Finance

Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:Sonos (SONO) – Sonos shares surged 10.6% in the premarket after an International Trade Commission judge ruled that Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google unit had infringed on some of the high-end speaker company’s audio technology patents. The ruling could eventually lead to an import ban for some Pixel smartphones and Nest audio speakers.BHP (BHP) – The world’s biggest mining company said it is in talks to sell its petroleum business to Australian oil and natural gas producer Woodside Petroleum, with BHP also considering other options for the unit. Its shares fell 1.8% premarket.T-Mobile US (TMUS) – The wireless carrier said it is investigating claims in an online forum of a data breach that involves the personal data of over 100 million users. The post itself doesn’t mention T-Mobile but Vice Media quotes the purported hacker as saying the data came from T-Mobile servers.Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) – Raymond James lowered its rating on the restaurant chain’s shares to “outperform” from “strong buy.” The firm said the ratings cut is based entirely on valuation after a 37% jump in the stock over the past six weeks.Hyatt Hotels (H) – Hyatt is buying resort operator Apple Leisure Group from private-equity firms KKR (KKR) and KSL Capital Partners for $2.7 billion. Apple Leisure is the operator of the Secrets, Dreams and Breathless Resorts & Spa chains.Coinbase (COIN) – The cryptocurrency exchange operator’s shares rose 1.6% in the premarket as the recent crypto rally rolls on. The rally is also helping shares of business analytics company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which has billions in bitcoin holdings on its balance sheets. MicroStrategy added 2.2% in premarket trading.The Honest Company (HNST) – The maker of personal care products was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” at Guggenheim Securities, citing valuation after a more than 28% tumble for the stock on Friday. That followed a quarterly report for the company that showed a wider-than-expected loss.Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) – The music streaming service plans to halt its planned $5 billion initial public offering amid the ongoing regulatory crackdown by the Chinese government, according to Japan’s Nikkei news service. Tencent shares slid 1.3% in premarket action.Seagate Technology (STX) – The hard disk drive maker’s shares added 1.3% in premarket trading after UBS upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral,” citing positive cyclical and structural dynamics in the industry.Oatly (OTLY) – The oat milk producer reported a quarterly loss of 11 cents per share, one cent a share wider than expected. Revenue came in slightly below Wall Street forecasts. Oatly said it was able to overcome both Covid and manufacturing-related headwinds during the quarter, and that it is successfully executing its planned expansion of manufacturing capacity. Oatly shares rose 1% in the premarket.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell adjusts his tie as he arrives to testify before a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on “The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress” on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 15, 2021.Kevin Lamarque | ReutersShifting policy views amid unexpected economic data have opened the door for the Federal Reserve to announce in September a decision to taper its assets purchases and begin the reduction in buying a month or so after.Interviews with officials along with their public comments show growing support for a faster taper timeline than markets had expected a month ago. Those changing views follow the strong jobs data of the past two months along with higher inflation readings.Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Fed bank Presidents Eric Rosengren, Robert Kaplan and Jim Bullard have publicly called for a September taper. Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic supported beginning the taper sometime between October and December, suggesting he could also favor a September announcement. The group is not known for being hawks, and in fact, some were among those making the earliest calls for historic Fed action to support the economy at the beginning of the pandemic.The Fed could yet delay the decision to the November meeting if the August jobs data is weak, the delta variant sparks a new round of economic lockdowns or inflation readings ease off. But stronger-than-expected inflation data this past week and forecasts that it could remain high into next year have bolstered support for the earlier taper announcement.Markets have also shifted expectations, giving the Fed leeway to act sooner. Respondents to the CNBC Fed Survey in July pegged November as the announcement month and January as the beginning of the taper. But a Reuters poll last week found September to be the new consensus.Powell on board?Fed Chair Jerome Powell has generally been more dovish than some members of his committee have become, though he has not spoken since the recent data came out. Powell has offered some hints that he could be persuaded to go earlier. While he has insisted that the bulk of inflation would be temporary, he also said, “We have to take seriously the risk case, which is that inflation will be more persistent.”Inflation readings this past week showed some moderation in consumer prices, but growing inflation pressures at the wholesale level. Some Fed officials now forecast higher inflation could persist into next year.Powell said at his July press conference that the Fed was still “some way away from” the substantial further progress needed to taper, but that was before the July jobs report showing more than 900,000 jobs added, upward revisions to May and June and forecasts for continued strong payrolls growth. He has also said the decision to taper would be left up to the committee. In addition, Powell suggested the delta variant did not pose much risk to the economy.Until recently, Powell’s main focus has been avoiding a taper tantrum, a repeat of the sharp 2013 bond market sell-off sparked by Fed Chair Ben Bernanke talking of an eventual reduction in asset purchases. But Powell appears to have achieved that goal. Fed officials have been openly talking about tapering for several months now, and stocks have risen and bond yields, though volatile, have remained generally low.Expectations for rate hikes beginning either late in 2022 or early 2023 have remained almost unchanged amid all the taper talk. That suggests to Fed officials that they have achieved their goal of divorcing in the market’s mind a decision to taper from a decision to raise rates.A September taper could also meet Powell’s criteria of giving markets advanced notice. The Fed has acknowledged discussing the taper at its June and July meeting. A September announcement with the taper beginning in October or November would amount to four or five months of noticeA September decision could face opposition from several more dovish members of the committee. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said last week he wanted to see “a few more months” of employment data before deciding. Fed Governor Lael Brainard indicated she wanted to see data from school openings and economic data from September.Such differences are typical for the Fed around turning points in policy, and it remains up to the chair to forge consensus or move forward with dissent. It appears Powell could face dissent in September with either decision. Powell could find support among doves with a slower taper, for example, one taking 10 months instead of eight. Or he could placate hawks with a faster taper and a delayed announcement.And markets may yet have more to say. Because the Fed has said it would taper before hiking rates, a taper decision will immediately open the floodgates to discuss the first rate hike, potentially pulling forward rate-hike expectations and tightening financial conditions faster than the Fed prefers.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

Residents walk through disinfectant spray as their residential community lifts epidemic-control lockdown on August 14, 2021, in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China.Ruan Zhong | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesBEIJING — China released economic data for July that showed slower-than-expected growth as the world’s second-largest economy battled floods and a resurgence of Covid-19.The slowdown was particularly apparent in individual Chinese consumer spending, despite authorities’ efforts to build up consumption as a driver of economic growth.The data showed consumers cut back on spending across the board, whether it was on big-ticket items like cars or lower-cost products like cosmetics that can be bought through online e-commerce platforms.Retail sales rose by 8.5% in July from a year ago, lower than the forecast 11.5%, according to analysts polled by Reuters. Auto-related sales, the largest component of retail sales by value, was the only category to decline in July, down 1.8% year-on-year.The cosmetics sector was one of the slowest-growing categories, and sales grew just 2.8% in July from a year ago, versus growth of 13.5% in June.Online sales of physical consumer goods rose by 4.4% in July, far below an average of about 21% for the past five years, according to CNBC calculations of official data.Bruce Pang, head of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance, attributed the sharp drop in online sales to massive shopping promotions in June, which were followed by logistics disruptions amid Covid-19 travel restrictions, floods and typhoons in July.E-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com handled a record $136.51 billion of sales during the June 18 shopping event, known as “618.” China’s other major shopping festival of the year falls on Nov. 11.Outside of consumption, China’s manufacturing sector also grew more slowly than expected.Industrial production grew by 6.4%, also below expectations of a 7.8% year-on-year increase in July, according to the Reuters poll.Fixed asset investment for the first seven months of the year rose by 10.3%, below the forecast of 11.3% year-on-year growth for the January to July period, according to Reuters.The National Bureau of Statistics noted “the impact of multiple factors including the growing external uncertainties and the domestic COVID-19 epidemic and flooding situation,” according to a release. The bureau added that the “economic recovery is still unstable and uneven.”On consumption, the bureau’s spokesman Fu Linghui said during a press conference that Chinese willingness to spend is increasing since spending per capita grew faster than that of disposable income in the first half of the year — up 17.4% and 12%, respectively.The country added 1.24 million new urban jobs in July, on track to reach Beijing’s target of creating more than 11 million new urban jobs this year.However, the unemployment rate in cities ticked higher to 5.1% in July, up from 5% the prior month. The unemployment rate for those 16- to 24-years-old remained far higher, rising to 16.2% from 15.4% in June.Read more about China from CNBC ProJPMorgan downgrades Tencent Music as