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CV International taps new CFO

Norfolk-based international logistics company and its subsidiary, Capes Agencies, announced Tuesday that it has appointed finance executive Jeff Underwood as .

Underwood succeeds Michael King, who retired at the end of June after serving as of CVI and Capes for more than 17 years.

Underwood has more than 30 years of finance experience and was most recently the ‘s vice of finance and analytics. He began his career in public accounting with PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining Maersk in 2002.

Underwood has expertise in marine terminal operations, U.S. flag vessel management and federal contracting, according to CVI, and has led initiatives in financial reporting, budgeting, compliance, mergers and acquisitions integration, strategic planning and implementing financial systems.

“What drew me to CVI and Capes was the entrepreneurial culture — grounded in expertise, focused on creating value, and driven by a clear appetite for growth,” said Underwood in a statement. “I’ve spent much of my career helping organizations expand operations, and I look forward to bringing that experience to this role. My goal is to help guide the company’s financial strategy as it continues to scale and build the infrastructure to support long-term, sustainable growth. In today’s turbulent market, there are opportunities for organizations with the expertise and agility to help customers navigate complexity and deliver meaningful solutions.”

King, the outgoing CFO, will remain serving on CVI’s board of directors. CVI praised King for maintaining financial stability and guiding both companies through periods of growth and market disruption, especially in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are grateful for Michael’s service to the company and are excited to welcome Jeff to the team,” said Mike Coleman, and president of CVI and Capes, in a statement. “Jeff, and the expertise he brings, will be instrumental to our continued growth.”

Headquartered in Norfolk, CVI provides forwarding, customs brokerage, supply chain visibility and compliance consulting services. In addition to its headquarters, the company has 11 branch locations throughout the United States. Capes provides vessel agency and cargo forwarding services across along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts. Capes specializes in the dry bulk, liquid bulk, breakbulk and renewables sectors. CVI and Capes collectively employ 117 .

Ferrero to Acquire WK Kellogg in $3.1B Cereal Deal

Summary

  • buying for $3.1B in cash deal
  • Deal includes major cereal brands like Special K and Rice Krispies
  • WK Kellogg shares surged 30% in premarket trading
  • Acquisition expands Ferrero’s North American presence

Italian confectioner Ferrero, known for brands like and Kinder, is buying the century-old U.S. cereal company WK Kellogg in a deal valued at approximately $3.1 billion.

The Ferrero Group said Thursday it will pay $23 for each Kellogg share. The transaction includes the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of WK Kellogg Co.’s portfolio of breakfast cereals across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

WK Kellogg’s shares were up 30% in premarket trading Thursday.

Kellogg, which was founded in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1906, makes Fruit Loops, Special K, and Rice Krispies.

The current company was formed in 2023, when Kellogg’s snack brands like Cheez-Its and Pringles were spun into a separate company called Kellanova. M&M’s maker Mars Inc. announced last year that it planned to buy Kellanova in a deal worth nearly $30 billion.

Ferrero Group, which was founded in Italy in 1946, has been trying to expand its U.S. footprint. In 2018 it bought Nestle’s U.S. candy brands, including Butterfinger, Nerds and SweeTarts. And in 2022 it bought Wells Enterprises, the maker of ice cream brands like Blue Bunny and Halo Top.

The deal, which still needs approval from Kellogg shareholders, is expected to close in the second half of the year. Once the transaction is complete, Kellogg’s stock will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange and the company will become a Ferrero subsidiary.

Virginia falls to No. 4 among CNBC’s top states for business

Summary

  • Virginia, ranked first in ‘s annual report in 2024, has dropped to fourth place
  • CNBC weighted as primary factor this year
  • Due to federal job cuts and funding slashes, Virginia’s economy ranking fell to No. 14

Virginia lost its spot at the top of CNBC’s annual Top States for Business report, the cable business network announced Thursday. The commonwealth, which has been ranked No. 1 six times, an all-time record, fell to No. 4 this year.

