Daily Archives: October 26, 2021

The current labor shortage has benefitted companies that treated their employees well, CEO of EY Carmine Di Sibio said on Yahoo Finances All Markets Summit Monday.

We talk to our clients about this all the time. Weve actually hired 115,000 people in the last year, but weve also lost people, Di Sibio says about the labor shortage. The culture of the organization ... is incredibly important Companies that took care of their people, I think theyre being rewarded for it now.

Currently, the labor market is as tight as its been in years. Firms, desperate for more workers have raised wages and offered more benefits to attract workers. Augusts Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed 10 million people have left their positions, widening the gap between positions and bodies to fill them.

Labor is incredibly important for peoples supply chain, Di Sibio said. We have to do everything possible to make sure companies are allowed to hire, are attracting people, and are able to produce the goods that need to be produced.

The "Great Resignation," as some have dubbed it, describes the increase in people leaving their jobs since 2020. As the restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic began to ease and it came time for employees to return to work, many chose to quit their previous jobs and look elsewhere.

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Issues with supply chains run deeper than job shortages, Di Sablo noted. The most pressing issue is that many companies still use outdated supply chain technology which hinders growth. An EY survey conducted before the pandemic found that only 25% of the accounting firms clients had a digitized supply chain. EY, considered one of the Big Four large accounting firms that make up a substantial part of global accounting services, services clients like Coca-Cola, GM, and AT&T.

Obviously, people learned during COVID that without a digitalized supply chain, you really cant operate in a world weve been operating in because of the pandemic, he said. So, the number one thing is companies have to get their technology up to speed when it comes to their supply chain.

Entering the holiday season, where many industries will increase demand for workers to deal with greater retail activity, attracting workers may become an even stronger priority.

We are in a state of disruption, but also a state of crisis when it comes to our supply chains around the world, he said. And I think this is gonna be incredibly important as we go into the holiday season around the world.

Greater emphasis on remote work brought upon by the pandemic compounded by a labor shortage gave more power to potential employees looking for jobs. More flexibility and greater benefits became essential tools for attracting workers.

Theyre a lot of people leaving their jobs, but there are also a lot of people hiring and changing jobs, Di Sibio said. It is a time of great transition for many people.

Ihsaan Fanusie is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @IFanusie.

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EY CEO on labor shortage: 'Companies that took care of their people' are being rewarded - Yahoo Finance

LOS ANGELES The Phoenix Suns were one of the biggest surprise teams of the 2020-21 season. But now with a target on their backs, deriving from a trip to the Finals, they wont be catching the opposition slipping from here on out.

Thats a commonplace challenge of trying to get back to the final round. But the young Suns perhaps could face another unfamiliar challenge this season: keeping envy and discourse away due to money from what is widely known to be one of the tightest locker rooms in the league.

In an exclusive interview with All-Star point guard Chris Paul, he explained the dynamic the team faces this season and why hes confident they can overcome the hurdles on and off the court.

Man, this is probably one of the best locker room that Ive been in my whole career, Paul told Yahoo Sports. Because we have young guys that are leaders and everybody leads in their own different ways. We communicate, we talk. Its a real family over here. You celebrate the guys that got paid this summer.

As for who didnt get paid, this is a plot rival teams are hoping drives a wedge inside the locker room.

This past offseason, the Suns were busy consummating free agent signings, re-signings and extensions. The defending Western Conference champions forked out nearly $300 million in total deals.

Yet starting center Deandre Ayton the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft who was eligible in the summer for a rookie-scale max extension of four years, $173 million did not receive a dime of that $300 million when both sides failed to reach an agreement.

Chris Paul said he talked to Deandre Ayton after the Suns big man and the team didn't agree to a contract extension. (Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

The 23-year-old big man admitted he was not happy with how negotiations went and in turn will become a restricted free agent following the 2021-22 season.

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With D.A. and his situation, we talked about it, Paul told Yahoo Sports. He knows what he has to do. The goal for everybody is to see everyone getting paid. His situation is what it is, but its going to work out for him. We hope it works out for him. The biggest thing we know we can do is go out there and win games.

As the undisputed veteran leader of the team, Paul has seen the impact of sour negotiations and players feeling they deserve more money than a teammate or counterpart.

But he explained that it also can be made worse from one's inner circle.