company faces regulatory hurdles in ChinaJefferies picks the Chinese stocks likely to benefit from an aging populationBeijing’s crackdown hangs over China markets, but some stocks may be getting less riskyEconomists have cut their China GDP forecasts given the latest wave of travel restrictions and residential community lockdowns in the wake of the spread in the last two months of the highly contagious Delta variant within the country.Goldman Sachs expects 8.3% growth this year, down from 8.6% previously, according to an Aug. 8 note.Nomura predicts 8.2% GDP growth for the year, down from 8.9%, according to an Aug. 3 note.The official growth target is lower, at over 6%.Although the number of new Covid cases is low compared with other countries, the economic impact could be greater since China has taken a “zero tolerance” approach. Last week, authorities shut a terminal of the world’s third-busiest port after one worker was infected.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

The Wall St. sign is seen near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, May 4, 2021.Brendan McDermid | ReutersFutures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes slipped Sunday evening as the S&P 500 hovered in record territory after last week’s modest gains.Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 50 points. Those tied to the S&P 500 dipped 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures lost less than 0.1%.The moves in the overnight session on Sunday came after a mostly positive trading week punctuated by closely watched economic data and corporate earnings.The Dow ended last week at 35,515.38, a record close, while the S&P 500 finished Friday at 4,468.00 to notch its own best-ever finish.The blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500 rounded out the week with muted gains of 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively, amid light summertime trading volumes. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite underperformed week, down just under 0.1%.The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was last seen at 1.283%. Bond yields fall as their prices rise.Investors digested mixed economic data last week.Perhaps the most notable reading was Wednesday’s softer-than-expected inflation report, which showed consumer prices minus energy and food rose less than expected in July. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said Thursday that weekly jobless claims came in at 375,000 last week, matching estimates and declining for a third straight week.Stock picks and investing trends from CNBC Pro:Jefferies picks the global robot and health stocks to play a population ‘mega trend’Wall Street analysts really love these five stocks in the DowCathie Wood loads up on Palantir, with purchases worth nearly $140 million20 strategists predict when stocks will have the next big tumble — and how far they’ll fallThe University of Michigan’s sentiment read for August printed at just 70.2, the weakest since December 2011, and producer prices came in hotter than expected.Upcoming economic data includes an update on retail sales on Tuesday, as well as housing starts and the release of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes on Wednesday.The major stock indexes have for much of the last month ground to new records on the back of robust corporate earnings results.Eighty-seven percent of S&P 500 companies have reported positive earnings per share surprises for the second calendar quarter. If 87% is the final percentage, it will mark the highest percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting positive EPS surprises since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2008.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

Ed Yardeni believes the U.S. economy is on the cusp of “nirvana.”Despite uncertainty surrounding inflation and Covid-19 variants, the longtime bull believes the pandemic is significantly accelerating corporate America’s adoption of cutting-edge technology designed to expand productivity.According to Yardeni, the move is ushering in a modern roaring ’20s on Wall Street.”Buy a little bit of everything,” the president of Yardeni Research told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Friday. “Earnings are still going to continue to move to record highs.”Yet, he acknowledges the current price tag may be hard to swallow.’Nothing is cheap'”Look, everything has been picked over. Nothing is cheap ,” he said. “It’s hard to tell people right here that now’s the time to jump in. But bonds certainly don’t look attractive at these kinds of yields where they could possibly go higher as I expect.”Yardeni, who ran investment strategy for Prudential and Deutsche Bank and worked for the New York Federal Reserve, sees encouraging signals that typically boost stocks.”Labor force growth has slowed dramatically, and there’s a tremendous pressure on companies to use technology to offset that,” Yardeni said. “That means increasing productivity. So, I’ve got this very bullish story, I think, for activity that is growing 2% right now. I think it’s heading to 4% in the next few years.”As a result, Yardeni sees wages rising faster than prices and margins staying high — a recipe for strong corporate profits.But in the meantime, he’s keeping a close eye on headline risks.”The delta variant is obviously making the nightly news, and it’s disturbing for sure,” Yardeni said.His other sticking point: rising prices.”Inflation has yet to demonstrate as actually transitory, he added. “Right now, there’s no evidence that it’s peaked. So there are still concerns along those lines.”Even though challenges remain, Yardeni predicts the S&P 500 will jump 12% from current levels as long as the U.S. avoids another vast economic lockdown.”I’ve got 5,000 on the S&P 500 by the end of next year or earlier,” Yardeni said. “Every time I have a bullish outlook over the past year, we get there a lot sooner.”On Friday, the S&P 500 closed at 4,468, an all-time high. The index is now up 19% so far this year, and 100% since the pandemic low.Disclaimer More

