Monthly Archives: January 2022

The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates.

Over the past three years, dozens of cities across the country have banned natural gas hookups in newly constructed buildings as part of a growing campaign to reduce carbon emissions from homes. The movement scored a major victory last month, when New York Citys outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a ban on gas hookups in new buildings.

Though new laws apply to the entire home, the policy debate often focuses on one room in particular: the kitchen. Gas stoves account for a relatively small share of the emissions released by a typical household, but theyve become a proxy for a larger fight over how far efforts to curb at-home natural gas consumption in the name of fighting climate change should go.

Natural gas consumption accounts for 80 percent of fossil fuel emissions from residential and commercial buildings, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. One study estimated that New Yorks ban on its own would create an emissions reduction comparable to taking 450,000 cars off the road. But the movement has met significant pushback. About 35 percent of U.S. homes use gas for cooking, and surveys show that many people are resistant to switching to an electric or induction range. The gas industry has also launched a massive lobbying campaign that has helped convince 19 Republican-led states to preemptively bar local governments from imposing bans on natural gas.

Beyond the climate implications of natural gas in general, there is also a movement to phase out gas stoves because of the harmful pollutants they release inside the home. Cooking on a gas stove releases nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, chemicals that have been connected with negative health conditions like asthma, with particular risk to children. One study found that gas stoves can create levels of nitrogen dioxide indoors exceeding the legal limits for outdoor air.

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The debate over gas stoves is really a two-part conversation, with one element focusing on the environmental harms of at-home natural gas consumption in general, and the other specifically on the indoor pollution that gas cooktops create.

Climate change activists see gas bans as a powerful way to reduce the greenhouse gases created by buildings, which account for about 13 percent of total U.S. emissions. They argue that unlike burgeoning technologies like a green power grid and electric vehicles clean alternatives to gas heaters, appliances and stoves are readily available to most consumers. Critics of the bans, on the other hand, are skeptical of how much theyll really reduce emissions, worry about increasing costs for homeowners and argue that market-based solutions will be most effective at promoting a transition to electrified homes.

When it comes to health, advocates say gas stoves are simply too toxic to be installed in new homes. They call for governments to create financial incentives to help homeowners switch to electric or induction stoves, an expense they argue will ultimately save money relative to the cost of potential health problems.

The gas industry makes the case that with proper ventilation, gas stoves can be safe. Conservatives also take issue with the idea of the government limiting individual choice. Others argue that focusing on gas stoves, a product many people have an intense loyalty to, will only increase resistance to electrification as a whole.

The list of cities to ban gas hookups in new construction appears primed to grow in the coming years, and opposition is likely to ramp up in response. So far, no statewide bans have been put in place. California has come the closest. Starting next year, all homes built in the state may be required to be wired so theyre electric ready even if they have gas appliances installed. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a statewide ban as part of a multipronged initiative to combat climate change.

Gas bans are the only way to meaningfully reduce emissions from the home

For the individual homeowner, as for society at large, managing harmful pollution eventually starts to seem a little silly when equally effective, affordable, and pollution-free alternatives are available. Its time to start making new buildings all-electric and switching out all those existing gas appliances, including gas stoves, for electric alternatives. David Roberts, Vox

Gas stoves are a great entry point for the broader effort to electrify homes

The humble stove may seem like a tiny part of a big problem but its one of our most personal, immediate and tangible. Its also one of the easiest to change. Brady Seals, Guardian

A combination of legal limits and financial incentives could supercharge a shift away from gas

The government could speed things up mightily with subsidies and regulation. If the state provided a big credit for property owners to replace their gas stoves, with particular attention on older stoves in apartment buildings (they often leak or burn very inefficiently), and set up new regulations on the amount of air pollution appliances could produce that would gradually tighten over time, gas cooking could be replaced entirely. Ryan Cooper, the Week

Gas stoves are toxic to our health

Cooking is the No. 1 way youre polluting your home. It is causing respiratory and cardiovascular health problems; it can exacerbate flu and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in children. Youre basically living in this toxic soup. Shelly Miller, environmental engineer, to Mother Jones

Electrification of homes is one of the few climate transitions thats possible right now

