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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on May 24, 2024 in New York City. 

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our 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

Treasury yields weigh on Wall Street
The
S&P 500 snapped its three-day winning streak as Treasury yields climbed. Despite Nvidia‘s continued rise since its earnings report last week, the tech giant couldn’t prevent the Nasdaq Composite from falling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also declined, shedding 400 points, with insurer UnitedHealth leading losses. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose for a second consecutive day following a lackluster auction of government bonds on Tuesday. Rising yields can dampen consumer spending and make Treasurys and money market funds more appealing than stocks. Oil prices also slipped. 

Salesforce plunges
Shares of Salesforce slumped more than 17% in extended trade after the cloud software company reported weaker-than-expected revenue and issued earnings and revenue guidance that missed analysts’ expectations for the current quarter.  

Peltz dumps Disney stake
Activist investor Nelson Peltz has sold his entire stake in Disney, according to a person familiar with the matter. In early April, Peltz lost a proxy battle at Disney to elect himself and former Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo to the company’s board. Peltz had long taken issue with Disney’s governance, particularly the company’s streaming strategy and a failed succession plan for CEO Bob Iger. 

Bulking up on shale
ConocoPhillips agreed to buy Marathon Oil in an all-stock transaction worth $17.1 billion. The acquisition will add 2 billion barrels of resources to ConocoPhillips’ portfolio, extending the company’s reach across shale fields in Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota. ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said the deal would immediately grow ConocoPhillips’ earnings, cash flow and shareholder returns after the deal closes in the fourth quarter.  

American sales strategy backfires
Shares of American Airlines slid more than 13% after CEO Robert Isom said the airline would slash capacity in the second half of the year. It comes a day after the carrier parted ways with its chief commercial officer, Vasu Raja, and cut its revenue and profit forecast. Raja led a plan to drive direct bookings at the airline in lieu of third-party sites and travel agencies, a strategy that included gutting the airline’s sales department. Raja will leave the company next month. 

[PRO] The summer trade
The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all hit record highs in May, but there are doubts that the momentum can carry on through June to August. CNBC’s Brian Evans explores historical data and shares what to expect from markets as well as which sectors typically perform the best. 

The bottom line

The world can be a confusing place at times. You would think we were in the midst of an energy transition, only for that environmental nirvana to be shattered by a multibillion dollar shale deal. ConocoPhillips is set to buy Marathon Oil in a $17 billion deal that would boost its portfolio and push its market cap past that of BP, according to Enverus M&A analyst Andrew Dittmar. 

No amount of federal aid for an energy transition — through Biden’s $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — can bring about an immediate end to our addiction to oil. 

Toyota, which has been dragging its feet on rolling out all-electric vehicles, unveiled a new range of hybrid engines on Tuesday that can use biofuels to meet tougher emissions standards. The Japanese marque is not the only one resorting to hybrid vehicles as EV sales stall due to range anxiety and insufficient charging infrastructure. 

Meanwhile Chinese automaker BYD introduced a hybrid engine that, when fully loaded with battery and gasoline, can cover 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles). 

Conoco’s deal couldn’t juice markets, which, after clocking some record highs, are under pressure from rising Treasury yields. With earnings season mostly in the rearview mirror, the focus has returned to the Fed, the economy and inflation. 

Atlas Merchant Capital CEO Bob Diamond told “Squawk on the Street” the Fed would “want to see some economic weakness before they cut rates. I mean 25 basis points doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. Maybe there’s 25 [points] there for signaling reasons. I don’t see the Fed, the FOMC, taking the risk of stoking inflation.” 

While markets are on pace to end on a high this month, Wolfe Research chief investment strategist Chris Senyek expects trading to become a lot “choppier over the summer.” He suggests sticking with large-cap technology stocks. This month, information technology stocks have outpaced all other S&P 500 sectors, up more than 13%. Nvidia alone has advanced more than 30% in May.

“If we’re correct and trading becomes choppier, our sense is that investors are likely to stick with what has worked so far this year,” Senyek wrote. “Said differently, our sense is that the  ‘Mag 7,’ Secular Growers, and Momentum stocks will outperform over the summer.” 

CNBC’s Alex Harring, Pia Singh, Spencer Kimball, Sara Salinas, Scott Wapner, Jordan Novet and Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.

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Electreon and Xos to deploy wireless charging for commercial EV deliveries like UPS in Michigan

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Electreon and Xos to deploy wireless charging for commercial EV deliveries like UPS in Michigan

The State of Michigan has announced a new partnership with wireless EV charging specialist Electreon and Commercial EV manufacturer Xos, Inc. Together, the companies have secured funding from the state to expand wireless charging availability for commercial vehicles, including UPS trucks in Detroit.

It’s been nearly a year since the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), the City of Detroit, and Electreon ($ELWS) unveiled the first wireless EV charging roadway in the United States.

Michigan installed Electreon’s wireless inductive-charging coils (seen below) on 14th Street in Detroit between Marantette and Dalzelle streets to charge EVs equipped with Electreon receivers as they drive on the road.

At the time. MDOT and Detroit officials said the road would be used to test and perfect Electreon’s wireless EV charging technology in a real-world environment before “making it available to the public in the next few years.”

While the public will not be able to take advantage of wireless charging just yet, commercial EVs are gaining access thanks to a new partnership between Electreon, Xos ($XOS), and the State of Michigan.

  • Michigan wireless EV charging
  • Michigan wireless EV charging

Michigan progresses as US wireless EV charging leader

When Michigan announced the first wireless EV charging road in the US last year, officials shared hopes that the Great Lakes State and the city of Detroit could become leaders in the innovation and and deployment of such nascent technology.