North Carolina, which has won three times out of the past four years, took the coveted No. 1 ranking for 2025, with Texas coming in a close second. Florida ranked third in CNBC’s 19th annual business study.

The last time Virginia ranked this low on the study was 2018, when it also was No. 4.

Acknowledging that Virginia remained “a business powerhouse,” CNBC ranked the commonwealth first in the nation for education and it rose to second for infrastructure. But, the network said Thursday, “all that business might is no match for the mighty coming from across the Potomac, not to mention the tariffs.” As a result, Virginia fell to 14th for overall economy, down from No. 11 in 2024.

CNBC continued to cite the disproportionate impact of the second ‘s deep budget cuts and dismantling of federal agencies in explaining why Virginia lost its No. 1 ranking this year. As of last year, Virginia had about 144,000 federal workers and more than 150,000 more working for federal contractors, the business news network noted.

The state’s unemployment rate of 3.4% remains below the national average, but the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service forecast that the state could lose up to 32,000 jobs this year and see an unemployment rate of about 3.9% later in the year. In 2026, that average could be 4.6%, the center said in May.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, however, has touted the state’s continued job creation, and in February, he announced the creation of “Virginia Has Jobs,” an online portal to assist federal workers and other Virginians in finding new jobs. He said that he had “extraordinary empathy” for federal employees who found themselves suddenly out of work, but praised the Trump administration for “rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.”

Youngkin added at the time that the state had 250,000 open jobs across various industries, including manufacturing, , space, education and law enforcement, although some critics have said that these jobs come with lower pay than federal workforce positions. In the state’s budget amendments, Youngkin cut $900 million in spending to maintain a financial cushion in case of repercussions related to federal spending cuts and tariffs.

In a statement Thursday, Youngkin said that “CNBC’s new methodology this year is thrown off by a new subjective metric that mistakenly ascribes substantial risk to Virginia from the federal government’s presence in the Commonwealth. CNBC fails to recognize that our private sector growth has been at record levels, with $121 billion in business investment committed and record job growth, with 270,000 more Virginians working and roughly 200,000 open and unfilled jobs.”

The governor also pointed out that the state’s AAA bond rating was reaffirmed this year, and more federal funding has gone toward defense and national security projects, which are well represented in Virginia. “By the objective metrics, Virginia is still the best state to start or grow your business,” Youngkin said. “The facts are clear: Nearly 350,000 jobs created or in the pipeline, more than $121 billion in capital investment from companies expanding in Virginia or moving to the commonwealth, 15,000 high-growth startups, and more moving to Virginia than away from the other 49 states for the first time in a decade.”

For the Top States study, CNBC ranks states on 10 categories, ranging from education to infrastructure to economy, with 135 metrics, worth a total of 2,500 points. North Carolina received 1,614 points this year, and Virginia received 1,578, while No. 2 Texas had 1,600 points and No. 3 Florida had 1,588.

Virginia’s category rankings in the 2025  were as follows:

    • First place — Education

 

    • Second — Infrastructure

 

    • Seventh — Business friendliness

 

    • Eighth — Quality of life; Technology and innovation

 

    • 10th — Access to capital

 

    • 14th — Workforce; Economy

 

    • 21st — Cost of living

 

    • 31st — Cost of doing business

 

Each year, CNBC weighs categories differently based on the focuses of states’ marketing pitches.

“In 2025, amid recession fears, more states than ever are touting their economic strengths,” CNBC said. “That makes economy this year’s most important category.”

Under the economy category, CNBC assessed GDP growth and job growth over the past year, as well as the residential real estate market, and new in 2025 was a measure of states’ tariff risks and survival rates of new businesses.

Last year, infrastructure was a major factor in Virginia’s win, with the state receiving kudos for the number of shovel-ready sites for industrial growth.

