Oil prices are hovering around 10-month highs, as a stout summer rally extends into the fall and delivers additional gains for the Club’s energy stocks, Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) and Coterra Energy (CTRA). And Jim Cramer believes it’s not too late to buy either of them. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, has jumped 32% since its lows of the summer on June 12, to nearly $89 a barrel. Meanwhile, global oil standard Brent crude has climbed 28%, to around $92 a barrel. Both WTI and Brent on Tuesday settled at their highest levels since November. Over the same stretch since June 12, Pioneer stock has risen 17.1%, while Coterra gained 16.4%. That makes them the fifth and sixth best-performing Club stocks during that time — ahead of artificial intelligence winner Nvidia (NVDA), but behind pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly (LLY). Coterra on Tuesday closed at its highest level of the year, at $28.47 per share. Pioneer is about 3% off its 2023 peak of $243 per share, reached on Sept. 5. “I think that it is not too late to buy either of these,” Jim Cramer noted on Tuesday. The rise in oil prices largely boils down to a mismatch between supply and demand. Production cuts from major oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Russia have contributed to tighter supplies at a time when major economies have remained healthier than expected. Indeed, prices took a major leg higher last week after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they’d extend through year-end their voluntary output reductions of a combined 1.3 million barrels per day. This week’s move in crude was helped by a new report from the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries , which projected that oil demand will grow by 2.25 million barrels per day in 2024, citing economic resiliency. Saudi Arabia is the de-facto leader of OPEC. Russia is the oil cartel’s largest partner producer in an expanded group known as OPEC+ . The current backdrop may keep oil prices supported through the fall, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s short-term outlook published Tuesday . Citing Saudi Arabia’s production-cut extension and an expected further drawdown of global oil inventories, the government statistics agency forecasted Brent crude will average around $93 a barrel in the fourth quarter, less than 1% above where it settled Tuesday. If higher oil prices – and by extension fuel prices – are sustained in the coming months, the investment implications may be somewhat mixed. On one hand, Pioneer and Coterra would likely generate more free cash flow than in the first half of 2023 , which could lead to increased share repurchases and higher dividend payouts — key reasons investors like us are in the stocks. On the other hand, it may complicate the Federal Reserve’s efforts to squash inflation through higher interest rates. For much of this year, the downward trend in oil prices contributed to lower year-over-year inflation readings . Now, “oil is the wildcard” that might prompt the U.S. central bank to rethink policy and raise interest rates more aggressively than previously thought necessary, according to Jim. In the Labor Department’s monthly consumer price index report for August, released Wednesday, higher gasoline prices were responsible for more than half of the headline 0.6% month-over-month increase. Currently, the Fed is expected leave interest rates unchanged between 5.25% and 5.5% at its meeting next week, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool . The Fed had paused raising interest rates in June, before instituting another quarter-percentage-point increase in July — the central bank’s 11th rate hike in 17 months. There was no policy decision in August. Put another way, our energy exposure’s role as an inflation hedge – on display throughout 2022 following the crude-price surge tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of that year – may become more apparent. And it adds to the attractiveness of owning Pioneer and Coterra here. Jim sees additional upside for both. Pioneer’s stock is less than 2% higher than where it traded back in April, in the days following a “bogus” report that Exxon Mobil (XOM) held talks to acquire the Club holding, Jim pointed out. Shares of Pioneer “should be much higher,” he said, noting the potential for more robust capital returns due to higher oil prices. Plus, he said, Pioneer’s natural-gas offerings are another potential plus for the stock. “I hadn’t figured it would matter that much, but any increase in nat-gas prices could be an added benefit,” he said. Coterra offers a quality mix between crude and natural-gas exposure. While natural gas prices are dramatically lower than a year go, the commodity has gained in recent months. And it’s currently riding a four-day winning streak, settling Tuesday at $2.743 per million British thermal units. That has helped Coterra shares. But Jim said the stock has still yet to break out in a meaningful way. “There’s more room to run,” he said. “I could see the stock busting through the $30 level.” (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long PXD and CTRA . See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
An oil pump jack in Great Plains, southeastern Wyoming.
Marli Miller | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Oil prices are hovering around 10-month highs, as a stout summer rally extends into the fall and delivers additional gains for the Club’s energy stocks, Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) and Coterra Energy (CTRA). And Jim Cramer believes it’s not too late to buy either of them.
More than $14 billion in US renewable and EV investments and 10,000 new jobs have been scrapped or put on hold since January, according to a new analysis from E2 and the Clean Economy Tracker. The reason: growing fears that the Republican-majority Congress will pull the plug on federal clean energy tax credits.
In April alone, companies backed out of $4.5 billion in battery, EV, and wind projects right before the House passed a sweeping tax and spending bill that would gut the federal tax incentives fueling the clean energy boom. E2 also found another $1.5 billion in previously unreported project cancellations from earlier in the year.
Now, with the Senate preparing to take up the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” E2 says over 10,000 clean energy jobs have already vanished.
“If the tax plan passed by the House last week becomes law, expect to see construction and investments stopping in states across the country as more projects and jobs are cancelled,” said Michael Timberlake, E2’s communications director. “Businesses are now counting on Congress to come to its senses and stop this costly attack on an industry that is essential to meeting America’s growing energy demand and that’s driving unprecedented economic growth in every part of the country.”
