Business

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, runs the aphorism. It also projectile vomits employees who don’t fit in. In a survey conducted earlier this year by Flexjobs, an employment site, culture was the most common reason people gave for quitting. And it matters more than high wages. A study published last year by Jason Sockin of the University of Pennsylvania found that workers rated things like respectfulness, work-life balance and morale as more important to job satisfaction than pay. The problem is that culture can be very hard to fathom from the outside. It resides in quotidian interactions between colleagues and in the hidden threads that bind decisions on everything from promotions to product development. You need to be inside an organisation to really understand it. But more sunlight is getting in. Firms are doing more to signal what they stand for. Jobseekers have new ways to peer inside firms. So do investors, who share their interest in evaluating corporate culture.Offices are places where culture can be transmitted osmotically. Now that more workers are remote, firms increasingly write down their values. Qualtrics, a software firm, may not believe in grammar but it does believe in Transparent, All in, Customer obsessed, One team and Scrappy. Justworks, an hr technology firm, subscribes to Camaraderie, Openness, Grit, Integrity and Simplicity. Lists like these can turn blandness into an art form, and are overly determined by what will create an acronym. They may not reflect what actually happens inside the company. Plenty of firms are characterised by Cluelessness, Rancour, Amateurism, Skiving and Stupidity, but you won’t find that on the website. But companies that codify their values are at least thinking about them. And their choices can offer meaningful clues. Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, sets out its beliefs in ten “Tentaclemandments”. You need to see only that one word to know whether this is the workplace for you or whether you would rather be hurled into an active volcano. Updates can also be instructive. In “ReCulturing”, a new book, Melissa Daimler lays out some of the changes that Dara Khosrowshahi made when he became ceo of Uber in 2017. The values of the previous regime, which included “Superpumped” and “Always be Hustlin’”, were overhauled for something a little less hormonal. The change from “Meritocracy and toe-stepping” to “We value ideas over hierarchy” told people something useful about the aspirations of the new leadership team. Culture is increasingly readable in other ways, too. Since the pandemic, firms’ policies on remote working have given outsiders greater clarity on how employers view issues like work-life balance. Under increasing pressure from employees to take stances, companies are likelier to offer opinions on political and social issues. Others go the other way: Coinbase, another crypto firm, has made it clear that it won’t tolerate employee activism on subjects unrelated to its core mission. That’s information, too.Windows on cultural norms are being opened by regulators, who are pushing for greater disclosure about firms’ workforces. Candidates seem to value this kind of information: a working paper published earlier this year by Jung Ho Choi of Stanford Graduate School of Business and his co-authors found that clickthrough rates for job postings rose for firms with higher diversity scores. The behaviour of ceos used to be directly visible only to a limited number of people. Now bosses are everywhere, tweeting, posting and making stilted videos. In a recent survey by Brunswick Group, a pr firm, 82% of respondents said they would research the boss’s social-media accounts if they were considering joining a new firm. Even earnings calls offer insights. Academics at Columbia Business School and Harvard Business School have found that managers who invite colleagues to respond to analysts’ questions on these calls are more likely to work in firms that have more cohesive leadership teams. Employee-review sites like Glassdoor are another source of insight. These sites can be distorted by embittered ex-workers. But, says Kevin Oakes of the Institute for Corporate Productivity, a research outfit, they are also likely to contain “slivers of truth”. And all these slivers add up. There is no substitute for being at a firm day in, day out, if you want to understand what it is really like. But the outlines of corporate culture are more discernible than ever. That ought to lead to fewer cases of indigestion.For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More

Sustainable Energy

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Shell says it wants to “become a net-zero emissions energy business” by the year 2050, but the company remains a major producer of oil and gas.
Its aims for a renewable hydrogen plant in the Netherlands represent the latest attempt by multinational firms to lay down a marker in the sector.
Shell’s Anna Mascolo says renewable hydrogen “will play a pivotal role in the energy system of the future.”

