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Crude oil prices rise as Russia suspends exports to Europe through pipeline

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 15:35:44 GMT

Russia announced it is suspending crude oil exports through its Druzhba pipeline, leading to price increases.

The move cuts off the flow of oil to Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Russian pipeline operator Transneft blamed the situation on its counterpart in Ukraine, telling Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti that the Ukrainian company stopped the oil transport because of a problem with Russia's ability to pay.

Insider reported that Russia's failure to pay was a result of Western sanctions., and that a Transneft spokesperson said the pipeline's northern section will continue to function normally. That section of the pipeline provides oil to Poland and Germany via Belarus.

Soon after the announcement that the Ukrainian part of the pipeline would be halted, crude oil prices jumped, with Brent crude increasing 1.36% to nearly $98 a barrel, Insider reported. WTI crude went up 1.22%, reaching almost $92 a barrel.

UKRAINE TO DOUBLE ENERGY EXPORTS AMID RUSSIAN GAS CUTS TO EUROPE

The situation arose just two over weeks after Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom cut natural gas flow to Germany, reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just 20%.

The pipeline had reopened at 40% capacity a week earlier after being down for 10 days for scheduled maintenance. Gazprom blamed that situation on sanctions that held up the return of a turbine that had been sent to Canada for repairs in June.

UKRAINE TAPS EUROPEAN ENERGY MARKET AS KYIV BEGINS EXPORTING ELECTRICITY

Europe is heavily reliant on Russian energy, importing about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia.

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Meanwhile, Ukraine is looking to increase its energy exports to Europe. In July the country began supplying Slovakia, and Hungary and Moldova are expected to follow.

Fox Business's Paul Best and Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

Novavax tumbles 31% as waning COVID-19 vaccine demand hits revenue forecast

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 15:34:43 GMT

U.S. vaccine maker Novavax slumped nearly 31% on Tuesday as falling demand for its COVID-19 shot from low- and middle-income nations led the company to cut its annual revenue expectation by half.

Demand for its vaccine is also waning in the United States, where it was authorized for use among adults last month and was expected to be preferred by the skeptics of messenger RNA-based shots from Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc.

But only 7,381 Novavax vaccine doses have been administered so far in the country, with Chief Executive Stanley Erck saying that its late launch could have hampered demand.

The company now expects 2022 revenue between $2 billion and $2.3 billion, compared with its prior forecast of $4 billion to $5 billion when it was hoping to benefit from the demand for its shots as part of the COVAX vaccine sharing program.

NOVAVAX CEO CONTENDS COVID VACCINE IS 'MORE STABLE' THAN ALTERNATIVES, COULD REDUCE 'ALL DISEASE'

The forecast cut also dashes any hope of Novavax being able to garner a share of the market for the two-dose initial vaccination program, said Cowen analyst George Yordanov.

PFIZER AGREES TO $5.4B DEAL FOR GLOBAL BLOOD THERAPEUTICS

"We completely share and understand investors' frustration with management's execution and lack of accurate near-term guidance," he said in a note.

Analysts, however, expect the company to capture a small but meaningful share of a fast-developing market for COVID re-vaccinations.

FDA TARGETS DISTILLERS WHO MADE HAND SANITIZER DURING COVID

It could still be a 'viable COVID vaccine player in the future $5-10 billion market as it has shown comparable/better clinical profile vs mRNA vaccines, Jefferies analyst Roger Song said in a note.

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Novavax shares were trading lower at $39.30 before the bell. Rival Moderna Inc was also down about 3%. Earlier this month, it said gains from orders for new booster shots were offset by unallocated vaccines under the COVAX program.

Zales parent Signet Jewelers to buy online jewelry platform Blue Nile

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 14:44:13 GMT

Zales parent Signet Jewelers has agreed to buy online engagement ring and fine jewelry retailer Blue Nile for $360 million in cash as the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry looks to expand its bridal offerings and attract younger consumers.

The transaction will be funded with cash on hand and is currently expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. Signet had $927.6 million of cash and cash equivalents as of 30 April. According to the company, the deal will likely not be accretive until the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023.

Regulatory filings were made in July and the applicable waiting period has passed. However, the transaction is still subject to other customary closing conditions.

