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GameStop on Monday announced the long-awaited debut of its online marketplace for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
The platform, which is now open to the public for beta testing, allows users to connect their own digital asset wallets including the recently launched GameStop Wallet.
This is the latest push by the videogame retailer, now chaired by Chewy founder and activist investor Ryan Cohen, to invest in a digital future.

NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images

GameStop on Monday announced the long-awaited debut of its online marketplace for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in a bid to reinvent its business and cash in on consumer adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
The platform, which is now open to the public for beta testing, allows users to connect their own digital asset wallets, including the recently launched GameStop Wallet, the company said in a press release. They will then be able to buy, sell and trade NFTs of virtual goods. Over time, the marketplace will expand to offer other features such as Web3 gaming, GameStop said.

This is the latest push by the videogame retailer, now chaired by Chewy founder and activist investor Ryan Cohen, to invest in a digital future. GameStop is undergoing a turnaround following several years of financial struggles, burdened in part by its massive real estate footprint and the videogame industry’s rapid shift online.
Cohen, whose 2020 investment in GameStop helped to fuel a so-called meme frenzy, was tapped last year to lead those turnaround efforts. He brought in a fresh slate of corporate leaders, including current Chief Executive Officer Matt Furlong, formerly of Amazon. He also tapped another former Amazon exec, Mike Recupero, as chief financial officer.
The company is trying to win over investors who may have written GameStop off as a legacy retailer with too many storefronts in outdated shopping malls. GameStop operated a total of 4,573 stores, including 3,018 in the United States, as of Jan. 29, according to an annual filing. In addition to its namesake business, it also owns the EB Games and Micromania banners.
Now the company is tapping into buzzy areas like NFTs for growth. The unique digital assets have drawn both enthusiasm and skepticism. Some retail industry-watchers expect them to become a hot holiday gift. About half a million NFTs are expected to be purchased from retailers between November and December, translating to a total market value of $54 million, according to Salesforce.

A screenshot of GameStop’s NFT marketplace, where
Source: GameStop

Others, however, may see the marketplace as coming a little too late. Sales of digital artwork virtual and avatars could be cooling off from their pandemic-fueled highs. GameStop must also compete with other established NFT marketplaces, including the behemoth OpenSea.

And so far the company’s digital-first turnaround hasn’t been without its road bumps. Last week, GameStop fired Recupero and announced layoffs across departments. Recupero, who joined the retailer about a year ago, was “fired because he was not the right culture fit” and was “too hands off,” a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. He was pushed out by Cohen, the person said.
Recupero wasn’t immediately available to respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The videogame retailer has struggled to stem losses in recent years, even as its sales of hardware, software and collectibles grow.
In the three-month period ended April 30, GameStop reported a net loss of $157.9 million on revenue of $1.38 billion. A year earlier the company posted a $66 million net loss on $1.27 billion in revenue.
The company hasn’t provided a financial outlook since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, either. Furlong said in March that GameStop is making investments to drive customer loyalty and build up its brand, which has weighed on profitability.

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The Justice Department is investigating the PGA Tour for potentially anti-competitive behavior in its actions with LIV Golf.
The tour suspended 17 players for choosing to compete in the LIV Golf tournament in June.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the investigation, said the Justice Department is looking into the tour’s bylaws.

PGA Tour logo during the third round of the Travelers Championship on June 24, 2017, at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Fred Kfoury | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The Justice Department is investigating whether the PGA Tour’s actions regarding rival LIV Golf were anti-competitive, the tour confirmed Monday.
The investigation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes after the tour last month indefinitely suspended 17 players, including major championship winners Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, after they chose to compete in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament.

The Department of Justice has reached out to players’ agents about the tour’s actions relating to LIV Golf as well as its bylaws regarding the ability of players to compete in other golf events, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the inquiries. The same bylaws were the subject of a 1994 investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which was ultimately dropped.
“This was not unexpected,” a tour representative told CNBC on Monday. “We went through this in 1994 and we are confident in a similar outcome.”
A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment.
LIV Golf, which is primarily funded by  Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has offered record prize money to attract players to its league. Mickelson, whose deal with LIV is reportedly worth about $200 million, has been criticized for aligning with the new league despite the Saudi government’s history of human rights abuses, including its involvement in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates,” Mickelson said in February.

When the tour announced the suspension of the 17 players in a June memo to members, it said the players had made their choices “for their own financial-based reasons” but that they can’t demand the same membership benefits, opportunities and platform.
“That expectation disrespects you, our fans and our partners,” the memo said.
A representative for LIV Golf declined to comment. On its website, LIV Golf says its mission is to “modernize and supercharge” golf through “expanded opportunities for both players and fans alike.”
CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.

