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The muted uptake for National Pension System (NPS) minor accounts has prompted the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to step up efforts to boost coverage. View More

Paramount agreed to pay a Netflix termination fee, but the cost lives on WBD's books until the close of the deal. View More

In this articleWBDPSKYFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT An American flag flies at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California, on Sept. 12, 2025.Mario Tama | Getty Images Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday reported a staggering net loss for the first quarter, but it has an explanation. The company booked a net loss of $2.9 billion, far larger than the net loss of $453 million it reported in the year-earlier quarter. The figure included $1.3 billion of "pre-tax acquisition-related amortization of intangibles, content fair value step-up and restructuring expenses" as well as the $2.8 billion termination fee that Warner Bros. Discovery owed Netflix after their pending transaction fell through in February. Netflix walked away from its proposed deal to buy WBD's assets after Paramount Skydance came in with a higher offer. Paramount agreed to pay the termination fee as part of its agreement to buy the entirety of WBD, but the cost lives on WBD's books until the close of that deal.Since the amount is refundable to Paramount under certain circumstances, such as if it were to terminate the deal with Paramount for a higher offer, the obligation would be shifted to WBD. Paramount's proposed acquisition received approval from WBD shareholders in April and is currently in the midst of a regulatory review process. On Monday, Paramount said in its earnings release that it has "made significant progress" toward closing the deal, which it expects to be completed in the third quarter. WBD on Wednesday also reported first-quarter revenue that was down 1% year over year to $8.89 billion. The company's adjusted earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization was up 5% to $2.2 billion. WBD had $33.4 billion in gross debt at the end of the quarter.Streaming continued to be a highlight for the company. Total streaming revenue was up 9% to about $2.89 billion as subscriber revenue increased due to the expansion of HBO Max — WBD's flagship streaming platform — in international markets. Advertising revenue for the unit was up 20% due to an increase in customers subscribing to the ad-supported tier. The company said in a shareholder letter it exceeded its guidance of more than 140 million global streaming customers at the end of the first quarter, and it remains on track to surpass 150 million global subscribers by the end of the year. WBD's portfolio of pay TV networks, which includes CNN, TBS and the Discovery Channel, continued to weigh on the company. The linear TV networks reported $4.38 billion in revenue, down 8% from the prior year. The company said linear advertising revenue was down 11%, which was primarily driven by the absence of NBA media rights from its portfolio. Revenue for the film studio division, meanwhile, increased 35% to $3.13 billion year over year. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Disney revenue topped analyst expectations when the media giant reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Wednesday. View More

In this articleDISFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO3:1503:15Disney streaming, theme parks drive revenue in first earnings report under CEO Josh D’AmaroSquawk Box Disney on Wednesday reported quarterly revenue that exceeded analyst expectations, once again driven by its streaming and theme park units. Shares of the company gained roughly 7% after the report. The company's experiences segment, which includes Disney's theme parks and cruises, reported nearly $9.5 billion in revenue, up 7% year over year. While global guest attendance grew 2%, domestic park visitation declined 1% compared with last year. Disney said international visitation at domestic parks was softer, a trend that continued from the prior quarter. Yet despite macroeconomic trends and uncertainty for consumers, including related to the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran in late February, which have caused oil prices to surge, Disney said demand at its domestic parks remained healthy. The company also reported an increase in guest spending during the quarter. "We continue to see a strong consumer. While there may be some concerns around the macros and specifically around the price of fuel, we have not seen any evidence of that," Disney CFO Hugh Johnston told CNBC's Julia Boorstin. He added that bookings for the second half of the year "are quite strong."Here's how Disney performed in its fiscal second quarter, ended March 28, compared with what Wall Street expected, according to LSEG:Earnings per share: $1.57 adjusted vs. $1.49 expectedRevenue: $25.17 billion vs. $24.78 billion expectedOverall revenue for the company's fiscal second quarter increased to $25.17 billion, up 7% from the same period last year. Net income for the quarter