PFIZER AGREES TO $5.4B DEAL FOR GLOBAL BLOOD THERAPEUTICS

The deal will strategically position Blue Nile at the "top tier" of Signet's Accessible Luxury banners alongside Jared, James Allen and Diamonds Direct.

"Blue Nile is a pioneer and innovator in online engagement rings and fine jewelry, providing a unique and highly desirable shopping experience for customers," Signet CEO Virginia Drosos said in a statement. "Adding Blue Nile to our strong and diversified portfolio of banners will further drive our Inspiring Brilliance growth strategy — expanding customer choice, building new capabilities, and achieving meaningful operating synergies that will increase value for both our consumers and shareholders."

In 2021, Blue Nile delivered revenue of more than $500 million.

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The move comes as Signet has revised its guidance for the second quarter and full year 2023 after seeing sales soften in July due to soaring inflation.

"While our initial guidance for FY23 anticipated the impact of stimulus in the base period and the level of inflation that we were seeing at that time, we have seen a further deterioration in consumer spending, including at higher price points, in July," Signet chief financial and strategy officer Joan Hilson explained in a statement. "Assuming this trend will persist in the back half of the year, we are modestly reducing our FY23 guidance."

Signet is forecasting preliminary second quarter revenue of approximately $1.75 billion and non-GAAP operating income of approximately $192 million. The Wall Street estimate is $1.78 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Meanwhile, total revenue for fiscal 2023 is currently expected to fall within the range of $8.03 billion and $8.25 billion and non-GAAP operating income between $921 million and $974 million.

The guidance does not include the pending acquisition of Blue Nile or a further material worsening of macroeconomic factors that could impact consumer spending.

Shares of Signet have tumbled more than 27% year to date.

Fed considers full-percentage point rate hike, CPI, PPI, earnings reports and more: Tuesday's 5 things to know

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 07:59:32 GMT

Here are five key things that could impact Tuesday's trading.

CRUSHING INFLATION SOLUTION?: The scorching-hot July jobs report raises the risk of a full-percentage point interest rate increase when the Federal Reserve meets in September as policymakers try to crush inflation and cool the labor market, according to Citigroup economists.

Citigroup strategists, led by Andrew Hollenhorst, wrote in a Monday analyst note that the surprisingly strong jobs report, coupled with faster-than-expected wage growth, could "make a 75 basis-point hike in September very likely and raise the potential for further super-sized increases."

A 100 basis-point increase would be the first of its size since the Fed started announcing moves in the overnight federal funds rate in 1994 and would put the benchmark range between 3.25% and 3.50%.

US ECONOMY ADDS 528,000 JOBS IN JULY, BLOWING PAST EXPECTATIONS

"Our base case remains for a 75 basis-point hike in September, but we would not be too surprised by a 100 basis-point hike if core inflation comes in stronger than expected," he wrote.

U.S. employers unexpectedly added 528,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said Friday, a surprisingly strong gain that defied fears of a slowdown in labor markets as they confront scorching-hot inflation and rising interest rates. Wage growth also accelerated, surging by 0.5% in the one-month period from June.

But the blowout jobs report, coupled with higher-than-expected wage growth, could ultimately pave the way to a third consecutive interest rate hike of 75 basis points – triple the usual size – when Fed policymakers meet in September.

Traders are already pricing in a 70% chance of another super-sized increase in the fall, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, which tracks trading.

Policymakers approved the second straight 75 basis-point hike in July and hinted in their post-meeting statement that additional increases are likely in the coming months as they remain "strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2% objective."

Chairman Jerome Powell said during his post-meeting press conference that another 75 basis-point hike could be appropriate in the future, but that it ultimately hinges on upcoming economic data. That includes the July jobs report and forthcoming reports on inflation and consumer expectations regarding inflation.

ELLISON SUBPOENAED IN TWITTER LAWSUIT: Twitter has subpoenaed Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison in the social media company's lawsuit to try to force Tesla CEO Elon Musk to follow through with his $44 billion purchase, Bloomberg News reports.

According to Twitter's original lawsuit, Ellison was the largest outside investor in the deal, committing $1 billion to the purchase.

