As the affordable options and relief measures for federal student loan borrowers pile up, consumer advocates advise caution before refinancing your debt.

“How’s this for a warning? DON’T!” Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, wrote in an email to CNBC.

Refinancing your federal student loans turns them into a private student loan and transfers the debt from the government to a private company. Borrowers usually refinance in search of a lower interest rate.

However, many people don’t realize what they’re getting into, said Persis Yu, deputy executive director at the Student Borrower Protection Center.

“We’ve seen aggressive marketing by a number of private lenders to try to lure folks away from the federal student loan space,” Yu said. “And we have seen, time and time again, private student loan borrowers left out of many of the programs they really need.”

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Mayotte has witnessed the same: “Borrowers who refinance their federal loans into private forever lose access to the safety nets and lower payment options unique to federal loans.”

David Green, CEO of Earnest, an online lender, said that refinancing can be “life-changing” for those who are excluded from the government’s relief options because of their earnings or other reasons.

“Consider taking advantage of (forgiveness) before looking at refinancing,” Green said.

“While we can’t predict the future of forgiveness options, if you make above the initial salary limit the federal government proposed, or otherwise don’t qualify for a loan forgiveness program, then refinancing might be a good option to explore,” he said.

“You may spend less time paying off your loan, or have a more reasonable monthly payment, which can save a significant amount in interest over the life of your loan,” Green added.

Consumer advocates have long pointed out that private lenders don’t provide the same range of relief options as does the U.S. Department of Education. (For example, federal student loan borrowers can pause their payments if they become unemployed, return to school or get cancer.)

But advocates have fresh warnings now as the Biden administration reforms the federal student loan system.

While President Joe Biden has been in office, the Education Department has cleared the federal education loans of nearly 4.6 million people, totaling almost $160 billion in aid. Most of that relief came through expanding access to relief programs.

Millions more federal student loan borrowers could receive debt forgiveness in the coming months if Biden’s revised relief package survives legal challenges this time.

Immediately after the Supreme Court blocked the president’s first aid package, his administration began working on a Plan B. More than 25 million borrowers still stand to benefit from the program, including those who’ve been in repayment for decades or seen their balance grow from interest.

Borrowers who refinance their loans lose their eligibility for the government’s debt cancellation, Mayotte said.

One potential loss is no longer qualifying for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, she said. PSLF allows certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans cleared after 10 years of on-time payments.

“I’ve worked with too many borrowers who have done (refinancing) only to find out their loans would have been forgiven under PSLF,” Mayotte said.

Mayotte also recently heard from one borrower who said they’d refinanced based on advice from their financial advisor — and as a result, missed out on having their more than $400,000 balance forgiven when the Education Dept. excused 317,000 former Art Institute students of their debts earlier this month.

“(It) was heartbreaking,” Mayotte said.

The U.S. Department of Education, which reviewed evidence provided by the attorneys general of Iowa, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, concluded that the for-profit Art Institute chain of schools and its parent company, the Education Management Corp., or EDMC, made “pervasive and substantial” misrepresentations to prospective students about post-graduation employment rates, salaries and career services.

Income-driven repayment plans, meanwhile, allow federal student borrowers to pay just a share of their discretionary income toward their debt each month. The plans also lead to debt forgiveness after a certain period, usually somewhere between 10 and 25 years.

Most recently, the Biden administration introduced a repayment plan that lowers the percentage borrowers need to pay of their earnings to 5%, compared with 10% or more under existing programs. The new option, called The Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE plan, will leave some people with a monthly bill of $0.

“There is no right to an affordable repayment plan with private student loans, and that’s a huge, huge difference between the federal student loan space and the private loan space,” Yu said.

The top reason people refinance their federal student loans is to pick up a lower interest rate. But that may not be so easy to do right now, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

“Interest rates are high,” Kantrowitz said, estimating that those who refinance pick up a rate between 5% and 11%. (The rates on federal student loans for the 2024-2025 academic year will range from roughly 6.5% to 9%.)

Refinancing likely only makes sense for borrowers with the best credit — a score above 800 — since they’re the only ones likely to gain a significantly lower interest rate, Kantrowitz added.

Still, any borrower considering the move should look closely at what protections and possible forgiveness opportunities they’re forfeiting, he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped above 40,000 for the first time as the bull market marched higher on bets that inflationary pressures would ease and interest rates would come down.

The Dow was last up 83 points, or 0.2%. At its high of the day, the average touched 40,0051, the culmination of a bull market that began in October 2022. The index had neared the 40,000 mark earlier this year, before a slight April pullback on worries about high interest rates knocked it back down. The rally was rekindled in May on the back of strong earnings and some soft inflation readings.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% Thursday to a new record after closing above the 5,300 level for the first time ever on Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite also gained 0.1% to an all-time high. The Dow has climbed more than 6% for 2024, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are up 11% each.

“This achievement is a testament to the powers of capital formation, innovation, profit growth, and economic resilience,” said John Lynch, chief investment officer at Comerica Wealth Management. “The recent technical momentum and fundamental strengths, including earnings and interest rates, suggest further near-term gains.”

It was Walmart that led the charge above 40,000 as the world’s biggest retailer popped 6% on strong fiscal first-quarter results. Walmart is now up 26% on the year.

The Dow’s march toward 40,000 comes as expectations of interest rate cuts and enthusiasm around artificial intelligence boost investor sentiment. The first Federal Reserve rate cut is priced in for September, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. That expectation grew after a smaller-than-expected increase in consumer prices for April was reported earlier this week.

On top of that, tech-related darlings such as Amazon, Meta Platforms and Nvidia are all up sharply year to date.

Amazon, which just joined the more than century-old Dow in the first quarter, is more than 22% higher for the year. Other top Dow performer this year include American Express and Goldman Sachs. Both stocks up more than 20% as investors bet the economy would skirt a recession and the consumer would remain strong.

Nvidia, which is not in the Dow, is leading the overall bull market and was up another 0.7% on Thursday. The AI chip maker has gained 90% so far this year.

Baird analyst Ross Mayfield believes that this rally higher still has the strength to continue.

“This has all the signs of a cyclical bull market and it’s not running out of steam as far as we can tell,” he told CNBC in an interview.

Nadine Menendez, the wife and co-defendant of Sen. Robert Menendez, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, the Democratic lawmaker revealed Thursday during his trial on federal corruption charges.

“As a result of constant press inquiries and reporters following my wife, she has asked me to disclose her medical condition,” Menendez, the senior senator from New Jersey, said in a statement his office shared with NBC News.

“Nadine is suffering from Grade 3 breast cancer, which will require her to have mastectomy surgery. We are, of course, concerned about the seriousness and advanced stage of the disease,” Menendez said.

“She will require follow up surgery and possibly radiation treatment. We hope and pray for the best results,” he said. “We ask the press and the public to give her the time, space and privacy to deal with this challenging health condition as she undergoes surgery and recovery.”

Menendez shared the health information about his wife less than one day after his defense attorney cast blame on her in the senator’s trial in Manhattan federal court.

Menendez and his wife are both charged in the case alleging a yearslong scheme to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold bars, stacks of cash and an array of other bribes in exchange for political favors.

A judge in April severed Nadine Menendez’s trial from her husband’s, and postponed it until at least July, after her lawyers cited medical issues that were not disclosed at the time. The trial of Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, began Monday.

Menendez was kept in the dark about his wife’s money troubles and “sidelined” from her financial woes, defense attorney Avi Weitzman told the 12-person jury in his opening statement Wednesday afternoon.

Nadine Menendez “had financial concerns that she kept from Bob,” he said.

The gold bars found in an FBI search of the Menendez home — the “elephant in the room” — were found in “Nadine’s closet,” Weitzman said.

The attorney advised the jurors that every time they hear evidence about Nadine Menendez, they should ask themselves, “What did Bob know?”

He even displayed a graphic showing a page from a “Where’s Waldo?” book — which was altered to read “Where’s Bob?” — to hammer the point home.

Menendez “took no bribes,” Weitzman said, while insisting that his allegedly corrupt conduct was actually just part of his job as a senator.

“Every action Senator Menendez took was to help his constituents,” he said.

Minutes earlier, U.S. Attorney Laura Pomerantz told the jury that Menendez “put his power up for sale” and “used his wife as a go-between.”

Menendez, 70, was “on the take” and “motivated by greed,” she said in her opening statement.

“This was not politics as usual,” Pomerantz said. “This was politics for profit.”

Reddit shares surged 11% in extended trading on Thursday after the social media company announced a partnership with OpenAI that will allow the ChatGPT-maker to train its artificial intelligence models on Reddit content.

As part of the deal, OpenAI will gain access to Reddit’s Data application programming interface (API), “which provides real-time, structured, and unique content from Reddit,” according to a release.

