Raphael Stevens

GM on Friday unveiled the Cadillac Celestiq, previewing an upcoming car that will cost $300,000 or more when it goes into production by late 2023.
The car marks a pivot for Cadillac into hand-built vehicles, which are typically reserved for high-end sports cars and uber-luxury models.
GM did not release any technical details about the Celestiq such as its electric range, performance or other metrics.

The Cadillac Celestiq show car previews an upcoming electric sedan for General Motors.

DETROIT – General Motors on Friday previewed what its most expensive Cadillac ever will look like as the automaker attempts to redefine the quintessential American luxury brand into an electric vehicle leader.
The Detroit automaker unveiled a “show car” version of the Cadillac Celestiq, an upcoming hand-built sedan that will cost about $300,000 or more when it’s expected to go into production by late 2023. Cadillac is calling the vehicle its new “all-electric flagship sedan.”

The car marks a pivot for Cadillac into hand-built vehicles, which are typically reserved for high-end sports cars and uber-luxury vehicles such as Rolls-Royce exclusive models. Cadillac aims to exclusively offer EVs by the end of this decade.

The Cadillac Celestiq show car previews an upcoming electric sedan for General Motors.

GM did not release any technical details about the Celestiq such as its electric range, performance or other metrics.
The vehicle will feature five LED interactive displays, including a 55-inch-diagonal screen spanning the front cabin of the car; a “smart glass roof” that includes customizable transparency options; and Ultra Cruise, GM’s next-generation advanced driver-assist system that the company has said will be capable of driving itself in most circumstances.

The Cadillac Celestiq show car previews an upcoming electric sedan for General Motors.

GM confirmed such technologies will be part of the production car, however declined to provide additional details. The Wall Street Journal first reported the expected price and production of the Celestiq, which CNBC also confirmed through a person familiar with the plans who spoke anonymously because they haven’t been made public.
A show car is meant to preview an upcoming production car. As opposed to a “concept car” that automakers typically use to preview certain elements or design direction of a car or brand that may or may not be produced. Cadillac leveraged a similar launch strategy with the electric Lyriq SUV, which recently went into production.

GM said designers drew inspiration from well-known cars such as the bespoke V-16 powered “coaches” of the era before World War II and the hand-built 1957 Eldorado Brougham.

The Cadillac Celestiq show car previews an upcoming electric sedan for General Motors.

“Those vehicles represented the pinnacle of luxury in their respective eras, and helped make Cadillac the standard of the world,” Tony Roma, chief engineer of the Celestiq, said in a release. “The Celestiq show car — also a sedan, because the configuration offers the very best luxury experience — builds on that pedigree and captures the spirt of arrival they expressed.”
GM is investing $81 million at its tech center in suburban Detroit to hand build the upcoming Cadillac Celestiq. It marks the first time GM will produce a vehicle for commercial sales at its massive tech campus in Warren, Michigan. 

The Cadillac Celestiq show car previews an upcoming electric sedan for General Motors.

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Verizon shares fell nearly 5% in premarket trading Friday morning after the company released its second-quarter earnings report.
The phone company cut its full-year forecast.

A Verizon store in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of Verizon fell nearly 5% in premarket trading Friday after the company reported second-quarter earnings that missed expectations and trimmed its financial forecast for the year.
“Although recent performance did not meet our expectations, we remain confident in our long-term strategy,” Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said in a release.

Shares of Verizon were down 5% at $45.40.
Verizon’s quarterly results came after AT&T on Thursday said its cash flow in the second quarter was hurt by factors including customers waiting longer to make their phone payments.
In its updated guidance, Verizon said it now expects wireless service revenue to increase 8.5% to 9.5%, down from its earlier expectations for growth of 9% to 10% for the full year. Service and other revenue is now expected to be down 1% to flat. It previously said it expected that revenue to be flat.
Verizon also said full-year adjusted earnings are now expected to be $5.10 to $5.25 per share, down from the company’s previous forecast of $5.40 to $5.55. The company said it expects adjusted EBITDA to be down 1.5% to flat, down from its previous forecast for growth of 2% to 3%.
For its second quarter, Verizon said its cash flow was hurt by increased inventory in the current economic environment. It said its operating income in its consumer segment was hurt by higher promotional activity.

