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Trade Wars
America’s Pandemic Car Bubble Is Now Trapping Buyers in Debt
About 30% of borrowers in the first quarter who traded in a car to buy a new one had negative equity, whereby they owe more on their loan than their car is worth, according to car-shopping website Edmunds. Those borrowers owed about $7,200 on average before getting a new loan, a 42% jump compared with the same period five years prior. “The higher it goes, the chances are that people are never going to get themselves out of the situation,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds.
About a third of Americans trading in an older car have negative equity, which has been typical in the industry for years. But the average amount Americans are underwater has skyrocketed, Edmunds said, as buyers try to unload cars bought during the pandemic at high prices. The current situation dates to the pandemic’s semiconductor supply crunch, which led to a severe shortage of new cars available on dealer lots. Vehicle prices soared in response, and buyers—who either had the disposable income to spend or lacked other transit options during lockdowns—were willing to pay up. The increased level of negative equity represents another strain on an auto market already under pressure from pricey vehicles and elevated interest rates.
Read more at The WSJ
Northrop Grumman Profit Jumps on Unprecedented Demand
Northrop Grumman logged a jump in profit and higher sales in the first quarter, amid what Chief Executive Kathy Warden called an unprecedented global demand environment. The aerospace-and-defense company on Tuesday posted a profit of $875 million, compared with $481 million a year earlier. Quarterly earnings of $6.14 a share topped the $6.05 a share that analysts polled by FactSet expected. Total sales rose 4.4% to $9.88 billion, ahead of Wall Street models for $9.75 billion.
Sales of aeronautics systems jumped 17%, while sales of defense and mission systems climbed 5.2% and 1.9%, respectively. The increases offset sales of space systems, which fell 3.4%. First-quarter net awards totaled $9.8 billion, and backlog stood at $95.6 billion, the company said. “With our diverse portfolio, robust manufacturing capacity and proven performance, we’re delivering differentiating technology at speed and scale in support of our customers’ needs,” Warden said.
Read more at the WSJ
Intel Gives Strong AI-Fueled Outlook, Sending Shares Soaring
Intel said on Thursday that it expects revenue of between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion for the second quarter. Wall Street was anticipating $13.03 billion. For Q1, Intel saw adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.29 on revenue of $13.6 billion. Wall Street was anticipating EPS of $0.01 and revenue of $12.36 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus data. Intel’s Data Center and AI business generated $5.1 billion in revenue, versus expectations of $4.41 billion. The company saw EPS of $0.13 and revenue of $12.67 billion in the same quarter last year.
While Intel missed out on the initial AI boom due to its lack of chips capable of running AI models, it’s beginning to grab its own slice of the AI bonanza. That’s because, as AI agents, semi- or fully autonomous AI bots that can perform tasks on users’ behalf continue to become more popular, central processing units (CPUs) like the ones Intel makes are becoming increasingly important to data center companies and hyperscalers. The reason? While AI models still largely run on GPUs or similar offerings from Amazon or Google, the tasks that AI agents perform, such as browsing websites or searching for data in spreadsheets, rely on CPUs.
Read more at Yahoo Finance
Despite Uncertain Macro Outlook, 3M Executives Stick to Sales Growth Target
Speaking to analysts and investors on April 21 after 3M reported Q1 operating profits of $1.4 billion (versus $1.25 billion in early 2025) on sales of $6.0 billion, Chairman and CEO Bill Brown said the start to the year brought with it both “pockets of macro pressure” and “encouraging order trends” that give him and his team confidence that top-line growth will pick up as the year progresses. A breakdown of sales by segment shows that duality:
- 3M’s sales of industrial adhesives and tapes grew to $604 million during the quarter compared to $543 million in last year’s Q1
- Personal safety products also put up strong growth, with net sales climbing to $912 million from $850 million
- Sales of commercial branding and transportation products also rose, to $640 million from $616 million
- Less positive were most of the divisions inside 3M’s consumer business unit: Home and auto care goods did well, climbing 10% year over year to $328 million, but weakness in consumer safety and packaging products contributed the group’s total revenues being essentially flat around $1.13 billion.
- Still, Brown said underlying activity looks good and hasn’t shown any signs of being restrained by the Iran war and its effects on energy prices.
Read more at IndustryWeek
FAA Expects Certification for Next 737 MAX Jets
The Boeing 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 commercial jets remain on track for certification this calendar year, according to Boeing and Federal Aviation Administration chief Bryan Bedford. In an interview published this week, Bedford cautiously confirmed that FAA regulators have discovered nothing that would impede Boeing from meeting its projected date for gaining certification, but left room for that possibility. Certification for the new 737 MAX variants has been anticipated for several years, delayed most recently by the FAA’s multi-month, onsite supervision of Boeing’s manufacturing processes following a January 2024 in-flight structural failure aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.
Boeing has more than 1,400 orders in place for the 737 MAX 10. The 737 MAX 10 will be the largest variant of the twin-engine jet series, capable of carrying up to 230 passengers and with a range of Approximately 3,300 nautical miles (3,796 miles / 6,110 km.) There are fewer orders for the smaller 737 MAX 7, estimated in the range of 289 to 294 aircraft. Southwest Airlines is the primary purchaser of those anticipated aircraft. The MAX 7 will carry up to 172 passengers and have a range of 3,800 nautical miles (4,373 miles / 7,037 km.)
Read more at American Machinist
A Radical New Engine Shows Why Internal Combustion Still Matters
While there’s still an overall trend toward electrification of the world’s light-duty vehicles, gas power is now likely to remain the choice of most consumers for a while—especially in the U.S., where gasoline remains cheaper than in the rest of the world. In defense and aviation, experts say, full electrification may never be an option. That’s prompted more companies to take a fresh look at old combustion tech, including the rotary engine. They’re also figuring out new ways for gas power and battery power to work together.
Alexander Shkolnik is founder of LiquidPiston, a company attempting a nearly impossible feat: developing a liquid-fuel-powered alternative to the traditional piston engine. He says his company has cracked the problem, at least for limited applications. The key is the rotary engine. Unlike a traditional gasoline or diesel engine, it has no pistons. Instead, it has an oddly shaped chunk of metal at its heart, spinning inside an oblong chamber in which the usual cycle of compression, combustion and exhaust takes place. LiquidPiston’s engine can run on everything from diesel to jet fuel, while being a fraction of the size of a comparable diesel engine, and up to 30% more efficient than a comparable gasoline one.
Read more at Yahoo Finance
Volkswagen Hits The Reset Button, Starting With Its EVs
In a media preview of future Volkswagen models, Volkswagen’s board member for sales, marketing and after-sales Martin Sander said in German that the car maker had “lost its way” on design and usability and is now refocusing on what it calls “true Volkswagen” qualities. Sander elaborated on what that means: Volkswagen’s passenger car division is moving away from the technology-driven feature lists that he revealed have driven the development of its models in recent years and back to what he describes as a “customer-centric approach.”
As part of the reset, Volkswagen said it is reintroducing physical buttons, intuitive controls and recognizable model names to upcoming models, walking back from touch-sensitive interfaces, deep digital menus and uncharacteristic, for Volkswagen, numeric model designations — including the ID.4 SUV, which VW is ending production of this month at its U.S. plant in Tennessee. The reset extends beyond styling to the technical underpinnings of future models. The new ID. Polo, Volkswagen’s upcoming entry-level electric hatchback planned for European sales during the second half of 2026, is set to adopt a front-wheel-drive layout, a configuration associated with more affordable and accessible Volkswagen models since the introduction of the original Golf (Rabbit in the U.S. market) in 1974.
Read More at Ward’s Auto
Ocean Shipping Surcharges Spurred By Iran War Weigh On Contract Talks
As shippers and carriers look to finalize ocean shipping contracts, the Iran conflict is weighing on some of those negotiations, National Retail Federation VP of Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “Many have these situations spelled out in their annual contracts, so they’re working through those issues,” he said. Shippers have been grappling with uncertainty and higher costs amid the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a major waterway for transporting global oil supply. Although import volumes at major U.S. container ports have yet to be significantly affected by the Iran conflict, carriers are seeing increases in fuel costs that could impact retailers, Gold said.
Ocean carriers such as MSC, CMA CGM, Ocean Network Express and Maersk have already started implementing fuel surcharges and higher rates across various trade lanes, Gold said. However, shippers saw some relief as the Federal Maritime Commission declined several ocean carriers’ requests to implement certain surcharges before the required 30-day notice, according to multiple FMC filings dated March 23. Other transport modes are also battling growing fuel costs, prompting surcharges. Trucking fuel surcharges, for instance, are up 25%, Gold said at the time of the briefing.
Read more at the WSJ
America’s First Commercial Nuclear-Power Projects in a Decade Just Broke Ground
A project by TerraPower, a company founded by Bill Gates almost 20 years ago, started construction Wednesday in Wyoming, while Kairos Power broke ground last week in Tennessee on a plant that intends to sell power to Google. For years, nuclear power’s would-be revival has been more concept than reality, dominated by designs and climate pledges, but with little under construction. The renewed interest comes alongside the biggest jump in electricity demand in a generation, much of it driven by the need to power data centers for artificial intelligence.
Last month Federal regulators gave TerraPower the greenlight for construction of a nuclear plant on a site where it had been building nonnuclear support facilities for nearly two years. It was the first such license in years for a commercial project, though the company will need a separate approval to load fuel and begin operations. Traditional U.S. reactors use water to cool the reactor core. TerraPower will use liquid sodium, which has a higher boiling point and allows operations at lower pressures with a more streamlined design than conventional projects. The 345-megawatt plant will include an energy-storage system that could boost output to 500 megawatts during times of peak electricity demand.
Read more at The WSJ
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