Business
Apple stock nears record high
Apple has discovered its groove once more.
The iPhone maker’s inventory hit $133.82 in early buying and selling Monday, placing Apple lower than $1 away from its intraday buying and selling excessive of $134.54, reached in April 2015. Apple’s inventory ended the day at $133.29, beating its earlier document closing value of $133, set in February 2015.
The inventory surge, pushing Apple (AAPL) to a $700 billion market cap, comes amid renewed optimism for the iPhone.
Goldman Sachs raised its value goal for the inventory on Monday, citing the chance of “main new options” like “3D sensing” being added to the following iPhone mannequin, in response to an investor notice supplied to CNNMoney.
Apple’s earlier excessive was set six months after it launched the redesigned iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, kicking off what CEO Tim Prepare dinner described because the “mom of all upgrades.”
Since then, nonetheless, Apple has bucked its custom of overhauling the iPhone each different yr. The latest fashions available on the market right now look almost an identical to the iPhones obtainable in late 2014.
The lengthy wait, mixed with this yr marking the iPhone’s tenth anniversary, has solely raised expectations that Apple is about to considerably overhaul its smartphone and reignite demand.
Associated: Tim Prepare dinner: ‘Apple wouldn’t exist with out immigration’
Apple’s annual gross sales fell within the 2016 fiscal yr for the primary time since 2001 as iPhone gross sales, nonetheless the vast majority of its enterprise, declined in three consecutive quarters.
Apple even minimize its CEO’s pay by 15% as a result of firm’s failure to fulfill its efficiency objectives for each gross sales and income.
However that shedding streak simply ended.
Apple gross sales began rising once more within the December quarter, pushed by stronger demand for the iPhone — significantly for the bigger and costlier iPhone 7 Plus.
The corporate bought 78.3 million iPhones for the quarter, setting a brand new document. At the very least a few of that could be as a result of Samsung’s smartphone recall woes.
Mark Moskowitz, an analyst with William Blair, wrote in an investor notice this month, “Samsung’s Be aware 7 struggles doubtless helped.”
The iPhone is not the one purpose Wall Road is happy about Apple. There’s additionally President Trump.
Regardless of Trump clashing with Apple throughout the marketing campaign, traders are actually optimistic Apple will profit from a minimum of one Trump proposal: slicing taxes on money that U.S. companies convey again from their abroad accounts.
Apple presently has $230 billion in money held in international accounts. If Trump and Congress make it cheaper for Apple to convey that cash again, it might be used for acquisitions and buybacks.
CNNMoney (New York) First printed February 13, 2017: 12:24 PM ET
Business
Ahead of Possible Tariffs, No Rush to Get Goods In From Canada and Mexico
Companies in the United States do not appear to be making a concerted effort to rush in shipments from Mexico and Canada ahead of the high tariffs that President Trump has threatened to impose on Saturday.
Mr. Trump said after taking office that the United States would apply tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico, contending that they were allowing “mass numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.”
The tariffs would raise the cost of imports significantly, especially since tariffs are not applied to most goods under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal that Mr. Trump signed in 2020. Canada and Mexico together account for 30 percent of U.S. trade. Many industries could be saddled with extra costs, including the vast auto operations that straddle the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada.
Mr. Trump could withdraw his threat or reduce the tariff if he decides Canada and Mexico are doing more to address his complaints, Howard Lutnick, the president’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, suggested on Wednesday.
With the tariff deadline near, some data shows higher freight volumes on road and rail, but the increases are not especially large, and transportation experts say rail and trucking companies have the capacity to cope. The situation, they said, is quite different from 2021 and 2022, when a deluge of imports overwhelmed supply chains, causing shipping costs to skyrocket and helping fuel a rapid acceleration of inflation.
“The industry’s probably never been in a better spot to deal with significant changes in the marketplace,” said Scott Shannon, vice president of North America cross-border at C.H. Robinson, a freight forwarder.
Larry Gross, president of Gross Transportation Consulting, said the transportation of shipping containers by rail was up 10 percent in the first four weeks of the year across North America compared with the same period in 2024. But while efforts to bring in goods before tariffs very likely contributed to the increase, he said, other factors also played a role. A big one was a desire to get shipments in before a possible strike at the East and Gulf Coast ports that could have started in mid-January but was averted.
“Every system has its limitations,” Mr. Gross said, “But the network is far better positioned today than it was at the beginning of the post-pandemic surge.” He said regulatory data that show how many trains are not running because they lack crews or locomotives were not showing any warning signs.
And Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, noted that storing inventory has significant costs — financing and paying for warehouse space — that may deter companies from accelerating their imports.
