
Afternoon Briefing: City could force Uber and Lyft to hike driver pay
Good afternoon, Chicago.
Rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber could soon be forced to pay Chicago drivers more if an ordinance up for debate Thursday moves ahead, a change the companies say would cause the cost of rides to skyrocket for passengers.
Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd, said his measure would make sure rideshare drivers make more than minimum wage and get paid when they wait for and drive riders. But critics and the companies say the legislation will raise costs and could even put many drivers out of work.
Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit chicagotribune.com/latest-headlines and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices.
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Federal prosecutors announced today that they will retry state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after a jury in April deadlocked on all counts, leading to a mistrial. Read more here.
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Illinois lawmakers ended their spring legislative session without finding a way to plug the gaping $771 million budget gap facing the region's mass transit systems next year. Thousands of jobs hang in the balance. Read more here.
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The longtime Sky star jokingly acknowledged her quiet exit in a Players Tribune column today as she formally announced her retirement from the WNBA — nearly three years after playing her final game for the Sky in September 2022. Read more here.
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Anthony Mateos, who lives in Evanston and has just completed his junior year at Evanston Township High School, has compiled and published a terrific book titled 'Who We Are: Stories From the Chicago StreetWise Community.' Read more here.
More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories:
The Marines that deployed to Los Angeles on orders from President Donald Trump have not yet been called to respond to the city's immigration protests and are there only to protect federal property, the Marine Corps commandant said. Read more here.
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Should You Buy Carnival Stock While It's Below $30?
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Carnival ended the latest fiscal quarter on May 31 with $8.5 billion in customer deposits, an all-time record. Occupancy and pricing are strong as well. The demand Carnival is seeing from customers is interesting because this isn't the case across the travel industry. Demand for hotels and airlines could be under pressure throughout the rest of 2025. Both Uber and Airbnb registered slower revenue growth in the first three months of 2025 than in the final quarter of 2024. This could signal tougher times ahead, as macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty lingers. There's clearly something about cruises that keeps drawing customers in. Affordability could be one factor. Compared to land-based travel alternatives, cruises are cheaper and give travelers more value. Zooming out, the industry is bringing in younger and first-time cruise travelers. That's an extremely encouraging sign, as it highlights an expanding opportunity set of potential customers. The leadership team raised full-year guidance across the board. Of note, they expect better net yields and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) than just three months ago. "We continue to set ourselves up well for 2026 and beyond, with so much more potential to take our margins, returns and results even higher over time," CEO Josh Weinstein said in the earnings press release. Carnival is positioning itself to keep capturing demand. Its Celebration Key private island destination will open in July, and an updated rewards program will be introduced in 2026. It's generally a smart move for investors to avoid owning businesses that have high levels of debt. As of May 31, Carnival carried $27.3 billion of long-term debt on the balance sheet. While that might be cause for concern at first glance, the company's financial situation continues to improve dramatically. This creates a positive setup for investors. 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Should there be a severe recession, I wouldn't be surprised if consumers look to tighten up their purse strings. Even understanding this risk, Carnival is a smart buy, with its shares trading under $30. Before you buy stock in Carnival Corp., consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Carnival Corp. wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $713,547!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $966,931!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 177% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . 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Uber Eyes Pony.ai Acquisition: Autonomous Vehicle Stocks Heat Up
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FOMO-Driven Call Buying Soars as Traders Chase S&P 500's Furious Run
(Bloomberg) -- Traders keen to seize on further gains after the S&P 500 Index hit its first record since February are betting on stock-market darlings that they expect will surpass the index's ascent. Philadelphia Transit System Votes to Cut Service by 45%, Hike Fares Squeezed by Crowds, the Roads of Central Park Are Being Reimagined Sao Paulo Pushes Out Favela Residents, Drug Users to Revive Its City Center Sprawl Is Still Not the Answer Mapping the Architectural History of New York's Chinatown The signals from derivatives trading are clear, strategists said, as investors last week aggressively bought call options — a wager that an asset's price will keep increasing. Among the highlights: a rush into Nvidia Corp. on Wednesday that pushed the volume of call contracts on the stock to almost triple that of bearish puts, the biggest gap since January; a jump to a four-month high in the call-put ratio on the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund; and a drop to a two-month low in the cost of hedging against a selloff in Meta Platforms Inc. To Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna International Group, the risk-on behavior has been fueled by a growing fear of missing out on a rally that seems impervious to strife in the Middle East and concern that the US economy and corporate earnings growth are slowing. In addition to Nvidia, he said there was strong call buying last week in momentum names like Uber Technologies Inc., Tesla Inc. and Robinhood Markets Inc. The 'week's options flow reflects clear signs of FOMO-driven re-risking,' Murphy said. 'The trend is clear, with almost exclusively bullish flow, momentum call buying, as well as buy-the-dip put selling.' Optimism that the US is moving closer to reaching concrete deals with its major trading partners drove stocks to a record. The demand to seek protection for a decline in the largest fund tracking the S&P 500 has decreased rapidly in the past week, a move that typically implies building euphoria. At the same time, traders are also confronting mixed signals. On Friday, US stocks nosedived in afternoon trading after Trump said he was ending all trade talks with Canada and threatened to impose a fresh tariff rate within the next week. They eventually recouped the losses and closed at an all-time high. Earlier on Friday, Bank of America Corp. strategists warned of the increasing risk of a speculative stock-market bubble as traders drive massive flows into equities on expectations of US interest-rate cuts. The upcoming earnings season could also test the foundation of the recent rally, especially with lackluster forecasts piling in. In a macro environment as uncertain as the current one, the possibility of more setbacks, like the souring of negotiations with Canada, are also immensely higher. It is also why Susquehanna's Murphy said using call options is a preferred way for investors to chase speculative rallies. It allows them to limit the size of their losses and positions them to benefit from any gains. Calls give traders the right to buy a stock at a future higher price, but does not obligate them to, which means if the bet fails, the most they lose is the premium they paid for that right. FOMO Rush There is further evidence that traders are crowding into the riskiest stocks seeking the sharpest upside so they don't miss out on further gains. The Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF, which tracks highly volatile stocks, is on track for its best quarter since 2020 relative to the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF. A Goldman basket of most-shorted stocks is on pace for the best monthly gain since February 2024. Retail investors are diving into equities, according to data from JPMorgan, which is often a sign of risk-taking as a stock rally intensifies. There's also a willingness to chase asset prices higher, with the call skew — a measure of how much traders are willing to pay for bullish exposure — steepening on several speculative names such as Tesla, the ARK Innovation ETF and Coinbase Global Inc. during the week. Tom Keen, options trader at Piper Sandler & Co., said the pick up in call-option volumes and a firming of the implied volatility in call options both point to a FOMO-rush. 'We are coming into summer where seemingly macro risks are moving lower, there is lower realized volatility at the moment, and many were not expecting the strength in price action we have seen as of late,' Keen said. So while risks persist — especially with tariff deadlines looming — traders see 'catalysts they want to be constructive on.' America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried How to Steal a House Inside Gap's Last-Ditch, Tariff-Addled Turnaround Push Apple Test-Drives Big-Screen Movie Strategy With F1 Does a Mamdani Victory and Bezos Blowback Mean Billionaires Beware? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio