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Chinese authorities announced Wednesday an easing of some Covid controls.
People will no longer need to show negative virus tests or health codes in order to travel between different parts of the country, authorities said.
The central government announcement said that unless an area is designated as high-risk, work and local production cannot be stopped.

BEIJING — In a significant easing of Covid controls, the Chinese government said Wednesday that people will no longer need to show negative virus tests or health codes in order to travel between different parts of the country.
Chinese authorities also said that unless an area is designated as high-risk, work and local production cannot be stopped.

The announcement on the National Health Commission’s website formalized other recent changes to Covid controls, such as allowing more people to quarantine at home.
The measures also said that other than facilities such as retirement homes, elementary and middle schools and health clinics, venues should not require negative virus tests or health code checks.
In an example of how strict Covid controls had become in mainland China, the capital city of Beijing this year increasingly required people to scan a health code with a smartphone app in order to enter public venues. The health code then had to show a negative virus test result from within the last two or three days.

Starting Tuesday, public venues such as this supermarkets in Beijing no longer required people to show proof of a recent negative virus test.
China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images

If the health code decided the user had come into contact with an infection or Covid risk area, the app would show a pop-up window, making it impossible for the person to enter public areas, or board a train or airplane until the pop-up was resolved.
The capital city relaxed its health code scanning requirements on Tuesday.

Despite a national easing in Covid measures in mid-November, a surge of infections and the ensuing local implementation of China’s stringent zero-Covid policy added to people’s frustration with the controls. Students and groups of people held public protests during the last weekend of November.

In the last several days, local authorities across the country have removed many virus testing requirements.
“When it comes to implementation, there are a lot of inconsistencies between different departments and different regions,” Dan Wang, Shanghai-based chief economist at Hang Seng China, said Wednesday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
“We don’t know if the true restrictions, or the ‘return to normal’ can happen, actually, within the next six months, because we can see that for the smaller cities, for example. like Taiyuan and Xi’an, their changes within the Covid restrictions are still very much behind what’s going on in Beijing and Shanghai.”
— CNBC’s Jihye Lee contributed to this report.

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Austin Wells loves to travel the world.
But he doesn’t like long flights, jet lag or an unsettled routine.

And that’s why, Wells, who is 28 and lives in San Diego, leased a residence on board a luxury boat that he will move into — and work remotely from — for at least three years as it sails around the world. It comes complete with medical services, a farmer’s market, private kitchens and an exercise center, along with 24-hour room service, a co-working space and spa.
His room is on a mega cruise ship named the MV Narrative, made up of more than 500 private rooms and apartments, which will be home to around 1,000 residents who will live on board more or less permanently.
“The thing that most excites me is I don’t have to upend my daily routine, in order to go see the world,” Wells told CNBC by video call.
“I’m going from this model where you want to go somewhere, you pack a bag, you get on a flight, you rent a room, to now my condo, my gym, my doctors and dentists, all of my grocery stores travel the world with me,” he added.

Wells — whose job at Meta’s augmented and virtual reality division, Reality Labs, is fully remote — plans to continue to work U.S. West Coast hours as the ship visits European cities.

“My working hours will be shifted towards evenings, nights and very early mornings. But that does open up the ability for me to … maybe see a city midday to afternoon and then start my workday around six or 7 p.m.,” he said.
“This is probably the first time ever that there is even the ability to have a standard job and even consider working and living from a floating apartment complex,” Wells added.

What is the MV Narrative?

The MV Narrative is an upscale residential ship being built by Storylines, the brainchild of co-founder and CEO Alister Punton, a former construction and property executive who had never been on a cruise before founding the company, he told CNBC.
Noticing that large ships tended to be scrapped, Punton and co-founder Shannon Lee saw an opportunity to redevelop them instead.
After some false starts — they bought and redesigned two ships that turned out to be unsuitable, either for the lifestyle residents expected or because they did not meet new environmental laws — they commissioned a new vessel. The MV Narrative is now under construction in Split, Croatia, from where it will set sail in 2025.