Musk originally made the $44 billion offer to take Twitter private in April but tried to pull out of the deal last month, claiming that the platform misled his team about the number of "spam" accounts in its user base.

ELON MUSK'S REAL BEEF WITH TWITTER REVEALED

Twitter sued Musk to force the deal to go through, calling Musk’s argument "a story, imagined in an effort to escape a merger agreement that Musk no longer found attractive."

Musk, the richest man in the world with a net worth of $266 billion, according to Forbes, publicly challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to "a public debate about the Twitter bot percentage."

"If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms," Musk tweeted on Saturday. "However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not."

Twitter has also subpoenaed an official at the trust controlled by Ellison that committed the $1 billion to the deal, Bloomberg reports.

CPI, PPI REPORTS: Inflation is the big macro focus this week with the release of the July CPI and PPI reports.

Expectations that inflation cooled last month helped send stocks sharply higher in July, handing the major averages their best month since 2020.

However, after Friday’s unexpectedly strong July jobs report, any upside surprises could aggravate fears about aggressive Fed tightening, and likely send bond yields higher and stocks lower.

On Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. ET, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to say the consumer price index rose a slight 0.2% month-over-month in July. That’s down sharply from June’s 1.3% spike. On a year-over-year basis watch for prices to soar 8.7% in July, easing back from June’s much hotter-than-expected 9.1% surge, the highest inflation rate in almost 41 years (since November 1981).

If you factor out volatile food and energy costs, the core consumer price index is anticipated to rise 0.5%, backing off a one-year high of 0.7% in June. Annually, core CPI is forecast to spike 6.1% in July. That would be the highest since April and snap a 3-month streak of slowing growth after March’s 6.5% spike, the highest in almost 40 years (since August 1982).

On Thursday, BLS will report wholesale inflation data for July. The producer price index is expected to inch up 0.2% month-over-month according to Refinitiv forecasts, well below June’s 1.1% spike and a record 1.6% surge in March (series goes back to December 2009).

Year-over-year, prices paid by wholesalers are anticipated to jump 10.4% in July, trailing June’s hotter-than-expected 11.3% surge which was the second-highest on record after an 11.6% spike in March (the final demand index goes back to November 2010).

If you exclude food and energy costs, core producer prices are anticipated to rise 0.4% monthly in July, matching June’s increase. Year-over-year look for core PPI to jump 7.6% in July, the fourth month of slowing growth after a record 9.6% surge in March (data go back to April 2011).

EARNINGS SEASON CONTINUES: Food distributor Sysco Corp. will kick off a busy day for second-quarter earnings when it reports Tuesday morning.

Also watch for numbers from electrical equipment maker Emerson Electric, music and entertainment play Warner Music Group, fashion favorites Ralph Lauren and Capri Holdings and a trio of travel-related names: Hyatt Hotels, Hilton Grand Vacations and Norwegian Cruise Line.

In the afternoon we’ll hear from two more travel plays: Spirit Airlines and Wynn Resorts.

Also watch for results from media and internet firm IAC/InterActive, tax preparation powerhouse H&R Block, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, computing company Akamai Technology and video game maker Roblox among others.

Nearly 90% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported April-through-June results, with earnings and revenue numbers coming in far ahead of lowered expectations.

PRODUCTIVITY, LABOR REPORTS: At 8:30 a.m. ET Tuesday, we’ll get preliminary second quarter productivity and labor costs.

Economists surveyed by Refinitiv anticipate that worker productivity fell for a second straight quarter, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -4.7%. That compares with a plunge of 7.3% in the first quarter, the steepest dive since 1947.

Weak worker productivity makes it harder for the Fed to tame inflation without tipping the economy into a recession.

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Meantime, unit labor costs are seen jumping 9.5% in the second quarter. That would be down significantly from 12.6% in the first quarter, the highest annualized growth rate in eight years (since 1Q 2014).

What's behind market activity post Senate Dems' passage of social spending, tax bill?

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 18:48:47 GMT

UBS Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager Jason Katz explained why he believes markets weren’t tumbling on Monday after the Senate passed the Democrats' social spending and taxation bill following a marathon "vote-a-rama" session that lasted more than 15 hours.

