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Shares of Planet fell as much as 20% in after-hours trading, from its close at $4.90.
Despite the lowered guidance, Planet co-founder and CEO Will Marshall said in a statement that the company continues “to see strong demand for our proprietary data solutions, driven by global events and the growing awareness of our capabilities.”
Planet’s customer base increased to 903, up from 882 at the end of the fourth quarter.

A satellite image captured by a SkySat shows the breached Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, June 6, 2023.

Shares of Planet fell after the satellite-imagery and data-analysis company cut its annual revenue guidance following when it reported first-quarter results Thursday.
The company lowered its guidance for its current fiscal-year 2024 revenue to a range of $225 million to $235 million, down from its previous forecast of between $248 million and $268 million. Planet also said it expected wider losses on an adjusted EBITDA basis, increasing its forecast to a range of between $58 million and $67 million from a range of between $37 million and $47 million.

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Shares of Planet fell as much as 20% in after-hours trading, from its close at $4.90.
Despite the lowered guidance, Planet co-founder and CEO Will Marshall said in a statement that the company continues “to see strong demand for our proprietary data solutions, driven by global events and the growing awareness of our capabilities.”
Planet Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Ashley Johnson further emphasized the “challenging macro environment,” and said the company remains “focused on the path to profitability.” She added the company’s balance sheet “is strong,” with $375 million in cash and equivalents and no debt.

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For the first quarter, Planet reported revenue of $52.7 million, up 31% from $40.1 million in the same period a year ago, but effectively flat from the prior quarter.
The company’s first-quarter net loss was $34.4 million, or 13 cents a share. That narrowed 22% from its net loss of $44.4 million, or 17 cents a share, a year prior.

Planet’s customer base increased to 903, up from 882 at the end of the fourth quarter. Its customer base is split into three parts by revenue: 44% is defense and intelligence, 29% is commercial and 27% is civil government.
The company follows a fiscal-year calendar that ends Jan. 31. More

A group of independent advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration endorsed the monoclonal antibody nirsevimab, which protects infants from respiratory syncytial virus.
Nirsevimab is a monoclonal antibody made by AstraZeneca. The medication would be marketed by Sanofi.
If the FDA gives final approval to nirsevimab, it would become the first medical intervention available in the United States that can protect all infants from RSV.
RSV is the most common cause of hospitalization among American infants, killing nearly 100 infants every year, according to scientists.

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A panel of independent advisors to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended Thursday that the antibody nirsevimab be approved for use to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus, the leading cause of hospitalization among newborns.
If the FDA approves nirsevimab, the antibody would become the first medical intervention available in the U.S. that can protect all infants from RSV. The FDA, which is not obligated to follow the recommendation of its advisory panel, is expected to make a final decision on nirsevimab in the third quarter.

Nirsevimab is a monoclonal antibody made by AstraZeneca. The medication would be marketed by Sanofi.
The advisory panel voted 21-0 to recommend its approval.
In a separate vote, the advisors also recommended nirsevimab’s use in children up to 2 years old who remain vulnerable to the virus in their second RSV season. That vote was 19-2.
RSV kills nearly 100 babies in the United States every year, according to scientists.
Infants hospitalized with RSV often require oxygen support, intravenous fluids and are sometimes placed on a ventilator to support their breathing.

The virus is a major public health threat. A surge in RSV infections last year overwhelmed children’s hospitals leading to calls for the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency in response.
RSV circulates at the same time as the flu and Covid-19, which puts added pressure on hospitals.
There is a second monoclonal antibody used against RSV called palivizumab. But this antibody is only for preterm infants and those with lung and congenital heart conditions that are at a high risk of severe disease. Palivizumab also has to be administered monthly.
Nirsevimab, by contrast, would also be administered to healthy infants, who make up a majority of the hospitalizations. It is also given as a single dose, which would make administration easier.
Nirsevimab is not considered a vaccine because it is a monoclonal antibody.
It is unclear whether the federal Vaccines for Children program will provide nirsevimab for uninsured and underinsured children for free because the antibody is regulated as a drug.
Nirsevimab is already approved in Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom.
Nimish Patel, an expert on medications for infectious disease, said nirsevimab performed “extraordinarily well” in both premature and term babies.
“The once-seasonal dosing is a huge advance and this is probably the closest thing to an RSV vaccine that we have and it really moves the field forward,” said Patel, a member of the FDA committee and a professor of clinical pharmacy at University of California, San Diego.

