Forbes

2022-04-12 21:05:00 Dow Falls 400 Points As 10-Year Treasury Yield Hits Highest Level Since January 2019

Stocks took a hit Monday, adding to last week’s losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2%, over 400 points, while the S&P 500 lost 1.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 2.2%.

Government bond yields spiked higher amid growing alarm about surging inflation. The 10-year Treasury note jumped above 2.78% on Monday, its highest level since January 2019.

The downward movement could continue this week.

Investors continued to rotate out of riskier assets including growth and technology stocks, portions of the market which experts think will be most impacted by rising rates.

Oil prices fell again on Monday and sit at around $95 per barrel. Shares of major energy companies like Occidental Petroleum and Diamondback Energy subsequently both lost more than 4%. Open / Comment

2022-04-12 17:05:00 Ron DeSantis criticises soft-on-crime policies in Blue Cities. Watch the video. Open / Comment

2022-04-12 14:05:00 Elon Musk Will Not Join Twitter’s Board

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has decided not to join the board of Twitter, the company’s CEO Parag Agrawal announced, in a move that comes just a week after the billionaire disclosed he had acquired a 9% stake in the social media giant.

Making the announcement on Twitter, Agrawal wrote that Musk formally turned down the company’s offer to join the board on April 9.

Agrawal said he believed that this was for the best but the company will always remain open to inputs from Musk who is the company’s biggest shareholder.

Elaborating the offer to have Musk on the board, Agrawal noted that Twitter wanted to have Musk serve the fiduciary role where, like other board members, he would have been expected to “act in the best interests of our company and our shareholders.” Open / Comment

2022-04-11 21:05:00 Will Smith’s Memoir Surges On Best-Seller Lists After Oscars Slap

Will Smith’s memoir Will climbed the best-seller charts in the week after he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars for joking about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Will, which was released last year, returned to USA Today’s list of the Top 150 Best Selling Books, at the No. 73 spot, its third-best week in sales.

The memoir debuted on the list at No. 3 and remained on it for 15 weeks.

Will also jumped on the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction New York Times bestseller list, to No. 2 from No. 14 in the chart that compiled data from the week ending on April 2.

50%. That’s how Americans viewed Smith favorably after the slap, according to a Morning Consult poll released last week. That’s down from the 80% who viewed him as such in January 2020. Open / Comment

2022-04-11 17:05:00 Thrive’s Josh Kushner: The Other Brother Becomes Family’s First Billionaire

For the first time ever, a member of the storied Kushner family has made it onto Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people this year. But it’s probably not who you think. Long overshadowed by his father Charles, a real estate mogul, and older brother Jared, the son-in-law and advisor of former President Trump, 36-year-old Josh Kushner debuts with an estimated net worth of $2 billion, thanks to smart early-stage venture investments and the sale of part of his VC firm Thrive Capital.

Goldman Sachs unit Petershill Partners invested an estimated $120 million in Thrive last May in exchange for an estimated 3% stake. The investment valued the firm at $3.6 billion. Josh owns an estimated two-thirds stake worth $1.9 billion after Forbes applied a conservative 20% private company discount.

Kushner has developed a reputation as a “hands-on” investor. That’s helped him win over founders at some of the decade’s most high-profile startups. Open / Comment

2022-04-11 14:05:01 Block And Blockstream Begin Construction On Bitcoin Mining Facility Using Solar And Storage Technology From Tesla

Digital payments company Block and bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream have begun construction on a new open-source bitcoin mining facility, which will be powered by Tesla’s solar and energy storage products, announced Blockstream’s CEO Adam Back.

“This is a step to proving our thesis that Bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission power infrastructure and build economic growth for the future,” he added. The facility is planned to be completed later this year and will result in a projected 3.8 Megawatts of solar renewable power and a 30 Petahash hash rate.

The $12 million joint initiative was first announced in June 2021 as part of Block's pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030. The fintech giant will invest $6 million (the other half will be provided by Blockstream) in a facility to be built at one of Blockstream's U.S. sites in Texas. Open / Comment

2022-04-10 21:05:00 Elon Musk Opens Tesla’s ‘Giga Texas’ That He Says Is The Biggest U.S. Plant

Elon Musk marked the official start of production at Tesla’s new Giga Texas plant in Austin, saying it’s the country’s biggest factory by size and will also be the highest-volume U.S. auto plant when fully ramped up.

Speaking to more than 1,000 invited guests and fans of the brand packed into the sprawling facility for what Tesla called a “Cyber Rodeo”, Musk said the plant will produce at least 500,000 vehicles annually by next year. Initially, it will make Model Y hatchbacks, with the hard-edged Cybertruck pickup going into production next year, along with a new version of the Roadster sports car and Tesla Semi.

“The Model Y line will be the highest-capacity line, I think, of any line in the world. In fact, I’m confident it will be,” Musk told attendees. Open / Comment

2022-04-10 17:05:00 First ‘Fantastic Four’ Comic Sells For $1.5 Million

A well-preserved copy of the first issue in the Marvel comic series Fantastic Four from 1961 sold for $1.5 million at auction.

An online buyer snapped up the comic for the highest price yet paid for the issue of The Fantastic Four, according to Heritage Auctions, and the second-highest for a title from the so-called Silver Age of comic books, a period roughly between 1956 and 1975 when their popularity began to rebound in the U.S.

The Certified Guaranty Co., which grades the quality of comic books, rated the comic a 9.2 out of 10, and according to their 2022 census, only five copies of the comic were rated higher.

The sale also far surpassed presale valuations, and fetched seven times more than the $210,000 price tag suggested last year for a 9.2 CGC rating in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the leading comic book price guide. Open / Comment

2022-04-10 14:05:00 First Private Mission To Space Station Takes Off From Florida

The first private mission to the International Space Station took off at 11:17 a.m. ET on Friday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, carrying three tourists in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in a flight arranged by the company Axiom Space.

The mission, called AX-1, is led by Michael Lopez-Alegría, 63, a former NASA astronaut, who is shepherding three customers: Larry Connor, 72, an Ohio real estate mogul; Mark Pathy, 52, founder and CEO of Montreal-based family office Mavrik Corp; and Eytan Stibbe, 64, an Israeli businessman.

They are expected to arrive at the space station, some 250 miles above Earth, in 28 hours.

During the 10-day trip the tourists will participate in scientific research – aging in space and stem cell experiments — and technology demonstrations.

They will live with the regular crew at the space station. Open / Comment

2022-04-09 21:09:00 Two Unruly Airline Passengers Hit With Record Fines Totaling Nearly $160,000

The Federal Aviation Authority proposed levying the largest-ever fines against two passengers for alleged unruly behavior aboard flights last summer, as the agency continues to crack down on disruptive incidents on airplanes.

The FAA proposed an $81,950 fine against a passenger for allegedly threatening a flight attendant who offered to help the passenger after she fell into the aisle, pushing the flight attendant and then attempting to open the cabin door while aboard an American Airlines flight.

Another passenger faces a $77,272 penalty after she allegedly attempted to exit the aircraft during the flight and bit another passenger multiple times before the crew was able to restrain her on a Delta Air Lines flight.

The FAA launched its zero-tolerance campaign at the beginning of 2021 in response to a rapid rise in the number of passengers disrupting flights with their behavior. Open / Comment