Real estate developers already have most of the technology to replace furnaces with heat pumps, hot water heaters with electric boilers, and gas stoves with induction cooktops. And because cities and towns control building and energy codes, its one of the few areas where they have the power to push through deep emission cuts. Ysabelle Kempe, Grist

Climate change is too important to leave up to the free market

The pursuit of market-based solutions as a pathway to addressing the energy transition in low-income and disadvantaged communities is likely infeasible, and also ethically dubious. Market-based solutions have not achieved their desired goals, thus new ways of thinking need to emerge. Multiple authors, the Appeal

Gas bans rob consumers of their freedom to choose what to have in their homes

As for the gas stove, its the next target for elimination, because it uses gas. The Left, if they get control of everything, would ban it from new manufacture nationwide and then ban its replacement and ownership. If someone in Montana or Florida or Seattle says, But I prefer gas, you can only roll your eyes. James Lileks, National Review

The free market will be much more effective at promoting a transition from gas

With respect to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there would be no need to mandate building electrification if it were already cheaper than the fossil fuel alternatives for heat, hot water, and cooking. In other words, the adoption of electric home heating has been proceeding expeditiously without mandates. Ronald Bailey, Reason

Attacking gas stoves is a great way to turn people off from electrification in general

Home kitchens thus account for about 0.4% of U.S. natural gas use. Thats not a lot! Gas cooking does, however, seem likely to be the biggest obstacle to the effort to electrify the American home in the name of slowing climate change. Whys that? Mainly because people (myself included) like cooking with gas! Its one of the few energy uses that inspires brand loyalty to the fuel consumed. Justin Fox, Bloomberg

Gas bans will actually increase emissions without a green energy grid

It has evolved into the transitional fuel of our time, allowing the U.S. to quickly ditch coal while giving renewables time to expand to the scale needed to power the entire electricity-hungry country. Once those renewables have reached that scale, banning natural gas in residential construction starts making environmental sense. Until then, these proposals are ultimately increasing our carbon footprint. Ognjen Miljani, The Hill

Gas stoves arent ideal, but arent as harmful as critics make them out to be

Its a good choice to avoid gas if youre replacing your stove anyway. But if youre looking for personal ways to protect the environment and your health right now, you have much bigger fish to fry. Electrifying your space- and water-heating systems, or your car, will have a massively larger impact, as will ventilating your kitchen. Liam McCabe, New York Times

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The campaign to ban gas stoves is heating up - Yahoo News

Shark Tank investor and crypto-convert Kevin OLeary believes non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be bigger than bitcoin (BTC-USD).

The chairman of OShares Investments told Yahoo Finance Live that NFTs offer value because of their ability to digitally track the ownership, authenticity and inventory management of real-world items like vintage watches (of which OLeary is a big collector), sports memorabilia, artwork and other assets.

One of the biggest challenges I have is inventory management, insurance management, and then, of course, authentication, O'Leary said. When people offer me vintage watches, I have to go through a very arduous authentication process to know if it's fake or not, there's so many fake watches in the market. NFTs could solve all of those problems.

OLeary, who once called bitcoin garbage, now says investing in cryptocurrencies and NFTs is like investing in the early days of Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG).

If you invest in Microsoft (MSFT) and Google and Amazon, what is the core youre investing in? It's basically software, OLeary said. Well, bitcoin is not a coin, it's actually software. The blockchain is software, ethereum... HBAR, polygon, is software. So the real decision is if you're willing to invest in software, because it's a productivity tool. It provides a service, particularly in payment systems that is being used globally.

Kevin O'Leary Chairman, O'Shares ETFs; Television Personality, "Shark Tank" speaks during the Milken Institute's 22nd annual Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., April 30, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

If 2021 was the year crypto went more mainstream, OLeary says 2022 may see clear regulation in the industry.

If we make it regulated, if we get institutions into it and find a way for them to be compliant, there's trillions of dollars going to come into this space, because it has a pragmatic use.

OLeary holds multiple positions in the industry including Immutable Holdings (HOLD.NE) which owns NFT.com, the payments platform Circle, and the decentralized finance platform WonderFi (WONDF),which recently bought Canadas largest crypto exchange. OLeary is also a paid spokesperson and endorser for crypto exchange FTX.