The passage of the bill is the culmination of more than a year of intra-party negotiations among Democrats trying to pass a party-line bill. They used a process called budget reconciliation, which allows them to get around the Senate filibuster, to move forward.

Despite the bill’s passage, which includes more than $400 billion in spending and more than $700 billion in taxes, U.S. stocks moved higher on Monday morning.

Speaking on "Varney & Co." on Monday, Katz argued that he believes markets are "really absorbing the job numbers in terms of how the Fed may react to it," calling it "really good news." He also noted that, while the runway for a soft landing may have shortened, "a crash landing is probably avoidable."

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On Friday it was revealed that U.S. job growth unexpectedly accelerated in July, defying fears of a slowdown in hiring even as the labor market confronts the twin threats of scorching-hot inflation and rising interest rates.

Employers added 528,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday, blowing past the 250,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, edged down to 3.5%, the lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago.

The expectation now with a strong jobs report is that the Fed will continue to take aggressive action to try and curb inflation, which remains at four-decade highs, according to the data for June released last month — which, at the beginning of the year, reduced investor appetite to hold assets perceived as higher risk.

It was revealed last month that the U.S. economy experienced two consecutive quarters of negative GDP, which constitutes the technical definition of a recession.

The Federal Reserve has been moving to tighten policy at the fastest pace in three decades. Policymakers already approved a 75-basis point rate increase in both June and July. Markets experienced turbulence during the first half of the year as investors ingested economic data and priced in several rate hikes by the Federal Reserve as the central bank tries to curb persistent inflation.

Katz argued on Monday that markets aren’t overreacting given "there’s a perception out there that this spending bill is not as onerous as ‘Build Back Better' was."

"The 15% minimum corporate tax rate isn’t the 28% we all feared when the Democrats took control," he said.

Democrats initially tried to advance a "Build Back Better" bill worth more than $3 trillion last year. The new version of the bill, called the "Inflation Reduction Act," is significantly scaled back from that.

Katz added that the bill doesn’t present a change to "carried interest," noting that there are people who believe that will "motivate these private equity funds to deploy capital and the economy."

The portfolio manager also pointed out that the bill includes a 1% tax on corporate buybacks for most publicly-listed companies.

"There’s those that argue it doesn’t have a material impact on corporate earnings," he told host Stuart Varney. "I would argue otherwise."

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"I’ll tell you this: I think one of the biggest reasons for the rally today is there’s a scramble in corporate boardrooms to get those buybacks in now before that tax goes up," he said.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson and FOX Business’ Megan Henney contributed to this report.

Disney World prices surge 3,871% over 50 years, chart shows

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 16:47:30 GMT

Data from a chart posted online indicates that ticket prices for Walt Disney World have gone up by at least 3,871% since it first opened in 1971.

An animated chart posted on TikTok by the user piechartpirate shows the increases over the passage of time, showing how it greatly outpaces increases in wages, rent, and gas prices.

The chart not only shows the years that go by as the prices at the Orlando, Florida, attraction changed, it also notes when various financial crises occurred, such as the 1973 oil crisis, 2008 global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. For almost the entire time, prices climbed upward, at steep rates.

The chart made one TikTok user nostalgic.

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"I remember going to Disney for spring break in 1989," they commented. "My FL resident ticket was $19."

Another user, however, noted that the market has supported the increases, with lines remaining long at Disney World despite the higher price of admission.

"Basic supply and demand," they said.

The account belongs to Sjoerd Tilmans of SJ Data Visualizations, a UK-based firm. The chart, which appears to have been posted in October 20121. Naturally, it does not account for price increases since it went up, and there have been reported increases for 2022 and already for single-day tickets for 2023.

Fox Business reached out to Disney for comment on the chart but they did not immediately respond.

The chart shows that prices began rising at a more drastic rate in the early 1980s. In an email to Fox Business, Tilmans explained why that could be the case.

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"One thing I found out later is that WDW changed their pricing structure in 1982, they stopped charging for the rides in that year," he said. He also noted that he posted a new version of the chart on Instagram that only starts with 1983.

