Summary CNBC Marathon explores the decline of electric vehicle sales and its implications. In August 2023, it took about twice as long to sell an EV in the U.S. as it did the previous January. Prices of EVs are down 22% year-over-year and that's mainly driven by Tesla. About two thirds of EVs sold are Elon Musk's brand. Companies like Ford have ramped up hybrid production as demand has leveled off. Used EV prices are falling. Studies show that used EV prices fell somewhere around 30 percent in September and October 2023 from the same period in 2022. Used overall vehicle prices including ..read more

Summary When investors think of the financial markets, the first thing that likely comes to mind is the stock market. But there is a bigger, less-flashy counterpart to the equity market: the bond market. At the heart of the fixed income space lies U.S. Treasurys, one of the safest investments in the world. "We have not paid attention to the Treasury market because it was a market for foreigners or for the Fed," said Priya Misra, fixed income portfolio manager at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "Now it's a market for all of us, and it's giving you better yield. So it's something which we sh ..read more

Summary CNBC Marathon explores the business of airline amenities and how airlines are working to improve them.  Over the past couple of years, airlines and credit card companies like American, United, Chase and Capital One are investing millions into expanding their airport lounge networks for customers. However, lounges have become so popular that some face overcrowding, and companies like Delta are making it harder to get airline status. Airlines have been spending big to add more space and comfort to seats on board planes. According to AeroDynamic advisory, airplane seats were a ..read more

Summary Hyundai Motor Group is the 3rd largest automaker in the world by volume. In the 1990s, it suffered low sales and a reputation for low quality. Now its three auto brands - Hyundai, Kia and Genesis - are nipping at the heels of well established competitors, and winning award after award. While Tesla still dominates the EV industry, Hyundai and Kia are inching closer. But the company also wants to revolutionize manufacturing, invest in robotics, autonomous driving and flying taxis, ambitions that many rivals have abandoned. But the company has also faced setbacks: a plague of thefts ..read more

Summary The ongoing migrant crisis is unprecedented, both in scale and the impact it’s had beyond the border states to cities located deep within the country. Major cities like New York, Denver, and Chicago are finding themselves under extreme financial pressure, exacerbated by the lack of federal funding or assistance. So just how long can cities withstand the recent surge of migrants and what do they need to end the crisis ..read more

Summary The tech sector is having a big 2024. Nvidia just crushed earnings expectations. The AI boom remains in full swing. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index is up more than 8 percent year-to-date. The U.S. economy is also doing surprisingly well, adding 353,000 jobs in January, well ahead of economists' forecasts. Hotter-than-expected inflation data may also keep the Fed from cutting rates as soon as the market expects, a sign that the economy remains strong enough to support higher interest rates for longer. It's a different story for tech workers, though. "The layoffs to the start of 2024 s ..read more

Summary With annual sales of $11.6 billion as of December 2023, Nescafé is Swiss-based food giant Nestlé’s largest coffee segment. Sold in over 180 countries, one in seven cups of coffee consumed worldwide is a Nescafé. Globally about 3 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day and that number is expected to rise. To keep up with demand Nescafé works with over 100,000 farmers and buys more than 13 million bags of green coffee annually. It also has two dozen factories globally. But producers are facing a number of challenges including fluctuating coffee prices and higher labor costs . So ..read more

Summary It may come as a surprise that Monster Beverage Corporation, which sells Monster Energy drink, is the best-performing U.S. stock in 30 years, even over tech giants such as Google, Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft. The company has been run by South African billionaires Hilton Schlosberg and Rodney Sacks since they acquired Hansen Natural in 1990. Monster, followed by main competitor Red Bull, is the leader in the $21 billion energy drink industry. Watch the video above to learn how an unassuming company came to have such wild success by focusing on marketing to audiences of sports such a ..read more

Summary  2023 saw slightly less enthusiasm among Singaporeans to invest in cryptocurrency. The Independent Reserve Singapore polled 1,500 people for its latest cryptocurrency index and found ownership slipped three percentage points from the year before. Nadirah Zaidi reports ..read more

Summary For troupes seeking good quality, attractive and lightweight lion heads for their performances, there is only one man they would trust – Henry Ng, who is believed to be the last remaining lion head maker in Singapore ..read more