In exchange, Reddit will begin offering certain AI features to users and moderators, powered by OpenAI, which will also become a Reddit advertising partner. Google announced a similar partnership with Reddit in February, allowing the company to train its AI models, such as Gemini, on Reddit content via access to the platform’s API.

“Reddit has become one of the internet’s largest open archives of authentic, relevant, and always up to date human conversations about anything and everything,” CEO Steve Huffman said in Thursday’s release. “Including it in ChatGPT upholds our belief in a connected internet, helps people find more or what they’re looking for, and helps new audiences find community on Reddit.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a former board member and major shareholder in Reddit, with a stake valued at about $750 million after Thursday’s pop. OpenAI operating chief COO Brad Lightcap spearheaded the deal, which was approved by the company’s board, the release said.

Earlier this week, OpenAI launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface, the company’s latest effort to expand use of its popular chatbot. The update brings GPT-4 to everyone, including OpenAI’s free users, technology chief Mira Murati said Monday in a livestreamed event.

Murati said the new model, GPT-4o, is “much faster,” with improved capabilities in text, video and audio. OpenAI said it eventually plans to allow users to video chat with ChatGPT.

For Reddit, the deal provides another spark following a rally on Monday and Tuesday tied to a broader surge in so-called meme stocks like GameStop. Reddit, which went public in March and reached a record close a few days after its IPO, is back to trading near its high of $65.11.

WATCH: OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist leaving company

Walmart on Thursday topped quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, as the discounter made significant e-commerce gains, drove profits with newer businesses like advertising and won over more high-income shoppers.

The big-box retailer said it now expects to hit the high end or slightly top its previous full-year guidance. Walmart had expected net sales growth of 3% to 4% and adjusted earnings per share of between $2.23 and $2.37.

Shares of the company hit an all-time high Thursday and closed about 7% higher.

In an interview with CNBC, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said one of the factors boosting Walmart’s grocery business is the widening gap between the price of cooking at home and buying food at fast-food chains or restaurants.

Plus, he added, shoppers appreciate the convenience that Walmart offers. For the first time, its delivery business surpassed its store pickup in terms of volume, Rainey said.

“We’ve got customers that are coming to us more frequently than they have before and newer customers that we haven’t traditionally had, and they’re coming into a Walmart whether it’s a virtual store online, or whether it’s one of our physical stores,” Rainey said.

Here’s what the discounter reported for the fiscal first quarter compared with what Wall Street expected, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 60 cents adjusted vs. 52 cents expected
• Revenue: $161.51 billion vs. $159.50 billion

Walmart’s net income jumped to $5.10 billion, or 63 cents per share, in the three-month period that ended April 30, compared with $1.67 billion, or 21 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue climbed 6% from $152.30 billion in the year-ago quarter. That increase includes a benefit of roughly 1% from an additional selling day in the period. 

As the nation’s largest retailer and private employer, Walmart is often viewed as a bellwether for the U.S. economy. Yet it has generally fared better during an inflationary period than other retailers because it sells staples like groceries and has a value-oriented reputation.

Same-store sales for Walmart U.S. climbed by 3.8%, excluding fuel. The industry metric includes sales from stores and clubs open for at least a year. At Sam’s Club, same-store sales rose 4.4% year over year, excluding fuel.

E-commerce sales shot up by 22% year over year for Walmart U.S., fueled by store pickup and delivery of online orders, as well as the company’s growing third-party marketplace. 

Walmart’s customers in the U.S. made more visits to its stores and website in the quarter, but spent roughly the same as in the year-ago period. Transactions rose 3.8% and average ticket was flat compared with the year-ago quarter.

This week brought promising news for Walmart and other retailers: Inflation eased in April, according to the Labor Department data released Wednesday. The consumer price index was up 3.4% year over year. The closely watched number tracks how much goods and services cost at the cash register.

Walmart saw some signs of easing, too. On the company’s earnings call, CEO Doug McMillon said inflation in the U.S. was only up 0.4% for the quarter, with mid-single digit deflation on general merchandise and low-single digit inflation in food.

He said the company has increased “rollbacks,” price reductions on specific items that it typically advertises on its website or with signs in its stores.

Even so, the discounter has noticed the impact of inflation, as its shoppers have been selective with purchases. Rainey said customers’ “wallets are still stretched.” He said shoppers have bought less general merchandise, such as home goods and electronics, as they prioritize spending on food and health-related items, a trend that the company has seen for the past several quarters.