The chart also does not indicate what the basis is for figures used to compare wages, rent, and gas prices. In an email to Fox Business, Tilmans said he based those amounts on "averages for the USA." He used gas prices from creditdonkey.com, rent prices from ipropertymanagement.com, and wages from the U.S. Social Security website at ssa.gov.

Palantir shares drop by 15% after lowering their expected revenue forcast

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 15:57:59 GMT

Palantir Technologies Inc lowered its annual revenue forecast to below market estimates after the data analytics software company reported a surprise quarterly loss on Monday, sending its shares down 15%.

The company had to temper its revenue forecast as the timing of some government contracts remained uncertain, Chief Executive Alexander Karp said, calling the uncertainty "frustrating."

The large size of the government awards and the long-drawn procurement procedure make the contracts so unpredictable, Chief Financial Officer David Glazer said. Meanwhile, the company also forecast third-quarter revenue below Street estimates.

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Palantir was co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel in 2003 to help with U.S. counter-terrorism operations, but has since diversified to commercial business, and now derives almost half its sales from the private sector.

But the company's international business, which makes up roughly 40% of its sales, was hit by foreign exchange headwinds, Glazer said.

RBC Capital Markets Rishi Jaluria said it could be tough for Palantir to sell big deals with long sales cycles to corporations as businesses are increasingly scrutinizing their IT budgets amid macro uncertainty.

Palantir expects total revenue for the full year between $1.9 billion and $1.902 billion, or a growth of about 23%, compared with the 30% or more growth forecast earlier. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.96 billion.

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On an adjusted basis, the company lost 1 cent per share in the second quarter, which was in part due to Palantir's investments in SPACs, according to Glazer. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 3 cents per share, according to Refinitiv data.

Quarterly revenue rose 26% to $473 million.

Stuart Varney: This is what you get when you stick with capitalism

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 15:55:16 GMT

During his latest "My Take," "Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney discussed the greatness of the bull market that started 40 years ago this week, arguing this is what you get when you "stick with capitalism."

STUART VARNEY: Forty years ago this week, the great bull market began. What a run it’s been!

It was on August 12th. 1982, the Dow closed at 776.69.

For years, stock prices had gone nowhere. Investors were more interested in bonds. And why not? Triple "A" rated corporate paid more than 10%.

But then, things changed.

BIDEN 'BRAGGING' ABOUT ECONOMY WHILE FED GOES IN 'OPPOSITE DIRECTION' OF TAMING INFLATION: ANDY PUZDER

Interest rates started to fall, and kept on falling. Inflation came down, and until recently, virtually disappeared. Newly created 401(k)s and IRA's pumped enormous amounts of new money into stocks.

And gradually, the market rallied. True there were gut-wrenching selloffs with the crash of '87, the financial crisis of '08 and the pandemic shock in 2020. But by January of this year, the Dow had moved to 36,799.65.

47 times higher than 40 years ago.

FED WILL ‘ABSOLUTELY’ RAISE INTEREST RATES IN SEPTEMBER WITH FOCUS TO LOWER INFLATION: SF FED PRES MARY DALY

I don't know whether the great bull run is over. But the landscape has changed.

Interest rates are going up.

Inflation has come back.

The Federal Reserve is going to stop printing money, and that’s not good for stocks.

And, like it or not, socialism, the exact opposite of prosperity, has made an unwelcome return...

But let’s not dwell on the negatives...we've all had a great run. One hundred million Americans have a stake in the stock market. And we are collectively much more prosperous than 40 years ago. That’s what you get when you stick with capitalism.

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SoftBank reports record $23B quarterly loss as tech downturn hits

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 13:51:46 GMT

Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. on Monday reported a record quarterly loss of more than $23 billion after its Vision Fund investments suffered from the global selloff in technology shares.

The April-June loss was about 1 1/2 times the previous record set just three months earlier in the January-March quarter.

The weak results reflect the fall in technology shares around the globe recently, sparked by interest-rate increases and China's crackdown on tech companies.

Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and DoorDash Inc., two U.S. companies in which SoftBank has invested, fell more than 40% during the April-June quarter. SoftBank said its Vision Fund 1 has fully exited its position in Uber.