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Texas’ grid operator is warning residents to conserve energy for the second time this year, as fears mount over potential rolling blackouts amid scorching temperatures this week.
The Texas regulator also projected a shortage in energy reserves on Monday “with no market solution available,” but said it does not expect systemwide outages.
Heat indexes reached over 110 degrees in the southeast part of the state on Sunday, prompting record-high power demand that has put pressure on the grid.

A transmission tower is seen on July 11, 2022 in Houston, Texas. ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) is urging Texans to voluntarily conserve power today, due to extreme heat potentially causing rolling blackouts.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Texas’ grid operator is warning residents to conserve energy for the second time this year, as fears mount over potential rolling blackouts amid scorching temperatures this week.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages about 90% of the state’s electricity load, said that residents and businesses should turn up thermostats by at least one degree Fahrenheit and not use any major appliances between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Central time on Monday.

The Texas regulator also projected a shortage in energy reserves on Monday “with no market solution available,” but said it does not expect systemwide outages. Less than 10% of wind power generation will be available on Monday, ERCOT said, further lowering the amount of available power in the state.
“The heat wave that has settled on Texas and much of the central United States is driving increased electric use,” ERCOT said in a statement. “While solar power is generally reaching near full generation capacity, wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period.”

More from CNBC Climate:

Roughly 50 million people in the U.S. were under heat warnings or advisories over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Heat indexes reached over 110 degrees in southeast Texas on Sunday, leading to record high power demand that’s put pressure on the grid.
Record power usage caused by extreme weather has prompted concerns over the vulnerability of the state’s grid system, following a deadly winter storm in February 2021 that left millions of residents without power for days.
Climate change has triggered more frequent and intense disasters such as heat waves, drought and wildfires, which have forced more blackouts and overwhelmed some of the country’s infrastructure. Extreme weather has caused 67% more major power outages in the U.S. since 2000, according to an analysis by research group Climate Central.
ERCOT forecast that electricity demand in Texas will peak at 79,671 megawatts, slightly below the available 80,083 megawatts on Monday.

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Bloomberg reported that Rivian is planning to layoffs that could target about 5% of its roughly 14,000 employees.
The cuts won’t affect manufacturing, per the report.

Rivian electric pickup trucks sit in a parking lot at a Rivian service center on May 09, 2022 in South San Francisco, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive is planning layoffs that could trim its workforce by about 5% after the company grew too quickly in some areas, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The hundreds of layoffs could be announced in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. But the layoffs are still in the planning stage and no final decisions have been made, the report said.

The Irvine, California-based company has about 14,000 employees.
Rivian’s shares were down about 7% in mid-afternoon trading following the news.
Rivian has added thousands of new employees over the last year as it began production of its own electric trucks and SUVs as well as a delivery van for Amazon. Rivian”s shares surged amid intense investor interest shortly after it went public late last year, but have since fallen over 80% as the company has struggled to ramp up production amid global supply-chain disruptions.
A Rivian spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
Read the full report here.

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Americans are canceling deals to buy homes at the highest rate since the start of the Covid pandemic.
The share of sale agreements on existing homes canceled in June was just under 15% of all homes that went under contract, according to a new report from Redfin.
Homebuilders are also seeing higher cancelation rates.

A ‘for sale’ sign hangs in front of a home on June 21, 2022 in Miami, Florida. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing homes dropped 3.4% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.41 million units. Sales were 8.6% lower than in May 2021. As existing-home sales declined, the median price of a house sold in May was $407,600, an increase of 14.8% from May 2021.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Americans are canceling deals to buy homes at the highest rate since the start of the Covid pandemic.
The share of sale agreements on existing homes canceled in June was just under 15% of all homes that went under contract, according to a new report from Redfin. That is the highest share since early 2020, when homebuying paused immediately, albeit briefly. Cancelations were at about 11% one year ago.

Higher mortgage rates and surging inflation are causing many potential homebuyers to reconsider their purchases.
The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage started this year around 3% and then began rising steadily. It briefly shot above 6% in mid-June before settling in a narrow range around 5.75% now, according to Mortgage News Daily.
Higher mortgage rates have also caused some borrowers to no longer qualify for the loans they want. Lenders generally use a front-end debt-to-income ratio of about 28% as the ceiling for home loans. The costs of owning a median-priced home in the second quarter required 31.5% of the average U.S. wage, according to a report by Attom, a property data provider. That’s the highest percentage since 2007 and up from 24% the year before, marking the biggest jump in more than two decades.
Buyers are also seeing the once red-hot market turn around quickly and dramatically. They may no longer see the urgency in bidding for a home that they feel might depreciate in the coming year.
“The slowdown in housing-market competition is giving homebuyers room to negotiate, which is one reason more of them are backing out of deals,” said Taylor Marr, Redfin’s deputy chief economist. “Buyers are increasingly keeping rather than waiving inspection and appraisal contingencies. That gives them the flexibility to call the deal off if issues arise during the homebuying process.”

