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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that he believes gold will make a recovery, and there’s one company in the industry that investors should consider adding to their portfolios.
“I bet the precious metal can make a comeback. If I’m right, then the one to own is best of breed Barrick Gold, which I think is a steal down here,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that he believes gold will make a recovery, and there’s one company in the industry that investors should consider adding to their portfolios.
“I bet the precious metal can make a comeback. If I’m right, then the one to own is best of breed Barrick Gold, which I think is a steal down here,” he said.

Gold is often seen as a safe-haven stock during times of economic uncertainty and considered a hedge against inflation.
The “Mad Money” host said he recommends Barrick Gold in particular because he likes the company’s management, clear strategy and geographically diverse portfolio of gold mines. More importantly, Barrick has a “terrific” dividend and cheap stock, Cramer said. 
Shares of Barrick Gold rose slightly on Wednesday to $19.56, still below its 52-week high.
As for why he’s bullish on gold more broadly, Cramer explained that gold saw a boom during the height of the Covid pandemic, but it has since cooled off as crypto enthusiasts have pushed the digital currency as a more fun, profitable “store of value” stock. Crypto as a result roared higher in 2020, he said.

Stock picks and investing trends from CNBC Pro:

However, this year has seen a huge sell-off in crypto as investors flee the once-lucrative market – and Cramer believes the investors will run straight to gold. 

“I’m not necessarily saying crypto is toast, although practically everyone I spoke to in Silicon Valley now seems to think that the whole industry is just one big con. What matters is you can’t seriously argue that something like bitcoin is a hedge against inflation,” Cramer said.
“The bitcoin boom sucked the life out of gold as an investment, but maybe the crypto bust can bring it back,” he added.
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World Wrestling Entertainment’s board is investigating a $3 million hush-money settlement that CEO Vince McMahon paid a former employee over an alleged affair, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A WWE spokesman told the newspaper that the company is cooperating with the board’s investigation and that the relationship between McMahon and the woman was consensual.
The board’s probe also revealed older agreements related to misconduct claims against McMahon and another WWE executive by women who used to work at the company, the report said.

Vince McMahon attends a press conference at MetLife Stadium on February 16, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Michael N. Todaro | Getty Images

World Wrestling Entertainment’s board is investigating a $3 million hush-money settlement that CEO Vince McMahon paid a woman over an alleged affair, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing documents and people familiar with the matter.
The agreement, which was struck in January, is intended to prevent the woman, who had worked as a paralegal for the company, from discussing her relationship with McMahon or making critical statements about the chief executive, the Journal added.

A WWE spokesman told the newspaper that the company is cooperating with the board’s investigation and that the relationship between McMahon and the woman was consensual.
McMahon, 76, is married to Linda McMahon, who served as CEO of WWE and as Small Business Administration chief in the administration of former President Donald Trump, who is a WWE Hall of Famer.

The report said the board’s investigation, which started in April, also revealed nondisclosure pacts related to misconduct claims from other women who had worked at WWE. These agreements involved McMahon and WWE talent executive John Laurinaitis, who wrestled under the name Johnny Ace, the Journal added.
WWE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
The board retained Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a New York-based law firm, to conduct the investigation, a source told the Journal. The firm didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

McMahon’s lawyer, Jerry McDevitt, was not immediately available for comment. McDevitt told the Journal that the former employee didn’t make any harassment claims against McMahon. He also said that WWE didn’t pay her any money, the paper said.
The news comes at a pivotal time for the wrestling-entertainment company. In May, executive Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of Vince and Linda McMahon, took a leave of absence from most of her responsibilities at the company. “WWE is a lifelong legacy for me and I look forward to returning to the company that I love after taking this time to focus on my family,” she tweeted at the time.
WWE has also been the subject of speculation over a potential sale and its media rights. It has deals with Fox, USA Network, Hulu and NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service. The Hulu deal expires this year.
The company is publicly traded, but McMahon owns the majority of WWE’s voting shares. He took over the company from his father, also named Vince McMahon, in 1982. Under the younger McMahon’s oversight, the WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation, became a global juggernaut. In the decades since, the company has spawned superstars such as Hulk Hogan, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dave Bautista.
This is far from McMahon’s first brush with controversy. In 1993, he was indicted on federal charges related to anabolic steroids, which he and several professional wrestlers in the WWF stable used. He was acquitted of the charges in 1994. McMahon and the company also came under fire in 1999 for continuing a show after superstar Owen Hart, a brother of Bret’s, fell to his death from an arena’s rafters while staging a stunt. The company eventually agreed to pay the Hart family $18 million over the wrestler’s death.
Read the full Wall Street Journal report here.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
— CNBC’s Candice Choi contributed to this report.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that investors should be with Jerome Powell and not against him, as the Federal Reserve chair has proven he’s willing to take inflation down no matter what.
“I think the Powell bears need a reset and a recalibration. … Turns out he’s willing to cause a slowdown,” the “Mad Money” host said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that investors should be with Jerome Powell and not against him, as the Federal Reserve chair has proven he’s willing to take inflation down no matter what.
“I think the Powell bears need a reset and a recalibration. … Turns out he’s willing to cause a slowdown — he’ll take a recession, even — that will be relatively light on job losses. But he’ll no longer stand for inflation,” he said.