On Wednesday, Shell said the Holland Hydrogen I facility would be “Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant” when operations start in 2025. Shell is one of several big firms looking to lay down a marker in the sector.
Ina Fassbender | AFP | Getty Images

Plans to build a major hydrogen plant in the Netherlands will go ahead following a final investment decision by subsidiaries of oil and gas giant Shell.
In an announcement Wednesday, Shell said the Holland Hydrogen I facility would be “Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant” when operations start in 2025.

According to Shell, the 200 megawatt electrolyzer will be located in the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport, generating as much as 60,000 kilograms of renewable hydrogen every day.
Hydrogen has a diverse range of applications and can be deployed in a wide range of industries. It can be produced in a number of ways. One method includes using electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.

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If the electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source such as wind or solar then some call it “green” or “renewable” hydrogen.
Shell said the electrolyzer in the Netherlands would use renewable power from the Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore wind farm, a 759 MW project set to be operational in 2023. Shell is a part-owner of the wind farm.
The hydrogen generated by the plant will be funneled to the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam using a new hydrogen pipeline called HyTransPort.

The idea is that this renewable hydrogen “will replace some of the grey hydrogen” — which is produced using fossil fuels — used at the site. “This will partially decarbonise the facility’s production of energy products like petrol and diesel and jet fuel,” Shell said.
In a statement, Anna Mascolo, who is executive vice president for emerging energy solutions at Shell, said renewable hydrogen would, “play a pivotal role in the energy system of the future and this project is an important step in helping hydrogen fulfil that potential.”

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Beijing city announced that starting Monday, most people need to be vaccinated before entering in-person training centers, sports centers, entertainment venues and other social gathering spots.
The vaccine requirement comes after a resurgence in new cases in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China in the last week.
Different cities have tightened Covid controls in the last few days.

Chinese cities like Beijing, pictured here on July 6, 2022, require negative virus tests from within the last 72 hours in order to enter most public spaces.
Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images

BEIJING — China’s capital city is set to require Covid vaccinations for entering gyms and some other venues, the first mandate at such scale in the country.
The vaccine requirement comes after a resurgence in new cases in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China in the last week.

Beijing city announced Wednesday that starting Monday, most people need to be vaccinated before entering in-person training centers, sports centers, entertainment venues and other social gathering spots.
The city said the requirement did not apply to people for whom vaccinations were not “suitable,” but said vaccinated people would get priority for entering the above venues. Many spaces operate at a lowered capacity due to Covid restrictions.
Generally only Chinese-made vaccines by Sinopharm or Sinovac are available to the public in China.
Beijing has a relatively high vaccination rate. The city said Wednesday it vaccinated 23.4 million people, including 3.6 million above the age of 60. The capital city said it had nearly 22 million long-term residents as of 2020.

Government events in Beijing have already required attendees to be vaccinated against Covid, while some industries such as taxi services have encouraged or mandated vaccinations as well.

About two months ago, Beijing began requiring people to take virus tests before visiting public spaces.
Similar rules have taken effect in Shanghai and other parts of China, while at least one or two cities have attempted to stop regular virus testing after local case counts dropped. Analysts have noted the high cost of Covid tests and other measures for local governments.
Mainland China reported 94 new Covid cases with symptoms for Wednesday, including 32 in Shanghai and 4 in Beijing.

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Other cities have also tightened Covid controls in the last few days.
The central China city of Xi’an announced Tuesday a week-long closure of entertainment and leisure venues, and a ban on dining in person at restaurants.
Shanghai city announced two rounds of mass virus testing from Tuesday to Thursday, and temporary closure of karaoke venues as of Wednesday.

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Signage is seen at the 2019 Deadline Contenders Hulu Reception at Paramount Theater on the Paramount Studios lot on April 07, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
Rachel Murray | Getty Images

Disney has a Hulu problem.
In 2019, the entertainment giant struck an unusual agreement with Comcast. Two months earlier, Disney had acquired Fox’s 33% stake in Hulu as part of a $71 billion acquisition, giving it a majority stake in the streaming service.

That put Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts in an odd position. Comcast owned the other 33% of Hulu. Roberts thought the value of Hulu would increase as the world shifted to streaming video, but he didn’t want or need to own a passive stake.
Roberts and then-Disney CEO Bob Iger struck a deal to temporarily save Disney billions after splurging on Fox while taking operational control of Hulu. Comcast agreed to hold its stake in Hulu until January 2024. Then, Comcast can force Disney to buy its 33% of Hulu at a minimum total valuation of $27.5 billion. The price tag could be higher depending on fair market value of Hulu in 2024 as determined by an independent third party.

The Hulu conundrum

Disney is approaching a 2024 deadline when it must pay Comcast billions for a one-third stake in Hulu.

Disney hasn’t specifically detailed its strategic plans for Hulu in the future.

One possible solution is for Disney to sell Hulu to Comcast, but such a deal would mean Comcast would forgo about $10 billion, if not more, as a payment from Disney.

At the time, Disney+ was being built. It would launch eight months later, in November 2019. Hulu seemed like a highly strategic asset as millions of Americans canceled cable TV in favor of free and subscription streaming services.
Fast forward three years, and the raison d’etre and future of Hulu is unclear to investors, analysts, media executives and even Disney employees. Disney+ has become Disney’s flagship subscription streaming offering, with 138 million global subscribers as of April 2. Hulu is U.S.-only, with just over 41 million subscribers.
Disney is on the hook to pay billions of dollars for an asset that now seems like an awkward fit. There’s little evidence investors care about Hulu’s quarterly results. In fact, the better Hulu performs, the more Disney will have to pay Comcast to buy the rest of it in 2024.
“Disney has never declared what its strategy is for Hulu,” said Jon Miller, who served on Hulu’s board from 2009 to 2012. “Is it a distributor of other products? Is it Disney’s adult brand? It’s hard enough to run a single major SVOD [subscription video on demand] service. Disney already has Disney+. Wall Street wants to know, ‘How many chips can you afford to have on the board at any given time successfully?'”
This dynamic has led to executives at both Disney and Comcast to at least evaluate alternatives. Roberts and Disney CEO Bob Chapek are at the annual Sun Valley media conference this week. The two executives haven’t spoken for about six months, according to a person familiar with the matter. But the conference, famed for big media transaction discussions, could be a place to renew talks.
Lightshed media analyst Rich Greenfield has floated the idea that Comcast could buy Hulu from Disney rather than the other way around.
“We see no reason why Disney+ cannot be a broad entertainment service,” Greenfield wrote in a note to clients. “Parental controls are now available to prevent children from accessing more mature content. This raises the multibillion dollar question of why Disney even wants to own Hulu?”

The strange saga of Hulu

Perhaps Hulu’s most important strategic purpose is to support Disney+ subscriptions. It does this by being part of the “Disney bundle.” Disney+ is Disney’s family and kids service, Hulu is its broad, Netflix-like offering, and ESPN+ is its sports service. Disney markets and sells all three together for $13.99 per month, helping boost Disney+ subscribers and mitigate churn.
Otherwise, Hulu’s fit at Disney is clumsy. Hulu can’t be marketed with Disney+ globally because it’s not an international product. Like Disney+, Hulu also has kids programming — thousands of hours of licensed movies and TV series, and original programming, like the reboot of the old Warner Bros. animated series “Animaniacs.” Hulu functions as a house for “not-Disney Disney” content. That may be easy to understand for the Disney executives who decide what appears on Disney+ versus Hulu, but it’s not necessarily straightforward to customers.
Adding to the confusion, Disney appears to be pushing the boundaries on Disney+’s audience, adding the popular reality competition show “Dancing with the Stars” to its flagship service rather than Hulu. But not all family-friendly reality competition is on Disney+. Chef Gordon Ramsay’s “MasterChef Junior,” for example, is only on Hulu.

