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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on August 20, 2024 in New York City.

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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

End of a run
Wall Street
closed lower ending a multi-session winning streak. After an eight-day run-up, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2%, snapping a five-day win streak. Boeing was among the biggest decliners, down 4.2%, after finding defects on engine mounting structures on a 777X test plane. Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was little changed as investors await minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting due Wednesday. U.S. oil prices fell below $74 a barrel on demand concerns. 

Diabetes risk cut
Eli Lilly‘s weight loss drug tirzepatide, used in Zepbound and Mounjaro, reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 94% in obese or overweight adults with prediabetes, according to preliminary findings from a long-term study. The trial, which studied over 1,000 participants over 176 weeks, also showed sustained weight loss, with patients on the highest dose losing 22.9% of body weight on average. The results highlight the potential of GLP-1 drugs in delaying diabetes and offering significant long-term health benefits for people with obesity and prediabetes. Eli Lilly’s shares rose 3%.

Shein sues Temu
Chinese-linked fast-fashion retailer Shein is suing rival Temu for allegedly stealing its designs and engaging in counterfeiting, intellectual property infringement and fraud. Shein, which filed the suit in Washington D.C. on Monday, is fending off similar allegations from the likes of Levi Strauss and H&M. Shein claims Temu falsely presents itself as a legitimate marketplace while actively encouraging its sellers to copy designs and preventing them from removing infringing products. PDD Holdings, which owns Temu, dropped 4.5% on Tuesday. 

Waiting for Fed cut
Lowe’s has lowered its full-year sales and earnings forecasts as it anticipated weak home improvement spending. CEO Marvin Ellison told CNBC that consumers are waiting for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. “Inflation remains high,” he said. “And big-ticket purchases are being delayed as customers sit back and wait for interest rates to fall.” Lowe’s stock dropped 1.2%.

JD.com sinks Hang Seng 
Asia-Pacific markets fell, led by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index after Walmart said it would sell its stake in e-commerce giant JD.com worth a reported $3.74 billion. The index dropped 1% and JD.com slumped 10%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 index dipped 0.3%. Japan’s export-heavy Nikkei 225 slipped 0.29% after trade data for July revealed exports rose less than expected. Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.16%, while South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.13%.

[PRO] 100% gain
Jefferies analysts believe this insurer and asset manager’s stock could double in value due to falling interest rates. Although financial firms usually profit from high rates, this company seems to perform better in the opposite scenario.

The bottom line

As the S&P 500 and Nasdaq failed to extend their recovery rally into a ninth session, it’s worth reflecting on the past few weeks. When asked by CNBC’s Sara Eisen to describe the market’s current state, Holly Newman Kroft of Neuberger Berman Private Wealth said “it’s been a little crazy” this summer.

“We couldn’t have scripted a better start to the summer with equities really rallying and everyone feels good when the market goes up. The last six, seven, eight weeks have been many head-spinning turns of events. We had an assassination attempt. We had a broadening of the market. We had the market pricing in a Trump win, a red wave. Then we had Biden drop out, Kamala come in and now its sort of a dead heat,” Kroft explained.

Kroft said the market is navigating an uncertain environment plagued with volatility. “Two weeks ago, in the face of a not-great-jobs number — it wasn’t bad jobs number but it wasn’t great — we had a knee-jerk reaction in the market. And so on Monday it opened down almost 10%. What’s kind of also mind-blowing is by the end of the week the market was flat.”

With the S&P 500 less than two percentage points shy of its July record high, Kroft sees limited upside and expects more volatility to pick up into the election. What the markets need is for “calmer heads to prevail in the role of the Fed,” she said.

Oppenheimer’s chief investment strategist, John Stoltzfus, said Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday could influence markets, with investors awaiting rate cuts at the central bank’s September meeting.

“With many folks now looking for a cut of as much as 50 bps in September, a degree of hesitancy in the Chair’s remarks could reintroduce some volatility into the market ahead of next weekend,” Stoltzfus wrote in a Monday note. Still, he believes a 25 basis-point cut is more likely, given last week’s stronger-than-expected jobs and retail sales data.