Effectiveness

Nirsevimab was up to 75% effective at preventing lower respiratory tract infections that required medical attention and 78% effective at preventing hospitalizations, according a review by the FDA.
A more conservative estimate by FDA put the antibody’s effectiveness at about 48% against lower respiratory tract infections that required medical attention. This estimate assumed patients with missing data on their health outcomes had lower respiratory tract infections that required medical attention.

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Nirsevimab is administered as a single injection with the dose depending on the infant’s weight. Infants that weigh less than 5 kilograms would receive a 50 mg injection for their first RSV season, and those weighing 5 kilograms or greater would receive a 100 mg injection.
Children less than 2 years old who remain at risk for severe RSV in their second season would receive a single 200 mg injection of nirsevimab.

Safety

The FDA did not identify any safety concerns in its review of nirsevimab.
Other monoclonal antibodies have been associated with serious allergic reactions, skin rashes and other hypersensitivity reactions.
The FDA did not find any cases of serious allergic reactions in the nirsevimab trials and cases of skin rash and hypersensitivity reactions were low in infants who received the antibody. But Dr. Melissa Baylor, an FDA official, said cases of these side effects will likely occur if nirsevimab is approved.
Twelve infants who received nirsevimab in the trials died. None of these deaths were related to the antibody, according to the FDA’s review.
Four died from cardiac disease, two died from gastroenteritis, two died from unknown causes but were likely cases of sudden infant death syndrome, one died from a tumor, one died from Covid, one died from a skull fracture and one died of pneumonia.
“Most deaths were due to an underlying disease,” Baylor said. “None of the deaths appeared to be related to nirsevimab.”
There has been very close attention to safety due to historical failures in the development of RSV vaccines. Scientists first tried to develop a vaccine in the 1960s with an inactivated virus, but that shot actually made disease from RSV worse in some children when they received their first natural infection, resulting in the death of two infants.
Manish Shroff, head of patient safety at AstraZeneca, said the company will keep a close eye on the safety of nirsevimab through a large global monitoring system: “Safety is of utmost importance,” he said.
Baylor said there are also unanswered questions about how nirsevimab would interact with vaccines in development that confer protective antibodies to the fetus by administering the shot to the mother.
It’s unclear if giving nirsevimab to infants whose mothers received such RSV vaccines would provide additional protection or create potential safety issues, Baylor said.
The FDA’s advisors endorsed Pfizer’s maternal RSV vaccine that protects infants in May. The agency is expected to make a decision on Pfizer’s shot in August. More

Lawmakers introduced the TICKET Act to force ticket vendors to disclose all fees upfront at the time of purchase.
The House bill is a companion to legislation introduced in the Senate in April.
Ticketing sites and associated fees have come under intense scrutiny in recent months, driven largely by a fumbled Ticketmaster presale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour late last year.

An illustration of a Live Nation Entertainment logo is seen on a smartphone and a pc screen.
SOPA Images | Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers introduced a new bipartisan bill on Thursday targeting ticketing-fee disclosures in an effort to increase transparency in the entertainment industry.
The “Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act,” or TICKET Act, is modeled after current advertising guidelines for airline tickets, which require disclosing the full ticket price before purchase. Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., are co-sponsoring the bill.

“Fans are incredibly frustrated by how hard it has become to buy event tickets. With every ticketing debacle, from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, and so many more, their frustration grows,” Schakowsky said in a statement. “Consumers deserve to be protected from fraudulent tickets, surprise costs, and excessive fees.”
The bill is a companion to legislation introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, in April. Its release follows a subcommittee hearing on regulating extra surcharges, or “junk fees,” which have become a particular focus of the Biden administration.
“The price, they say, really should be the price you pay,” Cantwell said during the Thursday hearing. “And that can be added to, but it needs to be disclosed.”
The House bill mirrors the Senate measure in mandating ticket vendors to display the total price of a ticket, including all required fees, in any advertisement or piece of marketing.
An itemized list of the base ticket price and associated fees must also be disclosed at the start of the purchase, according to the bill, and vendors must also be upfront about “speculative” tickets not in the seller’s possession.