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Ironically, it’s Republican-led congressional districts – the biggest beneficiaries of the Biden administration’s clean energy tax credits passed in 2022 – that are feeling the most pain. So far, more than $12 billion in investments and over 13,000 jobs have been canceled in GOP districts.
Through April, 61% of all clean energy projects, 72% of jobs, and 82% of investments have been in Republican districts.
Despite the rising number of cancellations, some companies are still forging ahead. In April, businesses announced nearly $500 million in new clean energy investments across six states. That includes a $400 million expansion by Corning in Michigan to make solar wafers, which is expected to create at least 400 jobs, and a $9.3 million investment from a Canadian solar equipment company in North Carolina.
If completed, the seven projects announced last month could create nearly 3,000 permanent jobs.
To date, E2 has tracked 390 major clean energy projects across 42 states and Puerto Rico since the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August 2022. In total, companies plan to invest $132 billion and hire 123,000 permanent workers.
But the report warns that momentum could grind to a halt if the House tax plan becomes law. Since the clean energy tax credits were signed into law, 45 announced projects have been canceled, downsized, or closed entirely, wiping out nearly 20,000 jobs and $16.7 billion in investments.
What’s more, Trump’s Department of Energy announced today that it was killing more than $3.7 billion in funding for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and decarbonization initiatives. Eighteen out of 24 projects were awarded through DOE’s Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP), which was made law in the Inflation Reduction Act. It aimed to strengthen the economic competitiveness of US manufacturers in global markets demanding lower carbon emissions, while supporting US manufacturing jobs and communities.
Executive Director Jason Walsh of the BlueGreen Alliance said in a statement in response to today’s DOE announcement:
The awarded projects that DOE is seeking to kill are concentrated in rural areas and red states. American manufacturers are hungry to partner with the federal government to bolster US industry. The IDP saw $60 billion worth of applications during the program selection process, a ten-times oversubscription.
President Trump claims to be a champion of American manufacturing, but today’s announcement is further evidence that he and his Secretary of Energy are liars.
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A Tesla prototype was spotted at the Fremont factory in California, sparking speculation that it’s the new “cheaper Tesla”, but it looks like a regular Model Y.
A drone operator flew over the Fremont factory this week and spotted a Tesla prototype with light camouflage on the front and back ends.
The vehicle is making a lot of people talk on social media and the media as many think it could be a new “affordable model” coming to Tesla.
Other than the camouflage, the vehicle looks just like a regular Model Y:
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It’s likely one of two things: a new “stripped-down Model Y” or a Model Y Performance.
Model Y Performance is the only version that Tesla hasn’t launched since the design changeover earlier this year.
The “stripped-down Model Y” is what will replace Tesla’s upcoming “affordable models.”
We have been reporting on this new vehicle program from Tesla for a while now.
It came to life just over a year ago as a pivot for Tesla after CEO Elon Musk canceled two cheaper vehicles that Tesla was working on, commonly referred as “the $25,000 Tesla”. Those vehicles were codenamed NV91 and NV92, and they were based on the new vehicle platform that Tesla is now reserving for the Cybercab.
Instead, Musk saw that Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y production lines were starting to be underutilized as Tesla faced demand issues. Therefore, Tesla canceled the vehicles program based on the new platform and decided to build new vehicles on Model 3/Y platform using the same production lines.
We previously reported that these electric vehicles will likely look very similar to Model 3 and Model Y.
In recent months, several other media reports reinforced that, and Tesla all but confirmed it during its latest earnings call.
Considering this looks like a regular Model Y, it could be the new cheaper and less feature rich Model Y:
Some people are claiming that this vehicle looks smaller than the Model Y, but it’s difficult to tell as the black camouflage on the ends can confuse the eye.
It looks like a very similar size when it passes near other Tesla vehicles:
What do you think it is? Let us know in the comment section below.
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San Francisco-based founder Ahmed Shubber wants to emulate Elon Musk’s success in the electric construction equipment world – and he hopes his new, 32-ton electric bulldozer is enough to make the world sit up and take notice.
Since launching his company, Lumina, in 2021, Shubber has raised more than $8 million and grown the company’s global (!?) headcount to 26 people. That fruit of that team’s labor is the machine seen here. Dubbed “Moonlander,” the first-of-its-kind prototype occupies the physical footprint of something like a Caterpillar D6, but packs the blade and performance of the larger, more powerful Cat D9.
“A D6 could not push that blade,” David Wright, Lumina’s head of UK operations, told the assembled media at the Moonlander’s launch last week. “We can have that blade full of material, full dozing seven to nine cubic meters of material, for eight to 10 hours.”
“Even if you spend all morning heavy dozing and you’re a bit worried about how much juice you’ve used — well, your operators are going to take a union-mandated lunch break, right?” asks Wright. “Plug it in, and in 30 minutes, you’ve put 50% of power back in again.”
Shubber says Lumina is working to raise from $20-40 million for its Series A round to develop the company’s next electric equipment asset: a 100-ton electric excavator called Blade Runner. And, in a truly Tesla-like fashion, Shubber says he’s on track to hit an ambitious $100 million revenue target sometime in the next 24 months.
We’ll see how that unfolds in 2 year’s time, I guess. In the meantime, check out this Lumina promo video for Moonlander, below, then let us know what you think of Shuber’s take on an electric job site in the comments.
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