Thales CEO: Massive use of drones in warfare is new
Thales CEO Patrice Caine discusses developments in the European defense sector and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
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41 minutes ago
JetZero plans to build $4.7B plant in North Carolina, aims to create 14,500 jobs
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — JetZero Inc. announced plans Thursday to build its first manufacturing plant for a next-generation passenger jet in central North Carolina, a project that if successful would create more than 14,500 jobs there in a decade. The California-based startup intends to build the factory at Greensboro's airport, investing $4.7 billion. The planned hirings from 2027 through 2036 would be the largest job commitment in North Carolina history, according to Gov. Josh Stein. The company previously identified Greensboro as one of three finalists for the factory to build its fixed-wing — also known as all-wing or blended-wing — Z4 aircraft, which JetZero says will be 50% more fuel-efficient than traditional tube-and-wing airliners. JetZero has said it's already received about $300 million in investment in the Z4 project, including a U.S. Air Force grant to build and fly a demonstrator model by 2027. United Airlines and Alaska Airlines also are project investors and have made conditional purchase agreements for their fleets, the company said. JetZero aims for the planes to go into service in the early 2030s, with a goal of completing 20 airplanes per month at full production. Stein, on hand with JetZero executives and other officials for the formal announcement at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, cited North Carolina's robust aerospace industry and the first manned powered flights at Kitty Hawk by the Wright brothers in 1903. 'North Carolina is the perfect location,' Stein said. 'North Carolina was first in flight. We are also the future of flight.' The jobs would pay minimum average salaries of more than $89,000, according to the state Department of Commerce, which provided details of the project earlier Thursday to a state committee that awards economic incentives. State and local monetary and training incentives for JetZero and the project described at the committee meeting could exceed $2.3 billion by the 2060s if investment and job-creation thresholds and other requirements are met. A portion of state incentives awarded by the committee — more than $1 billion over 37 years — is based on a percentage of income taxes withheld from plant workers' paychecks. The incentives also include up to $784 million from Guilford County and Greensboro and $450 million from the General Assembly to help with infrastructure, officials said. The project includes a research facility for composite structures. A commerce department official said that JetZero, headquartered in Long Beach, California, looked for over a year for a plant location, examining 25 sites in 17 states. JetZero, currently with just 225 workers, enters a jet purchasing market dominated by industry behemoths U.S.-based Boeing and European Airbus. 'We have already shown strong commercial interest and momentum to meet the real airline demand for this aircraft,' CEO Tom O'Leary said. 'So this is more than just a factory. It's a launchpad for a new chapter of American aerospace.' While a variant of the Z4 would have tanker and transport uses in the military, JetZero has said that it would focus first on building a commercial jetliner with about 250 seats and a range of 5,000 nautical miles. The 5-year-old company says the plane's shape will reduce drag and the mounting of engines on the top and back of the plane will make it much quieter than traditional airliners. The Z4 would run on conventional jet fuel but could be converted to hydrogen fuel, according to JetZero. JetZero says Z4 travelers will board through larger doors and into shorter but wider cabins, and aisles will be less congested as bathrooms will be far away from galleys where meals are prepared. 'It's going to deliver a better passenger experience than you've ever had before on any other plane,' O'Leary said. The state is already home to more than 400 aerospace companies. And the Piedmont Triad airport has emerged as an industry hot spot, with Honda Aircraft placing its headquarters there and Boom Supersonic building its first full-scale manufacturing plant for next-generation supersonic passenger jets. The central location and easy access to interstates also lured Toyota to build an electric battery plant in adjoining Randolph County. North Carolina's previous largest economic development project, measured by employment, was revealed in 2022, when Vietnamese automaker VinFast announced plans to build an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Chatham County, promising 7,500 jobs.
CNBC
43 minutes ago
- CNBC
The U.S. dollar hasn't been this weak in 3 years. What that means for stock investors
The U.S. dollar index on Thursday hit its lowest level since late March 2022 — putting renewed spotlight on what has been one of the biggest stories in financial markets this year: the weakening greenback. As the world's reserve currency, the U.S. dollar is held in large quantities by global central banks. Key commodities such as gold and oil are priced in dollars. Many foreign transactions, even when American parties aren't involved, also are conducted in dollars. When something that important reaches multiyear lows, investors and consumers alike are forced to consider the implications of the move for U.S. markets and the economy as a whole. At the heart of it is exchange rates. What is the rate at which a foreign buyer can exchange their local currency for dollars? And what is the rate at which Americans can exchange their dollars for foreign currencies? Those who have traveled internationally are likely quite familiar with this. From the investor perspective, the question is how the strength of the dollar plays into our companies' sales and earnings. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies including the euro and Japanese yen, has trended lower since January. However, its losses picked up steam after President Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2. While many assets sold off then and have since recovered, the dollar hasn't shared the same fate. When the dollar is strong, foreign buyers need to trade in more of their local currency — the currency they save and spend in — for U.S. dollars in order to purchase any dollar-denominated goods. Keep in mind: Even if a European purchases an iPhone in euros, those euros are eventually converted to dollars and that conversion rate is going to factor into the euro-denominated price that European shoppers may see in their local store. On the other hand, a weak dollar means that foreign buyers have relatively more buying power. When their local currency strengthens against the dollar, they can trade in fewer local currency units such as euros for an equal number of dollars. In effect, the price has gone down, a dynamic that usually leads to an increase in demand — all else equal. Sales going up because the foreign buyer feels a relative increase in their buying power is one reason why a weaker dollar is generally positive for U.S. companies' overseas business. To be sure, in this scenario, the U.S. company may see an increase in costs for any supplies that it needs to import from foreign countries because their dollars are worth less. However, because companies sell goods and services for more than it costs to make them, the end result is generally a net positive for earnings — the magnitude of that benefit depends, of course, on the share of sales generated outside the U.S. and the makeup of the supply chain. On Microsoft's most recent earnings call, CFO Amy Hood illustrated this dynamic (FX is shorthand for foreign exchange): "With the weakening of the U.S. dollar in April, we now expect FX to increase total revenue growth by 1 point. Within the segments, we expect FX to increase revenue growth by 1 point in Productivity and Business Processes and less than 1 point in Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing. We expect FX to increase [cost of goods sold] operating expense growth by less than 1 point." As we see, Microsoft is expecting cost of goods sold to increase at a lower percentage than the benefit to revenue growth. Indeed, we heard similar commentary Thursday from Wall Street veteran and IBM Vice Chair Gary Cohn. Appearing on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday morning, Cohn affirmed that the weaker dollar is good for IBM. "Yeah, it is," he said. "IBM is an American-based manufacturing company that sells a lot of overseas and repatriates earnings. Think of U.S. domiciled multinational corporations that sell product overseas and report dollar-based earnings." To recap: For investors, a weaker dollar should generally be viewed as a tailwind for foreign sales of U.S. companies — even though some of the benefit may be offset by inputs sourced from foreign markets that are purchased in dollars. The net effect on the bottom line depends on each individual companies' mix of foreign and domestic sales and inputs. There are additional ripple effects on consumer behavior that investors should monitor, beyond the euro-denominated iPhone example we touched on above. Arguably the most important is travel demand, which obviously impacts all sorts of companies including Club name Disney and Bullpen member Airbnb . A weaker dollar means that U.S. citizens traveling abroad will need to convert more dollars than before into the currency of their destination. Consequently, U.S. consumer appetite for international travel should be expected to take a bit of a hit. Back in 2022, when the euro and dollar hit parity for the first time in two decades , everyone was talking about how good it was to be an American traveler going to Europe that summer. It's a different ballgame now. The beneficiaries this summer are foreign travelers coming to the U.S., who will arrive with relatively more buying power than they otherwise would have in January. The U.S. dollar index ended that month around 108. It's around 98 on Thursday. The implication is that a trip to Disney's theme parks in Florida and California is relatively more affordable for intentional travelers than it was just a few months ago. In this way, U.S. companies also may be able to benefit in the domestic market from an increase in foreign tourism — unless there are other countervailing forces that would make them want to travel elsewhere . How does all of this play into our investment decisions? The answer is that it's one data point that we consider in the much larger universe of data. As fundamental investors, we must be aware of the implications of macroeconomic forces such as currency markets. But they do not, by themselves, drive our moves. Consider the case of Apple , where its