Pelican Press

Couples Who Married During the Covid Pandemic Reflect Five Years Later Couples Who Married During the Covid Pandemic Reflect Five Years Later The March 21, 2020, wedding of Julie Samuels and Joe Hillyer in Montclair, N.J., ushered in an unparalleled time for the Vows and Mini-Vows columns. Because of the coronavirus pandemic and its crowd-size and social-distancing mandates, couples had to get creative about how to pull off weddings. Ms. Samuels and Mr. Hillyer had their nuptials on the front porch of their home as a honking convoy of friends and family drove in circles around the block cheering them on. A couple who met at the Dunkin’ drive-through window in Edmond, Okla. — she as an employee, he as a customer — said their vows through that same window with guests watching from the parking lot. The fashion model and labor activist Sara Ziff married the photographer Reed Young at a train station in Philipstown, N.Y. And some couples married with no one else in the room, their officiant beaming in over Zoom. Their reasons for not wanting to wait varied: to honor a long-awaited wedding date, secure health insurance or to follow their dream of starting a family. If weddings looked different five years ago, the permutations of romance that led to them held steady. Canceling weddings became commonplace. Love endured. Here is a look at four couples who married during Covid despite the difficulties involved, and their reflections on how saying “I do” at such a fraught time shaped the relationships they’re in now. Julie Samuels and Joe Hillyer “The day of our wedding, we raised a glass with Brian and Andy across the driveway,” said Ms. Samuels, referring to Brian Juergens and Andy Swist, neighbors who decorated their own porch with bright crepe paper ****** to help the couple celebrate. “Then we went inside and stayed there for two years.” Ms. Samuels, now 58, is an intellectual property and commercial transactions lawyer in Manhattan. Mr. Hillyer, 63, is the director of logistics and postal affairs at Scholastic, and works remotely from the house in Connecticut the couple moved into in 2024. The spaciousness of their rented home in Montclair helped them weather the first few years of a marriage, which might have been more challenging in closer quarters. Not every newlywed couple, they agree, benefits from so much togetherness. “I don’t recommend being locked inside with your new husband 24/7 under stressful circumstances,” Ms. Samuels said. “There were moments, I think, of ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’” Both learned to let those moments dissolve behind closed doors. By day, they retreated to separate home offices, checking in with each other to coordinate a dinner plan. (Mr. Hillyer, whose love of cooking helped him win Ms. Samuels’s heart when they started dating in 2007, became an even more accomplished cook during lockdown, both said.) By night, “we hunkered down and took care of each other,” Mr. Hillyer said. They hesitate to say they’re glad they started their marriage with the world in crisis. But “having weathered all that and come out the other side still wanting to be married to each other — ultimately it’s a testament to this relationship,” Ms. Samuels said. Now that the pandemic emergency is over, she said, “we’re both really good at expressing appreciation for what the other one is doing — and whenever one of us faces something, the other one is 1,000 percent in that person’s corner.” Kirsten Wazalis and Glenn Leader Kirsten Wazalis and Glenn Leader were married wearing “Mr.” and “Mrs.” face masks outside their Philadelphia rowhouse in April 2020 as friends in Philadelphia Flyers jerseys watched from idling cars. When Covid roared in, they didn’t think they had anything new to learn about each other. In their eight years as a couple, they had weathered a series of medical crises brought on by Cowden syndrome, the rare genetic disorder that causes Ms. Wazalis to grow tumors throughout her body. Their decision to marry in 2020 was partly because Mr. Leader, now 51, wanted Ms. Wazalis, now 54, to have access to his health insurance. She had been through endometrial, breast and thyroid *******. A clerical error had caused her to lose Medicare benefits. Life didn’t get any easier on the health front after they wed in front of a homemade scoreboard reading “Covid 19: 0, Leader: 1.” Ms. Wazalis’s thyroid ******* came back, a tumor surfaced in her gallbladder and she had to start seeing a cardiologist for heart problems. But the pandemic changed the couple, who met in a local bar and bonded over 1980s jukebox hits. In a nutshell, “we got boring,” said Ms. Wazalis, who can’t work because of her medical issues; Mr. Leader is a landscaper with the Department of Agriculture in Wyndmoor, Pa. “Instead of going to happy hour, we learned everything there is to learn about family.” When they married, she already had three grandchildren. Now there are five, ages 2 to 11. The grandchildren, who have regular group sleepovers at a house the couple bought last year three blocks from the rowhouse, call Ms. Wazalis “Honey” and Mr. Leader “Pop Pop.” “We don’t go out anymore, but the kids brought us even closer,” said Mr. Leader, who is known as “the milkshake man” for his skill at blending liquid treats for the grandchildren. He and Ms. Wazalis are judges of a weekly sliding competition on a Little Tikes sliding board they set up in the living room. Ms. Wazalis said Mr. Leader loved her more now than he did the day they were married. “I can tell because when I’m laid up and can’t get to the store, he goes and gets me my favorite cherry water ice,” she said. “He never forgets me.” Helen Kim and Peter Moon Health wasn’t top of mind for Helen Kim and Peter Moon when they married on Sept. 12, 2020, in the Moon family’s backyard in Wilmette, Ill. They were too busy trying to keep Ms. Kim’s Chicago coffee shop afloat while helping other cafes and restaurants avoid succumbing to the pandemic death spiral. “The thing to do during Covid was order a lot of takeout to support small businesses,” Mr. Moon said. “That meant eating a lot of food that wasn’t great for us.” Ms. Kim and Mr. Moon, who are now both 33, have since sold Coffee Lab & Roasters, where Mr. Moon took on barista duties when things were looking particularly dire. After that, their mental health improved, too, they said. “We were working seven days a week,” said Ms. Kim, who sold the shop to an employee in 2023. “We were stressed all the time.” She is now a tea production manager at Spirit Tea, a local company. Mr. Moon is a server at Jinsei Motto, a Chicago sushi restaurant. “It’s nice to be an employee,” Ms. Kim said. The couple hosted a second wedding celebration, for 140 people, in December 2021 at Greenhouse Loft in Chicago. Only 20 masked guests had attended the 2020 backyard wedding. Friends who couldn’t be there were represented by life-size face photos. At the second wedding, Ms. Kim and Mr. Moon lived out their fantasy of dancing until dawn. “It felt like we were finally able to close our wedding chapter,” Mr. Moon said. Ms. Kim’s father, Moody Kim, had by then fully accepted Mr. Moon. When the couple started dating, in 2019, Mr. Moon’s fondness for metalcore music and his use of profanity on social media had set Mr. Kim on edge. “But my dad really likes Peter now,” Ms. Kim said. “He’ll look at me sometimes and say, ‘You married well.’ Everything’s gotten better over time.” Sasha Jackson and Stephen Small Warner II “Looking back, the pandemic washed away what didn’t matter,” said Stephen Small-Warner II, who married Sasha Jackson on Feb. 7, 2021, at his family’s brownstone in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a Brooklyn neighborhood. “I was able to focus on what I wanted to hold on to in the waves.” The couple, who met in 2008 as undergraduates at Howard University and fell in love while collaborating on a film project, now have two daughters: Sailah, 2, and Siya, 6 months. When they married, they were living in Los Angeles and working as independent filmmakers. In 2023, Ms. Jackson and Mr. Small-Warner II, who are now both 37, moved back to Bedford-Stuyvesant to raise their daughters near family. (Ms. Jackson grew up nearby in Crown Heights.) They are still independent filmmakers, with their own projects. But now, between writing long entries in a shared journal and figuring out whose turn it is to give the girls a bath, they’re working together on a feature film about their love story. The 10 family members who took Covid tests before gathering at the brownstone are supporting them on their filmmaking journey. The pandemic provided perspective. “It dramatically shifted our life,” Ms. Jackson said. “Everything from the film industry slowing down to us figuring out how to navigate the world together at this new pace.” Like other couples who held tight to each other when the world got quiet in 2020, they emerged from a fog of pandemic uncertainty feeling grateful. “It was a scary, tragic time,” Ms. Jackson said. But now, “we can see the foundation we built for our family more clearly,” Mr. Small-Warner II said. “We’re stronger than ever.” Source link #Couples #Married #Covid #Pandemic #Reflect #Years Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Try stocks with strong fundamentals, less risk in market tumult, Piper Sandler says Try stocks with strong fundamentals, less risk in market tumult, Piper Sandler says Heightened tensions around President Donald Trump’s tariffs have weighed on the market in recent days, but some stocks could provide investors safety amid persistent uncertainty, according to Piper Sandler. All three major averages closed the past week lower after Trump on Monday said that 25% tariffs would be imposed on goods from Canada and Mexico and that an additional 10% tariff on ******** goods would go into effect. That sent stocks into a tailspin, with stocks seeing their worst week since September. “Unlike selloffs in recent years, where the transmission mechanism that would provide relief for the market’s primary issues (rising CPI in ’22, rising 10yr [yield] in ’23, rising unemployment in ’24) was more predictable, this is different in that the market doesn’t quite know how far Trump is willing to go on tariffs or what his reaction function is to ‘bad news,'” wrote Piper analyst Michael Kantrowitz. “In a way, this is more reminiscent of 2018’s 4Q selloff where the market wasn’t happy with Powell’s policy plans and didn’t bottom until he pivoted.” As a result, investors should “avoid trying to time the market and pick up stocks with stronger fundamentals and less risk that they can underwrite for longer than a trade,” the Wall Street firm continued. To find such stocks, Piper ran a screen looking for companies that could be set up to outperform in the current economic environment and are positively correlated to U.S. corporate bond risk spreads. Below are some of the names that appeared on the list. Shares of food retailer Kroger rose nearly 5% Friday, touching a new 52-week high and putting the stock’s weekly gain at about 3%. By Piper’s internal ranking system, Kroger received a macroeconomic select score and corporate bond risk spread score of 1. The move Friday extended Thursday’s gains, which came on the back of Kroger forecasting annual same-store sales above analysts’ expectations. More than half of sell-side analysts have a bullish stance on the grocery chain, with 13 of 25 having an equivalent of a buy rating, and 12 a neutral option, according to LSEG data. In the past six months, Kroger has far outpaced the broader market, surging almost 28% versus less than 7% for the S & P 500. KR YTD mountain KR, year-to-date Echoing Piper, Morgan Stanley said last week that Dollar General is among the stocks it thinks might be insulated from Trump’s tariffs . The discounter, based outside Nashville, has a macro select score of 1 and a corporate bond risk spread score of 2, using Piper’s own internal scores. Shares of the discount retailer advanced more than 7% on Friday, capping a weekly gain of more than 10%. Dollar General has done well over the past month, rising almost 13%, but remains lower by more than 48% over the past year. DG YTD mountain DG, year-to-date OIl and gas producer Hess , which climbed almost 3% on Friday, also made it on to Piper’s screen, having a macro select score and corporate bond risk spread score of 2. Hess has risen almost 11% in 2025 compared with the 2% decline in the S & P 500. Source link #stocks #strong #fundamentals #risk #market #tumult #Piper #Sandler Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Juan Hamilton, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Companion and Contested Heir, Dies at 79 Juan Hamilton, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Companion and Contested Heir, Dies at 79 Juan Hamilton, an aspiring artist who enriched the last years of the painter Georgia O’Keeffe as her much younger caretaker, confidant and protégé, but who became the object of sensational accusations as virtually the sole beneficiary of her will, died on Feb. 20 at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 79. His death, from complications of a subdural hematoma suffered several years ago, was confirmed by his wife, Anna Marie Hamilton. For the last decade of Ms. O’Keeffe’s life, nobody was closer to her than Mr. Hamilton. When they met, he was 27, a strapping, rootless, recently divorced potter with a well-sculpted mustache. She was a petite, increasingly blind 85-year-old whose bohemian past, painterly inventiveness and uncompromising devotion to her work made her an embodiment of the spirit of modern art. A childless widow, Ms. O’Keeffe lived in rural New Mexico, nowhere near her Wisconsin-born relatives. Many of her visitors were strangers — young supplicants who had traveled from far away to seek her blessing and bask in her aura. Mr. Hamilton was one such pilgrim. Their relationship would ultimately determine what would happen to Ms. O’Keeffe’s estate, estimated to be worth some $90 million, and who would oversee her legacy. It would also mark Mr. Hamilton for the rest of his life, leaving him with a small fortune, an up-and-down career as an artist and memories that followed him to his deathbed. It all started one morning on Labor Day weekend in 1973. Mr. Hamilton was a handyman at Ghost Ranch, a sprawling property mostly owned by the Presbyterian Church, where Ms. O’Keeffe had her residence. He knocked on her back door, and when she answered, he asked if she had any odd jobs for him to do. Ms. O’Keeffe said she did not, and he began walking away. “Wait a minute,” she called after him. “Can you help me pack a shipping crate?” Mr. Hamilton would later say that he had traveled to Ghost Ranch inspired by a “dream-fantasy” that had come to him while aimlessly driving around: that he would find Ms. O’Keeffe, give her one of his pots and discover that she was in need of a friend, triggering a significant change in both lives. At first he did menial chores for her. Eventually, he took on more personal tasks, like cutting her food at meals and