The U.S. also imports huge amounts of goods from China. Mr. Trump said he was going to impose 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods on Saturday.
Imports from China arrive primarily through the ports. And while the volume of containers coming through U.S. ports has been strong in recent months, the ports — and trucks and railways that move cargo inland — have not had problems handling recent volumes.
Some businesses are concerned that applying tariffs to goods that currently lack them may slow customs processing at the Mexican and Canadian borders and cause delays. But Adam Lewis, a co-founder and the president of Clearit, an online customs broker, said he did not expect applying new tariffs to be difficult for the brokers.
While updating the brokers’ software may take a short while, he said, any new tasks relating to tariffs could be done manually without much trouble. “It’s pretty much business as usual,” Mr. Lewis said.
But there may be delays if U.S. Customs and Border Protection increases its scrutiny to ensure that businesses are complying. The agency did not comment.
Business
Online tracker shows insurance payments to wildfire survivors
A new online tool that tracks insurance payouts stemming from wildfires that devastated parts of Los Angeles County shows more than $4 billion has been paid so far, largely to replace lost personal items and cover living expenses.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced the new tracker Thursday.
Lara’s office said insurance companies have made the quick disbursements since the fires largely because of laws implemented after previous wildfires that help people find housing and replace personal items.
Monetary amounts shown on the tracker are expected to grow in the coming weeks and months as more people begin the claims process.
CoreLogic, a property data and analytics firm, estimates the Palisades and Eaton fires will result in $35 billion to $45 billion in insurance payouts to homeowners and businesses.
“With so much misinformation and speculation about our insurance market after the Southern California wildfires, it is critical for the public to track claims and monitor payouts. All eyes are on the insurance companies, and so are mine,” Lara said in a news release.
The numbers show that as of Jan. 27, 31,210 claims have been filed, with nearly half of those already partially paid under the laws requiring advance payments to speed recovery.
The bulk of unpaid claims are related to property damage and debris removal, Lara’s office said.
State law requires certain upfront payments by request. Insurance companies are required to provide funds for replacing personal property in an amount representing 30% of the policy’s dwelling limit, up to $250,000, without requiring the policyholder to file an itemized claim. They are also required to provide advance payment of no less than four months of living expenses.
Lara said he expects insurance companies “to continue providing advance payments that are essential for getting survivors back on their feet as quickly as possible.” After reports that some people were not getting upfront payments, Lara put out a bulletin reminding insurance companies of their obligations under the laws.
Michael Soller, a spokesperson for the insurance commissioner, said data were collected expressly for the purpose of promoting understanding among consumers that claims are being paid immediately and keeping insurance companies accountable.
“You’ve probably seen estimates out there. But this is the first real number of what’s been paid out to date to consumers,” Soller said.
The data displayed on the tracker were collected directly from insurance companies, including California’s Fair Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, and represents most residential and commercial property insurers. The insurance commissioner’s office expects to update the data every few weeks.
Business
Clues From D.C. Plane Crash Suggest Multiple Failures in Aviation Safety
Clues emerging from the moments before the deadly collision Wednesday night between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet suggest that multiple layers of the country’s aviation safety apparatus failed, according to flight recordings, a preliminary internal report from the Federal Aviation Administration, interviews with current and former air traffic controllers and others briefed on the matter.
The helicopter flew outside its approved flight path. The American Airlines pilots most likely did not see the helicopter close by as they made a turn toward the runway. And the air traffic controller, who was juggling two jobs at the same time, was unable to keep the helicopter and the plane separated.
An F.A.A. spokesman said the agency could not comment on the ongoing investigation, which is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board. Crash investigators will spend the next several months reviewing flight data, recordings from inside the cockpits, weather patterns, as well as interviewing controllers and others involved to try to figure out what went wrong.
But the catastrophe already appeared to confirm what pilots, air traffic controllers and safety experts had been warning for years: Growing holes in the aviation system could lead to the kind of crash that left 67 people dead in the Potomac River in Washington.
Even before an official cause is determined, there were signs Wednesday that pilots and air traffic controllers at Reagan National were not operating under optimal conditions.
The duties of handling air traffic control for helicopters and for planes at Reagan National on Wednesday night were combined before the deadly crash. That left only one person to handle both roles, according to a person briefed on the staffing and the report.
Typically one person handles both helicopter and plane duties after 9:30 p.m., when traffic at Reagan begins to lessen. But the supervisor combined those duties sometime before 9:30, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation into the crash. The crash occurred just before 9 p.m.
While there were no unusual factors causing a distraction for controllers that night, staffing was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the preliminary F.A.A. report said.
On Thursday, five current and former controllers said that the controller in the tower should have more proactively directed the helicopter and the plane to fly away from each other. Instead, the controller asked the helicopter to steer clear of the plane.
Some of the current and former controllers said the darkness could have made it more difficult for pilots to accurately gauge the distance between themselves and other aircraft. Some wondered whether the helicopter pilots mistook a different plane for the American jet.
The helicopter was supposed to be flying closer to the bank of the Potomac River and lower to the ground as it traversed the busy Reagan National airspace, four people briefed on the incident said.
Before a helicopter can enter any busy commercial airspace, it must get the approval of an air traffic controller. In this case, the pilot asked for permission to use a specific, predetermined route that lets helicopters fly at a low altitude along the bank on the east side of the Potomac, a location that would have let it avoid the American Airlines plane.
The requested route — referred to as Route 4 at Reagan National — followed a specific path known to the air traffic controller and helicopter pilots. The helicopter confirmed visual sight of a regional jet and the air traffic controller instructed the helicopter to follow the route and fly behind the plane.
But the helicopter did not follow the intended route, the people briefed on the matter said.
Rather, it was above 300 feet, when it was supposed to be flying below 200 feet, and it was at least a half-mile off the approved route when it collided with the commercial jet.
A senior Army official urged caution in making any assessments until the helicopter’s black box could be recovered and analyzed, along with other forensic data.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry, said the Black Hawk’s pilots had flown this route before, and were well aware of the altitude restrictions and tight air corridor they were permitted to fly in near the airport.
Safety lapses in aviation have been increasing for years, leading to an alarming pattern of close calls in the skies and at airports involving commercial airlines. They have occurred amid rising congestion at the country’s busiest airports, including Reagan National, where the frequent presence of military flights makes controlling traffic even more complicated.
At the same time, a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers has forced many to work six-day weeks and 10-hour days — a schedule so fatiguing that multiple federal agencies have warned that it could impede controllers’ abilities to do their jobs properly. Few facilities have enough fully certified air traffic controllers, according to a Times investigation in 2023. Some controllers say little has improved since then.
The air traffic control tower at Reagan National has been understaffed for years. The tower there was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels. The targets set by the F.A.A. and the controllers’ union call for 30.
An F.A.A. spokesman said on Thursday that Reagan National currently employs 25 certified controllers out of their goal of 28.
The controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways. Those jobs are typically assigned to two controllers, rather than one, the internal F.A.A. report said. This increases the workload for the air traffic controller and complicates the job.
Controllers can also use different radio frequencies to communicate with pilots flying planes and pilots flying helicopters. While the controller is communicating with pilots of the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other.
As the passenger jet’s pilots were approaching the airport, they were asked by air traffic control to pivot the landing from one runway to another, according to the F.A.A. report, a person briefed on the incident and audio recordings of conversations between an air traffic controller and the pilots. That request may have introduced another complication shortly before the collision.
The American Airlines flight had originally been cleared by the traffic control tower to land on the airport’s main runway, called Runway 1. The controller then asked the pilot to land on a different, intersecting runway instead — Runway 33 — which the pilot agreed to do.
That decision, according to the person who was briefed on the incident and four other people who are familiar with the airport’s air traffic, happens routinely when regional jets like the American Airlines aircraft are involved. The decision may also have been made to help keep air traffic moving efficiently by not clogging the main runway, the people said.
Runway 33 is shorter, requiring intense focus from pilots landing their planes. The last-minute change raised questions within the F.A.A. on Thursday morning about congestion at Reagan National, the person briefed on the event added.
Robert Isom, American’s chief executive, said at a news conference on Thursday that the pilots of the passenger plane involved in the crash had worked for PSA Airlines, an American subsidiary, for several years, The captain had been employed by the airline for almost six years, while the first officer had worked there for almost two years.
“These were experienced pilots,” he said.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting.
-
News6 days ago
Hamas releases four female Israeli soldiers as 200 Palestinians set free
-
Business1 week ago
Instagram and Facebook Blocked and Hid Abortion Pill Providers’ Posts
-
Politics7 days ago
Oklahoma Sen Mullin confident Hegseth will be confirmed, predicts who Democrats will try to sink next
-
Culture4 days ago
How Unrivaled became the WNBA free agency hub of all chatter, gossip and deal-making
-
Nebraska7 days ago
3 years of the Nebraska Examiner: Looking back for inspiration and ahead to growth, with your help • Nebraska Examiner
-
World6 days ago
Israel Frees 200 Palestinian Prisoners in Second Cease-Fire Exchange
-
Technology2 days ago
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta isn’t worried about DeepSeek
-
Business2 days ago
Tulsi Gabbard Defended Russia and Syria. Now She Must Defend Those Views.