The “Mad Money” host’s comments came after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points on Wednesday.
The other big piece of news for the day was Powell’s remark in his post-meeting news conference that he expects a 50 or 75 basis point rate hike in July.
All three major indices rose after his announcement, with travel names and every major sector except energy posting gains.
Cramer, who has been a supporter of Powell even as he urged the Fed chair to implement 100-basis-point rate hikes, strengthened his case against the bears by pointing out that the Fed’s last 75-basis-point rate hike in 1994 led to a “pretty darn good buying opportunity.”
He showed a chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gains during that period:

Arrows pointing outwards

“All I can say to the critics is maybe Powell’s as good as all the other Fed chiefs you hated at the time, only to be loved once they retired. And the stock bears? Well, this is not the chart you want to see,” he said.

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Netflix disrupted traditional TV by releasing entire seasons of shows all at once.
Now that strategy is under new scrutiny as the company contends with big subscriber losses and a dramatic plunge in its share price.
“With Netflix, it is super easy to join for three-to-six months and then leave for three-to-six months,” said one analyst. “Once ‘Stranger Things’ is over and ‘Ozark’ is over, what now?”

A scene from Netflix’s “Stranger Things”.
Source: Netflix

Could Netflix ditch its binge-release model? Stranger things have happened.
The all-at-once release strategy for television shows is a bedrock of Netflix’s strategy. The first seven episodes of “Stranger Things,” which all premiered on May 27, broke records. It was the biggest premiere weekend ever for an English-language TV show on the service with nearly 287 million hours watched.

Despite the success of its marquee series, however, Netflix is struggling to jumpstart subscriber growth. So its binge strategy is facing new scrutiny as the company looks for ways to better retain its subscriber base.
“With Netflix, or anyone, never say never,” said Peter Csathy, founder and chairman of advisory firm Creatv Media. “Just like they said ‘no way, no advertising,’ don’t assume that binge viewing is forever.” He added: “Binge viewing is on the table.”
Investors are questioning Netflix’s ability to address subscriber losses and growing competition in the streaming space. The streamer’s stock plummeted over the past year from $700 per share to around $160. The company reported a loss of 200,000 global subscribers during its first quarter earnings report in April. It also warned of deepening trouble ahead, forecasting it would lose around 2 million global paid subscribers during the second quarter.
Now, Netflix is reconsidering several core tenets that once made it the king of the nascent streaming world. Co-CEO Reed Hastings said the company is exploring lower-priced, ad-supported tiers in a bid to bring in new subscribers after years of resisting advertisements on the platform.
Those familiar with the streaming space suggest more changes could come, including a stronger focus on franchise content and even a change to staggered releases of new episodic content.

Netflix has toyed with different release models, mostly due to pandemic-related delays in production, and noted that splitting seasons into two parts can be a “satisfying long binge experience” for subscribers. Still, the company has made no indication that it will transition away from releasing all episodes of scripted series at once. Instead, decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Netflix declined to comment.
“When Netflix started it really had the field to itself,”  said Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University and a pop culture expert. “One of the reasons they started binging was to get people talking and to really launch their new original programming. They succeeded in that. Now, however, it’s a very different case.”
Netflix no longer has licensed content like “The Office” or “Friends,” which kept subscribers coming back month after month to watch on repeat. Instead, it has several high profile shows, like “Stranger Things,” “Bridgerton” and “The Witcher” — as well as an expansive library of series that haven’t reached the same level of prestige or popularity.
Thompson noted that all shows released on streaming services eventually become bingeable. It is how they are first introduced to audiences that the platforms control.