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The Swiss, the Canadians, the UAE government, some of these places are now becoming a little bit more progressive and you have to invest in those geographies, if you want exposure [to crypto and NFTs], said OLeary.

While he admits crypto is more volatile than tech stocks, OLeary said its something investors need to make peace with. Bitcoin recently fell 40% below its November peak as cryptocurrencies stumbled into 2022.

Bitcoin's having one of its worst starts [to a new year] ever," O'Leary said. "But you have to get used to it, just like you had to get used to Amazon, where it would have these 30% to 50% corrections, same thing with bitcoin.

OLeary began adding bitcoin to his portfolio in March 2021. At the time, he allocated 3% of his portfolio to the worlds largest cryptocurrency after his native country Canada, and a handful of other countries, eased restrictions on institutional buying of the asset.

When it comes to choosing which coins to own, OLeary says he applies the same rules of diversification that he applies to picking stocks and bonds. No more than 5% in any one position, no more than 20% in the whole sector. So I'm not anywhere near 20% in crypto, I've just gone over 10.7% in our operating company.

Ether (ETH-USD) is currently his largest crypto position even larger than bitcoin.

It certainly takes a lot of time in my day, just tracking all this stuff," he said. "I'd say I spend 40% of my investment day tracking cryptocurrencies now."

Alexis Christoforous is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter@AlexisTVNews.

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Shark Tanks Kevin OLeary thinks 2022 is the year of NFTs - Yahoo Finance

European stock markets advanced on Monday. In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.6% after opening, adding to last weeks gains. Photo: Jack Taylor/Getty

European stock markets continued their positive trend higher on Monday.

In London, the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) rose 0.6% after opening, adding to last weeks gains, while the CAC (^FCHI) climbed almost 0.3% and the DAX (^GDAXI) was 0.1% higher.

Londons benchmark index has been the standout performer this year so far, up just over 2%, driven largely by energy, basic resources and banking stocks.

The UK had its share of economic data to guide the path, Kunal Sawhney, chief executive of Kalkine Group, said. The November GDP data of 0.9% showed that growth was in a better position than the pre-pandemic levels, and that will help markets to firm up this week.

There has been a continuous decline in COVID cases and also UK Health Security Agencys latest risk assessment showing Omicron relatively being mild for most adults will boost morale.

Read more: Fuel stress to hit 6 million UK households as energy bills soar

Across the pond, S&P 500 futures (ES=F) were down 0.1%, Dow futures (YM=F) were trading flat, and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were 0.3% lower as trade began in Europe.

Wall Street stocks have had a slow start to the year so far, with the S&P 500 and the Dow both finishing lower for the second week in a row, although the Nasdaq managed to eke out a weekly gain, despite touching a three-month low earlier in the week.

For a good part of this year there has been rising anxiety on the part of US investors especially about the likely path of US rate rises this year, as concerns about more persistent inflation levels prompt more aggressive talk from members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) about the likely path of rate rises this year, Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said.

US markets are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.

Asian share markets were choppy on Monday as a slew of Chinese economic data revealed the recent effect of COVID restrictions on consumer spending, prompting Beijing to again ease monetary policy.

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In Japan, the Nikkei (^N225) climbed 0.7%, after losing 1.2% last week, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.7%, and the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) rose 0.6%.

Chinas fourth quarter GDP figures came in at an annualised 4% year-on-year in October-December, amid a combination of port disruptions due to COVID restrictions, supply chain issues, as well as surging power costs and enforced shutdowns of the Chinese economy. This was the weakest expansion in 18 months.

Read more: Former Lloyds boss Horta-Osorio quits Credit Suisse after investigation

Retail sales growth slowed sharply to just 1.7% year-on-year in December, down from 3.9% previously.

Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, said: Consumption remains the weakest link in Chinas growth story at the moment and that will by and large continue for much of this year.

We think Beijing has a bottom line of around 5%. As is the case at the moment, if growth is weaker than that, theyd feel strongly motivated to pursue more policy easing.