growth potential in foreign markets is a major opportunity and reason to be optimistic about its future. In that sense, it's reasonable to assume that a weaker dollar would be a positive for the company – and indeed, it is. However, it is not a large enough positive for us to forget about all the other headwinds for Apple. Sure, the dollar is weaker, but it still must deal with tariffs resulting from where its goods are manufactured. There are court battles threatening its lucrative services business. Of course, there's the seeming lack of progress on Apple Intelligence. History suggests Apple is a strong enough operator to navigate these issues – and we are not counting them out of the AI race just yet, given its record-high installed base is a major advantage. The point is that there are much bigger considerations in our investment decisions than currency fluctuations. Or consider the case of Home Depot , which does 92% of sales in the U.S. but sources many goods internationally. The dollar is headwind – to the tune of $275 million in sales in the first quarter – given that the bulk of demand comes from U.S. consumers and the weak dollar serves to increase the supply costs (not unlike an import tariff). However, that is not in our view enough to sell the stock, not when interest rates are expected to decline and in turn provide a boost to the housing market, whether that's through renovations or new building activity. Finally, while we won't get too political, investors should also keep tabs on what is fueling the move in currency markets. In a lot of cases, the "why" behind the move is likely to be far more useful to investors than the absolute strength or weakness of the greenback. In other words, we must ask ourselves what is causing the move, and then ask ourselves what that cause means for our investments. For example, consider a situation where the dollar is weakening simply because interest rates are expected to move lower as the rate of inflation declines – and so there's less demand for U.S. government bonds and the dollars needed to purchase those bonds. That's a pretty solid reason for a weakening dollar and there wouldn't be a cause for concern among investors. On the other hand, if the dollar – or any other currency for that matter – is weakening because investors are growing concerned about the stability in that country, that would likely be cause for concern because it may portend a fundamental shift in capital flow dynamics. In the end though, these are more so concerns for macro-oriented investors. As primarily bottoms-up fundamental investors with a long-term time horizon, we are much more focused on happening with companies themselves — and the industries they're operating in — than we are with the strength of the U.S. dollar in any given stretch of time. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long HD, DIS and AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
FIFA Club World Cup Squad Values Exceed $12 Billion
The FIFA Club World Cup squad lists have been revealed. The landmark tournament in soccer this summer will be FIFA's new Club World Cup, which will go ahead with over $12 billion in player value on the field, despite struggles to sell tickets for games. Data from Sportingpedia calculates the value of the squad lists submitted by the 32 teams involved from across the globe, with five clubs surpassing a squad value of over $1 billion in the form of Real Madrid, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich. One of the other intriguing points flagged by the data shows that those five clubs' squads are worth more than the remaining 27 teams added together, as fears emerge about the quality gap between some teams. When comparing the most valuable squad at the tournament, Real Madrid at €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion), with the least valuable squad, belonging to New Zealand side Auckland City at €4.6 million ($5.3 million), Real Madrid's squad is worth over 289 times as much. Despite that, the opening game between Inter Miami and Al Ahly, on June 14th at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, will have squads worth a combined $134 million, less than the value of half of the clubs' squads in the tournament. In particular, European clubs have a significant advantage, as the top 11 teams for squad value are all European. The highest value of a non-European club is €252.6 million ($292.5 million) from Brazilian side Palmeiras. When analyzing U.S.-based teams more closely, we see that Inter Miami leads Seattle Sounders, with Los Angeles FC coming in below them, however even Inter Miami's value stands at only €66.2 million ($76.6 million). The lowest values from the U.S. belong to the Seattle Sounders, who rank at €51.8 million ($60 million), and Los Angeles FC at €46 million ($53.3 million), with the 25th highest value squad of the 32 teams involved. The country with the highest squad values of its clubs belongs to England, worth €2.3 billion ($2.7 billion), followed by Spain, Germany and Italy, all worth over $1 billion. That is despite Brazil being the nation with the most clubs, four, and ranking highly among the non-European nations. The most valuable group to watch will be Group G, with a combined market value of €2 billion ($2.3 billion), which is more than three times the value of the lowest-valued group in Group F, where Borussia Dortmund are the only side to break into nine-figures for squad value. In Group G, Manchester City, boosted by recent transfer business to sign Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait Nouri, and Tijjani Reijnders, will be joined by another heavyweight in Italian side Juventus, as well as Abu Dhabi-based side Al Ain and Moroccan team Wydad. The group which looks to be the most competitive is Group B, where Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain are the top dogs at €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion), and are joined by valuable sides such as Atlético Madrid at €508.5 million ($588.8 million), as well as Botafogo's €163.2 million ($188.9 million) and Seattle Sounders.