Sometimes it can be an outsider, sometimes it can be family members, it can be homies, it can be friends and a lack of communication, Paul told Yahoo Sports. When I played for Doc [Rivers], he used to talk about clutter a lot. Monty [Williams] talks about it, too. When you lose a game and you go home, a lot of times everybody in your family thinks its everybody elses fault that you lost. Ill never forget Doc saying that. It makes sense.

But when you mature, you start understanding that if that does happen in your house, you check everybody. You have to be like, Nah, that isnt the reason we lost. Thats maturity. And these are things that Ive learned and things Ive been able to pass on to some of the other guys. We talk about everything on this team. Im not worried about any of that stuff here.

Only time will tell.

In the meantime, the path to staying alive in June has begun and these young Suns will be navigating in uncharted territory to get there. Nevertheless, Paul says June isnt on his mind at the moment.

I dont think Im focused on getting back to the Finals, Paul told Yahoo Sports. We lost. It was hard. But Im more excited about the journey with this team. Last year was a lot of unexpected. The year that we had last year matured everybody. So we know not to get too high or too low. Thats what Im excited about. This journey.

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Chris Paul on Deandre Ayton not getting extension from Suns: 'He knows what he has to do' - Yahoo Sports

OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLB), a cloud-based merchant service provider, is expanding its Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining enterprise DMint.

What Happened: DMint will add 500 Antminer S19j Pro cryptocurrency mining computers by the end of the year and add five additional Bitcoin data centers, the company said Tuesday.

The company aims to capitalize on the recent geographical shift in mining operations, with the U.S. now replacing China as the worlds top destination for Bitcoin mining. Moreover, Bitcoins price has appreciated by more than 80% since DMint first launched its cost-efficient Bitcoin mining business.

The positive price movement since the start of our mining operations makes us even more optimistic about the long-term viability of our operations. We remain fully committed to scaling our operations to 24,000 computers by the end of 2023, Ronny Yakov, chairman and CEO of the OLB Group, said in a statement.

Once the operation has reached full capacity, the company expects DMint will mine 15.5 BTC per month.

Assuming the mining network size remains the same and current market prices continue to prevail, this would equate to up to $1 million in monthly revenue.

"Because we are a diversified company with a robust core eCommerce business, we have a stable revenue base as our foundation as we ramp up our Bitcoin mining operations," said Yakov.

DMint plans to increase mining capacity to 24,000 mining computers to build out capacity to achieve 2.4 exahash per second over the next 24 months.

OLB Price Action: OLB shares gained 3.61% on Monday, closing at a price of $4.44 per share.

Photo by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash.

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OLB Group Expands Bitcoin Mining Operation With 500 ASIC Miners, Expects $1M Monthly Revenue - Yahoo Finance

Microsoft (MSFT) reported its fiscal Q1 2022 earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday, easily beating analysts' expectations on the top and bottom line, with cloud revenue up 36% year-over-year. The stock was flat on the news.

Here are the most important numbers from the report compared with what analysts were expecting, as compiled by Bloomberg.

Revenue: $45.3 billion versus $43.93 billion expected

Earnings per share: $2.71 versus $2.07 expected

Intelligent Cloud: $16.98 versus $16.58 billion expected

Productivity & Business processes: $15.04 versus $14.70 billion expected

More personal computing: $13.31 versus $12.68 billion expected

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Narayana Nadella speaks at a live Microsoft event in the Manhattan borough of New York City, October 26, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

"Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. "The Microsoft Cloud delivers the end-to-end platforms and tools organizations need to navigate this time of transition and change.

Microsoft's cloud business is the company's most important segment, helping to drive the tech giant's market cap well over $2 trillion, and it continues to grow.

Microsoft recently began rolling out its latest version of Windows, called Windows 11, but the global chip shortage, which is expected to last at least until well into 2022, is limiting new computer sales.

Still, the company managed to beat analyst expectations in the segment, and Windows OEM revenue grew 10% in the quarter.

According to research firm Gartner, while business demand for desktop PCs is strong, the chip crisis is limiting the availability of laptops. Adding to the issue, according to Gartner research director Mikako Kitagawa, is the fact that the availability of COVID-19 vaccines is causing consumers to spend on other goods outside of PCs. In other words, as people are heading back out into the world, theyre more interested in spending on things beyond computers, such as dinners out.

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"Worldwide PC shipments totaled 84.1 million units in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 1% from the third quarter of 2020, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.," Kitagawa said in a press release. "As COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available, consumer and educational spending began to shift away from PCs to other priorities, slowing momentum in the market."

