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Wednesday, November 20, 2024

'CDC warns against a spike in COVID, flu cases'

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday warned Americans against an impending rise in the transmission of respiratory viruses, particularly COVID and flu, in the coming weeks as the holiday season approaches.

Respiratory disease activity typically peaks in the U.S. from around December to February, with flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) dominating the transmissions during fall and winter.

While the virus activity remains low countrywide currently, "CDC anticipates that will change," the agency said, adding that the southern and eastern U.S. has already seen a rise in RSV activity, particularly among children.

"The holidays are coming, and large gatherings, travel, and more time indoors can mean more viruses spreading," the agency said.

Noting that many Americans have yet to receive flu, COVID-19, and RSV vaccines, the CDC emphasized that "the most important action is getting the immunizations recommended for you."

Makers of COVID-19 vaccines: Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/ BioNTech (BNTX), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX).

RSV vaccine developers: Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), GSK (NYSE:GSK), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA).  

Flu vaccine makers include Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) (OTCPK:SNYNF) (GCVRZ), GSK (NYSE:GSK), CSL Limited (OTCQX:CSLLY) (OTCQX:CMXHF), and AstraZeneca (AZN),

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/cdc-warns-against-a-spike-in-covid-flu-cases/ar-AA1usc6l

Japanese steelmaker Nippon says won't accept presidential block of U.S. Steel deal

 Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori said he would not accept a potential decision by President Joe Biden to block the Japanese steelmaker’s proposed purchase of U.S. Steel.

“I will never give up,” he said Tuesday during an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in West Mifflin. “This is good for the region, good for the community, good for U.S. Steel and good for the American economy as a whole.”

Presidential blocks are not subject to a judicial review. But Nippon could target the interagency panel currently vetting the deal for national security concerns. A decision is due to be sent to Mr. Biden’s desk before the end of the year.

Nippon’s CEO said last week in Japan that he would consider a lawsuit. Mr. Mori declined to elaborate Tuesday.

“It’s too sensitive at this moment,” he said. “We are doing everything at our disposal. That’s all I can say.”

U.S. Steel first agreed to the $14.9 billion takeover in December 2023 following a bidding war sparked by Ohio-based competitor Cleveland-Cliffs. The deal drew swift backlash from members of Congress and has since been held up by a regulatory review that experts say was influenced by political opposition from Mr. Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.

Mr. Mori resumed efforts to win over steelmakers and their communities in the Mon Valley this week with visits to the Steelers game on Sunday and a planned stop at the Penguins game this Friday. He met with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in Harrisburg on Tuesday afternoon, two people close to the matter confirmed.

“The momentum to support this deal is getting stronger and stronger,” Mr. Mori said Tuesday as he and other Nippon leaders met with West Mifflin Mayor Chris Kelly at his home office — a garage stuffed with Pittsburgh memorabilia.

“Nobody around here is against it,” Mr. Kelly assured them. “A lot of steelworkers in the area, they’re all for it. And their wives.”

As if on cue, Mr. Kelly’s wife returned to the garage with a tray of pastries for the Japanese contingent.

Not all of their meetings have gone as smoothly.

The group has been trying to win over Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and it was hoping to meet his wife Monday in Braddock, but she was out of town, Nippon officials said.

Mr. Kelly offered up her cellphone in case that was helpful. He also asked who else he could personally call to help win them over.

Mr. Mori had just one name: David McCall.

For months, the head of the United Steelworkers union has refused to meet with Nippon leadership while continuing to publicly bash the deal and lobby Washington against it.

“Bad for workers and bad for America,” Mr. McCall said Thursday in his latest salvo to members.

Mr. McCall was supposed to be in Australia this week but canceled the trip to meet with the White House, three sources familiar with the matter said. It wasn't immediately clear if the union boss would meet with Mr. Biden. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The union leader maintains a close relationship with Mr. Biden, who is trying to solidify his reputation as the most pro-union president. A growing number of USW members, however, now support the deal.

Mr. Kelly called Mr. McCall’s unwillingness to negotiate “disgraceful.”

“It’s not a way to represent your membership,” he said.

Mr. McCall did not respond to Post-Gazette inquiries for comment.

Nippon has worked hard to bring the West Mifflin mayor and other regional leaders on board, promising a $1 billion investment in the region’s steel facilities and arranging visits to the company’s existing steel mill in Follansbee, W.Va.

Mr. Kelly said the trip there “totally committed me before we even left.”

“One person said there wouldn’t be a town if it wasn’t for Nippon.”

Still, it’s not clear whether voices like his will carry as far as Nippon and U.S. Steel are hoping.

“The voices of this region [are] very important,” Mr. Mori said. “I think it will definitely have some impact on this [regulatory] review.”