Following a press release from Electreon, the State of Michigan confirmed details of the new partnership, which now includes commercial EV developer Xos, Inc. as well. The new commercial partnership is supported by $200,000 in funding from the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform (MMFP), building off the state’s “Make it in Michigan: economic strategy, developed by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to invest in the state’s people, places and projects. 

Through the partnership and coinciding state funding, Electreon will extend its wireless EV charging network and use cases in Michigan. Additionally, Electreon’s technology will be integrated into delivery step vans from Xos in order to “demonstrate wireless charging technological value and its potential to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) in the electrification of commercial truck fleets.” Stefan Tongur, vice president of business development for Electreon, elaborated:

We’re excited to demonstrate how Electreon’s technology can optimize electric fleet usage and showcase the seamless integration of wireless charging into daily fleet operations, minimizing downtime and enabling charging across time and location. We’re proud to do this work in Michigan, a state fostering innovation and sustainable transportation solutions.

In addition to expanding wireless charging on Detroit’s first “electric roadway,” the Michigan project will enable the installation of stationary wireless charging at a UPS facility in Detroit. Xos co-founder and CEO Dakota Semler also spoke:

We are proud to partner with Electreon and support UPS to demonstrate the potential of wireless charging in commercial fleets. This innovative approach will revolutionize how we power our electric vehicles and drive fleet electrification forward.

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Here’s our first look at Jaguar’s new luxury electric 4-door GT [Images]

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Here's our first look at Jaguar's new luxury electric 4-door GT [Images]

The iconic British luxury automaker is undergoing a major brand overhaul. With its official debut around the corner, Jaguar’s electric 4-door GT, the first of its new series, was spotted testing on British roads. The new images give us a closer look at what we can expect from the revamped Jag brand.

Jaguar’s new electric GT makes its first appearance

After building internal combustion-powered sports cars for over 75 years, Jaguar will become an all-electric luxury brand from 2025.

The company announced earlier this year that it will start fresh with an entirely new range of EVs. After killing off the F-Type, E-Pace, XF, and soon the F-Pace SUV, we are finally getting our first look at what the new branding will look like.

Jaguar’s new electric 4-door GT was caught testing on British roads. The camouflaged prototypes reveal a radically different look than the Jag models we are accustomed to.

You can see one of the biggest changes is the low-riding, extended silhouette, as opposed to the crossover SUV and sedan models like the F-Type and I-Pace, Jaguar’s first EV.

The front and rear bumper designs also appear much more aggressive and bold than previous models.

Jaguar's-electric-GT
Jaguar electric 4-door GT prototype (Source: Jaguar Land Rover)

Jaguar’s electric GT is being put through the paces ahead of its debut. It has already completed tens of thousands of testing miles (virtual and real-world) and will soon hit public streets worldwide.

The new model will be built in Solihull, UK, where Jaguar recently ended production of its gas-powered models.

Jaguar's-electric-GT
Jaguar electric 4-door GT prototype (Source: Jaguar Land Rover)

It will be the first to ride on Jaguar’s new JAE (Jaguar Electric Architecture), which will underpin its upcoming lineup of high-end luxury EVs with prices over £100,000 ($130,000). The electric GT will have a range of over 434 miles (700 km) and upwards of 575 hp, making it Jaguar’s most powerful car of all time.

Jaguar will debut its Design Vision Concept at Miami Art Week on December 2, 2024. Next Summer, it’s expected to make its official global debut ahead of deliveries in 2026.

What do you think of Jaguar’s new design based on what’s shown? Are you excited about the brand overhaul? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tesla pushes end-to-end neural networks for highway driving, but only for newer vehicles

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Tesla pushes end-to-end neural networks for highway driving, but only for newer vehicles

Tesla has pushed a new (Supervised) Full Self-Driving update with the promised end-to-end neural networks for highway driving.

However, it’s only for newer vehicles.

“End-to-end” is what Tesla refers to as neural net-powered AI driving the vehicle from vision to controls rather than the controls being explicitly coded. It’s already the case in all widely released versions of (Supervised) Full Self-Driving (FSD) for city driving, but not for highway driving, which uses another software stack.

Tesla originally planned to deliver it for highway driving in October, but it was only delivered to a small number of vehicles.

In its latest AI roadmap, Tesla said that it would come the first week of November instead.

Now, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of self-driving and AI, said that the latest release with end-to-end highway driving (v12.5.6.3) has been widely pushed to HW4 vehicle owners:

With the latest release (v12.5.6.3), FSD is using end-to-end neural networks for driving across highways, city streets and parking lots, and has now shipped widely for AI4 vehicles. Highway driving should be smoother, more natural and even safer than the previous explicit control stack. Check out the different driving styles to set speed and lane change preferences. Enjoy and let Tesla AI know if you have any feedback.

However, there’s no word for the millions of HW3 vehicle owners.

In fact, the only thing promised to HW3 vehicles, which Tesla now called AI3, in its last roadmap is this:

Improved v12.5.x models for AI3 city driving

As we have often reported this year, Tesla has reached the limits of the HW3 computer and now needs to optimize the code with every release despite still being far from its promise of unsupervised self-driving.

Electrek’s Take

This is annoying cause I could really use end-to-end on my HW3 car. I am on v12.5.4.2 and it has been a regression from v12.5.4.1 for me, especially on highways.

Yesterday, it almost drove me off-road when taking my highway exit, which is always a bit shaky because it is a short exit and FSD often swings itself into it. It’s a bit awkward, and my girlfriend never likes it, so I disengage FSD before taking the exit when she was with me, but this time, she wasn’t, and I had the new update.

It again swung left before going right into the exit, but this time, it went way too far, and I was in the shoulder by the time I took control.

I took this exit hundreds of times with FSD and it’s the first time it did that.

I am starting to think we won’t see much more improvements to FSD with HW3 cars and there’s no retrofit computer in sight.

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