This season’s remaining four couples will dance and compete in their final two rounds of dances in the live season finale where one will win the coveted Mirrorball Trophy.
Eric Mccandless | Disney General Entertainment Content | Getty Images

Hulu is also about to lose a large swath of its popular programming when Comcast removes its current-season TV shows, such as “Saturday Night Live” and “The Voice,” later this year. Comcast is putting the programming on its own flagship streaming service, Peacock.
Beyond the programming challenges, Hulu with Live TV is a completely separate product that combines Hulu’s subscription video on demand service with a bundle of digital cable networks for $69.99 per month. This offering has more than 3 million subscribers and includes live sports and programming on linear networks.
Hulu’s messy positioning within Disney is largely due to the fact that it was never meant to be a Disney-only service. It launched in 2008, with backing from NBCUniversal, still owned by General Electric at the time, and News Corp., which owned Fox. A year later, Disney took a stake.
At its inception, Hulu was a free streaming service supported by advertising, mainly used as a vehicle to watch back episodes of broadcast TV shows. By 2016, Hulu had fully shifted to paid subscription, with pricing tiers for ads and no ads. The shift coincided with big money licensing deals for both movies and TV series, such as “Seinfeld,” and a move to original programming. Also that year, Comcast, which had then acquired NBCUniversal from GE, Disney and Fox all sold a little more than 3% of Hulu to Time Warner, bringing in more programming to Hulu.
In 2017, Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” became the first streaming show to win the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.

Hulu’s role in the streaming wars

When Disney acquired most of Fox in 2019, Disney became the majority owner of Hulu. Time Warner agreed to sell its stake in Hulu back to Disney and Comcast, giving 66% control to Disney and 33% to Comcast.
The same year, global media companies began shifting their business models to focus on streaming video. Instead of relying on Hulu, Disney launched Disney+. Comcast unveiled Peacock in July 2020 after a three-month test run.
Buoyed by giving users access to nearly every significant Disney movie ever made at just $6.99 per month, Disney+ was an immediate success, surpassing 10 million subscribers in its first 24 hours. By the end of 2020, Disney had bumped its 2024 forecast for Disney+ to 230 million to 260 million global subscribers. Each quarter for the past 2.5 years, Disney shares largely move up or down based on how many subscriber additions the company reports.

CEO of Comcast Brian Roberts arrives for the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 06, 2021 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

Chapek just signed a new contract with Disney to remain as CEO until 2025. He’ll be judged on whether Disney hits its 2024 Disney+ target. It’s safe to say he won’t be judged on Hulu’s subscriber totals.
As Hulu became a metaphorical appetizer for Disney+, it’s also experienced leadership changes. Randy Freer served as Hulu’s CEO from 2017 to 2020. In February 2020, Kelly Campbell replaced Freer as Hulu’s head. Less than two years later, Campbell departed Hulu for Peacock.
Still, Hulu has doubled its total subscribers since 2018. The streaming service continues to churn out critically acclaimed series, including “Pen15,” “Dopesick” and “The Dropout.”
“The irony of Hulu is if they’d failed at programming, this would actually be an easier problem to solve,” said Miller, the former Hulu board member.

Hulu’s future

Hulu has valuable brand recognition from its 15 years of existence, especially compared with competitors that have largely been around for three years or less. It has a built-in advertising business that will take in $2.7 billion this year, according to MoffettNathanson — more than any other streaming service.
Disney executives have viewed Hulu as a way to keep Disney+’s price-value proposition clear. Some at Disney have seen Netflix’s recent struggles as evidence that the world’s biggest streaming platform offers too much content at too high of a price — a similar issue to what has led millions to cancel cable TV, according to people familiar with the matter. If Hulu is merged into Disney+, when Disney inevitably raises the price, some executives have expressed concern users could see Disney+ as a bloated product rather than relatively inexpensive niche offering.
One of Chapek’s missions at Disney is to get the company’s different divisions swimming in the same direction. Part of that goal appears to be to further integrating Hulu with Disney+, especially as Disney prepares to launch an advertising-supported Disney+ later this year. Disney is deploying its Disney Streaming Services (previously called Bamtech) across all of its streaming properties to better unify the technology. There are obvious money-saving synergies from selling advertising on Disney+ and Hulu with the same sales staff using a unified technology stack.
But if Hulu simply becomes a tile within Disney+, similar to HBO within HBO Max, it’s fair to question the service’s long-term value. As Greenfield noted, Disney is already able to put parental controls around adult themed content on Disney+.
That’s why Comcast makes more sense as the eventual owner of Hulu, Miller said.
“Disney has built one of the top global streaming platforms in Disney+,” said Miller. “Hulu could be Comcast’s answer.”
If Comcast acquired Hulu, it could use Peacock as its free advertising-supported platform, similar to how Paramount Global has paired Pluto with Paramount+, Miller said. Comcast could then move its premium content spend onto Hulu while also building it out as an aggregation distribution platform.
“Hulu’s third-party distribution business is a much better fit for Comcast,” said Miller. While Comcast has sold cable TV for decades, Disney isn’t a distributor by nature.
The problem is Comcast would likely have to pay billions back to Disney, and it’s still not clear whether Hulu’s original programming plus NBCUniversal’s content would be strong enough to compete with Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney around the world. If it can’t, Comcast would be doubling down on a potentially money-losing business.
Plus, Comcast already has what may be a $10 billion check, if not more, guaranteed from Disney, to spend on whatever it wants.
Hulu is stuck in the middle.
No, not “Stuck in the Middle,” the kids TV series starring Jenna Ortega. That’s on Disney+.
Disclosure: CNBC is part of Comcast’s NBCUniversal.
WATCH: Media moguls meet in Sun Valley with consolidation in focus

