With the stock market deeply oversold this week, we put cash to work by picking stocks across a range of sectors including energy, technology and materials. We also added a former Club chipmaker to our Bullpen and upgraded a premium beer name to a buy rating. Finally, Friday’s market reversal helped us make good on a pledge to trim a once-downtrodden health-care stock. Here’s a day-by-day look at our portfolio moves in a choppy week of trading, undergirded by investor concerns over the state of the economy and rising bond yields. Monday Early into Monday’s session, we scooped up 200 shares of Coterra Energy (CTRA) – the first time in roughly two months that we added to our position in the oil-and-gas producer. With the market oversold, per the S & P 500 Short Range Oscillator , our investment discipline called for us to search for any dislocations within the portfolio. And Coterra fit the bill because its stock price did not appropriately reflect the recent rally in natural gas, one which has only gained steam throughout the week. On Friday, natural gas futures jumped 5%, to trade at roughly $3.33 per million British thermal units, or MMBtu. Tuesday The market entered Tuesday’s session at its most oversold since March, so we once again looked for places to strategically deploy some of our cash. That led us to coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX), which has been dogged by investor concerns over the health of its business in China. At the same time, we also added Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to the Bullpen , our repository of stocks under consideration to join the portfolio. Later in Tuesday’s session, as market declines mounted, we nibbled on Broadcom (AVGO) stock. China’s slower-than-expected post-Covid economic recovery has been a thorn in the side of many U.S. stocks, including Starbucks. After closing at $114.46 per share on May 1, the stock began to drift lower for months, closing at its lowest level of the year Tuesday, at $89.48 per share. But the reason we stepped in to buy 50 shares Tuesday is because risks stemming from China – the coffee maker’s second-largest market, behind the U.S. – have mostly been factored into its stock price. We’re giving AMD a second look less than two months after exiting our position in the chipmaker — swapping in rival Broadcom in its place – because we’ve developed a better understanding of its role within the broader semiconductor space. To be sure, we haven’t taken further action on AMD stock, but in general we’re warming to it and closely watching the company’s standing in the artificial intelligence race. Tech stocks remained under pressure Tuesday afternoon, giving us an opportunity to buy 7 shares of Broadcom and lower our cost basis. The purchase also served to grow our position in Broadcom before its megadeal for data-center software maker VMWare (VMW) is completed. Management has said it expects to close the deal by Oct. 30. Thursday We sat on our hands Wednesday, as Wall Street rallied after payroll processing firm ADP reported private sector job gains in September well below expectations. But stocks returned to the red Thursday, and the market remained firmly in oversold territory. We made two separate buys against this backdrop, beginning with 65 shares of DuPont de Nemours (DD) and later returning to the beaten-down tech sector to purchase 75 more shares of Oracle (ORCL). And we upgraded beer maker Constellation Brands (STZ) to a 1 rating — denoting that we would be buyers at current levels — as its stock slid 3% despite releasing better-expected quarterly results and raising its full-year guidance. Thursday marked the first time since Aug. 18 that we added to our position in chemicals giant DuPont and just our third trade in the name overall. We initiated a position on Aug. 7 for its robust capital-return potential and its exposure to the semiconductor-and-electronics industry. Oracle’s stock remained trapped in its post-earnings malaise Thursday, amid a broader tech slump. But, as we argued in mid-September in the initial aftermath of the report, we remain confident in the ability of Oracle’s cloud business to benefit from growth in AI workloads. That belief undergirded our small purchase Thursday afternoon, just as it did Sept. 18 and Sept. 26 when we bought Oracle into weakness. Oracle still trades at an undemanding valuation relative to its tech peers. The strength of Constellation Brands’ beer business – led by Modelo and Corona – was on display in its fiscal 2024 second-quarter print Thursday. That didn’t stop its stock from declining for the past two trading sessions. But, as Jim stressed Friday, a major catalyst looms for Constellation: an investor day on Nov. 2, during which we hope to hear a strategy update influenced by activist investor Elliott Management. Friday A stronger-than-anticipated September jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department initially took stocks lower Friday, as bond yields popped on the news. However, the market reversed course in midday trading, with all three major U.S. stock benchmarks trading sharply higher. The strengthening market helped push shares of Humana (HUM) back above the $500 level – our cue to ring the register on 15 shares . We’d been eyeing the $500-per-share level for some time, as Humana’s stock began to recover from an 18% fall in early summer over fears about higher medical costs. Eventually, sentiment began to turn around, and Humana’s earnings report on Aug. 2 offered more assurances to investors that earnings would remain resilient. We remained aboard despite the turbulence and made one purchase into the June weakness. While the stock isn’t back to its May highs, it still made sense Friday to lock in hard-fought profits. We also downgraded the stock to a 2 rating, meaning we would wait for a pullback before buying up more shares. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CTRA, SBUX, AVGO, ORCL, DD, HUM and STZ . See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.
People walk by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 14, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images
With the stock market deeply oversold this week, we put cash to work by picking stocks across a range of sectors including energy, technology and materials. We also added a former Club chipmaker to our Bullpen and upgraded a premium beer name to a buy rating. Finally, Friday’s market reversal helped us make good on a pledge to trim a once-downtrodden health-care stock.
On today’s exciting episode of Quick Charge, we don’t even mention “you know who,” focusing instead on EV news from Rivian, Lucid, Nissan, Ford, and what it takes to make a MAN in the heavy truck space. Check it out!
