Here’s what we’re expecting from the Galaxy S8 unveiling on Wednesday. Samsung will almost certainly introduce the standard-sized Galaxy S8 and larger Galaxy S8+. The Galaxy S8 is expected to offer a 5.8-inch display while the Galaxy S8+ will include a larger 6.2-inch screen. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will also probably work with Samsung’s new Gear VR with a controller, the latest version of the company’s VR headset that was announced earlier this year. Finally, we expect Samsung tie all of t

President Donald Trump is finally using an Apple iPhone, despite once calling for a boycott of the company’s products, after concerns that the Android handset he was reportedly using was unsecured. In a tweet Wednesday, Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media, said Trump had been using his new iPhone for a couple of weeks, including to tweet. Past Trump tweets have been sent from an iPhone but it was likely to have been from his staff members. Despite Scavino’s statement that T

When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange disclosed earlier this month that his anti-secrecy group had obtained CIA tools for hacking into technology products made by U.S. companies, security engineers at Cisco Systems swung into action. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the CIA and NSA, referred questions to the White House, which declined to comment. Just 8 percent of that figure went toward “enhanced cyber security,” while 72 percent was dedicated to collecting s

Blue Apron, the biggest U.S. meal kit company, has hired investment bankers to lead its 2017 initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. Blue Apron was valued as high as $2 billion in a June 2015 funding round. Blue Apron, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citi could not be reached immediately for comment. Snapchat’s owner, Snap raised $3.4 billion in an IPO earlier this month, while software firms MuleSoft Inc and Alteryx Inc have had strong IPO pricings in the past f

Voice assistants have been all the rage in the past few months, and when Samsung took the wraps off its flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone, it also acquainted the world with Bixby. It’s Samsung’s attempt to take on the likes of Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant in a move described by one analyst as the “most important” in the company’s history. At Wednesday’s launch event for the Galaxy S8, the company showed what Bixby could do, which will be limited at the start then grow. Users can

Shares of Restoration Hardware climbed to near one-year highs Wednesday after the upscale home furnishing company delivered a beat on earnings and sales. At one point, the stock spiked more than 15 percent to hit a high of $44 a share, its highest since May 2, 2016. With the day’s moves, shares are up more than 41 percent over the last three months. “2016 was a year of transformation and transition at RH,” CEO Gary Friedman said in a release. “We transformed our business from a promotional to a

“Hot brands such as Adidas & Puma are receiving much larger allocations [from retailers],” Poser said. As of Tuesday’s close, shares of Skechers are up more than 35 percent over the past 6 months and are up more than 20 percent year-to-date. In February, Skechers reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and estimated sales would outperform in its current quarter, which sent shares soaring more than 19 percent. But Skechers needs to remain focused on its domestic wholesale business,

BuzzFeed is preparing to go public next year, a source told CNBC on Wednesday. The digital news and entertainment site currently has more than 18 offices and 1,300 employees globally. BuzzFeed’s initial public offering would follow the recent public debut of Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, another brand that is popular with the millennial and Gen Z set. While Snap went public with considerable Wall Street appetite, shares have struggled since then and remain below their first-day closing p

Trump has promised to restore the coal industry, but that’s a dubious promise for a very simple reason: Natural gas is cheaper, cleaner and more readily available. Former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan in 2015 curbed emissions at power plants, aiming to combat climate change. But the substantial increase of available natural gas amid the U.S. shale boom has undermined coal’s viability as a fuel source for utilities. Advances in energy extraction through new hydraulic fracturing techniques ha

Westinghouse Electric Company, which helped drive the development of nuclear energy and the electric grid itself, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, casting a shadow over the global nuclear industry. “You’ve had some power companies and big utilities run into financial trouble, but this kind of thing hasn’t happened.” Slowing demand for electricity and tumbling prices for natural gas have eroded the economic rationale for nuclear power, which is extremely costly and technically challe

It’s one thing to justify why some adults might be able to afford a neural lace and others can’t. But the greatest effect on income inequality will happen when poor, working-class, and middle-class kids have to compete with their wealthy, digitally enhanced peers. And if giving your child a neural lace increased their chances of having a successful life, most parents would do it. We need to do more to level the current playing field, because something like the neural lace is inevitable. That’s w

Many fossil fuel executives are celebrating President Trump’s move to dismantle the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. But their cheers are muted, because market forces and state initiatives continue to elevate coal’s rivals, especially natural gas and renewable energy. Easing some regulations could foster the building of oil and natural gas pipelines across the country. “It will depend on price,” said Mark Boling, the executive vice president of Southwestern Energy, a major natural gas an

When Greg Kenneally, now 27, became the expert on lacrosse stick maintenance during his college years, few could imagine he was shaping his own career path. Back in 2011, Greg and his twin brother, Mike, were accounting majors in their senior year at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. As the team’s “stick doctor,” Greg would dye and string lacrosse sticks for friends. Eventually, his client base grew such that he would sell his work on eBay. The turning point was when he created a waterproof

Goldman Sachs sought to reassure London-based staff over potential disruption to its business as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, in a voicemail to staff sent by the Wall Street firm’s Europe CEO. British Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger formal EU divorce proceedings on Wednesday, launching two years of negotiations that will shape the future of Britain and Europe as well as London’s place as a global financial center. The move will also mark the point when investment banks,

Premature deaths among those aged 25-44 were way up in 2015, due in large part to a surge of drug overdoses in suburban areas, a report out Wednesday shows. Young white adults in rural areas were more likely to die by suicide or overdose, while homicides by firearms were much more common for young black victims. The report shows “where people live plays a key role in how long and how well they live,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, a physician who is RWJF’s CEO. Young white adults in rural areas were

President Donald Trump still wants Obamacare replaced — but it’s got to be done with “a good deal,” not “a bad deal.” “You got to to know when to walk away from a deal that is going to end up bad,” the spokesman said. Since the cancelled vote, Trump and Republican leaders have been vague about what, exactly, they plan or expect to happen next. On Saturday, Trump tweeted “ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. On Monday night

While it’s fun to admire the final product of a successful house flip, it’s also easy to forget that developing properties is complicated. As real estate mogul Sean Conlon told CNBC Wednesday morning on Squawk Box, “Murphy’s Law tends to dictate home rehabbing: If it can go wrong, it will, and it generally does.” In the same interview, Conlon, who made his millions selling real estate and now hosts CNBC’s “The Deed: Chicago,” shared the biggest mistake first-time property flippers make: not doub

Trump can’t keep up with all his promises – and neither can the US budget 3 Hours Ago | 00:42A quarter-century ago, when gender stereotypes held more power, pundit Chris Matthews applied them to partisan conflict: Democrats as “Mommy,” Republicans as “Daddy.” With modern conservatism ruling out tax increases, making expensive promises add up has slipped lower on their priority list. President Bill Clinton saw a deficit turn into surplus, while President Barack Obama saw it fall by two-thirds as

For a hedge fund, it could be a lot. A new research paper suggests that even sophisticated investors are taken in by hedge funds with strong, powerful names. Researchers from the University of Buffalo and the University of Oulu in Finland used a metric to measure what they called “gravitas” of hedge fund names collected from a variety of databases. “Hedge fund investors chase hedge fund names containing a special combination of words related to economics and geopolitics, or that convey power,” t

A daily morning look at the financial stories you need to know to start the day. STOCKS/ECONOMY-Stock futures are a bit lower this morning after yesterday’s rally. We get February pending home sales data this morning. BREXIT LATEST-British Prime Minister Theresa May has signed the papers to trigger the Article 50 rule and begin the UK’s exit from the European Union. OIL/ENERGY-U.S. crude prices are up to the $48 a barrel level.