Elsewhere, Chinese president Xi Jinping will be speaking later on Monday as part of the Davos Agenda series organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

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European stock markets open higher at the start of the week - Yahoo Finance UK

Kellogg's Corn Flakes cereal.Thomson Reuters

Officials in Mexico have seized 380,000 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, AP reported.

Cartoons featured on the boxes were thought to breach recent legislation to improve kids' diets.

The raid mainly took place at a warehouse located north of Mexico City.

Mexico has seized 380,000 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, including Corn Flakes and Special K, AP reported.

According to AP, officials raided 75 stores and seized batches of Kellogg's products. Most of the raid took place at a warehouse located north of Mexico City.

The decision was made because the cartoon mascots on the boxes were thought to breach recent laws aimed at improving children's diets. The seized cereals may not necessarily contain high levels of sugar but the laws ban food companies from using marketing ploys to entice children, AP reported.

The health of Mexican residents is becoming an increasingly important area of concern for officials.

In 2020, the southern state of Oaxaca put measures in place to curb an obesity crisis in the country, which has been underscored by high death tolls during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Guardian reported.

Lawmakers in the region banned the sale of sugary drinks and high-calorie snacks to children, and proposed fines and potential closures for stores breaching these rules.

According to a 2020 study, about 73% of the Mexican population is considered overweight.

Kellogg's did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The cereal boxes that were seized in the raid also reportedly excluded nutritional information, Mexico's consumer protection agency told AP.

Last year, Kellogg's workers made headlines when 1,400 workers ended their 77-day long strike after voting on a new contract that included cost-of-living raises for employees.

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Mexico seizes 380,000 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, claiming they feature cartoons that breach laws designed to improve children's diets - Yahoo News

Joe B. Hall, who died Saturday at age 93, amassed 297 wins during his coaching career at Kentucky from 1972-85.

Maybe Kentucky should give him one more.

Seemingly inspired by the pre-game festivities at Rupp Arena honoring Hall, the No. 18 Wildcats (14-3, 4-1 SEC) took control late in the first half and rolled to a 107-79 victory over No. 22 Tennessee (11-5, 2-3).

TyTy Washington Jr. scored 14 of his career-high 28 points in the first half for Kentucky, which won its third straight game. The Wildcats also improved to 12-0 at home this season.

Kentucky guard TyTy Washington Jr. was a big reason the Wildcats won on Saturday. (Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports)

The Wildcats shot 67.9% from the field their best percentage in any SEC game in the past 25 years.

Kentucky scored 52 first-half points against the Vols who entered the game only allowing 60.7 points per game and took a 52-38 lead into the break. The Wildcats began the second half with a 15-7 run over the first 3:39 to open up a 22-point advantage at 67-45.

Kentucky's lead grew as big as 89-57 on a Kellan Grady free throw with 8:18 left. Grady finished with 16 points.

Sahvir Wheeler scored 21 points for Kentucky. Oscar Tshiebwe (nine points, 12 rebounds) was denied his 13th double-double of the season, but his free throw with 2:31 left gave Kentucky its 100th point. No Tennessee team under Rick Barnes had given up 100 points in a game before Saturday.

The Wildcats remembered Hall in a video tribute before the game.

The Wildcats also came out in a 1-3-1 zone a defense that Hall loved but Calipari's team doesn't play on their first possession. Calipari was also coaching with a rolled-up program in his hand, another Hall trademark.

Unfortunately for UK fans, the Vols scored on the possession. But the Wildcats took a 6-5 lead early in the first half and never trailed again.

Kentucky had quite a day, but the day belonged to Joe B. Hall.

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Kentucky honors Joe B. Hall in the best way possible, by routing Tennessee - Yahoo Sports

Geoff Beers, host of the 40 Finance YouTube channel, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the rise of meme stocks like GameStop and AMC over the past year, retail investing trends, energy stocks, earnings season, and the outlook for the stock market.

