Finance

Chinese tech company Baidu reported better-than-expected revenue, up by 15% year-on-year in the second quarter and bolstered by growth in advertising.
“In the second quarter of 2023, Baidu Core accelerated revenue and profit growth, driven by the solid performance of online marketing business and operating leverage,” said Robin Li, Co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said in a release.

A Baidu Apollo robotaxi passes by a Baidu office building in Beijing on Aug. 21, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese tech company Baidu on Tuesday reported better-than-expected revenue, up by 15% year-on-year in the second quarter and bolstered by growth in advertising.
This was the fastest quarterly year-on-year growth pace in two years, according to Refinitiv data.

Baidu’s U.S.-traded shares were up by more than 4% in pre-market trading.
Here’s how Baidu did in the June quarter versus Refinitiv consensus estimates:

Revenue: 34.1 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) versus 33.28 billion yuan expected.

Within Baidu’s core businesses, online marketing revenue rose by 15% to 19.6 billion yuan in the second quarter, and non-online marketing revenue added 12% to 6.8 billion yuan.
Earnings per American Depositary Share on a non-GAAP basis were 22.55 yuan, versus 15.79 yuan in the year-ago period.
“In the second quarter of 2023, Baidu Core accelerated revenue and profit growth, driven by the solid performance of online marketing business and operating leverage,” said Robin Li, Co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said in a release.

“Generative AI and large language models hold immense transformative power in numerous industries, presenting a significant market opportunity for us,” he said.

Baidu has been making progress with a Chinese-language ChatGPT alternative called Ernie bot, which is open to the public and was launched in March. OpenAI’s wildly popular rival chatbot isn’t easily accessible in the country.
Last week, Baidu announced that five Ernie bot plugins — including ones for quickly converting text to video and for PDF search — would become more widely available to users. Three of the plugins can also be used simultaneously, according to the company.
Baidu last week also revealed an AI-powered assistant that could help with tasks including booking meetings, air tickets and hotels. It was not immediately clear how users could obtain the assistant product.
The company is also looking to expand the reach of AI into the automobile sector. This month, the company announced a strategic agreement with state-owned Changan Automobile to develop autonomous driving capabilities based on the AI model behind Baidu’s Ernie bot.
Baidu is not alone in its foray, as other Chinese tech giants are also pushing into AI-related products. Earlier this month, e-commerce giant Alibaba claimed that “strong demand” for training artificial intelligence models on the cloud and the related business opportunity was just beginning.
Internet titan Tencent said during its earnings release last week that it plans to launch its own AI model later this year, for use in products such as gaming and advertising.

Robotaxi business

Baidu also operates self-driving taxis under the Apollo Go brand in China. In the second quarter, Baidu said it ran roughly 714,000 robotaxi rides, up from 660,000 in the first quarter.
The company was allowed to start charging fares for public robotaxi rides in Beijing in November 2021. Passengers can book the rides, which are typically highly subsidized, via an app.
Most of the robotaxis, which are available in parts of many major Chinese cities, still have human staff inside.
In June, the company said it received approval to operate robotaxis without employees in a suburb of Shenzhen. That followed similar approval in August 2022 to remove human staff in some robotaxis in parts of Wuhan and Chongqing. More

An exterior view of the Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, California, May 30, 2023.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Palo Alto Networks — The security software provider jumped 14.8% after Palo Alto beat expectations for earnings when reporting after the bell Friday. Goldman Sachs reiterated the stock as buy following its report.

Earthstone Energy, Permian Resources — Earthstone Energy jumped 16.7% following the announcement that Permian Resources is buying the oil and gas company in an all-stock deal valued near $4.5 billion, including debt. Permian shares added 2.3.
Nvidia — Shares climbed 8.5% after HSBC reiterated a buy rating and raised its target price on the chipmaker. Baird also named Nvidia a top pick. The company reports earnings Wednesday after the bell.
Napco Security Technologies — The security tech stock plummeted 45% after Napco said Friday that an audit found errors in recent financial statements, with gross profit, operating income and net income overstated.
Xpeng — The Chinese electric vehicle maker jumped 9.7% following an upgrade to buy from neutral by Bank of America. The firm said Xpeng should see improvements in China given its partnership with Volkswagen and better cost structure.
Tesla — The electric vehicle maker added 7.3%, regaining ground after tumbling about 11% last week following news of more price cuts in China.

VMware, Broadcom — VMware and Broadcom added 4.9% and 4.8%, respectively. Broadcom obtained final transaction approval from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority for an acquisition of the cloud computing company and expects other required regulatory approvals before Oct. 30. 
Farfetch — The e-commerce fashion company’s shares jumped more than 3.8% Monday. The stock tumbled more than 45% during Friday’s trading session after posting a revenue miss in the prior quarter. Farfetch’s full-year revenue guidance also came in below analysts’ expectations.
Acushnet Holdings — The golf equipment maker and owner of Titleist added 5% after Jefferies upgraded the company to buy from hold. The Wall Street firm excepts Acushnet to defend its top position while expanding margins and growth.
— CNBC’s Sarah Min, Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed reporting. More

Someone who finds gold coins, meteorites or something else of value must report it as taxable income, experts said.
The same tax principle for “found” property applies to sports memorabilia (like a home-run ball) and game show winnings.
The tax rule has its roots in a 1960s court case involving cash found in an old piano.

Maki_shmaki | Istock | Getty Images

Consider this a public service announcement for all treasure hunters: Uncle Sam wants a piece of your loot.
Someone who makes a valuable discovery — whether gold coins, meteorites or even cash — generally owes tax on that haul, which is known as “found” property.

The tax is twofold: a levy upon acquisition and, if eventually sold, on the profit.
Its taxability is due to a basic premise of tax law: Income is taxable unless the Internal Revenue Code excludes it from taxation or allows for a tax deferral, said Troy Lewis, an associate professor of accounting and tax at Brigham Young University.
More from Personal Finance:How to leverage 0% capital gains with this lesser-known tax strategyLawmakers weigh tax rule ‘backslide’ for Venmo, PayPal usersIRS unveils ‘paperless processing initiative’ for taxpayers
“Is there a treasure-hunter exclusion?” Lewis said. “No, there’s nothing like that.
“As a result, it’s ‘miscellaneous income.'”

The haul would therefore be taxed at ordinary-income tax rates. These tax rates (which also apply to income like job wages) are up to 37%.

How cash in an old piano established taxation

The taxation of found property has its roots in a court case from the 1960s, according to TurboTax.
A married couple — Ermenegildo and Mary Cesarini — bought a used piano in 1957. Seven years later, when cleaning the instrument, they found $4,467 of old currency inside. The couple, who exchanged the currency for new notes at a bank, paid $836 of income tax on the find but later requested a tax refund, claiming it wasn’t taxable income. A federal judge rejected the premise, siding with the IRS in federal court.
Valuable discoveries happen more often than you might think.

For example, in June, a man found more than 700 Civil War-era gold coins in a Kentucky cornfield, a treasure that may reportedly be worth more than $1 million. In April, after a meteorite landed near the U.S.-Canada border, a museum in Maine offered $25,000 to anyone who found a piece of the rock weighing at least 1 kilogram. In 2020, a Michigan man found $43,000 stuffed in a donated couch.
The same tax concept also applies to sports memorabilia — say, catching Derek Jeter’s 3,000-hit ball or Tom Brady’s 600th touchdown pass — or winning a car on a game show.

Legal ownership starts the clock

There are some caveats. For one, there may be questions of legal ownership: Does the discovery truly belong to you?
“When you have a legal right to the property you find, that becomes Tax Day,” said Lewis, who also owns an accounting firm in Draper, Utah.
This could become a challenge for taxpayers who don’t have the money on hand to pay perhaps hundreds or thousands of dollars in income tax, Lewis said.

The date of legal acquisition also starts the clock relative to one’s holding period and cost basis (i.e., value), he added.
These become important if the finder later sells the object. That’s because tax code offers preferential tax rates on profits from investments and other property like collectibles that are held for more than a year. (In such a case, taxes on “long-term” capital gains would kick in.) If held for a year or less, those preferential capital gains tax rates disappear.
Many found items, like gold coins and meteorites, would likely be considered collectibles, Lewis said. Federal long-term capital gains taxes on collectibles can go as high as 28%, while those on other assets like stocks and real estate can reach 20%. More

Shares of Adyen plummeted 39% on Thursday, erasing 18 billion euros ($20 billion) from the company’s market capitalization after reporting its slowest revenue growth on record.
Concerns that competitors in local markets, particularly in North America, are muscling in with cheaper offerings have heavily weighed on the company’s prospects.
Adyen has typically been viewed as a growth stock, after consistently reporting revenue growth of 26% each half-year period since its 2018 stock market debut.

Adyen reported a big miss on first-half sales Thursday. The news drove a $20 billion rout in the company’s market capitalization .
Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Spirits were high when Dutch payments firm Adyen floated on the Amsterdam stock exchange in 2018.
The company was riding a wave of growth in Europe’s technology sector and snapping up competition from its mega U.S. rival PayPal.

Since then, the company has weathered a turbulent ride, including a global pandemic that knocked volumes from travel clients significantly.
The firm expanded aggressively in North America, where some of its most high-profile merchants are based, and hired hundreds of employees to turbocharge growth.
As the macroeconomic environment shifted in 2023, Adyen’s growth strategy has been challenged in a big way.
The company’s shares plummeted 39% on Thursday, erasing 18 billion euros ($20 billion) from Adyen’s market capitalization, as investors dumped the stock after the firm reported its slowest revenue growth on record.
The stock closed down a further 2.9% on Friday after the precipitous decline of Thursday.

What is Adyen?

Identified as one of the top 200 global fintech companies globally by CNBC and Statista, Adyen is a payments services firm that works with customers including Netflix, Meta and Spotify.
It also sells point-of-sale systems for physical stores and handles payments online and in-store.
More than a processor, Adyen is what is known as a payment gateway — meaning that it uses technology to enable merchants to take card payments and transactions through online stores.
The company takes a small cut off every deal that runs through its platform.
It was co-founded by Pieter van der Does, the firm’s chief executive officer, and Arnout Schuijff, former chief technology officer.

What just happened?

Adyen last week reported results for the first half of the year that came in well below expectations. The company’s revenue of 739.1 million euros ($804.3 million) for the period was up 21% year over year — but showed Adyen’s slowest sales growth on record.
Analyst had expected 853.6 million euros of revenue and 40% of year-on-year growth, according to Eikon Refinitiv forecasts.
Adyen has typically been viewed as a growth stock, after consistently reporting revenue growth of 26% each half-year period since its 2018 stock market debut.
“With higher inflation, leading to higher interest rates, there has been a bit of a shift of focus — less focus on growth, more focus on bottom line,” Adyen Chief Financial Officer Ethan Tandowsky told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Thursday.
Tandowsky insisted that the company had “limited churn” and that none of its large customers had left the platform.
But concerns that competitors in local markets, particularly in North America, are muscling in with cheaper offerings have heavily weighed on company prospects.
Adyen said in a letter to shareholders this week that its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margin fell to 43% in the first half of 2023 from 59% in the same period a year ago.
The company said this was down to softer growth in North America and to higher employment costs such as wages, as it ramped up hiring during the period.
Tandowsky insisted the company had more of a focus on “functionality” than its peers, even though those peers may offer cheaper services.
“The efficiency of which we can develop new functionality, functionality that out performs our peers will lead us to gaining the market share that we expect.”

Structural challenges

At the heart of Adyen’s woes is a business heavily dependent on customers’ willingness to stick to a single platform for their all their payment needs. The company also needs to convince those users that what it sells is better than what’s on offer from a competitor.
In its half-year 2023 report, Adyen said that many of its North American customers are cutting back on costs to weather economic pressures like rising interest rates and higher inflation.
“Enterprise businesses prioritized cost optimization, while competition for digital volumes in the region provided savings over functionality,” Adyen said in a letter to shareholders.
“These dynamics are not new, and online volumes are easiest to transition back and forth. Amid these developments, we consciously continued to price for the value we bring.”
Adyen also said its profitability had suffered from a push to aggressively ramp up hiring. EBITDA came in at 320 million euros, down 10% from the first half of 2022.
Adyen added 551 employees in the first half of the year, taking its total full-time employee count up to 3,883.
Some of the company’s rivals have cut back on hiring significantly. In November 2022, Stripe laid off 14% of its workforce, or about 1,100 people.
The main challenge Adyen now faces is competition from challengers that are willing to offer lower rates than it provides.
Speaking with the Financial Times on Thursday, Adyen CEO Pieter van der Does said that merchants are “trying to explore local providers” to cut down on costs.
“It’s not that we’re shrinking — we’re just growing at a slower rate,” he added.
Adyen has historically been a lean business, opting to hire fewer people overall than its main competitor Stripe, which has roughly double the staffing.
Simon Taylor, head of strategy at Sardine.ai, said that Adyen might face a “natural ceiling” to what business size it can reach before having to reduce its margins to grow again.
“Ultimately they’re subject to the same macro headwinds everyone in e-commerce is,” Taylor told CNBC. “And they still grew 21%. Incumbents would kill for that.” More

Check out the companies making the biggest moves in premarket trading:

Signage outside Palo Alto Networks headquarters in Santa Clara, California, U.S., on Thursday, May 13, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Palo Alto Networks — The security software vendor soared 12.5% following an earning’s beat after the Friday market close. Fiscal fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.44, topping the $1.28 expected from analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue, however, fell short.

Earthstone Energy, Permian Resources — Earthstone jumped 7.5% in the premarket after Permian Resources agreed to buy the oil and gas company in an all-stock deal valued at about $4.5 billion, including debt. Permian fell 3.4%.
Nvidia — The leading AI semiconductor maker gained 2.6% premarket after HSBC reiterated a buy rating and raised its target price. The bank’s new forecast implies more than 80% upside from Friday’s close. Baird also named Nvidia a top pick over the weekend, noting that with AI momentum running at full speed, Nvidia will continue to benefit from higher demand.
Napco Security Technologies — Shares plunged nearly 36% after the maker and designer of school safety solutions disclosed postmarket Friday that an audit found errors in financial statements from fiscal quarters ending in September, December and March. Gross profit, operating income and net income in each period were overstated, Napco said.
XPeng — XPeng popped nearly 6% after Bank of America upgraded shares to buy from neutral, citing an improved outlook for the Chinese electric vehicle maker thanks to its partnership with Volkswagen and improving cost structure.
Tesla — The EV maker gained about 3%, after losing more than 11% last week amid news of price cuts on existing Model S and Model X inventories in China.

VMware — Shares climbed 5.2% before the open Monday after Broadcom said it received final transaction approval from the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority for an acquisition of the cloud computing company. Broadcom expects other required regulatory approvals before Oct. 30. Broadcom was 0.9% higher in the premarket.
Farfetch — Shares rose more than 2% Monday premarket, after plunging 45% Friday. The e-commerce fashion platform’s shares tanked after second quarter revenue came in lower than expected. The company’s revenue guidance for the full year was also weaker than analysts had estimated.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Alex Harring, Hakyung Kim and Pia Singh contributed reporting. More

China’s financial regulators held a meeting Friday that called for coordinating support to resolve local debt risks, according to an official readout Sunday.
The meeting also reflected a gathering of a new set of financial policymakers in China’s overhaul of its regulatory system this year.
Local governments’ weak financial situation has prevented the central government from supporting the economy with fiscal policy, Rhodium Group analysts have pointed out.

People walk past the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, China September 28, 2018. 
Jason Lee | Reuters

BEIJING — Chinese financial regulators at a central and regional government level held a video conference Friday to discuss the resolution of financial risks, according to a readout Sunday from the People’s Bank of China.
The meeting called for coordinating financial support to resolve local debt risks, and adjusting policy for real estate loans.

The weak financial situation of local governments has prevented the central government from supporting the economy with fiscal policy, Rhodium Group analysts said in June.
Falling land sales from the property market slump has also been a drag on local government revenues.

Investors are increasingly sensitive to the idea that some governments may not be able to rescue their debt-raising vehicles.

S&P Global Ratings

China has so far taken a relatively cautious stance on stimulus despite an overall slowdown in growth and repeatedly disappointing data in the last few months. Earlier this year, authorities emphasized that preventing financial risks was a priority.
“China’s ongoing property downturn and COVID restrictions last year have strained the finances of many local governments,” S&P Global Ratings analysts said in an early July report.
“This has widened the gap between the country’s prosperous coastal provinces and the poorer inland regions,” the analysts said. “Investors are increasingly sensitive to the idea that some governments may not be able to rescue their debt-raising vehicles.”

A new group of policymakers

The meeting on Friday reflected a gathering of a new set of financial policymakers in China’s overhaul of its regulatory system this year.
The central bank’s new head and party secretary Pan Gongsheng gave a speech at the meeting, as did deputy leaders of the National Administration of Financial Regulation and China Securities Regulatory Commission, according to the readout. It did not specify what they said.
The readout said that attendees included representatives of the major state-owned banks, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and the Central Financial Commission’s administrative office.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro More

It began as a steady drip of criticism, including on the cover of The Economist, concerning Goldman Sachs’s patchy performance during his tenure as chief executive. The firm’s foray into consumer banking was setting fire to a chunk of its dwindling profits. Efforts to move into businesses that promised steadier revenues than trading and proprietary investments were coming up short. And all this was producing tension between the firm’s divisions. But it has now become something more brutal: a cacophony of people outlining the myriad ways in which they dislike David Solomon.Complaints have come from Mr Solomon’s underlings, who have told reporters that he is “not likeable” and is, quite simply, “a prick”. They have also come from his predecessor: Lloyd Blankfein was reported by the Wall Street Journal to have complained about Mr Solomon’s use of the company’s private jets to go to music festivals, where he performs under the name “dj d-Sol”, rather than spending time on the day job. The mutiny at Goldman has become so open that those grousing no longer even bother to do it in private. According to Bloomberg, at a lively steakhouse dinner in Manhattan last month a group of senior managers complained about Mr Solomon’s shortcomings in the presence of John Waldron, the firm’s chief operating officer and Mr Solomon’s longtime lieutenant. In July Larry Fink, boss of BlackRock, said on television that there was an obvious “schism” at the bank. Even students are getting in on the act. After a visit by Mr Solomon to Hamilton College three youngsters penned an open letter complaining that their conversation with him about climate change had “racist and sexist undertones”, something Goldman disputes. His increasingly precarious employment is now the butt of jokes. Steven Starker, a former Goldmanite who founded btig, a brokerage firm, recently moderated a soiree in the Hamptons, which Gary Cohn, Goldman’s former chief operating officer, and Larry Summers, a former treasury secretary, attended. “If you happen to see him [Mr Cohn] leave early, that means they’re probably calling him because he’s a candidate to be the future ceo of Goldman Sachs,” quipped Mr Starker.Few think Goldman should be run by a teddy bear. This is the firm that was characterised in 2009 as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”. But there is a difference between being disliked for being smart, ruthless and more successful than everyone else, and the kind of personal vitriol that is currently being spewed. It is increasingly embarrassing for Goldman that its boss is being laughed at in rarefied circles, and that employees see fit to make petty criticisms.The situation is evidence of a deep rot within the firm, one which it is hard to see being improved without either Mr Solomon or many of those who loathe him leaving their positions. The question for the board, then, is whether to push him out. In Mr Solomon’s defence, the firm’s performance on his watch has been patchy rather than dreadful; more “Goldman Sags” than “Goldman Sucks”. Shareholders who bought Goldman stock on the day he took charge in 2018 have earned a decent annualised return of 10%, worse than those who bought shares in Morgan Stanley, Goldman’s closest rival—but better than those who bought Citigroup.The firm’s poor earnings for the past three quarters do reflect some strategic errors. Goldman has taken heavy losses in its consumer-banking efforts, and has written down the value of its acquisitions in the industry. Sluggish profits also reflect its failure to cut its proprietary investment arm quickly enough. But Mr Solomon has recognised these issues and is adapting the firm’s strategy. His returns for shareholders should have earned him enough goodwill for an attempt at course correction. He is reported, for now, to retain the support of big investors and the board. Cold analysis of the figures might not be enough to save Mr Solomon in the long term, however. Although it always seems trite when bankers proclaim that the most valuable part of their firm is the employees, it is probably true for Goldman. The firm does not make money by, say, investing in machinery to make computer chips for which it owns the designs. It does so, in large part, by hiring smart, competitive people and getting them to work insanely hard to bring in deals, trade assets and come up with investment strategies. If these employees dislike the boss, they will leave.That is exactly what is happening at Goldman. The bank typically has around 400 partners, adding 60-70 new ones every couple of years. Some 200 have left the firm since Mr Solomon took charge—a high attrition rate. Even more concerning is that the list includes many who were considered contenders for the top job, such as Gregg Lemkau, a dealmaker, and some of the firm’s highest-earning partners, such as Julian Salisbury, who ran the asset-management business. Even if the board wanted to oust Mr Solomon, there would be no clear successor. The problem with waiting to see how things develop is that there might be even fewer options by the time the knife is wielded. ■ More

XPeng delivered over 60,000 of its flagship P7 electric sedans in 2021.
XPeng, Inc.

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Strategic Education — The education stock advanced 3% following an upgrade to buy from neutral by Bank of America. The firm said the company could have strong earnings ahead.

Xpeng — The electric car maker stock declined 5% after the company reported a larger-than-expected loss in the second quarter. XPeng reported a loss of 2.8 billion yuan, while analysts polled by Refinitiv had forecasted 2.13 billion yuan. The company did, however, meet expectations for revenue with 5.06 billion yuan.
Ross Stores — The discount retailer popped 6% following its earnings beat after the bell Thursday. Ross Stores reported second-quarter earnings per share of $1.32, beating the $1.16 expected from analysts polled by Refintiv. Revenue came in at $4.93 billion, versus the consensus estimate of $4.75 billion.
Blue Bird — Stock in the school bus manufacturer added 4% after Bank of America initiated coverage of the company with a buy rating. The firm highlighted Blue Bird’s potential to emerge as a leader in bus electrification.
Keysight Technologies — Shares fell 12% after a weak fiscal fourth-quarter outlook. The electronic design company forecasted adjusted earnings per share in the range of $1.83 to $1.89 with revenue of $1.29 billion to $1.31 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet, meanwhile, are forecasting an adjusted $2 per share on $1.39 billion in revenue.
Estee Lauder — The cosmetics company pulled back about 2% after issuing lower-than-expected guidance. The company expects an adjusted loss of 31 cents to 21 cents per share in its fiscal first quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had estimated earnings of 98 cents per share.

Nvidia — The chipmaker and artificial intelligence favorite slipped 1% in midday trading. Nvidia will report quarterly results next Wednesday, and analysts polled by FactSet are forecasting an adjusted $2.08 cents per share on $11.1 billion in revenue.
Alibaba, JD.com, PDD, Nio — A slew of China-based companies were trading lower as Wall Street contends with the country’s shaky economic footing due to property market trouble. Alibaba dipped close to 3%, while JD.com fell about 5%. Nio slipped 5.9%. PDD fell nearly 4%.
Deere – Shares of the farm equipment giant slid more than 3%, even as the company posted beats on the top and bottom lines for the fiscal third quarter. Deere reported earnings of $10.20 per share on revenue of $15.8 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv called for earnings of $8.20 per share and revenue of $14.25 billion.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Michelle Fox contributed reporting More