was $2.47 billion, or $1.27 per share, down from $3.4 billion, or $1.81 a share, a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, including ESPN's acquisition of the NFL Network and other media assets, Disney reported $1.57 in earnings per share. Disney provided additional details on its fiscal 2026 guidance, which includes full-year adjusted earnings growth of about 12%. The company also said it was targeting at least $8 billion in share repurchases for the fiscal year, up from the previously announced $7 billion. In addition, Disney expects third-quarter total segment incoming of roughly $5.3 billion. For its fiscal 2027 year, Disney said it expects double-digit growth in adjusted earnings.On Wednesday's earnings call with investors, Johnston said the company isn't anticipating any changes to adjusted earnings growth expectations for fiscal 2026 or 2027 in light of gas prices or consumer spending. "However we're mindful of the macro uncertainty consumers are facing and we're not immune to the impacts, including how a significant further rise in fuel prices from current levels could eventually lead to changes in consumer behavior," Johnston said on the call. "If that possibility were to occur, each business has levers in place to make adjustments in order to offset those kinds of macro pressures." The report marks the first since Josh D'Amaro took over as CEO in March. Under the new CEO, who succeeded Bob Iger after his two turns at the helm totaling roughly 20 years, Disney has already been through a round of layoffs and has faced mounting political pressure surrounding its late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel.On Wednesday, D'Amaro outlined his strategic plans for future growth and opportunities – much of which focused on investing in intellectual property and advancing the technology around its storytelling. These elements were highlighted as propelling the company's theme parks and streaming businesses in particular."It's a competitive streaming marketplace out there right now," D'Amaro said on Wednesday's call. "Despite that, we saw an increase in engagement in the quarter, and then when we look ahead, our key drivers for engagement growth include content and product enhancements." Disney's entertainment segment – which includes its traditional TV, streaming and theatrical releases – saw revenue increase 10% to $11.72 billion compared with the same period last year. Entertainment revenue got a 4% boost from the closed Fubo deal, Disney said. Subscription and affiliate fees climbed 14% to $7.8 billion, boosted by recent streaming price hikes. Advertising revenue was also up, jumping 5%, in part due to higher impressions linked to streaming. Recent box-office wins, including "Avatar: Fire and Ash," and "Zootopia 2," also helped lift the unit's revenue. Last quarter Disney stopped reporting some details for the entertainment segment, including the breakdown of revenue and operating income for its linear TV networks. The company has also stopped reporting quarterly streaming subscriber numbers.The continued declines in linear TV due to the consumer shift to streaming has weighed on Disney and its peers in prior quarters. Disney reports results for ESPN in its sports segment, which saw revenue grow 2% to $4.61 billion in the quarter. The increase was tied to higher subscription and affiliate fees as well as the NFL media deal. The company noted there were higher costs compared with the prior-year quarter for the sports segment due to both contract rate increases and costs for new sports rights. While live sports garner the biggest audiences, the cost to broadcast games has risen significantly. ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming app – which launched in August – was a bright spot in the most recent quarter. The company said revenue generated from its digital subscribers during the period more than offset the declines in the traditional TV ecosystem. On Wednesday Disney CFO Johnston addressed the NFL's move to renegotiate its media rights deals earlier than previously planned. In exchange for more revenue, the NFL would eliminate the opt-out clause in the 2029-30 season, CNBC previously reported. "We haven't engaged yet with the league on early renewal conversations, but we're not dogmatic about the process, and we're always willing to have a conversation with the NFL to find new opportunities for growth," Johnston said. "We expect to be in business with the league for years to come, and we'll of course, evaluate this deal as we would any deal with discipline and a focus on driving value for Disney shareholders." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Apollo CEO Marc Rowan warned that markets face an elevated risk of unexpected shocks, saying he is positioning the firm defensively for an expected correction. View More

