Revolut expands in Canary Wharf despite regulatory limbo

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Robotics startup cofounded by Synapse CEO is raising funds with exaggerated claims about GM ties

A humanoid robotics startup cofounded by the CEO of bankrupt fintech firm Synapse has canvassed Silicon Valley investors for funds by claiming close ties and an imminent investment from General Motors — claims rejected by the automaker. The company, called Foundation Robotics Labs, is seeking the last $1 million in funds for an $11 million seed round, according to documents obtained by CNBC. The investor pitch claimed GM had already committed to an investment, along with the Menlo Park-based VC firm Tribe Capital. But, according to GM and one of the startup’s founders, most of Foundation’s claims related to the automaker are exaggerated or untrue. 3alexd | E+ | Getty Images

A humanoid robotics startup cofounded by the CEO of bankrupt fintech firm Synapse has canvassed Silicon Valley investors for funds by claiming close ties and an imminent investment from General Motors — claims rejected by the automaker.

The company, called Foundation Robotics Labs, is seeking the last $1 million in funds for an $11 million seed round, according to documents obtained by CNBC. The investor pitch claimed GM had already committed to an investment, along with the Menlo Park-based VC firm Tribe Capital.

“Foundation is building humanoid robots to take over work that humans do in factories, warehouses and eventually homes,” the startup declared.

On top of the seed investment, the fundraising document said GM was set to be Foundation’s first customer, with a targeted $300 million purchase order, and had also provided access to its factories to help them train its robots.

“GM agreed to let us collect the ground truth data in their factories,” Foundation said in the document. “Our team is in their Mexico factory this week to start the collection process. We would probably be the only company in this space with a dataset like this.”

‘Fabricated’ claims

But, according to GM and one of the startup’s founders, most of Foundation’s claims related to the automaker are exaggerated or untrue.

While GM met with Foundation executives a few times, it hasn’t allowed data collection from its factories, has no agreements for robot orders and isn’t planning an investment, according to a GM spokesman.

“GM has never invested in Foundation Robotics and has no plans to do so,” spokesman Darryll Harrison said in an emailed statement. “In fact, GM has

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US stocks notch third straight record high after inflation data and Fed decision

Broadcom boosted its full-year revenue outlook thanks to continued demand for its AI product and announced a stock split, sending shares of the US chipmaker higher in extended trading.

The company said now it expected full-year sales of $51bn, up from $50bn and higher than analysts had expected. That came as the company reported second-quarter revenue and adjusted net income that topped consensus expectations.

Broadcom also announced a 10-for-one stock split to take effect after the closing bell on July 11. The stock closed at $1,495.51 on Wednesday after a 2.4 per cent rise, and added a further 12 per cent in after-hours trading.

“Broadcom’s second-quarter results were once again driven by AI demand and VMware,” chief executive Hock Tan said. “Revenue from our AI products was a record $3.1 billion during the quarter.”

GameStop tanks with huge volume in the call options owned by ‘Roaring Kitty’

A sell-off in GameStop shares intensified in afternoon trading Wednesday. The last time “Roaring Kitty,” whose legal name is Keith Gill, disclosed his portfolio was Monday night, showing he still owned 120,000 call options contracts with a strike price of $20 and an expiration date of June 21. GameStop calls with the exact strike price and expiration traded a whopping 93,266 contracts Wednesday. A holding page for Keith Gill, a Reddit user credited with inspiring GameStop’s rally, before a YouTube livestream arranged on a laptop at the New York Stock Exchange on June 7, 2024. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A sell-off in GameStop shares intensified in afternoon trading Wednesday, and that coincided with a spike in trading volume in the call options that meme stock leader “Roaring Kitty” owns.

The last time Roaring Kitty, whose legal name is Keith Gill, disclosed his portfolio was Monday night, showing he still owned 120,000 call options contracts with a strike price of $20 and an expiration date of June 21.

GameStop calls with the exact strike price and expiration traded a whopping 93,266 contracts Wednesday, more than nine times its 30-day average volume of 10,233 contracts. The price of these contracts dropped more than 40% during the session, while the stock plunged 16.5%.

It is unclear if it was indeed Roaring Kitty behind the large volume, but options traders said he could be involved given he is such a large holder of those contracts.

Stock chart icon GameStop, 1 day

Options traders have speculated that Gill would have to sell his calls prior to expiration or roll the position into another call option to avoid having to raise a huge amount of cash to exercise them on June 21.

Wall Street has been watching for hints he was unloading the position because it could knock the price of the stock.

For Gill to exercise the calls, he would need to have $240 million to take custody of the stock — 12 million shares bought at $20 apiece — which is more than he has shown publicly in his E-Trade account.

CNBC’s “Fast Money” will be discussing the GameStop move at 5 p.m. ET.

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Ranked: Top 20 Countries by Plastic Waste per Capita

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June 12, 2024 Graphics/Design:

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

Ranked: Top 20 Countries by Plastic Waste per Capita

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Single-use plastic waste is perhaps one of the biggest environmental issues of our time. Every year, millions of tons of plastic end up in oceans and landfills, harming wildlife and ecosystems.

