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Trade Wars
ASML Orders for Cutting-Edge Machines Boom as AI Fuels Demand
ASML, the world's biggest supplier of computer chip-making equipment, reiterated on Wednesday it expects to benefit from booming AI investment, even as it warned Chinese demand was expected to significantly drop next year. CEO Christophe Fouquet said Europe's largest tech firm by market capitalization was seeing "continued positive momentum around investments in AI." That boom was helping customers both in advanced logic chips - those used in smartphones and AI datacenters - and advanced memory chips also needed for AI.
ASML's lithography tools, key for making chip circuitry, are sold to TSMC of Taiwan - which makes most AI chips for Nvidia - and to other logic chip firms such as China's SMIC and Intel (. It also serves memory chip makers like Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. ASML said it expects Chinese sales to fall "significantly" next year, after having made up nearly half of company sales in 2024 and a third so far in 2025. CFO Roger Dassen said on a media call the decline was a "normalization" and not due to stockpiling amid the U.S.-China trade war.
Read more at Reuters
Jeep-Maker Stellantis Plans $13 Billion Investment to Boost U.S. Manufacturing
Stellantis is planning to spend billions of dollars to make more Jeeps, pickups and Dodge SUVs in the United States, in what the global automaker describes as the largest single investment in its history. Stellantis said Tuesday that it would spend $13 billion through the end of the decade as it launches five new vehicles and a new four-cylinder engine, creating more than 5,000 jobs at plants across the Midwest. Suppliers providing parts for those models may add 20,000 jobs, Chief Executive Antonio Filosa said in an interview.
Stellantis, the Netherlands-based automaker that also includes European brands Opel, Peugeot and Fiat, was created in early 2021 through the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France’s PSA Group. The automaker relies heavily on North America, which historically has driven a majority of profits. Last week, Stellantis said that vehicle shipments in North America rose 35% in the most recent quarter, compared with a year earlier, as the company started deliveries of Ram 1500 pickups with Hemi V-8 engines.
Read more at WSJ
More Big Bank Earnings Exceed Expectations
Morgan Stanley on Wednesday posted third-quarter earnings that topped expectations by the largest margin in nearly five years. The bank said profit surged 45% from a year earlier to $4.61 billion, or $2.80 per share. Revenue rose 18% to a record $18.22 billion. Investment banking revenue in the quarter jumped 44% from a year earlier to $2.11 billion, about $430 million more than the StreetAccount estimate. The bank cited more completed mergers, more IPO activity and more fixed income fundraising as reasons for the booming results. Equities trading revenue rose 35% to $4.12 billion, or $720 million more than what analysts surveyed by StreetAccount had expected. CNBC
Bank of America on Wednesday posted third-quarter results that exceeded analysts’ expectations on stronger-than-expected investment banking revenue. The second-largest U.S. bank by assets said profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion, or $1.06 per share. Revenue increased 10.8% to $28.24 billion. Investment banking fees surged 43% from a year earlier to $2 billion, about $380 million more than analysts surveyed by StreetAccount had expected. Equities trading also contributed to the quarterly beat; revenue there rose 14% to $2.3 billion, roughly $200 million more than the StreetAccount estimate. Fixed income trading rose 5% to $3.1 billion, matching expectations. CNBC
Global Demand For Patriot Missiles Rises - Boeing Given $2.7 Billion In Contracts
Defense Contractor Boeing announced on Tuesday that it had been given about $2.7 billion in multiyear contracts to produce more than 3,000 Patriot Advanced Capability‑3 (PAC‑3) seekers through 2030. Boeing said the demand for PAC‑3 interceptors has spiked in light of the conflicts and tensions in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific. Boeing is set to deliver over 3,000 seekers, a key component for the Patriot interceptor missiles, at a rate of up to 750 units a year, according to the agreements.
The Patriot systems have been among the key tools in Ukraine’s efforts to defend against Russia’s missile and drone attacks over the past three years, and are also a key part of Taiwan’s preparations for a potential Chinese attack. That demand has ramped up pressure on U.S. manufacturers to ensure that U.S. stockpiles aren’t depleted.
Read more at The Hill
Boeing Gains EU Antitrust Nod For $4.7 Billion Spirit Aerosystems Deal
Boeing secured EU antitrust approval on Tuesday for its $4.7 billion acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems after agreeing to sell some Spirit businesses to address competition concerns. The deal announced last year aims to help Boeing streamline its operations and improve quality control, years after it spun off the airline supplier. Boeing offered remedies after the European Commission, which acts as the EU antitrust enforcer, said the deal would have significantly reduced competition in the global aerostructure market and in the large commercial aircraft sector.