Still, “even the low-income consumer seems to be holding in there pretty well,” Rainey said. He added that sales even in general merchandise categories improved year over year.

Walmart had a weaker sales month in April, which mirrored retail sales numbers released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, but that was offset by sales trends in the other months of the quarter. Rainey chalked up a weaker April to Easter shifting into March, along with cooler and rainier weather.

He said sales have picked up again in May and looked similar to the average of the fiscal first quarter.

On the earnings call, McMillon emphasized Walmart’s expansion of its online business and success getting more customers to buy other items besides groceries. Groceries drive most of Walmart’s business — accounting for nearly 60% of the company’s U.S. sales in the most recent full fiscal year — but aren’t as profitable as selling items like clothing or makeup.

“We punched below our weight on general merchandise, specifically in apparel and home, for a really long time, maybe forever, and I think the progress we’re seeing right now is driven by the in-store remodels and e-commerce,” McMillon said.

As Walmart tries to appeal to younger and more affluent households, it recently launched a new private-label grocery brand, which includes bolder flavors, plant-based items and more. It is also upgrading and modernizing more than 1,400 stores across the country. The renovated stores showcase some of the retailer’s newer and more fashion-forward brands like Love & Sports, an activewear brand developed with fashion designer Michelle Smith and SoulCycle instructor Stacey Griffith, and a kitchen and home decor line called Beautiful, which was developed with Drew Barrymore.

Walmart has looked beyond retail to drive profits higher and fend off rivals like Amazon.

Those newer businesses like advertising and its subscription-based membership program, Walmart+, lifted its profit during the quarter and contributed to its operating income growth outpacing its sales growth. The company’s global advertising business grew 24% during the quarter, including 26% growth for the segment in the U.S.

The company’s third-party marketplace has also been a significant driver of the business. Like Amazon, Walmart has expanded its online business by welcoming sellers onto its website, and then made more money by offering advertisement and fulfillment services to those sellers.

In the U.S., marketplace sellers increased 36% in the quarter and the marketplace now carries more than 420 different items, McMillon said on an earnings call. In Mexico, the number of marketplace sellers grew by more than 50% with the total item count up nearly 80%.

Rainey told CNBC that a third of Walmart’s year-over-year operating income gains came from those newer businesses.

Walmart has been slashing spending in some areas and investing heavily in others. Earlier this week, the company said it would lay off and relocate hundreds of its corporate employees, including the transfer of many to its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. That move came on the heels of the retailer shuttering its Walmart health clinics, a network of doctor and dentist offices that had opened next to its stores.

On the other hand, the big-box retailer has poured money into other efforts. As it chases advertising dollars, Walmart announced in February that it will acquire smart TV maker Vizio in a $2.3 billion deal.

Rainey said Walmart’s announcement this week, which will relocate hundreds of people who currently work from their homes or in offices in Dallas, Toronto and Atlanta, is about shifting away from remote work, not about cost cuts. The move also included layoffs. Walmart has not announced a five-day-a-week office policy, but has said it wants employees to work from the office the majority of the time.

“We just feel strongly in the benefit of working together,” he said. “One of our competitive advantages is our culture — and that’s fostered by being together.”

Shares of Walmart closed Thursday at $64, bringing the company’s market cap to $515.83 billion. As of Thursday’s close, the company’s stock is up about 22% so far this year, surpassing the roughly 11% gains of the S&P 500 during the same period.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded near flat Thursday night, after the preceding session brought much fanfare, with the blue-chip average briefly touching the key 40,000 milestone for the first time.

Futures connected to the 30-stock index rose just 6 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures also both sat near their flatlines.

While it was a modestly down day for the three major averages, there was no shortage of excitement among market participants. The Dow reached an intraday high of 40,051.05, above the psychologically important 40,000 level, before pulling back to end the day down 0.1%.

“The Dow’s remarkable rise has exceeded many expectations, including my own, but our perspective remains unchanged,” said Todd Morgan, chairman at Bel Air Investment Advisors. “Through wars, recessions, elections, impeachments, financial crises and on and on, investing for the long term in high-quality stocks is the key to building wealth.”

The broad S&P 500 retreated about 0.2% on Thursday after breaking above the closely watched 5,300 level for the first time a day prior. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite finished Thursday’s session down nearly 0.3% after also reaching an all-time high.

