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The contract includes three raises totaling 14.5% over 18 months.
Pilots at Delta, American and Southwest are also in contract talks.

Boeing 777ER United Airlines. Aircraft to Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
Massimo Insabato | Mondadori Portfolio | Getty Images

The union representing United Airlines pilots has approved a tentative deal that would give the aviators pay raises of more than 14%, making it the first major U.S. carrier to reach a deal since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and setting the bar for the rest of the industry.
The agreement comes as the airline and others grapple with a shortage of pilots, which some carriers say have forced them to trim flight schedules. The contract faces a vote by rank-and-file pilots that will conclude in mid-July.

Under the agreement approved Friday, pilots would get more than 14.5% in pay increases within 18 months, according to the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents about 14,000 United pilots.
Pilot pay at United as of 2020 ranged from about $73,000 a year for an early-career first officer on the carrier’s smallest aircraft to more than $337,000 for a wide-body captain, according to Kit Darby, a pilot pay consultant and retired United captain. However, pay can vary widely depending on how often pilots fly.
The two-year agreement also includes eight weeks of paid maternity leave, a first for the carrier’s pilots. United said women comprise about 7% of its pilot ranks.
The agreement sets the tone for negotiations with other large U.S. carriers, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, as unions seek quality-of-life improvements after two years of the pandemic. Some pilots say airlines have created grueling schedules to capitalize on a rebound in travel that has left them fatigued, and some have recently picketed to protest conditions.
In a video message to pilots last week, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the company would consider other carriers’ agreements, including United’s, and update its pay proposals once the details are known.

“Our team will be paid well and be paid competitively. You are not going to fall behind network peers,” Isom said in the video seen by CNBC.
Flight attendants and other work groups at major carriers are also in contract talks.
Airlines’ staffing struggles grew worse in the pandemic. Although U.S. airlines received $54 billion in taxpayer payroll aid that prohibited layoffs, airlines urged many pilots to take early retirement and leaves of absence, which created a hiring and training backlog.
The shortage of pilots is particularly acute at regional carriers, which often fly to smaller cities. Two of American Airlines’ regional carriers Envoy and Piedmont last week said they would temporarily increase pilot pay by more than 50% to help attract and retain staff as competition for aviators heats up across the industry.

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Juul asked a federal appeals court on Friday for a temporary block on the Food and Drug Administration’s ban of its e-cigarettes.
The request came less than a day after the health agency told the company that it had to pull its vaping products off the U.S. market.
Juul called the FDA’s decision “arbitrary and capricious” in the court filing and claimed it amounted to unfair treatment.

Juul brand vape cartridges are pictured for sale at a shop in Atlanta, Georgia.
Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters

Juul asked a federal appeals court on Friday for a temporary block on the Food and Drug Administration’s ban of its e-cigarettes.
The request came less than a day after the health agency told the company that it had to pull its vaping products off the U.S. market, effective immediately. According to the FDA, Juul’s applications to keep selling its vaping device and menthol- and tobacco-flavored nicotine pods gave insufficient or conflicting data about the potential risks of using the company’s products.

Juul disagreed, saying in a statement that it provided sufficient research and evidence to address the issues raised by the agency. The company’s chief regulatory officer, Joe Murillo, said in a statement on Thursday that Juul is exploring its options, which include appealing the decision or engaging directly with the FDA.
In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Juul asked for an emergency administrative stay until it can file a motion for a stay pending review by noon on Monday. If granted, the company and retailers would be able to keep distributing and selling Juul products until the court reviews the agency’s decision.
“[Juul’s] only prospect for meaningful relief that permits it to continue selling its products is an immediate stay,” the company said in the filing.
Juul claimed the FDA subjected it to unfair treatment compared with other e-cigarette makers. According to the filing, the agency’s press release announcing its ruling on Juul products was “more strident and threatening” than previous denials.
“FDA’s decision is arbitrary and capricious and lacks substantial evidence, and an immediate administrative stay is critical to protect [Juul Labs Inc.], its commercial partners and its customers,” Juul said.

The company also called out the agency for imposing immediate enforcement, rather than instating a transition period, which is typical unless the product poses an immediate risk to consumers.
The FDA declined to comment.

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Polestar’s shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker “PSNY.”
The company is the latest electric vehicle maker to go public via a SPAC deal.
It plans to use the proceeds of the SPAC deal to fund a global expansion and eventually become profitable.

Shares of Polestar are set to debut under the ticker “PSNY” on Friday, making it the latest electric vehicle maker to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Polestar said its stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange after it completed its merger with the SPAC Gores Guggenheim. Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said the company will use the roughly $850 million raised from the deal to fund its three-year plan to build new vehicles and eventually become profitable.

