PepsiCo Is Bringing Driverless Trucks Into the Mainstream

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0:30Alex Ossola:AI stocks bounce back after last week's sell-off. Plus, a judge strikes down President Trump's$100 ,000 fee for H-1B visas. And driverless trucks are here, and they're ready to bring you chips and drinks? It's Monday, June 8th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. First up today, the stock market. Tech stocks made up some ground after big declines last week. The Nasdaq ended up 0.9 percent. An index tracking chip stocks climbed 5.6 percent. Here's a little historical nugget showing that this is a typical pattern.

1:14Alex Ossola:Dow Jones market data shows that, on average, the Nasdaq gains half a percent the day after a drop of 4 percent or more, and the Nasdaq sank 4.2 % on Friday. Meanwhile, the S &P edged up 0.3 % and the Dow slived. In other markets news, go Knicks. As we've discussed on the show, and you might have seen pretty much anywhere else, the New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals with a current 2-0 series lead. And the only people more excited than fans are investors. Few professional sports teams are part of a publicly traded company, but the Knicks are, and shares of their parent company, Madison Square Garden Sports, have more than doubled over the past year.

1:51Alex Ossola:The stock hit a record high of more than$390 a share last week. There could be a number of reasons for this, but some think Knicks fans are treating MSG sports like a meme stock and pushing up the price. Today, shares slipped by less than 1%. And on the topic of the Knicks, President Trump plans to attend Game 3 of the finals tonight, and New York City is bracing for extra-heavy security. In a press conference today, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that there's a wide security perimeter around Madison Square Garden, one of the busiest parts of Manhattan, starting this afternoon.

2:25Alex Ossola:So the message is simple. Celebrate the Knicks, but avoid the MSG area tonight if you do not have tickets for the game or some other valid reason to be there tonight. Thank you and go Knicks. The president won't be the only politician at MSG tonight. New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani said he will also be there. He bought a standing room only ticket for nearly a thousand bucks.

2:50Alex Ossola:Today at Apple's developers conference, WWDC, the company showed it's going all in on AI. It demonstrated a new version of its Siri chatbot, technology it developed with Google. Siri is more conversational now. And Apple executives showed Siri AI buying concert tickets, creating plans for events, and identifying and interacting with objects and photos. Apple is adding more generative AI features across its products. The most powerful models will be limited to its most advanced devices, and some functions will require a subscription or come with a limit on how much you can use it each day. But Apple didn't unveil any shocking or unexpected features today, and its shares closed down 1.9 percent after the presentation.

3:30Alex Ossola:It was also Tim Cook's final time emceeing the event as Apple's CEO. On a personal note, some of the greatest highlights of my time as CEO have been events like this. Cook is set to step down as CEO on September 1st. He will remain Apple's chairman.

3:49Alex Ossola:Imagine seeing a 26 ,000-pound box truck on the road. Its steering wheel is turning, but there's no one behind it. I'm getting on an autonomous truck now. That's Journal reporter Esther Fung, who was in Phoenix this past weekend to check out one of the 35 driverless trucks PepsiCo is operating in Arizona. This makes Pepsi the first major U.S. Consumer Goods Company to say they're actually using autonomous trucks at a large scale on public roads. Esther said that in her test run, the steering wheel rotated itself as the truck turned and the truck never went over the speed limit. A Pepsi executive told Esther that the driverless trucks are more reliable than human drivers and that they arrive on time 99 % of the time after you factor out variables like weather and traffic.

4:33Alex Ossola:Pepsi employs thousands of drivers in the U.S., some represented by unions that have strongly opposed the rollout of autonomous trucks. Pepsi anticipates retraining and redeploying some drivers to other types of work, but also hiring fewer drivers in general. Coming up, Trump moves to contain the violence between Iran and Israel and why people working on Wall Street may be leaving their fanciest watches at home. That's after the break.

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5:35Alex Ossola:Today, a federal judge invalidated the Trump administration's new$100 ,000 fee for H-1B visas. The H-1B program is a main pathway for foreign professionals to enter the U.S., and it's frequently used by the biggest tech companies. Foreign students hoping to remain in the country also rely on it. The judge said officials overreached and declared the fee unlawful. He sided with a coalition of states that challenged the policy, who argued that it hurt their ability to staff colleges and public health care systems. Typically, Congress sets visa fees, or proposed fees go through a formal regulatory process.

6:08Alex Ossola:It had previously cost$215 to enter an applicant into the lottery for an H-1B and about$5 ,000 to file a visa application. A White House spokeswoman indicated that the administration plans to appeal.