In this articleBRK.BAPOFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Marc Rowan, chief executive officer of Apollo Global Management LLC, speaks during an interview on an episode of Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein in New York, April 5, 2022.Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan on Wednesday warned investors that he is preparing his giant asset management firm for a potential market downturn and sharply criticized what he called the "egregious" practices of some rival insurers.The current solid economic backdrop — which helped Apollo report a banner quarter, in which the firm reached $1 trillion in assets under management and record fee-related earnings — is masking a growing risk of what he called "out of the box" shocks."Everything we see in front of us is actually quite strong," Rowan said. But there is "a much greater chance, in our opinion, of out-of-sideline results."Rowan, who co-founded Apollo in 1990 and oversaw its transformation into an alternative asset and insurance giant, said he is now more concerned about outside factors derailing the economy than at any time in his four decades on Wall Street. His comments, which come as the U.S. stock market is trading near record highs, add to concerns voiced by financial executives including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.Rowan put the odds of an exogenous shock at somewhere between 30% and 35%, far higher than the usual level of risk, he said.A convergence of forces could destabilize markets, according to Rowan, including a "total geopolitical reset," policies that could prove inflationary by restricting labor and trade, and the sweeping artificial intelligence cycle reshaping jobs and economic growth."Almost everything we're doing, whether intentional or not, has the potential to be inflationary," Rowan said, an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's tariff and U.S. immigration policies."Restricting the supply of goods, restricting the supply of labor and the free movement of goods and labor — maybe for good and valid reasons that need to be done — are all inflationary in the short term, even if we are not seeing signs of it," he said. On AI, Rowan predicted socioeconomic upheaval: "Almost every job will be enhanced or replaced. We're going to see a complete flip — blue-collar ascendancy and white-collar stress."The balance sheets of companies and consumers remain strong, while governments' finances are strained, he added. Contagion fears While Apollo is experiencing robust results today, Rowan said, he is preparing for choppier times ahead.The firm has moved up the credit quality of its fixed-income investments, cut exposure to riskier sectors such as software, and stockpiled about $40 billion of cash in its insurance business."It means we're investing with an eye toward protecting our capital and making sure that we are here to ride through cycles if there are corrections, which we quite frankly expect," Rowan said.But Rowan — who transformed Apollo by expanding into insurance in 2009 through Athene, a seller of annuities and retirement products — reserved his sharpest remarks for other insurers. The insurance business provides Apollo with a large, stable pool of capital to invest, akin to the insurance "float" model popularized by Berkshire Hathaway, and is now central to its strategy."Not everyone in our industry is doing what they should do. Not everyone runs their business the way we have run our business," Rowan said. "We do worry about contagion."Contagion would mean that stress spreads through the industry, raising the risk that regulators or central banks have to intervene to protect insurance and retirement customers.Rowan did not name specific firms that he thought were acting badly. But he suggested some insurers are relying on what he called "egregious" practices — including offshore Cayman structures, complex collateralized loans and aggressive credit assumptions — that could make some balance sheets look stronger than they are."What we can do is be transparent, be committed to higher ratings, build our capital and run the business for the long term," Rowan said. watch nowVIDEO34:4834:48Inside Alts: Why Apollo's CEO thinks your investment strategy is brokenInside Wealth Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Corning is opening three new advanced manufacturing plants in the U.S. dedicated entirely to optical technologies for Nvidia. View More

In this articleNVDAGLWFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO3:0803:08Corning and Nvidia team up to expand fiber optic production in the U.S. for AITech Nvidia, the chipmaker at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, is partnering with glassmaker Corning for three new advanced manufacturing facilities in North Carolina and Texas dedicated entirely to optical technologies for the world's most valuable semiconductor company. The factories will lead to the creation of at least 3,000 jobs and increase Corning's U.S. optical manufacturing capacity by tenfold, the companies said in a joint press release Wednesday. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Corning shares climbed 12% on the news. Nvidia stock gained almost 6%.The deal gives Nvidia the right to invest up to $3.2 billion in Corning. Nvidia is getting warrants to buy up to 15 million Corning shares at an exercise price of $180 per share, above Tuesday's closing price of $162.10 but below the price after the pop. The remaining $500 million comes from a pre-funded warrant for Nvidia to buy up to 3 million shares of Corning.The multiyear deal brings together two infrastructure players that have seen their fortunes skyrocket since the launch in 2022 of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which sparked an explosion of investments into new processors and systems for powering cutting-edge AI models and workloads. While the two companies didn't provide specifics about what's being developed, Nvidia is likely gearing up to replace copper with Corning's optical glass fibers in its AI rack-scale systems, an integration known as co-packaged optics.At Nvidia's GTC conference in 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called co-packaged optics essential for the AI build-out. "What Nvidia is doing is nothing short of extraordinary, not just for the future of AI, but for the American advanced manufacturing workforce," Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said in a press release.Corning's stock is up more than 300% in the past year as of Wednesday's close, driven by the 175-year-old company's rapid pivot into the new economy. In January, Meta announced it would spend up to $6 billion as the flagship customer helping Corning build out its optical cable plant in Hickory, North Carolina, an expansion that's expected to create around 1,000 jobs. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang speaks next to the NVIDIA Vera Rubin system at the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference in San Jose, California, U.S. March 16, 2026. Fred Greaves | Reuters Nvidia cemented its position in the AI market much earlier, as its graphics processing units are key to the development of large language models and for giving tech giants like Alphabet and Meta the ability to massively scale up their data centers. Nvidia's stock price has climbed roughly 14-fold in the past five years, but the rally has slowed of late as investors have spread their bets across the wider swath of AI infrastructure companies, backing chipmaker Intel and memory provider Micron as well as Corning. Analysts have long awaited Nvidia's large-scale deployment of co-packaged optics because the technology promises to vastly increase the speed of data transfers and lower the energy needs for AI workloads. Corning is well known for making all the display glass for Apple's iPhone, but optical communications remains its largest and fastest-growing business. Since inventing optical fiber for long-range communication in 1970, Corning has provided millions of miles of cables to connect racks together in AI data centers from all the major players. Read more CNBC tech newsNvidia, Corning partner on massive optical fiber deal that may be a game changer for AIApple's R&D investments top 10% of sales as AI race creates 'sense of urgency'Samsung crosses $1 trillion valuation as AI frenzy drives historic rally, lifting shares over 15%OpenAI trial: Brockman rebuts Musk's take on startup's history, recounts secret work for Tesla Replacing copper By partnering with Nvidia, Corning could be bringing glass fiber between the chips themselves, eventually replacing the 5,000 copper cables inside the chip company's rack-scale systems like Vera Rubin.Fiber-optic cables are tiny, bendable strands of glass that allow data to pass through as photons at far higher speeds and with less energy than what's used by traditional copper wires. "Moving photons is between five and 20 times lower power usage than moving electrons," Weeks told CNBC in an interview in January."You're bringing the light conversion process right next to the computer chip," said Vlad Galabov, who covers enterprise infrastructure at research firm Omdia. "Less power is wasted because now you're traveling a few millimeters, which requires far less energy than traveling across the circuit board."Galabov added that "Nvidia has pushed the entire ecosystem to innovate faster."Optical fiber also allows for less signal loss than copper, speeding up reliable communication and shortening the distance needed between the hundreds of thousands of GPUs in a data center. "AI is driving the largest infrastructure buildout of our time — and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvigorate American manufacturing and supply chains," Nvidia's Huang said in the press release. ""Together with Corning, we are inventing the future of computing with advanced optical technologies —building the foundation for AI infrastructure where intelligence moves at the speed of light while advancing the proud tradition of Made in America." watch nowVIDEO13:5913:59First look at Vera Rubin, Nvidia’s next AI system that’s 10 times more efficientTech Nvidia released two network switches in 2025 that utilize similar technologies, positioning them right next to the primary AI chips. Competitors Broadcom and Marvell have introduced similar products, while Intel is also developing co-packaged optics solutions. In March, Nvidia invested $4 billion in two companies — Coherent and Lumentum — that develop the lasers and components that help convert data between light and electrical signals, which are then carried through Corning's fiber-optic cables.Weeks told CNBC during an exclusive factory tour in January that he was working with "all the different chip folks on glass core and how glass will be part of semiconductor packaging going forward.""As power becomes a bigger and bigger issue, fiber inevitably gets closer and closer to the compute," Weeks said. As the number of GPUs in a server climbs into the hundreds, he added, "the distances will climb, and when those distances climb up, fiber optics become much more economical and much more power efficient."Corning is hosting an investor day at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, a day before celebrating its 175th anniversary by ringing the closing bell. WATCH: How 175-year-old glass company Corning won a $6 billion AI infrastructure deal with Meta watch nowVIDEO17:4417:44How Apple glassmaker Corning won a $6 billion AI infrastructure deal with MetaTech Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Uber and Disney pointed to a resilient spending backdrop, with consumers continuing to shell out for rides, food delivery, vacations and theme park trips. View More

In this articleUBERDISFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO6:2606:26Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Q1 results: We're building for the long term hereSquawk Box Higher gasoline prices and mounting geopolitical tensions are doing little to slow the American consumer — at least judging by the latest results and commentary from Uber Technologies and The Walt Disney Co.The two companies pointed to a remarkably resilient spending backdrop, with consumers continuing to shell out for rides, food delivery, vacations and theme park trips even as oil prices climb and broader concerns about the economy linger. Shares of Uber jumped more than 8%, as Disney shares popped over 7%."We watched consumer patterns really closely. Are people taking shorter trips? Are people trading down in terms of the size of their grocery basket, so to speak? With the kinds of restaurants that they're eating at, are consumers tipping as much as they were? All of those indicators continue to be really strong," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. "The consumers are spending, they're spending locally, and we don't see any signs of that weakening at this point." At Uber, delivery remained the company's fastest-growing business in the latest quarter, with revenue jumping 34% to $5.07 billion from $3.78 billion a year earlier. Revenue in the ride-hailing division rose 5% to $6.8 billion as commuting activity and local spending stayed strong.Khosrowshahi said Uber is seeing consumers continue to leave their homes more frequently, helped in part by a return-to-office trend that has boosted commuting demand. The company now has more than 10 million earners on its platform globally, including drivers and delivery workers. Loading chart... The same resilience showed up at Disney, where the entertainment giant topped Wall Street expectations on the strength of its streaming and parks businesses.Disney's experiences division, which includes theme parks and cruises, posted nearly $9.5 billion in quarterly revenue, up 7% from a year earlier. Global attendance rose 2%, even as domestic park visitation slipped 1%."Current demand at our domestic parks and resorts is healthy," Disney said in its earnings materials. "While we acknowledge the potential impact of heightened global macro uncertainty on consumers, we are encouraged by current demand and expect year-over-year attendance at our domestic parks in Q3 to show improvement compared to Q2 results."The results from Uber and Disney defied expectations for a slowdown in consumer spending as gasoline prices surge and investors worry that rising energy costs could eventually squeeze household budgets.The national average price for regular gasoline has climbed to $4.54 a gallon, up 52% since the Iran war began, according to AAA data. Diesel prices have similarly surged to $5.67 a gallon, a roughly 51% increase since late February. But so far, these companies tied to travel, entertainment and local commerce are seeing little evidence of a pullback.Disney Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston cautioned that the company is still watching for signs that persistently higher fuel costs could eventually pressure consumers."We're mindful of the macro uncertainty consumers are facing and we're not immune to the impacts, including how a significant further rise in fuel prices from current levels could eventually lead to changes in consumer behavior," Johnston said on the earnings call Wednesday. "If that possibility were to occur, each business has levers in place to make adjustments in order to offset those kinds of macro pressures." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Elon Musk's giant Terafab facility in Texas could cost up to $119 billion, with hopes of manufacturing chips for Tesla, SpaceX and xAI View More