Homebuilders are also seeing higher cancelation rates. Even before the sharpest increase in rates in June, cancelations in May jumped to 9.3% in a survey of builders by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. That compares with 6.6% in May 2021.
“Buyer’s remorse and cancelations shortly after contract are increasing. Builders state buyers are nervous about a potential recession, struggling to get comfortable with higher payments, or expecting home prices to decline,” said Jody Kahn, senior vice president at JBREC. Kahn also noted that in her mid-June survey she continued to see cancelations on the rise.
Lennar, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, said in its most recent quarterly earnings report that its cancelation rate did increase sequentially to 11.8% but was below its long-term historical average. It also reported increasing its incentives to make up for falling demand, due to rising interest rates.
“It seems that these trends will harden as the Fed continues to tighten until inflation subsides. While we can choose to fight against the trend, the reality is that the market has been changing and we are getting ahead of it by making all necessary adjustments,” said Lennar Chairman Stuart Miller in the release.

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Whether you typically receive a tax refund or a bill, there’s still plenty of time to improve next year’s filing, experts say.
You may consider adjusting tax withholdings or boosting 401(k) plan contributions to trim your tax bill.
And Roth individual retirement account conversions or tax-loss harvesting may make sense while the stock market is down.

seksan Mongkhonkhamsao | Moment | Getty Images

1. Review tax withholdings

When starting a new job, you fill out Form W-4, covering how much your employer withholds from your paychecks for federal taxes. 
But you need to revisit those withholdings, especially for major life changes such as marriage, having children or starting a side business.

Top reasons to adjust your withholding:
1. Tax law changes
2. Lifestyle changes like marriage, divorce or children
3. New jobs, side gigs or unemployment
4. Tax deductions and credits shifts

You can use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator to see if you’re on track, or run projections with an advisor for more complex situations. 
And if you’re expecting a shortfall, there’s ample time to adjust your tax withholding or make estimated payments for the third or fourth quarters, Guarino said.

2. Boost 401(k) contributions

If there’s wiggle room in your budget, you may consider boosting pretax retirement savings, which reduces your adjusted gross income. 
“If you can, now is a great time to increase 401(k) contributions,” said Christopher Lyman, a Newtown, Pennsylvania-based CFP with Allied Financial Advisors.
You can stash $20,500 into your 401(k) for 2022, with an extra $6,500 if you’re 50 or older. Regardless of your savings goal, it may be easier to reach by bumping up your deferrals now.

3. Weigh Roth IRA conversions

With the stock market down from the beginning of the year, there’s a chance to save on so-called Roth individual retirement account conversions.
Here’s how it works: After making nondeductible contributions to a pretax IRA, you can convert the funds to a Roth IRA. While the move jump-starts tax-free growth, the trade-off is paying upfront levies on contributions and earnings. 

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However, a down market may be a great time to pay taxes on the assets you want to convert, Lyman said.
For example, let’s say you invested $100,000 in a pretax IRA and now it’s worth $75,000. You can save on taxes since you’ll convert $75,000 rather than the original $100,000.
Of course, you’ll need a plan to cover those levies, and increasing income may have other tax consequences, like higher future Medicare Part B premiums. 

4. Consider tax-loss harvesting

Another opportunity when the stock market dips is tax-loss harvesting, or using losses to offset profits, said Devin Pope, a CFP and partner at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City.
“We are doing that for our clients right now,” he said.
You can sell declining assets from a brokerage account and use those losses to reduce other gains. And once losses exceed profits, you can subtract up to $3,000 per year from regular income.
However, you need to watch for the “wash sale rule,” which stops you from buying a “substantially identical” asset 30 days before or after the sale.

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Costco’s signature hot dogs won’t face a price hike, the club’s CEO, Craig Jelinek, told CNBC.
On CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Jelinek said along with maintaining the price of the signature food court item, the retailer will keep membership fees the same for now.
Costco has continued to put up big sales numbers even as other retailers have spoken of a weakening consumer and struggles with excess inventory.

Some good news for inflation-weary Americans: There will be no price hike on Costco’s hot dogs.
In an interview Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” CEO Craig Jelinek had a one-word answer when asked whether he would raise the signature food court item’s price: “No.”