A computer-generated image of a bedroom and living area on board the MV Narrative. Long-lease residences are priced from around $875,000 to $8 million.
Storylines

There will be 11 types of residence on board, with the largest — “Global” at 1,970 square feet — on two levels, with up to four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large balcony, a dining room that seats six and a walk-in closet.
Some apartments are located on a deck with a Champagne and whisky bar, cigar lounge and small pool at one end, while others have observation lounges and event spaces.
Other facilities, spread across 18 decks, will include 20 restaurants and bars, a 10,000-square-foot gym and spa open 24 hours a day, three swimming pools, a school, library, bank and office spaces. The ship will also have a theater for performances and movies, though unlike traditional cruise ships, extravagant entertainment won’t be much of a focus, Punton told CNBC.

Where the ship will go

The MV Narrative will dock at ports for around three to five days, which Punton said is longer than average for liners, allowing residents to explore. “Most people … will be out in the local cities and doing day trips and overnight trips, hiring a car and going out for three or four days and meeting the ship at its next destination,” he told CNBC by video call.
A sample itinerary might include three days docked in Rome, then three days in Naples, followed by stops at smaller places such as the seaside towns of Sapri and Marsala, and eventually reaching Venice before sailing on to Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Greece and then Turkey.
The ship will also go to the Arctic Circle. In total, it will spend three years or so traveling the world (the full itinerary is yet to be announced).

The MV Narrative, the first cruise ship from operator Storylines, is scheduled to set sail from Croatia in 2025.
Storylines

Wells plans to spend time exploring on land too. “Revisiting all of Europe, I think, is what I’m particularly keen on … so much of the interesting parts, in my opinion, of Europe are towards the center,” he told CNBC.

What it costs

Wells spent around $300,000 on a 12-year lease for an entry-level “Discover” studio, which at 237 square feet includes a foldaway bed, pantry area, desk and separate shower room. (Most leases are either for 24 years or for the life of the vessel — around 60 years — but as an early customer, Wells was offered a shorter option.)
Punton wanted the MV Narrative to be more affordable than other residential boats. The World, for example, is a lavish liner where a penthouse apartment costs around 20 million euros ($20.5 million), and there are only around 150-200 people on board at any time.
While the MV Narrative’s units are still pricey — at around $1 million to $8 million for a life-of-vessel lease —it launched fractional ownership options in November, with a 25% share starting at around $600,000, allowing residents to stay on board for three months a year.

A computer-generated image of the bathroom in a “Global” penthouse residence on board the MV Narrative cruise ship. Such units will be on two levels and are on sale for around $8 million.
Storylines

“All-inclusive living fees” come on top of the purchase price, starting at around $2,100 a person per month, covering things like food and drinks from the ship’s restaurants and bars, laundry, fitness classes and medical checkups.
“We’re still competitively priced to the market,” Punton said.
Residents will also be able to rent out their units if they are not on board — regardless of whether they are full or part owners. A studio apartment like the one Wells bought could generate around $4,500 a month, according to a calculator on the Storylines website.

Who’s buying

Wells expects to be one of the youngest adult residents on board — around 30 when he moves in. Residents will range from mid-life entrepreneurs to families with children, he said.
Children can attend the ship’s “world schooling” program, which blends online learning with small group teaching, field trips and workshops with experts from the countries the ship docks at, according to Storylines’ website.

A rendering of a residents’ lounge on board the MV Narrative cruise ship, which is expected to carry around 1,000 passengers.
Storylines

Retirees and those close to retirement are also buying into the ship, Punton told CNBC. One future resident is an ER nurse with about 30 years of working experience who is keen to work in the MV Narrative’s medical team part time, Punton said. He also hopes to recruit owners from other types of professions such as acupuncturists and physiotherapists.
“I always say to people, you can come and drink pina coladas by the pool all day if you like and not lift a finger … But that gets old pretty quickly. So, you want to keep doing [the job] you do, right, so this is a way for people to be able to do that,” said Punton. “That’s a fundamental difference [between] us and a cruise.”
The Storylines head office will also be based on the MV Narrative, with company executives living on board. Punton will move onto the ship with his wife and two children, who are currently two and five.

A computer rendering of the living quarters of an “Envision” residence on board the MV Narrative cruise ship. This type of residence has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large balcony. It costs from $3.3 million for a long lease.
Storylines

“For me, I’m, you know, pretty much seven years into this project already. And by the time we hit the water will be a decade. It’s a long portion of my life. And of course, I want to live this lifestyle as much as anybody else,” he told CNBC.
Wells expects to make friends for life on board. “The goal is to actually have a community of residents on this ship. And so you will establish new friends, you will largely travel the world with them, which is potentially a way to create some of the deepest friendships you’ve ever had,” he told CNBC.
Could Punton foresee someone living on the ship for the rest of their life? “People can actually [own] in perpetuity … so it can actually be gifted into their estates and passed down through the generations … and their family can continue to live on the next ship as well.”
There is a second vessel in the offing once the residences on board the MV Narrative are almost all sold (around half have been bought so far), Punton said.
“We have identified a really big market here. And there’s a lot of people who want to get involved and be a part of this,” he said.
— CNBC’s Tom Huddleston Jr. contributed to this report.

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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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Nu Holdings Ltd: “I’ve got U.S. financials, which until last Friday were just coming in with a head of steam. And I still like them and I would be a buyer of them, not that.”

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SGHC Limited: “It is shocking where it is. … It has come down so much.”

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Micron Technology Inc: “I think the inventory glut lasts another six weeks and then the stock could be off to the races. … If that’s the case, there are others that would be even better, including Advanced Micro.”

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Robinhood Markets Inc: “I’ve got brokerage stocks that are fantastic that are going down left and right. I can’t recommend that one.”
Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Advanced Micro Devices.

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Two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization were convicted of multiple crimes, including tax fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy after a trial in New York City.
The convictions come weeks after the company’s owner, former President Donald Trump, declared his candidacy for the White House in the 2024 election.
The case related to a scheme by his company since 2005 to avoid taxes on compensation to then-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and other executives.
A jury in Manhattan Supreme Court began deliberations in the case this week.
The Trump Organization faces fines of up to $1.6 million at sentencing.

Two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization were convicted Tuesday by a jury in New York City of multiple crimes, including tax fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy.
The guilty verdicts on all 17 charged counts come three weeks after the company’s owner, Republican former President Donald Trump, declared his candidacy for the White House in the 2024 election.

Trump was not personally a defendant in the case, which related to a scheme by his company since 2005 to avoid taxes on compensation in the form of perks including free apartments and luxury cars to then-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and other executives.
But Trump “knew exactly what was going on,” a prosecutor said in closing arguments last week in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the Trump Organization entities, said in a statement after the verdict was announced, “This was a case about greed and cheating.”
“In Manhattan, no corporation is above the law,” said Bragg.
Trump, in a statement Tuesday evening, said he was “disappointed with the verdict, but will appeal.

“It is a continuation of the Greatest Political Witch Hunt in the History of our Country,” Trump said. “New York City is a hard place to be “Trump.’ ”
Jurors began deliberations on Monday after a trial that featured testimony by Weisselberg, the only person actually charged in the case.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg exits the courtroom at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse following the verdict in Trump Organization’s criminal tax trial in New York City, December 6, 2022.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

Defense lawyers had argued that Weisselberg — who earlier pleaded guilty to 15 felony charges — was solely responsible for the scheme, not the Trump Organization.
Trump reiterated this claim in a statement Tuesday, saying: “This case was about Allen Weisselberg committing tax fraud on his personal tax returns, etc.”
Trump’s company faces fines of up to $1.6 million at sentencing, which was scheduled for Jan. 13. The guilty verdicts also could harm the firm’s ability to obtain loans for its various real estate holdings and other business ventures.
Weisselberg is due to be sentenced in the coming weeks.
Trump, three of his adult children, and the Trump Organization also still face a pending civil lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James that alleges widespread fraud involving years of false financial statements related to the company. James is seeking at least $250 million in damages in that case.
One of the subsidiaries charged in the criminal case, the Trump Corporation, was convicted of nine counts. The other defendant, the Trump Payroll Corporation, was convicted of the remaining seven counts.
Trump is the focus of multiple criminal probes, including federal investigations into his removal of government documents from the White House, and his efforts to reverse the outcome of his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
A state grand jury in Georgia is investigating Trump and his allies for their attempts to get election officials there to reverse his loss in the state to Biden.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday warned investors that the market’s volatility will likely continue as its recent run loses steam.
Cramer said that Jessica Inskip, who predicted last month that the market’s recent run could last through mid-December, sees signs of trouble.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday warned investors that the market’s volatility will likely continue as its recent run loses steam.
“The charts, as interpreted by Jessica Inskip, suggest that the broader market might be in for a bumpy ride as we exit bear market rally mode,” he said.

Stocks fell on Tuesday, continuing the previous session’s losses on worries the Federal Reserve will tip the economy into a recession next year, despite Chair Jerome Powell’s comments last week that the bank could start slowing down its pace of interest rate hikes this month.
Cramer said that Inskip, who predicted last month that the market’s recent run could last through mid-December, sees signs of trouble. To explain her analysis, he examined the daily chart of the S&P 500.

Arrows pointing outwards

Inskip believes the market’s gains from mid-October through the end of last week was a bear market rally — in other words, a temporary bounce in a larger downward trend, he said.
He also reminded investors that the market is at the mercy of the Fed’s interest rate increases, and the central bank’s inflation strategy is beholden to the labor market.
When November’s hotter-than-expected labor report was released on Dec. 2, the S&P failed to jump two key ceilings of resistance.

“Inskip thinks we went right back into bear market mode,” Cramer said. “The S&P can still escape from this new trajectory, but she won’t have much confidence in a bounce unless we blow through last Friday’s levels.”
For more analysis, watch Cramer’s full explanation below.

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CEOs from JPMorgan, General Motors, Walmart, United and Union Pacific are preparing for an economic slowdown.
Among the issues cited are rising interest rates, inflation and geopolitical concerns.
The companies are taking a conservative approach to 2023.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra speaks during a visit of the US president to the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 2021.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

As 2023 approaches and the prospect of a recession looms, corporate America is preparing for a slowdown in consumer spending.
CEOs of major companies including Walmart and General Motors joined CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday morning to talk inflation, interest rates, geopolitics and what it all means for their outlooks in the new year.

Here’s what they said:

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan

Rising interest rates, record inflation, geopolitical pressure and other factors could coalesce into a recession, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC.
Savings and government aid during the pandemic are helping keep consumer wallets stable, but inflation and rate hikes are “eroding everything,” he said.
The CEO projected that the elevated consumer spending of 2022 will not last much longer, and underscored the risk posed by rising interest rates as the Fed works to curb inflation.
This year’s geopolitical upheaval, including the war in Ukraine and strained trade with China, are also among the “storm clouds” Dimon is watching. As the dollar strengthens, he noted that international trade for something like oil will continue to get more expensive since weaker currencies are forced to match the difference.  

“When you look out forward, those things may well derail the economy and cause this mild to hard recession that people are worried about,” Dimon said. “It could be a hurricane. We simply don’t know.”

Mary Barra, GM

General Motors CEO Mary Barra anticipates economic headwinds next year but is not sounding the alarms for a recession just yet.
“I’m not going to call a recession, that’s for economists to do,” Barra told CNBC. “But right now, we’re still seeing a pretty strong consumer.”
Even so, the car manufacturer is proceeding with caution to be prepared for a potential collapse in demand, similar to what other industries have seen. During the pandemic, when consumers were spending less on travel and services, some industries saw elevated demand and were caught off guard when that demand later disappeared.
Barra said GM is preparing “a fairly conservative 2023” cost-wise to avoid being blindsided, but that she is still seeing “pent-up demand” lingering from the pandemic.
Barra also expects issues problems from the pandemic, such as semiconductor shortages and strained supply chains, to persist into 2023 despite improvements each quarter.

Doug McMillon, Walmart

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon doesn’t want a recession, but he thinks it might be a necessary evil to ease inflation for his customers.
“We’ve got some customers who are more budget conscious that have been under inflation pressure now for months,” McMillon said. “Should the Fed do what it needs to do, even if it is a much harder landing than we’d like? I think inflation needs to be dealt with.”
Though Walmart is still seeing strong spending, McMillon has spotted more conservative spending in certain categories like electronics and toys.
Walmart has seen its pandemic-era staffing issues begin to subside as it has raised wages, but McMillon noted there’s still hiring pressure at the cashier level. If a hard recession hits, McMillon ensured that Walmart would not turn to staffing cuts.
“Customers and members need to be served so that’ll drive our headcount. Growth will probably continue to go up,” said McMillon.

