Tag: CNBC

 The Story: After a period of deliberation, conservative television personality Eric Bolling announced last week that he will not run for Congress. He had publicly...

The Story: In a development that may epitomize the increasing political polarization of broadcast news reporting as a business, Shepard Smith, a reporter who worked...

President Donald Trump moved markets and busted norms on Friday morning with a tweet about the May employment report more than an hour before the numbers came out. “Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning,” the president tweeted at 7:21 a.m. And the numbers were in fact quite good, showing a better than expected gain of 223,000 jobs and a dip in unemployment to 3.8 percent, the lowest level since April of 2000, sending Dow futures higher. Former Obama administration officials pounced on Trump’s tweet even before the public got to see the numbers, saying it violated rules banning federal employees with access to the jobs data from saying anything at all about it until 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. “There were times when there was a good number and they wanted to send the president out to talk about it, but Air Force One was scheduled to leave at 9:15 a.m. and we would tell them to delay the flight until after 9:30 a.m.” Furman suggested Trump should no longer get the numbers in advance. “I’d suggest that CEA no longer give the president the number. And if they do give it to him and he says anything about it at all before release, they should share all the data with everyone immediately.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNBC that Trump was in fact briefed on the jobs report Thursday night and the tweet was appropriate because he did not put the numbers out early. Larry Kudlow, chair of the National Economic Council, told CNBC he got the numbers Thursday evening and called Trump on Air Force One to share them. I think this is all according to routine.” But even short of offering the actual numbers, the mere fact that Trump would say he was “looking forward” to the release suggested to traders that the figures would be good. “If the president just tipped that the numbers are good, he broke the law,” former Obama CEA Chair Austan Goolsbee tweeted on Friday morning. The White House’s CEA receives the jobs data from BLS around 1 p.m. on Thursday before the official release.

GLENS FALLS — Democratic congressional candidate Dylan Ratigan said the country will not be able to fix its problems until it gets money out of politics. Ratigan, who is one of five Democrats running in the NY-21 primary election on June 26, told The Post-Star editorial board on Thursday that the problem in Washington is policy is being crafted to protect the interests of large institutions. “Decisions are made to preserve those interests — even if they are at the expense of people, which they frequently are,” he said. Ratigan, who lives in Lake Placid, said another factor is gerrymandered districts that are designed to keep incumbents in power. When there is little risk that they will be voted out of office, politicians are more beholden to their donors than the public, he said. He cited the fact that a public insurance option was eliminated from the Affordable Care Act at the last minute in 2010. Although Democrats controlled Congress and the presidency, they did not want to include this in the final bill and risk hurting insurance companies. Frustration with the political system is what prompted Ratigan to leave journalism after first working at Bloomberg in New York City and then spending six years at CNBC hosting a show called “Fast Money.” He left CNBC following the economic meltdown in 2008 because he was concerned that his bosses at the channel did not want him to talk about what he believed were the true causes of the financial crisis. “It would have required me to shut up and blame the homeowners and move along,” he said. He started a website called getmoneyout.com and had signed up 250,000 activists.

NEW YORK — Howard Schultz sounds a lot like a guy running for office. The outgoing Starbucks Corp. chairman — who has thrust the coffee chain into thorny social issues in recent years and took thinly veiled jabs at President Trump during the 2016 election season — laid out a centrist vision for the United States during a television appearance on Tuesday, adding to speculation that he’ll mount a run for the White House in 2020. The Trump administration’s tax cut was “reckless” in the context of rising national debt, he said on CNBC, while also knocking the “vitriolic behavior” from the White House. Schultz raised concerns about the brewing trade battle with China and called for a ideology-free approach to tackling the issues facing the United States. “We need to do things that restore the promise of the country and our standing around the world,” Schultz said in an interview on CNBC. “We have to move the ideology out and do what’s best for the American people.” Schultz, 64, announced late Monday that he’d be stepping down from Starbucks later this month, fueling speculation that he’s mulling a political career. In the memo announcing his exit, Schultz said that he is “thinking about a range of options for myself, from philanthropy to public service, but I’m a long way from knowing what the future holds.” The entrepreneur turned a local Seattle coffee chain into a global giant with more than 28,000 stores in 77 countries. Schultz, who declined to be “nailed down” on a potential run for office, said the partisan unrest dividing the country is a serious threat. While criticizing the Trump administration, and the divisiveness that has infused US politics, Schultz also lamented that “some Democrats” had moved too far to the left. He said that tough problems like immigration reform, gun control, and spending on programs like Medicare and Medicaid need to be fixed with a centrist focus on domestic issues.

Online home goods company Wayfair said it will stop advertising on Fox News host Laura Ingraham's show after she posted a tweet critical of a Parkland, Fla., high school student. "As a company, we support open dialogue and debate on issues. "We do not plan to continue advertising on this particular program." Ingraham faced backlash this week after she posted a tweet critical of Parkland student David Hogg, who has become a vocal advocate for gun control since the mass shooting last month at his high school. Ingraham on Wednesday shared a Daily Wire story that reported Hogg was rejected from four colleges. “David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates),” Ingraham tweeted. At least two other advertisers, TripAdvisor and pet food brand Nutrish, also said Thursday they would stop advertising on her program. Ingraham apologized Thursday for "any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland." He helped organize and lead the March for Our Lives rally last weekend in Washington, D.C., and has been warning lawmakers that they will be voted out of office if they don't pass new gun laws.

Making money — not following political directives — is the top priority for Chinese state-owned train giant CRRC, its chairman claimed this week. "As an enterprise, CRRC seeks profits. Considerations about Chinese soft power and global political influence "do exist in our agenda, but our ultimate goal is always the benefit when adjusting ourselves to the market," Liu told CNBC at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The plan, which continues to evolve, at one point included 65 countries, which together accounted for one-third of global GDP and 60 percent of the world's population, or 4.5 billion people, according to Oxford Economics. It's all part of China's push to increase global clout — building modern infrastructure can attract more investment and trade along the route. The policy could also boost the domestic economy with demand abroad, and might soak up some of the overcapacity in China's industrial sector. "In the construction of the Belt and Road, we haven't really seen any projects where new markets are being explored entirely for political interest. Even though President Donald Trump approved controversial tariffs on imported washing machines and solar cells on Monday, Liu said he didn't think the U.S. leader was being anti-China. "I feel that he is seeking a new balance. —CNBC's Saheli Roy Choudhury contributed to this story.