These milestones come amid hopes that rates have peaked, according to Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. Continued optimism around artificial intelligence and corporate earnings growth can also help push the market into uncharted waters, he added.

Despite the weak end to Thursday’s session, the indexes are on track to end the week with gains. The Nasdaq Composite is leading the way with a 2.2% advance, followed by the S&P 500’s 1.4% rise. The Dow is tracking to close the week 0.9% higher.

This week’s ascent has helped propel the three indexes into positive territory for the second quarter despite a tough start. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now each up more than 11% in 2024, while the Dow has climbed more than 5% on the year.

Investors will watch for leading indicators data due Friday morning. There are no major financial reports from companies expected as earnings season winds down.

Whether it’s two people in a marriage or a company and a sports league, it’s not easy to break up a 40-year partnership.

The NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery‘s Turner Sports have been in business together for nearly four decades. The relationship is now in jeopardy, as Comcast‘s NBCUniversal is attempting to steal away its package of games with a $2.5 billion per-year offer, as CNBC has previously reported.

The league ended its exclusive window to renew a deal with its two current media partners, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, on April 22. Since then, the league has set a framework to renew with Disney, bring in Amazon as a new third partner, and sell its other package to either Warner Bros. Discovery or NBCUniversal, according to people familiar with the matter. The league stands to triple the total value of a new deal from about $24 billion to $76 billion or more.

Warner Bros. Discovery continues to have discussions with the NBA about keeping the rights, according to people familiar with the matter. The league could still decide to simply renew with its incumbent partner, but it’s not likely, said two of the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

The more probable path would be for the league to sign papers with NBCUniversal, formally securing its bid. That would trigger a contractual option for Warner Bros. Discovery to match the offer.

This is where things might get thorny.

Both the NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery have begun poring over legal language to determine if the league can reject a potential match, the people said. The contractual wording is vague, and it’s unclear if the NBA has full discretion to walk away from Warner Bros. Discovery if it matches the bid, said the people.

If Warner Bros. Discovery decides to match, and the NBA moves to choose NBCUniversal’s offer, the sides may be headed for a lawsuit. Warner Bros. Discovery believes it’s fairly well protected by the contractual language, one of the people said.

Still, that remains hypothetical at this point. It’s possible Warner Bros. Discovery won’t match NBCUniversal’s bid, which would avoid potential conflict.

Some league officials are worried Warner Bros. Discovery’s balance sheet can’t handle spending $2.5 billion a year on the NBA, according to people familiar with the matter. Warner Bros. Discovery has a market valuation of about $20 billion and an enterprise value of about $60 billion, including $43.2 billion of gross debt, as of the end of the company’s fiscal first quarter. The company had a leverage ratio (net debt to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of 4.1.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has both publicly and privately preached the importance of financial discipline for the company.

NBCUniversal parent Comcast has a market capitalization of about $154 billion and an enterprise value of $244 billion. Comcast’s leverage ratio is about 2.5.

NBA officials are more comfortable Comcast can pay what would amount to more than double the previous price for the package, according to the people familiar to the matter.

Warner Bros. Discovery had been paying $1.2 billion per year to air NBA games. The new package also includes fewer games than the current one because the NBA is likely to introduce a third partner — most likely to be Amazon.

Spokespeople for Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA declined to comment.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Fox announced Thursday they plan to name their new sports streaming platform Venu, taking inspiration from where live sports are played. The new joint venture, one-third owned by each media company, will offer a bundle of sports networks and ESPN+ at a still to be determined price that’s less expensive than traditional cable. CNBC reported earlier this year the price could be around $45 or $50 a month. The service will debut in the fall, the companies have said.

The three companies haven’t yet formally signed paperwork on the venture as they await regulatory approval. If Warner Bros. Discovery loses the NBA, that will diminish the value of the service for consumers, as NBCUniversal and Amazon aren’t partners in the product.

Warner Bros. Discovery licenses the rights to other sports leagues and groups, including MLB, the NHL and the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s March Madness. The company will also have the NBA next year no matter what, as the new rights deal doesn’t kick in until the end of the 2024-25 season.

There’s been no discussion about shutting down the venture before it launches if Warner Bros. Discovery loses the NBA, according to a person familiar with the matter. Still, without the NBA, Disney and Fox would be contributing the lion’s share of sports content for the service. Disney’s ESPN and Fox own both college football and NFL packages, unlike Warner Bros. Discovery. The three companies plan to split revenue commensurate with the affiliate fees associated with their linear networks.