To binge or not to binge

“Releasing all at once, the Netflix model, increases the binge value,” said Nick Cicero, vice president of strategy at data analytics company Conviva. “This allows customers to consume at their own pace, but relies on a deep catalog.”
“The flip side,” he said, “is week over week, which is designed to bring people back and give them something to look forward to. It’s a very different model of marketing.”
On services such as Disney+, HBO Max and Hulu, individual episode releases keep audiences hooked over the course of several weeks, meaning less churn on a month-to-month basis. Meanwhile, Netflix subscribers can watch a full season of a show they are interested in and then leave the service at the end of the month.

In this photo illustration the Netflix logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen, with graphic representation of the stock market in the background.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Stringing content throughout the year allows services like Disney to entice subscribers to stay each month but also persuade them to pay for an annual subscription up front. The company’s Disney+ platform utilizes its two biggest franchises — Star Wars and Marvel — to keep subscribers coming back.
The company released “The Book of Boba Fett,” which ran from late December 2021 until early February. Then added “Moon Knight” in late March, which ran until early May. Then in late May, it released “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which will continue through late June. “Ms. Marvel” arrived early June and will run through late July. August has the release of “She-Hulk,” which carries episodes through October, and then “Andor,” which will wrap its first season in November.
Then in December, Disney+ will release the “Guardians of the Galaxy” Christmas special. In staggering these releases, the company can entice Star Wars fans and Marvel fans to stick with the service long term.
“With Netflix, it is super easy to join for three-to-six months and then leave for three-to-six months,” said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush. “Once ‘Stranger Things’ is over and ‘Ozark’ is over, what now?”
In recent years, Netflix has experimented with weekly releases for some reality shows, but has not tried this strategy with scripted series.
“We fundamentally believe that we want to give our members the choice in how they view,” Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s head of scripted series for U.S. and Canada, said earlier this month. “And so giving them that option on these scripted series to watch as much as they want to watch when they watch it, is still fundamental to what we want to provide.”
Netflix has, however, dabbled in splitting seasons in half or in parts in order to spread them out. The fourth and final season of “Ozark” was segmented in two, and so was the latest season of “Stranger Things.” The final two episodes of “Stranger Things” season four, including its 2.5-hour finale, will start streaming July 1.
“Splitting the seasons actually had a practical reason before, which was the Covid delays and all those projects that kind of led us to splitting some of the seasons,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the company’s first quarter earnings call in April. “But what we found is that fans kind of like both.”
“So being able to split it gives them a really satisfying binge experience for those people who want that really satisfying long binge experience,” he said. “And then being able to deliver a follow-up season in a few months versus, in some cases, the new season of ‘Stranger Things’ is coming nearly three years after the last one or more than two anyway.”
Netflix has long held to its all-at-once model because of its subscribers, which it says want more control over when and how they watch content. Shows like “Maid,” “Inventing Anna,” “The Lincoln Lawyer” and “Squid Game” all held top 10 spots on the streaming service for weeks, showing that Netflix shows can have longevity of viewing on the service as word of mouth travels to new audiences.
Still, Netflix can learn a lot from staggered releases of “Ozark” and “Stranger Things” to determine whether there are other scripted series that would benefit from this strategy.
Pachter suggested that Netflix could take a cue from Amazon and release three episodes a week.
“It’s absolutely OK to say, ‘We are the disruptor, but there are things our competitors are doing that we admire and we respect them and we think they are doing it right,'” Pachter said. “It’s not a cop out.”

