The SoftBank fund responsible for bankrolling now-embattled WeWork is reportedly dialing back its hallmark high-risk investment strategy and doubling down on corporate governance at its current holdings. The Vision Fund is a stakeholder in a number of the most renowned startups around the world, including Slack and Uber Technologies. The Vision Fund also played a leading role in one of the largest swells in private investment in recent memory. Without the rescue from SoftBank, WeWork would have

Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com, is banking on the communications sector’s ETF XLC. “I think, over the next 12 months, the energy sector could be one of the better-performing or outperforming in the S&P. In particular, he drew attention to the stocks of exploration and production companies, tracked by the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF XOP. So I think at current value, the energy sector is under-owned, and I think there’s a lot of catalysts to drive to the upside.” T

Billionaire philanthropist and liberal activist George Soros says Elizabeth Warren is the top Democrat in the field vying to take on President Donald Trump in 2020. “She has emerged as the clear-cut person to beat,” he told The New York Times in an interview published Friday. “I don’t take a public stance, but I do believe that she is the most qualified to be president.” Warren has shot up in the polls recently and is now in second place in national surveys, behind former Vice President Joe Bide

A number of people reported confrontations with accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein after the embattled filmmaker made an appearance at a New York City bar Wednesday night. “Harvey Weinstein was out with friends enjoying the music and trying to find some solace in his life that has been turned upside down,” a spokesman for Weinstein told NBC News. A person named Zoe Stuckless posted video of themselves confronting Weinstein at the bar. She later said on her Instagram that the host of the sh

Grim as it may be, backup-generator maker Generac Holdings is soaring as power cuts in California become the norm. The stock opened at a new all-time high on Friday, and is up 85% for the year. This week PG&E announced another large-scale preemptive power cut for hundreds of thousands of customers in California. California’s once reliable power and mild weather has meant that it hasn’t traditionally been a key market for home generators. And California is not the only state suffering from extrem

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s wealth-tax is not the right idea when it comes to raising government revenue and reducing income inequality in America, billionaire and longtime Democrat Ron Baron told CNBC on Friday. “It’s pretty nuts,” Baron said, though he did not say which candidate he planned to support for the Democratic presidential nomination. Massachusetts Sen. Warren’s wealth tax plan calls for a levy of 2% on families’ net worth of above $50 million and 3% on house

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “audacious goals” have helped drive the company’s success, Chairwoman Robyn Denholm said Friday. Baron Funds owns more than 1.62 million Tesla shares, worth nearly $488 million based on Thursday’s close of $299.68 per share. The buy-and-hold billionaire’s average cost of acquiring Tesla shares over the years, starting in 2012, stands at $218.75 each. Musk and Tesla reached a settlement with the SEC in September 2018, which required, in part, Musk to relinquish his role as c

Amazon shares took a major hit after its third-quarter earnings fell short of expectations, but one bright spot was its advertising business, which appears to be picking up speed again. Net sales in Amazon’s “other” category, which primarily represents advertising, was $3.59 billion in the third quarter, up from $2.50 billion in the third quarter of 2018. The gains comec as Amazon’s ad business continues to prove itself a formidable contender in the digital ad world. The company is also adding m

Guggenheim said Uber has an underappreciated pricing leverage, among other factors. “1) We look for a more benign competitive scenario to evolve globally with significant cross ownership yielding the potential for consolidation and competitive discipline; 2) We model to 2023 EBITDA with no price increases, but even modest increases could pull that to as early as 2021 and that might get easier to envision if competitive discipline extends beyond the U.S.; 3) Rising prices in the U.S. should fuel

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tours the facility at the grand opening of the Amazon Spheres, in Seattle, Washington on January 29, 2018. Barclays told clients it’s “still early” to buy the dip on Amazon, as the e-commerce giant’s period of heavy investment could hurt financials and the stock further before things get better. “Historically it’s a good idea to buy AMZN shares in the 7th-8th inning of its investment cycles, closer to where we are coming out, but unfortunately it feels like we are only in t