For the three months ended Jun 30, Verizon reported revenue of $33.79 billion, which was relatively flat from the year-ago period. Analysts were anticipating revenue of $33.75 billion, according to Refinitiv.
Adjusted earnings were $1.31 per share. That was a penny shy of the $1.32 analysts expected, according to Refinitiv.
Read the full earnings report here.

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German energy firm RWE is to invest in a pilot project centered around the deployment of floating solar technology in the North Sea.
RWE describes “integration of offshore floating solar into an offshore wind farm” as “a more efficient use of ocean space for energy generation.”
Earlier this month, energy firm EDP inaugurated a 5 MW floating solar park in Portugal.

This illustration shows how SolarDuck’s technology could be deployed at sea.

German energy firm RWE is to invest in a pilot project centered around the deployment of floating solar technology in the North Sea, as part of a wider collaboration focused on the development of “floating solar parks.”
Set to be installed in waters off Ostend, Belgium, the pilot, called Merganser, will have a capacity of 0.5 megawatt peak, or MWp. In a statement earlier this week, RWE said Merganser would be Dutch-Norwegian firm SolarDuck’s first offshore pilot.

RWE said Merganser would provide both itself and SolarDuck with “important first-hand experience in one of the most challenging offshore environments in the world.”
Learnings gleaned from the project would allow for a quicker commercialization of the technology from 2023, it added.
RWE described SolarDuck’s system as being based around a design enabling the solar panels to “float” meters above water and ride waves “like a carpet.” 

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A longer term goal of the collaboration is for SolarDuck’s technology to be used in a bigger demonstration project at the yet to be developed Hollandse Kust West offshore wind farm, which RWE is currently tendering for.
In its statement, RWE said the “integration of offshore floating solar into an offshore wind farm” was “a more efficient use of ocean space for energy generation.”

The idea of combining wind and solar is not unique to RWE. The Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm, which will also be located in the North Sea, is also planning to deploy a floating solar technology demonstration.
CrossWind, the consortium working on Hollandse Kust (noord), is a joint venture between Eneco and Shell.
Earlier this month, Portuguese energy firm EDP inaugurated a 5 MW floating solar park in Alqueva. It described the park, which consists of nearly 12,000 photovoltaic panels, as “the largest in Europe in a reservoir.”
The project would enable solar power and hydroelectric energy from the dam at Alqueva to be combined, EDP said. There are also plans to install a battery storage system.
All the above projects feed into the idea of “hybridization,” whereby different renewable energy technologies and systems are combined on one site.
In comments published last week, EDP CEO Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade said that “the bet on hybridization, by combining electricity produced from water, sun, wind and storage” represented a “logical path of growth.”
EDP would continue to invest in hybridization because it optimized resources and enabled the company to produce energy that was cheaper, he added. More

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The attempt to develop battery materials from a range of sources comes as major European economies lay out plans to move away from road-based vehicles that use diesel and gasoline.
Stora Enso says says it’s “one of the largest private forest owners in the world.”
The partnership will see Northvolt focus on cell design, the development of production processes and technology scale-up.

This image from 2007 shows logs and wood chips outside a Stora Enso paper mill in Finland. The firm says it’s “one of the largest private forest owners in the world.”
Suzanne Plunkett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Northvolt will partner with Stora Enso to develop batteries that incorporate components produced using wood sourced from forests in the Nordic region.
A joint development agreement between the firms will see them work together on the production of a battery containing an anode made from something called lignin-based hard carbon. An anode is a crucial part of a battery, alongside the cathode and electrolyte.

In a statement Friday, electric vehicle battery maker Northvolt and Stora Enso — which specializes in packaging and paper products, among other things — described lignin as a “plant-derived polymer found in the cell walls of dry-land plants.” According to the companies, trees are made up of 20% to 30% lignin, which functions as a binder.
“The aim is to develop the world’s first industrialized battery featuring [an] anode sourced entirely from European raw materials,” the companies said.
Breaking the plans down, Stora Enso will supply Lignode, which is its lignin-based anode material. Northvolt will focus on cell design, the development of production processes and technology scale-up.
The companies said the Lignode would come from “sustainably managed forests.” Stora Enso says it’s “one of the largest private forest owners in the world.”
Johanna Hagelberg, Stora Enso’s executive vice president for biomaterials, said its lignin-based hard carbon would “secure the strategic European supply of anode raw material” and serve “the sustainable battery needs for applications from mobility to stationary energy storage.”