North Carolina has often sparred with Virginia for the top spot, having won CNBC’s rankings in 2022 and 2023, and No. 2 in 2021 and 2024, when Virginia landed on top.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership released a statement Thursday noting the change in weighting of categories this year.

“It’s important to remember that Virginia is in a tight race each year with competitor states for economic development in general and for this ranking in particular,” the state economic development organization said. “In 2024, Virginia bested No. 2 North Carolina by only three points out of 2,500, so subtle changes in CNBC’s methodology or in Virginia’s relative performance can materially impact this ranking.” Virginia maintained its top ranking in education and improved from No. 3 to No. 2 in infrastructure, VEDP noted. 

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who was governor when Virginia won its first CNBC ranking in 2007, released a statement that was critical of “the chaos and uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariffs, the slashing of federal funding, and the politicizing and hollowing out of the federal workforce [that] are gut punches to Virginia’s economy. While I’m glad to see Virginia ranked first in the education category, I worry we won’t hang on to it for long if Trump keeps meddling in our universities. I will continue to do everything I can to protect Virginia’s economy and schools from this disastrous administration.”

Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for Virginia governor, said that the rankings “make clear that Virginia needs a governor who will build a more resilient economy, leverage our commonwealth’s strengths to attract new investment, prepare our workforce for 21st-century jobs, and stand up for our workers and small businesses in the face of ongoing threats.”

She attributed the drop in ranking to federal job cuts under President Donald Trump, and zinged Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, her Republican opponent: “Unlike my opponent in this race, I won’t dismiss threats to our workforce, our economy and Virginia’s reputation.”

Earle-Sears did not immediately release a statement about the CNBC rankings. She has received criticism from Democrats over a recording released in late March in which Earle-Sears is heard downplaying federal job losses, saying that layoffs are common and that “the media is making it out to be this huge, huge thing.”

 

Bon Secours breaks ground on new medical office building at St. Francis

Bon Secours on Wednesday broke ground on a three-story, 87,790 square-foot medical office building on the campus of in .

The health system says the new facility, located at the corner of Charter Colony and Bon Secours Drive across from the main hospital, will allow it to expand access to outpatient services and enhance specialty care offerings. The new building will also feature an ambulatory surgery center, developed in partnership with Compass Surgical Partners, which will offer two operating rooms and one procedure room.

A rendering of Bon Secours’ planned medical office building on the campus of Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center. Image Courtesy Bon Secours

“Bon Secours has been providing quality, compassionate care to the Chesterfield County community for the past 20 years,” said Joe Wilkins, of Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center, in a statement. “We are proud to continue investing in the St. Francis campus and enhancing the care we offer patients across the region. This project reflects our ongoing commitment to expanding access to the right level of care close to home.”

Services to be provided in the building will include neurology, cardiology, general surgery and family medicine services.

Bon Secours has partnered with Remedy Medical Properties and Kayne Anderson Real Estate in developing the project. The facility was designed by PSH Plus, with Kjellstrom & Lee serving as the general contractor and Timmons Group providing civil engineering support.

“Our ministry’s mission is to bring good help to those in need, and that includes making sure our facilities grow and evolve alongside the communities we serve,” Wilkins said in a statement. “With this new medical office building and [ambulatory surgery center], we’re ensuring that we’ll be ready to care for our aging and growing population for years to come.”

Bon Secours expects to be completed in late 2026.

The Bon Secours Health System offers a network of seven acute hospitals, primary and specialty care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities across a 24-locality region. Bon Secours also operates four hospitals and one outpatient facility in .

Richmond EDA seeks developer for Intermediate Terminal Building

SUMMARY:

  • ‘s has issued a new RFP to redevelop the long-vacant , but has prohibited demolition
  • Proposals will be evaluated based on economic impact, community benefit and the experience of the developer
  • City officials now see the project as a key opportunity to enhance Richmond’s riverfront and recreational appeal

For at least a decade, Richmond’s has sought to redevelop the city-owned Intermediate Terminal Building, but plans to repurpose the nearly 90-year-old former warehouse have yet to materialize. That may soon change, however.

The EDA on Monday issued a request for proposals for the reuse, or rehabilitation of the 32,000-square-foot building located at 3101 E. Main St. in Richmond, situated along the James River adjacent to the Rocketts Landing neighborhood, the Riverfront Pulse BRT and Capital Trail. ​​In a statement, the city’s interim chief administrative officer, Sharon Ebert, described the RFP as “a rare opportunity to shape the future of Richmond’s riverfront.”

The building was originally built in 1938 as a warehouse for the storage of raw sugar, sand, gravel, gas, and oil, among other items. EDA senior development manager DJ Mulkey said the property has been largely vacant for at least two decades, although it has been used to store voting machines between elections.

The city wants the building to remain standing, as stated in the RFP, which specifies, “Demolition is not an option for this project.” However, the RFP says the city will consider plans involving additional new if contextually appropriate.

The EDA will evaluate proposals on their proposed use, fiscal impact, community benefits and the experience of the developer or business. Mulkey told Virginia Business in an email the EDA is open “to any and all adaptive reuse ideas that are financially viable, activate the riverfront and provide a positive economic impact for the community.”

In 2015, Stone Brewing Co. announced plans to build a bistro within the Intermediate Terminal building, modeled after the company’s existing Stone World Bistro & Gardens locations. But the bistro never came to fruition. To the best of his recollection, Mulkey said, a federal grant that would have made the project viable fell through, and Stone Brewing scrapped it.

The RFP notes that the building is immediately bordered by Gillies Creek, which poses challenges and flood risks and complicates redevelopment efforts. FEMA flood maps place the base flood elevation in the area more than four feet above the structure’s first floor.

The request also asks respondents to include in their proposals plans to provide sufficient parking for proposed uses.

The EDA plans to have a site tour on July 24. All submissions are due by Aug. 28.

“It is a chance to create something that connects to their environment, to enhance our outdoor recreational assets and to fuel Richmond’s economic momentum,” said acting EDA Director Matt Welch in a statement. “So we are looking for proposals that are fit for that purpose, and which keep the community and the natural landscape front of mind.”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino steps down after two years

Summary

  • X announces resignation after two years
  • Yaccarino led business ops following Musk’s 2022 Twitter buy
  • Departure comes as Musk’s firm gains influence at X
  • Yaccarino says “the best is yet to come” for the platform

X CEO Linda Yaccarino said she’s stepping down after two bumpy years running ‘s platform.

Yaccarino posted a positive message Wednesday about her tenure at the company formerly known as Twitter and said “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with” Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok. She did not say why she is leaving.

Musk responded to Yaccarino’s announcement with his own 5-word statement on X: “Thank you for your contributions.”

“The only thing that’s surprising about Linda Yaccarino’s resignation is that it didn’t come sooner,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “It was clear from the start that she was being set up to fail by a limited scope as the company’s chief executive.”

In reality, Proulx added, Musk “is and always has been at the helm of X. And that made Linda X’s CEO in title only, which is a very tough position to be in, especially for someone of Linda’s talents.”

Musk hired Yaccarino, a veteran ad executive, in May 2023 after buying Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and cutting most of its staff. He said at the time that Yaccarino’s role would be focused mainly on running the company’s business operations, leaving him to focus on product design and new technology. Before announcing her hiring, Musk said whoever took over as the company’s CEO “ must like pain a lot.”

In accepting the job, Yaccarino was taking on the challenge of getting big brands back to advertising on the social media platform after months of upheaval following Musk’s takeover. She also had to work in a supporting role to Musk’s outsized persona on and off of X as he loosened content moderation rules in the name of free speech and restored accounts previously banned by the social media platform.

