s very little money — tens of thousands of dollars in it,” Klein told reporters on Friday.  “So that didn’t seem like a great option. And it also doesn’t release a significant amount of legal authority. And so that’s why we haven’t taken that action.”

CNBC Health & Science

Read CNBC’s latest global health coverage:

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Moviegoers aren’t just returning to cinemas, theater operators say they are spending more on premium tickets and concessions.
With new blockbusters driving more people to theaters, the summer, box office season in the U.S. and Canada is down just 12% from the summer before the pandemic.
While there will be an expected lull in new movies between August and October, movie theater owners are optimistic about blockbuster titles due in cinemas before the end of the year.

Natalie Portman stars as the Mighty Thor, aka Dr. Jane Foster, alongside Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor Odinson, in Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder.”

It’s becoming clearer that audiences are no longer satisfied just sitting on the couch to watch movies. Not only are they returning to movie theaters in droves, theater operators say they’re opting for pricier tickets and spending more on concessions.
Over the weekend, Disney’s newest Marvel Cinematic Universe film, “Thor: Love and Thunder,” opened to nearly $145 million in ticket sales domestically and drew around 10 million moviegoers out to cinemas.

With additional ticket sales from movies like Paramount and Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick,”  Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” and “Jurassic World: Dominion” as well as Pixar’s “Lightyear” and Warner Bros.′ “Elvis,” the weekend’s domestic box office raked in around $240 million.
That’s well above the $185 million for the same weekend in 2019, according to data from Comscore. At the time, Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” topped the box office alongside Disney’s “Toy Story 4″ and “Aladdin,” Universal’s “Yesterday,” Warner Bros.′ “Annabelle Comes Home” and A24′s “Midsommar.”
“We were jumping up and down this weekend,” said Brock Bagby, executive vice president of B&B Theatres, a regional, Midwest-based theater chain with more than 50 locations. “Friday was our biggest day of the year and the biggest single day since ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ opened in December.”
With new blockbusters driving more people to theaters, the summer, box office season in the U.S. and Canada is down just 12% compared with the summer before the pandemic, according to data from Comscore. Between May 1 and July 10, the box office raked in $2.27 billion from tickets. That’s compared with $2.58 billion during the same period in 2019.
For the year so far, the domestic box office has collected more than $4.25 billion in ticket sales as of Sunday. That’s 30% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

“Since the beginning of the summer, and the release of ‘Doctor Strange,’ the studios have stacked up one excellent film after another,” said Jeffrey Kaufman, senior vice president of film and marketing at Malco Theatres. “This has energized moviegoers and they have responded to a string of fun, exciting and entertaining movies.”
Movie theater chains big and small are benefitting. AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, reported it highest global attendance of the year this weekend, topping 5.9 million moviegoers. Its global admission revenue outpaced the same weekend in 2019 by 12%, it said Monday.
“The box office results week after week after week this summer have demonstrated what we at AMC have believed to be true all along: consumers want to experience their movies through the unrivaled experience of a movie theater, with its big screens, big sound and comfortable big seats,” Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said in a statement.
Bagby of B&B Theatres also told CNBC that moviegoers have been opting for premium formats far more than before the pandemic. This includes IMAX, Dolby, 3D and other experiences that offer immersive seating or panoramic screens. He added that audiences have been spending much more on food and drinks, as well.
B&B Theatres predicts it will end the year with same-store sales down around 10%, based on the movies slated to come out over the next few months and an expected lull between August and October.
“I wish there was more product, but luckily the titles we have had, have been incredibly strong,” he said.
The overall number of movies with wide releases in 2022 is down more than 30% compared with 2019, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
Still, audiences will have a lot of content to choose from between now and the end of the year. Disney will release “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Warner Bros. and DC has “Black Adam” and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods.” Universal is set to release Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” and Sony has the hotly anticipated “Bullet Train.”
Capping off the year will be Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the first planned sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time.
“Moviegoing is a habit,” Kaufman said. “Once people get into the habit, they always find films they want to see.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Nope,” and “Yesterday.”

