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CNBC Daily Open: High rates are still hobbling IPOs

Published

2 years ago

September 20, 2023

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Instacart gift cards are displayed at a Safeway store on August 28, 2023 in San Anselmo, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

What you need to know today

Downbeat markets
U.S. markets dipped and U.S. Treasury yields rose Tuesday as investors braced themselves for the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s meeting. Asia-Pacific markets fell Wednesday. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.26% as wholesale prices in August rose 1% year on year, the first time it’s risen since July 2022. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.73% as China left its loan prime rates unchanged.

Instacart delivered
Instacart shares rose 12.3% on their first day of trading, closing at $33.70. That gives the company a valuation of just over $11 billion. At its open, Instacart popped 40% to hit $42, but pared gains as investors sold off to lock in their initial gains. The stock also slid 2.73% in extended trading. Instacart gained over $420 million in cash in the offering.

No longer poised to be biggest economy?
China’s policies, such as its security clampdown earlier this year, have hurt its economy. Analysts who once predicted China would become the biggest economy globally are perplexed as to why the country’s blunting its own growth. Separately — but relatedly — China didn’t export any germanium and gallium in August after it instituted export curbs on those chipmaking metals.

Dwindling dependence
The oil market has depended on China for 20 years, said Facts Global Energy’s Chairman Fereidun Fesharaki. That reliance will soon come to an end. China’s demand for oil will peak in the next three to five years, predicted Fesharaki. Echoing that, Wood Mackenzie, an energy research group, expects China’s demand for oil to fall after 2027 as the country transitions to carbon neutrality.

[PRO] ‘Cheapest of all’ tech stocks
The Magnificent Seven stocks have driven much of the S&P’s growth this year. But they are notoriously expensive, in terms of their price-to-earnings ratio. Still, there’s one stock among them that’s the “cheapest of all the mega-cap names” — with durable long-term prospects to boot — according to a strategist.

The bottom line

Markets were in a downbeat mood ahead of today’s Federal Reserve policy decision. Major indexes closed Tuesday lower. The S&P 500 lost 0.22%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.31% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.23%.

Even excitement over Instacart’s debut on the Nasdaq was somewhat muted. Though the stock jumped 12.3% on its first day, its initial rally of 40% quickly fizzled out. And Arm, which fell 4.88% yesterday, is now 13% below its closing price on its first day of trading, when it surged 25%. The specter of high interest rates is still haunting the IPO market, especially for tech companies, whether startups or older companies with an established revenue stream.

The U.S. bond market slipped as well. Yields on the two-year Treasury are now at 5.092%, the highest since 2006, while it’s 4.365% on the 10-year, a level not seen since 2007. (When yields rise, bond prices drop.) Still, that doesn’t mean investors expect the Fed to raise rates today — they’re betting there’s only a 1% chance central bankers will do so, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Rather, rising yields on rate-sensitive Treasurys are a sign investors think interest rates could go higher at the Fed’s November meeting.

As Dylan Kremer, co-chief investment officer at wealth management firm Certuity, said, “What investors are looking for … is where are longer term expectations: Where is that terminal rate.”

There was a bright spot amid the gloominess yesterday. Oil prices finally took a breather and dipped slightly. West Texas Intermediate prices fell 0.31% and November contracts for Brent slipped 0.1%, breaking a three-day winning streak for both.

And analysts don’t expect spikes in oil prices to affect rate decisions. Simon MacAdam, senior global economist at Capital Economics, doesn’t think oil will cause “a sustained rebound inflation” or “cause central banks in advanced economies to respond with interest rate hikes.”

But hikes aren’t off the table, MacAdam warns. If oil prices continue rising against “a backdrop of resilient activity and rising inflation expectations,” central banks might spring into action. In less than 24 hours, we’ll see if the Fed shares the same sentiment.

Environment

Enphase debuts a new US off-grid solar and battery system

Published

2 hours ago

October 29, 2025

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Enphase debuts a new US off-grid solar and battery system

Enphase off-grid solar battery — Image: Enphase Energy

Enphase Energy just launched a new off-grid system that lets homeowners power their homes without a utility connection – even for extended periods. The California-based Enphase says the off-grid setup delivers a seamless way to live independently from the grid while still using solar, batteries, and a standby AC generator.

A full off-grid setup

The new system combines Enphase’s IQ Battery 5P with embedded grid-forming microinverters, IQ8 Series Microinverters with Sunlight JumpStart, and a third-party standby AC generator. The components work together to supply power to a home and automatically manage energy sources to maximize efficiency and reliability.