6:25Alex Ossola:In the Middle East, Israel and Iran have stopped their exchange of fire after President Trump intervened. The Journal has learned that he had a call with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning and asked for Israel to end the attacks on Iran. Trump also posted on social media that Israel and Iran must, quote, immediately stop shooting. Trump wants to contain the fighting to keep it from disrupting work on a peace deal that he's trying to do with Iran. Both Iran and Israel later said that they had ended their attacks and both also kept open the possibility of more. In a televised address today, Netanyahu said that Israel had a right to defend itself.

7:00Alex Ossola:In the last minute, Iran and Hezbollah are trying to fight for us a new plan. He said that Israel agreed to refrain from further strikes unless Iran launched new assaults on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran said that forceful measures would follow if hostile actions continue. In the Philippines, a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake today off the coast of the country's southern island of Mindanao killed at least 35 people and injured more than 140.

7:30Alex Ossola:Tremors collapsed buildings and ripped through roads as children across the country were getting ready for their first day of school. Some schools evacuated and classes were suspended in affected areas. And in Europe, Germany has pulled out of a project to develop a stealth fighter jet with France and Spain. The project had been stalled because of a spat between Airbus and Dassault Aviation, over which should take the lead in the jet's development. The lack of progress on the jet has become a symbol for the hurdles Europe faces in rebuilding its militaries. The journal has learned that Germany's withdrawal caught French officials by surprise.

8:03Alex Ossola:The office of President Emmanuel Macron didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but the French and German defense ministries will meet in July to develop a roadmap for future defense cooperation.

8:18Alex Ossola:The World Cup kicks off this week across 16 North American cities, but U.S. hotels are already in last place. Real estate research firm CoStar has data showing that hotels in Vancouver and Guadalajara are the most booked, with occupancy rates of 48 percent. Toronto, Mexico City, and Monterey, which is in northeastern Mexico, are also more than 40 percent booked. San Francisco is the only U.S. city to crack that threshold. Kate King covers real estate for the journal, and she says price has everything to do with it. It is very expensive to travel to the U.S. Hotels are very expensive. We know the costs have been very high to get from your hotel to the stadium where the games are being played, depending on the city.

9:00So this is certainly all part of the equation. And also, traveler concerns that they may encounter problems getting through customs when they get to the U.S. or just other geopolitical concerns likely dissuaded some foreign visitors from traveling to the U.S. for the World Cup.

9:16Alex Ossola:Kate says the businesses and cities that had been hoping for a big economic boost from the World Cup may end up seeing something a little more modest. Hotels that normally would be counting on a convention during this time of year, the convention stayed away because they knew the World Cup would be held in the city this summer. And so that has maybe depressed the occupancy a little bit at these hotels. Although I will say that the rates that hotels are getting from the World Cup matches do seem to be a bit higher. So what they lose in occupancy, they might be picking up a bit in rate gains. So it kind of stands to reason that there won't therefore be this huge swell in business for the surrounding restaurants and bars.

9:57Although, of course, some of these businesses are organizing World Cup watch parties and other events tied to the World Cup.

10:07Alex Ossola:Unwritten rules govern all kinds of offices, but there's nowhere they carry more weight than on Wall Street. Bankers have to thread the needle between looking the part and not standing out. And most of them only learn where the line is when they step over it. WSJ Careers reporter Ray Smith spoke to former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and a bunch of other current and former bankers about Wall Street style. Basically, you want to look well-dressed, but you don't want to look conspicuous. I talked with several Wall Street bros, if you will, on and off the record about this. If you're meeting with clients, you don't want a client to think, Are they paying you too much because you're showing up with a Patek Philippe or a Rolex watch?

10:46And so even former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told me that he preferred to wear a swatch. A stylist who works with professional men, both entry-level and senior, told me she tries to keep their suit details really subtle. It's like button cuffs and notch lapels rather than peak lapels and French cuffs, for example. You want to keep it under the radar. You just want to blend in. And you don't want to have, as Blankfein told me, someone commenting on your clothes or what you're wearing, whether it's good or bad.

11:17Alex Ossola:And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Danny Lewis with supervising producer Tali Arbel. I'm Alex Osula for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.

11:41Hey, this is Telus Demos. And I'm Miriam Gottfried. We're reporters at The Wall Street Journal and the hosts of WSJ's Take on the Week. It's a weekly show that gives listeners a leg up in the world of markets and investing. From the Fed's moves to market bubbles, we dive into the biggest deals, key players, and business news ahead. If you're looking for more news and tools that you can use to help navigate the markets, consider becoming a subscriber to The Wall Street Journal. Visit subscribe.wsj.com slash takeontheweek to subscribe now. you