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(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musks short-lived effort to take Tesla Inc. private after his infamous funding secured tweet in August 2018 has loomed over the billionaires reputation -- and his quest to buy Twitter Inc.

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Now, a series of text messages that Musk exchanged with Silicon Valley friends, investors and the managing director of Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund during that saga have come to light as part of an ongoing shareholder lawsuit. The texts provide a window into how Musk operates as he once again attempts -- almost four years later -- to take a publicly traded company private.

In a text-message exchange with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of the Saudi PIF, an angry Musk discusses a Bloomberg News article that reported the fund was in talks to take Tesla private. The Tesla CEO was upset because he believed hed reached a handshake agreement with Al-Rumayyan weeks earlier, in July 2018, for the fund to finance the transaction.

This is an extremely weak statement and does not reflect the conversation we had at Tesla. You said you were definitely interested in taking Tesla private and had wanted to do so since 2016, Musk wrote in an August 2018 text message, according to a 300-page motion filed late Friday as part of the suit. Im sorry, but we cannot work together.

Its up to you Elon, Al-Rumayyan responded.

You are throwing me under the bus, Musk wrote back.

It takes two to tango, Al-Rumayyan replied. We havent received anything yet.

The back-and-forth continues. Al-Rumayyan tells Musk that we cannot approve something that we dont have sufficient information on, and writes that hes been waiting for more details. Later in the exchange, Al-Rumayyan asks Musk to read the article please.

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I read the article, Musk says. It is weak sauce and still makes me sound like a liar. It is filled with equivocation and in no way indicates the strong interest you conveyed in person.

Musk told Al-Rumayyan that Tesla would move forward with private equity firm Silver Lake, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other investors. The next day, however, he published a blog post citing the Saudi PIFs interest in taking Tesla private as the reason he tweeted that he had funding secured.

Al-Rumayyan texted that he was surprised Musk had divulged loose information, despite having signed a non-disclosure agreement and after keeping the PIF waiting for specifics needed to move forward with a deal. Musk scolded Al-Rumayyan again for not pushing back against media reports about whether the Saudi fund would support the go-private transaction.

Reuters reported that two sources from PIF confirmed no interest in Tesla, which is absolutely false, and yet you did nothing until I forced the issue, Musk wrote.

Musk shelved the effort later that month after it became clear many large investors wouldnt go along with it, stunning the financial world with a late Friday night blog post titled Staying Public.

Still Fighting

Since then, Tesla has become profitable and built factories in Shanghai, near Berlin and in Austin, Texas. The company has indisputably ignited the shift to electric vehicles, and its $1 trillion valuation has made Musk the worlds wealthiest person.

But the investors suing Musk in federal court argue that Musks August 2018 tweets were indisputably false and cost them billions of dollars by spurring wild swings in Teslas stock price. The judge in the case ruled earlier this month that no reasonable jury could find Musks tweets on August 7, 2018, accurate or not misleading. Musk and his attorneys have insisted he was entirely truthful and are trying to appeal.

Musk also has stood by his argument that Saudi Arabias wealth fund had agreed to support his attempt to take Tesla private. The text messages were part of a motion filed by Alex Spiro, Musks lead outside attorney.

The filing includes excerpts from Musks deposition with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued Musk for securities fraud. The agency settled with Musk and Tesla, with each paying $20 million and Musk agreeing to step down as chair of Teslas board for three years.

Musk has repeatedly said since then that he doesnt respect the SEC, and lashed out at the agency again Monday on Twitter.

Twitter Talks

Starting early this year, Musk quietly began acquiring a more than 9% stake in Twitter and became its largest individual shareholder. After turning down a board seat, he launched an unsolicited $43 billion offer for the company earlier this month.

Twitter has traded below Musks $54.20 offer price, indicating skepticism over the prospects of his acquisition bid. But after securing financing from institutions including Morgan Stanley, Musk spent Sunday meeting with Twitter executives who grew more receptive toward the offer, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The company is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement as soon as Monday if negotiations go smoothly, according to people who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

While Musk has said hes lined up $46.5 billion to fund his bid for the social media platform, the text messages from 2018 serve as a reminder that the 50-year-old billionaire also can change his mind. They also highlight that, when angered, hell play hardball.

The case is In re Tesla Inc. Securities Litigation, 18-CV-04865, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

(Updates with more of Musks exchange with the head of the Saudi PIF starting in the 10th paragraph.)

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Weak Sauce: Elon Musks 2018 Feud With Saudi Fund Revealed - Yahoo Finance

Netflix's "The Stock Crash" is now airing on the Yahoo Finance ticker pages, and according to the company's Co-CEO Reed Hastings the market's reaction to the company's latest disappointing quarter is well-deserved and reflects several issues that will take time to correct.

