Top Philippine Bank CEO Says ‘Expect The Worst' Amid Tariff War
BDO Unibank Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Nestor Tan said Black Swan events — or unexpected situations usually with extreme consequences — are 'becoming more frequent,' citing the Asian financial crisis in late 1990s, the 2008 global financial crisis and the pandemic in 2020.
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CNBC
a day ago
- CNBC
Tech is getting a boost from AI ad tools. Some companies are being left behind
Artificial intelligence has been a shot in the arm for digital advertising. Meta and Alphabet both reported sales and earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations, but the strength in digital ad spend was notable. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the earnings call that AI helped imbue "greater efficiency and gains across our ad system," thus contributing to the 22% year-over-year increase of second-quarter sales that hit $47.52 billion. Meta finance chief Susan Li also told analysts during a follow-up earnings call on July 30 that the online ad market appears to have improved since April. In April, Li noted that Asia-based online retailers pulled back on their digital ad spending amid broader macroeconomic uncertainty due to President Donald Trump's tough tariffs and the closing of the de minimis trade loophole. This quarter, Li said there's been a noticeable "improvement" with those Asian-based ecommerce firms, which have increased their digital ad spending on the platform along with small, North American-based advertisers. "We generally expect another quarter of healthy advertising demand," Li said about the advertising pickup. Gil Luria, the head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said that while there is still broader macroeconomic uncertainty, "today, digital advertising in general, is doing well; It is simply an extension of the fact that the consumer is still strong." "There's optimism that consumer spending will hold up and therefore all the downstream markets will hold up," Luria said. "I think one of the things that its earnings taught us was that you can spend a lot of money on AI when your core business is doing well, and especially when your core business has been already benefiting from the investments that you've made in AI," Jasmine Enberg, a vice president and principal analyst for eMarketer, said about Meta's second quarter. The continued jaw-dropping pace of AI spending also doesn't seem to be slowing any time soon. Alphabet added an extra $10 billion to its 2025 forecast for capital expenditures, now pegged at $85 billion, while Meta raised the low end of its capital expenditures for the year to come in between $66 billion and $72 billion instead of $64 billion and $72 billion. Investors showed no signs of trepidation about Meta and Alphabet's massive AI spend because those companies' overall sales continued to rise. Outside of the tech giants, Reddit reported strong second-quarter sales of $500 million, representing a 78% year-over-year increase that helped lift the company's shares as much as 20%. "They kind of rose back like a phoenix and had some extraordinary results," Luria said about Reddit, which saw its shares plummet over 15% in February after it reported weaker-than-expected user numbers due to a Google search algorithm change. Reddit's blockbuster quarter contrasted with similar-sized peers like Snap and Pinterest, which both reported lukewarm quarterly earnings this week. Snap's second-quarter sales grew only 9% year-over-year and it missed Wall Street's estimates on global average revenue per user, a metric that refers to how much money the company derives from each user. Contributing to the miss was a botched update to Snap's advertising platform that hurt the company's "topline growth," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in an investor letter. The Snapchat parent on Wednesday also added Reddit to its list of competitors in its latest 10-Q filing on Wednesday, indicating a potential, burgeoning rivalry. Meanwhile, Pinterest shares sank over 10% on Thursday after it reported second-quarter earnings that missed on earnings per share. Pinterest finance chief Julia Brau Donnelly told analysts during an earnings call that the company is still noticing some tariff-related concerns, "and broader market uncertainty" as it previously indicated in May. Unlike Meta, Donnelly said that "Asia-based e-commerce retailers pulled back spend in the U.S.," underscoring how some advertisers gravitate toward bigger online ad platforms amid any signs of global economic uncertainty. "There's very little room for mistakes or missteps," Engberg said about the quarterly earnings reports from smaller tech firms like Snap and Pinterest. WATCHTech growth rates are remaining robust.