Bilirakis said the bill will bring “much-needed transparency to the whole ticketing industry.”
“There is nothing more disappointing for an avid fan than being lured into the prospect of an affordable ticket to see his or her favorite sports team or band only to learn later in the checkout process that the final price tag is significantly higher,” he said, adding that he’s “committed to working towards reforms that protect consumers and provide certainty in the marketplace.”
Schakowsky and Bilirakis cited studies from the New York Attorney General’s Office and the Government Accountability Office that show ticketing fees can contribute anywhere from 21% to as much as 58% of the total cost of tickets.
Ticketing sites and associated fees have come under intense scrutiny in recent months, driven largely by a fumbled Ticketmaster presale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour late last year. The site buckled under overwhelming demand, prompting calls for antitrust action against parent company Live Nation. More

Online used-car retailer Carvana said its second-quarter results would likely come in ahead of its earlier expectations as cost-reduction measures take hold.
Shares gained 56% during the trading session.
“The team’s persistent focus on driving profitability has resulted in significant savings and efficiencies, and this work will persist as we continue to execute our plan,” CEO Ernie Garcia said in a statement Thursday.

A Carvana glass tower sits illuminated on Feb. 23, 2022, in Oak Brook, Illinois.
Armando L. Sanchez | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Shares of online used-car retailer Carvana surged Thursday after the company said its second-quarter results would likely come in ahead of its earlier expectations as cost-reduction measures take hold.
Shares gained 56% during the trading session.

The company said it now expects to report adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, of more than $50 million in the second quarter of 2023. Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected the company to roughly break even on that basis.
Carvana said it also expects its gross profit per unit, or GPU, to be above $6,000 in the second quarter. That would be a new company record and an increase of more than 60% from the second quarter of 2022.
The company posted a GPU of $4,303 in the first quarter of 2023, up 52% from a year earlier.
Carvana’s most recent guidance in May called for a positive adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross profit per unit of $5,000 in the second quarter.

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Carvana shares surged Thursday after the company boosted its second-quarter guidance.

The company’s shares enjoyed a strong run-up during the pandemic as buyers turned to online sources for used cars. The company borrowed heavily to keep up with demand — but it found itself in a steep hole last year, as interest rates began rising and used-car prices softened. It responded with an aggressive cost-cutting effort.

Carvana’s stock fell about 98% in 2022 but has recovered significant ground in recent months: Through Thursday’s close, it’s up more than 400% since the start of 2023.
“The team’s persistent focus on driving profitability has resulted in significant savings and efficiencies, and this work will persist as we continue to execute our plan,” CEO Ernie Garcia said in a statement Thursday. “Our progress continues to positively impact the business even faster than expected.” More

Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock jumped a second straight day after the company announced it paid down a chunk of its debt.
The media giant, which is saddled with a hefty debt load following the close of its merger last year, has been working to cut costs and make its streaming business profitable.
The debt paydown was overshadowed by the ouster of CNN’s CEO.

Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Warner Bros. Discovery saw its stock rise for a second straight day Thursday, after announcing it had paid down a portion of its debt load this week.
The financial update, announced Wednesday, had been overshadowed by the turmoil at its news outlet CNN, where CEO Chris Licht was ousted. Shares closed up nearly 7% Thursday after closing more than 8% higher Wednesday. The stock is up 49% so far this year.

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The media giant has been contending with a heavy debt load stemming from the 2022 merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery. The company, which ended the first quarter with $49.5 billion in debt, has been in the midst of various cost-cutting initiatives such as and layoffs and content spending reductions.

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Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock rose in recent days after the company announced it was paying down some of its heavy debt load.