Microsoft's gaming segment has also been stung by the chip shortage. Demand for the company's Xbox Series X and Series S consoles has dramatically outstripped supply, leaving consumers to hunt for systems on the secondary market, where they go for hundreds over their asking prices of $499 and $299, respectively.

That segment saw revenue increase by just 2%.

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Microsoft smashes earnings expectations with strong cloud performance - Yahoo Finance

Despite the ever scary inflation headlines, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and S&P 500 (^GSPC) are flirting with record highs.

That's counter to prevailing wisdom, right?

On paper, increasing inflationary pressure brought on mostly from the pandemic should be pounding corporate profit margins and weighing on outlooks. So far this earnings season, on balance that hasn't happened and stock prices have been fast to jump on the less dire narrative, pros say.

"Investor sentiment had gotten pretty negative ahead of earnings season. However, once again were seeing companies put up solid results," points out Michael Reinking, NYSE senior market strategist.

Reinking is correct, the data shows.

About 84% of companies have beaten earnings estimates for the third quarter, in line with the record levels seen in the prior two quarters. Earnings for those companies that have reported have gained a solid 32.7%. Companies have managed to deliver strong results due to the combination of price increases and cost cuts designed to combat anything but transitory inflation.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs notes of the 117 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings thus far, 65% have exceeded consensus estimates by at least one standard deviation of those projections. This is a rate that if sustained, would rank among the strongest quarters on record behind the first and second quarters of 2021.

The share of companies reporting above-consensus revenues has also exceeded the historical average, says David Kostin, Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist.

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Adds Kostin, "While managements and analysts remain cautious, markets have moved along with tentative signs of improvement from supply chain data and commodity prices."

That said, inflationary pressures right now are no laughing matter.

Whirlpool CEO Marc Bizter told Yahoo Finance Live his company will absorb a $1 billion inflationary hit this year. He continues to respond by increasing prices to consumers.

"People have different definitions of transitory. I'm not quite sure how long you would define transitory these days. I mean, I think the real question is, do we see expected cyclical inflation or does it turn into a structural inflation? I don't think it's the latter one, personally. But I think with the inflation environment, we will see around us for some time. It's not going to go away overnight and we're prepared to deal with that," explained Bitzer.

P&G's Vice Chairman Jon Moeller said on Yahoo Finance Live, the Tide maker will see a $2.2 billion after-tax hit to earnings in its current fiscal year due to inflation. Moeller is also raising prices on shoppers to protect margins.

Now, even folks like Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey are warning about hyperinflation.

Investors are starting to pay a little attention even if it isn't reflected in the broader market.

"Inflation will remain heavily in focus for markets over the week ahead, with recent days having seen investor expectations of future inflation rise to fresh multi-year highs." Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid says.

But in the near-term, market bulls do appear to be in control.

Quips Reinking, "It does seem like investors are becoming somewhat desensitized to these issues and are willing to look past this as weve seen multiple situations where stocks initially gapped down on a guidance miss only to rebound later in the session."

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Why inflation scares haven't hammered the stock market - Yahoo Finance

For months, a key provision of the Biden climate plan has been a program called the Clean Electricity Performance Program. It would have incentivized utility companies to make the switch to clean energy with penalties for those that dont move fast enough.

The idea appears to be dead for now amid opposition from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. It had been included in early versions of the reconciliation package with Democratic lawmakers like Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D., N.J.) calling it a landmark provision at the time that provides a groundbreaking $150 billion to help us meet our clean energy goals.

The question now is whether the Biden administration can still reach its goals without the program and, in a conversation this week for Yahoo Finances All Markets Summit: The Path Forward, White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy laid out the administrations case for why the answer is yes.

We have a lot of ways to get over the finish line, she said, citing tax credits, provisions in the transportation sector around electric vehicles, and other opportunities in manufacturing, ports and environmental justice.

While the CEPP was a really exciting opportunity, McCarthy said, no matter how you cut it, there are pathways to achieve these kind of reductions.

Gina McCarthy is the White House Climate Advisor, a new position first created during the Biden administration. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The frantic final negotiations over the larger bill, a centerpiece of Bidens economic and climate agenda, comes ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) where world leaders will gather in Glasgow to roll out new commitments to limit global warming worldwide.

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As for CEPP, it was a big deal, said Trevor Higgins, Senior Director of Domestic Climate and Energy Policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank allied with the Biden White House. He told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday there are still ways to get there, but now theres very little margin for error.

He pointed to a recent report from the Rhodium Group, which found the Biden administration can meet an early goal a 50%-52% cut in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 without the CEPP.

The Biden administration has a series of ambitious goals beyond the 2030 target: a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

This is going to be done, McCarthy said.

Another advocate in the field is Sam Ricketts, who served as climate director for the presidential campaign of Gov. Jay Inslee and more recently co-founded a group called Evergreen Action.

There is a hole that must be filled with the loss of the CEPP, Ricketts told Yahoo Finance, underscoring the fact that the Biden administration can do a lot more on its own.

In addition to legislative action, the administration is going to need to be aggressive with its existing authorities, he said, citing both possible executive actions as well as encouraging more leadership from states.

The White House is also reportedly eyeing different approaches to climate in the final bill with more incentives to encourage the transition to clean energy, like expanded grants and loans in the agriculture and industrial sectors, as well as home improvement tax credits.

McCarthy highlighted the tax credits in particular, noting there are tax credit opportunities in this package that are going to help push the sector to make the transition. We know how to do this, she said. Democrats have proposed $273 billion in tax credits to achieve Bidens climate goals in addition to programs like the CEPP.

In a recent town hall Biden said that the money that was allocated for CEPP should be redirected. The fact of the matter is we can take that $150 billion, add it to the $320 billion that's in the law now that [Manchin] is prepared to support, he said.

As negotiations continue, its unclear whether all 50 Democratic senators will support the idea of redirecting that money or would prefer to simply remove it. But Ricketts points out the money could go to a range of places, such as the power sector, the industrial sector as well as provide federal money to states to bump up their climate efforts.

In any case, McCarthy promises that "we are going to keep pushing until we get the kind of investments that match our ambition.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

Clean energy is 'our first defense against' soaring energy prices: White House national climate advisor

Democrats want $273 billion in tax credits to achieve Bidens climate goals

Fact that one-third of US was hit with extreme weather event this summer is a red flag: Energy Secretary

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The threat of runaway inflation has many investors running scared but for once, Jim Cramer isnt getting too heated.

The Mad Money host says there are still plenty of attractive places to put your money, pointing to four sectors in particular that could profit from rising prices.

Cramer: Stop freaking out about inflation here's how to profit from soaring costs

Weve got lots of companies that benefit and many that benefit, you might say, spectacularly and others that are basically immune, Cramer said last week on his show. Plenty of winners out there if you just stop freaking out and start looking at the opportunities.

Here are the four safe havens Cramer recommends and why you might want to funnel some cash that way, even if its just your spare pennies.

curraheeshutter / Shutterstock

Inflation and commodity booms often go hand in hand, with energy typically leading the charge.

In fact, the price of crude oil has already gone up over 70% year to date, while natural gas prices have more than doubled.

Of the big multinational energy producers, I like Chevron the most, Cramer says.

[The company] yields nearly 5% [and is] committed to spending $10 billion in new technologies that are less energy-intensive.

Cramer also likes domestic producers that seem to be returning more and more capital to shareholders in the form of dividends naming Devon Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources as just a couple.

ARTYOORAN / Shutterstock

Banks tend to do well under rising interest rates. And facing growing inflation, the Fed is expected to raise rates as soon as next year.

Cramer points out how well Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been doing, but he also likes Wells Fargo for being a wildcard turnaround of this entire stock market.

After a 70% rally year-to-date, Wells Fargo shares now trade at about the same level as they did in January 2020. The other three stocks, however, are trading well above their pre-pandemic levels.

Wells Fargo can have a ton of upside if it finally gets its house in order, Cramer says. And Im telling you, it is getting its house in order.

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Vitalii Vodolazskyi / Shutterstock

Cramer argues that if companies are having trouble finding employees during the current labor shortage, they will need to maximize their use of technology to improve productivity.

So they need to hire Salesforce.com, Adobe, Workday, Amazon Web Services, Azure from Microsoft or ServiceNow or Snowflake, he says.

Tech has been one of the hottest sectors in the market for quite some time, and many of the tickers mentioned here have already gone up.

Microsoft shares climbed 47% over the past year, Workday surged 33%, while Snowflake and ServiceNow are both up around 36%.

That means these stocks have gotten pricey; ServiceNow trades at over $680 per share, for instance.

Thankfully, you dont have to buy full shares. These days, you can use a popular investing app to buy fractions of shares with as much money as you are willing to spend.

SoySendra / Shutterstock

Not all drug companies do well in an inflationary environment, but you may want to add Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson to your watch list.

Im increasingly confident about their Alzheimers drug, Cramer said about Eli Lilly.

As for Johnson & Johnson, Cramer recalls how the stock initially gets hit when its most recent earnings report comes out, then it rallies back to unchanged, then it gets hit again, and then boom, it takes off.

In the third quarter, Johnson & Johnsons sales grew 11% year-over-year to $23.3 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased by 18.2% to $2.60.

Davide Zanin Photography / Shutterstock

While Cramer focused his advice on the stock market, you dont have to limit yourself to stocks to hedge against inflation.

In fact, if you want something that has little correlation with the ups and downs of the stock market, you might want to consider an overlooked asset: fine art.

Contemporary artwork has offered an annual return of 14% over the past 25 years easily besting the 9.5% return from the S&P 500.

Investing in fine art by the likes of Banksy and Andy Warhol used to be an option only for the ultra-rich, like Cramer.

But with a new investing platform, you can invest in iconic artworks, too, just like Jeff Bezos and Peggy Guggenheim do.

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

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Cramer: Stop freaking out about inflation here's how to profit from soaring costs - Yahoo Finance

Jeff Immelt knows something about managing through crises.

The former General Electric (GE) chief executive saw the industrial conglomerate through the post-9/11 period and the Great Financial Crisis. And he released a book, Hot Seat, earlier this year, defending his leadership after the value of GE dropped by $170 billion during his 16-year tenure.

Immelt, who is now a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, told Yahoo Finance he thought the experiences he retold in the book could be valuable to other leaders.

In a crisis, you have to hold two truths: You have to know that things could always get worse, and at the same time, you have to have vision that there is going to be a future that you need to invest in, he said at Yahoo Finances All Markets Summit.

Immelt also talked about the importance of absorbing fear and pushing forward. During the ongoing pandemic, he said, the companies that pulled back entirely on investment were unprepared to capitalize when the economy fired back up.

"I also think in this generation, all leadership is crisis leadership," he said. "From 9/11 through the financial crisis and COVID and Fukushima, my team and I experience lots of volatility and I thought some of the storytelling [in the book] and the lessons would be valuable to other leaders."

Immelt said he also wrote "Hot Seat" to tell a more complete story of his time at the company.

"The GE story is a complicated story," he explained. "And I think when you have a complicated story, you have to tell it fully and completely, and I didn't feel like that was happening in the context of GE. We won in our markets. We experienced globalization and digitization, but the market cap didn't grow, and all of us carry that as a burden as we go forward."

Jeff R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric attends a conference on June 15, 2017 in Paris, France. (Photo by Christophe Morin/IP3/Getty Images)

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As for the job of CEO, Immelt said, it's as challenging as its ever been.

For the first time in a generation, the leaders have to navigate inflation," Immelt said. "There is tremendous volatility in the global markets. They are expected to take a stand on social issues. There is an incredible need for improvement in diversity and equity. There are big problems to be solved in climate. These are all of the complexities that CEOs have to understand and have to navigate.

Immelts comments come as the successor of his successor, Larry Culp, tries to find stability for GE. The shares reached a nearly three-decade low in May 2020, before rebounding by about 140%. Among other changes to strategy, Culp is about to complete the wind-down of the once-massive GE Capital business with the sale of its jet-leasing unit to AerCap Holdings for $30 billion.

GE reports earnings on Tuesday morning.

Julie Hyman is the co-anchor of Yahoo Finance Live, weekdays 9am-11am ET. Follow her on Twitter @juleshyman, and read her other stories.

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Teleconference company Zoom (ZM) turned its name into an everyday word in a matter of months but constant use of the platform has given rise to a phrase of its own: Zoom fatigue.

While some users yearn for in-person interactions, Zoom believes it can develop a videoconference experience that customers will favor over face-to-face conversations and it plans to do so within the next five or 10 years, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan told Yahoo Finance at its All Markets Summit on Monday.

Yuan lamented the absence from the Zoom platform of social rituals like handshakes and hugs, but pointed to the company's work on developing augmented and virtual reality.