Warner Bros. Discovery could use the money it saves from not obtaining NBA rights to spend on other sports, such as more MLB games or bidding for UFC, which will likely begin renewal discussions with media companies in early 2025.

ESPN plans to launch its own “flagship” streaming service in the fall of 2025.

Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

WATCH: The root problem facing streamers is the lack of daily usage, says LightShed’s Greenfield

A former diversity manager at Facebook and Nike was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for stealing more than $5 million from those companies that had been earmarked for DEI initiatives, federal prosecutors said.

Georgia resident Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the case in December, stole more than $4.9 million from Facebook “utilizing a scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks,” Atlanta U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a statement.

“After being terminated from Facebook, she brazenly continued the fraud as a DEI leader at Nike, where she stole another six-figure sum from their diversity program,” Buchanan said.

Furlow-Smiles, 38, used the money she stole “to fund a luxury lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon,” according to Buchanan’s office, which had asked a judge to sentence her to 6½ years.

She was a lead strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Facebook, the subsidiary of Meta. She was not Facebook’s top executive for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Prosecutors said that while at Facebook she linked PayPal, Venmo and Cash App accounts to her Facebook credit cards and then used those accounts to pay her friends, relatives, and others for purported goods and services for the company that were never delivered.

“The vast majority of the money” that went to those other people was kicked back to Furlow-Smiles, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors in a sentencing memo said that Meta determined that Furlow-Smiles began the scheme within months of joining the company in 2017, and that an investigation found she had “manipulated individuals who were close to, and trusted her, including former interns,” who considered her a mentor.

After she was fired from Facebook in mid-2021, Furlow-Smiles worked for Nike from November of that year to February 2023 as senior director of diversity, equity & inclusion.

While there, she executed a theft scheme similar to the one she did at Facebook, prosecutors said.

Furlow-Smiles, who lives in Marietta, was sentenced Monday in Atlanta federal court. District Judge Steven Grimberg also ordered her to pay restitution of $4.98 million to Facebook, and another $121,000 to Nike.

Meta previously told CNBC that the company cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation of Furlow-Smiles, who must report to prison by July 22.

Prosecutors in their sentencing memo said that in addition to the money Furlow-Smiles stole from the company, Meta lost more than $4.5 million “in addition to other expenses, such as attorney’s fees, which were incurred as a result of Meta having to uncover and investigate her fraud scheme.”

“As Meta notes, ‘the harm from (Furlow-Smiles’) criminal conduct cannot be measured purely in financial terms,'” prosecutors recounted in their memo. “Her ‘crimes also resulted in anguish amongst those employees that worked closely with her.'”

Nike told prosecutors that she was “entrusted as a leader for (the) company, that she would embody the value of ‘Doing the Right Thing’ which is one of NIKE’s key maxims,” the prosecutor said in their memo. “As Nike explains, ‘

]]> https://www.seethereality.com/?feed=rss2&p=81435 0 https://www.seethereality.com/?p=81464 https://www.seethereality.com/?p=81464#respond Fri, 17 May 2024 10:36:20 +0000 https://www.seethereality.com/?p=81464

Drone point view of the Shanghai skyline at sunrise.

Aerialperspective Images | Moment | Getty Images

Asia-Pacific markets took a breather after rallying in the previous session, as investors await key China data to assess the state of the world’s second largest economy.

China data, including new house prices, urban unemployment and retail sales figures for April, is due later in the day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on a two-day state visit to China, said at a press conference that discussions had been “warm and comradely” and had shown the importance of the two countries’ relationship. 

Singapore will also release its non-oil domestic export figures for April, with NODX expected to fall 10% year on year.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 0.78% on open, while the broad-based Topix fell 0.33%.

South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.11% after the country’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.8% in April, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 1.66%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.49% at open.

Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 19,562, pointing to a stronger open compared to the HSI’s close of 19,376.53.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly lower, after briefly jumping above 40,000 for the first time.

The blue-chip index hit a high of 40,051.05. It had neared the 40,000 mark earlier this year before a slight April pullback on worries over high interest rates.

During the session, the S&P 500 also climbed to a new record after closing above the 5,300 level for the first time ever on Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also hit an all-time high.

The 30-stock Dow ended the day down 0.1% at 39,869.38. The S&P 500 fell 0.21%, while the Nasdaq Composite finished the day 0.26% lower.

— CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.