Natural gas prices have had an up and down January — taking Club stock Coterra Energy along for the wild ride. After rising more than 30% over the first two weeks of the year, natural gas futures plunged 24% last week and have continued their fall in recent days. The commodity lost 4% on Monday, but in a volatile session Tuesday settled up 1.3%, at $2.45 per million British thermal units. Nevertheless, nat gas prices remained negative year to date. Early Wednesday, nat gas prices swung higher. Shares of Coterra – whose total revenue is split evenly between natural gas and crude oil – gained ground Tuesday to more than $24 each, putting year-to-date declines at less than 3.5%. That performance has been marginally worse than the S & P 500 energy sector over the same stretch. Meanwhile, the broad S & P 500 index has risen roughly 2% in 2024. CTRA .SPX 1M mountain Coterra Energy’s stock price over the past month compared with the S & P 500. Despite some seeing a challenging near-term picture for natural gas prices, our investment outlook on Coterra and the energy sector more broadly remains the same. In a diversified portfolio, it’s worth owning an oil-and-gas stock, partly as a hedge in case there’s a dramatic spike in energy prices, as there was in early 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. At this point, Coterra is our company of choice due to its significant exposure to both natural gas and oil, giving it flexibility on production, along with its internal improvements on well productivity to aid profitability — the latter being called out in multiple Wall Street analyst upgrades of the stock in recent weeks. Additionally, the company is committed to returning excess cash to shareholders, with a wise preference on buybacks over variable dividend payouts. It also stands to gain from the expected increases in U.S. liquified natural gas export capacity beginning primarily in 2025. Still, volatile oil and natural gas prices hold sway over Coterra’s near-term stock moves. And the swift reversal of fortunes for natural gas has been hard to ignore. However, some context is necessary when analyzing the swing. “Last week’s meltdown appears so significant because the move higher was, really, from a fundamental perspective completely overdone,” said Eli Rubin, a natural gas analyst at EBW Analytics Group. The commodity was particularly beaten up to end 2023, Rubin said, after one of the warmest Decembers on record limited demand for natural gas to heat homes and other buildings. The warm December added insult to injury amid strong U.S. natural gas production and mild weather throughout the fall, contributing to an oversupplied market. The result is traders had grown quite bearish on natural gas, Rubin said, which created the technical conditions for a dramatic spike in prices if more positive fundamental signs emerged. And they did, in fact, emerge by way of winter storms and bitter-cold temperatures that swept large parts of the U.S., causing a surge in demand for natural gas. That technical and fundamental backdrop created the jump of more than 30% in natural gas prices. However, the market’s focus last week began to shift toward weather forecasts for later in the month, which point to a return of warmer temperatures. And that’s generally what sparked the big decline in natural gas prices that have persisted into this week, Rubin said. Over the next three to six months, Rubin said he expects the natural gas market to remain “vastly oversupplied,” suggesting more pressure on the commodity’s price could be on the horizon. But looking out further on the horizon, Rubin said he sees the outlook starting to brighten as LNG-related demand is set to appear and hopes for a more normal winter emerge. That should bode well for Coterra. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long 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.
A drilling rig operates in the Permian Basin oil and natural gas production area in Lea County, New Mexico, February 10, 2019.
Nick Oxford | Reuters
Natural gas prices have had an up and down January — taking Club stock Coterra Energy along for the wild ride.
Australian logistics company Linfox is making big moves to electrify its heavy-duty semi fleet with the addition of thirty new Volvo FH and FM Electric semi trucks as the Swedish brand works to begin production at its Brisbane facility.
Volvo Trucks is expecting to begin full scale production of its FH and FM Electric semi trucks at the Brisbane factory in early 2026, just in time to fill the Linfox order – which happens to be the company’s largest in Australia. So far.
“We are very proud to continue our close partnership with Linfox. The order for 30 Volvo electric trucks is proof of their trust in our company and in zero-emissions transport as a viable solution here and now,” said Roger Alm, President Volvo Trucks. “Our commitment to start building electric trucks in Australia demonstrates our confidence in this technology, and means we can offer an industry-leading range of purpose-built electric trucks all around the world.”
“Linfox is excited to partner with Volvo in driving the future and leading sustainable logistics in Australia,” explains Peter Fox AM (Member of the Order of Australia), Executive Chairman of Linfox. “Further electrifying our fleet sets the standard for us and our customers and the entire industry.”