In this articleTSLAFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Elon Musk arrives at the federal courthouse during proceedings in the trial over his lawsuit against OpenAI in Oakland, California, on April 30, 2026. Josh Edelson | Afp | Getty Images Elon Musk's plans for a huge chip manufacturing plant in East Texas will cost at least $55 billion for the first phase, and up to $119 billion if the full buildout comes to fruition. The estimated capital investment amounts were disclosed in a public hearing notice on Wednesday in Grimes County, Texas, home of the prospective facility. The notice said SpaceX, which is controlled by Musk, is seeking a property tax abatement agreement from the county.Grimes County will hold a public hearing on June 3, to consider the proposed tax breaks.Musk, who's also CEO of Tesla, is aiming for Terafab to be the "most epic chip-building effort ever — combining logic, memory and advanced packaging under one roof," according to a post on X last month from SpaceX, which now owns artificial intelligence company xAI. Musk officially launched the project in March.The chip complex outside Austin would be designed to manufacture chips for SpaceX, xAI and Tesla, and would be jointly built by those companies. Musk said in a post on X that xAI "will be dissolved as a separate company" and will be called SpaceXAI.In April, Intel announced it will be joining the Terafab project to help "design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale." It's the first major outside commitment for the capital-intensive foundry side of Intel's business, which to date has only manufactured chips for its own products. During Tesla's first-quarter earnings call last month, Musk said Tesla plans to use Intel's forthcoming 14A process to produce chips at the facility. Intel's stock popped on the news and had its best month ever in April, more than doubling in value. watch nowVIDEO16:5016:50Can Intel’s New Arizona Chip Fab Bring It Back From The Brink?Tech Intel is positioned to benefit from the ongoing AI boom as manufacturing capacity is getting harder to come by at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, where giants like Nvidia and Apple have reserved their chipmaking availability for years to come. Ben Bajarin, a chip analyst at Creative Strategies, said Musk is embarking on a "15-year strategy," knowing that his companies need to control the supply chain as "it would be very, very hard for them to have any priority at TSMC.""You don't just wake up one day and say, 'I'm going to be a foundry,'" Bajarin said. "It's a very mature process with constraints across the board on how these things get made."On a Tesla earnings call in January, Musk said key chip suppliers couldn't possibly produce enough hardware to satisfy the automaker's needs, and that building a Terafab was "actually also going to be very important to ensure that we are protected against any geopolitical risks."Musk said on the more recent earnings call that Tesla was "still working out the details of the Terafab deployment," and that the company would be building a research fab at its factory in Austin, costing around $3 billion and "capable of maybe a few thousand wafers per month.""SpaceX is going to take care of the initial phase of the scaled up Terafab," Musk said on the call. SpaceX's financials have been coming to light ahead of a planned public offering in the coming months. The company filed confidentially for an IPO in April, weeks after the merger with xAI valued the combined entity at $1.75 trillion.Tesla and SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. WATCH: Nvidia snaps up capacity for a key part of AI chipmaking watch nowVIDEO15:1815:18Nvidia snaps up capacity as TSMC and Intel ramp chip packaging in the U.S.Tech Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

U.S. airlines spent 56.4% more on jet fuel in March than they did in February, U.S. government data released Wednesday shows. View More

A technician prepares to refuel a Delta Airlines aircraft at the Austin-Bergrstrom International Airport on April 10, 2026 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty Images U.S. airlines spent 56.4% more on jet fuel in March, the month after the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran began, than they did in February, U.S. government data released Wednesday shows. U.S. carriers spent $5.06 billion on fuel in March, up from $3.23 billion in February. It was 30% more than what they paid in March 2025, according to the Department of Transportation. Airlines have lowered or scrapped their 2026 forecasts altogether because of the spike in fuel, their biggest expense after labor. Some carriers have scaled back growth plans to cut costs and avoid having too much expensive capacity in the markets. The spike in jet fuel was even sharper and topped $4 a gallon in some markets in April as the war continued and the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed. Spirit Airlines collapsed over the weekend, and the carrier said the surge in jet fuel costs foiled its plans to emerge from bankruptcy midyear.Other major carriers told Wall Street as they reported earnings last month that they expect customers to cover the higher jet fuel costs by early 2027, if not the end of this year.So far, booking trends show consumers are still traveling, In March, travel agency ticket sales rose 12% from a year ago to $10.4 billion, with the number of domestic trips up 5% and international up 1%, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp. watch nowVIDEO3:1003:10Here's how jet fuel crisis in Europe threatens summer travel plansDigital Original Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Jim Cramer says the Club still owns Microsoft. "I just don't think that they're going to sit there and let this happen." View More