Sure, Nissan is pushing back production estimates on its yet-to-begin-production Nissan LEAF and Ford’s EV sales were down significantly in Q2, but there’s more to the story than the “Faux News” crowd would have you believe. Plus: some new electric success stories from Porsche and a disappointing (but still cool) dive into some new home backup battery tech.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (most weeks, anyway). 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.
he 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. 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.
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Battery electric cars sold today in Europe produce 73% less life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than gas cars, even when factoring in production, according to new research from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). That’s a big improvement from 2021, when the gap was 59%.
Meanwhile, hybrids and plug-in hybrids haven’t made much progress. The study confirms what clean transportation advocates have been saying for years: If Europe wants to seriously slash emissions from its dirtiest mode of transport – ICE passenger cars, which pump out nearly 75% of the sector’s pollution – it needs to go all-in on battery EVs.
“Battery electric cars in Europe are getting cleaner faster than we expected and outperform all other technologies, including hybrids and plug-in hybrids,” said ICCT researcher Dr. Marta Negri. Credit the continent’s rapid shift to renewables and the higher energy efficiency of EVs.
The makeup of the EU’s power grid is changing fast. By 2025, renewables are expected to generate 56% of Europe’s electricity, up from 38% in 2020. And that’s just the beginning: the share could hit 86% by 2045. Since cars bought today could still be on the road two decades from now, the growing use of clean electricity will only boost EVs’ climate benefits over time.
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Gas-powered cars, on the other hand, will stay mostly tied to fossil fuels as the cost and availability of biofuels and e-fuels are still uncertain.
Hybrids and plug-in hybrids only cut lifetime emissions by 20% and 30%, respectively, compared to gas cars. That’s partly because plug-in hybrids tend to run on gas more than expected. So while hybrids aren’t useless, they’re just not good enough if we’re serious about climate goals.
Countering EV myths with hard data
There’s been a lot of noise lately about whether EVs are really that green. The ICCT study takes aim at the bad data and misleading claims floating around, like ignoring how the grid gets cleaner over time or using unrealistic gas mileage figures.
It’s true that manufacturing EVs creates more emissions upfront – about 40% more than making a gas car, mostly due to the battery. But EVs make up for it quickly: that extra emissions load is usually wiped out after about 17,000 km (10,563 miles) of driving, which most drivers hit in a year or two.
“We’ve recently seen auto industry leaders misrepresenting the emissions math on hybrids,” said Dr. Georg Bieker, senior researcher at the ICCT. “But life-cycle analysis is not a choose-your-own-adventure exercise.”
ICCT’s new analysis includes emissions from vehicle and battery production and recycling, fuel and electricity production, and fuel consumption and maintenance. It even adjusts for how the electricity mix will change in the coming years – a key detail when measuring plug-in hybrid performance.
The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. 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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The EV2 may be Kia’s smallest electric vehicle, but it has a big presence on the road. Kia promises it won’t feel so small when you’re inside, thanks to clever storage and flexible seating. After a prototype was spotted testing in the Alps, we are getting our closest look at the Kia EV2 so far.
Kia EV2 spotted in the Alps offers our closest look yet
Kia first unveiled the Concept EV2 during its 2025 EV Day event (see our recap of the event) in April, a preview of its upcoming entry-level electric SUV.
Despite its small size, Kia claims it will “redefine urban electric mobility” with new innovative features and more. Kia has yet to say exactly how big it will be, but given it will sit below the EV3, it’s expected to be around 4,000 mm (157″) in length. The EV3 is 4,300 mm (169.3″) in length.
Looking at it from the side, it sits much higher than you’d expect, similar to Kia’s larger EV9. During an exclusive event at Milan Design Week in April, Kia gave a sneak peek of the interior.
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Kia said the interior is inspired by a “picnic in the city,” or in other words, a retreat from the busy city life. With a flat-floor design and flexible seating, you can quite literally have a picnic in the city.
Kia Concept EV2 (Source: Kia)
Although we’ve seen the EV2 out in public testing a few times, a new video provides the closest look at Kia’s upcoming electric SUV.
The video, courtesy of CarSpyMedia, shows an EV2 prototype testing in the Alps with European license plates. There’s also a “Testfahrt” sticker on the back, which translates to “Test Car” in German.
Kia EV2 entry-level EV caught testing in the Alps (Source: CarSpyMedia)
As the prototype drives by, you can get a good look at it from all angles. Like in past sightings, the front features stacked vertical headlights with Kia’s signature Star Map lighting. Even the rear lights appear to be identical to those of the concept.
The interior will feature Kia’s next-gen ccNC (connected car Navigation Cockpit) infotainment system. The setup includes dual 12.3″ instrument clusters and infotainment screens in a curved panoramic display. Depending on the model, it could also include an added 5.3″ climate control screen.
Last month, a crossover coupe-like model was spotted on a car carrier in Korea, hinting at a new variant. The new model featured a design similar to that of the Genesis GV60.
Kia’s CEO, Ho Sung Song, also recently told Autocar that a smaller, more affordable EV was in the works to sit below the EV2. Song said the new EV, priced under €25,000 ($30,000), was “one area we are studying and developing.”
With the EV4 and EV5 launching this year, followed by the EV2 in 2026, it could be closer toward the end of the decade before we see it hit the market. Next-gen EV6 and EV9 models are also due out around then.
The Kia EV2 is set to launch in Europe and other global regions in 2026. Unfortunately, it’s not expected to make the trip to the US.
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