Wednesday, April 29

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Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb believes Trump’s chances are increasing
Business

Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb believes Trump’s chances are increasing

Third Point's Daniel Loeb believes the odds are rising that former President Donald Trump will win the U.S. presidency this November over Vice President Kamala Harris, and the influential hedge fund manager is increasing positions that would benefit under a Republican administration and Congress. "We believe that the likelihood of a Republican victory in the White House has increased, which would have a positive impact on certain sectors and the market overall," wrote Loeb in a letter to investors obtained by CNBC. "We believe the proposed 'America First' policy's tariffs will increase domestic manufacturing, infrastructure spending, and prices of certain materials and commodities … a reduction in regulation generally and especially in the activist antitrust stance of the Biden-Harris admi...
Suspected teen school shooter and his father indicted by Georgia grand jury
World News

Suspected teen school shooter and his father indicted by Georgia grand jury

By Rich McKay, Reuters Colt Gray, left, and father Colin Gray. Photo: AFP PHOTO / BARROW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE A grand jury has indicted a 14-year-old alleged shooter and his father who bought him the gun in the September slaying of two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school, affirming initial charges brought by prosecutors and adding numerous other criminal counts. The Barrow County grand jury indicted Colt Gray on a total of 55 counts, including four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, plus aggravated assault and cruelty to children. Grand jurors indicted his father, Colin Gray, 54, with 29 criminal counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and adding reckless conduct to prosecutors' initial charges. In bringing second-degree ...
S&P 500 once again briefly rode Nvidia’s coattails to all-time highs
Business

S&P 500 once again briefly rode Nvidia’s coattails to all-time highs

Nvidia 's rally to a record intraday high on Thursday briefly helped lift the S & P 500 into uncharted waters, leaving investors to wonder what's next for the artificial intelligence trade. At one point, shares of the chipmaker climbed as much as 3.8% in Thursday's session and at times traded above $140. That marked the first new intraday high for the megacap technology giant since June. Nvidia appeared to benefit from enthusiasm surrounding Taiwan Semiconductor , which jumped almost 10% after topping Wall Street's third-quarter earnings estimates. The S & P 500 broad market index also touched a record high during the day, mostly driven by strong semiconductor and financial stocks. Nvidia's stock, which scored an all-time closing high on Monday, has added 1.6% so far this week. The...
What is the body roundness index and is it a better alternative to the BMI?
World News

What is the body roundness index and is it a better alternative to the BMI?

By Rachel Rasker, ABC Photo: 123rf If you had a health check-up recently, you might have been told that you're underweight, overweight or obese based on your body mass index or BMI. But the BMI was never intended as a diagnostic tool. At best, experts have called it "inaccurate"; at worst, it's been branded "nonsense". Yet the BMI has become embedded in our healthcare system, with those scoring too high or low excluded from accessing essential services such as medications and surgery. Now, there's a new formula on the block. The body roundness index (BRI) is gaining traction as a possible replacement for the BMI, with a recent study of more than 30,000 US adults finding a correlation between BRI and mortality risk. But health professionals have their hesitations, so don't expect to s...
NFLX, ISRG, WDFC and more
Business

NFLX, ISRG, WDFC and more

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading: Netflix — The streaming stock popped more than 4% after third-quarter earnings topped expectations. Netflix earned $5.40 per share on $9.83 billion in revenue, while analysts forecast $5.12 a share and $9.77 billion in revenue. The company also said its ad-tier memberships jumped 35% quarter over quarter. Intuitive Surgical — Shares jumped about 5% after the maker of the da Vinci surgical robot posted better-than-expected third-quarter results. Intuitive Surgical earned $1.84 per share on $2.04 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had estimated earnings of $1.63 per share on $2 billion in revenue. WD-40 — The maintenance product maker's shares dropped more than 4% after a disappointing fiscal fourth-quarter earnings ...
Instagram moves to face rising tide of sextortion scams
World News

Instagram moves to face rising tide of sextortion scams

Photo: Victor Okhrimets / 123RF By AFP Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has announced new measures to fight sextortion, a form of online blackmail where criminals coerce victims, often teens, into sending sexually explicit images of themselves. The measures include stricter controls on who can follow or message teen accounts and safety notices in Instagram direct messages and Facebook Messenger about suspicious cross-country conversations. The measures beef up Instagram's "Teen Accounts," which were announced last month and are designed to better protect underage users from the dangers associated with the photo-sharing app. The company is also implementing restrictions on a scammer's ability to view follower lists and interactions, as well as preventing screenshots in ...
Trump crypto project allows ex-president family to make 75% of revenue
Business

Trump crypto project allows ex-president family to make 75% of revenue

Donald Trump's crypto project, World Liberty Financial, published a 13-page document on Thursday, describing its mission, how tokens can be allocated, and indicating that the Republican presidential nominee and his family could take home 75% of net revenue. In what it calls the "World Liberty Gold Paper," WLF said the Trump family will receive 22.5 billion "$WLFI" tokens, currently valued at $337.5 million, based on the price of 1.5 cents per token at launch this week. Trump, who's in a virtual dead heat with Vice President Kamala Harris as the election reaches its closing stages, has spent months pumping his crypto project, previously branding it as "The DeFiant Ones," a play on DeFi, short for decentralized finance. On Tuesday, the project launched the WLFI token and said in a roadmap th...
Astronauts to wear Prada-designed suits in first moon landing since 1972
World News

Astronauts to wear Prada-designed suits in first moon landing since 1972

By Jesmine Cheong, ABC with wires The AxEMU suit is pictured during a press conference of Prada and Axiom Space. Photo: AFP - Marco Bertorello The first woman on the moon will be wearing a designer spacesuit, as part of NASA's first human mission to the lunar South Pole. Prada has co-designed the space suit with private space company Axiom Space to provide the surface suits for NASA's Artemis III mission to the moon, planned for 2026. The designer suit does not stray too far from what astronauts have worn historically. Similar to the suits worn by the Apollo astronauts who last walked on the moon more than five decades ago, the external layer of the suit is designed to reflect heat and is mostly white. It is also designed to withstand extreme temperatures at the lunar south pole and ...
Google CEO names new search, ads boss, Raghavan to chief technologist
Business

Google CEO names new search, ads boss, Raghavan to chief technologist

Google is replacing Prabhakar Raghavan, the company's search and ads boss, with longtime Google executive Nick Fox.The move was announced by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who said in a blog post on Thursday that Raghavan will be moving into the role of chief technologist after 12 years of leading teams across the search company. Raghavan will continue to report to Pichai in the new role, the company told CNBC in a statement."Prabhakar has decided it's time to make a big leap in his own career," Pichai wrote in the post. "In this role, he'll partner closely with me and Google leads to provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of tech excellence."The move comes as Google continues to restructure its teams to move more quickly in the artificial intelligence arms race, wher...
Liam Payne’s ‘heartbroken’ family pay tribute to ‘kind, funny and brave’ soul
World News

Liam Payne’s ‘heartbroken’ family pay tribute to ‘kind, funny and brave’ soul

By Riley Stuart, for ABC in London British singer-songwriter Liam Payne poses on the red carpet on arrival for the BRIT Awards 2019 in London on February 20, 2019. Photo: AFP / TOLGA AKMEN Liam Payne's family say they're "heartbroken", and paid tribute to the former One Direction member's "kind, funny and brave soul" after he was found dead in Buenos Aires on Thursday. Payne, 31, had been staying at a hotel in Argentina's capital, and fell from a third-floor balcony. His death sparked an outpouring of grief from fans of the boy band, that rocketed to fame after forming as part of a British reality television show in 2010 before splitting up six years later. In a statement released Friday, his family said: "We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts and we'll remember hi...