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Nearly all Afterpay customers paid their dues in 2021, Block CFO Amrita Ahuja told CNBC on Thursday when she was asked about a Cash parent’s acquisition of the Buy Now, Pay Later service.

“What I’m going to say about the losses is that the team has actually been incredibly conscious in managing consumer losses as input, not the result of growth,” Ahuja said in an interview with Mad Money.

She later added: “98% of consumer contributions were paid by the end of the year, which is the same percentage we saw in the first half of the year. That’s a key area of ​​focus for us. “

When Kramer asked Ahuja if the phrase “buy now, never pay” was true, she said that consumer losses for Afterpay had increased by 8 basis points in the second half of 2021 compared to the first half of the year. The base point is 0.01%.

Ahuja’s comments come after the company, formerly known as Square, reported better than expected in the fourth quarter on February 24. Bloc stocks fell 8.08% this Thursday, well below their 52-week high.

Block closed the acquisition of Afterpay in January, a deal that came after the purchase now, payment later for their services increased during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We know our sellers want to buy now, they pay later. They want access to the tens of millions of millennials and Generation Z consumers seeking credit outside the traditional financial system, “she said.

Ahuja also said that Block is launching a product integration with Square’s online platform on Day One, with more to come.

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Dow Jones futures fell sharply overnight, along with S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures, on reports that a massive nuclear power plant in Ukraine is on fire. The stock market rally hit a key level on Thursday, turning lower with the Nasdaq, small capitalizations and particularly aggressive growth leading down.

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Meanwhile, investors will turn their attention to Friday’s jobs report, which is due to come out before the stock market opens.

Wheat and corn prices have risen by 37% and 21% respectively so far in 2022 and may rise further as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. In preparation for the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s military has closed merchant shipping in its ports, sparking global fears of potential food shortages as a result.

THE WAR RUSSIAN-UKRAINE DANGERED THE ANIMAL FOOD BANK TO COLLECT MONEY FOR ENDANGERED DOMESTIC DOMESTIC AND ANIMALS IN THE REGION

Ukraine has long been considered the “bread basket of Europe” because of its rich soil. The nation accounts for 12% of the world’s wheat exports, according to the US Department of Agriculture. It is also estimated that this year it will provide 16% of world corn exports.

According to Statista, Russia produced 75,500 metric tons and Ukraine produced 33,000 metric tons of wheat in 2021. As for corn, Russia produced 15,000 metric tons and Ukraine produced 42,000 metric tons in 2021.

Concerns are coming as inflation develops at its hottest pace in nearly four decades. Base prices, which exclude more volatile food and energy measurements, rose 5.2% in the year to January, according to the personal consumption price index. Including food and energy, inflation jumped 6.1% in January from a year earlier, the strongest increase since February 1982.

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The World Food Program warns that 811 million people go to bed hungry every night around the world, with the number of people facing acute food insecurity jumping from 35 million to 276 million by 2019. A total of 44 million people in 38 countries are rocking the edge of hunger.

“We get 50% of our grain from the Ukraine-Russia zone. This will have a dramatic impact on food, transport, oil and fuel costs,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “It’s a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe.”

The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 1 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the conflict began.

Megan Henny of Fox Business and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Bosoma St. John of Netflix is ​​ready to leave the streaming company after a nearly two-year term as its chief marketing officer. She will be succeeded by Marian Lee, who was recently VIP marketing for the US / Canada region.

“I loved working with Boz and was inspired by her creativity and energy,” said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos in a statement. “She has attracted world-class marketers to the company and encouraged them to be innovative leaders. We are grateful for her contribution and wish her all the best. ”

Prior to joining Netflix in 2020, St. John held a number of senior executives at companies such as Endeavor, Uber and Apple. She took over from Jackie Lee-Joe, former chief marketing officer at BBC Studios, who took over Netflix’s leading marketing role in 2019 from Kelly Bennett, who retired the same year after seven years in the streamer.

During his tenure, St. John hired senior staff as Allure Editor-in-Chief Michelle Lee. Recent major campaigns include Super Bowl star commercials with Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Jennifer Lopez and Mark Ruffalo, among others. But last summer, as THR reported at the time, three senior executives in Netflix’s marketing department were fired after complaining to Slack’s management. (Netflix denied that the messages were aimed at members of management and said they were instead for fellow employees.)

“I came to Netflix with an excess of enthusiasm and creativity, and I’m extremely proud of the campaigns we’ve inspired that have sparked global conversations,” said St. John. “It was a transformative two-year experience that I will always be grateful for.”

Marian Lee Courtesy of The Collective You

Lee has a relatively recent job at Netflix, joining last July after nearly eight years at Spotify, where he most recently served as vice president and global music director. Prior to Spotify, Lee held positions at J. Crew and Condé Nast, managing marketing and operations.

“Marian is a strategic trader with extensive experience not only in entertainment, but also more broadly, working in fashion and media brands,” said Sarandos. “When she joined Netflix last year, she had an immediate impact on the marketing team and demonstrated that she is an outstanding leader who understands how to talk about brands and popular culture.”

Variety first announced the shaking of the executive branch.

An employee is working on an engine at Ford Motor Co. Super Duty Truck at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Kentucky, September 30, 2016.

