Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke directly to Elon Musk Friday on the billionaire’s X platform, part of an effort to counter false conspiracies about federal disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Helene that Musk spread on X, where his follower count stands over 200 million.

“No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights,” wrote Buttigieg. “If you’re encountering a problem give me a call.”

Buttigieg was replying to a post from Musk that falsely claimed the Federal Aviation Administration was shutting down airspace in the disaster zone and “throttling” flights transporting supplies.

An FAA spokesperson told CNBC, “There are no airspace restrictions in place in North Carolina as rescue efforts continue because of Hurricane Helene. Pilots looking to come into Asheville or Rutherford airports need to reach out to the airport for permission to land. The FAA is working with local authorities to ensure rescue efforts happen safely.”

Musk’s false claim was one of several conspiracies Musk has spread about federal emergency personnel this week, as tens of thousands of people turn to government agencies for disaster relief in states hard-hit by Helene.

“@FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!” Musk said in an apparent text message within his social post.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency responded to Musk in a statement to CNBC: “The claims about FEMA confiscating or taking commodities, supplies or resources in North Carolina, Tennessee, or any state impacted by Helene are false,” said public affairs director Jaclyn Rothenberg.

FEMA has deployed Starlinks before to assist in disaster response in places like Guam, Hawaii and Alaska, she noted. In storm-ravaged North Carolina, Starlink units are supporting state and local governments, urban search and rescue and disaster coordination efforts.

Musk has formally endorsed…

Costco continues to chip away at the gold mine that is the precious metals market. The wholesaler is adding Swiss-made platinum bars to its selection.

Costco on Wednesday announced the 1-ounce platinum bars, on sale for $1,089.99 on its website alongside its now-famed gold bars and silver coins. The bars are only sold online, and cannot be delivered to Louisiana, Nevada or Puerto Rico, the company said. Interested buyers will also need a Costco membership, which costs between $65 and $130 a year.

It’s no surprise the company has continued to delve into the precious metals market. Gold bars launched at Costco in August 2023, and not even two months later were selling out within hours of a restock. Analysts at Wells Fargo reported in April that Costco was selling as much as $200 million worth of gold bars a month.

“I’ve gotten a couple of calls that people have seen online that we’ve been selling 1-ounce gold bars,” said Richard Galanti, then-chief financial officer of Costco, on the company’s earnings call in September 2023. “When we load them on the site, they’re typically gone within a few hours, and we limit two per member.”

The value of gold has risen more than 40% in the past year and over 70% in the last five years. But the price of platinum has been a little more rocky in recent years. The value of platinum has risen more than 15% over the past 12 months, though it has dropped more than 8% since topping $1,100 earlier in 2024.

— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, clashed repeatedly over Russia, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine in Tuesday night’s closely watched Presidential Debate.

Harris told Trump, who previously served as U.S. president, that Putin “would eat you for lunch” and said that, if the Republican were to become president, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

She also accused Trump of being ready to abandon Ukraine after two and a half years of war and an immense military funding effort by the U.S.

“Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO,” Harris said during the ABC News Presidential Debate, according to a transcript of the debate.

“What we have done to preserve the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland,” she said, before describing Putin as “a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”

Intel executives are working with multiple advisors to formulate options to address its flagging business, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Those advisors, which include Morgan Stanley and other bankers, will likely present Intel’s directors with options at an upcoming board meeting in September, said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters. The advisors are considering a full range of options, including splitting off and selling businesses, the person said.

Bloomberg News first reported that the company was working with its advisors to come up with strategic options. Representatives for Intel and a spokesperson for Morgan Stanley didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

CEO Pat Gelsinger acknowledged publicly on Thursday that the company understood investor skepticism and was working to address it.

“We realize we have to operate efficiently with nimbleness, with urgency,” Gelsinger said at Deutsche Bank’s Technology Conference. CNBC previously reported that some advisors, including Morgan Stanley, were helping the company on activism defense.

Intel remains on track to launch its next iteration of its laptop central processor, Lunar Lake, Gelsinger said at the appearance. But investors don’t see a turnaround on the horizon, and have pushed the stock down almost 60% this year.

The once-dominant company has been trounced primarily by Nvidia, which produces the graphics processing units (GPUs) that are are the heart of today’s prominent AI models.

Alongside a disastrous earnings report earlier this month, Intel announced it would lay off 15,000 workers. The job cuts, part of a broader focus on slashing expenses, did little to assuage investor dismay. And while Gelsinger said Thursday that the company’s foundry business had roughly a dozen interested customers, the…

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday said it plans to acquire server maker ZT Systems for $4.9 billion as the company seeks to expand its portfolio of artificial intelligence chips and hardware and battle Nvidia.