Costco has continued to put up strong sales, even as other retailers have spoken about consumers becoming more budget-conscious and spending more on services instead of goods. It’s also avoided another recent problem for many retailers: excess inventory that’s racked up in warehouses and stores, which must now be packed away or marked down.
Yet amid nearly four-decade high inflation, Costco has raised the prices of some food court staples. Earlier this month, its chicken bake jumped from $2.99 to $3.99 and its 20-ounce soda rose by 10 cents to 69 cents. That prompted speculation that its hot dog’s super low price could be due for a hike, too. The hot dog and soda combo has sold for $1.50 for decades, and was the subject of a Mental Floss article from 2018 that recently began circulating again.
The article recounts a time when Jelinek approached Costco co-founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal. He told him the company was losing money over the iconic food item.
“I came to (Sinegal) once and I said, ‘Jim, we can’t sell this hot dog for a buck fifty,” Jelinek said, according to the Mental Floss article, which cites 425Business. “We are losing our rear ends.’ And he said, ‘If you raise (the price of the) effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.’ That’s all I really needed.”
Another aspect of Costco’s business has also been under scrutiny: When its membership fee might increase. Costco membership costs $60 a year or $120 a year for an executive membership, a higher-tier option that includes additional discounts and perks.

The vast majority of Costco’s profit comes from the annual fees rather than from selling items. It has historically raised it every 5½ years and the last increase was in June 2017, putting it on track for a rise soon, according to Corey Tarlowe, an analyst at Jefferies. Its membership fee typically increases by $10.
On Monday, Jelinek told CNBC that a membership fee hike is “not on the table right at the moment.”
“I made it very clear,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the right time. Our sign-ups continue to be strong.”

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Frontier Airlines has asked Spirit Airlines to further delay a shareholder vote on their planned merger.
In a letter sent to Spirit’s CEO dated Sunday, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle called the airline’s recently sweetened cash-and-stock bid to combine with the fellow budget carrier its “last, best and final” offer.
“We still remain very far from obtaining approval from Spirit stockholders,” Biffle wrote.

A Frontier Airlines airplane taxis past a Spirit Airlines aircraft at Indianapolis International Airport in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022.
Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Frontier Airlines has asked Spirit Airlines to further delay a shareholder vote on their planned merger to drum up more support from investors amid a bidding war with rival suitor JetBlue Airways.
In a letter sent to Spirit’s CEO dated Sunday, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle called the airline’s recently sweetened cash-and-stock bid to combine with the fellow budget carrier its “last, best and final” offer and raised concerns about a lack of shareholder support for the deal, first announced in February.

Spirit has repeatedly delayed a shareholder vote on the Frontier tie-up to continue talks with both airlines and gather votes. JetBlue is offering a $3.7 billion all-cash deal. Frontier’s CEO said in his letter: “We still remain very far from obtaining approval from Spirit stockholders.”
Biffle requested that Spirit postpone its shareholder meeting, now slated for July 15, to July 27 to allow more time to garner votes in favor of the merger, unless a majority of votes in favor of the combination have been received by 11 a.m. on July 15.
CNBC last week reported that Spirit didn’t appear to have enough votes to support the merger, according to people familiar with the matter.
“As has been the case throughout this process, we remain committed to this transaction,” Frontier’s Biffle wrote. “However, should the Spirit Board of Directors conclude that it would instead desire to pursue an alternative transaction with JetBlue, we would appreciate being advised of that determination.”
Shares of both companies were off in midday trading, with Spirit down 1.7% and Frontier less than 1% after the letter was made public in a securities filing. Shares of JetBlue were down 2.1%.

A merger between Spirit and Frontier would create a budget-carrier behemoth, though either combination would create the fifth-largest carrier in the U.S. behind American, Delta, United and Southwest.
Spirit has repeatedly rebuffed JetBlue’s advances, arguing a takeover by that airline would be unlikely to win approval from the Justice Department.
Frontier made the same argument in its letter Sunday, noting a recent determination by the Department of Transportation that granted Spirit 16 additional slots at Newark Liberty International Airport and determined the airline had a competitive advantage over JetBlue and other applicants.
“The path to regulatory approval of a JetBlue-Spirit combination seems more impossible by the day,” Frontier said in its letter.
JetBlue declined to comment on Frontier’s letter. Its CEO Robin Hayes said last week after the latest vote postponement that the carrier was hopeful the Spirit directors “now recognize that Spirit shareholders have indicated their clear, overwhelming preference for an agreement with JetBlue.”
Spirit didn’t immediately comment.

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