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Retail businesses in Singapore are grappling with higher costs as rents rise and energy prices soar, the Singapore Retailers Association said. 
The surge in energy tariffs is mainly fueled by higher energy costs driven by “rising global gas and oil prices exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine,” utilities company SP Group said.
Song Seng Wun, economist at CIMB Private Banking, said rentals, labor costs and utility charges have all gone up, and it’s “hitting everyone” including retail businesses.

Retail businesses in Singapore are grappling with higher costs as rents rise and energy prices soar, the Singapore Retailers Association said. 
Cost pressure is a big concern for many Singapore retailers which have not completely passed on price increases to consumers, and are currently feeling the “margin squeeze,” Ernie Koh, the association’s president told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia Tuesday. 

Singapore utilities company SP Group announced that electricity tariffs will be bumped up by about 8% compared to the previous quarter from July to September. 
“The increase is mainly due to higher energy cost driven by rising global gas and oil prices exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine,” SP Group said.
Energy prices are likely to remain elevated over the second half of 2022 and residents should brace for inflation to continue staying high before it stabilizes, the Finance Ministry said in June.

Retail businesses in Singapore are grappling with higher costs as rents rise and energy prices soar, the Singapore Retailers Association said.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Last month, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong announced a $1.5 billion support package to provide immediate relief to vulnerable groups and local businesses facing higher operating costs. 
The government has been proactive in responding to the volatile environment and is willing to help retailers manage their electricity bills and rent increases, Koh said.

Not everyone agrees that high electricity prices are impacting retailers.
Electricity only contributes a small proportion to the rising costs for retailers, said Song Seng Wun, economist at CIMB Private Banking.
He said rentals, labor costs and utility charges have all gone up as well, and it is “hitting everyone” including retail businesses. “For retail businesses, as far as energy costs, it’s just electricity to turn on and off the lights. So we see that it’s just a small proportion of the total costs,” Song added.

Rise in retail sales

Despite the current inflationary landscape, retail sales in May Singapore increased by 17.8% year-on-year, compared to April’s 12.1% rise, according to data from the Department of Statistics, or SingStat.
Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose by 22.6% in May, compared to the 17.4% increase the previous month, SingStat said.

All of the tourism and travel that’s coming back is clearly helping to boost consumption in Singapore.

senior economist, Barclays

“It’s not very surprising that we see demand pick up in such a substantial way,” said Brian Tan, a senior economist at Barclays.
He said that the pent-up demand in spending is coming from tourists, instead of Singapore residents.
“All of the tourism and travel that’s coming back is clearly helping to boost consumption in Singapore,” Tan said.
He dismissed suggestions that it was due to “revenge spending” from Singapore residents, and said “it doesn’t make sense” there is pent-up demand now, since they were able to purchase those goods in the last six months anyway.
Department stores which were gravely affected by Covid-19 restrictions in 2021 saw sales jump by 73.1% as consumer confidence bounced back. But supermarkets and hypermarkets had a 10.3% decline in sales as there was a higher demand for groceries in May 2021 when residents were staying home, SingStat reported.