But Ingenlath said Polestar, which began as a joint venture between Sweden’s Volvo Cars and Chinese auto giant Geely in 2017, has progressed beyond startup status.
“We go public as an operating and successful business — not to raise capital to build a business,” Ingenlath told CNBC in a recent interview. “It’s because the next three years will be super-fast growth, the company is geared up for that with the product portfolio.”    
SPAC deals have become a more popular way for companies to go public in recent years. The disclosures required are simpler than those in a traditional initial public offering. Unlike in a traditional IPO, companies participating in a SPAC merger are allowed to present forward-looking projections to investors, which can help justify a lofty valuation. But there’s no guarantee that those forecasts will come true.
So far, most SPAC mergers with electric vehicle companies haven’t worked out well for investors. Even the relatively more successful cases of Lucid Group, Fisker and Nikola are currently trading at 67%, 69% and 92% below their post-merger highs, respectively. EV truck maker Rivian, which went public via a traditional IPO, has also struggled. Its shares are down 84% from its post-IPO high.
But Polestar could have several advantages over competitors. Volvo Cars still owns 48% of the company, and Polestar already has more than 55,000 vehicles on the road in China, Europe and the U.S. It has a factory up and running in China and an assembly line set to begin production later this year in a South Carolina factory shared with Volvo.

Over the next three years, the company plans to add three vehicles to its current model, the compact Polestar 2 crossover built in China. The additions are a large SUV, the Polestar 3; a midsize crossover, the Polestar 4; and a large sedan, the Polestar 5, which is intended to serve as the brand’s flagship vehicle.
All will be fully electric and all will be offered in the U.S., Europe and China. Polestar plans to build its vehicles in all three regions. By the end of 2025, Ingenlath expects Polestar’s three-year road map will take the company to annual sales of about 290,000 vehicles.  
Ingenlath said Polestar may need to raise more cash before it turns profitable — a milestone he expects to reach before 2025. If so, he said the company will likely issue bonds rather than selling more stock.
So far, Ingenlath said, the company’s plan is on track. It has received more than 32,000 orders for the Polestar 2 since the start of the year, with those orders coming from 25 different countries. Polestar also got an order from rental-car giant Hertz for 65,000 vehicles over the next five years, a deal Ingenlath said is primarily intended to give consumers an opportunity to try the company’s EVs.
Polestar’s plan is to be operating sales and service networks in 30 countries by the end of next year, but Ingenlath said the company would likely reach that milestone sooner.

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Spokesperson for Toyota says recall is for “all bZ4X vehicles in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Approximately, 2,700 vehicles are involved in this action.”
The recall relates to the vehicle’s wheels. Toyota says owners of the vehicle will be notified through a variety of channels.
“After low-mileage use, all of the hub bolts on the wheel of the subject vehicles can loosen to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle,” spokesperson says.

Toyota’s bZ4X electric sport utility vehicle photographed in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, on Feb. 24, 2022. The Japanese automotive giant has issued a safety recall related to the bZ4X’s wheels.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Japanese automotive giant Toyota issued a safety recall for more than 2,000 of its all-electric SUV, the bZ4X.
Announced Thursday, the recall relates to the bZ4X’s wheels. Toyota said owners of the vehicle would be notified through a variety of channels, starting June 23. Tokyo-listed shares of the company finished 0.7% lower on Friday.

“After low-mileage use, all of the hub bolts on the wheel of the subject vehicles can loosen to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle,” a spokesperson for Toyota said in a statement sent to CNBC via email.
“If a wheel detaches from the vehicle while driving, it could result in a loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash,” they added.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

According to the spokesperson, the recall is “for all bZ4X vehicles in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Approximately, 2,700 vehicles are involved in this action.”
The cause of the issue remains under investigation. “No one should drive these vehicles until the remedy is performed,” the spokesperson said.
Toyota is well known for its hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles but is now attempting to make headway in the increasingly competitive battery-electric market, where firms like Tesla and Volkswagen are jostling for position.  