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The attempt to develop battery materials from a range of sources comes at a time when major European economies are laying out plans to move away from road-based vehicles that use diesel and gasoline.
The U.K. wants to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans by 2030. It will require, from 2035, all new cars and vans to have zero-tailpipe emissions. The European Union — which the U.K. left on Jan. 31, 2020 — is pursuing similar targets.
As the number of electric vehicles on our roads increases, battery supply will become an increasingly important — and competitive — cog in the automotive sector.
Earlier this year, the CEO of Volvo Cars told CNBC he thought battery supply was “going to be one of the things that comes into scarce supply in the years to come.”
Sweden-headquartered Northvolt recently said its first gigafactory, Northvolt Ett, had started commercial deliveries to European customers. The firm says it has contracts amounting to over $55 billion from businesses such as Volvo Cars, BMW, and Volkswagen.
Gigafactories are facilities that produce batteries for electric vehicles on a large scale. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been widely credited as coining the term.
Northvolt recently announced a $1.1 billion funding boost, with a range of investors — including Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs Asset Management — taking part in the capital raise.
According to the International Energy Agency, electric vehicle sales hit 6.6 million in 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, EV sales came to 2 million, a 75% increase compared to the first three months of 2021. More

The Office for National Statistics on Tuesday reported total pay increases of 7.2% in the private sector and 1.5% in the public sector in the three months to the end of May, an overall average of 6.2%.
Workers across pillars of the economy have been voting for industrial action over below-inflation pay offers – including transport workers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, teachers, postal workers, civil servants, lawyers and British Telecoms engineers.

LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 25: A view of the crowd at the RMT strike rally at Kings cross station on June 25, 2022 in London, United Kingdom. The biggest rail strikes in 30 years started on Monday night continuing on Thursday and again Saturday, with trains cancelled across the UK for much of the week.
Guy Smallman/Getty Images

LONDON — Amid political upheaval, an economic crisis and the potential for mass industrial action, Britain faces a problematic, and possibly pivotal, summer.
U.K. inflation came in at a 40-year high of 9.4% annually in June and pay packets are failing to keep pace, with real wages plunging and workers across sectors becoming more disgruntled.

The Office for National Statistics on Tuesday reported total pay increases of 7.2% in the private sector and 1.5% in the public sector in the three months to the end of May, for an overall average of 6.2%.
This led to a decline in real wages — those adjusted for inflation — of 3.7% excluding bonuses, the worst annual drop since records began in 2001.
Workers across pillars of the economy have been voting for industrial action over below-inflation pay offers — including transport workers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, teachers, postal workers, civil servants, lawyers and British Telecoms engineers.
The Fire Brigades Union said Wednesday, the day after London’s fire service experienced its busiest day since World War II, that “firefighters are at the forefront of the climate emergency.”
“The demands of the job are increasing but our resources have been under attack by government cuts for over a decade – 11,500 firefighter jobs have been slashed since 2010,” FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack added.

Public sector pay increases in the latest round of data were at their lowest level since 2017 both with and without bonuses. Base salaries rose by 1.8%. The Bank of England expects inflation to peak at around 11% before the end of the year.

