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Dockworkers strike at the Bayport Container Terminal in Seabrook, Texas, on October 1, 2024. 

Mark Felix | Afp | 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

U.S. stocks shaken as Hong Kong market rallies
U.S. stocks
fell on fears over growing geopolitical tensions. The S&P 500 slipped 0.93%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.41% and the Nasdaq Composite retreated 1.53%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index popped around 5%, propelled by the year’s strongest rally in Hong Kong-listed Chinese property stocks.

Escalating Middle East conflict
Prices of WTI and Brent oil rose around 1.6% during Asian trading hours as conflict escalated in the Middle East. On Tuesday, Israel began a ground offensive in Lebanon and Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel. Analysts told CNBC there’s a chance Israel will hit Iran’s oil infrastructure, which could cause oil to spike to more than $100 a barrel.

Widespread effect of port strike
Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association started striking Tuesday, halting activity at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, which stretch from Maine to Texas. If the strike drags on, global supply chains and the economy could take a beating. That runs the risk of causing inflation to flare up again.

Risk-off on crypto
Amid this cautious atmosphere, investors pulled back from cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is currently trading at $61,407.21, down from nearly $66,000 on Sunday. Crypto-related companies also struggled on Tuesday. Coinbase tumbled 7.4% and fell around 1% in extended trading.

[PRO] Fund manager’s worst-performing stock
Ranmore Global Equity Fund managed to beat the S&P the past two years. But there have been slip-ups as well. Its fund manager shares with CNBC the worst-performing stock he’s picked: why he bought it, what went wrong and the lessons he learned.

The bottom line

Just when the coast appeared clear, geopolitical tensions and potential supply chain snarl-ups threaten to turn the soft-landing trajectory into a bumpy one.

Port workers along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast started striking Tuesday. At a port in the New York-New Jersey area, around 100,000 shipping containers “are literally in limbo in the port,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul. 

“A disruption of a week or two will create some backlogs but the broader consequences will be minimal,” said Adam Kamins, economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Should the work stoppage go on for longer, however, “you’re running into businesses that have real shortages and, yeah, they’ll absolutely have to raise those prices,” said Christopher Ball, economics professor at Quinnipiac University.

(Fans of Rao’s pasta sauce need not fear, for now. Piper Sandler wrote that Campbell Soup, which bought Rao’s earlier this year, “has healthy levels of inventory on hand.”)

Meanwhile, oil prices spiked as markets feared Iran, a member of OPEC, would be dragged into a larger conflict in the Middle East. Higher oil prices pose a risk to inflation resurging, or at least slowing less than everyone is hoping for.

With those fears and uncertainties swirling, the Cboe Volatility Index, known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, climbed to 19.3 on Tuesday. It closed at 15.4 a week ago. Major U.S. indexes fell, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq suffering the most as megacaps like Tesla, Nvidia and Apple dropped.

It’s just the first days of the port strike and flare-up in Middle East tensions, however. The classic safe-haven trades, like bonds, gold and the U.S. dollar, aren’t showing up in the prices of those assets yet, noted CNBC’s Steve Liesman.

The best-case scenario would be that recent events are just minor turbulence on the way to a soft landing.

– CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Fred Imbert, Lori Ann LaRocco, Sean Conlon, Alex Harring and Brian Evans contributed to this story.  

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E-quipment highlight: Kubota mini excavator goes from diesel to EV and back

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E-quipment highlight: Kubota mini excavator goes from diesel to EV and back

Japanese equipment giant Kubota brought 22 new or updated machines to the 2025 bauma expo earlier this year, but tucked away in the corners was a new retrofit kit that can help existing customers decarbonize more quickly, and more affordably.

No matter how badly a fleet may want to electrify, harsh economic realities and the greater up-front costs typically associated with battery electric remain high hurdles to overcome, but new retrofit options from major manufacturers are popping up to help lower those obstacles.

The latest equipment maker to put its name on the retrofit list is Kubota, who says its kit can be installed by a trained dealer in a single day.

That’s right! By this time tomorrow, your diesel-powered Kubota KX019 or U27-4 excavator (shown) could be fitted with an 18 or 20 kWh li-ion battery pack and electric drive motors and ready to get to work in a low-noise or low-vibration work environment where emissions are a strict no-no. Think indoor precision demolition or historic archeological excavation.

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Then, if necessary, it can go right back to diesel power.

From diesel to electric and back again


U27-4e electric retrofit; via Kubota.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve talked about a similarly flexible power solution from ZQUIP. The battery packs and diesel engines are much larger in that application, but the basic sales pitch remains the same: electric when it benefits your operation, diesel it doesn’t.

Kubota says its modular retrofit kits is a response to the increasing global demand for sustainable alternatives by focusing on making machinery that’s flexible and repairable enough to be “reusable,” and offer construction fleet managers a longer operational lifespan, superior ROI (return on investment), and lower TCO (total cost of ownership) than the competition.

Kubota’s solution also notably reduces maintenance costs and operational overheads. With no engine and associated components, servicing time and expenses are considerably reduced, saving customers both time and money. Additionally, with electricity costing far less than fossil fuels, it offers a highly economical advantage.

KUBOTA

International Rental News reports that other changes to the excavators include a more modern cab controls with a digital instrument cluster, a 60 mm wider undercarriage for more stability, and an independent travel circuit allows operators to use the boom, dipper, bucket, and auxiliary functions without an impact on tracking performance.

Kubota’s new kit, first shown at last year’s Hillhead exhibition in the UK, will officially be on sale this summer – any day now, in fact – though pricing has yet to be announced.