Linfox’ latest order includes 29 Volvo FH Electric and one FM Electric semi. The company currently has four electric Volvo trucks in its fleet of 195 semis, with plans to continue to electrify as ICE-powered assets reach retirement.
Electrek’s Take
Linfox Volvo semi fleet; via Volvo Trucks.
Now counting miles in operation in the tens of millions and rolling out its third generation of electric semi trucks, Volvo (and, by extension, Mack and Renault) continue to build a huge lead in the commercial trucking space. The competition, meanwhile, seems content to post pictures of its first factory while trucks that have been on order for years still haven’t reached customers.
I can’t see how they (Tesla) catch up from here.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Trucks.
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Oakland International Airport (OAK) in Alameda, California is helping stressed-out air passengers breathe a little bit easier with the introduction of five new battery-electric K9MD shuttle buses to its ground equipment fleet.
“We applaud Oakland Airport and their commitment to electrifying its fleet,” said Jason Yan, Vice President of Sales, West Region and National Account at Ride. “[BYD] Ride is thrilled to partner with OAK to offer sustainable transportation solutions that benefit both the environment and the community.”
The K9MD buses seat up to 42 passengers and have a 208 mile operating range from a 352 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery. That battery is backed by a 12-year warranty to help keep fiscally conservative fleet buyers at ease, while the smooth, quiet, and electric drive keeps the fleet’s operators happy, too.
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Oakland International Airport is operated by the Port of Oakland, and is scheduled to electrify its entire ground operations fleet by 2030.
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With President Donald Trump’s private dinner for top meme coin holders less than a week away, the leaderboard is awash with crypto wallets that are effectively anonymous.
On May 22, the top 220 $TRUMP holders are invited to a dinner with the president at his Virginia golf club outside of Washington, D.C. The event was announced last month, and the tally closed Monday night.
The nature of the pseudonymous wallets raises questions about the true identities and motivations of the token’s largest holders, who have bought a seat at the table with a U.S. president.
Documents from blockchain analytics firm Inca Digital that were reviewed by CNBC show where the top 275 $TRUMP token holders send and receive the token. Many are heavily tied to international exchanges like Binance that don’t service U.S. customers, an indication that they’re likely not U.S. citizens.
An analysis by Bloomberg revealed that 19 of the top 25 wallets are almost certainly owned by individuals operating outside the U.S.
Justin Sun, who openly shared that he bought $75 million worth of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial token — a digital coin where 75% of proceeds go to Trump-related entities — is believed to be at the top of the $TRUMP meme token leaderboard.
Sun, who was born in China, is the crypto entrepreneur behind the Tron blockchain and is in talks with the SEC to resolve civil fraud charges.
A wallet called Sun currently holds more than $18 million worth of $TRUMP, with $4.5 million bought after the dinner contest announcement, according to Bloomberg.
Multiple reports point to the wallet being tied to the Tron founder. A representative for Sun didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comment or confirm whether Sun is the wallet owner.
MemeCore, a Singapore-based crypto network that was vocal in its quest to secure a spot at the Trump dinner, landed in second place with an investment of $18 million. An Australian crypto entrepreneur also reportedly made the cut.
The leaderboard points to the token’s extreme volatility.
Inca Digital told CNBC that while 560,376 wallets have made a combined $5.2 billion in realized gains on the $TRUMP token, an even larger number — 592,962 wallets — have collectively lost $3.9 billion.
The figures underscore the massive wealth transfer within Trump’s crypto ecosystem, where early buyers have seen windfalls while the majority have suffered losses.
Chainalysis and Elliptic, two leading blockchain analytics firms, initially tracked $TRUMP token movements and trading fees. But days after CNBC published a story on the number of crypto wallets that had lost money on the meme coin, the firms said they were too busy with existing clients to continue blockchain analysis of the president’s self-branded meme token.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, warned that the Trump family’s growing crypto holdings may serve as a backdoor for foreign and corporate interests seeking access to the president.
Freight Technologies, a Houston-based logistics firm that trades on the Nasdaq and has a market cap of just over $2.3 million, bought $2 million worth of the $TRUMP tokens to influence U.S.-Mexico trade policy, according to a release. CEO Javier Selgas described the move as a strategic push to “champion fair and free trade” across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Freight Technologies finished in 250th place, missing the cut for the dinner.