“Job vacancies stand at almost 1.3 million, slightly greater than the number of unemployed people. That means if everyone seeking a job could be matched up with a vacancy, ignoring their location and skills, there would still be a shortfall,” noted Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell.
“Against such a backdrop it’s no wonder businesses are willing to cough up more to get new staff and keep existing employees on the books.”
Khalaf acknowledged that the number of vacancies fell fractionally on the last reading, signaling that a normalization of the labor market may be in sight.
“But the big concern is that the higher wages paid by the private sector will serve to entrench inflation, while the small pay rises witnessed in the public sector in the face of soaring prices will continue to stoke industrial tensions,” he added.
‘A tale of two economies’
Britain was ground to a halt several weeks ago by strike action from rail workers over working conditions, jobs and pay. A further 24 hour walkout by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union will take pace on July 27.
On Tuesday, more than 115,000 Royal Mail workers, members of the Communication Workers Union, overwhelmingly voted to go on strike in a dispute over pay, with 97.6% of members from a 77% voter turnout backing industrial action.
Royal Mail’s U.K. business, the country’s former state postal monopoly privatized in 2015 after nearly 500 years of government ownership, could be separated from the holding company after losing £92 million ($110 million) in the first quarter. Revenues fell 11.5% as inflation squeezed consumers into reducing online shopping, while parcel volumes were down 15%.
CWU Deputy General Secretary Terry Pullinger told the BBC on Wednesday that the 97.6% vote in favor of industrial action was a “measure of the anger” felt by Royal Mail workers.
“Royal Mail workers – key workers during the pandemic, key workers always – have had 2% (pay increase) imposed on them,” he said.
“When shareholders are being given millions of pounds off the back of what those workers have done over the past year or so, and also the leaders of the company and members of the board are giving themselves huge wages, they’re giving themselves huge bonuses, but there’s just 2% imposed on postal workers, and it’s unacceptable.”

The U.K. energy regulator Ofgem raised its price cap by 54% in April to accommodate surging wholesale prices, and analysts expect a further increase to the cap in October, which could drive inflation well above its current levels in the fall.
Lauren Thomas, U.K. economist at Glassdoor, said the country’s red-hot labor market and falling real wages mean the country is facing “a tale of two economies.”
“The number of payrolled employees and job vacancies continue to grow and remain historically high, particularly in face-to-face industries including healthcare and hospitality. However, overall vacancy growth has begun to slow,” she said.
“Economic inactivity rates fell as those who had left the job market re-entered, perhaps as a result of the cost of living crisis forcing people back to work. Even those working didn’t see relief with both real regular pay and total pay down.”
Ghosts of the 1970s
The prospect of widespread industrial action has drawn parallels to the U.K.’s “winter of discontent” in 1978-79, when almost 30 million working days were lost to strikes during a period of high inflation.
The country’s anti-strike legislation subsequently intensified and union membership dwindled in the decades since, with Conservative politicians trying to sway public opinion by characterizing union leaders as greedy.
However, recent efforts from the major unions in light of an unprecedented squeeze on working households have begun to gather momentum, and have been met with greater public sympathy.

Last week — faced with a deluge of strikes through the summer — outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government passed a law permitting companies to replace striking workers with agency staff in a bid to undermine unions.
Speaking at his final Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson accused Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, of having “union barons pulling his strings from beneath him” and vowed to “outlaw wildcat strikes” — a continuation of recent efforts to tie trade unionists to the government’s political opposition.

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Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the company’s highly anticipated Barbie movie finished production on Thursday.
“Today, we actually wrapped production, principal photography, for the Barbie movie, exactly one year before we release it theatrically worldwide with our partners, Warner Brothers,” Kreiz said.

Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the company’s highly anticipated Barbie movie finished production on Thursday.
“What is special now is that today, we actually wrapped production, principal photography, for the Barbie movie, exactly one year before we release it theatrically worldwide with our partners, Warner Brothers. … Look out for that,” Kreiz said in an interview on “Mad Money.”

The chief executive has previously called the film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and directed by Greta Gerwig, a “cultural event.”
The film is part of Mattel’s broader shift in strategy to becoming an IP, or intellectual property, company that produces more than just toys.
“As we continue to grow the toy side of the business, we’re also putting together a strategy and continuing to see growth in our IP and capturing value in our incredible franchises outside of the toy aisle,” Kreiz said.
Mattel beat Wall Street estimates on earnings and revenue in its second quarter results after the close on Thursday. The toymaker reported earnings of 18 cents per share ex-items on revenue of $1.24 billion, compared with expectations of 6 cents per share on revenues of $1.10 billion. This is according to estimates from Refinitiv.
Kreiz noted in his “Mad Money” interview that the dolls segment grew by 5% in Mattel’s latest quarter, led by Barbie and Polly Pocket. Barbie grew by 7%, he added.

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