Author: Press Room

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway slashed its stake in tech giant Apple by nearly 50%, according to Berkshire’s second quarter earnings report released on Saturday. Berkshire Hathaway disclosed its holdings in Apple were valued at $84.2 billion at the end of the quarter, dropping from 790 million shares to 400 million shares. The sharp selloff is notable for Buffett, who is known for holding onto stocks for long periods of time. Apple did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. Berkshire Hathaway has previously downsized its stake Apple, which has a market cap over $3.3 trillion. In the final three months…

Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 2, 2024 4:30 AM ET Company Participants Rodrigo Aravena – Chief Economist & Institutional Relations OfficerPablo Mejia – Head of Investor RelationsDaniel Galarce – Head of Financial Control & Capital Conference Call Participants Ernesto Gabilondo – Bank of AmericaDaer Labarta – Goldman SachsYuri Fernandes – JPMorganAndres Soto – Santander Operator Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Banco de Chile’s Second Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. If you need a copy of the management financial review, it is available on the Company’s website. Today with us, we have Mr. Rodrigo Aravena,…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A Delaware judge on Friday expressed scepticism that a vote by Tesla shareholders would give her grounds to reinstate the record $56bn pay package for Elon Musk that she invalidated earlier this year.During a day-long hearing before Kathaleen McCormick in the Delaware Court of Chancery, lawyers for Tesla and its board of directors admitted they could not cite any precedent to allow shareholders to override the court’s finding that the board had breached its legal duty by approving the package.But they insisted…

Miriam Butorin was supposed to attend Taylor Swift’s concert on Friday for her 13th birthday. She is missing it, but for the very best reason. Miriam’s mother, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, was released Thursday from Russian detention in a historic prisoner swap. The release of the 47-year-old journalist for the US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was part of a complex prisoner swap between Russia, the US and other Western nations involving 24 detainees in total, including fellow freed Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. Kurmasheva had been detained in October 2023 and found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army – charges…

Former president Donald Trump’s plan to repeal the tax on Social Security benefits would lower taxes for US households by an average of $550, according to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center. But that tax cut would come with a big price: By reducing Social Security and Medicare hospital insurance (HI) revenues by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, Trump would drive both programs into insolvency faster, resulting in sharply reduced benefits for tens of millions of recipients. Winners And Losers TPC estimated that lower-income households would get little or no benefit from the tax cut in 2025.…

Mortgage rates fell again this week but remain uncomfortably high for many would-be buyers. Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage declined to 6.77% this week from 6.89% last week. The average rate on a 30-year loan was 6.78% a year ago.  The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage also dropped to 6.05% from 6.17% last week. One year ago, the rate on the 15-year fixed note averaged 6.06%. Read the full article here

Google has pulled an Olympics ad for its chatbot Gemini from airwaves following backlash for the way it depicts a little girl using artificial intelligence to write a fan letter.The ad, titled “Dear Sydney,” showed a girl’s dad prompting the AI chatbot to help write a letter to her favorite athlete, U.S. hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Google launched Gemini, formerly known as Bard, last year following the surge in popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.”Gemini, help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is,” the father said in the ad, prompting Gemini. The commercial then briefly shows the…

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage dropped 22 basis points to 6.4% Friday, according to Mortgage News Daily. That is the lowest rate since April 2023. The 15-year fixed rate fell to 5.89%, its lowest level since early May 2023.The drop followed a weaker-than-expected monthly employment report, which sent bond yields falling fast. Mortgage rates loosely follow the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury.”Between [Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome] Powell’s equivocal openness to “multiple cuts” in 2024 on Wednesday and this morning’s sharply weaker jobs report (something Powell didn’t even know about on Wednesday), the more aggressive rate…

Google has pulled its controversial Olympics ad after critics blasted it for portraying what they called a bleak application of artificial intelligence. The ad showed a father using Google’s Gemini AI chatbot to help his daughter write a fan letter to US Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. But many online questioned why Google would want to replace a child’s creativity with words written by a computer. Google initially defended the ad, which ran during breaks from the Olympics, saying it showed how Gemini could provide a “starting point” for a piece of writing. But on Friday, the company reversed course.…

Before the merger, our readers knew we were covering WestRock with a buy rating target and that Smurfit Kappa was one of our top picks. The combined entity just reported its first quarter together. That said, due to the timing of the completion of the combination between the two companies, the combined company of Smurfit WestRock (NYSE:SW, OTCPK:SMFKY) (OTCPK:SMFTF) will start reporting combined financials from Q3 2024. This is now a global leader in sustainable packaging (Fig 1). Smurfit WestRock Combined Entity Source: Smurfit WestRock Q2 results presentation – Fig 1 Latest Earnings It is essential to report the latest…