"We truly believe video communication like Zoom can give a better experience than face-to-face meetings in the future," Yuan says. "We are not there yet but [we're] working to get us there."

Zoom, which went public in 2019, saw user growth and revenue explode when the pandemic forced hundreds of millions in the US into their homes. But as the pandemic continued and videoconferences became a mainstay of work and social life, some users grew exhausted.

Eighty-one percent of US adults say they've talked with others over video at some point since the onset of the pandemic last February, according to a Pew poll released last month. But of those who've used the technology, 40% say they've felt worn out from spending time on the calls, the survey found.

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In May, Yuan told the Wall Street Journal that he was experiencing Zoom fatigue himself. But on Monday, Yuan said that he no longer feels tired of using the product, noting that he cut down his schedule from up to 19 video meetings in a day to five or six.

Still, Yuan has advocated for hybrid office schedules that include both in-person and remote work, saying that the company is in the process of moving toward that approach.

"We are human beings and need social interaction," Yuan says. "Unfortunately, Zoom does not have that feature yet. Like, we cannot shake hands with each other; I cannot give a hug."

"We need to get together," he added. "That is why the hybrid work is the wave of the future: Two days in the office and two days at home."

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan attends the opening bell at Nasdaq as his company holds its IPO, Thursday, April 18, 2019, in New York. The videoconferencing company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Shares of Zoom are down about 19% since its second quarter earnings release, on Aug. 30, when it exceeded analyst expectations on revenue but showed slowing growth. Revenue in the second quarter increased 54% over the same period a year earlier; as opposed to the 191% revenue spike Zoom reported in the prior quarter.

Yuan said he company is "absolutely" considering how to adapt its product for the metaverse, an immersive online experience described in recent months by CEOs in the sector including Microsoft's (MSFT) Satya Nadella and Facebook's (FB) Mark Zuckerberg as the next frontier of social technology.

"We always think about how to fully integrate," Yuan said. "Actually, we already started a while back [on] how to support [augmented reality] and [virtual reality], and I think [there are] a lot of new ideas and new innovations."

"Unfortunately, I think it will take several years," he adds.

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Zoom meetings will offer 'better experience' than face-to-face: CEO - Yahoo Finance

The stakes could not be greater for the massive climate summit taking place in Glasgow this week.

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) marks the observed five-year mark since the signing of the Paris Agreement, a global promise to limit warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. The agreement states that it would prefer a more stringent 1.5 degrees Celsius target.

Climate policy expert Sergey Paltsev said the world is not making progress fast enough on that goal.

We are nowhere near where we need to be to get to 1.5, Paltsev told Yahoo Finance at its All Markets Summit on Monday.

The UN estimates that by 2030, the world would have to reduce its carbon emissions by 29 to 32 gigatons to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But Paltsev said the pledges and policies of each participating country are not enough to close even a 12 gigaton emissions gap.

Paltsev, who runs the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, said attention may have to turn to dealing with the consequences of overshooting that goal.

We need to make sure that we convey that we are not going to lose all the battles. Every emission counts, Paltsev said. He will be speaking about the outlook on energy and climate at COP26.

Financial regulators are turning their attention to the physical climate risks (i.e. wildfires and hurricanes) in addition to transition risks (i.e. disruption that could come from transitioning away from oil and gas industries).

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In the U.S., a report from a coalition of financial regulators released ahead of the COP26 details recommended increased data collections and better corporate disclosures to assess climate-related financial risks in the private sector.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, is already working on some standardized approach to how public companies report greenhouse gas emissions. SEC Chair Gary Gensler told Yahoo Finance Monday that staff are working to bring transparency to disclosures soon.

If a company says were going to be committed by 2030 or 2050 to make certain adjustments to our greenhouse gas emissions, each year how are they doing and managing towards that transition plan? How are they adjusting that transition plan?

Paltsev points to another tool recommended in the report: scenario analysis. Regulators are discussing the idea of using hypothetical scenarios to test the resiliency of a company to withstand physical or transition climate risks.

When they put in a lot of resources to evaluate that, I would see that, yes indeed, we are serious. Its not just cheap talk, but theres action as well, Paltsev said.

The COP26 will take place between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12.

Brian Cheung is a reporter covering the Fed, economics, and banking for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter @bcheungz.

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'Nowhere near where we need to be' on climate targets: MIT expert - Yahoo Finance