Finance

In this articleJPMWFCGSBACNKEFDXThe Nike logo is seen on the Nike store on February 22, 2021 in New York City.John Smith | Corbis News | Getty ImagesCheck out the companies making headlines after the bell:Nike —Shares of the shoe giant popped about 5% in extended trading on Thursday following its better-than-expected quarterly results. Nike reported earnings of 93 cents per share, outpacing Refinitiv estimates by 42 cents. Revenue came in at $12.34 billion, topping estimates of $11.01 billion. Digital sales were up 41% since last year and 147% from two years ago.FedEx — Shares of the shipping company dropped 4% after hours despite beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results. FedEx reported earnings of $5.01 per share on revenue of $22.57 billion. Analysts expected earnings per share of $4.99 on revenue of $21.51 billion, according to Refinitiv.Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan — Shares of the major U.S. banks popped in after-hours trading after the Federal Reserve announced the banks could easily withstand a severe recession. The Fed, in releasing the results of its annual stress test, said that all 23 institutions in the 2021 exam remained “well above” minimum required capital levels during a hypothetical economic downturn. Bank of America and Wells Fargo each rose about 1%. More

In this articleBYNDMGMKBHMGNIDRIPeople walk in front of the MGM Resorts International Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.Joe Buglewicz | Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAd tech stocks — The digital advertising industry saw stocks surge Thursday after Google pushed back its timeline to kill third-party tracking cookies to 2023 from 2022. Trade Desk is up 16%, Magnite rose over 8%, and PubMatic rose almost 13%.Eli Lilly — Eli Lilly shares jumped 7% after the biopharmaceutical company announced its Alzheimer’s disease treatment received a “Breakthrough Therapy” designation from the Food and Drug Administration. The news comes weeks after the FDA approved Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug.KB Home — The homebuilder’s shares fell 6.7% after it reported late Wednesday quarterly earnings of $1.50 per share, which is higher than analysts’ estimates. However, the company missed revenue estimates of $1.5 billion, coming in with $1.44 billion, despite reporting a selling price increase of 13% and a 145% surge in new orders.Darden Restaurants — The Olive Garden parent saw its stock rise 3.3% after it reported on Thursday adjusted quarterly earnings of $2.03 per share, compared to a $1.79 consensus estimate. Darden said its same-restaurant sales surged 90.4% compared to a year ago in the middle of the pandemic.Rite Aid — Shares of the drug store chain tumbled 14.5% after the company reported a revenue miss. Rite Aid did report adjusted quarterly earnings of 38 cents per share, 16 cents above Refinitiv estimates, however.MGM Resorts International — The casino stock jumped 2.1% after Deutsche Bank upgraded MGM to buy from hold. The firm said in a note to clients that MGM’s cost cuts over the past year should pay off in the form of higher margins as Las Vegas continues to rebound from the pandemic.Steelcase — Shares of the office furniture maker jumped nearly 4.6% after the company reported on Wednesday a smaller-than-expected loss for its latest quarter. Steelcase posted revenue that topped Wall Street estimates, and the company said revenue will improve on a sequential basis as more workers return to their offices.Beyond Meat — Shares of the plant-based meat company fell more than 2% after JPMorgan reported that Dunkin’ recently discontinued the Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwich. The bank also said it believed Dunkin’ discontinued its breakfast wrap with the Beyond Meat product, though JPMorgan had not fully confirmed the move.Dollar Tree — Shares of the discount retailer slipped more than 2% after investment firm Piper Sandler downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight. The firm said in a note to clients that rising inflation, including the cost of wages, would eat into Dollar Tree’s profit margins.— CNBC’s Hannah Miao, Jesse Pound and Yun Li contributed reportingBecome 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 today More

NOT FOR the first time this century, the global economy is rebounding from crisis. The new normal will differ from the old one. The pandemic shifted resources around, destroyed firms, and subtly adjusted habits. The economy has evolved, in other words. Strangely, most economic models do not treat the economy as an evolving thing, undergoing constant change. They instead describe it in terms of its equilibrium: a stable state in which prices balance supply and demand, or the path the economy follows back to stability when a shock disturbs its rest. Though such strategies have sometimes proved useful, economics is the poorer for its neglect of the economy’s evolutionary nature.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

THE PANDEMIC could have been terminal for Revolut, a firm set up in 2015 to help travellers avoid hefty foreign-exchange fees. Instead its latest annual results, released on June 21st, suggest the London-based digital bank is thriving. Despite slashing its marketing budget, it gained 4.5m customers in 2020, bringing the total to 14.5m. Its revenues grew by 57% to £261m ($362m); it was profitable in the last two months of 2020. A $580m fundraising round, completed in July, made it one of Europe’s most valuable private fintechs, worth $5.5bn.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