Yung-Yu Ma, investment chief at BMO Wealth Management, believes the Fed’s rate cuts could have a more significant impact than investors anticipate. “We think that the rate cuts are actually going to have much stronger and favorable impact, probably than the markets are pricing in now,” Ma told CNBC’s “Money Movers.”

“Maybe not the first rate cut, but after we get 75 basis points, 100 basis points of rate cuts, we think there’s a lot of pent-up demand lurking beneath the surface,” Ma added.

CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Sarah Min, Alex Harring, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Yun Li, Melissa Repko, Annika Kim Constantino, Spencer Kimball, Lim Hui Jie and Amala Balakrishner contributed to this report.

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Forbidden fruit: new Volkswagen Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions

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Forbidden fruit: new Volkswagen Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions

Wagons don’t get a lot of love Stateside, with American buyers choosing SUVs over – well, pretty much every other type of vehicle imaginable. That’s our loss, as the latest plug in hybrid versions of the Volkswagen Passat are here to prove.

The latest Passat Variant eHybrid (or, in some markets, Vario, which is what the Europeans like to call wagons) is different from the version we get in the US. Unlike the domestic version which is based on a low-cost platform specific to the US and China, the Euro-market version is built on the MQB platform that underpins VW’s flagship Arteon four-door coupe and both VW‘s and Audi’s entry-luxe SUVs.

That might seem weird, since VW has sold more than 34 million units sold worldwide and the Passat is the second top-selling Volkswagen of all time (behind the Golf and ahead of the Beetle). It’s understandable, then, that the European execs are pretty proud of their Passat.

The latest evolutionary stage of the modular transverse matrix (MQB evo)forms the highly innovative technical basis of the ninth Passat generation. Thanks to the significant economies of scale of the MQB evo, Volkswagen has again democratised numerous high-tech developments and made them available for hundreds of thousands of drivers. The two completely newly developed plug-in hybrid drives (eHybrid) are a perfect example of this. In combination with a new battery, they make all-electric ranges of around 100 km possible. This distance turns the new Passat Variant into an electric vehicle for everyday life – this is additionally ensured by short charging times as the battery can now be charged at AC charge points with 11 kW instead of the previous 3.6 kW. The Passat Variant eHybrid can even be charged with up to 50 kW at DC fast charging stations. In addition, the combination of electric drive motor and new economical turbocharged petrol engine provides overall ranges of around 1,000 km.

KAI GRÜNITZ
Member of the Brand Board of Management, VW

In case the jealous American wago-philes reading this aren’t jealous enough, Volkswagen has announced new Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions that add nearly £5k of options for the new model year effectively for free.

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“Match is better equipped than the outgoing Life, with additional features including metallic paint, VW’s IQ.Light LED matrix headlights, tinted rear windows and an ‘assistance pack’ which adds area view and emergency assist,” reports Alastair Crooks, from the UK car site AutoExpress. “The new Black Edition comes with metallic paint, 19-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, tinted rear windows (darker than the Match’s), heated front and rear seats, a head-up display, a 15-inch central touchscreen and the same assistance pack as the Match.”

The entry-level Match replaces the previous Life trim, but costs the same £45,555 (about $60,500), while the Black Edition costs the same as the outgoing R-Line, from £48,900 (about $64,950). The order books open 14 August.

You can take a look at some of the VW press photos of the European Passat wagon Variant, below, then let us know if you’d rather have this for $60K or the discount American version in the comments.


SOURCE | IMAGES: VW, via AutoExpress.


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E-quipment highlight: Wirtgen Vögele launches new electric MINI pavers

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E-quipment highlight: Wirtgen Vögele launches new electric MINI pavers

Wirtgen Vögele recently revealed the battery-powered MINI 500e and the MINI 502e electric pavers. With an electrically heated screed, a range of paving widths, and zero-emission operations, they’re paving a greener, cleaner path.

Co-developed by Wirtgen Vögele and Italian road equipment manufacturer C. M. S.r.l., the new electric pavers will enable contractors to bid on construction projects that are subject to even the strictest noise and emission limits – but the company is quick to point out that they’re capable enough to serve on conventional job sites.