Scott Kirby, United Airlines

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC that his company is entering the year with optimism but that 2023 might see a “mild recession induced by the Fed.”
Business travel is enjoying a steady rebound from its pandemic-era collapse, but Kirby said that traveler demand is plateauing, which might indicate “pre-recessionary behavior.”
And even though the industry is in the “eighth inning” of Covid recovery, Kirby said it is still battling problems left over from the pandemic, such as a pilot shortage and expensive fuel.
For now, Airlines have reaped the benefits of hybrid work, with the increase in remote work giving people more flexibility to travel, said Kirby.
United still maintains a positive outlook as its revenue numbers continue to rise. Kirby said the company is “coming back to near all-time profit margins.”
“If I didn’t watch CNBC in the morning – which I do – the word recession wouldn’t be in my vocabulary,” Kirby said. “You just can’t see it in our data.”

Lance Fritz, Union Pacific

Shipping is slowing down, Union Pacific Railroads CEO Lance Fritz told CNBC, a sign that consumer spending is tapering off and the economy is tightening.
“The housing market has clearly slowed and parcel packaging has clearly slowed and we are seeing that in paper and parcel shipments,” he said.
Fritz left it up to the Fed to decide whether putting pressure on the consumer’s wallet – and potentially triggering a 2023 recession – is worth slowing down inflation. As rates continue rise, he said spending and demand will surely come down.
“The Fed is trying to hit all of us in the line of fire with a slower economy and hurting demand. It’s not good,” said Fritz.

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Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to appear for a deposition next week as part of Dominion Voting’s defamation lawsuit.
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch was deposed earlier this week.
Earlier this year network anchors faced questioning as part of the lawsuit.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, arrives at the Sun Valley Resort of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 10, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to appear for a deposition next week as part of Dominion Voting’s defamation lawsuit against the company and its cable TV networks.
Murdoch will appear via video call on Dec. 13 and 14, according to a court filing. His deposition will follow that of his son, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, on Monday this week.

In its $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox, Dominion has argued that Fox News and Fox Business made false claims that its voting machines were rigged in the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Representatives for Fox and Dominion did not comment beyond the court filing. Fox has vigorously denied the claims.
The Murdochs are the highest-ranking executives to be questioned. Earlier this year Fox’s TV personalities, including Maria Bartiromo, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro, appeared for depositions.
The depositions and documents that Dominion has been collecting through the discovery process remain private. Fox has requested that the court keep all collected materials private, claiming Dominion mischaracterized what they show as actual malice.

Dominion must prove to a jury that Fox and its TV hosts acted with actual malice — meaning they knew they were reporting false information but continued to do so anyway, or purposely disregarded information that showed the reporting was inaccurate.

Fox’s top brass are being deposed after a Delaware judge overseeing the case reportedly ruled in June that Dominion’s lawsuit could be expanded beyond the cable TV networks to include their parent company. Dominion has argued Fox and its top executives played a role in the company’s TV personalities spreading misinformation about voter fraud.
The case is being closely watched by First Amendment experts and advocates. Libel lawsuits are often centered on one falsehood. In this suit, Dominion is citing a lengthy list of examples of Fox hosts making false claims even after they were shown to be untrue.
Media companies also are usually broadly protected by the First Amendment, but the court has denied Fox’s requests to dismiss the case. And with the Dominion case moving closer to the trial’s expected start date in April, neither side has shown signs of entering settlement talks.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday predicted that more companies will trim their workforces after the holiday season.
A growing number of companies across industries have curtailed their head counts this year in an effort to control their expenses in a dipping economy.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday predicted that more companies will trim their workforces after the holiday season.
“I’m sure there’ll be many layoffs after Christmas. I don’t want to finger-point at the retailers who’re most likely to be thrown into bankruptcy when the holidays are over, but I do want people to realize that, in a way, our current high-inflation economy is a high-quality problem,” he said.

A growing number of companies across industries have curtailed their head counts this year in an effort to control their expenses in a dipping economy. PepsiCo is one of the latest companies to downsize following cuts at food and beverage peers Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and rival Coca-Cola.
The rate of layoff announcements at U.S. employers last month was more than five times greater than the year prior, according to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas report. Tech companies, whose astronomic growth in recent years has been derailed by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes, led last month’s layoffs. 
Yet the total number of layoffs this year is the second lowest since the company started tracking the metrics in 1993. Cramer attributed the lack of job cuts to the fact that many companies have managed to stay afloat — a fact that could change next year.
“Even the most marginal, newly public enterprises just keep chugging along. You’d think some of these SPAC names would run out of money soon,” he said.

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