Aurelia Butler

Growing demand from AI-backed data centers, along with homes and businesses using more electricity for heat and transportation, has brightened forecasts for utilities this year.The S&P index tracking utilities jumped 18.4% in the third quarter, compared to a 5.5% rise in the S&P 500.A strong push for cleaner energy is also benefiting companies like NextEra, the world’s largest renewables company.Its renewables business, NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) Resources, boasted of a project backlog of 24 gigawatts (GW) in the third quarter, up from nearly 22.6 GW in the second quarter.”We are also pleased to announce incremental framework agreements with two Fortune-50 customers for the potential development of renewables and storage projects, totaling up to 10.5 GW between now and 2030,” said CEO John Ketchum.The company’s regulated utilities business, Florida Power & Light, reported net income of $1.29 billion, compared with $1.18 billion a year earlier.NextEra’s overall quarterly revenue of $7.57 billion, however, missed estimates of around $8.10 billion, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG.The Juno Beach, Florida-based company, which maintained its 2024 adjusted earnings-per-share forecast, said it expects EPS in 2025 to be in a range of $3.45 to $3.70.On an adjusted basis, NextEra earned $1.03 per share in the quarter, compared with estimate of 98 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG.NextEra Energy Partners, a unit of the company created to acquire, manage and own contracted energy projects, said it would repower an additional 225 megawatts (MW) of wind facilities, bringing the total backlog of wind repowerings to around 1.6 GW through 2026.However, the unit reported a loss of $40 million due to higher interest payments and a loss on some continuing operations, compared to year-ago net income of $53 million. Its shares were down 5.3% in premarket trading. More

(Reuters) – U.S. homebuilder PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, as declining fixed mortgage rates lured in skittish buyers to the market, while historically low housing supply kept demand strong.With the popular 30-year fixed mortgage rates down to about 6% at the end of September, compared with a high of about 7%, a few months ago, more buyers are returning to the housing market, further boosting demand for new construction. Homebuilders had already been benefiting from a shortage of existing homes on sale, a trend that is set to continue. “Years of underbuilding has created a structural shortage of homes and correspondingly high home prices,” said CEO Ryan Marshall, adding that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s pivot to lowering rates will address affordability issues. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s 50-basis-point rate cut in September, expectations of further cuts and the corresponding easing in mortgage rates have spurred shares of homebuilders to near all-time highs in recent weeks. PulteGroup, the third-largest U.S. homebuilder by sales, delivered 7,924 homes in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 12% more than a year earlier. However, home sales gross margins came at 28.8%, below last year’s 29.5% as land and material costs remained elevated, while the average selling price was flat at $548,000 due to affordability issues. Shares of the company were up 1.2% in premarket trading. The company posted third-quarter revenue of $4.47 billion, above analysts’ average estimate of $4.26 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Its earnings rose 16% to $3.35 per share from a year earlier, beating estimates of $3.11 per share. More

(Reuters) -Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg laid out a turnaround plan on Wednesday, calling for a “fundamental culture change” at the struggling planemaker as its quarterly losses surged to $6 billion due to a crippling strike.The company has now racked up losses of nearly $8 billion for the current year, as a halt in production of its 737 MAX, 777 and 767 planes following the strike and an ailing defense and space division hammer its business.Boeing (NYSE:BA) shares slipped 1% in premarket trading.In a letter, Ortberg stressed the need for improving performance in its defense business and its 737 MAX and 777 programs while broadly stabilizing Boeing, which is “at a crossroads” after lapses in its performance disappointed customers and eroded trust.”This is a big ship that will take some time to turn, but when it does, it has the capacity to be great again,” Ortberg told the planemaker’s employees in a message containing prepared remarks for his first earnings call as CEO.Ortberg’s call to arms follows sweeping plans for significant downsizing announced earlier this month as a strike by about 33,000 workers that has dragged on for more than a month hits production of its best-selling 737 MAX jet as well as 767 and 777 widebody planes.The former Rockwell Collins (NYSE:COL) executive, who took the helm of the U.S. planemaker in August, said he was hopeful that a new contract proposal being voted on Wednesday by more of the striking workers would be approved, though analysts say ratification is not certain.It is a crucial day for the planemaker, which was already struggling with the fallout from a regulator-imposed cap on production of MAX aircraft following a harrowing mid-air door panel blowout.Ortberg said in his remarks that culture change was discussed at a recent meeting with top company executives. “We need to prevent the festering of issues and work better together to identify, fix and understand root cause(s),” Ortberg said. “I’ve already introduced a much more detailed business cadence to drive this across the organization and this process of change is underway.”But even if the strike ends, restarting production of 737 MAX as well as 767 and 777 widebodies will be a fresh challenge given the supply chain is still struggling in some pockets.Boeing will also have to convince suppliers who have announced furloughs and put off investments over the last few weeks, to now reverse course and support its production plans. “It’s much harder to turn this on than it is to turn it off,” Ortberg said, referring to its factories and the supply chain.He noted that Boeing had a “lot of work to do” before developing a new airplane.”This includes stabilizing our business, improving execution on the development programs, streamlining the portfolio to do what we do well and restoring the balance sheet so that we do have a path to the next commercial aircraft,” Ortberg said.Ortberg did not address a possible capital raise, which Reuters has reported could be around $15 billion.”We view his (Kelly’s) comments as encouraging, as Boeing has historically been averse to recognizing that it has issues, let alone actually fixing them,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Robert Stallard said.Boeing on Wednesday reported a quarterly cash burn of $1.96 billion, compared with a cash burn of $310 million a year earlier.Quarterly revenue fell 1% to $17.84 billion.The company’s commercial aircraft business recorded a $4 billion loss, while its defense, space and security business lost $2.38 billion.Meanwhile, revenue growth in the company’s aftermarket business, Boeing Global Services, slowed to 2% in the quarter through September, compared with 9% growth last year and 7% in the first quarter of this year.The division has been a bright spot in recent quarters given the turmoil in Boeing’s other two businesses. More

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India cannot risk another bout of inflation and the monetary policy committee (MPC) must adopt a cautious approach to lowering interest rates, members of the rate-setting panel said in the minutes of the October meeting.The MPC, which consists of three Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and three external members, had kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.50% for a tenth straight policy meeting while changing the policy stance to ‘neutral’.The panel has three new external members, who were appointed for a four-year term earlier this month. “The arduous battle against inflation is far from won, but we are more confident of eventual success in bringing CPI inflation durably closer to the target,” external member Saugata Bhattacharya said in the minutes published on Wednesday.Michael Patra, RBI deputy governor, wrote that while the persistence of inflationary pressures could dissipate with a less restrictive stance of monetary policy, “reducing restraint too quickly may negate the progress made on disinflation”.India’s retail inflation in September accelerated to its highest in nine months at 5.49%, due to higher food prices, data released after the MPC meeting showed. The central bank targets inflation at 4%. Five out of the six MPC members had voted in favour of holding policy rates, while newly-appointed external member Nagesh Kumar voted to cut the policy rate by 25 basis points.”Given that inflationary expectations have been successfully anchored, and industrial demand in both domestic as well as export markets is flagging, a rate cut could help to revive demand and help boost private investment,” Kumar said.Demand deficits in both domestic and external markets could be the reason private investment has not picked up momentum despite companies’ healthy balance sheets and government reforms, he added. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das reiterated his stance that rate cuts could be premature.”At this stage of the economic cycle, having come so far, we cannot risk another bout of inflation. The best approach now would be to remain flexible and wait for more evidence of inflation aligning durably with the target,” he wrote. More