Sales for motor vehicles declined by 10.2% since last year and by 5.7% on a month-on-month basis.
Tan said this is mainly due to the rising cost of car ownership. In addition to paying for the car, automobile owners must also pay for the the license to own one, known as a Certificate of Entitlement. COEs for one category of cars hit a record high of $110,524 Singapore dollars ($78,820) this week — surpassing the previous high in 1994, according to local reports.
Although furniture and household equipment sales increased by 4.7% compared to last year, it declined by 1.7% on a month-on-month basis.
“If you think about the last two years, a lot of the demand in the sector was due to people being forced to work from home and study from home,” said Tan. “Now that they’re all going back to the offices and people are able to travel, it’s probably a bit less in demand.”

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American Airlines pilots will get triple pay to fly thousands of trips dropped in scheduling glitch.
American and the pilots’ union also agreed to double pay for peak holiday flights.

An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner approaches for a landing at the Miami International Airport on December 10, 2021 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

American Airlines pilots and its pilots’ union agreed to triple pay for aviators who were able to drop thousands of July flights because of a scheduling program glitch over the weekend, they said Wednesday.Pilots will also get double pay for peak holiday periods.
The scheduling platform error let pilots drop some 12,000 flights from their schedules, according to the union, the Allied Pilots Association, CNBC reported last week.

The issue sprung up while American and other airlines have been scrambling to avoid flight disruptions during a surge in summer travel demand.
“We’re pleased to have reached an agreement with the APA and appreciate their partnership in coming to a resolution quickly to take care of our pilots, our team and our customers,” American said in a statement.
A similar issue occurred in 2017, when a technology problem let American’s pilots take vacation during the busy December holiday period. The carrier offered pilots 150% pay for pilots who picked up assignments.
American and the pilots union are in contract negotiations. APA’s president, Capt. Ed Sicher, told the union’s roughly 15,000 pilots: “I am optimistic it will provide a springboard for us to wrap up our Section 6 negotiations and secure the new collective bargaining agreement that we have been waiting far too long to achieve.”
American recently offered pilots raises of nearly 17% through 2024.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday warned investors that if they own any buy now, pay later stocks, they should brace themselves for more damage to their portfolios.
“These stocks never should’ve been worth so much in the first place,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday warned investors that if they own any buy now, pay later stocks, they should brace themselves for more damage to their portfolios.
“These stocks never should’ve been worth so much in the first place. Their business models were much more attractive when interest rates were incredibly low, but it remains to be seen if they work in a more normal environment,” the “Mad Money” host said.

“Even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time, earnings matter. Valuations matter. The economic landscape, it matters. … That’s what we’ve learned this year, and it’s been agonizing if you had fintech exposure. I don’t think the pain is necessarily over,” he added.
Buy now, pay later services, or BNPL, rocketed in popularity during the pandemic as consumers shifted to online shopping. The space for BNPL companies has since grown, with companies such as Affirm, Block, Upstart, PayPal and Apple in tight competition.
Cramer said that BNPL’s boost from the pandemic is long gone, especially as Wall Street worries about a looming recession and the Federal Reserve fights to beat down inflation.
“The moment the Federal Reserve declared war on inflation in November, Wall Street turned against growth, including the whole financial technology edifice. … The buy-now pay-later plays, like Affirm, are everything this new market hates: unprofitable, expensive,” he said.
“For more diversified payment plays like Block and PayPal, they also had cryptocurrency trading exposure, which has turned into” a hindrance for them, he added.

Cramer also pointed out that BNPL stocks are well below where they once were, and it’s unclear whether they’ll make a recovery.
“It’s been an abominable decline,” he said.
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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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Boeing Co: “I’m not going to recommend stocks that lose money with really bad balance sheets. And that’s what they do.”

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United States Steel Corp: “There is too much negativity on steel right now. The one you would buy is Nucor, and it has to come down a little bit more.”

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Synopsys Inc: “I’ve always like Synopsis. … I do believe the semiconductor stocks have come down too much, and there are other semiconductor companies that I think are cheaper to buy than that one.”

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Tenneco Inc: “I’d be very careful. … I do not have a great call on what will happen with TEN.”

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