To make matters worse, plastics take hundreds of years to decompose, leading to long-term environmental and health hazards as they break down into microplastics that contaminate water and food sources.

In this graphic, we visualized the top 20 countries that generated the most single-use plastic waste per capita in 2019, measured in kilograms per person. Figures come from research published in May 2021, which we sourced from Statista.

Data and Key Takeaways

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the table below.

RankCountryKg per personPounds per person 1🇸🇬 Singapore76168 2🇦🇺 Australia59130 3🇴🇲 Oman56123 4🇳🇱 Netherlands55121 5🇧🇪 Belgium55121 6🇮🇱 Israel55121 7🇭🇰 Hong Kong55121 8🇨🇭 Switzerland53117 9🇺🇸 U.S.53117 10🇦🇪 UAE52115 11🇨🇱 Chile51112 12🇰🇷 S. Korea4497 13🇬🇧 UK4497 14🇰🇼 Kuwait4088 15🇳🇿 New Zealand3986 16🇮🇪 Ireland3986 17🇫🇮 Finland3884 18🇯🇵 Japan3782 19🇫🇷 France3679 20🇸🇮 Slovenia3577

Countries from all around the world are present in this ranking, highlighting how plastic waste isn’t concentrated in any one region.

It’s also interesting to note how most of the countries in this top 20 ranking are wealthier, more developed nations. These nations have higher levels of consumption, with greater access to packaged goods, take-out services, and disposable products, all of which rely on single-use plastics.

Where’s China and India?

Note that we’ve visualized plastic waste per capita, which is different from the total amount of waste produced by a country. It is for this reason that major polluters, such as China and India, are not present in this ranking.

It’s also worth noting that this

Fed holds rates steady, indicates only one cut coming this year

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its key interest rate unchanged and signaled that just one cut is expected before the end of the year. The Federal Open Market Committee also indicated that it believes the long-run interest rate is higher than previously indicated. “In recent months, there has been modest further progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent inflation objective,” policymakers wrote in a statement.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its key interest rate unchanged and signaled that just one cut is expected before the end of the year.

With markets hoping for a more accommodative central bank, Federal Open Market Committee policymakers following their two-day meeting took two rate reductions off the table from the three indicated in March. The committee also signaled that it believes the long-run interest rate is higher than previously indicated.

New forecasts released after this week’s two-day meeting indicated slight optimism that inflation remains on track to head back to the Fed’s 2% goal, allowing for some policy loosening later this year.

“Inflation has eased over the past year but remains elevated,” the post-meeting statement said, echoing language from the last statement. In the only substantive change, the new statement followed with, “In recent months, there has been modest further progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent inflation objective.”

The previous language said there had been “a lack of further progress” on inflation.

Traders seemed encouraged by these comments, with the S&P 500 jumping to a record Wednesday after the statement was issued.

Aggressive cutting seen for 2025

For the period through 2025, the committee now sees five total cuts equaling 1.25 percentage points, down from six in March. If the projections hold, it would leave the federal funds rate benchmark at 4.1% by the end of next year.

Another significant development occurred with the projection for the long-run rate of interest, essentially a level that neither boosts nor restricts growth. That moved up to 2.8% from 2.6%, a nod that the higher-for-longer narrative is gaining traction among Fed officials.

In a further indication of a hawkish bent from central bankers, the dot plot showed four officials in favor of no cuts this year, up from two previously.

Return to 2% target

Elsewhere in the FOMC’s

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Here’s the Fed’s new rate forecast that’s moving the markets

Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jerome Powell announces that interest rates will remain unchanged during a news conference at the bank’s William McChesney Martin building on May 01, 2024 in Washington, DC.  Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday projected only one rate cut for the remainder of 2024, down from its March forecast that called for three reductions.

The central bank’s “terminal rate” for 2024, or the rate at which its benchmark fed funds rate will peak, went up to 5.1%, equivalent to a target range of 5%-5.25%. That means that the Fed is only forecasting one quarter-point rate cut from the current target range of 5.25% to 5.5%.

The so-called “dot plot,” which indicates how 19 FOMC members, both voters and nonvoters, showed four officials in favor of no cuts this year, while seven members projected one reduction. The remaining eight officials forecast two rate cuts for 2024.

Here are the Fed’s latest targets:

Arrows pointing outwards

Back in March, the Fed projected three rate cuts this year with the fed funds rate hitting 4.6%. After a cool inflation report Wednesday but before the Fed’s new forecast release, traders were pricing in two cuts this year.

For 2025, the central bank anticipated four rate cuts in total or a full percentage point reduction in the benchmark fed funds rate.

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Terraform Labs to pay $4.5bn in SEC fraud case

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Here’s what changed in the new Fed statement

This is a comparison of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement with the one issued after the Fed’s previous policymaking meeting that concluded May 1.

Text removed from the prior statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle.

Text appearing for the first time in the June statement is in red and underlined.

Black text appears in both statements.

Arrows pointing outwards

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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Oracle, Apple, Rentokil Initial and more