handling her correspondence. Sometimes he stayed with her for a little while in the evening to listen to Beethoven piano sonatas. They began traveling together — to Antigua, Guatemala, Morocco, New York. He also took on the roles of editor and curator, helping to produce books and exhibitions about Ms. O’Keeffe and her husband, the photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, who died in 1946. That work won glowing reviews, including from Joan Didion and the art critic Hilton Kramer. With Mr. Hamilton’s encouragement, Ms. O’Keeffe took up watercolor for the first time in decades and appeared in a 1977 documentary, which The New York Times described as “the first time that the artist has agreed to a film portrait of herself and her work.” The inspiration went both ways. Working in both clay and bronze, Mr. Hamilton went beyond pottery into sculpting abstract shapes, gaining a fine control over the way lacquer and polish reflect light. In a 1977 interview with ARTnews, Ms. O’Keeffe said of Mr. Hamilton, “I think there’s something in him that is like pure crystal.” The Times included the two in a 1979 article headlined “The Older Woman‐Younger Man Relationship: A Taboo Fades.” Friends said their connection was not *******, just intensely affectionate. “There is prejudice against us because she is an older woman,” Mr. Hamilton told People magazine, “and I’m young and somewhat handsome.” Gallerists hoping to reach Ms. O’Keeffe had to go through him, and his sculptures began to be widely exhibited. The Times art writers Grace Glueck and John Russell both praised his abstract bronzes. In 1978 he had a show in New York, and Andy Warhol and Joni Mitchell attended. So did a representative of Doris Bry, Ms. O’Keeffe’s recently fired agent, who served Mr. Hamilton with a lawsuit accusing him of “malicious interference” in Ms. Bry’s relationship with Ms. O’Keeffe. That suit and two others involving Ms. O’Keeffe and Ms. Bry were settled, but the incident was a sign of things to come. “There was lots of jealousy, lots of ‘let’s get Juan,’” an unnamed friend told The Washington Post. In 1980, Mr. Hamilton married Anna Marie (Prohoroff) Erskine, another Ghost Ranch pilgrim, and they had two sons, Albert and Brandon. When Ms. O’Keeffe’s health deteriorated, the family moved in with her in Santa Fe, near a hospital. She died at 98 in 1986. By then Mr. Hamilton had power of attorney over her affairs. But after her death something new emerged: In 1984, a codicil to Ms. O’Keeffe’s will had transferred “just under $40 million worth of O’Keeffe’s artwork” and “approximately $50 million worth of property” from charitable institutions to Mr. Hamilton, a lawyer for June Sebring, a niece of Ms. O’Keeffe’s, later said in court. Ms. Sebring was one of several relatives to accuse Mr. Hamilton of having exerted “undue influence.” A series of bitter attacks followed. In a deposition, Catherine Klenert, Ms. O’Keeffe’s last living sibling, called Mr. Hamilton “nothing but a tramp.” In Roxana Robinson’s “Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life” (1989), relatives were quoted as calling him a “gigolo,” while the author argued that the relationship was “confused” by “greed.” Nevertheless, The Washington Post reported in 1987 that “there is no question that it was Hamilton, not relatives, who cared for O’Keeffe in her final years, and that he also gave her life joy and purpose.” In a 1990 takedown of Ms. Robinson’s biography in The Journal of Art, the critic Barbara Rose wrote, “Juan Hamilton was not Georgia O’Keeffe’s lover, he was the son she never had.” He was “the only person she totally trusted,” Ms. Rose continued, because he was willing to do for her what she had done for her husband, Mr. Stieglitz: fiercely guard the integrity of an artist’s vision after the artist’s death. In the end, Mr. Hamilton reached an agreement with her relatives, reverting to an earlier version of the will and granting the family millions of dollars. He received more than two dozen artworks and much of her property. A foundation was established to handle many of the estate’s affairs. In her essay, Ms. Rose wrote that without Mr. Hamilton’s supervision, Ms. O’Keeffe’s paintings were being turned into calendars: “Everything O’Keeffe feared has come to pass. Her images have been cheapened; her life has turned into a soap opera.” John Bruce Hamilton was born on Dec. 22, 1945, in Dallas. He was known as Juan because he spent most of his childhood in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, where his parents, Alan and Claire (Kitzmiller) Hamilton, were Presbyterian missionaries. His father was also a school principal. His mother took Juan to visit local potters, and he started playing with clay. During his high school years, the family lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and in Glen Rock, N.J. He earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art from Hastings College, in Nebraska, and went on to study sculpture at Claremont Graduate University, in California. After Ms. O’Keeffe’s will was settled, Mr. Hamilton bought a large property in Honolulu and a farm on Maui. His sons went to private school. Yet he lost status in the art world. “The whole story with Juan was so sensationalized, and it drove people to not take him seriously,” Ms. Hamilton, his wife, said in an interview. “I think he got more and more disillusioned.” He continued to sell his own work, but he increasingly focused on landscaping his farm. In addition to his wife and sons, he is survived by a sister, Elizabeth Hildreth, and two grandchildren. His first marriage, to Victoria Weber, ended in divorce. Contrary to claims that he was a fortune hunter, for decades Mr. Hamilton held on to the art and ephemera he had inherited from Ms. O’Keeffe. In 2020, when he decided it was financially necessary, he sold more than 100 items from his collection through Sotheby’s, netting $17.2 million, ARTnews reported. Still, he refused to part with a painting she had done that had inspired his sculptures, as well as several of Mr. Stieglitz’s prints and drawings by Constantin Brancusi that Ms. O’Keeffe had given him. By the end of his life, Mr. Hamilton had trouble walking. From bed, he often had the same request, his wife said: for her to bring him the old works of art that he and Ms. O’Keeffe had loved so many decades before. Source link #Juan #Hamilton #Georgia #OKeeffes #Companion #Contested #Heir #Dies Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Secret Service shoots armed man in confrontation near White House Secret Service shoots armed man in confrontation near White House The U.S. Secret Service insignia is pictured on a wall at the Secret Service headquarters in Washington. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters The U.S. Secret Service shot an adult male in Washington, D.C. early Sunday morning after an “armed confrontation” with law enforcement, according to the agency. On Saturday, local police had reported a “suicidal individual” possibly traveling to D.C. from Indiana, the agency said. Secret Service personnel later located the individual’s vehicle and spotted a person on foot who matched the description. “As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm, and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the Secret Service said Sunday in a statement shared on X by spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. “The suspect was transported to an area hospital and his condition is unknown.” The statement also noted that no injuries were reported among Secret Service personnel, and that the incident was under investigation. This is a developing story please check back for updates. Source link #Secret #Service #shoots #armed #man #confrontation #White #House Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

What Happened to the Bulky Sneaker? They Are Getting Smaller What Happened to the Bulky Sneaker? They Are Getting Smaller After years of the ever *******, ever bulkier sneaker, there seems to be bit of a backlash: Sneakers have become sleek, streamlined and, in a word, skinny. “There was a shift, I think it was in the fall of 2023, where you saw a lot more Sambas on the street, with that slick sole,” said Federico Barassi, the vice president of men’s wear at the ********* e-commerce site SSENSE, citing the popular Adidas style. “People started to have some fatigue with those big bubble-y, older sneakers.” Recent runways were awash with aerodynamic and attenuated versions, from Prada’s slipper-like Collapse sneaker with its elasticized foot opening ($975) to Dries Van Noten’s suede sneakers ($475) that referenced 1970s running shoes. Ganni is offering little ballerina lace-ups ($495), while Maison Margiela has released a flattened and cleated riff ($820) on its own popular Replica style. Miu Miu, the reigning cool girl brand, recently released the low-profile Plume ($895), an elegant entrant into the slim sneaker canon. Larger sportswear brands have picked up on this sylphlike silhouette. Puma brought its classic Speedcat, first introduced in 1999, out of retirement last summer, while Adidas revived its svelte Taekwondo and Tokyo models. Nike is resurrecting the Total 90 III, with a futuristic feel and off-kilter laces, this spring and summer; in late-January the designer Jacquemus sent the horizontally inclined Moon Shoe, a track sneaker introduced in 1972, down his runway as part of a collaboration with the company. In addition to a smaller, sleeker appearance, these styles often have a smooth, tapered profile, akin to a bullet. Or, as GQ recently named them, “torpedo sneakers.” “It really benefits the big brands that have been around for long enough to have shoes from those eras like the 1960s and 1970s,” said Brendan Dunne, who heads up sneaker coverage at Complex and who also name-checked the Samba’s popularity as a catalyst for the current movement. “One of the interesting things happening in sneaker consumption right now is the rise of brands like On or Hoka taking market share from big brands. And if you think about the slim sneaker trend, I don’t think On or Hoka can participate in that because they’re all about techy shoes and shoes that just have a little bit more girth to them.” In keeping with fashion’s cyclical nature, these shoes can be seen as a pendulum swing away from what came before, best exemplified by Balenciaga’s influential Triple S sneaker. That shoe, with its built-up sole, created a mania for brawnier footwear and led to the popularity of “dad sneakers” from brands such as New Balance and Asics. In a quest for newness, brands are now countering with slender designs. (Balenciaga, it should be noted, has remained dedicated to its *******-is-better approach.) These footwear offerings are also a reaction to the changing cut in ready-to-wear, namely the ******* clothing silhouettes dominating apparel, seen particularly in the rise of fuller, relaxed-cut trousers. “Skinny pants and jeans are fading away,” Mr. Barassi said. “And you can style these with the wider trousers, and bell-bottoms, that are trending right now.” Wide-legged pants are gaining so much traction that they’ve even infiltrated the formal wear category, as demonstrated by flashier dressers like Colman Domingo, Omar Apollo and Robert Downey Jr. at last week’s Academy Awards ceremony. “The shape of the shoes and the shape of the pants we wear, there’s this inverse correlation,” Mr. Dunne said. “Look back eight years ago when every rapper was wearing skinny jeans and gigantic Balenciaga trainers. Now it’s the other way around: slim, low silhouettes and gigantic pants.” Additionally, these shoes build upon the already crowded overlap between sport and fashion. They’re leveraging activities like martial arts, rock climbing, wrestling and even the enduring popularity of ballet slippers. “There’s all these adjacent gorpcore shoes, or low-pro shoes, that put us in this zone,” Mr. Dunne said. “I think of something like the popularity of the Salomon XT-6, which isn’t in this same zone, necessarily, but it sets us up, it bridges the gap between the chunky shoe and this.” These sneakers also faintly recall the popular shoes of the Y2K era, a now-mythical pre-internet time that continues to cast a spell on younger generations. “I remember the Prada America’s Cup, everyone wanted that sneaker,” Mr. Barassi said of the brand’s futuristic patent leather and technical mesh sneaker introduced in 1997. “And it had this thinner profile.” Torben Schumacher, who oversees Adidas Originals, the fashion and lifestyle division of the company, said that once the company noticed the popularity of its Samba and the Gazelle styles, it began to search for new models to resurrect from its archives. Ultimately, it landed on the Tokyo and Taekwondo. “The latter was designed for martial-arts athletes in the 2000s, but one look at the shoe and you can immediately envision it on a runway or city street,” Mr. Schumacher wrote in an email. Still, Mr. Schumacher wrote that, regardless of the cultural factors leading us to this moment, perhaps the most compelling reason to wear a slim shoe was the most straightforward: “There’s a sense of effortlessness to these low profile styles — both in style and in function.” Source link #Happened #Bulky #Sneaker #Smaller Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Google Pixel Smartphones Just Scored A Huge Camera Advantage Over iPhone – Forbes Google Pixel Smartphones Just Scored A Huge Camera Advantage Over iPhone – Forbes Google Pixel Smartphones Just Scored A Huge Camera Advantage Over iPhone ForbesMarch Pixel Drop: Updates for Gemini Live, Scam Detection and more The KeywordAndroid’s AI is scanning your phone for scam activity now in two ways ZDNetFind My Device adding ‘People’ location sharing, Android Auto getting full games, more 9to5GoogleMarch Pixel Feature Drop Adds at Least 12 Big New Features to Your Pixel Droid Life Source link #Google #Pixel #Smartphones #Scored #Huge #Camera #Advantage #iPhone #Forbes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Moncks Corner *** charges former Lowcountry babysitter for additional child sex crimes Moncks Corner *** charges former Lowcountry babysitter for additional child sex crimes MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCBD) — A man who worked as a babysitter in several Lowcountry areas and is the center of a multi-agency ‘sextortion’ investigation has been charged with additional child sex crimes by the Moncks Corner Police Department, the agency announced. Moncks Corner detectives obtained additional arrest warrants for 25-year-old Brandon Brill, who remains in custody at the Al Cannon Detention Center. He is charged with three extra counts of criminal ******* conduct with a minor in the third degree amid the ongoing investigation. After the investigation was revealed following Brill’s Feb. 19 arrest, three minors came forward to report that Brill had assaulted them in Moncks Corner, according to the police agency. Captain Lee Mixon, Interim Chief of Police, emphasized the importance of awareness and reporting, stating, “Our hearts go out to the children and families impacted by these incidents. Parents must educate their children on reporting abuse or inappropriate touching of their private areas by individuals who seek to prey on the innocent.” Anyone with information about the case against Brill or who believes they may have been a victim is urged to contact Detective Corporal Katheryn Salvo at 843-719-7930 or email her at k*****@*****.tld. Initially, Brill was charged with three charges of ******* exploitation of a minor, criminal solicitation of a minor, and felony ******* extortion by Mount Pleasant officers and ICE agents. The investigation against him began when authorities began investigating a minor who was being extorted for child ******* abuse material images. Officials said he had been a private babysitter since at least 2021 and was employed by a local daycare in 2022. Between 2023 and 2025, Brill advertised babysitting services on Facebook and Nanny Lane. On Feb. 27, the Isle of Palms Police Department announced they charged Brill with one count of criminal solicitation of a minor and one count of disseminating obscene material to a minor under 12 years old. Those charges stem from an incident in Feb. 2024 where a mother told police she found inappropriate and ********* explicit text messages on her juvenile son’s phone. Isle of Palms investigators determined Brill to be the suspect in that situation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2. Source link #Moncks #Corner #charges #Lowcountry #babysitter #additional #child #sex #crimes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Stocks including investor-favorite Apple have most downside, Barclays says Stocks including investor-favorite Apple have most downside, Barclays says The sell-off in popular U.S. stocks isn’t over yet, according to Barclays, which forecast that stocks such as Apple could take a huge hit in coming months. Amid the uncertainties across the market, one thing is certain: it’s now a stock picker’s world. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and jobs data last week fueled concerns about inflation and a potentially softening economy, and led two major stock averages to see their worst weeks since September. The S & P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each pulled back more than 2% last week, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed more than 3% after ending Thursday in a correction , as recent earnings from several AI-related companies failed to top the most bullish expectations. Investors can anticipate further potential potholes in the market by looking at a few stocks Barclays thinks are no longer attractive. The investment bank highlighted a dozen stocks in its research coverage that it rates underweight and where it sees “significant potential downside from current levels.” Here are some of the stocks: Apple shares could fall almost 18%, using Barclays’ price target of $197. The stock fell for a second week, losing about 1.2% last week, and is down more than 4.5% year to date. Concerns have grown around how Trump administration tariffs could affect Apple, since the iPhone maker assembles most of its products in China. The president has imposed an additional 10% tariff on imports from China, effective last Tuesday, bringing the cumulative tariff to 20%. Cell phones, computers and electrical equipment are among the biggest imports from China. Another stock that Barclays analysts think could slump is Domino’s Pizza . Domino’s could be overvalued after its roughly 12.5% run this year, and may fall roughly 11%, based on the the bank’s price target. The pizza chain’s fourth-quarter report recently disappointed Wall Street expectations, and its U.S. same-store sales increased at slower pace than the consensus FactSet forecast. Online travel company TripAdvisor , down about 4% this year, has an additional 8% projected downside using Barclays’ 12month price target of $13. The Wall Street firm is similarly underweight on UPS and Garmin . UPS shares have had a particularly rough run with lower post-Covid package volumes and higher labor costs, losing more than 21% over the past year even in the midst of the 2024 bull market. Source link #Stocks #including #investorfavorite #Apple #downside #Barclays Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

A simple diet change can reverse arthritis within eight weeks, says Stanford expert – The Times of India A simple diet change can reverse arthritis within eight weeks, says Stanford expert – The Times of India A simple diet change can reverse arthritis within eight weeks, says Stanford expert The Times of IndiaDr Tim Spector’s one food to eat three times a day to reduce arthritis risk Surrey LiveStanford doctor says you can beat arthritis inflammation in 8 weeks with one diet ExpressArthritis Relief In 8 Weeks? Stanford Doctor Reveals The Secret Diet Hack! Times Now’Reverse arthritis in eight weeks’ with bone specialist’s anti-inflammatory diet Daily Record Source link #simple #diet #change #reverse #arthritis #weeks #Stanford #expert #Times #India Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

China needs to boost its tech sector more than ever. How to play it China needs to boost its tech sector more than ever. How to play it ******** tech companies raced to launch new products in a week that saw Beijing double down on its calls to support artificial intelligence. An obscure ******** startup that goes by the name Monica on Wednesday announced an invite-only AI application called Manus that claims to streamline analysis of resumes and financial information using several models from companies such as OpenAI, DeepSeek and Anthropic. “The innovation is probably not as significant as DeepSeek,“ in our view, Nomura China technology analyst Bing Duan and a team wrote Thursday. “However, we believe this product is yet another example of China’s accelerated AI innovation.” “We believe that the AI infrastructure investment upcycle has started in China’s AI value chain, which should benefit from leading suppliers exposed to China’s major Internet/Telecom companies’ capex on cloud and AI infrastructure,” the analysts said. Three of their picks are mainland China-listed printed circuit board companies that have partnerships with China AI tech leaders, according to Nomura: Shennan Circuits, Shengyi Technology and WUS PCB. The firm also likes Shenzhen-listed Accelink for its position as a leading supplier of optical transceivers which can facilitate the high-speed data transmissions needed to develop AI. Nomura rates all four stocks as buys. Tech’s leadership in ******** stocks As China faces increased tariffs and slowing economic growth, policymakers in the last week announced a rare increase in its deficit — along with plans to ramp up subsidies for consumer trade-ins and financing for tech companies. Several senior officials publicly lauded the rise of DeepSeek AI, and they emphasized how restrictions have only pushed ******** companies to work harder on tech. The messaging on technology is “encouraging, a strong signal to support both innovation and the private sector,” Nicholas Yeo, head of China equities at abrdn, said in a note. “With valuations of the internet sector cheap relative to U.S. counterparts, alongside the support of the authorities to boost the nation’s AI capabilities, we think this remain a very attractive opportunity for investors,” he said. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 5.6% last week while hitting a three-year high. The CSI 300 fell by about 1.4% for the week. Tech has led most of the recent gains in ******** stocks, which is reflected in the outperformance of the Hang Seng Index versus mainland ******** stocks, known as A shares, said Aaron Costello, head of Asia at Cambridge Associates. He pointed out that most major ******** tech names are traded in Hong Kong. If China’s stimulus starts to see economic results, A shares should see another leg up as gains broaden out, he said. Tencent and AI Helping the Hang Seng Index’s gains was a surge in Alibaba’s Hong Kong-traded shares to a new 52-week high. The e-commerce company revealed a new AI reasoning model that it claims performs just as well as DeepSeek’s R1 model. Tencent , also traded in Hong Kong, a week earlier launched the latest version of its Hunyuan AI model, Turbo S, which claims to beat DeepSeek V3 , OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Llama 3.1 on certain key metrics such as MMLU, Math and ********. Tencent also released a new T1 reasoning model based on the Turbo S. The T1 is currently accessible through the Yuanbao app, which says it also offers DeepSeek access. “We’d argue the last few weeks have presented ample evidence in favor of Tencent’s ability to productionize AI,” Bernstein China Internet analyst Robin Zhu and a team said in a report Wednesday that named Tencent their top China AI play. “Tencent’s recent moves on implementing DeepSeek within its family of apps make it clear that this was one of the times Tencent’s top management decided the troops must be rallied for a common goal,” the analysts said. “The company has moved quickly to implement DeepSeek across its family of digital ecosystems — including WeChat and AI assistant Yuanbao, but also Peacekeeper Elite within the video gaming portfolio.” The Bernstein analysts raised their price target on Tencent to 640 Hong Kong dollars, up from 540 HKD, for upside of 20% from Friday’s close. The firm rates the stock overweight. “Tencent’s AI assistant Yuanbao is now being downloaded at a faster rate than both Bytedance’s Doubao and the DeepSeek app,” the analysts said. “Social advertising is a tried and tested monetisation pathway for AI advancements, and Yuanbao growth potentially sets up a larger search ads business over time.” Tencent is set to release quarterly results on March 19. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report. Source link #China #boost #tech #sector #play Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Daylight saving time is bad for you. Here’s what you can do to soften the blow. – The Mercury News Daylight saving time is bad for you. Here’s what you can do to soften the blow. – The Mercury News Daylight saving time is bad for you. Here’s what you can do to soften the blow. The Mercury NewsDaylight Saving Time: Clocks Spring One Hour Forward Tonight—As Trump Suggests He Won’t Change It ForbesThe time change for daylight saving 2025 hit last night. Here’s what to know for our spring forward. CBS NewsDoes Trump want to end daylight saving time? What to know about the political debate USA TODAY Source link #Daylight #saving #time #bad #Heres #soften #blow #Mercury #News Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

'Insurance catastrophe' declared, 3000 claims so far 'Insurance catastrophe' declared, 3000 claims so far Thousands of insurance claims have been made during ex-tropical cyclone Alfred’s assault but its still early to estimate the total damage bill. Source link #039Insurance #catastrophe039 #declared #claims Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Cardiologists Warn That This Is the #1 Worst Habit for Your Heart (And What to Do Instead) Cardiologists Warn That This Is the #1 Worst Habit for Your Heart (And What to Do Instead) One cardiologist likes to compare heart health to financial wellness. “I tell my patients, ‘Just like you have a 401k or IRA fund, you should have a health fund,'” shares Dr. Mahesh Tekriwal, MD, chair of cardiology at Hackensack Meridian Southern Ocean Medical Center. “As you invest money in your younger years for financial stability in your retirement, investment in your health while you’re in your 30s and 40s will go a long way to keeping your heart healthy in your 60s, 70s and beyond.” If you’re 60+, don’t despair. It’s not too late to make lifestyle tweaks, including making and breaking habits for heart health. Cashing in and living a potentially longer, healthier and fuller life is a priceless perk. Cardiologists recommend starting by breaking this habit that is bad for heart health. SIGN UP for tips to stay healthy & fit with the top moves, clean eats, health trends & more delivered right to your inbox twice a week The Sneaky-Bad Habit for Heart Health “Spending too much time sitting is one of the most harmful habits for the heart,” says Dr. Rigved V. Tadwalkar, MD, a board-certified consultative cardiologist and medical director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center. The sneaky part? You can be a regular jogger Joe and still have a sedentary lifestyle. “Even those who exercise can be at risk if they are sedentary for most of the day,” Dr. Tadwalkar warns. Dr. Tekriwal shares concerns about sedentary lifestyles. “Leading a sedentary lifestyle can lead to weight gain, poor circulation, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease,” Dr. Tekriwal says. Related: Cardiologists Are Begging You to Break This Super-Common After-Work Habit ASAP Dr. Tadwalkar says some of those other risk factors include inflammation, poor artery function and insulin resistance (which also raises your odds of developing type 2 diabetes). Plus, it can have a ripple effect on your diet, says Dr. Bradley Serwer, MD, an interventional cardiologist and chief medical officer at VitalSolution, an Ingenovis Health company. Dr. Serwer says people may eat comfort foods, like chips, while watching TV all day, often as a way to cope with or avoid stress. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in February of 2025 found that sitting for a little more than 10 hours daily can raise your risk for future heart disease and failure. Related: 3 Subtle Signs of Heart Attack Risk Most People Miss, According to a Doctor What to Do Instead (Besides Quit Your Desk Job) Dr. Serwer likes to say, “Bodies in motion stay in motion.” “Go for a walk, ride a bike, swim in the lake, explore the surrounding areas,” Dr. Serwer suggests. Dr. Tekriwal offered similar short-and-sweet advice. “Get up and dance, do yard work—just move,” Dr. Tekriwal says. However, what happens if you have a desk job? Use movement to break up your day (Remember, you’re not a machine). “Stand up and stretch every hour, take short walks or use a standing desk,” Dr. Tadwalkar says. “Even brief activity like pacing during calls or doing bodyweight exercises can help. The aim is to break up sitting time rather than relying only on one workout.” That’s not to say that a good daily workout (or exercising most days per week) is bad. In fact, combining that with micro-breaks during your work day can help put you in the best position to lower your heart disease risk. The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity each week. If you’re going for moderate intensity (hard but not impossible to talk), Dr. Tekriwal suggests striving for 30 minutes daily, five days per week. “Even if you have a normal BMI and are not overweight or obese, your heart will benefit,” Dr. Tekriwal says. “Moderate exercise of any type raises the oxygen level in your blood and helps with blood flow. It also helps strengthen the heart muscle and can help reduce stress.” Dr. Tekriwal adds that regular exercise can boost your body’s metabolism, potentially lowering your type 2 diabetes risk. He points out that type 2 diabetes can damage blood vessels, which can contribute to heart disease and strokes. Related: Why Some Women Face 78% Higher Stroke Risk—and What to Do About It Other Habits to Break for Better Heart Health1. Smoking This one is right up there with a sedentary lifestyle in Dr. Tekriwal’s book. If you smoke, here’s another sign to quit. “Smoking increases the risk of developing blood clots and plaque build up in the arteries, ultimately reducing blood flow to the heart and elevating your risk of a heart attack,” Dr. Tekriwal says. “It also reduces the amount of oxygen that can be carried by the blood.” Dr. Tekriwal adds that nicotine can raise your heart rate and blood pressure, forcing your ticker to work harder. A 2020 review found that smoking increased heart disease risk and quitting (especially by 40, though it’s never too late) could reduce those odds. Related: Vaping vs. Smoking: Is One Better for Your Lungs? Here’s What Experts Say 2. Poor eating habits Dr. Tekriwal says that diets high in saturated **** and calories can lead to unneeded weight gain, which also makes the heart work harder. Excess salt is also an issue. “Too much salt in your diet can lead to high blood pressure, also putting a strain on your heart,” Dr. Tekriwal points out. “Too many unhealthy fats in the diet can lead to high cholesterol and plaque build-up in the arteries, thus putting you at risk for a heart attack. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and healthy fats are key, as is eating in moderation.” On the salt front, the American Heart Association suggests limiting salt intake to 2,300 mg per day (ideally 1,500 mg) to lower blood pressure risks. A 2023 review showed that a Mediterranean-style diet (which hits all of Tekriwal’s do’s and don’ts above) can lower the risk of heart disease in women. Related: Cardiologists Can’t Stand This One Popular Diet 3. Chronic stress A 2020 study found that psychological stress was another risk factor for heart disease. It’s impossible to live stress-free, but Dr. Tadwalkar warns that constant stress can damage the heart. “Many people don’t realize that long-term stress raises blood pressure and triggers inflammation, increasing the risk of heart disease,” Dr. Tadwalkar says. “Worse, it often leads to unhealthy habits like grabbing fast food, skipping workouts or relying on alcohol to unwind.” Dr. Tadwalkar suggests coping with stress by exercising, deep breathing and stepping outside for fresh air. Related: 10 Therapist-Backed Tips for Taking Care of Your Mental Health If You’re Feeling Weighed Down By the News Right Now 4. Skipping doctors appointments Dr. Tekriwal says that high blood pressure is a silent killer that can go undetected, especially for people who don’t regularly see the doctor. “Just the small act of having your physician take your blood pressure, checking your cholesterol and blood sugar and having a year-over-year comparison can identify potential problems before they cause a health crisis,” Dr. Tekriwal says. “Make time for a regular check-up, at least once a year. Those with a busy lifestyle and ‘no time’ can look to do it around their birthday. It’s the best gift they can give themselves.” Related: The Common Habit a Cardiologist Is Begging You to Never, Ever Do 5. Mindset Dr. Serwer says one of the biggest shifts you can make is in your head. He says that people are (understandably!) shaken up post-heart attack. However, they’re often looking for a miracle fix-all. While wishing a magic pill could fix and protect your ticker is understandable, one doesn’t exist. “The answer I give is to change their perspective,” Dr. Serwer says. “Stop focusing on fad diets, rapid weight loss, trendy high-intense workouts or the newest pill that will fix everything. Make a mental shift and focus on the future. By focusing on the horizon, they will make the correct choices on a daily basis.” Dr. Serwer says this approach means a holistic approach to your lifestyle that includes the above, like movement, spending time with family, diet and taking medication. “These activities no longer become punishment but become tools to affect real change and accomplish long-term goals,” Dr. Serwer says. Up Next: Related: The Heart Disease Risk Factor 1 in 5 People Don’t Even Know They Have, According to Cardiologists Sources: Source link #Cardiologists #Warn #Worst #Habit #Heart Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Top Wall Street analysts are bullish on these dividend stocks Top Wall Street analysts are bullish on these dividend stocks The Trump administration’s tariff policy rattled stocks last week, and uncertainty weighed on the major averages. Amid the ongoing volatility, investors seeking stable returns can consider adding some dividend stocks to their portfolios. The recommendations of top Wall Street analysts could help inform investors as they pick stocks that have a steady record of paying dividends and can enhance overall returns. Here are three dividend-paying stocks, highlighted by Wall Street’s top pros on TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. Coterra Energy This week’s first dividend pick is Coterra Energy (CTRA), an exploration and production company with operations focused in the Permian Basin, Marcellus Shale and Anadarko Basin. The company recently delivered upbeat fourth-quarter earnings. Dividends and share repurchases totaled $1.086 billion in 2024, representing 89% of the full-year free cash flow. Further, the company hiked its dividend by 5% to 22 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2024. CTRA stock offers a dividend yield of 3.3%. Following the Q4 2024 print, Mizuho analyst Nitin Kumar reiterated a buy rating with a price target of $40, calling CTRA stock a “top pick.” The analyst stated that the company yet again posted better-than-expected earnings per share and cash flow per share (CFPS), thanks to higher oil production and solid volumes. Kumar noted that Coterra reaffirmed its initial outlook for 2025 that was issued in November, but changed the spending mix by slightly lowering Permian Basin expenditure by $70 million and boosting Marcellus spending by $50 million. The analyst explained that this modest change in the capex spending mix is in line with the company’s outlook for commodity prices and reflects CTRA’s flexibility in capital allocation. The analyst also contends that “CTRA’s exposure to natural gas prices is often underappreciated in our view, especially when the outlook for the commodity is strengthening.” Kumar ranks No. 347 among more than 9,400 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 58% of the time, delivering an average return of 10.8%. See Coterra Energy Stock Buybacks on TipRanks. Diamondback Energy Let’s look at another dividend-paying stock, Diamondback Energy (FANG) – an independent oil and natural gas company with a focus on the Permian Basin. Last year, the company strengthened its business with the acquisition of Endeavor Energy Resources. On Feb. 24, Diamondback announced market-beating fourth-quarter results. The company announced an 11% increase in its annual base dividend to $4.00 per share. It declared a Q4 2024 base cash dividend of $1.00 per share, payable on March 13. In reaction to the impressive results, Siebert Williams Shank analyst Gabriele Sorbara reaffirmed a buy rating on FANG stock with a price target of $230. The analyst noted that the Q4 results reflected the company’s strong operational execution, with better-than-anticipated production and lower spending. Also, Q4 free cash flow (FCF) surpassed Sorbara’s estimate by 9.8% and the Street’s consensus expectation by 13%. Sorbara also mentioned the company’s better-than-feared outlook for 2025, with the possibility for upside revision to the FCF outlook of over $5.9 billion at $70/bbl WTI price level. Overall, Sorbara is optimistic about FANG stock and believes that it is well-positioned “with a strong sustainable FCF yield supported by its best-in-class Permian Basin assets, which are strengthened further with the recently announced Double Eagle IV acquisition.” Sorbara ranks No. 217 among more than 9,400 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 51% of the time, delivering an average return of 18.4%. See Diamondback Energy Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks. Walmart Big-box retailer and dividend king Walmart (WMT) reported top and bottom line beats in the fiscal fourth quarter. However, the company cautioned investors about a slowdown in profit growth amid subdued consumer spending and forex headwinds. Interestingly, Walmart announced a 13% increase in its annual dividend to 94 cents per share (quarterly dividend of $0.235 per share). This marks the 52nd consecutive year of dividend increases for the company. Following the results, Evercore analyst Greg Melich reiterated a buy rating on Walmart stock but lowered the price target to $107 from $110 to reflect the lower EPS expectations. Specifically, the analyst slightly reduced his calendar year 2025 and 2026 EPS estimates by 10 cents and 5 cents, respectively, due to forex pressures, the impact of the Vizio acquisition and a higher effective tax rate compared to the previous year. Despite the near-term headwinds, Melich remains bullish on WMT stock and highlighted multiple strengths, including the retailer’s value proposition, robust merchandising capabilities and improved customer experience. The analyst thinks that Walmart is well-positioned to continue to gain market share and expand its earnings before interest and tax margin, backed by ad revenues, automation and operating leverage. Melich believes that the post-earnings pullback in WMT stock presents a “second chance for those wanting quality growth, in our view, with the flywheel set in motion as a result of value leadership and innovation.” Melich ranks No. 537 among more than 9,400 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 68% of the time, delivering an average return of 12.8%. See Walmart Ownership Structure on TipRanks. Source link #Top #Wall #Street #analysts #bullish #dividend #stocks Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

RFK Jr. could further deter childhood vaccinations as U.S. rates fall RFK Jr. could further deter childhood vaccinations as U.S. rates fall Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, on the day he is sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Service in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 13, 2025. Nathan Howard | Reuters The nation’s new top health official could further erode already falling U.S. vaccination rates against once-common childhood diseases, a development that comes as a growing measles outbreak has led to the first U.S. death from the disease in a decade. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, now leads the Department of Health and Human Services and wields enormous power over the federal agencies that regulate vaccines and set shot recommendations. Kennedy tried to distance himself from his previous views during his Senate confirmation hearings, claiming that he isn’t “anti-vaccine” and would not make it “difficult or discourage people from taking” routine shots for measles and polio. But some health policy experts said his early moves as HHS Secretary are concerning and suggest that he could undermine immunizations in other, less direct ways, which could increase the risk of children catching preventable diseases. “The steps that he’s taken so far seem to be in line with his views of skepticism about vaccines and their safety, of wanting to allow for parents to not get their children vaccinated. It’s all things he’s championed,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at KFF. “There might be more dominoes to fall coming.” Kennedy has said he will review the childhood vaccination schedule, and is reportedly preparing to remove and replace members of external committees that advise the government on vaccine approvals and other key public health decisions, among other efforts. Some experts said he could also amplify data highlighting the risks of vaccines, promote unfounded claims about shots and undermine legal protections for vaccine makers. If rates drop even more, there could be major consequences, such as renewed outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses in certain communities. “Within the next couple of years, we could see major drops in childhood vaccination rates,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of public health law at Georgetown University, told CNBC. “He has all the powers he needs to sow public distrust in vaccines. He has a history of doing that and he has a desire to do it.” “This could lead to significant outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases throughout America, with the disproportionate impact on red states that President Trump carried in the 2024 election,” Gostin added. Kennedy has a long track record of making misleading and false statements about the safety of shots. He has claimed they are linked to autism despite decades of studies that debunk that association. Kennedy is also the founder of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, the most well-funded anti-vaccine organization in the U.S. In a government ethics agreement in January, he said he stopped serving as chairman or chief legal counsel for the organization as of December. But vaccines have saved the lives of more than 1.1 million children in the U.S. and saved Americans $540 billion in direct health-care costs over the last three decades, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research released in August. States and local jurisdictions set vaccine requirements for school children, but the federal government has a longstanding system for approving and recommending shots for the public. That includes creating the childhood vaccination schedule, which recommends when children should receive certain shots. It’s used by states, pediatricians and parents. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Why have childhood vaccination rates fallen? Childhood vaccinations and the state requirements in place for them have been “one of the greatest public health success stories” in the U.S., allowing the country to eliminate many diseases that people once feared, such as polio, according to William Moss, professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Rates stayed relatively steady for nearly a decade before the Covid pandemic, as about 95% of kindergarten children were up to date with all state required vaccines, Moss said. That includes separate shots for polio and varicella, a vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella – called MMR – as well as a jab that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. But the share of kindergarten children who are up to date on their vaccinations has dipped since the pandemic, according to data collected and aggregated annually by the CDC from state and local immunization programs. Less than 93% of kindergarteners had received all state required vaccines in the 2023-2024 school year, data shows. Exemptions from school vaccination requirements, particularly non-medical exemptions, have also increased, according to the CDC. The share of U.S. children claiming an exemption from one or more shots rose from 2.5% in the 2019-2020 school year to 3.3% in the 2023-2024 school year, the highest national exemption rate to date. Nearly all of that increase was driven by non-medical exemptions, such as religious or personal belief reasons. That decrease appears consistent with the public’s perception of childhood immunizations. A Gallup survey released in August found only 40% of Americans said they considered childhood vaccines extremely important, down from 58% in 2019 and 64% in 2001. The overall decline is fueled in part by vaccine skepticism, a trend that “certainly existed far before the pandemic,” KFF’s Michaud said. Vaccine hesitancy and the anti-vaccine movement have been around globally for decades. They are often intertwined with political, moral and spiritual ideas around the rights of an individual versus the community, the limits of government power over bodily autonomy, mistrust of medical institutions and misinformation about shot safety and efficacy. The politicization of the pandemic only fueled more doubts about vaccinations. It created a partisan divide on the public’s acceptance of the Covid vaccine, according to Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases. Social media and public figures amplified misinformation about Covid jabs, and some of those “falsehoods about Covid shots spilled over to an extent to other types of vaccinations,” he said. “There was a very precipitous drop [in vaccination rates] right when the pandemic hit, in those first few months afterwards,” O’Leary said. “And we never really completely caught up.” O’Leary noted that the vast majority of parents on both sides of the political spectrum continue to vaccinate their kids. Still, surveys suggest that the partisan division on immunizations has deepened in recent years. In 2024, 63% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters said childhood vaccinations were “extremely important,” compared to just 26% of Republicans and GOP leaners, according to the August Gallup survey. Five years earlier, enthusiasm was just slightly higher among the Democratic group at 67%, and double among Republican respondents at 52%. There are “certainly political ideologies that are driving vaccine policy in certain areas of the country,” which has a “clear downstream impact on vaccination levels,” said Dr. Neil Maniar, a public health professor at Northeastern University. Over three-quarters of U.S. states, or 39, had vaccination rates for the MMR shot below the “Healthy People 2030” target rate of 95% during the 2023-2024 school year. That refers to the level needed to prevent community transmission of measles, a highly contagious and deadly virus. The data means that roughly 280,000 school children were unvaccinated and unprotected against measles during that school year, according to the CDC. MMR vaccination rates among kindergarteners vary across states, ranging from a low of around 80% in Idaho to a high of more than 98% in West Virginia. Moss noted that clusters of unvaccinated people within a specific community increase the risk of disease outbreak. “That’s where you’re going to get these larger outbreaks like we’re seeing in Texas right now with measles,” Moss said. A child who wasn’t vaccinated died in the outbreak in rural West Texas, state officials said in late February, the first U.S. death from the disease since 2015. The childhood vaccination rate for measles in Gaines County, the epicenter of the current outbreak in Texas, is just below 82%. A second patient, an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico, tested positive for measles after death, state officials said Thursday. Kennedy last week said shots protect communities from measles, but emphasized that the decision to vaccinate “is a personal one.” He also pushed unconventional treatment regimens for measles, including cod liver oil, which is rich in vitamin A. Kennedy could target vaccine advisory panels Kennedy’s HHS already appears to be targeting a key part of U.S. vaccine policy: external advisors to the government health agencies that approve shots and set recommendations for them. The government postponed a meeting of vaccine advisors to the CDC and a separate meeting of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration, the latter of which is crucial to determining the flu strains in next season’s shots. It is unclear why the meetings were canceled or when they will be rescheduled. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland November 4, 2009. Jason Reed | Reuters One “clear step” Kennedy can also take to undermine vaccinations is removing members of those advisory panels that shape the government’s shot recommendations, including which jabs are covered at no cost by different types of insurance, according to Georgetown’s Gostin. Several reports have said Kennedy plans to replace members whom he perceives to have “conflicts of interest,” though it is unclear how many people will be outed or when. Gostin called conflicts of interest one of Kennedy’s “code words” for “simply purging hard working, experienced scientists from advisory committees and replacing them with those that are more skeptical of shots.” All HHS agencies and their advisory panels have rigorous policies for conflicts of interest, and there have been no related issues for years, he noted. Kennedy’s shake-up of advisory committees could produce “bogus recommendations” that highlight the harms rather than the benefits of shots, according to Gostin. He said those recommendations could influence governors, legislatures and school boards in red states, which could adopt policies that reduce childhood immunizations and “create wide-open opt outs of shots.” Those recommendations could also create greater distrust in the CDC and Trump administration among scientists and public health experts, including Gostin himself, he said. Sherry Andrews prepares a MMR vaccine at the City of Lubbock Heath Department in Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Feb. 27, 2025. Annie Rice | Reuters “It will have a longer-term corrosive effect on the value of science in America, which is already under severe attack,” he said. Kennedy is also reviewing the childhood immunization schedule. Experts said that could lead to removing recommendations for certain vaccines or changing their suggested use from “routine” – when the default approach is to vaccinate – to more of an individual choice guided by discussions with a health-care provider. The hope is that officials on the state and local level influence policy or implement practices to drive higher vaccination rates, said Northeastern’s Maniar. State and local governments may need to “expand the work they do” in some cases to “make up lost ground” and advocate for vaccinations, he added. Cherry-picking data Kennedy could also cherry-pick data, studies and any other information about vaccines that “create the misleading impression that shots aren’t safe and cause severe side effects,” according to Gostin. He said Kennedy could include them in official government announcements to undermine the public’s faith in shots. On the campaign trail, Kennedy said he wanted to “restore the transparency” around vaccine safety data and records that he accused HHS officials of hiding. Gostin called transparency another “code word” for “highlighting dubious scientific studies.” He added that Kennedy’s wording suggests that the government’s existing vaccine information is not transparent, when databases recording adverse events and immunization rates have long been fully open to the public. Antonio Perez | Chicago Tribune | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Kennedy is reportedly shelving promotions for a variety of shots, including a campaign touting seasonal flu jabs. He wanted the CDC’s advertisements to promote the idea of “informed consent” in vaccine decision-making instead, STAT News reported in February. That refers to giving patients important information, including possible risks or benefits of a medical treatment, such as adverse events associated with shots. Experts have said while informed consent is important, shifting the framing of advertisements for shots that the CDC has long recommended to focus more on the potential risks could undermine people’s willingness to get vaccinated. “When a parent exercises informed consent not to have their child immunized with measles, it certainly puts that child at risk, but it puts every child in that school with them at risk,” Gostin said. Kennedy would need approval from Congress to change the existing legal liability protections in place for vaccine makers, but he could still undermine them in other ways, experts said. HHS’ National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program currently pays patients injured by standard childhood vaccines and shields drugmakers from litigation. As HHS secretary, Kennedy can remove or add to the list of vaccines and injuries included and covered by that program, Michaud said. Any changes to the list could change some liability protections for vaccine makers, potentially spurring a wave of litigation over alleged injuries from the shots, he added. Source link #RFK #deter #childhood #vaccinations #U.S #rates #fall Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Who bought this smoked salmon? How ‘AI agents’ will change the internet (and shopping lists) | Artificial intelligence (AI) Who bought this smoked salmon? How ‘AI agents’ will change the internet (and shopping lists) | Artificial intelligence (AI) I’m watching artificial intelligence order my groceries. Armed with my shopping list, it types each item into the search bar of a supermarket website, then uses its cursor to click. Watching what appears to be a digital ghost do this usually mundane task is strangely transfixing. “Are you sure it’s not just a person in India?” my husband asks, peering over my shoulder. I’m trying out Operator, a new AI “agent” from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Made available to *** users last month, it has a similar text interface and conversational tone to ChatGPT, but rather than just answering questions, it can actually do things – provided they involve navigating a web browser. Hot on the heels of large language models, AI agents have been trumpeted as the next big thing, and you can see the appeal: a digital assistant that can complete practical tasks is more compelling than one that can just talk back. Similar to OpenAI’s offering, Anthropic introduced “computer use” capabilities to its Claude chatbot towards the end of last year. Perplexity and Google have also released “agentic” features into their AI assistants, with further companies developing agents aimed at specific tasks such as coding or research. There’s debate over what exactly counts as an AI agent, but the general idea is that they need to be able to take actions with some degree of autonomy. “As soon as something is starting to execute actions outside of the chat window, then it’s gone from being a chatbot to an agent,” says Margaret Mitchell, the chief ethics scientist at AI company Hugging Face. Dohmke envisions a future when everyone has their own personal Jarvis, the talking AI in Iron Man It’s early days. Most commercially available agents come with a disclaimer that they’re still experimental – OpenAI describes Operator as a “research preview” – and you can find plenty of examples online of them making amusing mistakes, such as spending $31 on a dozen eggs or trying to deliver groceries back to the shop they bought them from. Depending on who you ask, agents are just the next overhyped tech toy or the dawn of an AI future that could shake up the workforce, reshape the internet and change how we live. “In principle, they would be amazing, because they could automate a lot of drudgery,” says Gary Marcus, a scientist and sceptic of large language models. “But I don’t think they will work reliably any time soon, and it’s partly an investment in hype.” I sign up for Operator to see for myself. With no food in the house, grocery shopping seems like a good first task. I type my request and it asks if I have a preferred shop or brand. I tell it to go with whichever is cheapest. A window appears showing a web browser and I see it search “*** online grocery delivery”. A mouse cursor selects the first result: Ocado. It starts searching for my requested items and filters the results by price. It selects products and clicks “Add to trolley”. I’m impressed with Operator’s initiative; it doesn’t pepper me with questions, instead making an executive decision when given only a brief item description, such as “salmon” or “chicken”. When it searches for eggs, it successfully scrolls past several non-egg items that appear as special offers. My list asks for “a few different vegetables”: it selects a head of broccoli, then asks if I’d like anything else specific. I tell it to choose two more and it goes for carrots and leeks – probably what I’d have picked myself. Emboldened, I tell it to add “a sweet treat” and watch as it literally types “sweet treat” into the search bar. I’m not sure why it chooses 70% chocolate – certainly not the cheapest option – but I tell it I don’t like dark chocolate and it swaps it for a Galaxy bar. Thomas Dohmke, head of Github, which is developing on an autonomous coding assistant called Project Padawan. Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy We hit a snag when Operator realises that Ocado has a minimum spend, so I add more items to the list. Then it comes to logging in, and the agent prompts me to intervene: while users can take over the browser at any point, OpenAI says Operator is designed to request this “when inputting sensitive information into the browser, such as login credentials or payment information”. Although Operator usually takes constant screenshots in order to “see” what it’s doing, OpenAI says it does not do this when a user takes control. At the checkout, I test the waters by asking Operator to complete payment. I take back the reins, however, when it responds by asking for my card details. I’ve already given OpenAI my payment information (Operator requires a ChatGPT Pro account, which costs $200 a month) but I feel uncomfortable sharing this directly with an AI. Order placed, I await my delivery the following day. But that doesn’t solve dinner. I give Operator a new task: can it order me a cheeseburger and chips from a local, highly rated restaurant? It asks for my postcode, then loads the Deliveroo website and searches “cheeseburger”. Again, there’s a pause when I have to log in, but as Deliveroo already has my card details stored, Operator can proceed directly to payment. The restaurant it selects is local, and it is highly rated – as a fish and chip shop. I end up with a passable cheeseburger and a large bag of chippy-style chips. Not exactly what I’d envisioned but not wrong, either. I’m mortified, however, when I realise Operator skipped over tipping the delivery rider. I sheepishly take my food and add a generous tip after the fact. Of course, watching Operator in action rather defeats the time-saving point of using an AI agent for online tasks. Instead, you can leave it to work in the background while you focus on other tabs. While drafting this piece, I make another request: can it book me a gel manicure at a local salon? Operator struggles more with this task. It goes to beauty booking platform Fresha but, when it prompts me to log in, I see it has chosen an appointment a week too late and more than an hour’s drive away from my home in east London. I point out these issues and it finds a slot for the right date but in Leicester Square – still a distance away. Only then does it ask my location, and I realise it must not have retained this knowledge between tasks. By this point, I could have already made my own booking. Operator eventually suggests a suitable appointment, but I abandon the task and chalk it up as a win for Team Human. AI shopping assistants will pause and require human input when it comes to logging in to supermarket websites or making online payments. Photograph: Marco Marca/Getty Images It’s clear that this first generation of AI agents has limitations. Having to stop and log in requires a fair amount of human oversight, though Operator stores cookies to allow users to stay logged into websites on subsequent visits (OpenAI says it requires closer supervision on “particularly sensitive” sites, such as email clients or financial services). The results, while usually accurate, aren’t always what I have in mind. When my groceries arrive, I find that Operator has ordered smoked salmon rather than fillets and has doubled up on yoghurt, possibly because of a special offer. It interpreted “some fish cakes” to mean three packs (I intended just one) and was only saved the indignity of buying chocolate milk instead of plain as the product was out of stock. To be fair to the bot, I had the opportunity to review the order, and I would have got better results if I’d been more specific in my prompts (“a pack of two raw salmon fillets”) – but these extra steps would also detract from the effort saved. Despite current flaws, my experience with Operator feels like a glimpse of something to come. As such systems improve, and reduce in cost, I could easily see them becoming embedded in everyday life. You might already write your shopping list on an app; why wouldn’t it also place the order? Agents are also infiltrating workflows beyond the realm of a personal assistant. OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, has predicted that AI agents could “join the workforce” this year. Software developers are among the early adopters; coding platform GitHub recently added agentic capabilities to its AI Copilot tool. GitHub’s CEO, Thomas Dohmke, says developers are used to some level of automated assistance; the difference with AI agents is the level of autonomy. “Instead of you just asking a question and it gives you an answer, you give it a problem and then it iterates on that problem together with the code that it has access to,” he says. GitHub is already working on an agent with greater autonomy, which it calls Project Padawan (a Star Wars term referring to a Jedi apprentice). This would allow an AI agent to work asynchronously rather than requiring constant oversight; a developer could have teams of agents reporting to them, producing code for their review. Dohmke says he doesn’t believe developers’ jobs are at risk, as their skills will find increasing demand. “I’d argue the amount of work that AI has added to most developers’ backlog is higher than the amount of work it has taken over,” he says. Agents could also make coding tasks, such as building an app, more accessible to non-technical people. Margaret Mitchell of the AI company Hugging Face warns against the development of completely autonomous agents. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Outside software development, Dohmke envisions a future when everyone has their own personal Jarvis, the talking AI in Iron Man. Your agent will learn your habits and become customised to your tastes, making it more useful. He’d use his to book holidays for his family. The more autonomy agents have, however, the greater risks they pose. Mitchell, from Hugging Face, co-authored a paper warning against the development of fully autonomous agents. “Fully autonomous means that human control has been fully ceded,” she says. Rather than working within set boundaries, a fully autonomous agent could gain access to things you don’t realise or behave in unexpected ways, especially if it can write its own code. It’s not a big deal if an AI agent gets your takeout order wrong, but what if it starts sharing your personal information with scam websites or posting horrific social media content under your name? High-risk workplaces could introduce particularly hazardous scenarios: what if it can access a missile command system? Mitchell hopes technologists, legislators and policymakers will incentivise guardrails to mitigate such incidents. For now, she foresees agentic capabilities becoming more refined for specific tasks. Soon, she says, we’ll see agents interacting with agents – your agent could work with mine to set up a meeting, for example. This proliferation of agents could reshape the internet. Currently, a lot of information online is specialised for human language, but if AIs are increasingly interacting with websites, this could change. “We’re going to see more and more information available through the internet that is not directly human language, but is the information that would be necessary for an agent to be able to act on it,” Mitchell says. Dohmke echoes this idea. He believes that the concept of the homepage will lose importance, and interfaces will be designed with AI agents in mind. Brands may start competing for AI attention over human eyeballs. One day, agents may even escape the confines of the computer. We could see AI agents embodied in robots, which would open up a world of physical tasks for them to help with. “My prediction is that we’re going to see agents that can do our laundry for us and do our dishes and make us breakfast,” says Mitchell. “Just don’t give them access to weapons.” Source link #bought #smoked #salmon #agents #change #internet #shopping #lists #Artificial #intelligence Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Movie Review – Mickey 17 (2025) – Flickering Myth Movie Review – Mickey 17 (2025) – Flickering Myth Movie Review – Mickey 17 (2025) Flickering Myth‘Mickey 17’ Review: This Job Is Killing Him The New York Times’Mickey 17′ spoilers! Robert Pattinson breaks down that hopeful ending USA TODAYThe Ending of Mickey 17 Finds Something to Hope for in a Dystopian Capitalist Hellscape TIMEBong Joon Ho’s Parasite Follow-Up Takes On Trump. It’s a Blast. Slate Source link #Movie #Review #Mickey #Flickering #Myth Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Boy, 14, charged in connection with Amen Teklay death Boy, 14, charged in connection with Amen Teklay death Police Scotland Amen’s friends and family say he was a “kind and “bright” boy A 14-year-old boy has been charged in connection with the death of Glasgow teenager Amen Teklay. The 15-year-old died in the street last Wednesday after being found injured following a violent incident in the city’s St George’s Cross area. Amen’s friends will hold a vigil later as a police investigation continues into his *******. Another boy, aged 15, has also been arrested in connection with the death. Police Scotland said Amen’s family is being supported by specially trained officers. Det Ch Insp Campbell Jackson said: “Our thoughts remain with Amen’s family and friends at this very difficult time. “I would also like to thank the community for their support so far.” PA Media Amen was killed in a incident on Clarendon Street in Glasgow The afternoon vigil will be held at a football park where Amen played near his home in Scotstoun. Jamie O’Neill, Amen’s support worker at Kingsway Community Connections, said it was open to all to come along. “The last few days have been a mixture of grief and numbness, and people sharing stories of happiness when they speak about Amen,” he said. “His young friends at school were wondering what they could do and came up with the idea that they should hold a vigil. “It’s their way to pay tribute to their friend, come together and support each other.” Youth worker Jamie O’Neill said Amen’s friends will come together for the vigil Police Scotland said their investigation into Amen’s death was ongoing. Emergency services attended the incident on Clarendon Street at 22:30 on Wednesday but the teenager was pronounced dead at the scene. Following a post-mortem examination Police Scotland said his death was being treated as *******. Amen, who is originally from Eritrea, lived with his father in Glasgow and had recently been granted ‘right to remain’ status in the ***. He attended St Thomas Aquinas secondary school in Jordanhill. Jamie O’Neill Amen was originally from Eritrea and lived with his father in Glasgow Amen’s sister Delina Teklay, 17, said he had hopes of gaining *** citizenship and becoming either a basketball player, a doctor or engineer. She told BBC Scotland News that Amen was “not just my brother, he was my best friend”. She said he was a “really sweet person, so kind and so bright”. Police Scotland launched a major investigation into Amen’s death. The force said “answers lie with the local community” and officers have been reviewing CCTV and carrying out door-to-door inquiries. Supt Christopher Stewart said: “We are continuing to support Amen’s family and continue to engage with the local community affected by this incident. “There will continue to be a visible policing presence in the area and I would urge anyone with questions or concerns to approach a local officer – they are there to help.” The force asked anyone with information to contact them via a major investigations public portal. Source link #Boy #charged #connection #Amen #Teklay #death Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Top Wall Street analysts are bullish on these dividend stocks Top Wall Street analysts are bullish on these dividend stocks The Trump administration’s tariff policy rattled stocks last week, and uncertainty weighed on the major averages. Amid the ongoing volatility, investors seeking stable returns can consider adding some dividend stocks to their portfolios. The recommendations of top Wall Street analysts could help inform investors as they pick stocks that have a steady record of paying dividends and can enhance overall returns. Here are three dividend-paying stocks, highlighted by Wall Street’s top pros on TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. Coterra Energy This week’s first dividend pick is Coterra Energy (CTRA), an exploration and production company with operations focused in the Permian Basin, Marcellus Shale and Anadarko Basin. The company recently delivered upbeat fourth-quarter earnings. Dividends and share repurchases totaled $1.086 billion in 2024, representing 89% of the full-year free cash flow. Further, the company hiked its dividend by 5% to 22 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2024. CTRA stock offers a dividend yield of 3.3%. Following the Q4 2024 print, Mizuho analyst Nitin Kumar reiterated a buy rating with a price target of $40, calling CTRA stock a “top pick.” The analyst stated that the company yet again posted better-than-expected earnings per share and cash flow per share (CFPS), thanks to higher oil production and solid volumes. Kumar noted that Coterra reaffirmed its initial outlook for 2025 that was issued in November, but changed the spending mix by slightly lowering Permian Basin expenditure by $70 million and boosting Marcellus spending by $50 million. The analyst explained that this modest change in the capex spending mix is in line with the company’s outlook for commodity prices and reflects CTRA’s flexibility in capital allocation. The analyst also contends that “CTRA’s exposure to natural gas prices is often underappreciated in our view, especially when the outlook for the commodity is strengthening.” Kumar ranks No. 347 among more than 9,400 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 58% of the time, delivering an average return of 10.8%. See Coterra Energy Stock Buybacks on TipRanks. Diamondback Energy Let’s look at another dividend-paying stock, Diamondback Energy (FANG) – an independent oil and natural gas company with a focus on the Permian Basin. Last year, the company strengthened its business with the acquisition of Endeavor Energy Resources. On Feb. 24, Diamondback announced market-beating fourth-quarter results. The company announced an 11% increase in its annual base dividend to $4.00 per share. It declared a Q4 2024 base cash dividend of $1.00 per share, payable on March 13. In reaction to the impressive results, Siebert Williams Shank analyst Gabriele Sorbara reaffirmed a buy rating on FANG stock with a price target of $230. The analyst noted that the Q4 results reflected the company’s strong operational execution, with better-than-anticipated production and lower spending. Also, Q4 free cash flow (FCF) surpassed Sorbara’s estimate by 9.8% and the Street’s consensus expectation by 13%. Sorbara also mentioned the company’s better-than-feared outlook for 2025, with the possibility for upside revision to the FCF outlook of over $5.9 billion at $70/bbl WTI price level. Overall, Sorbara is optimistic about FANG stock and believes that it is well-positioned “with a strong sustainable FCF yield supported by its best-in-class Permian Basin assets, which are strengthened further with the recently announced Double Eagle IV acquisition.” Sorbara ranks No. 217 among more than 9,400 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 51% of the time, delivering an average return of 18.4%. See Diamondback Energy Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks. Walmart Big-box retailer and dividend king Walmart (WMT) reported top and bottom line beats in the fiscal fourth quarter. However, the company cautioned investors about a slowdown in profit growth amid subdued consumer spending and forex headwinds. Interestingly, Walmart announced a 13% increase in its annual dividend to 94 cents per share (quarterly dividend of $0.235 per share). This marks the 52nd consecutive year of dividend increases for the company. Following the results, Evercore analyst Greg Melich reiterated a buy rating on Walmart stock but lowered the price target to $107 from $110 to reflect the lower EPS expectations. Specifically, the analyst slightly reduced his calendar year 2025 and 2026 EPS estimates by 10 cents and 5 cents, respectively, due to forex pressures, the impact of the Vizio acquisition and a higher effective tax rate compared to the previous year. Despite the near-term headwinds, Melich remains bullish on WMT stock and highlighted multiple strengths, including the retailer’s value proposition, robust merchandising capabilities and improved customer experience. The analyst thinks that Walmart is well-positioned to continue to gain market share and expand its earnings before interest and tax margin, backed by ad revenues, automation and operating leverage. Melich believes that the post-earnings pullback in WMT stock presents a “second chance for those wanting quality growth, in our view, with the flywheel set in motion as a result of value leadership and innovation.” Melich ranks No. 537 among more than 9,400 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 68% of the time, delivering an average return of 12.8%. See Walmart Ownership Structure on TipRanks. Source link #Top #Wall #Street #analysts #bullish #dividend #stocks Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