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Elon musk’s acquisition of Twitter was to be one of the biggest buy-outs in corporate history. Now it threatens to become one of the ugliest disputes. Twitter is expected to file a lawsuit against Mr Musk this week in a Delaware court, suing him for pulling out of the $44bn deal. Meanwhile the world’s richest man—and the holder of Twitter’s sixth-most-followed account—has taken to the internet to engage in battle by meme.The argument may play out over many months. But whoever prevails in court, Twitter has bigger problems to reckon with. Though it is one of the world’s most talked-about social networks, it has failed to turn that clout into a successful business. Whoever ends up owning the app is likely to press its managers for change.When Twitter’s sale was agreed on in April, Mr Musk’s bid of $54.20 per share looked cheap to some—including Twitter’s board, which at first wasn’t interested. No sooner had the deal been struck than tech markets crashed. On July 11th Twitter shares were trading at under $33, having shed another 10% in value as some investors who had clung on to the hope that Mr Musk would go through with his purchase (despite weeks of evidence to the contrary) threw in the towel. Though Mr Musk claims he wants to cancel the deal because Twitter has more spam accounts than it told him, many detect a simple case of buyer’s remorse.For that reason Twitter probably has the upper hand in court. If the judge takes its side, Mr Musk faces a break-up fee of $1bn, as specified in the contract. He would probably consider that a victory. The judge could go as far as ordering the sale to go ahead at the agreed price. There is precedent: in 2001 the same Delaware court ordered Tyson Foods (a firm dealing in real birds rather than digital ones) to complete its purchase of ibp, a beef packer. That deal, though, was worth less than a tenth as much as the Twitter purchase. And no one is sure what would happen if Mr Musk simply defied an order to complete the acquisition. The dispute may yet be settled out of court, with Mr Musk paying a break-up fee greater than $1bn or buying the company for less than the price he agreed.However the saga ends, Twitter’s bosses will face the same puzzle they have wrestled with for years: how to turn their influential product into a more profitable one. Part of the problem is a failure to attract new users—and not of the bot variety against which Mr Musk has, self-servingly but not wholly unreasonably, railed. While Facebook, founded just two years before Twitter, has soared to 1.9bn daily users, Twitter has reached just 230m and is still growing only slowly. Younger upstarts, notably TikTok, have lapped it. Behind that stagnation in users lies a stagnating product. Whereas Facebook and other social apps have continually evolved, Twitter today is a similar experience to when it launched. It had a chance to innovate when it bought Vine, an app which popularised short video four years before any TikTok dance numbers ever saw the light of day, but allowed it to wither. It tried to copy Snapchat’s and Instagram’s disappearing posts with “Fleets”, but the idea flopped and was killed off last year.Lately Twitter has been bolder, with some success. “Spaces”, a live-audio feature, has proved popular enough to largely kill off Clubhouse, the briefly fashionable app that inspired it. And it has pushed into longer-form content with the acquisition of Revue, a Substack-esque paid-newsletter platform.Monetising these and other innovations is the next task, which may prove harder. Over the years Twitter’s revenue growth has been even more disappointing than its growth in users. This year Twitter will account for about 0.9% of worldwide digital ad spending, estimates eMarketer, a research firm. Facebook and its sister company Instagram will account for 21.5%; even TikTok, just five years old, will take a slice worth 1.9%.With the ad market looking vulnerable to the weakening global economy, the company is looking to diversify its sources of revenue, nearly 90% of which come from advertising. It has launched Twitter Blue, a subscription option that gives users some modest benefits (an “undo tweet” button, an easier reading view and a few other tweaks) for $2.99 a month. Mr Musk said he wanted to go further on subscriptions, tweeting in April that Twitter Blue users should have an ad-free experience.Yet an ad-free Twitter would have to cost substantially more than the $2.99 charged for Twitter Blue if it were to bring in as much money as ads currently do. Although Twitter’s annual reports do not break out average revenue per user, they show that the American market last year contributed $2.8bn in revenue, and that in America it had 38m users. That suggests that American users bring in upwards of $6 a month each in ad revenue, on average. And unlike other subscription businesses which can eschew mass audiences in favour of a smaller, subscription-paying one, Twitter needs a large number of users to produce its buzzy content.In its nine years as a public company Twitter has struggled to solve these problems. Private ownership by someone with a high appetite for risk looked for a while as if it might enable the kind of shake-up that Twitter seems to need. Instead the ongoing Musk affair looks like being yet another distraction from the task in hand. ■ More