“Being the CEO of X was always going to be a tough job, and Yaccarino lasted in the role longer than many expected. Faced with a mercurial owner who never fully stepped away from the helm and continued to use the platform as his personal megaphone, Yaccarino had to try to run the business while also regularly putting out fires,” said Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg.

Yaccarino’s future at X became unclear earlier this year after Musk merged the social media platform with his artificial intelligence company, xAI. And the advertising issues have not subsided. Since Musk’s takeover, a number of companies had pulled back on ad spending — the platform’s chief source of revenue — over concerns that Musk’s thinning of content restrictions was enabling hateful and toxic speech to flourish.

Most recently, an update to Grok led to a flood of antisemitic commentary from the chatbot this week that included praise of Adolf Hitler.

“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” the Grok account posted on X early Wednesday, without being more specific.

Some experts have tied Grok’s behavior to Musk’s deliberate efforts to mold Grok as an alternative to chatbots he considers too “woke,” such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. In late June, he invited X users to help train the chatbot on their commentary in a way that invited a flood of racist responses and conspiracy theories.

“Please reply to this post with divisive facts for @Grok training,” Musk said in the June 21 post. “By this I mean things that are politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true.”

A similar instruction was later baked into Grok’s “prompts” that instruct it on how to respond, which told the chatbot to “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated.” That part of the instructions was later deleted.

“To me, this has all the fingerprints of Elon’s involvement,” said Talia Ringer, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Yaccarino has not publicly commented on the latest hate speech controversy. She has, at times, ardently defended Musk’s approach, including in a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America over a report that claimed leading advertisers’ posts on X were appearing alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist content. The report led some advertisers to pause their activity on X.

A federal judge last year dismissed X’s lawsuit against another nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has documented the increase in hate speech on the site since it was acquired by Musk.

X is also in an ongoing legal dispute with major advertisers — including CVS, Mars, Lego, Nestle, Shell and Tyson Foods — over what it has alleged was a “massive advertiser boycott” that deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws.

Enberg said that, “to a degree, Yaccarino accomplished what she was hired to do.” Emarketer expects X’s ad business to return to growth in 2025 after more than halving between 2022 and 2023 following Musk’s takeover.

But, she added, “the reasons for X’s ad recovery are complicated, and Yaccarino was unable to restore the platform’s reputation among advertisers.”

Wall Street ends mixed amid Trump’s new tariff deadlines

Summary

  • up 0.7%, rises 1.1% in early trading
  • Trump pushes new trade deals; announced
  • Dow gains 224 points; Treasury yields slightly lower
  • Oil and copper prices retreat after recent volatility

A choppy day in the markets left major U.S. stock indexes little changed Tuesday as the pressed its campaign to win more favorable trade deals with nations around the globe by leaning into tariffs on goods coming into the U.S.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% a day after posting its biggest loss since mid-June. The benchmark index remains near its all-time high set last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite eked out a gain of less than 0.1%, staying near its own record high.

The sluggish trading came as the market was coming off a broad sell-off following the Trump administration’s decision to impose new import tariffs set to go into effect next month on more than a dozen nations.

Still, the modest pullback in the markets is a sign that Wall Street may be betting that the U.S. and its trading partners may eventually negotiate deals that will reduce or eliminate the need for punishing tariffs, said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.

“I think today you’re basically seeing a market that doesn’t quite believe the worst of this is going to come to bear and is just kind of waiting for any sort of clarity because we seem back in that in that kind of phase where things change every couple of hours,” Mayfield said.

On Monday,  Donald Trump set a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea and new tariff rates on a dozen other nations scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 1.

Trump provided notice by posting letters on Truth Social that were addressed to the leaders of the various countries. The letters warned them to not retaliate by increasing their own import taxes, or else the Trump administration would further increase tariffs.

Just before hefty U.S. tariffs on goods imported from nearly every country around the globe were to take effect in April, Trump postponed the levies for 90 days in hopes that foreign governments would be more willing to strike new trade deals. That 90-day negotiating period was set to expire before Wednesday.

With the tariffs set to kick in now on Aug. 1, the latest move by the White House amounts to essentially a four-week extension of its previous 90-day pause, wrote Tobin Marcus, an analyst at Wolfe Research.

“At a very basic level, nothing actually happened based on Trump sending these letters, so there’s no reason to panic over headlines,” he wrote. “But we think these moves do contain some signal about where the trade war is heading, and that signal is mostly hawkish.”

During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump said he would be announcing tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs at a “very, very high rate, like 200%.” He also said he would sign an executive order placing a 50% tariff on copper imports, matching the rates charged on steel and aluminum.

Shares in mining company Freeport-McMoRan rose 2.5% following Trump’s remarks. The price of copper for September delivery jumped 13.1% to $5.69 per pound.

This latest phase in the trade war heightens the threat of potentially more severe tariffs that’s been hanging over the global . Higher taxes on imported goods could hinder economic growth, if not increase recession risks.

Gains in technology, energy and stocks helped outweigh a pullback in banks and other sectors.

Intel jumped 7.2%, Exxon Mobil rose 2.8% and AbbVie rose 1.1%. JPMorgan and Bank of America each fell 3.1%.

Amazon shares fell 1.8% as the online retail giant kicked off Prime Day, which, beginning this year, lasts four days. Amazon launched the membership sales event in 2015 and expanded it to two days in 2019.

Elsewhere in the market, First Solar slid 6.5% after Trump issued an executive order ending subsidies for foreign-controlled energy companies.

Hershey Co. lost 3.2% after the chocolate maker announced that Wendy’s Kirk Tanner will succeed current CEO Michele Buck, who is retiring.

Shares in WeightWatchers parent WW International gave up an early gain and dropped 1.1% after the company announced that it has completed its reorganization and relisting on Nasdaq. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt and focus on its transition into a telehealth services provider.

Bond yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.40% from 4.39% late Monday.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 4.46 points to 6,225.52. The Dow lost 165.60 points to 44,240.76, and the Nasdaq added 5.95 points to 20,418.46.

The market’s downbeat start to the week follows a strong run for stocks, which pushed further into record heights last week after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.

In stock markets overseas, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. In two of the bigger moves, South Korea’s Kospi surged 1.8%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 1.1%.

The National Federation of Independent Business reported Tuesday that its small business optimism index fell slightly last month, in line with analysts’ expectations. The index tracks how small firms view the U.S. economy and their business prospects.

On Wednesday the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its policymaking committee’s meeting last month. The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, has said the central bank wants to wait and see how Trump’s tariffs affect the economy and inflation before making its next move on interest rates.

NWS cuts spark concern over weather data privatization

Summary

  • NWS staff cuts prompt concerns over privatizing forecasts
  • Some officials have ties to private firms
  • Commerce Secretary Lutnick linked to satellite contractor
  • highlights risks of reduced public alerts

WASHINGTON (AP) — As commerce secretary, oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather.

The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if Donald Trump’s administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting.

Deadly flooding in Texas has drawn a spotlight to  and staff reductions at the and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, agencies housed within the Commerce Department that provide the public with free climate and weather data that can be crucial during natural disasters.

What’s drawn less attention is how the downsizing appears to be part of an effort to privatize the work of such agencies. In several instances, the companies poised to step into the void have deep ties to tapped by Trump to run weather-related agencies.

would diminish a central role the federal government has played in weather forecasting since the 1800s, which experts say poses a particular harm for those who may not be able to afford commercial weather data.

The effort also reveals the difficulty wealthy members of Trump’s Cabinet have in freeing themselves from conflicts, even if they have met the letter of federal ethics law.

“It’s the most insidious aspect of this: Are we really talking about making weather products available only to those who can afford it?” said Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator under President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

The Commerce Department said in a statement that Lutnick has “fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement with respect to divesture and recusals and will continue to do so.”

Trump nominees have ties to weather-related industries

Privatizing weather agencies has been an aim of Republicans. During Trump’s first presidency, he signed a bill to utilize more private weather data. Project 2025, a proposed blueprint for Trump’s second presidency that was co-authored by his budget director, calls for the NOAA to be broken up and for the weather service to “fully commercialize its forecasting operations.”

Lutnick is not the only one Trump nominated for a key post with close relationships to companies involved in the gathering of weather data.

Trump’s pick to lead the NOAA, Neil Jacobs, was chief atmospheric scientist for Panasonic Weather Solutions and is a proponent of privatization. The president’s nominee for another top NOAA post, Taylor Jordan, is a lobbyist for weather-related clients.

Jordan and Jacobs “will follow the law and rely on the advice of the Department’s ethics counsel in addressing matters involving former clients” if confirmed, the Commerce Department said in its statement.

, who spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump, owns a controlling interest in SpaceX and its satellite subsidiary Starlink. Both are regulated by the NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, which lost about one-third of its staff in layoffs by the Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk created.

SpaceX stands to gain through a new generation of private and federally funded weather satellites that would be carried into orbit on its rockets.

Though Musk departed Washington after a very public falling out with Trump, the DOGE staffers he hired and the cuts he pushed have largely remained in place.

Requests for comment sent to representatives for Musk received no response.

Lutnick ran Cantor Fitzgerald

Lutnick resigned as of Cantor Fitzgerald upon taking office and began the task of divesting his interests.

His two 20-something sons took the reins of his financial empire. But Lutnick’s most recent ethics filing stated he was still selling his holdings in the firm.

An ethics plan from February states Lutnick would request a waiver allowing him to participate in matters with a “direct and predictable effect” on his family’s business. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, meanwhile, show Lutnick is keeping his stake in Cantor close, transferring them to a son.

Cantor spokesperson Erica Chase said Lutnick has had no involvement in running the company since his resignation.

“Cantor and its subsidiaries operate in heavily regulated industries, and maintain robust compliance programs to ensure compliance with all applicable laws,” Chase said.

Federal officials are barred from making decisions that benefit the business holdings of themselves or their spouses, but that prohibition doesn’t extend to their adult children, said Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration.

Cantor has interests in weather and climate. It owns a controlling interest in BGC Group, which operates a weather derivatives marketplace that essentially allows investors to bet on climate risk and where hurricanes will make landfall.

Lutnick also played a pivotal role in cultivating the satellite company Satellogic, which he helped take public and where he held a board seat. Cantor holds a roughly 13% stake in Satellogic, an emerging federal contractor that offers crisp images of natural disasters and weather events in real time.

The White House’s 2026 spending plan proposes $8 billion in cuts for future NOAA satellites, which capture imagery of the planet provided to the public. Satellogic stands to benefit if the government retreats from operating climate-monitoring satellites.

2 Trump nominees have ties to weather companies

Jacobs, Trump’s pick to lead the NOAA, was scheduled to appear Wednesday before a Senate committee weighing his nomination.

Jacobs has long advocated for a greater role for the private sector in government weather forecasting. During a 2023 congressional hearing focused on the future of the NOAA, he expressed concerns about what happens to commercial data purchased by the government.

“They give it away to the rest of the planet for free,” he testified.

He was a consultant at the time for Spire Global and Lynker, both of which have millions of dollars in weather data contracts with the NOAA, records show.

Jordan, Trump’s pick for another top NOAA post, has similarly close relationships. His financial disclosure lists more than a dozen weather-related lobbying clients, including Spire, Lynker and AccuWeather.

Though his nomination is pending, records show he still represents weather companies and works at a Washington lobbying firm.

Nvidia becomes first $4T public company

Summary

  • becomes first public company to reach $4T valuation
  • Shares rise 2.5% Wednesday, topping $164
  • Stock up from $14 at start of 2023 amid boom
  • Marks two-year investor frenzy in chip and tech sector

NEW YORK (AP) — Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company to top in value on Wednesday after two-year investor frenzy.

