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Tesla boss Elon Musk will not join the board of Twitter after all
SAN FRANCISCO (`) — Billionaire Elon Musk, one of Twitter’s largest shareholders, is reversing course and will not rejoin the company’s board less than a week after earning a seat. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced the news, which followed a weekend of Musk tweets proposing changes to Twitter, including making the site ad-free. Almost 90% of Twitter’s 2021 revenue came from ads. As revealed last week, Musk had quickly amassed a massive stake in Twitter to become its largest single shareholder. Agrawal didn’t offer an explanation for the reversal, but said the decision was made by the leapfrog billionaire.
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Russia’s war to shrink Ukraine’s economy by 45%, World Bank says
LONDON (`) – The World Bank says Ukraine’s economy will shrink by 45.1% this year because Russia’s invasion has shut down half of the country’s businesses, choked off imports and exports and damaged a vast amount of critical infrastructure. The World Bank also said on Sunday that unprecedented sanctions imposed by Western allies in response to the war will plunge Russia into a deep recession and destroy more than a tenth of its economy in 2022. The Washington-based lender said in its War in the Region economic report that the war in Europe and Central Asia will do twice as much economic damage as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Efforts to manufacture medical protective equipment in the US fall flat
UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. (`) — The push to manufacture personal protective equipment in the U.S. is stalling after an initial surge early in the coronavirus pandemic. The Associated Press identified more than $125 million in federal grants to over 300 companies in 10 states to boost production of masks, gowns, sanitizer and other pandemic supplies. But the ` noted that many manufacturers were struggling to find equipment, materials and reliable buyers. Many have scaled back, closed or given up. Industry officials say they need more help from the federal government to ensure there are enough American-made protective gear for future pandemics or emergencies.
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California’s utility pays $55 million for massive wildfires
SAN FRANCISCO (`) — Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid prosecution for two large wildfires started by aging power lines in Northern California. The settlements with the country’s largest utility also include five years of independent oversight, which prosecutors said was a key win, similar to a five-year suspended sentence served by PG&E for misconduct. The civilian settlements are designed to expedite payments to hundreds of people whose homes were destroyed so they can begin rebuilding sooner than others who suffered devastating casualties in 2017 and 2018 ignited by PG&E’s equipment. The utility still faces charges over a 2020 fire that killed four people.
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Stocks fall on Wall Street, led by slumps in tech companies
NEW YORK (`) — Stocks fell Monday on Wall Street, extending a losing streak last week. The S&P 500 lost 1.7%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2% and the Nasdaq fell 2.2%. Technology stocks fell and were the largest weights in the market. Energy companies also slipped along with falling crude oil prices. Twitter soared after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he would not be joining the company’s board after all. Musk recently became the company’s largest single shareholder and can now increase his stake. The yield on the 10-year government bond rose to 2.78%.
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Once a retail giant, Kmart is on the brink of extinction after closing
AVENEL, NJ (`) — When Kmart in Avenel, NJ closes its doors on April 16, there will be just a handful of remaining locations for the former retail powerhouse. It’s a far cry from the chain’s heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, when it had more than 2,000 stores and sold product lines endorsed by Martha Stewart and former “Charlies Angel” Jaclyn Smith. Kmart’s demise is credited to the rise of Walmart and Target, as well as online giant Amazon. But retail expert Mark Cohen says the company was also plagued by poor management decisions and could have stayed viable.
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The head of the British Treasury is struggling to save his reputation in the tax storm
LONDON (`) – Britain’s finance chief is fighting to save his reputation by calling for an investigation into his own behavior after a spate of news reports about his family’s finances raised questions about his judgement. Rishi Sunak asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday for a review of all disclosures Sunak has made since becoming government minister. Sunak’s reputation has been tarnished by revelations that his Indian-born wife has exploited rules that allow many foreigners to avoid British taxes on their overseas income. It came at the same time he was raising income taxes for most residents already facing a cost-of-living crisis coupled with soaring energy prices.
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Frontier CEO talks airline merger and travel prospects
DALLAS (`) — Barry Biffle is juggling his day-to-day work as CEO of Frontier Airlines while also working to salvage a proposed merger with Spirit Airlines that, by some measures, would create the nation’s fifth-largest airline. Regarding the merger, Biffle says Frontier and Spirit are answering regulators’ questions, and he’s not concerned that several liberals in Congress are urging the Biden administration to look closely at whether the deal will harm consumers. The bigger obstacle to a Frontier Spirit deal is JetBlue Airways, which last week submitted its own $3.6 billion bid for Spirit. JetBlue’s bid is higher than Frontier’s $2.9 billion bid announced in February.
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The S&P 500 fell 75.75 points, or 1.7%, to 4,412.53. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 413.04 points, or 1.2%, to 34,308.08. The Nasdaq lost 299.04 points, or 2.2%, to 13,411.96. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 14.24 points, or 0.7%, to 1,980.32.
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