The Commission said it accepted Boeing's offer to divest all of Spirit's businesses that currently supply aerostructures to Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab to the European rival, confirming a Reuters story last week. Boeing will also sell Spirit's site in Malaysia, which supplies aerostructures to Airbus, to Composites Technology Research Malaysia Sdn Bhd, allowing the Malaysian company to enter the market.
Read more at Reuters
GE Aerospace Announces $30M Investment In Workforce Training
Over the next five years, GE Aerospace will invest $30 million into its new workforce program. It comes at a time of high demand from airliners and a growing need for manufacturing workers. GE held an event Tuesday, in part to announce how its new program will help bridge that gap. We spoke to Chief Human Resources Officer Christian Meisner about the new program. "We've got demand for new aircraft, which means new engines, as well as the airlines wanting to keep their fleets flying," Meisner said.
GE said it's hoping to increase the number of highly skilled manufacturing workers by 10,000 beginning next year. The company is also partnering with educational programs across the country, including in Cincinnati. Cincinnati State Technical and Community College will receive $250,000 from GE. That money will fund two new aviation maintenance technician instructors to help expand the program capacity from 185 students to 350.
Read more at WCPO Cincinnati
New Program Aims To Put Nuclear Generators On Army Bases
U.S. officials Tuesday announced a program to locate small nuclear power generation reactors on U.S. Army bases around the world.Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the Janus Program, aimed at developing microreactors to generate power without relying on diesel fuel, at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington. Driscoll and Wright emphasized the importance of being able to supply vast amounts of energy to remote locations while limiting threats to supply chains.
In 2022, Pentagon officials also announced “Project Pele,” with the goal of developing a 40-ton nuclear reactor capable of one to five megawatts of power that could be transported to an austere environment. Driscoll, Wright, and Jeff Waksman, the Army’s principal deputy assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, who will lead the project, said Tuesday that the Army will work with the Defense Innovation Unit and the Energy Department to develop and test the microreactors, which will be commercially owned and operated. Driscoll touted the partnership with commercial entities, saying that it was the Army’s goal to be a, “host for American entrepreneurship and industry.”
Read more at Defense News
SpaceX Successfully Lands 11th Test Starship
SpaceX closed a chapter in its Starship saga on Monday. It launched what appeared to be a nearly flawless suborbital mission with its Version 2 Starship-Super Heavy rocket, the final flight for this iteration of the launch vehicle. The more than 400-foot-tall rocket thundered away from Pad A at Starbase at 6:23 p.m. CDT (7:23 p.m. EDT / 2323 UTC) to begin the roughly one-hour-long flight. The only notable hiccup during ascent was that one of the planned 13 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster, tail number B15, didn’t reignite during the boostback burn.
This was the final Starship launch of the year and the last mission that will fly from Pad A in its current configuration. SpaceX now turns its attention to completing and testing Version 3 of Starship-Super Heavy, which will begin launch from Pad B. It’s this iteration of the rocket that SpaceX intends to use for launching payloads to orbit and eventually flying missions to the Moon and Mars. To get to those missions beyond low Earth orbit though, SpaceX will need to master the ability to both transfer and store propellant in orbit.
Read more at Spaceflight Now
The Rest of the World Is Following America’s Retreat on EVs
The U.S. retreat from its electric-vehicle ambitions is spreading around the globe. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney paused an electric-vehicle sales mandate that was set to take effect next year. In the U.K., Prime Minister Keir Starmer has allowed for a more flexible timetable to hit the country’s EV targets. And the European Union last month bowed to pressure from automakers to rethink—a year earlier than planned—its 2035 target for eliminating carbon-dioxide emissions from cars. Even China, the world’s most dominant EV market, is showing cracks. Sales continue to grow, but increasingly at the expense of profitability as carmakers fight for customers in an oversaturated market.
Automakers have been saying that consumers aren’t adopting EVs as quickly as expected, and government efforts to proliferate the technology are hammering their bottom lines. GM, in announcing its $1.6 billion charge, said it is reassessing EV capacity and warned that more losses are possible. “There is more realism that EVs are probably a good solution in the future, but it’s not going to be forced down the throat of customers,” said Christian Meunier, chairman of Nissan Americas, referring not just to the U.S. but to much of the Western world. “It’s pragmatism.”
Read more at the WSJ
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