DJ Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk

The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.

1610 ET - The head of General Motors' Cruise driverless-car unit says the business should be able to hit $50B in revenue, without specifying a time frame. Dan Ammann said Cruise expects to have permits by early next year to begin charging for autonomous rides in California. He said Cruise will begin commercial rides with autonomous Chevy Bolts, and roll out its larger Origin people mover sometime in 2023. Within 3-4 years, Cruise will be operating robot-taxi service across multiple US markets, he said. (mike.colias@wsj.com; @MikeColias)

1608 ET - The judge hearing arguments into whether to approve the bankruptcy plan of asset manager Medley LLC said she would take the matter under advisement. The Securities and Exchange Commission opposes the chapter 11 plan, alleging that "conflict-ridden insiders," have diverted money to an entity not part of the bankruptcy, to the detriment of "unsophisticated, mom-and-pop," bond investors. Medley said if the plan isn't confirmed, it could convert to chapter 7 liquidation, with creditors recouping even less. "This plan isn't perfect but plans generally aren't perfect," Medley lawyer Jeffrey Waxman said. Two creditor groups that won't recoup all of what they're owed still support the plan, he said. (becky.yerak@wsj.com ; @beckyyerak)

1605 ET - US stocks recover from early losses as Mitch McConnell proposed allowing Democrats to pass a short-term debt limit extension ahead of a looming mid-October deadline for the US to continue paying its bills. Ten-year Treasury yields and oil prices fall while ADP says the private sector added 568,000 jobs in September, handily beating estimates but continuing a trend of slower growth than seen earlier in the year. American Airlines falls 4.3% and JetBlue loses 2.7% after Goldman Sachs raised concerns about fuel costs and slowing economic growth. The Dow rises 0.3% to 34416, the S&P 500 gains 0.4% to 4363 and the Nasdaq adds 0.4% to 14501. (jonathan.vuocolo@wsj.com; @jonvuocolo)

Airlines world-wide accelerated their target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 at a meeting this week. "Several States Call for Stronger Aircraft Emissions Standards -- Market Talk," at 1:06 p.m. ET, incorrectly said that only U.S. airlines were accelerated their target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

1455 ET - Natural gas prices notch the biggest one-day percentage drop since Sept. 21, 2020, falling 10.1% to finish at $5.675/mmBtu as the market completely reverses yesterday's 9.5% price-surge. "Today's news from Russia suggesting they would increase supplies appeared to be the primary driver of strong selling, although bearish US weather patterns and numerous larger-than-normal builds could be contributing," say analysts at NatGasWeather.com. Tomorrow morning the EIA releases its weekly storage report, and a WSJ survey is forecasting, on average, a 102B cubic feet injection that would be 21-bcf larger than normal, and would reflect a big bounce-back in offshore production after hurricane-caused outages. (dan.molinski@wsj.com)

1450 ET - The Financial Reporting Council says it has begun an investigation into an audit of London-based retailer French Connection Group PLC that was conducted by professional-services firm Mazars LLP. The investigation would center on an audit of financial statements for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2020, the UK regulator said, adding that its enforcement division would carry out the probe. (mark.maurer@wsj.com; @markgmaurer)

1448 ET - US benchmark oil prices close 1.9% lower at $77.43 a barrel due to a bearish weekly inventory report from the EIA and a plan by Russia's Putin to fix an energy crunch in Europe by boosting its shipments of natural gas to the continent. The EIA reported sizable increases in U.S. crude-oil and gasoline stockpiles, and another surge in US oil production as offshore output recovers from Hurricane Ida. Despite today's price decline, WTI crude is still on track to finish with a nearly $2 weekly increase, and most analysts remain bullish on oil given restrained global production and rising demand that's keeping supplies tight. (dan.molinski@wsj.com)

1436 ET - A trustee in the bankruptcy of James Alexander got court approval to sell the Sherman Oaks, Calif., home of the former executive of bankrupt cryptocurrency platform Cred Inc. for nearly $1.4M. Alexander opposed the sale, saying, among other things, that his wife wanted to make a bid. Judge John Dorsey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., said, however, that there was no credible evidence that Alexander's wife plans to purchase the property, noting that she didn't appear Wednesday at a virtual hearing. Judge Dorsey also said Alexander's spouse still has time to arrange financing if she wants to buy the property. (becky.yerak@wsj.com; @beckyyerak)

1428 ET - IPOs traditionally give large, institutional investors access to a company's stock at the offering price before trades begin trading, giving them a shot at the vaunted IPO "pop." Allbirds, maker of the clean-design shoe popular in tech circles, plans to allocate up to 6% of shares in its planned IPO to be sold to individual investors through Robinhood, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, SoFi, and ClickIPO at the same time and IPO price as purchases by other large investors. Also, up to 3% of shares would be offered under what's known as a directed-share program, often referred to as a friends-and-family program, that allows some employees and others buy some shares at the IPO price before the stock begins trading publicly. (maria.armental@wsj.com; @mjarmental)

1424 ET - Allbirds had said in its IPO filing it could lay the groundwork for others to follow in what it calls a Sustainable Public Equity Offering. It has since stripped language of helping pioneer a framework for companies going public to share their performance against a set of environmental, social, and governance criteria and generally toned down discussion--and potential costs--of the SPO framework and the company's market opportunity. And while it no longer says it's "excited to complete the first ever" such offering, it is now "committed to a framework for assessing our performance against a set of" ESG criteria. A reference to the SPO framework possibly resulting in additional costs associated with the IPO was deleted, but the documents refer to potential operating costs to its purse and reputation, should it fail to make meaningful progress, for example. (maria.armental@wsj.com; @mjarmental)

1317 ET - Goldman says decarbonization is driving a new capital expenditures cycle for United States Steel. Goldman cuts the steel maker to Sell from Neutral. U.S. Steel is shifting from being an integrated steel producer to increasing electric arc furnace exposure, Goldman notes. This entails an additional EAF mill, as well as other projects, accounting for more than $3B of increased spending over the next 2 to 3 years, Goldman says. Goldman sees further capital for shoring up its raw material strategy as prime scrap to be fed into EAFs becomes scarce. "Given X's focus on transitioning to a lower carbon portfolio, and capital intensive outlook, we expect the company's free cash flow profile to steeply fall from current levels," Goldman says. Shares down 8.4% to $20.55. (michael.dabaie@wsj.com)

1306 ET - Several states, led by California, and the trade group International Council on Clean Transportation are calling on the EPA to regulate aircraft carbon emissions beyond the International Civil Aviation Organization's standards, calling the UN body's approach a rubber stamp on existing aircraft and engines that don't cut emissions. The group wants rules that go further, including phasing out in-service jets at US airports that don't meet stringent emissions standards in support of lower carbon-emitting aircraft, and stronger pollutant standards for new aircraft engines that are entering into service in or after 2030. This follows a big meeting this week where global airlines accelerated their target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 versus their previous goal of cutting emissions by 50% by that time. (kimberly.chin@wsj.com; @mskimberlychin) Corrections & Amplifications

This item was corrected at 2:09 p.m. ET to show that global airlines accelerated their target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. An earlier version incorrectly said that only U.S. airlines were accelerated their target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 06, 2021 16:10 ET (20:10 GMT)

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