"We're working on how to monetize sharing. We've been thinking about that for a couple of years, but when we were growing fast, it wasn't the high priority to work on. And now we're working super hard on it. And remember these are over 100 million households that already are choosing to view Netflix. They love the service, we just got to get paid," Hastings told investors on the earnings call. "And then two, it's really, we got great competition. They've got some very good shows and films out. And what we got to do is take it up a notch. And I'll tell you that we're all pretty ... I know it's disappointing for investors and it is for sure. But internally, we're really geared up and this is like our moment to shine. This is when it all matters. And we're super focused on achieving those objectives and getting back into our investors' good graces."

Shares of the streaming media giant plunged 26% in pre-market on Wednesday as Wall Street analysts marked down their estimates and price targets after the shocking quarterly miss on sales and net subscribers that reflect the challenges outlined by Hastings.

Here's how Netflix performed compared to Wall Street analyst estimates:

Revenue: $7.87 billion vs. $7.95 billion expected, $7.16 billion Y/Y

Earnings per share: $3.53 vs. $2.91 expected, $3.75 Y/Y

Net subscribers: -200,000 vs.+2.51 million expected, +3.98 million million Y/Y

For the current quarter, Netflix said it expected an even steeper decline in new users as it battles through increased competition from the likes of Apple and Paramount and tries to get 100 million account sharers to pay up.

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The streaming service is modeling for subscribers to decline by 2 million in the fiscal second quarter, whereas consensus analysts were looking for a gain of 2.4 million.

"However, given that 2Q is likely to be another challenging quarter for subscriber growth and, given that account-sharing monetization and the advertising-supported product are 2023-2024 events, we don't expect investors to collectively allocate more capital to owning Netflix in 2022. We believe investors will want to be closer in time to the implementation of these changes and might want to see some confirmation that they're having the desired effect before rerating the stock higher. 2Q is generally a softer seasonal quarter, but the content slate has popular returning series, including 'Ozark' (Season 4, finale), 'Stranger Things,' and 'Grace & Frankie.' The upcoming slate builds in the back half of 2022, leading up to a bigger 4Q with titles such as 'Gray Man' and 'Knives Out 2,'" said Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Kraft.

Yahoo Finance's Emily McCormick contributed to this story.

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

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Netflix stock crashes; Co-CEO says company is working on fixing the problems - Yahoo Finance

This version of Tyson Fury, the guy who knocked out Deontay Wilder twice and put Dillian Whyte to sleep Saturday with one of the best uppercuts youll ever see, would be a difficult out for any fighter in boxing history.

Yes, that includes Muhammad Ali. And George Foreman. And Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis and Rocky Marciano and Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis and Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe and Vitali Klitschko and Wladimir Klitschko and Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson and whatever all-time great heavyweight you care to name.

There arent many guys in boxing history who would be able to deal with a 6-foot-9, 270-pound heavyweight with an 85-inch reach, slick boxing skills and a sledgehammer punch.

Thats not to say that Furys the greatest heavyweight of all time. He doesnt have anywhere near the rsum for that.

But the list of guys you know would beat him guys you would be comfortable betting your house on beating him is incredibly small.

Fury was brilliant again on Saturday in front of a European boxing record crowd of 94,000 at Wembley Stadium in London, stopping Whyte at 2:59 of the sixth with arguably the greatest punch of his career to retain the WBC and lineal heavyweight titles.

Whyte was attacking as he did for much of the fight when he was hit in the nose by a solid Fury jab. But instead of shuffling off to the side as he did so often in the fight, Fury followed that jab with a right uppercut. It caught Whyte on the jaw and sent him in a dead fall backward to give Fury the win in what he said would probably be his final bout.

I promised my lovely wife Paris of 14 years that after the Wilder 3 fight [in October], that would be it, Fury said Saturday. And I meant it. We had a war. It was a great trilogy. And I meant that. But I got offered to fight at Wembley at home, and I believe that I deserved, that I owed it to the fans, that I owed it to every person in the United Kingdom to come here and fight at Wembley. Now its all done. And I have to be a man of my word. And I think this is it. This might be the final curtain for the Gypsy King. And what a way to go out!

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Britains Tyson Fury celebrates after beating Britains Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday, April 23, 2022. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

If he sticks to his word and passes on facing the winner of Julys bout between IBF-WBA-WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk and former champion Anthony Joshua, hell be one of the few in history to go out on top.

Sadly, we remember most of our great heavyweights for leaving after theyve repeatedly been concussed and beaten. Ali took such a bludgeoning in the second half of his career that he developed Parkinsons that muted him for much of the second half of his life.

Who can forget the sad sight of Tyson being pummeled by Lewis, or of Louis, back fighting after a brief retirement because he needed the money, getting battered by Marciano?

Lewis is one of the few who walked away as king with his money in the bank and his faculties intact, quitting after a triumphant and thrilling stoppage in 2003 of Vitali Klitschko.

If Fury walks away now, hell pass on mega-millions to face the Usyk-Joshua winner. If Joshua wins that, a fight between he and Fury would pay each man at least $100 million and would give Fury the chance to become the undisputed heavyweight champion for the only time in his career.

When Fury defeated Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, he won the IBF-WBA-WBO belts, but not the WBC title. He earned the WBC belt by knocking out Wilder in the second fight of their epic trilogy, but he never held all four at once.

He is the lineal champion, the proverbial man who beat the man, and thats enough for a lot of hardcore fans of the sport and perhaps Fury himself. But hes never held all four sanctioning body belts at once and thats what is required in modern boxing to be undisputed champion.

Tyson Fury makes his way to the ring on Saturday at Wembley Stadium on April 23, 2022, in London. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn told Yahoo Sports on Saturday he felt Joshua has always had the goods to be able to defeat Fury, but said all focus is on the Usyk fight for the moment.

Imagine the scene in July, though, if Fury climbed through the ropes to pose nose-to-nose with the Usyk-Joshua winner. It would be wild.

The scene was crazy on Saturday, with the second-largest attendance in boxing history behind only the 1993 fight in Mexico City at Azteca Stadium between Julio Cesar Chavez and Greg Haugen that drew 132,274 fans.

They came to see Fury do his thing, his first defense as champion on home soil. He gave them the show they wanted to see.

Whyte tried, but he didnt have the gifts to deal with this version of Fury.

I believe that Dillian will be a world champion, Fury said. But tonight, he met a great in the sport. Im one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. And unfortunately for Dillian Whyte, he had to face me here tonight. Theres no disgrace. Hes a tough, game man. Hes as strong as a bull. Hes got the heart of a lion. But youre not messing with a mediocre heavyweight. Youre messing with the best man on the planet. And you saw that tonight with what happened.

Before the fight, ESPN showed a package of Furys defense. Punches Wilder threw at him missed by an inch or two or, in a few cases, a bit less. Hed duck his head here, or slip it there, and the punches zinged past him.

Hes got great boxing skills and the quick reflexes to support those.

But as fighters age, those reflexes go and lesser men begin to hit them cleanly who never before would have laid a glove on them. After a few of those is when you see your heroes unable to speak clearly, beaten up and taken advantage of by a sport that far too often swallows its young.

Fury has the opportunity to change that narrative. Hes rich, his faculties are intact and hell never want for anything for the rest of his life. Hes not close to being done yet, but theres always some newcomer, always some goal that keeps them coming back.

The pressure on Fury to return will be immense.

If he can do it and keeps his vow to walk away, God bless him. Its the only move to make at this point.

Fighters need to learn this lesson: Use the game. Dont let the game use you.

Fury gets that. I think.

I hope.

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Take a bow, Tyson Fury: 'The Gypsy King' can retire on top a rarity in boxing - Yahoo Sports

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On Wednesday, ESPN's Jeff Darlington shook up the NFL world, reporting that Deebo Samuel had requested a trade from the San Francisco 49ers. The wideout has been the center of trade speculation all offseason as he is likely to be dealt and/or receive a massive contract extension at a time WR money is exploding throughout league salary caps.

To talk about this situation in depth, Charles Robinson is joined by none other than Jeff Darlington. They chat about where Deebo currently stands with the 49ers, how likely it is he may be dealt, what teams are his main suitors and how this revolution in wide receiver money will likely affect the salary cap for years.

Later, they chat about DK Metcalf and AJ Brown, two other star wideouts who could be in line for a massive payday or a trade. Following that, Charles & Jeff discuss why Kyler Murray seems more likely than not to stay in Arizona.

Finally, the guys circle back to the rumors of Tom Brady's interest in co-owning the Miami Dolphins. Jeff did some research and found the conditions that would allow a team minority owner to also play for said team.

Stay up to date with the latest NFL news and coverage from Yahoo Sports on Twitter @YahooSportsNFL.

Follow Charles @CharlesRobinson

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San Francisco 49ers WR Deebo Samuel reportedly requested a trade last week following failed contract negotiations. (Photo Credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports)

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How the Deebo Samuel trade request is shaking up the future of the salary cap - Yahoo Sports

Safety workers had to cut the roof off Scott Melton's car to extricate him from his vehicle after a nasty crash during the ARCA race at Talladega on Saturday.

Melton, who suffered a left leg fracture, was placed on a stretcher and loaded into a waiting ambulance after he was removed from the car. He was awake as he was placed onto the stretcher and had dropped his window net after the crash, the customary signal from a driver that he or she is conscious after a wreck. The Fox Sports 1 feed showed that he was also communicating with safety workers as he was removed from the vehicle and subsequently transported to a local hospital.