Electrek’s Take


If you’re wondering how it is that we’re still talking about bauma 2025 a full quarter after the show wrapped up, then I haven’t done a good enough job of explaining how positively massive the show was. Check out this Quick Charge episode (above) then let us know what you think of Kubota’s modular power kits in the comments.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Kubota, via International Rental News.


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America – it’s a party now! Plus: an electric Honda Ruckus and updated BMW

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America – it's a party now! Plus: an electric Honda Ruckus and updated BMW

Elon Musk isn’t happy about Trump passing the Big Beautiful Bill and killing off the $7,500 EV tax credit – but there’s a lot more bad news for Tesla baked into the BBB. We’ve got all that and more on today’s budget-busting episode of Quick Charge!

We also present ongoing coverage of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix and dive into some two wheeled reports on the new electric Honda Ruckus e:Zoomer, the latest BMW electric two-wheeler, and more!

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.


If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

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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FERC: Solar + wind made up 96% of new US power generating capacity in first third of 2025

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FERC: Solar + wind made up 96% of new US power generating capacity in first third of 2025

Solar and wind accounted for almost 96% of new US electrical generating capacity added in the first third of 2025. In April, solar provided 87% of new capacity, making it the 20th consecutive month solar has taken the lead, according to data belatedly posted on July 1 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign.

Solar’s new generating capacity in April 2025 and YTD

In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through April 30, 2025), FERC says 50 “units” of solar totaling 2,284 megawatts (MW) were placed into service in April, accounting for 86.7% of all new generating capacity added during the month.

In addition, the 9,451 MW of solar added during the first four months of 2025 was 77.7% of the new generation placed into service.

Solar has now been the largest source of new generating capacity added each month for 20 consecutive months, from September 2023 to April 2025.

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Solar + wind were >95% of new capacity in 1st third of 2025

Between January and April 2025, new wind provided 2,183 MW of capacity additions, accounting for 18.0% of new additions in the first third.

In the same period, the combination of solar and wind was 95.7% of new capacity while natural gas (511 MW) provided just 4.2%; the remaining 0.1% came from oil (11 MW).

Solar + wind are >22% of US utility-scale generating capacity

The installed capacities of solar (11.0%) and wind (11.8%) are now each more than a tenth of the US total. Together, they make up almost one-fourth (22.8%) of the US’s total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.

Moreover, at least 25-30% of US solar capacity is in small-scale (e.g., rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC’s data. Including that additional solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar + wind to more than a quarter of the US total.

With the inclusion of hydropower (7.7%), biomass (1.1%), and geothermal (0.3%), renewables currently claim a 31.8% share of total US utility-scale generating capacity. If small-scale solar capacity is included, renewables are now about one-third of total US generating capacity.

Solar is on track to become No. 2 source of US generating capacity

FERC reports that net “high probability” additions of solar between May 2025 and April 2028 total 90,158 MW – an amount almost four times the forecast net “high probability” additions for wind (22,793 MW), the second-fastest growing resource. Notably, both three-year projections are higher than those provided just a month earlier.

FERC also foresees net growth for hydropower (596 MW) and geothermal (92 MW) but a decrease of 123 MW in biomass capacity.

Taken together, the net new “high probability” capacity additions by all renewable energy sources over the next three years – i.e., the bulk of the Trump administration’s remaining time in office – would total 113,516 MW.  

FERC doesn’t include any nuclear capacity in its three-year forecast, while coal and oil are projected to contract by 24,373 MW and 1,915 MW, respectively. Natural gas capacity would expand by 5,730 MW.

Thus, adjusting for the different capacity factors of gas (59.7%), wind (34.3%), and utility-scale solar (23.4%), electricity generated by the projected new solar capacity to be added in the coming three years should be at least six times greater than that produced by the new natural gas capacity, while the electrical output by new wind capacity would be more than double that by gas.

If FERC’s current “high probability” additions materialize, by May 1, 2028, solar will account for one-sixth (16.6%) of US installed utility-scale generating capacity. Wind would provide an additional one-eighth (12.6%) of the total. That would make each greater than coal (12.2%) and substantially more than nuclear power or hydropower (7.3% and 7.2%, respectively).

In fact, assuming current growth rates continue, the installed capacity of utility-scale solar is likely to surpass that of either coal or wind within two years, placing solar in second place for installed generating capacity, behind only natural gas.

Renewables + small-scale solar may overtake natural gas within 3 years

The mix of all utility-scale (ie, >1 MW) renewables is now adding about two percentage points each year to its share of generating capacity. At that pace, by May 1, 2028, renewables would account for 37.7% of total available installed utility-scale generating capacity – rapidly approaching that of natural gas (40.1%). Solar and wind would constitute more than three-quarters of installed renewable energy capacity. If those trend lines continue, utility-scale renewable energy capacity should surpass that of natural gas in 2029 or sooner.

However, as noted, FERC’s data do not account for the capacity of small-scale solar systems. If that’s factored in, within three years, total US solar capacity could exceed 300 GW. In turn, the mix of all renewables would then be about 40% of total installed capacity while the share of natural gas would drop to about 38%.

Moreover, FERC reports that there may actually be as much as 224,426 MW of net new solar additions in the current three-year pipeline in addition to 69,530 MW of new wind, 9,072 MW of new hydropower, 202 MW of new geothermal, and 39 MW of new biomass. By contrast, net new natural gas capacity potentially in the three-year pipeline totals just 26,818 MW. Consequently, renewables’ share could be even greater by mid-spring 2028.

“The Trump Administration’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ … poses a clear threat to solar and wind in the years to come,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director, Ken Bossong. “Nonetheless, FERC’s latest data and forecasts suggest cleaner and lower-cost renewable energy sources may still dominate and surpass nuclear power, coal, and natural gas.” 


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