In a public filing, Warner Bros. Discovery said it had repaid about $1.5 billion in debt on two of its loans. The company also announced it commenced a $500 million cash tender offer to purchase any or all of its floating rate notes, a portion of its debt that carries a high interest rate and matures in March 2024.
That resulted in $2.05 billion in second quarter debt reduction, about $1 billion more than Wells Fargo had forecast, according to Steven Cahall, an analyst at the bank.
The analyst noted that Warner Bros. Discovery guided that it would have roughly $930 million in second quarter free cash flow, after ending the first quarter with $2.6 billion in cash.
“We take the debt reduction to indicate management confidence in 2023 cash generation and deleveraging,” Cahall wrote.

Warner Bros. Discovery executives have said on recent earnings calls that the company is sticking with its goal of lowering its debt-to-EBITDA leverage to below four-times.
Whatever meaningful cash the company generates will likely go toward repaying debt, said a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. Public offers, such as the cash tender offer announced this week, will likely serve as the vehicle toward paying down debt, the person said.
Warner Bros. Discovery has also been working to make its streaming business profitable. CEO David Zaslav recently said on a company earnings call that the streaming business is expected to reach profitability in the U.S. in 2023, a year ahead of its expectations. The company recently relaunched and rebranded its flagship streaming service as Max, combining content from HBO and its portfolio of cable-TV networks like the Discovery Channel and TLC.
During the first quarter Warner Bros. Discovery had reported $10.7 billion in revenue, as well as a net loss of $1.1 billion. More

The supply of homes for sale in the U.S. is about half of what it was in 2019.
The shortage is hitting some buyers more than others, based on income and area.
Far fewer homes are available to people who make $100,000 a year than just a few years ago.

A sign is posted in front of a home for sale in San Francisco, February 20, 2023.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Even in a housing market that has slowed significantly due to rising mortgage rates, the supply of homes for sale is about half of what it was in 2019.
The shortage is hitting some buyers more than others.

The popular 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered in the high-6% range in May. At that level, buyers with an annual income of $100,000, slightly above the national median, could afford a house with a maximum price of about $341,000. But just 39% of the homes for sale were listed at or below that price point in May, according to a new report Thursday from Realtor.com with the National Association of Realtors.
In a balanced market of supply and demand, 64% of homes should be affordable to buyers who make $100,000 a year, given the size of that population. As a result, the market currently lacks about 285,000 of those listings.
Just five years ago, those same earners could afford two-thirds of homes for sale. Home prices and mortgage rates were significantly lower.
The lack of affordable homes heated up competition in the market this spring, which reversed the cooldown in home prices that started last summer.
“It’s almost a tale of two cities where we have houses under $500,000, they’re absolutely selling incredibly fast. Under $350,000 and $400,000, there’s multiple offers,” said Noah Herrera, a real estate agent in Las Vegas, during an open house in mid-May. “Over $500,000, it slows down a little bit.”

At the higher price ranges, too many homes are for sale for the number of Americans who can afford them. In fact, for every home listing above $680,000, the market is lacking twice as many homes under $341,000.
“Ongoing high housing costs and the scarcity of available homes continues to present budget challenges for many prospective buyers, and it’s likely keeping some buyers in the rental market or on the sidelines and delaying their purchase until conditions improve,” said Realtor.com’s chief economist Danielle Hale.
The pricy existing home market is pushing more buyers to new construction, which, ironically, used to come at a price premium. Homebuilders have been offering incentives such as upgrades or temporary mortgage rate buydowns. Those, however, are decreasing as builders see more demand and gain more pricing power.
As with all else in real estate, location is everything. The areas that have the biggest deficit of affordable homes are El Paso, Texas; Boise, Idaho; Spokane, Washington; several Florida markets; and of course, Riverside and Los Angeles, California, which are some of the priciest housing markets in the nation.
Areas in the Midwest continue to have the highest number of affordable homes. The four cities with the largest supply of affordable homes are all in Ohio. They are followed by Syracuse, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and St. Louis, Missouri.
The supply situation does not appear to be improving. New listings of homes for sale in the first week of June fell 25% year over year to their lowest level of any early June on record, according to Redfin.
That lack of new listings has pushed the total number of homes on the market down 5% from the same period a year ago. More

General Motors plans to invest more than $500 million in a plant in Texas to prepare the facility for production of its highly profitable next-generation large SUVs.
The Detroit automaker said the investment will include new tooling and equipment in Arlington Assembly’s stamping, body shop and general assembly areas.
The notably profitable SUVs remain in high demand, and sales are needed to assist in funding the automaker’s investments in EVs.

An employee uses a flash grinder to smooth out the metal frame of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) on the production line at the General Motors Co. (GM) assembly plant in Arlington, Texas.
Matthew Busch | Bloomberg | Getty Images

DETROIT – General Motors plans to invest more than $500 million in a plant in Texas to prepare the facility for production of its highly profitable next-generation large SUVs.
The Detroit automaker said Thursday the investment will include new tooling and equipment in Arlington Assembly’s stamping, body shop and general assembly areas for the gas- and diesel-powered Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban and GMC Yukon/Yukon XL SUVs.

The investment is further confirmation that the company plans to continue to spend on its traditional operations to assist in funding its emerging electric vehicle business.
GM on Monday made a similar announcement for its next-generation heavy-duty pickups, which share the frame of the large SUVS. The truck investment included more than $1 billion in two Michigan plants for production of next-generation heavy-duty trucks.
The notably profitable vehicles remain in high demand, and sales are needed to assist in funding the automaker’s investments in EVs. The company has said it plans to exclusively offer consumer EVs by 2035. The automaker recently confirmed an all-electric version of its Cadillac Escalade but declined to disclose when the vehicle will come to market.
Sales of the full-size SUVs totaled more than 279,000 vehicles last year, representing about 12% of the automaker’s sales and a notable amount of its profits.
The investment announcements come ahead of contract negotiations between the Detroit automakers, including GM, and the United Auto Workers union this summer.
For investors, UAW negotiations are typically a short-term headwind every four years that result in higher costs. But this year’s negotiations are expected to be among the most contentious and important in recent memory, fueled by a years-long organized labor movement across the country, a pro-union president and an industry in transition to all-electric vehicles. More

The price to ship goods by air jumped to a record just before Christmas 2021, driven by strong e-commerce demand, port congestion and a chokehold on capacity from airlines’ limited pandemic schedules.
Those trends also drove a boom in a small but lucrative corner of the aerospace industry: converting passenger planes into aircraft that can haul cargo. A record 164 planes were converted to freighters last year, according to aviation data firm Cirium.

Arrows pointing outwards

Air cargo rates have since declined, in part from a flood of new capacity on the market from the resurgence in air travel. Air freight flies in the bellies of passenger planes and dedicated freighters, most of which are converted planes. The Baltic Air Freight Index was down more than 48% from last year.

A Boeing 777 that is being converted into a cargo plane in Fort Worth, Texas, March 7, 2023.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC

An old first-class suite on a former Nordwind Boeing 777 slated to be converted to a freighter, March 7, 2023.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC

Across the globe, in facilities from Texas to Singapore, technicians rip out old seats, galleys, lavatories and other parts of the plane, leaving behind crumbs, children’s toys and other signs of aircrafts’ past lives carrying passengers.

A technician removes seats from a Boeing 777 in Fort Worth, Texas, March 7, 2023.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC

Technicians then reinforce the floor to carry heavy cargo loads, and a special doorway is cut and door installed so goods can be loaded onto the plane.

Aircraft technicians work on a Boeing 777 that is being converted into a cargo plane in Fort Worth, Texas, March 7, 2023.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC

The process can take months and cost millions of dollars, in some cases more than $30 million per plane, including maintenance. Companies that specialize in this business say they’re still racking up orders to turn planes into freighters, despite the lower shipping rates.

An aircraft technician works on a Boeing 777 that is being converted into a cargo plane in Fort Worth, Texas, March 7, 2023.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC

CNBC visited Aspire MRO and Mammoth Freighters in Fort Worth, Texas — where the companies are converting Boeing 777 wide-body aircraft into giant cargo haulers — to see how the process works.
Watch the video to learn more.

A former Delta Air Lines Boeing 777 gets converted into a passenger freighter in Fort Worth, Texas, March 7, 2023.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC More