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U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday he is reconsidering rules that allowed air traffic control supervisors to reduce staffing at Washington’s Reagan National Airport before a fatal Army helicopter-plane collision that killed 67 people last week. Duffy, who also said he spoke to Trump adviser Elon Musk on Tuesday about airspace reform issues, questioned the military’s flying of helicopter flights near congested Reagan National Airport. “If we have generals who are flying in helicopters for convenience through this airspace, that’s not acceptable. Get a damn Suburban and driveyou don’t need to take a helicopter,” Duffy said in a speech in Washington. The Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission and the pilot may have been wearing night vision goggles. “We also have to look at (military) missions that have flown the DC airspace,” Duffy said. “We’re going to hopefully find this out, but if they had night vision goggles on a mission like that at nine o’clock at night and not at 1 a.m. – it is unacceptable.” He noted the helicopter was flying at 300 feet (91.4 m) – above the maximum 200 feet for that route. “We have to take a real look at the safety around this airspace We can fly training missions at a different time of night.” In the aftermath of the crash, the FAA has imposed significant restrictions on helicopter flights around Reagan National Airport until at least late February. Duffy noted that before the crash, two air traffic control positions were consolidated for helicopters and aircraft. “We’re going to pull that authority back to make sure that we have the right policies in place inside our towers to make sure when you fly you’re safe,” Duffy said. Duffy also plans to announce in the coming days steps to surge more air traffic control training and applicants. The FAA is about 3,000 controllers short of staffing levels and nearly all control towers have staffing issues. “It’s going to take us time to get more air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. Duffy noted the FAA is using antiquated technology to oversee flights. “We’re going to upgrade it and make sure that America has the most innovative, technologically advanced air system, air traffic control system that’s going to make it safer,” Duffy said. David Shepardson, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) loans have become increasingly popular in recent yearsoriginations grew tenfold between 2019 and 2021, for instance. Last year, roughly 20% of American consumers used one to make a purchase. Despite their increasing usage, BNPL loans are still not used to calculate credit scoreswhich may have effects for lenders, and could be costing some consumers with good credit habits some valuable points. FICOthe creator of the FICO Score which is used by 90% of U.S.-based lending institutions to make lending decisionsrecently published an analysis in tandem with the BNPL company Affirm to get a sense of what the results would be if those loans were used to calculate FICO scores. The results? Mostly good for both consumers and lenders. The analysis looked at data from a 12-month period and compared the FICO scores of more than 500,000 people who used Affirm to open a BNPL loan against those who had not. FICO then simulated the inclusion of the BNPL data into its model and found that most people saw an increase or no change in their credit scores. Affirm gave us data that would be the same data they would furnish to a credit bureau, says Julie May, vice president and general manager of B2B scores at FICO. With the simulated study, we would see positive benefits for approximately two-thirds of consumers, particularly for those with utilization of five or more BNPL loans, she says. In all, incorporating BNPL loan data into credit scoring models would benefit consumers, and the lenders who use the FICO score to make lending decisions, she says. In all, the analysis found that using the BNPL data to generate a FICO score was generally consistent with the opening of a new account, with a slight (plus or minus 10 points) change in their score for 85% of the individuals analyzed. For those who have better credit habitssuch as making on-time payments, and keeping their overall credit utilization lowthe BNPL data helps increase scores to a degree. With the simulation complete, May says that FICO will be looking to roll out a new FICO scoring model in the future that will incorporate BNPL data, effectively the first model to do so. We know what the actual solution would be; were in final discussions with stakeholders in terms of how that would roll out, she says. Theres no hard date yet, but May adds that when it does ultimately happen, FICO is excited to introduce the proprietary technique to the marketplace.
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E-Commerce
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock (NASDAQ: AMD) fell 9% before the bell on Wednesday after the company fell short on sales for its data centers, despite reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. (The stock is down 7% as of midday Wednesday.) That’s because the chipmaker’s core business is selling data center chips for graphics processing units used to power AI. It’s currently going head-to-head with Nvidia for market share of the lucrative, high-powered AI chip market. Shares in Nvidia (NVDA), meanwhile, were up 4% in midday trading Wednesday after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced it will spend $75 billion in expected capital expenditures in 2025, a majority of which will go into building data centers and servers in an effort to help Google increase its AI capabilities. On Tuesday, AMD reported Q4 revenue that came in at $7.66 billion, beating estimates of $7.54 billion, and an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.09. Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, the chipmaker forecast revenue coming in between $6.8 billion and $7.4 billion. On its earnings call with investors, CEO Lisa T. Su told investors the company sees strong double-digit percentage revenue and EPS growth for 2025, calling 2024 “a transformative year for AMD . . . [when we] successfully established our multibillion-dollar data center AI franchise, launched a broad set of leadership products, and gained significant server and PC market share.” Also on Wednesday, Truist Securities analyst William Stein reduced the company’s price target to $130 a share, down from $145. At the time of this writing, AMD stock was trading at $109.58, near its 52-week low.
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E-Commerce
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