Melton's car collided with Eric Caudell's car as Caudell's car was sliding up the track from a wreck that had unfolded far in front of Melton. The wreck was initially triggered when Toni Breidinger's car got turned sideways and then Richard Garvie's car caught some air.

You can see Melton's No. 69 car smash into Caudell's at the 29-second mark of the video above. Melton and the two cars he was near on the track appeared to be attempting to get around the wreck by not slowing down very much, though those apparent plans were foiled when Caudell's car slid up the track and Melton's hit it head-on.

Here's the roof of Melton's car after it was taken off the car.

The roof of Scott Melton's ARCA car after he crashed at Talladega. (Via Fox Sports 1)

The crash happened on lap 50 of the 76-lap race and the race was red-flagged immediately so that the wreck could be cleaned up and Melton could be removed from his car. Nick Sanchez won the race with less than nine laps to go after Daniel Dye went spinning at the front of the field. The race was deemed complete before the scheduled finish because the NASCAR Xfinity Series race was scheduled to begin approximately an hour later.

Melton, 60, was making his second start of the ARCA season after finishing 30th at Daytona. The Michigan native has made 28 starts in the fourth-tier stock car series across five seasons and has finished in the top 10 in six of those races.

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ARCA driver cut from car and placed on stretcher after vicious wreck at Talladega - Yahoo Sports

(Bloomberg) -- The bond market, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Thursday, is not looking like a very safe place to be. Few investors would argue with that -- except, perhaps, to call it an understatement.

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New waves of selling engulfed the Treasury market over the past week, roiling investors and analysts whove been trying to predict just how high yields will go.

On Monday, Barclays Plc threw in the towel on a little-more-than-week-old bet that the selloff had gone too far. On Wednesday, Bank of America Corp. said it looked like time to buy, a call that went awry the next day. By Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powells endorsement of aggressive actions to curb inflation sent traders racing to price in half-percentage-point interest-rate increases at the banks next four meetings, anticipating a stark break with its decades-long practice of tightening monetary policy at a gradual pace.

Its a tornado right now, said Gregory Faranello, head of U.S. rates trading and strategy for AmeriVet Securities. Fed policy really matters now, and its no longer lift-off. The question is where are they going?

Signs of investors losing their bearings are everywhere. In options on eurodollar futures, a proxy for the Feds rate, demand for deeply out-of-the-money structures offering protection against a series of 75-basis-point rates hikes this year cropped up. In the Treasury futures market, block trades proliferated. And Hoisington Investment Management, famous for its bullish outlook on Treasuries over the past three decades, sounded a rare note of caution in its quarterly report to clients.

The weeks volatility extended the tumultuous run for the worlds largest bond market as the Fed starts pulling back the massive monetary stimulus it unleashed soon after the onset of the pandemic. Already in 2022, Treasuries have lost over 8%, by far the worst start in the history of a Bloomberg index starting in 1973.

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The selloff has been stoked by investors steadily ratcheting up expectations for the Feds rate hikes this year, despite a persistent rift about how far it will ultimately go.

On Thursday, Powell appeared to validate the alarmist camp when he said front-end loading its rate hikes may be appropriate and characterized the labor market as unsustainably hot.

The comments helped push yields higher. By late Friday, the two-year Treasury yield, which is highly sensitive to monetary policy changes, rose to 2.69%, up about 23 basis points from a week earlier. The 10-year yield ended at 2.9%, up 7 basis points on the week, after nearly reaching 3% on Wednesday.

Notably, Powells remarks and the aggressive pricing of a more rate hikes by the market failed to stop inflation expectations from rising. The 10-year measure crossed 3% en route to an all-time high.

The Fed has lost control of inflation, Faranello said. Do they overtighten, or will inflation ease and help them out?

An uncertain inflation picture and the Feds response has complicated efforts to forecast the longer-term outlook for the bond market.

If price increases slow, the Fed may be able to pause its hikes, resulting in a relatively low peak in the overnight lending rate, which the market sees topping out not far above the central banks current estimate of 2.8% by the end of next year. Its in the range of 0.25-0.50% now. But theres also a risk that the inflation persists -- or that the Feds rate hikes drive the economy into a recession.

For all the angst and volatility of recent months, the market is pricing in a similar rate tightening cycle to what we saw previously with a peak implied funds rate of 3.25%, said Bob Miller, head of Americas fundamental fixed income at BlackRock Inc.

What will drive the Fed and terminal pricing is the trajectory of inflation over the next six months, he said. That will largely determine if Fed funds reaches 2.5%, 3.5% or something higher.

What to Watch

Economic calendar:

April 25: Chicago Fed national activity index, Dallas Fed manufacturing activity

April 26: Durable goods orders, FHFA house price index, S&P CoreLogic home prices, Conference Board consumer confidence, new home sales, Richmond Fed manufacturing index

April 27: Mortgage applications, wholesale inventories, pending home sales

April 28: 1Q advance GDP, jobless claims, Kansas City Fed manufacturing activity

April 29: Employment cost index, personal income and spending (with PCE deflator), University of Michigan sentiment and inflation expectations

Fed calendar:

Auction calendar:

April 25: 13- and 26-week bills

April 26: Two-year notes

April 27: Two-year floating-rate notes, five-year notes

April 28: 4- and 8-week bills, seven-year notes

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Bond Danger Builds With Fed Set to Break From Its Cautious Past - Yahoo Finance

Chinas strict COVID-19 lockdowns will exacerbate global supply chain woes and add to inflation in the coming months, experts say.

President Xi Jinpings zero-COVID policy is being tested as the country struggles to tame its worst virus outbreak yet. Frustration is rising over food shortages, people being locked down in their homes for weeks, and a policy of killing pet dogs suspected of being infected with COVID.

While Chinas tech hub Shenzhen has emerged from its nearly month-long lockdown, Chinas biggest city, Shanghai, home to the worlds largest container port, has remained shuttered since March 28.

Now, the economic effects are starting to show. Fuel demand in China is on track to drop 20% this month in the biggest decline since the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns more than two years ago, sources told Bloomberg on Friday. And global supply chains are beginning to feel the crunch as well.

One in five container ships is now stuck at ports worldwide, with 30% of the backlog coming from China. And Lars Jensen, the CEO of the shipping container industry consulting firm Vespucci Maritime, told Fortune that the full impact of Chinas policies will only begin to reveal itself over the coming weeks.

Until now most vessels have still been calling Shanghai almost as per normalthis means cargo to Shanghai does not end up in the wrong place, Jensen said. But this is likely to change in the coming weeks if the lockdown is not removed. Then you will see more omissions of Shanghai as a port and canceled sailings, and the [supply chain] impact will increase.

Even if strict lockdowns in Shanghai are lifted, U.S. ports will likely be slammed with a wave of pent-up cargo from newly reopened factories in China. That will lead to higher freight rates, Jensen says, and worsen congestion at ports worldwide.

Victor Meyer, COO of the risk intelligence provider Supply Wisdom, believes it will take months for supply chains to return to normal, and he expects U.S. ports could begin experiencing disruptions soon.

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The next effect will likely be felt in the U.S. West Coasts ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as the pent-up demand reaches them, he said.

Problems at ports mean rising costs for companies and increasing inflation for U.S. consumers, experts say.

Companies are beginning to panic. The downstream impact is coming, and itll be heavy. John Bree, the chief risk officer at Supply Wisdom, said. The latest China lockdowns combined with the Russia-Ukraine war is too heavy a burden. The global chaos is going to further exacerbate disruption and take inflation to a new level.

Brees statement is backed up by recent reports from investment banks, which are also warning of the economic impacts of Chinas lockdowns. Bank of America analysts led by Ethan Harris said in a note to clients on Friday that its yet another adverse supply shock for the global economy that will weaken growth and extend the period of high inflation.

And Dylan Alperin, head of professional services at the supply chain software firm Keelvar, noted that transportation costs make up 7.7% of global GDP, which means delays at ports typically lead to rising inflation.

The freight cost for a single container from China to the U.S. went from $5,900 last year to $15,764 today, Alperin said. The impact of those price increases alone could significantly drive inflation up globally, he added.

Dawn Tiura, CEO of the Sourcing Industry Group (SIG), an association of sourcing and procurement professionals, said that she also suspects that Chinas lockdowns will lead to higher inflation.

Our supply chains are so interconnected and theyve become fragile that a single issue in one place will affect consumers around the globe, Tiura said.

And Jim Bureau, the CEO of Jaggaer, a global commerce and procurement technology company, noted that many U.S. manufacturers source raw materials and components from Chinese suppliers, which could lead to shortages of critical electronics and machinery components.

China accounts for 18% of all the goods the U.S. imports, according to Bank of America. And for computers and electronics, that number rises to 35%.

The most recent wave of shutdowns in China will only exacerbate supply constraints, with a trickledown effect on finished goods supply, Bureau added.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Companies are beginning to panic: Experts say Chinas lockdowns will make inflation and the supply chain nightmare even worse - Yahoo Finance

The NBA playoffs continue tonight with three more games.

The Brooklyn Nets, who spent most of the year as the Eastern Conference betting favorites, are trying to avoid being swept on their home court by the Boston Celtics. The Celtics' success in the series isn't all that surprising considering they opened as a slight underdog, but how they have dominated the Nets has grabbed the public's attention.

Boston is now the favorite at +160 to win the Eastern Conference. How the Nets will respond to being down 3-0 is anybody's guess. There is too much potential variance in attempting to unpack the psychology of Brooklyn right now. It's a hard pass for me. I am much more comfortable letting my money ride on the other two games. Here are my best bets for tonight's action.

The Western Conference has provided us with a few gems in the first round and this series is surely one of them. Luka Doncic returned in Game 4 to put up 30 points and 10 rebounds in a 100-99 loss. With the series knotted at 2-2, the teams return to Dallas in what now has become a best-of-three series.

Utah has done a slightly better job at defending Dallas behind the arc, but that's not going to discourage the Mavs from bombing threes. They fired up 44 attempts in Game 4 and will continue to exploit Utah on the perimeter. Jalen Brunson is averaging close to 30 points per game in the series and shooting 40% from the 3-point range. He is the "X-factor," even with Doncic back on the court. The Jazz showed their hand in Game Four, slowing down the tempo and pressuring Doncic early in the possession. As he commands respect from Gobert and the Jazz defense, that leaves players like Brunson to make Donovan Mitchell work. Mitchell has struggled mightily on defense in this series and has shot just 8-of-34 from 3-point range.

Utah has been a bad bet away from home all season (17-25-1 ATS) and only covered in 28.6% of games as a road underdog. They also shot 19 more free throws than Dallas in Game 4, and you have to wonder if Gobert is going to get the same respect from the refs in Dallas. Take the better team at home, and don't worry about laying the points.

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Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks drives past Danuel House Jr. of the Utah Jazz during an NBA playoff game on April 23. (Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)

The 76ers' hot start in this series was fueled by their ability to take advantage of Toronto in transition while draining everything from the perimeter. Tyrese Maxey scored 38 and 23 in Games 1 and 2, while Philadelphia shot 30-of-62 from distance. They averaged over 120 points in their set of home games, but regression was likely when the series resumed in Toronto. I started targeting the under in Game 2, expecting the series to get more physical. Since Philly's 131-point explosion in the series opener, the totals dropped each game as the under continued to hit.

Now we head back to Philadelphia for Game 5 and the total is eight points lower (217.5 - 209.5) than where it closed the last time these two teams played on Philly's home court. I understand both teams are battling through injuries, but I think the market has over-adjusted and it's time to play back on the over. Philadelphia is motivated to finish this series as early as possible with Embiid battling through a torn ligament in his thumb. I think Philadelphia, in front of a home crowd, can get back to the offensive success it saw in the first two games. Toronto's half-court offense has been an Achilles heel all season, and with VanVleet hurting, its ineffectiveness will allow Philly to grab rebounds and push the pace in transition. If the game goes the 76ers' way, I'd rather play the over than worry about a backdoor cover in a series-clinching win.

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NBA betting: Why the Mavs will bounce back and cover in Game 5 - Yahoo Sports

(Bloomberg) -- In Germany and Italy, coal-fired power plants that were once decommissioned are now being considered for a second life. In South Africa, more coal-laden ships are embarking on whats typically a quiet route around the Cape of Good Hope toward Europe. Coal burning in the U.S. is in the midst of its biggest revival in a decade, while China is reopening shuttered mines and planning new ones.

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The worlds addiction to coal, a fuel many thought would soon be on the way out, is now stronger than ever.

Demand has been on the rise since last year amid a natural gas shortage and as electricity use surged after pandemic restrictions were rolled back. But Russias invasion of Ukraine turbocharged the coal market, setting off a domino effect thats leaving power producers scrambling for supply and pushing prices to record levels.

The boom in the world's dirtiest fossil fuel has huge implications for the global economy.

The higher prices will continue to feed into rising inflation. But even with the recent surge, analysts say that coal is still one of the relatively cheapest fuels. Thats making it more critical for power supplies at a time when coal burning also remains the biggest single obstacle in the battle against climate change. Meanwhile, miners are struggling to dig up any additional tons as utilities around the world keep demanding more, setting the stage for the next phase of the global energy crisis.

When youre trying to balance decarbonization and energy security, everyone knows which one wins: Keeping the lights on, said Steve Hulton, senior vice president for coal markets at market-research company Rystad Energy in Sydney. Thats what keeps people in power, and stops people from rioting in the streets.

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In 2021, the world generated more electricity from coal than ever before, with an increase of 9% from the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency. For 2022, total coal consumption for generating power, making steel and other industrial uses is expected to rise by almost 2% to a record of just above 8 billion metric tons and remain there through at least 2024.

All evidence indicates a widening gap between political ambitions and targets on one side and the realities of the current energy system on the other, the IEA said, estimating that carbon-dioxide emissions from coal in 2024 will be at least 3 billion tons higher than in a scenario reaching net-zero by 2050.

Read more: The future of energy may require sacrifice

Coals story is inextricably linked with natural gas, often promoted as the cleaner-burning alternative.

Europes Energy Crisis and the Coal Comeback

As the world began to emerge from the pandemic in mid-2021, power demand surged as stores and factories reopened. But Europe, which had been leading the global charge away from coal, faced an unprecedented crunch for electricity and a shortage of natural gas. At the same time, renewable power was tight in the region and in some other parts other world. The confluence of events sparked blackouts in some regions and sent gas prices to extremes around the world, ushering in the energy crisis.

Suddenly, coal was back in vogue as a less-expensive alternative. Thermal coal, the type burned by power plants, is one of the cheapest fuel sources on the planet, with costs at about $15 per million British thermal units, according to a report dated April 1 from Bank of America. That compares with about $25 for crude oil and the global price of $35 for natural gas, the report said.

The European Union, which has some of the worlds most ambitious climate targets, saw its coal use jump 12% last year, the first increase since 2017 albeit, that gain was from low 2020 levels. Coal consumption climbed 17% in the U.S., and also rose in Asia, Africa and Latin America. India and China, which dominate global markets, were also big drivers for increasing world demand.

Just a few months ago, negotiators arrived in Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference optimistic they could consign coal to history.

Instead, the climate talks ended in November with a watering down of the language on the use of coal. China, the U.S. and India are the three biggest polluters, and all three have now pledged to zero-out their emissions in the decades ahead. Yet India and China pursued last-ditch interventions to soften language on coal usage, and the U.S. played a role in accepting that weaker position, calling into question the nations short-term commitment to curb coal.

And that was all before the recent further revival for the market.

Read more: Chinas defense of coals future

The IEA issued its annual demand outlook back in December. The agency now plans to issue a mid-year revision in July its first time ever to do so to analyze the impact of the war. In all likelihood, demand will be higher than the December forecast as Russias invasion of Ukraine sets off a chain reaction in the global energy markets that further thrusts coal into the spotlight.

Can the EU Give Up Russian Energy?

Europe is desperate for a way to reduce its reliance on Russia, a key supplier of fossil fuels. The EU is moving to ban Russian coal while also cranking up its overall use of the fuel as it seeks to simultaneously decrease its use of Russian natural gas. Europes move is centered on the notion that it will be able to pay more for non-Russian coal supplies than other buyers, a gamble thats driving up global markets and could price out developing countries that may face shortages.

To help secure energy next winter, the German government is considering working with utilities like RWE AG to reactivate decommissioned coal-fired power plants and delay decommissioning of active facilities.

In Denmark, Orsted A/S is shoring up coal supplies to use instead of biomass, because supplies of the carbon-neutral wood pellets have been disrupted by the war. And Britain is exploring options to bolster energy security, including keeping open Drax Group Plc coal units.

Its the last hurrah for coal in Europe, said Emma Champion, head of regional energy transitions at BloombergNEF.

Even before Europes risky move, coal supplies were already precarious. A power plant in Germany had to shut down last year when it ran out of coal. Shortages also led to power outages in India and China, which together account for about two-thirds of global coal consumption.

Coals Price Surge

Prices are hitting stratospheric levels. Futures prices for the Australian benchmark, which rarely breaks $100 a metric ton, spiked to $280 in October as utilities scoured the planet for fuel. It fell back, slightly, as relatively mild winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere eased some demand for power. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, supply concerns drove prices all the way to $440, an all-time high.

Europes market followed the same pattern, and even in the U.S., which is driven more by domestic demand, prices reached a 13-year high this month.

The coal supply chain just wasnt ready for that kind of shock, said Xizhou Zhou, managing director for global power and renewables at S&P Global.

As coal grows in importance, supplies are unlikely to follow suit.

Miners are still concerned about long-term demand prospects, especially as the United Nations reiterates its view that the world needs to phase out the fuel. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released this month showed that coal burning needs to hit zero by 2050 to reach the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

To say in the long run theres no demand for your product, but in the short run, can you please ramp it up thats a lot to ask of a supply chain, said Ethan Zindler, head of Americas research at BloombergNEF.

Read more: A coal tycoon is making billions

Adding to the chaos, policymakers and companies in Japan and South Korea are also making moves to curb Russian coal imports. That will leave even more of the world looking for alternatives to the 187 million tons that Russia exported to power plants last year, which equals about 18% of the worlds thermal coal trade.

It wont be easy to replace.

Global Supply Issues

Global production still hasnt rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. Miners have been hobbled by weather problems, labor shortages and transportation issues, as well as a lack of investment in new capacity.

Indonesia, the top shipper of coal for power stations, halted exports of coal early this year to secure domestic supplies. Producers in Australia, another key exporter, have flagged they have limited ability to raise sales. State-owned Coal India Ltd., the worlds biggest miner, is limiting deliveries to industrial users to prioritize power plants in a bid to avert blackouts for millions of households. Exports from South Africas Richards Bay Coal Terminal fell to 58.7 million tons in 2021, the lowest in 25 years.

Read more: South African coal gets shipped on an atypical trade lane

The global seaborne coal market remains very tight this year, said Shirley Zhang, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. So finding alternative supply would be extremely challenging regardless of high prices.

As global coal supplies tighten and prices rise, emerging-market nations may no longer be able to afford to procure the fuel to keep their economies running. Cash-strapped countries in South Asia, like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are particularly exposed to price shocks and are already grappling with energy shortages.

To be sure, if coals price surge continues, that could in the longer term further encourage countries to wean themselves off the fuel and replace it with more renewables. And the larger geopolitical tensions brought on by Russias war are bolstering the argument that adding more electric vehicles to roads and installing additional wind turbines and solar panels can boost energy independence.

The Impact of Chinas Fuel Demand

China is also in the midst of a fossil-fuel production boom. Growing coal output has been an obsession of Beijings since a shortage of the fuel caused last years widespread power outages. The nation mines half the worlds coal, and output has been rising just as a recent new spat of pandemic lockdowns slowed economic activity and curbed power demand. But its unclear whether the production surges are sustainable, with a top industry official saying recently that the push has reached its limits.

For now, the most-immediate dynamic is a global fight over available coal supplies to avoid power shortages.

I dont know if I even have an extra 200 tons, said Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC, the top U.S. exporter. There physically isnt the production capacity.

(Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP the parent company of Bloomberg News committed $500 million to Beyond Carbon, a campaign aimed at closing the remaining coal-fired power plants in the U.S. by 2030 and halting the development of new natural gas-fired plants. He also started a campaign to close a quarter of the worlds remaining coal plants and cancel all proposed coal plants by 2025.)

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Russias War Is Turbocharging the Worlds Addiction to Coal - Yahoo Finance

In a whiplash turn, oil has again sunk below $100 a barrel as fears of a COVID-19 lockdown in China's capital ease the global demand crunch.

The international benchmark Brent crude fell 4.6% to $101.74 a barrel at 4:34 a.m. ET; the U.S. crude West Texas Intermediate fell 4.9% to $97.07.

The oil price downturn comes after a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Chinas capital Beijing prompted mass testing, lockdown rumors, and panic buying. In Shanghai, the Shanghai composite stock index saw its worst day since February 2020 after the city reported record daily deaths over the weekend.

In addition to a drop in demand for oil in Chinathe worlds biggest crude importeranalysts believe the Ukraine war and surging inflation are also destroying the demand for oil.

The ongoing war in Ukraine, COVID-19 lockdowns in China, and surging commodity prices are going to take a significant bite out of global oil demand this year, with the potential to calm high prices, Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president of analysis at research company Rystad Energy, wrote in a note.

Rystad Energy estimates oil demand will drop around 1.4 million barrels per day with a rebound unlikely until at least 2023. It projects annual world average of oil demand will hit 99.6 million barrels per day, dropping well below the pre-pandemic high of 100.2 million barrels set in 2019.

And as GDP growth is further weighed down by COVID-19 related lockdowns and geopolitical issuesthe International Monetary Fund recently downgraded its 2022 world GDP growth forecast from 4.4% to 3.6%global oil demand will continue to feel downward pressure.

Falling oil prices have been welcomed by the Western world, which was grappling with rising inflation even before many countries shut off the tap to Russian oil following the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia have banned Russian oil outright, while the EU, which is far more dependent on Russian energy, is planning to roll out its own embargo. Sanctions on Russian exports are sustaining high oil prices, which analysts at Rystad say will lead to a broad economic slowdown, negatively impacting the demand for oil.

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Oil has also weakened on the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates. A strong U.S. dollar makes dollar-priced commodities like oil more expensive for other currency holders and increases risk aversion among investors.

But Chinas lockdown policy is the greatest threat to rising oil prices, as millions of residents in a Beijing district were told to submit to three days of virus testing starting Monday, stoking fears of another citywide lockdown. "It seems that China is the elephant in the room," Jeffrey Halley, analyst at brokerage OANDA, told Reuters. "The tightening COVID-zero restrictions in Shanghai, and fears Omicron has spread in Beijing, torpedoed sentiment today," he said.

The big story in oil continues to be China, said Keshav Lohiya, founder of consultant Oilytics, told Bloomberg. The hit to domestic demand will be significant if Beijing follows Shanghais route.

As risks to consumption escalate, analysts have turned bullish on oil prices. Shrinking demand is a direct result of the impact of lower economic activity globally, Galimberti wrote, adding, Despite continued supply tightness, a demand slump could provide some respite for global prices."

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Oil just dropped below $98 a barrel and analysts are now backing away from their $200 predictions, saying war and COVID may calm high prices - Yahoo...