Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Market pressure : The major stock benchmarks were moving lower Wednesday, with the Dow getting the worst of it again. Adding pressure on equities, bond yields moved higher following a poor auction of $44 billion worth of 7-year Treasury notes. Nvidia was bucking the overall market decline, but its modest gain was much cooler than the incredible march higher over the past three sessions after last week’s earnings. American Airlines shares sank roughly 15% after a company sales strategy backfired and the carrier cut growth guidance. Sector watch : All of the S & P 500 sectors were under pressure Wednesday, led by energy and utilities. Tech has been flirting with positive territory as Nvidia, which opened lower, reversed to the upside. Fellow Club names Apple and Microsoft were also in the green. Combined, the three account for nearly 49% of the tech sector index. Apple and Nvidia, our two “own, don’t trade” stocks were also the top performers among the entire 33 stock Club portfolio. Deal movers : ConocoPhillips has agreed to buy Marathon Oil in a $17 billion all-stock transaction. Marathon shares rose about 7.5%, while Conoco stock fell roughly 4%. Additionally, Hess shareholders approved the company’s pending merger with Chevron . And, Merck has reached a deal to acquire privately held Eyebiotech for $1.3 billion in cash. Banking news : Here’s a dispatch from our Investing Club reporter Morgan Chittum about what Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said Wednesday at Bernstein’s 40th annual Strategic Decisions Conference: Scharf said Wells Fargo has been focusing on investment banking in a “very, very targeted way.” There were several mentions of the bank’s quiet hiring spree to beef up its Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division, which we reported on last week . Building out lucrative underwriting and advisory fee capabilities is “staring us in the face,” he added, as long-dormant IPO and M & A activity have started to perk up. Expanding Wells Fargo’s Wealth Management franchise, another fee-based revenue stream is “one of the bigger opportunities” ahead, Scharf said. The bank has around 12,000 advisors and is better positioned than in years past, the CEO added. We have been encouraged by Wells Fargo’s push to boost fees business lines. Scharf said Wells Fargo remains focused on efficiency. The bank has cut staff to 225,000 from 275,000. “The conversation around efficiency is less [about] saving money and it’s more about how do we run a better company,” he added. When the Federal Reserve at some point removes its asset cap on Wells Fargo, Scharf said corporate lending and trading will be areas of growth for the bank. He said he dialed back those areas to stay under the Fed’s $1.95 trillion limit. “When you turn a consumer away, they’ll remember that forever,” Scharf said. Businesses understand and can be won back, he added. The CEO believes it’s just a matter of time before the asset cap is lifted and so do we. Scharf said Wells Fargo was able to get a key regulatory penalty removed back in February by stripping away things like certain incentive plans at branches. The so-called consent order was tied to the bank’s 2016 fake accounts scandal that predated Scharf. There are still several other orders outstanding. Quick hits : The FDA granted accelerated approval for Club name Eli Lilly ‘s Retevmo, which is used to treat certain kinds of advanced or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer in children two and older. Twelve years and older was the prior age threshold. Elsewhere, shares of HubSpot were bucking the broader market decline on further speculation that Club name Alphabet is indeed considering an acquisition. CNBC’s David Faber believes that should a deal occur, it would be all-stock. Up next : Salesforce is set to report earnings after Wednesday’s closing bell. AI monetization commentary and what the team has been seeing in terms of cross-selling opportunities will be key watch items. Foot Locker and Best Buy report before the bell Thursday. Costco is out with results Thursday evening. That will do it for Club name earnings, except for Broadcom, which is set to report next month. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) 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.
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street.
The all-electric Cadillac LYRIQ was an Electrek favorite when it first made its debut two years ago. Now, LYRIQ buyers who have been waiting for a deal can score more than $10,500 in discounts on the Ultium-based Caddy.
Our own Seth Weintraub said that GM had come in, “a year early and dollar long at $60K” when he first drove the Ultium-based Cadillac LYRIQ back in 2022. He called the SUV “a stunner,” too, heaping praise on the LYRIQ’s styling inside and out before adding that the EV’s ride quality really impressed on long journeys.
Well, if the first mainstream electric Cadillac was a winner at its original, $57,195 starting price (rounded up to $60K for easy math), what could we call it at $10,500 less?
That’s a question that’s suddenly worth asking, thanks to huge GM discounts on the LYRIQ that prompted the automotive pricing analysts at CarsDirect to name the 2024 LYRIQ one of the industry’s “Best New Car Deals” this month:
A slew of incentives can enable you to save big on a 2024 Cadillac LYRIQ. First, EVs eligible for the federal tax credit qualify for $7,500 in Ultium Promise Bonus Cash from GM. Additionally, competing EV owners can score $3,000 in conquest cash.