“Toyota has been under pressure to up its game in EVs, so will be very disappointed that a recall has been necessary on its first mass-market electric cars,” David Leggett, automotive editor at GlobalData, told CNBC.com via email.
“On the plus side though, the recall is an early one in the model lifecycle and on a mechanical part that is nothing to do with the car’s electric powertrain,” Leggett added. “They’ll hope to quickly overcome the issue.”
Toyota launched the bZ4X in Japan last month, and it is the first model in the company’s bZ series. Last December, the company’s president, Akio Toyoda, said Toyota planned “to roll out 30 BEV models by 2030.”
According to the International Energy Agency, electric vehicle sales hit 6.6 million in 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, EV sales came to 2 million, a 75% increase compared to the first three months of 2021. More

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Hydrogen has a diverse range of applications and can be deployed in a wide range of industries.
Siemens Energy and Air Liquide have announced plans to focus on the production of “industrial scale renewable hydrogen electrolyzers in Europe.”
A growing number of multinational firms are attempting to lay down a marker in the green hydrogen sector.

One type of hydrogen production uses electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen. If the electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source then some call it “green” hydrogen.
Alex Kraus | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Siemens Energy and Air Liquide have announced plans to set up a joint venture focused on the production of “industrial scale renewable hydrogen electrolyzers in Europe.”
The move, announced on Thursday, represents the latest attempt to find a way to drive “renewable” or “green” hydrogen production costs down and make the sector competitive.

The establishment of the joint venture — Siemens Energy will have a 74.9% stake, while Air Liquide will hold 25.1% — is subject to approval from authorities.
If all goes to plan, its headquarters will be in Berlin, with a facility producing electrolysis modules, or stacks, also based there.
Plans for electrolyzer production in the German capital had been previously announced. Manufacturing is set to begin in 2023, with a yearly production capacity of 3 gigawatts reached in 2025.
The European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, has previously said it wants 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolyzers to be installed in the EU in 2030.
In Feb. 2021, Siemens Energy and Air Liquide announced plans related to the development of “a large scale electrolyzer partnership.”

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Described by the International Energy Agency as a “versatile energy carrier,” 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.
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. Today, the vast majority of hydrogen generation is based on fossil fuels.
In Oct. 2021, Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch spoke of the challenges facing the green hydrogen sector. On Thursday, he stressed the importance of scale and collaboration going forward.
“To make green hydrogen competitive, we need serially produced, low-cost, scalable electrolyzers,” Bruch said in a statement. “We also need strong partnerships,” Bruch added.
Air Liquide CEO François Jackow described the creation of the joint venture as “major step towards the emergence of a leading European renewable and low-carbon hydrogen ecosystem.”

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Siemens Energy and Air Liquide’s plan for a joint venture represents the latest attempt by multinational firms to lay down a marker in the green hydrogen sector.
Just last week, oil and gas supermajor BP said it had agreed to take a 40.5% equity stake in the Asian Renewable Energy Hub, a vast project planned for Australia.
In a statement, BP said it would become the operator of the development, adding that it had “the potential to be one of the largest renewables and green hydrogen hubs in the world.”
In Dec. 2021, Iberdrola and H2 Green Steel said they would partner and develop a 2.3 billion euro (around $2.42 billion) project centered around a green hydrogen facility with an electrolysis capacity of 1 gigawatt. More

When Jackson Aw was introduced to blockchain technology in 2018, he “didn’t get it at all.”
“Can someone dumb it down even further for me? Like, can you just tell me what I can get as a consumer?” 

That was four years ago. Today, Aw, seems to have the answer to that question. 
The 32-year-old Singaporean, who runs Mighty Jaxx — a multi-million dollar toy company that produces collectibles and lifestyle products — has incorporated blockchain into his products. 
A blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that records every transaction that has taken place. It also cannot be tampered with or changed retroactively.

CNBC Make It finds out why it “makes sense” for the collectibles empire to tap into blockchain capabilities, and bet on the metaverse.

Unique certificates 

Mighty Jaxx, which was founded in 2012, has partnered with some of the biggest global brands and visual artists, producing trendy collectibles that incorporate pop culture and design. 

Aw said the company has since sold millions of toy collectibles to people in more than 80 countries.
Mighty Jaxx’s limited-edition collectibles can cost up to $1,200 on its website, but in the secondary marketplace they can fetch “five to ten times” more than its original value, said Aw.

Jackson Aw’s advice for young entrepreneurs? “Fear will always exist. But the question is, what do you make of that?”
Eli Lo

But there is one problem.
“When you want to sell the product, the number one question everywhere is ‘Is it authentic?'”
Aw added: “For collectibles, what [sellers] do is that they take photos of the figurine and post it on Facebook groups, asking people to do an authenticity check.”
However, Aw was not satisfied with this method of authentication. 
“Whose word is it on? Where’s the provenance of it? So we thought, okay, that’s what we need.”

Mighty Jaxx designed a Near-Field Communication chip, that is embedded into each toy. “With our app, you can [scan the chip], register your ownership of the item,” said the company’s founder Jackson Aw.
Eli Lo

Mighty Jaxx designed a near-field communication chip and embedded one into each toy. NFC technology enables short-range, wireless communication between two devices. 
“With our app, you can [scan the chip], register your ownership of the item [to show] it’s an authentic Mighty Jaxx product,” Aw said.
Powered by blockchain, the platform issues and validates unique, tamperproof certificates for every product. It also provides a digital footprint when ownership of an item changes.

…content and intellectual property is key, because without any of this [visual] representation, that technology does nothing

Jackson Aw
Founder, Mighty Jaxx

“If Jay Chou or JJ Lin owned that figurine prior to you, that is definitely far more valuable than me owning it,” Aw jokes. Jay Chou and JJ Lin are popular Mandarin pop singers. 
Providing reliable authentication through blockchain technology is just “the beginning” for Mighty Jaxx.

A ‘phygital’ edge 

With the nonfungible token market seeing explosive growth in 2021, Aw said that was when there was “a change in culture as we knew it.” 
“[Being] artists and creators in general … has always been more of a service-based work. But now it flipped. Now, content and intellectual property is key, because without any of this [visual] representation, that technology does nothing,” Aw explained.
“Nothing speaks louder than visual form.”

NFTs are crypto-based digital assets that also function like collectibles — something that Mighty Jaxx is no stranger to.
Hence, it “makes sense” for Aw to venture into the space, by offering fans exclusive digital experiences with physical collectibles. 
“When you buy our NFTs, you get access and the opportunity to purchase the physical manifestation of it in that design. So only this bunch of people would be able to purchase this figure,” said Aw. 
“Because only they could do it and they can combine both asset classes together, it generates even higher value for them.” 

Collectors who buy Mighty Jaxx’s NFTs get exclusive access to purchase physical manifestation of the same design, which “generate even more value for them,” said Jackson Aw.
Mighty Jaxx

Aw believes that is Mighty Jaxx’s “phygital” edge over its competitors — being able to offer both digital and physical assets. 
“The fact that we create digital assets before we produce the physical toys … means that we can go to market quicker as well,” he added. 
“I can’t think of, you know, 10 other companies doing that in the whole world, simply because the work that goes into creating a hardware or a [physical] collectible, it’s naturally just a steeper learning curve.” 

Metaverse expansion 

In 2021, Mighty Jaxx launched its first collection of NFT trading cards, featuring cats that look like the Chinese cuisine, dim sum.  

“We launched 6,000 units, within … two seconds, they were just sold out,” Aw said.
Mighty Jaxx got its big break with DC Comics by scoring a licensing partnership in 2015, allowing it to “restyle” the creative intellectual property. 
Since then, it has partnered with renowned brands to reach fandoms all around the world, from Adidas, Hasbro and Nickelodeon, to Formula 1, Sesame Street and Netflix. 
Aw says “there’s a lot more work to be done,” with plans to expand its IP collaborations into the metaverse as well. 
The metaverse is a set of virtual worlds where people live, work and play.

Mighty Jaxx’s first collection of NFT trading cards were sold out within “2 seconds,” said Jackson Aw.
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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday said that a possible upcoming slew of price estimate cuts from analysts could create a sell-off and an opportunity for investors to do some buying.
“Over the next few weeks … I expect the analysts to hit us with some preemptive estimate cuts while more companies hit us with negative preannouncements,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday said that a possible upcoming slew of earnings estimate cuts from analysts could create a sell-off and an opportunity for investors to do some buying.
“Over the next few weeks, before earnings season gets rolling, I expect the analysts to hit us with some preemptive estimate cuts while more companies hit us with negative preannouncements,” he said.

“That’s going to be bad for the averages, but once the sell-off hits and we get over the estimate cuts for 2022 and 2023, that’s it. That’s when we will have not a tradeable bottom like this one, but an investable one,” he added.
The “Mad Money” host’s comments come after a turbulent earnings season roiled by inflation saw companies falling short of Wall Street expectations.
Cramer said that he believes analysts’ consensus earnings estimates for the stocks in the S&P 500 are too high, and they need to come down because markets don’t bottom unless bad news is baked into stock prices.
“They’re predicting 8% growth, followed by 11% next year. I find that hard to believe. Eight percent to eleven percent earnings growth is basically what you’d expect in an average year,” he said.
He pointed out that there have been several companies in recent weeks that reported great quarters but disappointing guidance.

“You had these really great quarters, but they are saying things are getting weaker. People like them because they think the estimate cuts are finally done. I’m not sure,” he said.
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