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Snow covers the Charging Bull sculpture in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S., December 17, 2020.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

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

Hot markets
U.S. markets continued their winning streak Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average scaled a new peak, while the S&P 500’s just 0.6% away from surpassing its record close in January 2022. Asia-Pacific stocks rose Wednesday. But mainland China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.46% as the country’s central bank left its one- and five-year loan prime rates unchanged for the fourth straight month.

More Alibaba shakeup
Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu will be assuming the role of CEO of the company’s Taobao and Tmall e-commerce business, the company announced Wednesday. Wu will be replacing Trudy Dai, who’s one of the 18 cofounders of Alibaba and will be helping to establish an asset management company, according to an internal letter seen by CNBC.

Failed delivery
FedEx shares sank more than 9% in extended trading after the company said it expects its revenue for the fiscal year to decline by a low single digit. That’s below FedEx’s initial forecast for sales to remain flat year over year, and likely worse than analysts’ expectation of less than a 1% drop in revenue. The company’s adjusted earnings per share for the current quarter also disappointed.

VC funding’s returning
This year has been rather barren in terms of venture capital funding in Asia-Pacific, according to a report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company. Funding in the region dropped to $20.3 billion in the third quarter, the lowest since the first quarter of 2017. But venture capital firms expect fundraising to pick up next year — for tech firms that demonstrate “clear” paths to profitability, the report said.

[PRO] Energy boost
Energy stocks are the only sector left out of November’s stock market rally. And the International Energy Agency expects oil demand to slow down in 2024, suggesting that the outlook for the energy sector isn’t that bright. But one portfolio strategist’s bucking the trend, and is bullish on energy stocks’ long-term prospects.

The bottom line

You can almost hear the bulls charging in. In June, the S&P 500 rose 20% from its lows, causing many to claim the start of a new bull market. But the ostensible bull market then was still missing a crucial ingredient: Setting a new high.

Six months later, that’s where the markets are headed. The S&P rose 0.59% Tuesday to close at 4,768.37, putting it just 0.6% away from its record close in January 2022.

Investors appear to be anticipating all-time highs. Or perhaps “anticipating” is too mild a word — they seem to be clamoring to be part of that historical event. The SPDR S&P 500 Trust, an ETF that tracks the broad-based index, reported inflows of more than $20 billion on Monday.

“While we can’t say there is a clear correlation between significant inflows and performance, that size is notable and perhaps speaks to a ‘get me in’ mentality?” wrote BTIG technical strategist Jonathan Krinsky.

And if the S&P does indeed notch a new high in the upcoming days (and it seems more likely than not), there’s a good chance the index could rally even further, according to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

“Essentially, we have seen every move above that prior bear market level to be positive,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “It’s not as if we then just turned right around immediately and ended up selling off.”

The other major indexes had a good day as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.68%, continuing its streak of setting fresh highs, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.66% to close above the 15,000 level for the first time since January 2022.

“This bias of buying stocks is taking hold,” said Kim Forrest, founder at Bokeh Capital Partners. “And unless news changes it, we’re probably going to drift higher every single day because of it.”

It seems the metaphorical bulls (and a literal one!) are, indeed, taking the street by storm.

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EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus exclusive offer at $535, Hoverfly foldable e-bike $423, Anker 90K mAh power station $198, more

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EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus exclusive offer at 5, Hoverfly foldable e-bike 3, Anker 90K mAh power station 8, more

We’re kicking off a new week here with a nice roundup of power station, e-bike, and other various markdowns in today’s edition of Green Deals. For starters, we’ve unpacked an exclusive offer on EcoFlow’s mid-range DELTA 3 Plus portable power station at $535, but you can also find the rather affordable Hoverfly foldable H3 e-bike as low as $423, and that’s alongside Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh LiFePO4 power station at $198, but don’t sleep on that one because it expires at the end of the day.

Head below for more and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Exclusive: Here’s one of the best prices to date on EcoFlow’s mid-range DELTA 3 Plus portable power station at $535

We have secured an exclusive discount on the EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus 1024Wh LiFePO4 Portable Power Station today for 9to5toys readers. Coming courtesy of the folks at Wellbots, using code 9TO5D3P at checkout will drop your total down to $534.65 shipped. Regularly listed at $799 directly from EcoFlow where it is currently marked down to $598, today’s deal delivers up to $264 in savings and the lowest price we can find.

For further comparison, this model is currently being sold for $699 on the EcoFlow Amazon storefront where the previous few deals had it sitting down at $616. We are also looking at a price drop that undercuts our previous exclusive discount from back in early February that had this model sitting down at $541.

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EcoFlow’s DELTA 3 Plus first landed on Amazon back in September 2024 to deliver a mid-range portable power supply ready to handle both emergency situations and the modest off-grid setup you might have planned for this summer.

Carrying a 1,024Wh LiFePO4, it features an 1800W AC output, 2200W (surge 3600W) with X-Boost alongside five methods of recharging (AC, Solar, 800W Alternator Charger, Smart Generator 3000 (Dual Fuel), Multicharging) and as many years of coverage on the included 5-year warranty.

For me these power stations have always been as much about peace of mind as they are useful on the campsite. Just knowing I’ve come some serious battery power at the ready just in case of the worse at home is equally as valuable to me as the portable power action, and more than worth the price of entry. With this in mind, this model in particular sits right in that sweet spot for me – enough to handle some tech out in the wild and more than enough to me through power outages and the like.

Amazon takes Hoverfly’s foldable H3 e-bike with up to 28-mile range down as low as $423 (Reg. $529)

Over at Amazon you can now find the Hoverfly H3 16-inch Folding Electric Bike in blue down at $423.20 shipped. You can also score the black colorway for $424.99. Typically priced at $529, you’re looking at as much as $106 off. This is a return to the price we saw late last month and comes within $23 of the all-time low we tracked back in January. It’s not hard to spend well over $1,000 or an electric bike, so this is an affordable way to take one for a spin this year. You can learn more about this model down below.

Folks who have been itching to pick up an e-bike, but cannot justify a premium model that’s often accompanied by a high price can now pick up Hoverfly H3 for a much more affordable cost. The brand touts that it “can travel 15.5 miles on pure electric” and nearly double that when switching to a pedal-assisted mode which ratchets that up “to more than 28 miles.” Speeds top out at 15.5 MPH and the 280.8Wh battery is removeable, allowing you to easily swap it out with a second battery if you want to go even further. My favorite feature here is that not only is the e-bike more compact than most, but that it also can be folded when not in use.

Today only: Grab Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh LiFePO4 power station at $198 (Reg. $250)

As a part of its Deals of the Day sale, Best Buy is offering Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh power station for $198 shipped. This is regularly a $250 power station which is now seeing a straight up $51 discount. We’ve seen this model fetch as low as $179 during Black Friday last year with our exclusive promotional discount, but it hasn’t been that low in quite a while. Today’s deal lands it within $9 of our previous mention from earlier this year, and it’s now fetching $2 less than Anker’s discounted price

Anker’s SOLIX C300 packs a hefty 90,000mAh LiFePO4 battery, delivering up to 600W of peak power (300W continuous), making it great for charging multiple devices and powering small appliances. Unlike the DC version that’s more USB-focused, the AC model featured here has three AC outlets, three USB-C ports, one USB-A port, and a 120W car/aux port. You can recharge the C300 in multiple ways – plug it into a wall to hit 80% under in under an hour, connect up to 100W of solar panels, charge via your car, or you can even use the PD 3.1 USB-C input. For added convenience, it includes a built-in carrying handle and a light bar above the display.

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Kia’s refreshed US-made, native NACS 2025 EV6 starts at $42,900

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Kia's refreshed US-made, native NACS 2025 EV6 starts at ,900

Kia announced pricing for the upcoming 2025 EV6, with lots of improvements from a mid-cycle refresh and only a slight price bump from the previous model.

The 2025 Kia EV6 has been a long time coming… and unfortunately it’s still “coming,” but at least today we’re seeing one more step towards its imminence, and the news is honestly pretty good.

To recap some of the details of the refresh of Kia’s popular electric model, this year’s EV6 is getting a few interior and exterior design changes, a quieter interior, much better vehicle-to-load capability (12kW, up from 1.8kW), a ~10% bump in battery capacity for both the smaller and larger battery options, and support for over-the-air vehicle software updates. The EV6 GT trim gains some more horsepower, but other models stay the same.

The new EV6 also comes with a native NACS port, making it one of the first non-Tesla vehicles to have this feature. It joins its cousin vehicle, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 with which it shares the E-GMP platform, as some of the only cars on the road with a native NACS port (the Ioniq 5 recently charged faster than a Tesla on the same Supercharger), after the Ioniq 5 also got a big refresh this year.

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The native NACS port is also accompanied by a relocation of the EV6’s charge port (on all but the GT model) – from the right side of the car to the left, to better mirror Tesla’s charge port location and make it easier to fit into Superchargers (while we wait for Tesla to add longer cables).

So, with all these changes, alongside stupid government actions aimed at increasing inflation for Americans, we’d perhaps expect a price bump… and it turns out we got a relatively small price bump, of just a few hundred dollars on the low-end specs, though rising to a $2,200 increase on the top-end GT spec (the only one with a horsepower boost).