Franchise fever

Netflix’s all-at-once release strategy may set it apart from other streaming services, but it also means that it has to increase it output of content to fill the gaps between series. Instead of having, say, 30 shows spread throughout the year, it needs 300, Pachter said.
“Netflix’s data dump means that they have to do more content to minimize churn,” he said. “I think that they will be far more successful if they focus on more quality than more quantity.”
For years, the streaming service used licensing agreements with networks and studios to pad its library with long-running and popular series like “Parks and Recreation,” “Schitt’s Creek,” “Mad Men,” and a suite of Marvel-based superhero shows.
Those contracts have ended and the shows are now on other streamers. In another blow, Netflix is about to lose 12 seasons of CBS’ “Criminal Minds” at the end of month. “New Girl,” another staple in Netflix’s collection, is expected to depart the platform in 2023.
“Breaking Bad,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “NCIS” and “Supernatural” are sticking around for now.
These kinds of series, which have a number of seasons or dozens of episodes, have been a major driver of viewing traffic on the streaming service for years. Now, Netflix is more reliant on its own original content, leaning heavily on content creator deals and surprise hits like “Squid Game” and “Love is Blind.”
“Netflix has a lot of content, but the iconic evergreen content has not caught up to the catalogs to the other streaming services that are out there,” Cicero said.
Relatively new streamers like Disney and NBCUniversal’s Peacock have decades of legacy content to fill their libraries with. It’s why Netflix made an agreement to be the first streaming space for new Sony releases back in 2021.

It’s also why Creatv’s Csathy believes Netflix should focus on developing franchises or buying the rights to already established franchises.
“Rather than throwing all the titles against the wall to see what sticks with consumers, focus on franchises and name brands,” Csathy said. “The smartest bets are those that have name recognition and built-in audiences.”
“Wall Street will reward those that come out with a public strategy of less is more,” he added.
Still, there are those that don’t think Netflix will be so quick to overhaul its established strategy.
“I think people tend to forget within our industry is that this isn’t a one size fits all,” said Dan Rayburn, a media and streaming analyst. “I don’t think Netflix will say no more binge watching.”
Instead, Rayburn foresees the streaming continuing to try new models, like its plans for adding an ad-supported plan to its platform.
He noted that the stark stock reaction is a result of Netflix deriving all of its revenue from streaming. This means that when a show doesn’t perform well or the service sees a slowdown in subscriber growth, there is an immediate reaction.
At the end of the day, streaming analysts say content spending will not go down, even with ongoing economic pressures, such as inflation and higher interest rates, and a potential recession on the horizon. Competition in the streaming space will continue to drive these companies to create and distribute more content.
“Where the dollars go will be reallocated is the question,” Csathy said. “For Netflix, I think ‘less is more’ is a strategy that pays off for them.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

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American Airlines is in the middle of contract negotiations with its roughly 14,000 mainline pilots.
Two of the carrier’s regional airlines, Envoy and Piedmont, just extended two-year pay hikes of 50% to ward off a pilot shortage.
Other airlines, including JetBlue, Southwest, Alaska and Delta, are in contract talks with pilot unions.

FILE – American Airlines President Robert Isom speaks at a news conference about the company’s new partnership with Alaska Airlines, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, in Seattle. American Airlines CEO Doug Parker will retire next March and be replaced by the airline’s current president, Robert Isom.
Elaine Thompson | AP

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said this week that the company will revise its pay proposals for its 14,000 pilots, acknowledging pay standards have increased since the company made its most recent offer before the pandemic.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline had previously floated a 4% date-of-signing increase plus 3% annual raises after that. Then Covid-19 roiled the industry and put talks between carriers and labor unions throughout the industry on hold.

“It was industry-leading at the time we proposed it,” Isom said in a video message to pilots posted Monday, which CNBC reviewed. “As the pandemic wanes, the standard for compensation has gone up.”
Isom’s message came days after two of American’s subsidiaries, regional carriers Piedmont and Envoy, extended big raises to its pilots, including a temporary 50% pay hike through the end of August 2024, in hopes of easing a pilot shortage that has curbed growth plans.
United Airlines last month became the first major carrier in the pandemic to reach a contract deal with its pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association. Union leadership is set to vote on that agreement next week. If passed, it will go to pilots for a vote.
“We will take other carriers’ ratified agreements, including United’s, into account and update our pay proposals quickly when details are known,” Isom said. “Our team will be paid well and be paid competitively. You are not going to fall behind network peers.”
American’s pilots and those at other carriers, including Delta’s, have picketed in recent months to protest the grueling schedules airlines have sold to capitalize on the rebound in travel demand.

Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, American’s pilots’ union, said the company has to do more than raise wages.
“There is no work-life balance,” he said Wednesday.
Without providing details, Isom said American’s new proposal will include better benefits and quality-of-life provisions.

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Millionaires surveyed by CNBC ranked inflation as the top risk to both the economy and their personal wealth.
Millionaires are divided on the Fed’s ability to slow inflation or reduce demand without causing a recession.
More than a quarter of millionaires believe the U.S. is already in a recession, and an additional 34% said the U.S. will tip into recession this year.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 9, 2022. 
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

American millionaires are raising cash in response to lingering inflation fears, according to CNBC’s Millionaire Survey.
Millionaires surveyed by CNBC ranked inflation as the top risk to both the economy and their personal wealth. It’s the first time since the survey began in 2014 that inflation has edged out all other risks in the ranking. Forty-two percent of millionaires said inflation will last “at least a year or two,” and an additional 19% said it would last more than two years, according to the results.

The survey includes investors with at least $1 million in investible assets. It was conducted in May and surveyed approximately 750 respondents who reported that they are the financial decision-makers or share jointly in financial decision-making within their households. Since the survey was conducted, a readout of consumer prices found inflation accelerated further last month and the S&P 500 slipped into a bear market, more than 20% off its recent highs.
“Clearly, there is a shift to a very pessimistic concerned outlook,” said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, which conducts the CNBC Millionaire Survey. “They are not confident that the Federal Reserve can handle these problems.”
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points.
Millionaires are divided on the Fed’s ability to slow inflation or reduce demand without causing a recession, according to the survey. Thirty-five percent said they are “not at all confident” in the Fed’s ability to manage inflation, while nearly half said they are “somewhat confident.”
Views of the Fed diverge largely along political affiliation: Most Republican millionaires said they are “not at all confident” in the Fed’s ability to manage inflation, while most Democratic millionaires said they are “somewhat confident.”

More than a quarter of millionaires believe the U.S. is already in a recession, and an additional 34% said the U.S. will tip into recession this year. Only 21% said the U.S. is not headed for a recession.
“They’re very clearly concerned about a recession, and we’ll only know in six months whether we’re in one now,” Walper said.
Millionaires own about 90% of the individually held stocks in the U.S. So far, they aren’t panicking or selling, according to the survey. But most are raising more cash and moving more money into short-term fixed income investments given rising interest rates.
Nearly 40% of millionaires said they plan to make changes to their portfolio or have already made changes due to inflation, 44% said they have kept more money in cash, and 41% say they have purchased more fixed-rate investments. Of those surveyed, 35% said they have purchased equities, and 31% said they have sold equities due to inflation and its impact on certain sectors and stocks.
Wealthy investors are typically among the first to take advantage of market declines and buy during major ones since they can afford to be more aggressive. Yet so far, millionaires show little sign of buying the recent market declines, suggesting they see more pain ahead for markets and interest rates.
“When volatility slows down and people feel like we’re near a bottom, this is the group that makes moves and looks for distressed opportunities and good values,” Walper said. “They did it in April of 2020. But we’re not seeing that now. They don’t see this ending anytime soon.”
Fifty-eight percent of millionaires expect the economy to be weaker or “much weaker” by the end of the year, according to the survey. Most also expect the S&P 500 to end the year down double digits: More than half of those surveyed expect the S&P to be down at least 10%, while nearly one in five respondents expect it to be down at least 15%.
Millionaires have also ratcheted down their expectations for their own investment returns — though they’re still more bullish on their returns than the overall market. One in four of those surveyed expects to post negative returns, and a majority expects returns of less than 4%.
Last year half of millionaires surveyed expected returns at least 6%.

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The Summer Fancy Food Show, held Sunday through Tuesday at the Javits Convention Center in New York, returned for the first time since 2019.
The trade show has gained a reputation for being the place to spot the next big flavors and foods.
Pasta in new shapes and flavors and vinegar shrub drinks were some of the standout trends.

Pasta is coming back in different shapes and flavors, drinking vinegar is cool, and comfort food favorites like pancakes are being made with new ingredients.
That’s according to the hundreds of items on display at the Summer Fancy Food Show, a trade show that has gained a reputation for being a place to spot the next big flavors and foods that will dominate restaurant menus and grocery store shelves. The show returned for the first time since the pandemic this week, running Sunday through Tuesday at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.

More than 1,800 exhibitors displayed specialty food and drinks for restaurant owners, foodservice operators and other industry players. The trade show, which is hosted by the Specialty Food Association, in the past has featured up-and-coming trends including fermented foods, floral flavors and packaged snacks made with cauliflower.
Here are some highlights from this year’s show spotted by the trade group and CNBC:

Pasta revamped

Carbone’s booth at the 2022 Summer Fancy Food Show highlighted its new line of pasta sauces
Amelia Lucas | CNBC

Pasta is back − but in flavors and shapes people likely haven’t tried before.
The SFA’s trend spotters said new noodle shapes are hitting the U.S. market, such as cascatelli, a j-shaped pasta with ridges. Pasta makers are also experimenting with different flavors and ingredients. Greenomic Deli, for example, showed off cacao-infused pasta as part of its Good Hair Day line.
After years of lagging sales growth, noodles in general are staging a comeback, according to the SFA’s preliminary trend report for the trade show. People who had cut back on carbs started eating pasta again during the pandemic as they cooked more at home and sought comfort food.

Plant-based comfort foods

Rind’s vegan cheese tasting display at the Summer Fancy Food Show
Amelia Lucas | CNBC

The latest plant-based foods aren’t milk or meat substitutes. Instead, they’re about giving people another way to indulge in comfort foods, according to the SFA.
The up-and-coming category is meant to appeal to people who want plant-based versions of their favorite snacks and treats. Whoa Dough showed off vegan cookie dough bars with four grams of protein at its table, while Rind displayed plant-based cheeses that mimic the richness of blue and camembert cheese. Bean Bops presented its crispy fava beans, with packaging that touts its protein content.

Pancakes

Happy Grub’s squeezable instant pancake mix on display at the 2022 Summer Fancy Food Show
Amelia Lucas | CNBC

One comfort food seemed to get extra attention from exhibitors: pancakes.
Companies presented their takes on the breakfast favorite, playing with both packaging and ingredients. Happy Grub presented its squeezable instant pancake mix, designed for parents and children to use together. Jus Chill International’s pancake mix swaps out traditional all-purpose flour for a flour made from breadfruit, a starchy tropical fruit it sources from Jamaica.

Vinegar shrub drinks

Tait Farm Foods’ Sofi award-winning shrub
Amelia Lucas | CNBC

Wellness culture introduced shots of apple cider vinegar to many Americans’ daily routines. Now some companies are trying to balance vinegar’s health benefits with its sharp flavor.
One way is by reviving shrubs, a once-popular drink that mixes vinegar syrup with fruit and sparkling water or spirits. Its popularity in the U.S. peaked in the colonial era then waned as refrigerators became increasingly common in homes. Shrubs started popping up again in cocktail bars over the last decade, and now drink makers are taking notice.
Tait Farm Foods said its shrubs can be used as a cocktail or mocktail mixer. Newcomer Shrubbly Superdrink showed off its shrubs that add fruit, herbs, spices and apple cider vinegar to its sparkling water base.

Spirits-inspired flavors

A display of Santa Sofia’s agave vinegar at the trade show
Amelia Lucas | CNBC

Cocktails and food culture have always gone hand-in-hand, but now the relationship might be getting even more intertwined.
Santa Sofia, for example, showed off its agave vinegar, designed to be used in salad dressings or sprinkled on potato chips. It doesn’t contain any alcohol, but the vinegar is made using fermented agave, giving it a flavor reminiscent of tequila. Agave-based spirits have been soaring in popularity in recent years, and tequila is expected to overtake vodka as the most popular liquor category in the U.S. this year.
Andres Confiserie Suisse, a chocolate maker based in Kansas City, Missouri, stuck with the more classic whiskey flavor for its whiskey caramel chocolate drops, which are made in collaboration with a local distiller and can be eaten solo or dropped into hot chocolate or coffee.

Food with extra benefits

Beyond Resilience’s table showed off its chocolate-flavored spreads
Amelia Lucas | CNBC

The association said foods with added benefits are another trend to watch. The pandemic has heightened people’s desire to strengthen their immune systems, and snack makers are adding ingredients they say have benefits like anti-aging.
Austrian company Beyond Resilience, for example, showed off an array of “nutricosmetics,” which are functional foods that contain ingredients believed to help improve hair, skin and nails. Its products included chocolate-flavored protein spreads that contain biotin and amino acids.

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Led by Tesla, auto companies have reported nearly 400 crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems, according to federal data released Wednesday.
Federal safety officials stressed that the data is not meant to indicate whether one system is safer than another.
The data is meant to be a guide to quickly identify potential defect trends and assist in determining how such systems are affecting the safety of vehicles, officials said.