With more than 100 kWh of battery capacity and 300-plus miles of real-world driving range (plus available 190 kW charging capability) the Cadillac LYRIQ ticks all the boxes – but you don’t have to take just my word for that.
A global shortage of qualified operators is impacting job sites everywhere, precisely at a time when demand for housing, mineral mining, and renewable energy construction is going from peak to peak. That’s why companies from Caterpillar to Tesla to Einride are pushing to advance autonomy the way they are.
First revealed as a concept in 2021, Volvo CE’s CX01 autonomous “single drum” asphalt roller concept has seen continuous development in the years since. Making its Volvo Days debut, the CX01 has shed the original single drum design for a “split drum,” with each half being controlled by an internalized, independent electric motor.
The CX01’s electric motors not only help to propel and steer the roller, they also vibrate the drums individually, using some trick software calibration to effectively “cancel each other out,” delivering all the benefits of vibrating drum rollers without the noise.
It’s so smart, you guys
It’s also worth noting that the CX01 is something of an “extended range” EV, instead of a “pure” BEV. That’s because it uses a small, 1.4L diesel engine to spin a generator that powers not batteries, but capacitors (those blue things, above right). Those capacitors can be charged on grid power (or from an accompanying TC13 trench compactor), but they’re much better than batteries at releasing energy really quickly, enabling the diesel to operate at its maximum efficiency while maintaining extremely precise, high-torque movement from the motors.
Volvo CE engineers envision a team CX01 rollers units deployed on larger job sites that could work together and communicate with other pieces of equipment on the site. The connected equipment could help survey the job site, report on the conditions of the mat (density, temperature, and passes), and leverage AI to determine when and where to compact without the need for human operators.
All of which is great, sure – but they had me at “giant OneWheel.”
Volvo TA15 autonomous electric haul truck
Volvo TA15 autonomous haul truck; photo by the author.
Part of Volvo CE’ “TARA” line of autonomous products, the “production ready” TA15 autonomous electric haul trucks are already part of a number of pilot programs on Volvo customer job sites. Being autonomous, they’re ideally suited to performing repetitive routes, dozens of times per day, without exposing human operators to fatigue or injury.
“TARA enables you to downsize and replace larger diesel-powered vehicles with a fleet of autonomous electric Volvo TA15s capable of running 24/7,” reads the official TARA release. “This not only helps you cut emissions and increase productivity, it will also help you rightsize your machinery and optimize your hauling routes.”
And that brings us to the real topic at hand: sustainability.
Electrek’s Take
Volvo SD110 single drum roller, via Volvo CE.
As we’ve often discussed on The Heavy Equipment Podcast, there are two types of sustainability, and both are important. The first is the “classic” version of sustainability, in that our choices need to sustain the planet and environment we live in. The second is sustainability of the business – the ability to keep doing business in a way that ensures the survival of the business, itself.
Looking at the conventional Volvo SD110 conventional roller, above, you can see the incredible amount of materials – of steel, rubber, plastic, glass, etc. – that simply isn’t needed to produce the CX01 roller we started this article with.
All that added mass has a massive hidden carbon cost. The cost of getting those materials out of the ground, the need for bigger, heavier roads to support the weight of the machine, and the bigger, burlier trucks and trailers needed to transport it. Heck, even the operator’s commute to and from the job site adds to the carbon cost of the SD110, over and above the harmful emissions from its diesel engine’s exhaust stack.
The CX01? It’s objectively more sustainable than the SD110 roller in every way, and does pretty much the same job.
Following successful inbound implementations in the Pacific Northwest, North Carolina, and Mexico, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) is expanding the reach of its electric semi fleet into Arizona with long-time associate JB Hunt.
JB Hunt will add the new Freightliner eCascadia electric semi to its Arizona fleet immediately, and put it to work delivering aftermarket truck parts from DTNA’s parts distribution center (PDC) in Phoenix to multiple DTNA dealers along a dedicated route.
The electric Freightliner truck is expected to cover approximately 100 miles in a given day before heading “home” to a Detroit eFill charger installed at Daimler’s Phoenix facility.
“This solution with DTNA is a great example of our commitment to supporting customers’ efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and work towards energy transition,” explains Greer Woodruff, executive vice president of safety, sustainability and maintenance at JB Hunt. “JB Hunt owns and operates several eCascadias on behalf of customers, and our drivers have really enjoyed their in-cab experience. As customer interest continues to grow, we are here to enable their pursuit for a more sustainable supply chain in the most economic means possible.”
Daimler is analyzing future expansion opportunities throughout its internal parts distribution and logistics with an eye on electrifing additional routes and further reducing the carbon footprint of its logistics operations.