In this articleAMDRKTDISHNSTPFEABNBGeneral views of the Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel at Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort, which has reopened for outdoor dining and shopping on April 11, 2021 in Anaheim, California.AaronP | Bauer-Griffin | GC Images | Getty ImagesCheck out the companies making headlines in midday trading.Disney — Shares of the media giant jumped 1%, becoming the biggest gainer in the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average following a blowout earnings report. Disney crushed Wall Street expectations on Disney+ subscriber growth and overall revenue and earnings for the fiscal third quarter.The Honest Company — The Honest Company’s shares sunk 28% after the baby and beauty product business reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results. The company, founded by Jessica Alba, reported a loss of 17 cents per share on revenue of $74.6 million. Wall Street expected a loss of 14 cents per share on $78.8 million, according to Refinitiv.Airbnb — Shares of Airbnb erased earlier losses and rose about 1% after the vacation rental company said it expects volatility ahead due to the Covid delta variant. Airbnb reported revenue of $1.34 billion in the second quarter, up nearly 300% from the year prior. Wall Street expected revenue of $1.26 billion, according to Refinitiv.23andMe — Shares of 23andMe fell more than 5% after the genetic research company reported revenue of $59 million in its first quarter as a public company. The quarterly revenue is 23% higher than a year prior.SoFi — The fintech company’s shares fell over 14% after it released quarterly results Thursday. SoFi recorded a loss of 48 cents per share for the second quarter, greater than analysts’ forecasts of a 6 cents per share loss. It also beat revenue estimates, however, and reported membership more than doubled from the previous year.Pfizer — Shares of Pfizer moved 2.6% higher after the FDA authorized booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid vaccines for immunocompromised people. Moderna inched slightly higher.ZipRecruiter — ZipRecruiter shares dipped 0.5% after posting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss. The online employment marketplace posted a quarterly loss of 55 cents per share, compared with a consensus estimate of a 22 cents per share loss, according to Refinitiv.Rocket Companies — Rocket shares gained 10% despite the online mortgage platform operator’s quarterly earnings missing on the top and bottom lines. The company said it expects 2021 mortgage origination closed loan volume to exceed 2020’s record performance of $320 billion.Advanced Micro Devices — Shares of Advanced Micro Devices added more than 3% after Bank of America reiterated its buy rating on the stock and said the stock could see 25% upside. “We see strong catch-up potential despite the strongest upward EPS revisions in semis,” the firm said.eBay — The e-commerce stock rose over 7%, extending its rise since Wednesday’s earnings beat. Argus Research reiterated its buy rating on the stock on Friday, saying in a note to clients that the stock looks attractively priced even as it faces tough comparisons in the upcoming quarter.— CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel, Yun Li and Jesse Pound contributed reporting.Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro. Get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews and access to CNBC TV. Sign up to start a free trial todayTVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

Tom Werner | DigitalVision | Getty ImagesMore households got a monthly payment of the child tax credit in August, reaching an additional 1.6 million kids relative to July, the Treasury Department and IRS said Friday.The IRS disbursed $15 billion to families in the second round of payments, issued Friday to households with about 61 million total children, according to the agencies’ announcement.The federal government began sending the funds — up to $250 or $300 a month per child, depending on their age — on July 15.More from Personal Finance:Covid vaccine mandates in job listings jump by 34%U.S. Supreme Court strikes down part of New York’s eviction banAvoid these mistakes with your emergency savings accountHowever, about 15% of families who received a direct deposit in July will instead get a paper check in the mail for their August payment due to a “technical issue,” according to the announcement. The Treasury and IRS expect that problem to be resolved by the time the next payments are issued Sept. 15.Families can visit the Child Tax Credit Update Portal to see if they’re receiving a direct deposit or paper check in August.The monthly payments are an advance on half the portion of a family’s annual child tax credit. Households can opt out of receiving monthly payments and instead get their full credit during the 2022 tax season.There are many reasons more families are getting a monthly payment in August than July, according to a Treasury official.Additional tax returns have been processed, and more families who don’t typically file a tax return signed up for payments through a new IRS online portal, according to the official. The IRS also continues to improve its payment files and identify new families eligible for funds, the official said.Around 4 million children in low-income families are at risk of not getting payments of the expanded tax credit this year, due largely to limited data the federal government has on these individuals, according to a report published last month by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.The monthly installments were created by the American Rescue Plan. The coronavirus pandemic relief law also raised the total annual credit amount for qualifying families – up to $3,600 for children younger than age 6 and $3,000 for those between 6 and 17. (That amount is up from $2,000.)The credit is also fully refundable and more low-income families are also eligible.The enhancements are temporary and will end after this year unless Congress extends the timeline. Senate Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget framework, which passed this week on a party-line vote, would extend the enhanced credit but didn’t specify a duration.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

OLIVIER DOULIERY | AFP | Getty ImagesJob postings requiring a Covid-19 vaccine have jumped sharply in the past month among a wide range of businesses, according to a new analysis published Thursday by job site Indeed.The increase comes as the highly contagious delta variant has fueled a surge in virus cases, vaccines have become more broadly available and more businesses mandate vaccination as they bring their workforces back to the office.More from Personal Finance:Avoid these mistakes with your emergency savings accountJuggling child care came at a steep cost during CovidThese are the 10 most expensive small towns in AmericaThe share of job posts that require a Covid vaccine were up 34% on Aug. 7 when compared to the prior month, according to Indeed data. (The analysis uses a seven-day moving average.)Other jobs ads aren’t as specific; they ask for vaccination without explicitly mentioning Covid. Those listings are up 90% over the same period.”They don’t mean the polio vaccine. It’s so apparent [they mean Covid-19],” according to AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab who authored the analysis.The jump in businesses requiring a vaccine for new hires also coincides with a record number of U.S. job openings in June.Despite big percentage growth, the overall number of job posts mandating applicants to have a vaccine is still relatively small, Konkel said.In the software-development sector, for example, about 438 job postings out of every 1 million required a vaccine in July. But that represents an increase of more than 10,000% from the 3.5 posts per million that did so in February, according to Indeed. To be sure, Covid vaccines weren’t as widely available earlier this year. The trend is similar in many other industries and occupations that hadn’t mandated vaccination in great numbers, like accounting, retail and marketing, according to the analysis.”Broadly, the trend is more job postings are requiring the Covid-19 vaccine,” Konkel said. “I really think we’re on the cusp of a potentially booming trend.”The seven-day average of new Covid cases on Wednesday (more than 114,000 infections) was up 64% from just two weeks earlier, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The average number of cases is at its highest level since February.Cases have tripled or quadrupled in hard-hit areas like Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi in the past month.New cases, hospitalizations and deaths are overwhelmingly occurring among the unvaccinated. Just 59% of Americans eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine (anyone 12 years and older) are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. About half of all Americans are fully vaccinated.More than a dozen large U.S. corporations, including Walmart, Google, Tyson Foods, United Airlines and McDonald’s have recently announced vaccine mandates for some or all of their workers. The Pentagon on Monday said vaccines would be mandatory for service members by mid-September.”Since the Town Hall, we’ve heard from many of you that you would feel more comfortable returning to the office if you had more certainty your colleagues were vaccinated,” McDonald’s global chief people officer Heidi Capozzi said in an internal note obtained by CNBC.”We are also being asked by state and local governments to require vaccinations for corporate employees because getting more of the population vaccinated reduces our own chances of being infected and contributes to community protection,” Capozzi continued.Several big firms have also postponed plans to bring employees back to the office. Facebook, Amazon and Lyft, for example, recently delayed return-to-work plans into 2022.The growing list of businesses mandating vaccination may normalize the requirement and lead other hesitant employers to do the same, Konkel said. That’s especially likely if the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to one or multiple Covid vaccines.I really think we’re on the cusp of a potentially booming trend.AnnElizabeth Konkeleconomist at the Indeed Hiring LabThe FDA has only granted emergency-use approval of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.The agency is expected to soon give full approval to Pfizer. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, said Sunday he’s hopeful that will occur by the end of August.”If that’s the case, you’re going to see the empowerment of local enterprises, giving mandates that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety and I strongly support that,” Fauci said.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More