CNBC
a day ago
- CNBC
29-year-old left NYC for Istanbul, pays $1,369/month for a duplex apartment—take a look inside
In 2020, Doug Barnard was working in e-commerce at Walmart while trying to launch a YouTube channel dedicated to his travels. As a college student, Barnard took a trip with his mom to India that was so impactful it eventually inspired him to become a full-time traveler — a path he didn't think was possible for him. "Going to India was an eye-opening experience for me. It was the first time I'd been to some place so foreign, so stimulating and for me it was this epiphany that I needed to experience more," Barnard tells CNBC Make It. "The most exciting part was talking to the people and seeing how things work. The immersion was what really got me." Eventually, Barnard was laid off from his corporate job due to the covid-19 pandemic. He decided to take that time off to focus on growing his YouTube channel. In 2021, he left the United States and spent two years traveling the world before making Istanbul, Turkey, his home base in 2023. "Growing up in Connecticut, I never would have imagined that I'd ever end up living in a place like Istanbul or traveling to all the places that I've been lucky enough to travel to," Barnard says. "I found myself coming back to Istanbul again and again. It really is the perfect place for what I'm doing. It is pretty much the center of the world. I love the language, I love the culture, I love the history." When Barnard first moved to Istanbul, he lived alone in a one-bedroom apartment and payed approximately 16,000 Turkish Lira in rent, which at the time was equivalent to about $850 USD. Because of the fluctuating currency exchange rate, by the time he moved out, Barnard's rent had decreased to about $500 USD. Barnard met his girlfriend, İlkay, and the couple moved into a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom duplex apartment in the Kadıköy neighborhood. They pay 55,000 Turkish Lira or $1,368.91 USD a month in rent. The apartment came furnished and had a guaranteed parking spot but the couple has since gotten rid of their car. "I always describe it to people as kind of like the Brooklyn of Istanbul. It has a lot of thrift shops, coffee shops, bars and that kind of hipster vibe," Barnard says. "It's one of the best neighborhoods in the city, especially for younger people." Istanbul is split between two continents: Europe and Asia. For Barnard, it was important to live on the Asian side because it's less touristy. "I chose specifically to be on the Asian side. All of the historical stuff is on the European side, so tourists almost all stay over there and people tend to speak a bit more English too," Barnard says. "I really wanted to focus on learning the language. This neighborhood is very well connected, and it's also one of the most secular neighborhoods in Istanbul, whereas other neighborhoods can be much more conservative." The couple found the apartment using a website that Barnard describes as similar to Craigslist. They had been looking for a few weeks and then signed a one-year lease the same day they saw it in person for the first time. "It's kind of like New York. The housing market is so insane here that for anything that's even remotely attractive, there is only like a day or two to jump on it," Barnard says. The couple's additional monthly expenses average about 2,000 Turkish Lira, or approximately $50 USD. That includes bills like water, electricity, internet and gas. They also pay an additional building maintenance fee of about $45 USD. While Barnard and his girlfriend don't yet know if they will stay in Turkey, the couple has decided that if they do, they'll likely sign another one-year lease for the duplex. Barnard's time abroad inspired him to start a boutique tourism company called Doug Barnard Travel. They take small groups of 8 to 10 people on cultural immersion tours of places like Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan. Barnard offers private tours as well. The group tours start at $2,700 per person and what's included in that all-inclusive package can vary country to country. Flights are not included. "It is truly authentic travel. I mean it is as real as it gets. Places like Egypt and India are amazing but they have mass tourism industries and a place like Iraq is so new to tourism that you get a really authentic experience," Barnard says. "The people are excited to have you. The hospitality is out of this world and everything you're seeing is unparalleled." Since he's been living in Istanbul for over two years now, Barnard says the Turkish city is the perfect location for him because so much of his business is in the Middle East. It's one of the main reasons why he doesn't see himself moving back to the U.S. right now. "The more time I spend living in Istanbul and the more people I meet and the better I get at the language the more it feels like home," he says. 0.02
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
Drilling returns to West Africa's abandoned oil field after 27 years
After a 27-year hiatus, drilling has resumed at one of West Africa's oldest offshore oil fields, as Singapore-based Akrake Petroleum spearheads a major redevelopment of the Sèmè field off the coast of Benin. Drilling has resumed at the Sèmè offshore oil field in Benin after a 27-year hiatus, led by Singapore-based Akrake Petroleum. The project marks a revival for the site, which was last active in 1998, having previously yielded approximately 22 million barrels of oil. This initiative has implications for reducing Benin's oil import dependency, attracting investment, and enhancing its regional economic standing. The move marks a significant revival for a site first discovered in 1969 and last active in 1998, when operations ceased due to low oil prices and excessive water production. For context, one of Africa's leading oil-producing nations, Nigeria, made its first major commercial oil discovery at the Oloibiri Oilfield on January 15, 1956 - just 13 years earlier. That landmark discovery ended over five decades of unsuccessful exploration by various international oil companies and catapulted Nigeria onto the global stage as a major oil producer. According to a report by Offshore Energy, the field lies within Block 1, where Akrake holds a 76% stake under a production sharing contract, alongside the Government of Benin (15%) and Octogone Trading (9%). Akrake, itself a special-purpose company fully owned by Rex's subsidiary Lime Petroleum, is tasked with assessing the site's long-term development potential. Benin eyes potential oil windfall The redevelopment of the Sèmè offshore oil field marks a pivotal moment for Benin, a country absent from Africa's oil production map for nearly three decades. Production at the field ceased in 1998 after yielding roughly 22 million barrels, halted by falling global oil prices and rising water content. Since then, Benin has had virtually no upstream activity, depending entirely on imports to meet its petroleum needs. The resumption of drilling signals Benin's potential return to the ranks of West Africa's oil producers. While it remains too early to gauge the size of commercially recoverable reserves, the project carries broader implications. It could also reduce the nation's dependence on imported refined products, diversify government revenues, and attract downstream investments. The revival may also bolster Benin's standing within regional blocs like ECOWAS, where energy cooperation and cross-border infrastructure are gaining prominence. If successful, the phased redevelopment could re-establish Benin as a modest upstream player in the Gulf of Guinea, while underscoring the growing role of Asian energy companies in breathing new life into West Africa's legacy oil assets.
