Author: Editor-In-Chief
This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.Have a nice Wednesday and New Year’s Eve. I have decided that there are three main groups of holiday observers this year. People who go to parties or people who stay home and watch the ball drop in Times Square. People doing late night training classes and races. and those who are about to go AMC Watch the “Stranger Things” finale.This newsletter typically covers five things you need to know before the market opens. That list will now include Federal Reserve minutes showing a contentious December…
Seoul, South Korea AP — South Korea announced this week that it would officially end its shrinking but much-criticized bear bile farming industry, but about 200 bears are still kept in cages and bred for their gall bladders. The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced on Tuesday that keeping and possessing bears, as well as collecting their bile, will be banned from January 1. The changes are in line with the revised Animal Welfare Act, which imposes prison terms of up to two or five years for violators. South Korea is one of the few countries that allows agriculture…
Anthony Joshua is still recovering in a Nigerian hospital after a car crash that killed two of the British boxer’s closest friends.Joshua’s personal trainer Kevin “Latif” Ayodele and strength and conditioning coach Sheena Ghami were killed on Monday when the car they were traveling in collided with a stationary vehicle on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.Footage on social media showed the two-time heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist wincing in pain as he was helped out of the rubble.Joshua suffered “minor injuries” in the fatal accident, but is in stable condition and is being monitored at a hospital in Lagos.The extent of…
Saudi Arabia’s attack on Mukalla port has sparked tensions with its Gulf Arab neighbor the United Arab Emirates, Yemen’s Arab coalition partner.Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said two ships carrying more than 80 vehicles and containers of arms and ammunition destined for the Southern Transitional Council (STC) entered Mukalla port without notifying Saudi Arabia or Yemen’s internationally recognized government.There are serious disagreements between the two countries’ allies in Yemen, which have now reached a climax and are likely at a tipping point that will affect Yemen.The Yemeni government lost control of the situation after military clashes between Saudi Arabia…
As Berkshire Hathaway announced Wednesday that Warren Buffett is officially retiring, attention is turning to the unresolved part of the succession plan: the fate of the company’s $300 billion stock portfolio. For decades, Berkshire’s stock holdings have reflected Buffett’s long-term investment decisions and willingness to deploy capital during market turmoil. Without a clear successor with a comparable track record in public stocks, some analysts say Berkshire may eventually scale back on its aggressive stock picking, especially given the size and concentration of its portfolio. “At some point, those shoes become too big to fill,” said Deiya Pernas, an analyst at…
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday said China was on track to meet a growth target of about 5% this year and would roll out more aggressive policies in 2026, doubling down on promises of further stimulus to boost economic growth.In his New Year’s address broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV, President Xi said China’s gross domestic product is expected to reach 140 trillion yuan ($20 trillion) this year, with defense and science and technology in particular reaching new levels.CCTV reported that on the same day, Xi told a New Year’s tea party for senior Chinese Communist Party officials that the country’s…
“Big Leap”But Schwartz told Al Jazeera that the trend of government data consolidation has been going on for decades under Democratic and Republican leadership.“Unfortunately, oversight is bipartisan,” he said.But in President Trump’s second term, that process has reached warp speed. Schwartz argues that the Trump administration’s actions violate privacy laws and other laws and represent a “dangerous” shift from Nixon-era protections.”The biggest problem the federal government has had in the last year when it comes to surveillance has been the subversion of Watergate-era safeguards designed to keep databases segregated,” he said.Schwartz noted that President Trump’s integration efforts have been accompanied…
Finnish authorities announced on Wednesday that they had seized the vessel after it damaged a vital undersea communications cable running between the country and Estonia. Finnish police said in a statement that the vessel suspected of causing the damage was found in Finnish territorial waters with its anchor chain lowered into the sea, and that the incident itself was in Estonian territorial waters. Such incidents have become increasingly frequent in recent years, with suspicions that they are the result of sabotage, prompting NATO to launch a project earlier this year specifically aimed at strengthening the protection of critical undersea infrastructure.…
A graph displaying Apple’s stock price on a smartphone app.Jaap Ariens | Nurfoto | Getty Images2025 has been a tough year for individual investors.This year, retail investors bought on the edge at key points, delivering big returns as the market soared to all-time highs. A new breed of retail investors, once considered unsophisticated and gullible, is taking on experts who have long ignored them, according to investors and market data analysts interviewed by CNBC. “Retailers are getting smarter and more adaptable to the market,” said Mark Marek, head of investments at Siebert Financial. In other words, these investors are “really…
On December 8, federal prosecutors in Texas unsealed documents revealing an investigation into a massive smuggling network spanning the United States and the world. The investigation, dubbed Operation Gatekeeper by federal authorities, focused not on drug smuggling or stolen goods, but on an alleged secret underground network of drug suppliers. Nvidiagraphics processing unit, or GPU. Such chips are the backbone of AI racing and can be used for both military and civilian purposes. The government has announced that a hidden smuggling ring is sending chips to China in violation of the U.S. National Security Export Control Act. The smuggling syndicate…