ABOUT HALF of most British people’s income in the 1830s and 1840s was spent on food. Hunger was commonplace, occasionally sparking riots. Contributing to the high cost were tariffs on imported grain, called the Corn Laws, which soared as high as 80%. The system enriched aristocratic landowners when most Britons were not allowed to serve in Parliament or vote.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

GROWING UP IS hard to do but growing old is harder. As the business cycle matures and ages, it goes through phases, just as people do. These are mirrored in financial markets. Strategists like to talk in terms of early-, mid- or late-cycle investing. It is tricky to say when one stage ends and another begins, just as it is hard to delineate adulthood from adolescence. The markets drop some hints, though. The slope of the Treasury yield curve is one.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

NOT LONG ago the conventional wisdom was that China would do whatever it took to save its biggest companies from failing. Times have changed. Three corporate giants—Evergrande, the country’s biggest property developer; Huarong, its biggest investor in bad bank assets; and Suning, a retail giant—are all suffering from financial distress.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Buena Vista Images | Stone | Getty ImagesDubai, United Arab Emirates – Dubai-based digital bank Zand will attempt to attract customers with competitive deposit rates and a digital-first product lineup when it launches later this year, challenging traditional bank rivals as Covid-19 drives a wave of digital adoption in the Gulf.”We think there is a huge opportunity,” Zand CEO Olivier Crespin said during a CNBC moderated panel session at the Open Banking Ecosystem Summit hosted by QnA International on Monday.”We are onboarding friends and family on both the retail and corporate side, and we should be ready to go to market in the next couple of months,” added Crespin, who said interest in the Sheikhdoms newest bank had been “very strong” ahead of its official launch date, which is still subject to final administrative and licensing requirements.Zand plans to be the first fully independent digital bank in the UAE, with a remit to service both retail and corporate customers. Emaar Properties founder Mohamed Alabbar, the developer behind The Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, has invested in the company and will serve as chairman.Other domestic and international backers are yet to be disclosed.Zand will offer interest rates of “around 2%” on deposits according to Crespin, as it seeks to attract users and compete in the crowded UAE market, where 48 banks already cater to a population of around 10 million people. For example, major local incumbents such as First Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates NBD offer 0.020% and 0.2% respectively on a standard website advertised savings account. Rates are dependent on a multitude of factors, and a proper like-for-like comparison can’t be considered fair until details of Zand’s product offering are released to the public. Zand will offer cards, loans, accounts and personal financial management products “comparable to N26 or Revolut” for new retail customers, Crespin said, drawing a comparison with some of Europe’s established neobanks. “We’re also focusing on the corporate side, where we are going to work primarily on supply chain finance,” he added. The launch comes as Covid-19 accelerates the adoption of digital services across the Gulf region. Demand for financial technology products among its young and mobile enabled population is rising, particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.Regional competitionIn the UAE, Emirates NBD has already launched digital retail bank Liv and separate digital business bank E20 — leveraging its banking license, large customer base and established brand credibility. Liv claims to have 400,000 users. Other banking incumbents have chosen to partner with financial technology platforms as a means to grow their digital presence. Large international digital banks such as Revolut have also signaled an intention to enter the region, promising currency and crypto exchange services, person-to-person payments, and advanced personal finance analytics beyond the standard offering.The rising competition underscores the challenge for Zand — a start-up that will need to compete on product, service and back-end technology, while still being subject to the same capital requirements and regulations as its traditional bank rivals. “The challenge is being able to combine two DNAs — the DNA of banking, which is about risk management, financial expertise and compliance with regulation, and the DNA of digital, which is about customer centricity, better leverage of analytics and the latest technology,” said Crespin, who previously held roles at BNP Paribas, Citi, and DBS Bank. Local reactionZand will be put to the test when it finally launches, according to big bank executives who also joined Monday’s panel discussion.”I think it’s a great development,” Bernd van Linder, CEO of Commercial Bank of Dubai, told CNBC. “The challenge that Zand puts to the banking sector, and one that I embrace and look forward to, is to make sure that we become as agile as fast and as innovative as (Zand) will be.”However, he said: “The big challenge for the digital banks … is to make money while you compete with lots of incumbents that have already developed their digital proposition, and who know how to make money on the back of lending.””The competition is going to be fierce,” Boutros Klink, CEO of Standard Chartered Middle East, told CNBC when asked about digital-first rivals in the region. “It’s exciting, and we need to do what we need to do to stay ahead of the curve,” he added.”Some will survive, and some will fail, without a doubt.” More