The NTSB released this image of a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor electric car that was involved in a fatal accident near Miami that killed two people on Sept. 13, 2021.

Tesla vehicles have accounted for nearly 70% of reported crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems since last June, according to federal figures released Wednesday. But officials warned that the data is incomplete and isn’t meant to indicate which car maker’s systems might be safest.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the first-of-its-kind data doesn’t yet have proper context and is only meant to be a guide to quickly identify potential defect trends and help determine whether the systems are improving the safety of vehicles.

“I would advise caution before attempting to draw conclusions based only on the data that we’re releasing. In fact, the data alone may raise more questions than they answer,” NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said during a media event.
According to the data, Tesla cars represented 273 accidents involving its advanced driver-assist systems since companies were required to start reporting the incidents roughly a year ago. That’s out of 392 crashes reported overall by 11 automakers and one supplier from June 2021 through May 15.
Honda was second with 90 reported accidents, followed by Subaru at 10 and Ford Motor at five. All other companies reported four or less accidents, including Toyota at four, BMW at three and General Motors at two.
The data release is the first since the government began mandating in June 2021 that companies report incidents involving “Level 2” advanced driver-assist systems, which are meant to help an attentive driver but not replace them. They include Tesla’s systems such as Autopilot and GM’s Super Cruise.
The data does not take into context factors such as the number of vehicles automakers have made, the number of vehicles they have on the road or the distances traveled by those vehicles. When and how much data companies provided also varies, meaning much of it is incomplete.

For example, crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems have resulted in at least six fatalities and five serious injuries, according to the data. However, whether there were injuries in a majority of the crashes – 294 of them – is unknown, meaning there are likely more.
“This is an unprecedented effort to gather nearly real time safety data involving these advanced technologies,” Cliff said. “Understanding the story that the data tell will take time as most of NHTSA’s work does but it’s a story we need to hear.”

Tesla

While Tesla cars with the company’s “Autopilot” technology had the most accidents, it’s believed the company also has the most number of vehicles with such systems on the road. Its systems also tend to offer greater capabilities and are allowed to operate in more areas than other systems.
Tesla’s systems are marketed under the brand names Autopilot, Full Self Driving and Full Self Driving Beta in the U.S.
Tesla’s celebrity CEO Elon Musk recently on Twitter said that the company’s latest version of FSD Beta would be rolling out to 100,000 cars. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the Associated Press, Tesla has more vehicles with partly automated systems operating on U.S. roads than most other automakers do — roughly 830,000, dating to the 2014 model year. And it collects real-time data online from vehicles, so it has a much faster reporting system. That compares to GM, which has reportedly sold more than 34,000 vehicles since the debut of its “Super Cruise” system in 2017.
The NHTSA has intensified its focus and investigations on Tesla because of the company’s aggressive expansion of advanced driver-assist systems, including prototype software for Tesla owners.
In February, Tesla said it would recall software from 53,822 of its Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles in the U.S. to eliminate a feature that lets cars automatically roll past stop signs. The cars featured a relatively new version of the company’s Full Self-Driving Beta software.
That program gives Tesla drivers early access to new features that aren’t completely debugged yet, including “autosteer on city streets,” which let drivers automatically navigate around complex and crowded urban environments without moving the steering wheel with their own hands. Despite the name, Full Self-Driving Beta does not make Tesla vehicles autonomous.

Ongoing data collection

Release of the data comes nearly a year after the NHTSA issued an order requiring automakers and operators of vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance or automated driving systems to immediately report crashes.
NHTSA also released a separate report on higher-level systems, known as automated driving systems, that can include the vehicles largely driving themselves. Most of these systems are still being tested and not available to the public, but some companies such as Alphabet’s Waymo and GM’s majority-owned Cruise have opened operations to the public.
NHTSA says there have been 130 reported automated driving system crashes from June 2021 to May 15. Waymo, at 62, had the most. It was followed by Transdev Alternative Services at 34, and Cruise at 23 (excluding 16 crashes reported separately by GM). Twenty-five companies reported crashes. They ranged from traditional automakers to Apple, which has reportedly been working on such a vehicle for years.
The agency plans to release data updates monthly regarding the systems.
– CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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