Microsoft is getting left behind as investors rotate into hotter artificial intelligence stocks. Jim Cramer says this dynamic won't last forever. "I still own it for the Trust," Jim said on CNBC on Wednesday, referring to his Charitable Trust , which is the portfolio used by the Investing Club. Jim's reason to keep the Microsoft position: "I just don't think that they're going to sit there and let this happen." Microsoft has become what Jim calls a "real source of funds," meaning a stock that portfolio managers and investors are selling to raise the funds to buy other stocks tied to the AI data center boom, which are perceived to offer greater upside. "[Microsoft] has so much that can be considered compute AI, but it has a whole other line of business that people just think is going to be disrupted so aggressively [by AI]," Jim said. That "other line of business," and a major driver of the stock's 14.5% year-to-date decline, is Microsoft's exposure to enterprise software. The enterprise software group, including fellow Club stock Salesforce , has been crushed this year on worries that code-writing from AI startups like Anthropic is so good that businesses could create their own software, and that efficiencies realized from AI assistants, such as Microsoft's Copilot, could lead to further workforce reductions and the need for fewer per-seat software licenses. In its latest quarter, reported last week, Microsoft's Productivity and Business Processes unit did show a better-than-expected 16% revenue increase to $35.01 billion. But the legacy segment — housing Office, Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, and business management software Dynamics — was still the biggest. Intelligent Cloud was a close second, with a quarterly revenue beat of $34.68 billion, but almost double the growth rate. The centerpiece of the cloud unit is Azure, the No. 2 cloud behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Alphabet 's Google Cloud. While Azure is certainly the crown jewel of Microsoft's portfolio, there are worries that it is too reliant on the company's fading relationship with OpenAI. Skepticism has also mounted about the quality and the capability of Copilot compared to OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini. None of these issues seems insurmountable, Jim said. But he stressed that time is of the essence. "Microsoft better figure out what to do about its seat business soon, and at the same time answer some objections about Copilot." The Club still has a hold-equivalent 2 rating on Microsoft stock and a $500 per share price target. MSFT YTD mountain Microsoft YTD Goldman Sachs is more bullish on Microsoft, calling the company its preferred software investment. The analysts said that feedback for Copilot has improved, and they expect acceleration in Microsoft 365 following recent upgrades. Goldman has a buy rating on Microsoft stock and a price target of $610. On last week's earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked up Copilot as an engine for software growth. "Quarter-over-quarter, we continue to see acceleration and now have over 20 million Microsoft 365 Copilot paid seats. The number of customers with over 50,000 seats quadrupled year-over-year, and Accenture now has over 740,000 seats, our largest Copilot win to date. And Bayer, Johnson & Johnson , Mercedes, and Roche all committed to 90,000 or more seats," Nadella said. Overall, Microsoft put forth a better-than-expected quarter last Wednesday, delivering a robust forecast for its Azure cloud business. Microsoft projected cloud growth between 39% and 40%, beating the 37% estimates and exceeding the reported quarter's almost 30% growth. The Street, however, was more interested in capital expenditure outlooks, and Microsoft's roughly $190 billion guide on top of its other challenges led to a weekly loss. Jim did not recommend Microsoft as a buying opportunity when it slid 4% last Thursday, the day after a busy earnings night that included quarterly results from Alphabet, Amazon , and Meta Platforms . At the time, Jim ranked Microsoft third after Alphabet and Amazon, whose capex outlook hikes were applauded by the market. He put Meta last. As the odd man out, Meta does not have a public cloud, and its capex increase was frowned upon by investors. During Wednesday's Morning Meeting, Jim reiterated last week's sentiments. "I am so glad that we own Amazon and Alphabet," neglecting to mention Microsoft or Meta. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AMZN, GOOGL, META, JNJ, and MSFT. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

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