“These pavers excel on small-scale construction projects and jobs covering a small area – the type of work for which paving crews would not previously have been able to use machines,” reads the official Wirtgen Vögele copy. “Thanks to their elimination of manual labor, among other benefits, the new MINI pavers improve the efficiency and quality of asphalt paving, particularly in the construction of sidewalks and drains, as well as in tight downtown locations.”

The new Wirtgen MINI 502e (the one with wheels) and the MINI 500e (the one with crawler tracks) offer pave widths from 0.25 to 1.8 m, feature a battery-electric drive outputting 22.8 kW (30 hp), and your choice of either a 15 kWh or 22 kWh 48V li-ion battery – good enough battery capacity for up to 16 hours of continuing paving. Both versions can be fully charged on a conventional 110/120 “L1” power socket in about eight hours.

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Electrek’s Take


Wirtgen Vögele MINI 500e; via Wirtgen.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the federal EV incentives are or even what the guys on your crew want to operate. What matters is that construction noise upsets Mrs. Clancik’s terrier, and she will force the town council to keep the noise down all by herself.

If your construction company wants to bid on any municipal work, that means you’re gonna have to stay quiet. Maybe even keep the smells to a minimum, too. Buying electric equipment means you can do both.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Wirtgen, via Construction Equipment International.


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Is this Hyundai IONIQ the safest affordable EV you can buy?

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Is this Hyundai IONIQ the safest affordable EV you can buy?

Car brands like Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla have built up solid reputations for safety, but their ultra-safe vehicles often come with a premium price tag. The good news for car buyers looking for a deal, but still prize safety, is that there’s an all-electric Hyundai for under $40K that scores top marks on the IIHS’ toughest new safety tests.

SKIP THE STORY: take me to the deals.

Last Februray, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) established new benchmark criteria that included stricter side-impact and moderate overlap crash safety standards, improved safety for back seat passengers, and a stronger emphasis on pedestrian detection in low light.

“We followed the tougher requirements we introduced last year with another major update to the award criteria,” explains IIHS President David Harkey. “(The 2024) winners are true standouts, offering the highest level of protection for both vehicle occupants and other vulnerable road users.”

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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is making it harder to earn its Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards from 2024, challenging manufacturers to offer better protection for back seat passengers and improve their pedestrian crash avoidance systems.

IIHS

We’ve covered a few of the standout performers already over the past year-plus since the new safety standards were awarded, including the Rivian R1T (the only electric pickup to earn the coveted Top Safety Pick+ award), Audi Q6 e-tron, and the Tesla Model Y … but what we haven’t written about was the fact that the Hyundai IONIQ 6 was the only electric sedan to get a Top Safety Pick+, as well.

Why it matters, now


Hyundai-free-charger-EVs-IONIQ-6
Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited, via Hyundai.

With the average transaction price of a new car at $48,907 and the looming demise of the $7,500 Federal tax credit accelerating demand for EVs (even for those that may not qualify), new EV buyers looking for a dependable commuter with long-range chops, ultra-fast charging capabilities, and the latest infotainment tech for under $40,000 have precious few options. And, if that Top Safety Pick+ rating is a must have? They only have one.

The good news is that it’s an excellent option. The 2024 version was named Car and Driver‘s 2023 EV of the Year, and led our own Scooter Doll to ask, “is any other automaker delivering more value in high-tech EVs right now?” and Nigel Evans over at CarBuzz to write, “Comparing the Ioniq 6 to its rivals is also an interesting exercise. For example, the Tesla Model 3 RWD now costs more than $40,000, with questionable interior design and layout and no Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS. You can’t get the Chevrolet Bolt or Bolt EUV anymore in the budget EV sector, but they also lacked fast-charging capability.”

With up to 342 miles of range and a starting MSRP of $37,850 with all trims eligible for $7,500 in Retail Bonus Cash through Labor Day plus dealer discounts (if you can get them) bringing the price down even further, there’s a nonzero chance car buyers will be able to score a 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 6 for a sub-30K transaction price. Other featured deals include 0% interest financing for up to 48 months on any 2025 IONIQ 5 models in dealer inventory for well-qualified buyers, while lease buyers able to get a new SE model for $199/mo. with $3,999 down.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Hyundai, IIHS; via CarBuzz.


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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