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2024/11/19/nippon-us-steel-takahiro-mori-fetterman-david-mccall/stories/202411190073

Court Dismisses California's Lawsuit Against City's Voter ID Law

 by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

California Supreme Court ruled on Nov. 15 to toss out the state’s lawsuit against Huntington Beach’s voter ID law, but they expect the state attorney general to continue fighting it.

People wait to vote at the Joslyn Park center in Santa Monica, Calif. on Nov. 5, 2024. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Honestly, it’s a great victory for Huntington Beach, and as I’ve said, I think it’s a black eye to the state,” City Attorney Michael Gates told The Epoch Times on Nov. 18.

The state could refile the lawsuit within 20 days, but Gates confirmed on Monday that the city is “moving forward with the voter ID program.”

The state’s Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit brought in April by Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. The lawsuit alleged that the Huntington Beach law passed by voters in March requiring voter ID starting in 2026 violated state election law.

Bonta and Weber also said it conflicted with a state law introduced by former state Sen. Dave Min of Irvine that banned local governments from requiring voter identification in elections.

Min, who is expected to win a seat in the U.S. House to replace former Rep. Katie Porter, introduced the law in February after the state threatened legal action against the city. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law Sept. 29.

Huntington Beach’s request for the court’s dismissal was granted after justices considered the case on Thursday.

The Court finds that this matter is not ripe for adjudication, as … the City’s Charter is permissive and discretionary in character, and thus currently presents no conflict with state elections law,” the state Supreme Court justices wrote in the order.

The Orange County city, located on the coast about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, is home to about 192,000 residents.

Huntington Beach’s voter ID requirement was an amendment to the city’s charter that voters approved on March 5. The amendment defines voters as citizens of the United States, residents of Huntington Beach, and at least 18 years old.

It also states that if a conflict between the city’s charter and California’s election code arises, the city’s charter “shall prevail.”

The city’s charter serves as a city’s constitution, outlining the local government’s powers and responsibilities.

(L-R) Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland, City Attorney Michael Gates, and Councilman Casey McKeon gather with residents to challenge state housing laws in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Bonta and Weber issued a joint letter to the Huntington Beach City Council in September 2023, urging it to reconsider the voter ID amendment and threatened to fight it before the measure was placed on the ballot.

“If the City moves forward and places it on the ballot, we stand ready to take appropriate action to ensure that voters’ rights are protected and state laws are enforced,” they wrote in the letter.

Although Bonta included the new state law in its arguments to the Supreme Court, the court didn’t see a conflict, according to the city attorney.

The California Constitution states charter cities have local jurisdiction over local elections, Gates said.

“We’re invoking our constitutional right.”

Huntington Beach became a charter city in 1937, according to the city. It decided to adopt a charter to ensure the state did not interfere with the city’s affairs or intrude on its oil revenue.

Bonta claimed in a statement issued Sunday about the decision that existing law prohibited cities from implementing voter ID. He claimed the court would eventually side with the state.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks in Los Angeles on April 15, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Bonta asserts in the state lawsuit that under existing state law and Min’s Senate Bill 1174, all local governments—including charter cities like Huntington Beach—are prohibited from implementing voter ID requirements and local laws that conflict with state laws governing a “statewide concern,” he said in the statement.

Let me be clear: that has not changed. We disagree with the court’s decision that it is too early to bring our lawsuit and remain confident in the strength of our case.

The decision allows the state to file an amended lawsuit within 20 days. Bonta’s office did not return a request for comment on Monday about whether he planned to refile it.

The city doesn’t plan to back down, according to a statement by Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark posted on Facebook Friday.

“This is a great day for our City—we have not only successfully defended our City’s Voter ID law but also the rights of our residents from attacks by Governor Newsom and the State. We will not back down and will continue to fight for the City,” Van Der Mark stated.

Nvidia Drops After Revenue Forecast Disappoints Exuberant Expectations

 Earlier today we wrote an extensive preview of what to expect from Nvidia's Q3 earnings (here), but for those who missed it here is the summary: sky high expectations, which only go higher in 2025 and beyond when the full rollout of Blackwell is expected to hit the P&L, with everyone already long (Goldman desk positioning is 9 out of 10) and anything less than perfection would be punished by the market. The bull/bear case summarized by Goldman was as follows:

  • Bulls playing for a ‘break-out’ trade on an expected beat/raise (with downside arguably cushioned by the upcoming Blackwell launch)
  • Bears playing for a reset in the stock driven by a growing list of moving parts (Blackwell noise, scaling laws, custom ASICs/silicon, ROICs, etc) vs valuation back at ~15-mo highs.