Here’s the new pricing, compared to the old pricing:

Pricing – MSRP1 (excludes $1,475 destination) Old price  New price
EV6 Light $42,600 $42,900
EV6 Light Long Range RWD $45,950 $46,200
EV6 Light Long Range AWD $49,850 $50,300
EV6 Wind $48,700 $50,300
EV6 GT-Line $52,900 $54,200
EV6 Wind AWD $52,600 $54,300
EV6 GT-Line AWD $57,600 $58,900
EV6 GT $61,600 $63,800

Perhaps one reason Kia was able to avoid larger inevitable price increases that are coming to many products for Americans as a result of boneheaded tariff announcements is because the 2025 EV6 will be built in Kia’s facility in Georgia (except for the top-end GT trim).

And best of all, the EV6 still qualifies for the US EV tax credit (again, except for the GT trim, which is still built in Korea). So you can still get it for cheaper than the listed price above, at least until Donald Trump and Elon Musk continue on their quest of making your life more expensive.

Kia says the models are in production now, but we’re still waiting on them getting delivered to customers. Usually vehicles come out a little bit before their model year starts (so 2025 cars will ship in the last few months of 2024), but the 2025 EV6 has taken its sweet time coming out. We suspect the NACS transition has had something to do with this (there has, after all, been a lot of back and forth about Kia Supercharger compatibility…), but Kia is tight-lipped about the reasons for such.

This move suggests that we finally might not have much longer to wait, though, so start getting ready and maybe call your local dealer if you want to get in line for the new EV6 (and hopefully get it before some bonehead tries to raise its price more or gets rid of tax credits because his oil bosses said so).

If you’d like, you can use our affiliate link to get in touch with your local dealers about the Kia EV6, and try to be one of the first in line to get the newest iteration of one of the better EVs on the road.


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Tesla is being squeezed out of the Chinese market, workers are being pushed to their limits

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Tesla is being squeezed out of the Chinese market, workers are being pushed to their limits

Tesla is being squeezed out of the Chinese market, and the pressure is currently falling on the sales workers, who are reportedly being pushed to their limits.

Over the last few years, Chinese automakers have stepped up their game significantly, and they are now not only competitive at the lower end of the market with affordable electric vehicles. They are also starting to put pressure on higher-end automakers, like Tesla.

China is the world’s biggest EV market by a significant margin, and it has been a critical part of Tesla’s growth phase from 2020 to 2023.

But now Tesla is facing incredible competition from the likes of BYD, Xiaomi, NIO, Li Auto, and others.

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We reported earlier this year that Xiaomi’s SU7 has overtaken Tesla’s Model 3 in China, and now it is coming with a Model Y competitor.

Tesla has been hoping that its updated Model Y would help it stay comptivie in the Chinese market, but there are now reports to the contrary

The automaker has already been offering subsidized 0% financing to try to boost Model Y and Model 3 sales in the country.

Now, a new report on China’s Jiemian News based on interviews with current and former Tesla salespeople in China claims Tesla is now pushing for its Chinese sales staff to work 13 hours a day every day (translated from Chinese):

As the group that deals with the most front-line consumers, Tesla sales have in fact clearly felt the strong pressure to close deals. Many Tesla sales told Jiemian News that due to the inability to meet assessment targets on time, they have given up their two-day weekend off and switched to working seven days a week, “working from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, with an average daily working time of nearly 13 hours.”

The report claims that Tesla has instructed sales staff to aim for selling a car every day, but they are having trouble achieving half that rate:

According to the Tesla salesperson, the store assessment standard in Beijing is to sell at least one car per day, which means that they need to sell about 30 cars per month. But in reality, it is difficult for many salespeople in the store to sell 3 to 4 cars per week. They need to keep following up with customers and try their best to persuade them in order to get as close to the target as possible.

To sell a car per day, Tesla sales staff are told to create 10 user profiles, complete three online test drive invitations, and complete four test drives every day.

According to the report, the higher requirements also come with limited pay – resulting in record turnover at some of Tesla’s stores in China.

They used a Tesla store in Beijing as an example, where they claim they can do a full sales staff turnover in just a month and a half.

One Tesla salesperson told Jiemian that it is now way more difficult to sell Tesla vehicles in China:

“The days when we didn’t have to introduce products to users and orders were ‘automatically’ delivered to their doorsteps are gone forever.”

Tesla was also a victim of its own success in the country, where its vehicles have become somewhat familiar in the last few years, and the brand is no longer perceived as premium as it was in 2022-2023.

Electrek’s Take

Tesla was having problems in China before Trump’s election, but the problems appear to be getting worse.

Since last year, Tesla has already basically not been making any money on the Chinese market since it primarily sells lower-end RWD Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, which are already low-margin products, and Tesla has to subsidize them with 0% financing on top of it.

That’s in large part due to competition.

Unlike in North America and Europe, Tesla hasn’t been suffering from brand issues due to Elon Musk’s involvement in politics in China, but it might be changing now.

Trump’s escalating trade war with China is reaching new heights, deterring Chinese consumers from purchasing American brands.

I think Tesla was already being squeezed out of the Chinese market due to competition, but the trade war is likely to accelerate this process.

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