National Security Advisor, John Bolton, gestures as he meets with journalists during a visit to London, Britain August 12, 2019. Lawyers for former national security advisor John Bolton have been in touch with officials working on House committees about possibly testifying in the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, a person close to Bolton told NBC News on Friday. Hill said that Bolton told her he did not want to be part of that push, which involved White House chief of staff Mick Mulva

The Ubisoft display at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, California. Shares of Ubisoft plunged on Friday, while trading was briefly suspended, after the French game publisher issued a profit warning and delayed the release of some of its triple-A titles. Ubisoft on Thursday announced that it was revising downward its fiscal year profit targets for 2019-20, with the gaming giant now expecting operating profits of between 20 million euros ($22.2 million) and 50 million euros,

No one can compete with Amazon’s scale: Wedbush Securities45 Mins AgoMichael Pachter of Wedbush Securities says retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy won’t be able to compete with Amazon in the e-commerce industry. He also says it’s “unforgivable” that Twitter had an ad technology glitch.

Asia markets struggled for gains on Friday as investors searched for guidance on developments in the U.S.-China trade war and in the U.K.’s planned departure from the European Union. The Nikkei 225 in Japan retraced early gains to trade down 0.07% while the Topix index was flat. In South Korea, the Kospi index slipped 0.1% but shares of major chipmaker SK Hynix jumped 2.63%. Chinese mainland markets also traded lower: The Shanghai composite was down 0.49%, the Shenzhen composite fell 0.12% and t

Amid the biggest political crisis Hong Kong has seen in over two decades, the world’s most expensive housing market is “not looking good,” Joseph Tsang, chairman of Hong Kong business at JLL told CNBC. Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, has been mired in months of unrest. Hong Kong has been repeatedly ranked as the most expensive place to own a home. “Every Hong Kong citizen and his family will no longer have to be troubled by or pre-occupied with the housi

Sugawara has submitted his resignation after being accused of violating election law by offering voters money and gifts, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on October 25, 2019. Japanese Trade Minister Isshu Sugawara resigned on Friday, following accusations of election law violations just a month after taking up the key post charged with handling a trade dispute with neighboring South Korea. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had accepted Sugawara’s resignation and asked Hiroshi Kajiyama to take the

“What libra has done is … it has shaken up the central banking community,” she said, because a private sector-backed, global digital currency has suddenly become real possibility. Beatrice Weder di Mauro, president of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, said libra is unlikely to be given the green light. Facebook’s libra may not be approved, but the chances of a different digital global currency being created are now higher, the president of a European think tank told CNBC this week. But th

Cut out single-use plasticIntroducing a zero single-use plastic policy can be a challenging but effective way of cutting your office’s environmental impact. Start by exchanging plastic cups and takeaway boxes for reusable containers, before cutting back in other areas like office supplies. Create a leaderboard where teammates can earn points for refusing single-use plastics, or start a plastic swear jar requiring a $2 donation for every piece of single-use plastic used. If your office is among t

As Wall Street gets through the thick of earnings season, CNBC’s Jim Cramer helps investors make sense of the stocks worth buying here. The “Mad Money” host points out what American companies are performing well in China, despite the trade war. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesCNBC’s on Thursday said the stocks worth owning are those of companies that can keep performing at this stage of the business cycle. Aly Song | ReutersBelieve it or not, there is a bucket of businesses that are winn

In Southern California, two fires rolled along the parched foothills north of Los Angeles, forcing at least 40,000 people to flee neighborhoods where thousands of homes have sprung up in recent decades. A garage burns at a vineyard during the Kincade fire near Geyserville, California on October 24, 2019. Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty ImagesHot and dry Santa Ana winds led Southern California Edison to cut power to more than 31,000 customers. A series of deadly blazes tore through the same area in No