In terms of expectations, Q3 revenue was projected to come in at $33.25BN, while the median analyst estimate for Q4 revenue is $37.1BN but buyside bogeys were $38BN+ and some were as high as $41BN. Keep in mind that that number has moved around a lot in the past few days as analysts have made last-minute tweaks to their models. While the current high sales estimate for the third quarter is $41.2 billion, some investors have have said that the whisper number may be even higher than that!

Beyond the headlines, JPM says that the key near-term bogeys are the following:

  1. The margin guide (with a few saying JPM's 73.8% buyside bar is too high),
  2. The possibility of hiccups in the Blackwell ramp which - given the steep ramp - could push revenues to the April quarter;
  3. Any guidance on F26 and beyond.

Other things to look out for when the company starts speaking will include how much supply it’s getting from its manufacturing partners. Like most chipmakers, Nvidia outsources production. Taiwan Semiconductor is the best in the business, and Nvidia’s pace of growth heavily depends on how well TSMC is able to provide Nvidia with the capacity it needs.

Amusingly, Nvidia shares actually closed down today, though far from session lows, ahead of the earnings report. Still, shares are up nearly 200% so far this year, and one of the best performers on the S&P 500 Index. Nvidia’s market cap north of $3.6 trillion makes it the biggest weighting in the S&P 500, meaning that any move in the stock could swing the entire market.

With that in mind, here is what NVDA reported moments ago:

  • Revenue $35.08 billion, up +94% y/y, beating the median estimate of $33.25 billion (but in line with Goldman's expectations of $35BN).
    • Data center revenue $30.8 billion vs. $14.51 billion y/y, beating estimates of $29.14 billion
    • Gaming revenue $3.3 billion, +15% y/y, beating estimates of $3.06 billion
    • Professional Visualization revenue $486 million, +17% y/y, beating estimates of $477.7 million
    • Automotive revenue $449 million, +72% y/y, beating estimates of $364.5 million
  • Adjusted gross margin 75% vs. 75% y/y, and in line with estimates of 75%
    • Adjusted operating expenses $3.05 billion, +50% y/y, beating estimates of $2.99 billion
    • Adjusted operating income $23.28 billion vs. $11.56 billion y/y, beating estimates of $21.9 billion
  • Adjusted EPS 81c, beating estimates 74c

The revenue trend, as expected, is impressive especially at the Data Center level where all the growth is.

Here is a full breakdown of recent results:

But while the Q3 results were stellar, the company's guidance came in on the weak side of the buyside expectations we discussed in our premium preview.

  • Revenue is expected to be $37.5 billion, plus or minus 2%: The “plus or minus 2%” means Nvidia expects 4Q revenue between $36.75 billion and $38.25 billion. The low end is ugly, and even the high end is below the median buyside bogey.

Oops: while this was above the median consensus of $37.1BN, it was far below the buyside expectations of $38.8BN; It was also well below Goldman's Q4 revenue expectations of $39BN and close to where the bank saw the stock dropping -10%.  In fact, some estimates for Q4 revenue were as high as $41 billion!

The rest of the guidance was in line but far less important:

  • Gross margins are expected to be 73.0% and 73.5%, respectively, plus or minus 50 basis points.
  • Operating expenses are expected to be approximately $4.8 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively.
  • Other income and expense are expected to be an income of approximately $400 million, excluding gains and losses from non-affiliated investments and publicly-held equity securities.
  • Tax rates are expected to be 16.5%, plus or minus 1%, excluding any discrete items.

Nvidia has only missed analysts’ estimates on quarterly revenue once in the past five years. And it has exceeded expectations by as much as 20% in recent periods, creating a very high bar for its performance.

The muted outlook suggests that AI excitement may be getting ahead of reality according to Bloomberg. Nvidia investors had bid up the shares nearly 200% in 2024, turning it into the world’s most valuable company at $3.6 trillion in market cap. But the chipmaker has had trouble keeping up with demand for its products and struggled with production snags this year.

To be fair, even with the disappointing outlook, Nvidia’s growth over the past two years has been staggering, simply because not one chipmaker has been able to take its market share (Intel unprecedented collapse in recent years can be largely to blame for that). Its sales are poised to double for a second year in a row, and it now notches more money in profit than it used to generate in total revenue (thanks to that 75% profit margin).

Nvidia's data center division alone now has more revenue than its two nearest rivals, Intel and AMD combined. Net income this year is on course to exceed revenue at Intel, a company that was the chip industry’s titan for decades.

The company’s biggest moneymaker is its accelerator chip, which helps develop AI models by bombarding them with data. Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot debuted in 2022, a frenzy of artificial intelligence services has created insatiable demand for the product.