If the batteries are drained and the generator runs out of fuel, the Sunlight JumpStart feature can automatically recharge the batteries the next morning once the sun comes up.

The IQ Battery 5P delivers 3.84 kVA of power per 5 kWh of capacity, and systems can be scaled up to 40 kWh and 15.4 kVA. That’s enough power to start big household appliances like HVAC systems or water pumps. The IQ System Controller 3G provides the backbone, managing solar, batteries, and generator inputs to deliver up to 46 kVA of off-grid power.

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Smarter control and connectivity

Each system connects to the cloud through Enphase’s IQ Combiner 5C HDK, which bundles solar interconnection, communications, and metering into one box. For homes without reliable broadband, the built-in 4G LTE Cat 4 modem keeps the system online for monitoring, firmware updates, and remote support.

Homeowners can manage everything from the Enphase App – from solar generation and battery status to generator integration and load control.

Why it matters

As grid outages become more common and homeowners look for ways to gain energy independence, off-grid systems like this are becoming more appealing.

“With the launch of our off-grid solution, we are giving homeowners a reliable path to complete energy independence,” said Nitish Mathur, Enphase’s SVP of customer experience. Enphase says over 100 homes are already operating entirely off-grid using its technology. The company plans to expand availability beyond the US in 2026.

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Environment

Global offshore wind surges ahead as Trump sinks US progress

Published

4 hours ago

October 29, 2025

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Global offshore wind surges ahead as Trump sinks US progress

Global offshore wind targets are still strong enough to triple global capacity by 2030, despite the US’s offshore wind stagnation under Trump. A new analysis from energy think tank Ember and the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA) shows that the rest of the world is charging forward, underscoring confidence in offshore wind as a cornerstone of future clean energy systems.

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Environment

Tesla ‘Robotaxis’ keep crashing despite ‘safety monitors’

Published

4 hours ago

October 29, 2025

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Tesla 'Robotaxis' keep crashing despite 'safety monitors'

Based on the latest NHTSA report, Tesla’s ‘Robotaxis’ keep crashing in Austin, Texas, despite ‘safety monitors’ preventing an unknown number of crashes.

Under an NHTSA Standing General Order SGO, automakers are required to report crashes involving their autonomous driving (ADS) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) within five days of being notified of them.

For years, Tesla was only reporting ADAS crashes, since, despite the names of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, they are only considered level 2 driver assistance systems.

Since the launch of the Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, where Tesla moved the supervisor from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat, it has now reported its first few crashes under the ADS reporting.

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In the first month of operation in July, Tesla reported three crashes with its ‘Robotaxi’ service in Austin.

This week, NHTSA has updated its crash report and revealed a 4th crash that happened in September:

Report ID	Incident Date	Incident Time (24:00)	Make	Model	Model Year	Automation System Engaged?	Highest Injury Severity Alleged	Crash With	Roadway Type	Weather
13781-11687	SEP-2025	01:25	TESLA	Model Y	2026	ADS	Property Damage. No Injured Reported	Other Fixed Object	Parking Lot	Partly Cloudy

As we previously highlighted, when it comes to both ADS and ADAS crash reporting, Tesla abuses the redacting capacity and hides most information about its crashes, unlike most of its competitors.

Therefore, we don’t have much information about this new crash, but it reportedly occurred in a parking lot and involved a Tesla Robotaxi crashing into a “fixed object,” resulting in property damage.

What’s most interesting about this crash is that it comes as Tesla released the first bit of data about its Robotaxi program in Austin.

During its earnings call last week, Tesla confirmed that the Robotaxi fleet has traveled 250,000 miles since its launch in late June.

Therefore, Tesla Robotaxi currently crashes at a rate of about once every 62,500 miles. That’s with a safety monitor with a finger on a kill switch, ready to stop the vehicle at all times.

We have no data on how often Tesla’s safety monitors prevent crashes in its robotaxis.

For comparison, the NHTSA report lists 1,267 crashes involving Waymo vehicles. However, Waymo’s robotaxis have covered over 125 million fully driverless miles since inception. That’s a crash every 98,600 miles and without any onboard safety monitor.

Electrek’s Take

That’s the problem with comparing Tesla and Waymo.

At least we can now clearly see that Waymo’s incident rate is much lower than Tesla’s, but that’s with a safety monitor in Tesla robotaxis that prevents an untold number of crashes.

The actual difference could be 10x higher. We simply don’t know. Tesla has always refused to share any data regarding disengagement or intervention rates.

One thing is clear: Tesla is way behind Waymo in autonomous driving safety.

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