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SoftBank rushed to plow its money into tech startups last year, seeing new opportunities in businesses such as finance and health that were changing in the pandemic era. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son and his team invested $38 billion from SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 into 183 companies last year, according to SoftBank's filings.

On Monday, Mr. Son said he got overexcited during the period when tech valuations were booming. "When we were turning out big profits, I became somewhat delirious, and looking back at myself now, I am quite embarrassed and remorseful," he said.

In May, as the losses from those investments began to emerge, Mr. Son said he was switching to a defensive policy.

He said Monday that SoftBank's Vision Funds approved about $600 million in investments in the April-June quarter, down from a peak of $20.6 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. He said the caution would continue, even though the market's decline may make some companies a bargain.

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"Now seems like the perfect time to invest when the stock market is down so much, and I have the urge to do so, but if I act on it, we could suffer a blow that would be irreversible, and that is unacceptable," he said.

SoftBank said it turned some of its older investments into cash to shore up its finances. It said it raised $10.49 billion using its shares in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. SoftBank used what it calls prepaid forward contracts, in which it gets cash upfront from its lenders and promises to settle the contract later either with cash or with Alibaba shares.

SoftBank reports its results in yen. The net loss in the April-June quarter was Yen3.16 trillion, equivalent to $23.4 billion at the current exchange rate. That compares with a net loss of Yen2.1 trillion in the January-March quarter. For SoftBank's full fiscal year ended March 31, it reported a loss of Yen1.71 trillion, a record annual figure, equivalent to $12.7 billion at the current rate.

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SoftBank's shares have been steady recently and rose 0.7% on Monday in Tokyo trading, which ended before the release of the results.

Papa John's John Schnatter says company has lost its way after abandoning 'conservative values'

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 13:50:34 GMT

Papa John's founder and ex-chairman John Schnatter had strong words for his former company, claiming that they have abandoned the "principles" he followed when he ran it, and that they have suffered as a result.

In an interview with the Right Side Broadcasting Network at CPAC in Dallas, Texas, last week, Schnatter said he "built the whole company on conservative values" that have since been ignored.

"I think they've really lost their way," Schnatter said. "It used to be an operational-driven company. Now it’s a lawyer, PR-driven company. They don’t run their company on principles and values."

Schnatter went on to claim that the pizza company's performance has taken a hit as a result.

PAPA JOHN'S FOUNDER KNOCKS HOSTILE BIDEN POLICY: ‘NO WAY’ PIZZA CHAIN COULD HAVE STARTED UNDER BIDENOMICS

"They’re losing traffic, they’re losing customers. I think the traffic count’s less than what it was when I was there six years ago. Over 40% of the stores are losing money," he said.

Schnatter said that under his leadership, Papa John's – now known as "Papa Johns" – was rated by the American Customer Satisfaction Index as "the highest quality in the pizza category" 18 times in 19 years.

"They now are down with Little Caesar's," he said, taking a shot at a competing brand. "So the thing has really got away from them."

He added: "If you don’t have that quality, you don’t have that service, and you don’t have that culture, you’re asking for, you know, a bad day at the office."

PAPA JOHNS DISTANCES ITSELF FURTHER FROM FOUNDER SCHNATTER IN BRAND REFRESH

Schnatter, who is still a shareholder of the company, said that he "built the whole company on conservative values," which he said included "two of the most critical attributes: truth and God."

Schnatter stepped down as company chairman in 2018 after it was reported that he used the N-word during a conference call. Now he claims he was a victim of "cancel culture" and "had a giant target on my back" because he exemplified the American dream.

"We used to say the pledge of allegiance to the country before meetings. We ran our business on principles. We had the highest quality, we had the best service, we had the best culture, we were voted the best place to work in Kentucky," Schnatter said. "Papa John’s debunked every single element on the Left’s ideology. so unbeknownst to me I had a giant target on my back just by being the American dream and the folks around me living the American dream."

Fox Business reached out to Schnatter for additional comments and to Papa Johns for a response to Schnatter's claims, but neither immediately responded.

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The company has recently been distancing itself from Schnatter. In addition to rebranding as "Papa Johns" without the apostrophe, the company has changed its logo and introduced redesigned stores.