WA election 2025: Peter Dutton claims Roger Cook’s win from predecessor playbook WA election 2025: Peter Dutton claims Roger Cook’s win from predecessor playbook Opposition Leader Dutton argued that Roger Cook’s ability to maintain his party’s popularity was by following in the footsteps of predecessor Mark McGowan and locking out the east coast. Source link #election #Peter #Dutton #claims #Roger #Cooks #win #predecessor #playbook Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

China needs to boost its tech sector more than ever. How to play it China needs to boost its tech sector more than ever. How to play it ******** tech companies raced to launch new products in a week that saw Beijing double down on its calls to support artificial intelligence. An obscure ******** startup that goes by the name Monica on Wednesday announced an invite-only AI application called Manus that claims to streamline analysis of resumes and financial information using several models from companies such as OpenAI, DeepSeek and Anthropic. “The innovation is probably not as significant as DeepSeek,“ in our view, Nomura China technology analyst Bing Duan and a team wrote Thursday. “However, we believe this product is yet another example of China’s accelerated AI innovation.” “We believe that the AI infrastructure investment upcycle has started in China’s AI value chain, which should benefit from leading suppliers exposed to China’s major Internet/Telecom companies’ capex on cloud and AI infrastructure,” the analysts said. Three of their picks are mainland China-listed printed circuit board companies that have partnerships with China AI tech leaders, according to Nomura: Shennan Circuits, Shengyi Technology and WUS PCB. The firm also likes Shenzhen-listed Accelink for its position as a leading supplier of optical transceivers which can facilitate the high-speed data transmissions needed to develop AI. Nomura rates all four stocks as buys. Tech’s leadership in ******** stocks As China faces increased tariffs and slowing economic growth, policymakers in the last week announced a rare increase in its deficit — along with plans to ramp up subsidies for consumer trade-ins and financing for tech companies. Several senior officials publicly lauded the rise of DeepSeek AI, and they emphasized how restrictions have only pushed ******** companies to work harder on tech. The messaging on technology is “encouraging, a strong signal to support both innovation and the private sector,” Nicholas Yeo, head of China equities at abrdn, said in a note. “With valuations of the internet sector cheap relative to U.S. counterparts, alongside the support of the authorities to boost the nation’s AI capabilities, we think this remain a very attractive opportunity for investors,” he said. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 5.6% last week while hitting a three-year high. The CSI 300 fell by about 1.4% for the week. Tech has led most of the recent gains in ******** stocks, which is reflected in the outperformance of the Hang Seng Index versus mainland ******** stocks, known as A shares, said Aaron Costello, head of Asia at Cambridge Associates. He pointed out that most major ******** tech names are traded in Hong Kong. If China’s stimulus starts to see economic results, A shares should see another leg up as gains broaden out, he said. Tencent and AI Helping the Hang Seng Index’s gains was a surge in Alibaba’s Hong Kong-traded shares to a new 52-week high. The e-commerce company revealed a new AI reasoning model that it claims performs just as well as DeepSeek’s R1 model. Tencent , also traded in Hong Kong, a week earlier launched the latest version of its Hunyuan AI model, Turbo S, which claims to beat DeepSeek V3 , OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Llama 3.1 on certain key metrics such as MMLU, Math and ********. Tencent also released a new T1 reasoning model based on the Turbo S. The T1 is currently accessible through the Yuanbao app, which says it also offers DeepSeek access. “We’d argue the last few weeks have presented ample evidence in favor of Tencent’s ability to productionize AI,” Bernstein China Internet analyst Robin Zhu and a team said in a report Wednesday that named Tencent their top China AI play. “Tencent’s recent moves on implementing DeepSeek within its family of apps make it clear that this was one of the times Tencent’s top management decided the troops must be rallied for a common goal,” the analysts said. “The company has moved quickly to implement DeepSeek across its family of digital ecosystems — including WeChat and AI assistant Yuanbao, but also Peacekeeper Elite within the video gaming portfolio.” The Bernstein analysts raised their price target on Tencent to 640 Hong Kong dollars, up from 540 HKD, for upside of 20% from Friday’s close. The firm rates the stock overweight. “Tencent’s AI assistant Yuanbao is now being downloaded at a faster rate than both Bytedance’s Doubao and the DeepSeek app,” the analysts said. “Social advertising is a tried and tested monetisation pathway for AI advancements, and Yuanbao growth potentially sets up a larger search ads business over time.” Tencent is set to release quarterly results on March 19. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report. Source link #China #boost #tech #sector #play Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

RFK Jr. could further deter childhood vaccinations as U.S. rates fall RFK Jr. could further deter childhood vaccinations as U.S. rates fall Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, on the day he is sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Service in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 13, 2025. Nathan Howard | Reuters The nation’s new top health official could further erode already falling U.S. vaccination rates against once-common childhood diseases, a development that comes as a growing measles outbreak has led to the first U.S. death from the disease in a decade. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, now leads the Department of Health and Human Services and wields enormous power over the federal agencies that regulate vaccines and set shot recommendations. Kennedy tried to distance himself from his previous views during his Senate confirmation hearings, claiming that he isn’t “anti-vaccine” and would not make it “difficult or discourage people from taking” routine shots for measles and polio. But some health policy experts said his early moves as HHS Secretary are concerning and suggest that he could undermine immunizations in other, less direct ways, which could increase the risk of children catching preventable diseases. “The steps that he’s taken so far seem to be in line with his views of skepticism about vaccines and their safety, of wanting to allow for parents to not get their children vaccinated. It’s all things he’s championed,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at KFF. “There might be more dominoes to fall coming.” Kennedy has said he will review the childhood vaccination schedule, and is reportedly preparing to remove and replace members of external committees that advise the government on vaccine approvals and other key public health decisions, among other efforts. Some experts said he could also amplify data highlighting the risks of vaccines, promote unfounded claims about shots and undermine legal protections for vaccine makers. If rates drop even more, there could be major consequences, such as renewed outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses in certain communities. “Within the next couple of years, we could see major drops in childhood vaccination rates,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of public health law at Georgetown University, told CNBC. “He has all the powers he needs to sow public distrust in vaccines. He has a history of doing that and he has a desire to do it.” “This could lead to significant outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases throughout America, with the disproportionate impact on red states that President Trump carried in the 2024 election,” Gostin added. Kennedy has a long track record of making misleading and false statements about the safety of shots. He has claimed they are linked to autism despite decades of studies that debunk that association. Kennedy is also the founder of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, the most well-funded anti-vaccine organization in the U.S. In a government ethics agreement in January, he said he stopped serving as chairman or chief legal counsel for the organization as of December. But vaccines have saved the lives of more than 1.1 million children in the U.S. and saved Americans $540 billion in direct health-care costs over the last three decades, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research released in August. States and local jurisdictions set vaccine requirements for school children, but the federal government has a longstanding system for approving and recommending shots for the public. That includes creating the childhood vaccination schedule, which recommends when children should receive certain shots. It’s used by states, pediatricians and parents. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Why have childhood vaccination rates fallen? Childhood vaccinations and the state requirements in place for them have been “one of the greatest public health success stories” in the U.S., allowing the country to eliminate many diseases that people once feared, such as polio, according to William Moss, professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Rates stayed relatively steady for nearly a decade before the Covid pandemic, as about 95% of kindergarten children were up to date with all state required vaccines, Moss said. That includes separate shots for polio and varicella, a vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella – called MMR – as well as a jab that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. But the share of kindergarten children who are up to date on their vaccinations has dipped since the pandemic, according to data collected and aggregated annually by the CDC from state and local immunization programs. Less than 93% of kindergarteners had received all state required vaccines in the 2023-2024 school year, data shows. Exemptions from school vaccination requirements, particularly non-medical exemptions, have also increased, according to the CDC. The share of U.S. children claiming an exemption from one or more shots rose from 2.5% in the 2019-2020 school year to 3.3% in the 2023-2024 school year, the highest national exemption rate to date. Nearly all of that increase was driven by non-medical exemptions, such as religious or personal belief reasons. That decrease appears consistent with the public’s perception of childhood immunizations. A Gallup survey released in August found only 40% of Americans said they considered childhood vaccines extremely important, down from 58% in 2019 and 64% in 2001. The overall decline is fueled in part by vaccine skepticism, a trend that “certainly existed far before the pandemic,” KFF’s Michaud said. Vaccine hesitancy and the anti-vaccine movement have been around globally for decades. They are often intertwined with political, moral and spiritual ideas around the rights of an individual versus the community, the limits of government power over bodily autonomy, mistrust of medical institutions and misinformation about shot safety and efficacy. The politicization of the pandemic only fueled more doubts about vaccinations. It created a partisan divide on the public’s acceptance of the Covid vaccine, according to Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases. Social media and public figures amplified misinformation about Covid jabs, and some of those “falsehoods about Covid shots spilled over to an extent to other types of vaccinations,” he said. “There was a very precipitous drop [in vaccination rates] right when the pandemic hit, in those first few months afterwards,” O’Leary said. “And we never really completely caught up.” O’Leary noted that the vast majority of parents on both sides of the political spectrum continue to vaccinate their kids. Still, surveys suggest that the partisan division on immunizations has deepened in recent years. In 2024, 63% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters said childhood vaccinations were “extremely important,” compared to just 26% of Republicans and GOP leaners, according to the August Gallup survey. Five years earlier, enthusiasm was just slightly higher among the Democratic group at 67%, and double among Republican respondents at 52%. There are “certainly political ideologies that are driving vaccine policy in certain areas of the country,” which has a “clear downstream impact on vaccination levels,” said Dr. Neil Maniar, a public health professor at Northeastern University. Over three-quarters of U.S. states, or 39, had vaccination rates for the MMR shot below the “Healthy People 2030” target rate of 95% during the 2023-2024 school year. That refers to the level needed to prevent community transmission of measles, a highly contagious and deadly virus. The data means that roughly 280,000 school children were unvaccinated and unprotected against measles during that school year, according to the CDC. MMR vaccination rates among kindergarteners vary across states, ranging from a low of around 80% in Idaho to a high of more than 98% in West Virginia. Moss noted that clusters of unvaccinated people within a specific community increase the risk of disease outbreak. “That’s where you’re going to get these larger outbreaks like we’re seeing in Texas right now with measles,” Moss said. A child who wasn’t vaccinated died in the outbreak in rural West Texas, state officials said in late February, the first U.S. death from the disease since 2015. The childhood vaccination rate for measles in Gaines County, the epicenter of the current outbreak in Texas, is just below 82%. A second patient, an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico, tested positive for measles after death, state officials said Thursday. Kennedy last week said shots protect communities from measles, but emphasized that the decision to vaccinate “is a personal one.” He also pushed unconventional treatment regimens for measles, including cod liver oil, which is rich in vitamin A. Kennedy could target vaccine advisory panels Kennedy’s HHS already appears to be targeting a key part of U.S. vaccine policy: external advisors to the government health agencies that approve shots and set recommendations for them. The government postponed a meeting of vaccine advisors to the CDC and a separate meeting of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration, the latter of which is crucial to determining the flu strains in next season’s shots. It is unclear why the meetings were canceled or when they will be rescheduled. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland November 4, 2009. Jason Reed | Reuters One “clear step” Kennedy can also take to undermine vaccinations is removing members of those advisory panels that shape the government’s shot recommendations, including which jabs are covered at no cost by different types of insurance, according to Georgetown’s Gostin. Several reports have said Kennedy plans to replace members whom he perceives to have “conflicts of interest,” though it is unclear how many people will be outed or when. Gostin called conflicts of interest one of Kennedy’s “code words” for “simply purging hard working, experienced scientists from advisory committees and replacing them with those that are more skeptical of shots.” All HHS agencies and their advisory panels have rigorous policies for conflicts of interest, and there have been no related issues for years, he noted. Kennedy’s shake-up of advisory committees could produce “bogus recommendations” that highlight the harms rather than the benefits of shots, according to Gostin. He said those recommendations could influence governors, legislatures and school boards in red states, which could adopt policies that reduce childhood immunizations and “create wide-open opt outs of shots.” Those recommendations could also create greater distrust in the CDC and Trump administration among scientists and public health experts, including Gostin himself, he said. Sherry Andrews prepares a MMR vaccine at the City of Lubbock Heath Department in Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Feb. 27, 2025. Annie Rice | Reuters “It will have a longer-term corrosive effect on the value of science in America, which is already under severe attack,” he said. Kennedy is also reviewing the childhood immunization schedule. Experts said that could lead to removing recommendations for certain vaccines or changing their suggested use from “routine” – when the default approach is to vaccinate – to more of an individual choice guided by discussions with a health-care provider. The hope is that officials on the state and local level influence policy or implement practices to drive higher vaccination rates, said Northeastern’s Maniar. State and local governments may need to “expand the work they do” in some cases to “make up lost ground” and advocate for vaccinations, he added. Cherry-picking data Kennedy could also cherry-pick data, studies and any other information about vaccines that “create the misleading impression that shots aren’t safe and cause severe side effects,” according to Gostin. He said Kennedy could include them in official government announcements to undermine the public’s faith in shots. On the campaign trail, Kennedy said he wanted to “restore the transparency” around vaccine safety data and records that he accused HHS officials of hiding. Gostin called transparency another “code word” for “highlighting dubious scientific studies.” He added that Kennedy’s wording suggests that the government’s existing vaccine information is not transparent, when databases recording adverse events and immunization rates have long been fully open to the public. Antonio Perez | Chicago Tribune | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Kennedy is reportedly shelving promotions for a variety of shots, including a campaign touting seasonal flu jabs. He wanted the CDC’s advertisements to promote the idea of “informed consent” in vaccine decision-making instead, STAT News reported in February. That refers to giving patients important information, including possible risks or benefits of a medical treatment, such as adverse events associated with shots. Experts have said while informed consent is important, shifting the framing of advertisements for shots that the CDC has long recommended to focus more on the potential risks could undermine people’s willingness to get vaccinated. “When a parent exercises informed consent not to have their child immunized with measles, it certainly puts that child at risk, but it puts every child in that school with them at risk,” Gostin said. Kennedy would need approval from Congress to change the existing legal liability protections in place for vaccine makers, but he could still undermine them in other ways, experts said. HHS’ National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program currently pays patients injured by standard childhood vaccines and shields drugmakers from litigation. As HHS secretary, Kennedy can remove or add to the list of vaccines and injuries included and covered by that program, Michaud said. Any changes to the list could change some liability protections for vaccine makers, potentially spurring a wave of litigation over alleged injuries from the shots, he added. Source link #RFK #deter #childhood #vaccinations #U.S #rates #fall Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

U.S. Money Supply Growth Is Accelerating — It Could Signal a Huge Change Coming in the Stock Market U.S. Money Supply Growth Is Accelerating — It Could Signal a Huge Change Coming in the Stock Market If you’ve invested in the stock market over the last couple of years, you may have benefited from an incredible bull run in the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC). The index climbed over 66% from the market bottom in October 2022 through the end of February this year. But not every stock participated equally in that bull run. If you invested exclusively in large-cap stocks with growth fueled by artificial intelligence spending, you likely outperformed the index. If you invested in anything else, you probably didn’t keep up. Just 27% of S&P 500 constituents outperformed the index in 2023, and 28% outperformed in 2024. That’s led to an increasingly concentrated market dominated by just a handful of names. But rising concentration is unsustainable. At some point, the mega-cap stocks that have led the market over the last two-plus years will start lagging as smaller companies pick up the slack. And one market indicator suggests that change could be right around the corner. Image source: Getty Images. One factor that’s given the biggest companies in the stock market an unfair advantage in recent years has been the tightening money supply. U.S. M2 money supply started declining in 2022, finally reaching a bottom in late 2023. M2 money supply is a measure of all the cash people have on hand, all the money deposited in checking and savings accounts, and other short-term investments like small-value certificates of deposit (CDs) maturing within a year. The Federal Reserve can influence the money supply through changes in borrowing rates as it works to maintain price stability. A smaller M2 money supply indicates rising interest rates, making it harder to finance loans, and consumers may be less willing to spend. In January, M2 money supply grew faster than at any point since August of 2022, up 3.86% year over year. The growth has accelerated nearly every month since turning positive 10 months ago. At this point, we’ve nearly returned to the peak money supply from 2021. US M2 Money Supply YoY data by YCharts. Despite significant economic uncertainty leading to much more caution at the Federal Reserve, investors still expect the Fed to lower borrowing rates further in 2025. As of this writing, futures markets indicate a 79% chance that the Fed makes two to four rate cuts by the end of the year. That should lead to further money supply growth beyond 2025. While the money supply is tight, mega-cap stocks with tons of cash on their balance sheets stand at a huge advantage. They have the money available to invest in growth and improve their technologies. Story Continues The tightening money supply happened to coincide with a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) in late 2022, which required massive amounts of capital to take advantage of. This enabled the world’s largest companies to spend heavily on AI, leaving smaller companies with far less capital. However, accelerating growth in the money supply is historically correlated with broadening stock performance. As smaller companies have easier and less expensive access to capital, they can invest more in their own growth initiatives. That leads to stronger returns investors typically expect from smaller companies in normal economic environments and more S&P 500 constituents outperforming the overall index. One of the easiest ways to invest in that trend reversal is to buy an equal-weight index fund like the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF. The equal-weight index balances every component of the S&P 500 equally. This means the amount you’ll invest in the biggest mega-cap stocks is the same as the smallest members of the index. Each quarter, the index’s managers rebalance it, and new constituents are added, while others leave. The Invesco fund managers do an excellent job of tracking the index and ensuring that the necessary trades to keep the fund balanced don’t trigger any capital gains for shareholders. That makes it extremely efficient for long-term buy-and-hold investors. Other funds for investors to consider include small-cap and mid-cap stocks. These smaller companies have trailed the large-cap index for a long time, predating the Fed’s tightening policy over the last few years. However, they now trade at great values relative to the S&P 500. The mid-cap S&P 400 index sports a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.6, while the small-cap S&P 600 trades for just 15.3 times earnings. That’s a bargain compared to the S&P 500’s 21.5 multiple or the equal-weight index’s 17.1 multiple. Investors could buy the Vanguard Extended Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VXF), which tracks an index of stocks, including almost every U.S. company outside the S&P 500. Alternatively, a focus on the S&P 600 small-cap index, specifically with the SPDR Portfolio S&P 600 Small Cap ETF (NYSEMKT: SPSM), could perform well as money supply continues to accelerate. With money supply growth accelerating and valuations favoring smaller companies, all of the above options present great ways to diversify away from the largest companies in the S&P 500. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $292,207!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $45,326!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $480,568!* Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon. Continue » *Stock Advisor returns as of March 3, 2025 Adam Levy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. U.S. Money Supply Growth Is Accelerating — It Could Signal a Huge Change Coming in the Stock Market was originally published by The Motley Fool Source link #U.S #Money #Supply #Growth #Accelerating #Signal #Huge #Change #Coming #Stock #Market Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Stocks including investor-favorite Apple have most downside, Barclays says Stocks including investor-favorite Apple have most downside, Barclays says The sell-off in popular U.S. stocks isn’t over yet, according to Barclays, which forecast that stocks such as Apple could take a huge hit in coming months. Amid the uncertainties across the market, one thing is certain: it’s now a stock picker’s world. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and jobs data last week fueled concerns about inflation and a potentially softening economy, and led two major stock averages to see their worst weeks since September. The S & P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each pulled back more than 2% last week, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed more than 3% after ending Thursday in a correction , as recent earnings from several AI-related companies failed to top the most bullish expectations. Investors can anticipate further potential potholes in the market by looking at a few stocks Barclays thinks are no longer attractive. The investment bank highlighted a dozen stocks in its research coverage that it rates underweight and where it sees “significant potential downside from current levels.” Here are some of the stocks: Apple shares could fall almost 18%, using Barclays’ price target of $197. The stock fell for a second week, losing about 1.2% last week, and is down more than 4.5% year to date. Concerns have grown around how Trump administration tariffs could affect Apple, since the iPhone maker assembles most of its products in China. The president has imposed an additional 10% tariff on imports from China, effective last Tuesday, bringing the cumulative tariff to 20%. Cell phones, computers and electrical equipment are among the biggest imports from China. Another stock that Barclays analysts think could slump is Domino’s Pizza . Domino’s could be overvalued after its roughly 12.5% run this year, and may fall roughly 11%, based on the the bank’s price target. The pizza chain’s fourth-quarter report recently disappointed Wall Street expectations, and its U.S. same-store sales increased at slower pace than the consensus FactSet forecast. Online travel company TripAdvisor , down about 4% this year, has an additional 8% projected downside using Barclays’ 12month price target of $13. The Wall Street firm is similarly underweight on UPS and Garmin . UPS shares have had a particularly rough run with lower post-Covid package volumes and higher labor costs, losing more than 21% over the past year even in the midst of the 2024 bull market. Source link #Stocks #including #investorfavorite #Apple #downside #Barclays Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Sylvester Turner, Democratic congressman and former Houston mayor, dies at 70 – AOL Sylvester Turner, Democratic congressman and former Houston mayor, dies at 70 – AOL Sylvester Turner, Democratic congressman and former Houston mayor, dies at 70 AOLWhy are Texas flags at half-staff? How long they should be lowered for Rep. Sylvester Turner Austin American-StatesmanSylvester Turner, Sworn In as U.S. Representative in January, Dies at 70 The New York TimesWho was Rep. Sylvester Turner? The Texas Democrat who died right after Trump’s speech USA TODAYDaughter of Sheila Jackson Lee reflects on US Congressman Sylvester Turner’s legacy KPRC Click2Houston Source link #Sylvester #Turner #Democratic #congressman #Houston #mayor #dies #AOL Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]