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- From the boom in retail trading to the unprecedented levels of stimulus out of Washington, last year's trading environment is a tough one to follow in 2022. Our next guest helps us make sense of it all. Geoff Beers is creator of the "40 Finance" blog and YouTube channel. He joins us now. Jeff, it's been just over a year now since activist investor Ryan Cohen picked up a seat on GameStop's board of directors in one of the key events leading up to that surge we saw in GameStop shares last year. This year, are we going to see that same kind of surge taking place in GameStop, AMC, or a new cohort of stocks? Or was last year really the peak for this retail investor-driven trade?

GEOFF BEERS: Hey there. You know, I would say that the conditions were perfect for it last year. But on the same token, this might have been the greatest win in retail investing history, just the results that we saw from GameStop and AMC. I don't hold positions in either, nor did I participate in the run up.

But I think that when you start to put together the information that's available on the internet and the fact that there's some very, very smart people who are retail investors and they're sharing ideas between each other, I think that you'd have to say we'll see it again at some point. But this year, I don't know. I think you're coming off of perfect conditions, as you mentioned, with the stimulus, with the sort of time at home in the lockdown period.

But then there's another catch to it all, too, is we had the pandemic bottom, which was a great starting point for this type of activity. And I'm not sure that we're going to see a huge bottom anytime over the next year.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Jeff, for those of us who like to make a buck, and some of us like to do it in a more traditional way, I want to ask you a question about oil. A few years back, one of the worst decisions I ever made-- Royal Dutch Shell. Great dividend over history, right? The world's going to need more oil, right? Boy, was that the wrong call. That stock-- boom. So if you're looking at oil today-- and I won't be buying individual stock, by the way. But what should an investor consider?

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Because the things that we've been taught to believe-- it had-- they paid a dividend for years and years and years. And they were one of the giants, and now, you know, they've been slayed.

GEOFF BEERS: Yeah. And I think if you sit at the dinner table or you go out with Graham Paul, he's going to tell you how great the oil stocks are and what they did for his investment over time. But I think that world's changed quite a bit. And the obvious point inflection that we have now looking ahead, it is little single-point declines in revenues.

You know, it'll take forever for fossil fuels to not be profitable for these companies. Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves on the EV revolution. But the fact of the matter remains that very, very slowly, those markets are declining. And in today's environment-- you know, I recently did a deep dive across the sector.

And I think that oil stocks today, for as much as they're on TV as like the energy play for 2022, I would say oil stocks today, in my opinion, are fairly valued, if not, you know, 3% over fair value. And the only upside, the only reason really get in them now for the short term, is do you think oil prices go to $90 or $100 a barrel? And that's where your thesis has to be.

- What's your outlook for tech specifically-- shifting gears a little bit-- on a sector basis? Because where the big tech stocks go, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ really go, as well, because of their weights in the index. We're seeing the NASDAQ composite really getting crushed again during today's session. Are you seeing opportunities in tech outside of the mega cap names?

GEOFF BEERS: I think we're getting very, very close. I was actually doing some scouting myself, and there are points-- I don't think I would go on the record and say tech is on sale yet. But I think if you look across some of the names that actually bring in earnings, whether it's in the Nvidias of the world, even DocuSign I was looking at for a minute today, their P/Es are starting to come down to points where, again, they're not on sale, but they're certainly 10 times better than what we saw last year.

Now I'm a huge proponent of the QQQ, and that's a lot of what I'm playing here in the first quarter of 2022. I think that we've got a lot of inflection points, most notably earnings coming up here in the next month or so. And when those earnings come out, I'm not as concerned about who hit their Q4 numbers or not. I think that Googles, Microsofts, et cetera, are going to hit their numbers for Q4.

But the CEOs are going to have to sit on the stage and tell us what do they see in 2022. And there's a chance that what the CEOs see is going to be a lot different than what analysts have projected for earnings in 2022. So I would be very patient. And I would consider, in my opinion, looking at something like the QQQ and avoid nit-picking through individual stocks, because some of these fortunes for companies-- the expectation of 2022 earnings is going to end up being a lot different than I think a lot of analysts have projected.

- All right, we will leave it there for now. Geoff Beers, creator of the "40 Finance" blog and YouTube channel, thank you so much for your time.

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Gamestop and AMC up to 2022 'greatest win in retail trading history': 40 Finance host - Yahoo Finance