Nvidia shares rose 2.5%, or $3.97, in early trading Wednesday, topping $164 each. At the beginning of 2023, Nvidia shares were around $14 each.

The poster child of the AI boom, Nvidia has grown into the most valuable company in the world, surpassing Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet. The stock’s movement carries more weight on the and other indexes than every company except Apple. Two years ago, Nvidia’s market value was below $600 billion.

In its most recent quarter, Nvidia overcame tariff-driven turbulence to deliver another quarter of robust growth amid feverish demand for its high-powered AI chips.

Nvidia earned $18.8 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the period, a 26% increase from the same time last year. Revenue surged 69% from a year ago to $44.1 billion. If not for a $4.5 billion charge that Nvidia absorbed to account for the U.S. government’s restrictions on its chip sales to China, Nvidia would have made 96 cents per share, far above the 73 cents per share envisioned by analysts.

Nvidia reports its second-quarter results next month. Wall Street is expecting another quarter of record sales and profit for the Santa Clara, California, company.

Nvidia and other companies benefiting from the AI boom have been a major reason the S&P 500 has climbed to record after record recently. Their explosion of profits has helped to propel the market despite worries about stubbornly high inflation and possible pain coming for the U.S. from tariffs and other policies of Donald Trump.

Fairwinds Landing partner promotes new CEO

SUMMARY:

-based advanced engineering and manufacturing company Fairlead — a Fairwinds Landing project developer — announced Monday it is promoting its president, Fred Pasquine, to president and CEO, effective immediately.

He succeeds Jerry Miller, who will take on the role of executive chairman after 40 years of leading Fairlead and its earlier iteration, Earl Industries.

The company — along with real estate development company The Miller Group and Balicore — formed Fairwinds Landing LLC, which spearheaded the development of the 111-acre Fairwinds Landing project at Southern’s Lambert’s Point Docks in Norfolk.

Fairwinds Landing is intended to be a maritime operations and logistics center supporting Hampton Roads’ offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. The Dominion Monitoring & Coordination Center, an offshore wind energy monitoring and coordination center, is expected to be completed at the site in September. Also at Fairwinds Landing, Newport News Shipbuilding started production in 2023 at a satellite campus.

Fairlead specializes in systems engineering, modular shipbuilding, advanced manufacturing and integrated defense infrastructure, with a significant portion of its work supporting the .

Pasquine has been president of the company since 2017 and has helped the company achieve numerous milestones, including the launch of a modular shipbuilding business that has delivered more than 4,000 tons of aircraft carrier units and submarine modules, development of more than 30 power and control products for submarines and unmanned surface vehicles on programs of record, expansion of ship repair and sustainment capabilities and launch of breakbulk terminal operations at Fairwinds Landing.

Pasquine said that Miller, who is still the majority owner of Fairlead, had selected him for the role. Miller remains CEO of The Miller Group.

“There’s never been a more important time to grow our company to support the U.S. Navy, and I’ve never worked with a better leader than Fred Pasquine to take on the CEO role,” Miller said in a statement. “His deep industry knowledge, commitment to our employees, dedication to our customers and vision will guide Fairlead into the future.”

Pasquine described becoming CEO as “a professional dream come true.”

“It’s really been something I’ve been trying to work towards, and [Miller’s] been, and continues to be, an exceptional mentor of how you treat people, how you honor them, how you take intelligent risks, how you are principled with the amount of profit that you make relative to that risk,” Pasquine said. “It’s about being competitive but not being greedy. And that’s a unique combination.”

Headquartered in Portsmouth, Fairlead delivers turnkey mechanical, electrical and shipboard solutions to the U.S. Navy and critical defense partners. It employs more than 400 people and anticipates adding another 100 employees over the next 12 to 18 months. It operates facilities across six locations.