—— Volkswagen CEO Herbert will step down; U.S. apartment and warehouse properties are fading; Snap loses $400 million and its stock price falls 30%; this Sunday, the temperature in New York City may break a record; United Airlines cuts thousands of flights; FTX may acquire South Korean cryptocurrency Platform; Tesla acquisition affects Twitter revenue.
1. Volkswagen CEO steps down
This week, Volkswagen AG also caused a shock to the industry by announcing that Herbert Diess will step down as CEO and leave the company’s management on September 1st, 2022.
Herbert, who took the position in 2015, will be replaced by current Porsche CEO Oliver Blume. Oliver will serve as CEO of both companies.
Herbert has been promoting the electrification of Volkswagen since taking the position, but the development and sales of the company’s electric cars during his tenure did not meet expectations.
In addition to this, Herbert has had conflicts with powerful executives in the public sector.
Herbert leadership did not meet expectations during his tenure
Source: WSJ – Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess to Step Down
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2. U.S. commercial real estate is fading
Lenders are also feeling the pinch as real estate prices in individual U.S. markets have recently started to fall, and many deals have been canceled.
Apartments and warehouse properties, which have benefited more during the pandemic, have also slumped as interest rates have risen.
Compared to assets such as stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies, the correction in real estate came relatively late.
According to statistics, the current scale of loans related to commercial real estate in the United States is as high as $5 trillion, and investors also need to reconsider the return potential of their investment portfolios.
In the first six months of the year, U.S. commercial real estate transactions hit $375.8 billion, but the market slows down quickly in the second half of the year.
If mortgage rates continue to stay high, a significant portion of buyers will lose their purchasing power
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3. Snap loses $400 million, shares fall 30%
Shares of social media company Snap tumbled more than 30% on Thursday after it reported a “failed” second-quarter report. Company CEO Evan Spiegel said the company is also very dissatisfied with the financial results.
In the second quarter, Snap earned $1.11 billion in revenue, up 13% year-on-year, but its net loss widened 178% to $422 million, much higher than analysts’ expectations of $340 million.
Evan revealed that the company will put energy into product innovation, and look for new profit points and good investment projects. In addition, the company will significantly reduce the cost of online advertising and job recruitment.
Snap said the rise of Douyin and TikTok in recent years has also put a lot of pressure on the company to compete
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4. NYC temperatures could break records this Sunday
New York City is likely to hit a high of 37 degrees Celsius on Sunday, setting a record for the same day every year in the past.
In the past few weeks, Texas, Oklahoma, and parts of Central America have been hit by heat waves. Soon, cities around Interstate Highway 95 will also usher in ultra-high temperatures.
Andrew Orrison, a forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center, said Sunday will be the hottest day of the summer in the New York City metropolitan area.
New Yorkers need to pay attention to sunstroke prevention and sun protection in outdoor activities
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5. United Airlines cuts thousands of flights
American Airlines Group notified pilots today that it will cut 1,175 flights in July and August to build up more cash savings for possible future financial problems.
Year-to-date, the airline industry has suffered from inflation in labor costs and the cost of crude oil, with many major airlines including United Airlines announcing flight reductions.
According to statistics, United currently operates about 5,400 flights per day.
Margins on operating routes plummeted due to higher jet fuel and labor prices
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6. FTX may acquire a South Korean cryptocurrency platform
Cryptocurrency trading platform FTX is in advanced talks to acquire South Korean firm Bithumb, according to people familiar with the matter.
Negotiations between the two companies have been going on for months, but nothing has been finalized.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX with over 100 million assets, recently took advantage of the cryptocurrency winter to acquire many poorly run cryptocurrency companies.
FTX US is trying to raise $1 billion in funding and continues to buy peers, people familiar with the matter said.
The Bithumb platform, founded in 2014, has a daily transaction volume of $569 million.
Sam is very optimistic about the future development of cryptocurrencies
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7. Tesla deal hits Twitter revenue
Today, social platform Twitter’s second-quarter report showed that the company’s revenue unexpectedly fell sharply to $1.18 billion, missing analysts’ expectations of $1.32 billion.
Advertising revenue rose 2 percent to $1.08 billion from a year ago.
Twitter’s poor revenue growth shows that the Tesla acquisition has had a big impact on Twitter.
Youssef Squali, an analyst at Truist Securities, said many companies feared that Musk’s actions or comments could affect Twitter’s operations, so they did not dare to be involved in the acquisition disagreement between the two companies, leading to Twitter. advertising revenue missed expectations.
Since Tesla announced its acquisition of Twitter, Musk has repeatedly revealed signs of repentance
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The content of this article comes from various financial news media such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg.