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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on August 12, 2024 in New York City. 

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | 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

Sharp decline
Wall Street fell ahead of
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The S&P 500 dropped 0.89% after coming within striking distance of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.43% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.67%. All three indexes had traded higher during the session. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed nearly 9 basis points to 3.862%, while U.S. oil prices rose 1.42% after erasing most of their 2024 gains.

September rate cut
Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker endorsed an interest rate cut for September during an interview with CNBC at the Fed’s Jackson Hole retreat. His comments follow minutes from the central bank’s last meeting indicating growing confidence in inflation trends and concerns about labor market weakness. “I think it means this September we need to start a process of moving rates down,” Harker said, adding the Fed should ease “methodically and signal well in advance.” Harker is undecided between a 25 or 50 basis point reduction. CNBC’s Jeff Cox has more on what to expect from Powell’s speech.  

Peloton soars
Peloton posted its first sales increase in nine quarters, driven by cost-cutting measures and a focus on profitability. Sales rose by 0.2% to $643.6 million during its fiscal fourth quarter. The troubled connected fitness company also narrowed its losses to $30.5 million, compared to a loss of $241.8 million a year ago. Peloton has struggled post-pandemic and is currently run by two board members since former CEO Barry McCarthy resigned earlier this year. The company’s shares shot up as much as 40% after the earnings release.  

Covid jab approval
The Food and Drug Administration has approved updated Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna amid a summer surge of the virus. The vaccine targets the KP.2 strain, a descendant of omicron subvariant JN.1, although it was the dominant strain in May it now accounts for about 3% of cases. However, both drugmakers say the KP.2 jab can produce a stronger response against other variants, such as KP.3 and LB.1.  

Driverless rides
General Motors‘ Cruise has partnered with Uber to offer driverless rides to Uber users as early as next year. The move comes as Cruise attempts to revive its robotaxi venture after a serious accident last year and subsequent investigations, which led to the resignation of its CEO and co-founder. Uber abandoned its own self-driving project after a fatal 2018 incident and now collaborates with other developers like Google‘s Waymo.

[PRO] Bullish signals
With the S&P 500 within touching distance of its July all-time high, Ned Davis Research chief U.S. strategist Ed Clissold suggest stocks could rally after two signals flashed in the stock market’s favor this week.

The bottom line

Whether traders are working from home or in the office, at 10 a.m. ET everything will come to a halt as Fed Chair Jerome Powell delivers one of the most anticipated economic speeches of the year.

With the “vast majority” of Fed members advocating for a rate cut in September, markets are banking on a 100 basis point reduction for 2024. The expectation suggests at least one 50 basis point cut, given that there are only three rate-setting meetings left this year.

George Brown, senior U.S. economist at Schroders, believes Powell will emphasize the risks of being too aggressive with rate cuts.

“I don’t think he’s going to pre-commit to a specific easing path,” Brown told CNBC. “Instead, I think he’s going to frame it as they will be data dependent and they will let the data guide them in terms of their decisions.”

“A lot of his speech will focus on the risks of being too aggressive with rate cuts versus being too late to cut rates — and I think his comments will really focus in on trying to find that middle ground, which helps to maintain or safeguard the economic expansion while ensuring inflation remains contained.” 

Henry Allen, Deutsche Bank macro strategist, thinks the market’s rate cut forecasts for the next year are overly dovish given the current state of the economy. Markets are “pricing 200 bps of cuts in the next year alone and those are the sort of paces you only normally see during a recession, not in a non-recession.”

Despite this, the Fed has faced criticism for keeping rates high for too long, with some arguing that its heavy reliance on data could negatively impact the economy and stocks. 

“A soft landing, the probabilities are going up, and that’s why this should be a benign cutting cycle … good for markets. But I think the key is the Fed getting off data dependence, because data dependence is the reason they missed the inflation turn,” Tom Lee, Fundstrat’s head of research, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in an interview Thursday.

CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Fred Imbert, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Lora Kolodny, Pia Singh, Alex Harring and Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.

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Total ‘pauses’ New York offshore wind project after Trump win

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Total 'pauses' New York offshore wind project after Trump win

After Donald Trump’s US election win, French energy giant TotalEnergies has hit the pause button on Attentive Energy, its planned offshore wind farm off the New York coast.

“Offshore wind, I have decided to put the [Attentive Energy] project on pause” with Trump’s return, said Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne on Tuesday at an energy conference in London. “I said to my team, the project in New York, we’ll see that in four years. But the advantage is it’s only for four years.”

Total’s offshore wind project is Attentive Energy, which is an 84,332-acre area around 54 miles from its nearest point to New York and 42 miles from its nearest point to New Jersey. Attentive Energy has the potential to generate 3,000 MW of clean energy to power nearly 1 million homes.

The company won the rights to develop Attentive Energy in a record-setting auction in 2022 and planned to bring it online in the early 2030s. But the project is currently in a very early phase, and it’s not permitted. It hasn’t filed a construction and operations plan with the US Department of the Interior, and that review process can take at least three years, which would be particularly challenging, if not impossible, under an administration that openly opposes the offshore wind industry.

Trump is a vocal critic of offshore wind and has repeatedly vowed on the campaign trail to target the industry with an executive order on his first day in office. His plans are vague but probably relate to lease sales and permitting. He’s also chosen pro-fossil fuel fracking executive Chris Wright as secretary of energy.

However, Trump won’t be able to cancel offshore wind farms that are fully permitted and are at more advanced construction stages.

Total is retaining Attentive Energy’s lease so it can resume work on the offshore wind project after Trump’s term ends under a more environmentally friendly administration.

Read more: The US’s largest offshore wind farm is on budget and on time


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*

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EV sales are set to surge as buyers rush to claim discounts that may disappear in 2025

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EV sales are set to surge as buyers rush to claim discounts that may disappear in 2025

With US President-Elect Trump reportedly planning to cut federal incentives, EV sales are expected to surge in November and December. Right now, major discounts are slashing upwards of $10,000 to $20,000 off some of the most popular EV models, but that could change in 2025.

EV sales are expected to surge with discounts on the line

According to Cox Automotive, “EV sales are expected to surge in November and December” ahead of Trump taking office.

“We may see an increase in electric vehicle (EV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales over the next few months as buyers move to take advantage of discounts that may disappear in 2025,” Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, said.

A Reuters report earlier this month claimed Trump’s transition team was planning to kill off the $7,500 federal tax credit for clean car buyers.

Chesbrough explained that with fewer discounts on the line, buyers are expected to take advantage of them while they are still being offered, leading to “robust activity through the end of the year.”

In October, EV sales in the US reached a milestone. With another 106,155 units sold last month, over 1 million EVs have now been handed over to buyers.

EV-sales-surge-discounts
(Source: Tesla)

EV lease deals are adding up

Higher incentives and discounts have helped fuel the growth. In Q3, EV incentives were over 12% of the vehicle’s average transaction price, much higher than the industry average of about 7%.

The $7,500 federal tax credit is the biggest factor behind the discounts. Although the credit is for EV purchases, a loophole enables automakers to pass it on through leasing.

EV-sales-surge-discounts
2024 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum Black (Source: Ford)

Combined with other offers like loyalty and conquest, lease discounts, and bonus cash, some EV discounts are reaching upwards of $10,000 to even $20,000.

For example, you can score up to $21,150 off the 2024 Acura ZDX luxury SUV with combined discount offers. Ford is also offering up to $17,500 off its F-150 Lightning pickup through an end-of-year promo. A few EVs are even available to lease for under $300 this month.

Lease From Term
(months)
Due at Signing Effective rate per month
(including upfront fees)
2024 Nissan LEAF $109 36 $2,529 $179
2024 Kia Niro EV $169 24 $3,999 $336
2024 Kia EV6 $179 24 $3,999 $346
2024 VinFast VF 8 $199 36 $894 $244
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 $199 24 $3,999 $366
2024 Honda Prologue $229 36 $1,299 $259
EVs for lease under $300 per month in November 2024

Several new lower-priced models, like the $35,000 Chevy Equinox EV LT and Honda Prologue, are also hitting the market. The electric Equinox and Prologue SUVs helped push EV incentives to a record high in October.

With the $7,500 credit, the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV can be bought for as little as $26,100. GM calls the new electric SUV “America’s most affordable 315+ mile range EV.”

EV-sales-surge-discounts
2024 Honda Prologue Elite (Source: Honda)

Honda just extended its ultra-low $229 per month lease offer to 17 additional US states after introducing it in California last month. For a nearly $50,000 electric SUV, $229 per month (36 months, 10,000 miles per year) is a pretty good deal.

Ready to take advantage of the savings? The offers won’t last long. You can use our links below to find deals on popular EV models in your area.

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Tesla adds direct charge port defrosting option just in time for winter

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Tesla adds direct charge port defrosting option just in time for winter

Tesla adds direct charge port defrosting option just in time for winter

During Model 3’s first winter in 2018, we reported that the electric car had some issues with the cold weather, and Tesla said they were investigating the situation.

Several owners in cold weather regions were experiencing difficulties entering their vehicles because the door handles wouldn’t open, the windows, which need to go down about an inch to open the doors, would jam, and even the charge port would freeze shut.

A week later, Tesla released a software update to help with some of these issues.

Later, they also released a new software update to use climate control to help thaw the charge port when it gets frozen.

However, the real solution to the freezing charge port was a heater dedicated to it, which Tesla started putting in its vehicles in late 2020.

While charge port heaters have been in vehicles for years, Tesla never really gave the option to owners to specifically defrost their charge ports. Instead, it would activate when turning on the overall or rear defrosting functions of the vehicles.

This is now changing.

Not A Tesla App, which tracks Tesla software updates, is nothing that some Tesla vehicles are now getting the specific option to activate the charge port heater with the latest software update:

Tesla has finally added a solution to this problem. You can now manually turn on the charge port heater by going to Controls > Service > Charge Port Heater. However, the feature is not available on all vehicles. It’s only appearing in the release notes for a very small segment of vehicles. We’ve confirmed that it is showing up on a 2024 Model X and some 2023 Model Ys on Tesla software update 2024.44.3.1.

The change is coming right in time for the cold weather, and it should enable owners to target the charge port when needed – increasing efficiency.

Electrek’s Take

To be honest, I haven’t heard many issues about frozen charge ports since the first winter with the Model 3. I had this issue myself during the first winter.

There were a few reports about it the next two winters, but Tesla did help a lot simply with a software update to better manage the airflow toward the charge port area. Then, when the heater was introduced, it seemed to have basically eliminated the issue.

I still like to have a direct option to activate the specific charge port heater. It makes sense.

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