Other recent earnings reports have given strong signals for AI. Major Nvidia customers, including Microsoft, Amazon's AWS and Meta have reaffirmed their commitment to spend on AI infrastructure, even if few have actually done the spend, as we noted during the recent Meta earnings call.

Nvidia hopes to stay ahead of rivals by accelerating its pace of innovation. That includes a commitment to updating its lineup annually; the company is currently introducing a design called Blackwell, which is faster and has an improved ability to link up with other chips, and which is expected to hit the company's P&L early next year, as a bevy of manufacturing challenges have slowed the Blackwell rollout. For now, Nvidia can’t fill all the orders it’s receiving, the company has said. After production improves, supplies will be plentiful, according to CEO Jensen Huang. For his sake, hopefully by then no competitors will have been able to come out with a faster, cheaper chip.

The Santa Clara, CA-based company has rapidly expanded its product lineup to include networking, software and services, as well as fully built-out computer systems. Huang is traveling the world lobbying for a broader adoption of his technology and trying to spread its use by corporations and government agencies.

Shares of Nvidia fell as much as 5% in after hours trading following the announcement, before settling about 2% lower, far below the 8.8% straddle. They previously closed at $145.89 in New York.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nvidia-drops-after-revenue-forecast-disappoints-exuberant-expectations

Trump’s FCC pick says ‘60 Minutes’ editing scandal could hit Paramount-Skydance merger review

 CBS’ refusal to release the transcript of its full “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris could factor into a government review of Paramount Global’s proposed merger with Skydance, according to President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC gives broadcast networks “free access to a valuable public resource, the airwaves” as long as they “serve the public interest,” Brendan Carr told Fox News host Dana Perino, as earlier reported by The Daily Beast.

Carr added that a conservative watchdog complaint that accused CBS’ “60 Minutes” of news distortion could factor into the agency’s decision on the Skydance-Paramount merger.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks with his FCC pick Brendan Carr during a SpaceX launch on Tuesday.AP

“I’m pretty confident that that news distortion complaint over the ’60 Minutes’ transcript is something that is likely to arise in the context of the FCC review of that transaction,” he said.

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Carr, Paramount and Skydance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Sunday, Trump selected Carr – who is currently the senior Republican on the FCC – to lead the agency, calling him a “warrior for Free Speech.” He first nominated Carr to serve as an FCC commissioner in 2017 during his first term as president.

Last month, Carr criticized CBS’ stubborn refusal to release the “60 Minutes” transcript. Earlier this week, he posted on X about the “privilege” bestowed to public media and vowed to “enforce” they act in the “public interest,” hinting at the revocation of some broadcast licenses.

CBS came under fire last month after it aired meandering, clunky answers from Harris’ interview during a preview on the network’s “Face the Nation” – and then included edited versions of her answers on the full “60 Minutes” episode.

Trump accused the Tiffany Network of foul play and demanded CBS release the full interview transcript. Carr also called for the network to release the transcript.

Last month, the network defended the editing decision and refused to release the transcript, arguing her answer was cut down to fit more content in a tight 21-minute-long segment.

“60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer,” the network said. “But a different portion of the response.”

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday selected Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the FCC, to lead the agency.AP

CBS did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The Center for American Rights, a nonprofit law firm backing conservative issues, then filed a formal complaint with the FCC accusing CBS of news distortion. 

“When broadcasters manipulate interviews and distort reality, it undermines democracy itself,” CAR president Daniel Suhr said in a statement in October. “The FCC must act swiftly to restore public confidence in our news media.”

Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the network, claiming it “deceptively” edited Harris’ answers to boost her chances of winning ahead of the election.

The FCC complaint and Trump’s lawsuit are each pending.

Carr’s comment that the news distortion complaint will be taken into consideration when reviewing Skydance and Paramount’s merger comes as Trump’s adversaries fear political retribution. 

CBS came under fire for editing Vice President Kamala Harris’ answers from her “60 Minutes” interview in October.AFP via Getty Images

“Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, staunch Trump opponents, flew to Mar-a–Lago to meet with the president-elect last week over concerns they would be slapped with legal and governmental roadblocks by the incoming administration, CNN reported based on anonymous sources.

An MSNBC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A journalist on X accused Carr of “threatening to harass NBC and CBS over MAGA conspiracy theories” during his Fox interview.

Carr replied in a post on X: “One quick note: I’m not a nominee. I am already confirmed through 2029. So becoming Chairman just requires a letter designation from the President. Enjoy!”

https://nypost.com/2024/11/20/business/brendan-carr-says-60-minutes-editing-scandal-could-affect-paramount-skydance-merger/