Luke Charette Bloomberg | Getty Images

Ford Motor is once again cutting production of high-profit trucks and SUVs due to the continuing global shortage of semiconductor chips, which has been wreaking havoc in the automotive industry for more than a year.

On Thursday, Ford confirmed a shutdown next week for Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator Ford Super Duty pickups and SUVs at a Kentucky plant and medium-duty trucks and chassis cabs at an Ohio plant.

The Detroit-based automaker has suffered one of the biggest impacts of a shortage of parts, leading to sporadic shutdowns of factories in the industry.

The fact that Ford is cutting back on pickup and SUV production shows that carmakers continue to grapple with the problem, although many in the industry expect a gradual improvement in chip supply in 2022.

The chip shortage dates back to early 2020, when Covid caused a continuous shutdown of vehicle assembly plants. As the facilities closed, chip suppliers redirected parts to other sectors, such as consumer electronics, which were not expected to be so affected by home orders.

Automakers are struggling with chip shortages in addition to other supply chain constraints and emerging impacts from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which could further strain supplies.

The cuts in production also came after Ford unveiled plans to split its electric vehicle and legacy car business into two units in a bid to streamline and increase EV production.

Although insulin was discovered more than a century ago and cost little to produce, the catalog price of Civica Rx-branded products is approximately $ 300 per vial, according to the Gary and Mary West Foundation, co-founder of Civica Rx . Expenditure has almost tripled since 2010.

The high price has caused approximately 1 in 4 people with diabetes to give or miss doses, according to a study published in 2019 in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Patients who are black, Hispanic, or Native American are disproportionately affected because they are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured.

Founded in 2018 for the production of generic drugs that are in short supply or subject to price spikes, Civica Rx aims to produce three insulin products that will be available in vials and pre-filled pens. They will be interchangeable with Lantus, Humalog and Novolog and will be jointly developed by GeneSys Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company based in India.

A box of five pen cartridges will cost no more than $ 55.

However, before a drug can be released, Civica Rx must complete clinical trials and obtain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. It also needs to complete the construction of a 140,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Virginia.

The nonprofit is raising $ 125 million to undertake the insulin effort and has committed more than two-thirds of the funding, said Ken Boyden, executive director of The Civica Foundation, in a statement.

The company will eventually be self-sustaining, said Shelley Lifford, vice chairman of the Civica Rx. It will initially produce enough insulin to cover about 30% of the market.

“Those who will benefit greatly from this opportunity that we provide at Civica are those who are underinsured or uninsured, who cannot afford to pay for their medicines,” Lifford said.

Unlike other efforts that focus primarily on reducing what patients pay for insulin, Civica Rx aims to reduce the cost of the drug itself.

“Civica’s goal of producing and selling insulin at very low prices could be an important disruption to the current system,” said Stacy Dusecina, an associate professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “There are some big potential benefits for consumers.”

CNBC’s Jim Kramer on Thursday advised investors to consider Procter & Gamble as a potential purchase to overcome the turbulent market.

“I told you to stick to the market even with some scary events in the last few weeks, but you need a little money and you need conservative stocks,” the Mad Money presenter said. “This is one of them … Procter and Gamble is the safest of safe stocks.”

“You want something that can handle rising raw costs by passing it on to consumers because they have scale and great brands that may require higher prices,” he added, praising the company for its price power but warned that it is not entirely infallible about inflation.

Shares of P&G rose 0.37% in Thursday’s trading session, although shares are still down 5.64% since the beginning of the year. It also fell about 6.7 percent after hitting the all-time high of $ 165.35 on Jan. 21, meaning the stock is currently at a “nice discount,” Kramer said.

P&G said in its fourth-quarter earnings announcement in January that it would apply more price increases this year after raising some prices earlier in the pandemic, which helped expand healthcare, tissue and home care segments.

Kramer cited a number of other reasons why P&G deserves investing dollars as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising inflation continue to devastate the stock market. Kramer highlighted the company’s “insatiable buyout” – P&G forecasts $ 9 billion to $ 10 billion in share buybacks for the fiscal year – and its long-standing trend to increase dividend payments.

The host also credited the company’s better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, as well as its geographic mix, for ranking it as the safest stock.

“We need to redefine safety: it’s not even about your sales being resilient to recession, you also need to have your profits to be resilient to inflation,” he said.

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Desktop Metal: “No, we don’t have to do that. We have HP Inc. earlier this week and they will own the 3D industry and make money, so you should be at HP Inc. HPQ symbol. ”

Canadian goose: “It is still selling at too high a plurality value and I would like to point out that inconsistent profits are not for [us]. We will go elsewhere. ”

Darling Ingredients: “I like … It reminds me of Renewable Energy, the company that just received an offer from Chevron. I think you’re sticking to it. I like this call.”

Tilray: “No, no. We like that [Innovative Industrial Properties] a way to play it, a way of picks and shovels. The pot industry is a very, very difficult industry, unlike gambling. So I’m not there. ”

Floor and decor: “This for me, to be honest, I’ll just call it Lowe’s of the poor man. I’d rather see you at Lowe’s … Lowe had a great quarter.”

Valvoline: “Car lubricants work for me.”

Rio Tinto: “I like Rio Tinto. [Buy, buy, buy]. These are minerals. Remember, there is a bullish mineral market and I accept it. ”

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