CNN BUSINESS | AMC shares jump more than 120% to an all-time high

New York (CNN Business) – The hits keep coming. Shares of AMC — the largest movie theater chain in the world — surged more than 120% Wednesday to a new peak above $70 before falling back slightly. Trading of the shares was halted twice due to volatility. The stock closed Wednesday at $62.55, up 95% for the day.

The popular WallStreetBets Reddit board has boosted the stock lately as a way to hurt short sellers who bet against the company. On Wednesday, AMC (AMC) announced that it would reach out to its new backers with an initiative called “AMC Investor Connect.”

The company described “Investor Connect” as a way to put AMC in “direct communication with its extraordinary base of enthusiastic and passionate individual shareholders.” The theater chain also revealed that it has seen its “retail shareholder base grow beyond 3 million owners” over the last several months.  –read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Every Lamborghini will have an electric motor by 2024

(CNN Business) – By the end of 2024, every model Lamborghini offers will be a plug-in hybrid, announced CEO Stephan Winkelmann. But don’t expect a fully electric Lamborghini supercar anytime soon.

Lamborghini hybrid models will combine electric motors and powerful batteries with traditional internal combustion engines.

Lamborghini’s target customers — those who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on cars that go fast but also look and sound fast — have shown they will accept this type of technology, Winkelmann said. Plug-in hybrids keep the feel and sound of an internal combustion engine when driven aggressively while allowing the car to operate under purely electric power at times.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Why Amazon just spent more than $8 billion on MGM

New York (CNN Business) – MGM, a classic Hollywood brand synonymous with “The Wizard of Oz” and Leo the roaring lion, was purchased for $8.45 billion on Wednesday by Amazon (AMZN), a company currently valued at nearly $1.7 trillion. Being gobbled up by a tech behemoth is a fitting finale for a studio that has been whittled down over the last century by one technology disruption after another.

“MGM is really the story of Hollywood,” Jonathan Kuntz, a film professor at UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV, told CNN Business. “The studio has gone through all of the cycles of the film business over the last 100 years.”

“In many ways, MGM is the idea of the classic Hollywood studio,” he said. “And it tried to preserve that idea long after it was no longer a viable business strategy.”

Here’s a brief history of MGM, and why Amazon was likely so interested in buying it:  —read more— 

CNN style Fashion | A visual history of space-age fashion

The 1960s space race was more than a measure of scientific progress. The anticipation of this next stage of humanity left an indelible impression on culture, too.

President John F. Kennedy’s vision of man reaching the moon soon spawned a throng of TV shows and films — including cartoon sitcom “The Jetsons” and the “Star Trek” franchise — all of which looked to cater to America’s newfound interest in space travel.

The success of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 only whetted appetites further. For fashion designers Paco Rabanne, Pierre Cardin and Thierry Mugler, it became the rocket that launched a thousand looks, as they centered whole collections around an intergalactic vision of the future.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Wall Street is facing a $9 trillion problem

London (CNN Business) – Central banks were the superheroes of the early phase of the pandemic, taking dramatic steps to save the economy and financial markets from ruin.

Now, as the recovery kicks into gear, they’ve become a major risk for investors.

What’s happening: The latest reading of the Back-to-Normal Index from CNN Business shows that the US economy’s comeback is 90% complete. But investors are increasingly worried that the Federal Reserve, observing such promising data and rising inflation, will make a damaging mistake, such as moving too soon to roll back unprecedented levels of support — or ignoring growing problems until they’re too late.  —read more— 

F1 | Verstappen claims dominant Monaco victory over Sainz and Norris, after polesitter Leclerc fails to take start

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen breezed to his maiden Monaco Grand Prix win over the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris, with Ferrari polesitter and home hero Charles Leclerc failing to take the start after suffering a pre-race driveshaft issue – Verstappen also claiming the lead of the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career after Lewis Hamilton finished a disappointed P7.

Starting effectively from pole after Leclerc’s cruel side-lining, Verstappen out-muscled Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas off the line to take a lead that he would only briefly relinquish in the pit stops, Verstappen claiming his second win of the season, and his first ever podium in Monaco.  —read more— 

watch: Race Highlights | 2021 Monaco Grand Prix

CNN | A restaurant manager who forced a Black man to work without pay owes him more than $500,000 in restitution, court rules

(CNN) – A South Carolina man who was forced to work over 100 hours every week for years without pay and subjected to verbal and physical abuse was supposed to receive close to $273,000 in restitution after his former manager pleaded guilty.

But that initial amount was too low, an appellate court ruled in April. The man should have received more than double that amount — closer to $546,000 — from the manager to account for federal labor laws, according to the ruling.

John Christopher Smith was forced to work at a cafeteria in Conway without pay for years. His manager, Bobby Edwards, pleaded guilty to forced labor in 2018 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his abuse of Smith, a Black man who has intellectual disabilities.  –read more— 

F1 | Leclerc beats Verstappen to sensational Monaco pole as late crash prevents others improving

Charles Leclerc delivered on Ferrari’s shock Monaco Grand Prix pace to take a brilliant pole position in his home race – but his delight was tempered slightly when he ended the session in the barriers.

The Monegasque put together the fastest lap of the weekend with his first run in Q3 but pushed a little too hard on his second run, clipping the Armco as he turned into the chicane, which broke his front suspension sending him across the kerb and into the barrier on the other side.

That incident brought out the red flag with less than a minute to go, ending the session prematurely and preventing anyone – including Max Verstappen who was purple in sector one – from completing their final lap.  —read more— 

watch: Qualifying Highlights | 2021 Monaco Grand Prix

HGTV | 40 Screened Porches We Wanna Chill On

Protected from the elements and biting bugs, these pretty porches offer indoor-outdoor living at its finest.  —see gallery— 

CNN style Beauty | Wolf cuts: Gen Z’s answer to the mullet hairstyle

If you see a teenager with a disheveled mullet that moves like a windblown shag, it’s probably a hairstyle known as the “wolf cut.” This ‘do is recognizable by its voluminous crown, which swiftly tapers into wispy layers, and it is the latest Gen Z beauty trend to take social media by storm.

Popular across genders, the wolf cut is thought to have originated in the salons of South Korea, taking its name from the wild, untamed look the heavy layers create, resembling the fur of its namesake. To take things further, the style is often set in place on loosely permed hair, to ensure an expertly tousled look.  —read more—