AMD plans to pay for 75% of the ZT Systems acquisition with cash and the remainder in stock. The company had $5.34 billion in cash and short-term investments as of the second quarter.

The computing requirements for AI have dictated that tech companies string together thousands of chips in clusters to achieve the necessary amount of data crunching horsepower. Stringing together the vast numbers of chips has meant the makeup of whole server systems has become increasingly important, which is why AMD is acquiring ZT Systems.

“AI systems are our number one strategic priority,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in an interview with Reuters.

The addition of ZT Systems engineers will allow AMD to more quickly test and roll out its latest AI graphics processing units (GPUs) at the scale cloud computing giants such as Microsoft require, Su said.

“The main way (ZT Systems) is additive to the company is we sell more GPUs,” Su said.

AMD plans to break off its server manufacturing business and sell it once the deal closes, as it has no plans to compete with companies such as Super Micro Computer, Su said.

AMD has not yet held talks with potential buyers.

ZT Systems Chief Executive Frank Zhang will join AMD and report to AMD’s data center chief, Forrest Norrod.

The closely held ZT Systems has roughly 2,500 employees of which AMD plans to retain about 1,000 engineers. Currently, ZT Systems generates annual revenue of roughly $10 billion, Su said.

Executives expect the deal to close in the first half of 2025 and expect an additional 12 to 18 months to sell the manufacturing business.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at the…

BEIJING — China’s consumer prices rose by a more-than-expected 0.5% in July from a year ago, boosted by a surge in pork prices, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released Friday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a slight pickup in the consumer price index to 0.3% in July from a year ago, versus 0.2% in June.

The 0.5% CPI increase in July was the highest since a 0.7% rise in February, according to official data accessed via Wind Information. China’s biggest holiday of the year, the Lunar New Year, fell in February this year.

Prices of pork, a widely consumed food staple in China, surged by 20.4% year-on-year in July. That was the biggest increase since December 2022, according to Wind.

Pork prices play a significant role in China’s consumer price index, but can be prone to large swings due to disease or other factors affecting production.

Core CPI, which strips out food and energy prices, rose by 0.4% year-on-year in July. That’s down from 0.6% in June.

“Conditions are in place to see inflation trend a little higher in the coming months but it should not impede further monetary easing,” Lynn Song, chief economist, Greater China, ING, said in a note Friday.

“With low inflation and weak credit activity, domestic factors continue to favor further monetary policy easing,” she said. “We continue to look for at least one more rate cut this year with the potential for more if global rate cuts accelerate.”

Song pointed out that the price war in autos, falling smartphone prices and a drop in rents posed near-term drags on non-food prices in China.

Tourism prices rose by a modest 3.1% in July from a year ago, versus the 6.4% year-to-date increase, the statistics bureau data showed.

Education and entertainment prices climbed by 1.7% in July, a touch below the 2%…

British oil giant BP on Tuesday reported stronger-than-expected net profit for the second quarter and raised its dividend despite previously warning of significantly lower refining margins.

The oil and gas major posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $2.8 billion for the second quarter. That beat analyst expectations of $2.6 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.

BP reported net profit of $2.7 billion for the first three months of the year and $2.6 billion for the second quarter of 2023.

The energy firm announced it had increased its dividend by 10% to 8 cents per share, up from 7.27 cents. It also maintained the rate of its share buyback program at $1.75 billion over the next three months.

Kate Thomson, chief financial officer at BP, said Tuesday that the firm’s decision to boost shareholder returns “reflects the confidence we have in our performance and outlook for cash generation.”

BP said earlier in the month that weak refining margins and lower oil trading results would likely dent the firm’s second-quarter results by as much as $700 million. The firm on Tuesday confirmed a writedown of $1.5 billion, partly due to a plan to scale back refinery operations at its Gelsenkirchen plant in Germany.

“We are driving focus across the business and reducing costs, all while building momentum in our drive to 2025,” BP CEO Murray Auchincloss said in a statement.

“Our recent go-ahead of the Kaskida development in the Gulf of Mexico business, and decision to take full ownership of bp Bunge Bioenergia while scaling back plans for new biofuels projects, demonstrate our commitment to delivering as a simpler, more focused and higher value company,” he added.

BP’s net debt stood at $22.6 billion at the end of the second quarter, down from $23.7 billion compared to the same…