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    United Airlines posts higher-than-expected revenue after travel demand rebounds

    United Airlines on Tuesday reported higher-than-expected revenue. United executives will discuss its results on an earnings call Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET.
    American, Southwest, Alaska and other airlines are scheduled to report results Thursday.
    Last week Delta Air Lines warned that rising fuel prices would hurt its bottom line in the fourth quarter.

    United Airlines on Tuesday reported higher-than-expected revenue as travelers returned in the summer, despite a hit from the delta variant. The airline didn’t give a timeline for when it would return to profitability.
    United posted net income of $473 million thanks to a boost from $1.13 billion in federal payroll aid. Its third-quarter sales totaled $7.75 billion compared with Wall Street analysts’ expectations for $7.64 billion and down 32% from the same quarter in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic began. It posted a per-share adjusted loss of $1.02, better than the $1.67 analysts expected. That loss strips out the benefit of federal aid.

    United shares were up more than 1.7% in postmarket trading after United reported its earnings results.
    Here’s how United performed in the second quarter compared with what Wall Street expected, based on average estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

    Adjusted results per share: a loss of $1.02 versus an expected loss of $1.67

    Total revenue: $7.75 billion versus expected $7.64 billion.

    United said it expects its fourth-quarter capacity to be down 23% compared with 2019 and that its sales for the last three months of the year would be down 25% to 30% from the same period two years ago, when it brought in $11.38 billion. Airlines have provided comparisons to 2019 in an attempt to show where they stand compared with before the pandemic.
    Chicago-based United is the second major U.S. carrier to report third-quarter earnings. Last week Delta Air Lines posted a profit but warned a surge in fuel prices would weigh on its bottom line in the last three months of the year.

    A United Airlines plane prepares to take off at the Benito Juarez International airport in Mexico City, on March 20, 2020.
    Pedro Pardo | AFP | Getty Images

    United said it expects to pay an average of $2.39 a gallon for fuel in the fourth quarter, up from $2.14 in the third quarter.

    American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are scheduled to report results Thursday morning.
    United Airlines executives will discuss results with analysts and reporters on an earnings call Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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    Biden's pick to run a key bank regulator runs into Democratic resistance in the Senate

    President Joe Biden’s pick to run one of Washington’s most important banking industry regulators might not have enough support for confirmation in the Senate.
    Senate Democrats are fractured over whether to support Saule Omarova, Biden’s indicated choice to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, jeopardizing her candidacy.
    Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University, has for years advocated for far stricter rules over the banking sector, including moving consumer banking to the Fed from private institutions.

    Saule Omarova
    United States Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

    President Joe Biden’s pick to run one of Washington’s most important banking industry regulators might not have enough support for confirmation in the Senate.
    Senate Democrats are fractured over whether to support Saule Omarova, Biden’s indicated choice to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, jeopardizing her candidacy.

    Any Democratic defection, or an indication of such, could force Senate leadership to scrap the nomination before putting Omarova up to a vote.
    Her selection, coupled with her views on how to overhaul the U.S. banking system, prompted several Senate Democrats or their staff to complain to the White House and suggest that the president’s choice will be tough to support on Capitol Hill, according to a person familiar with the matter.
    This person declined to be named in order to speak openly about private discussions between the White House and Senate offices.

    Others surrounding the OCC nomination process said a handful of moderate Democrats harbor reservations about Omarova and her aspirations to “end banking as we know it,” as she suggested in a Vanderbilt Law Review article.
    Those people cautioned that skeptical senators likely haven’t made a final decision yet but are leaning against her candidacy.

    Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., told CNBC on Tuesday that he has concerns about Omarova’s candidacy. Tester, known in the Senate as a champion of community banks, did not indicate whether he opposes her outright.
    “Some of Ms. Omarova’s past statements about the role of government in the financial system raise concerns about her ability to impartially serve at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,” he said. “I’m looking forward to meeting with her to discuss them.”
    Tester, a moderate member of the Senate banking committee, would also vote on whether to recommend Omarova to the broader chamber. A representative for Sen. Mark Warner, another moderate on the banking committee, said the Virginia Democrat has not yet made a decision on whether to support Omarova.
    Biden in September announced his intent to nominate Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency, the top position in an independent branch of the Treasury Department that oversees the nation’s largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
    The office of banking committee Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, a fierce advocate of Omarova’s, reiterated its support for Biden’s pick.
    “Senator Brown and the White House continue to push back against Republicans’ misleading statements against Ms. Omarova’s character and policy positions,” a spokesperson said.
    The White House continues to support Omarova’s nomination, an official said.
    Notably, the White House has yet to formally submit nomination papers to the Senate, notwithstanding Biden’s stated intent to nominate. If confirmed, Omarova, hailed by her supporters as a brilliant communicator with sterling credentials, would be the first comptroller who is not a white man.

    CNBC Politics

    Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

    The OCC is considered among the nation’s most powerful bank regulators, similar in function and rank to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve.
    The comptroller regulates about 1,200 banks with total assets around $14 trillion, or two-thirds of the entire U.S. banking system. Its representatives work inside the nation’s largest lenders to ensure banks are safe by abiding by federal law, providing fair access to financial services and otherwise examining bank management.
    In a committee split between 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans and in a Senate split 50-50, a single “nay” from the majority could doom a presidential nominee. Republicans are universally opposed to her candidacy.
    The office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
    With precious little time left between now and year’s end, Schumer would likely be hard-pressed to devote resources to a thorny OCC nomination and risk embarrassing the party with the possibility of a failed vote.
    Instead, Schumer wants to maximize time and energy sorting out Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar antipoverty and climate reconciliation bill, a defense appropriations measure and another debate about the debt limit.
    Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University, has for years advocated for far stricter rules over the banking sector, including moving consumer banking to the Fed from private institutions. Cornell did not immediately reply to CNBC’s request seeking comment from Omarova.
    Many Republicans have warned against her candidacy since Biden announced his intent to nominate her last month.
    Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican and ranking member of the banking committee, said in a press release earlier this month that he doesn’t think he’s “ever seen a more radical choice for any regulatory spot in our federal government.”
    “There’s a lot that’s extraordinary and radical here—but maybe the heart of it is that Ms. Omarova doesn’t just want tightened regulation of banks,” he added. “She clearly has an aversion to anything like free market capitalism … in an October 2020 paper called ‘The People’s Ledger,’ she outlined a plan for ‘radically reshaping the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance.'”
    In a recent paper, Omarova championed the “democratization” of money by restructuring the Fed for generating and allocating financial resources across the U.S. economy as a means to combat the advent of thousands of new digital monies and risks posed by cryptocurrencies.
    “This Article offers a blueprint for reshaping the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance,” she wrote. “Doing so is especially urgent in light of the ongoing digitization of finance, which includes rapid proliferation of privately issued digital money and privately run digital payments systems.”
    The Biden administration has failed to fill the OCC job to date. Progressive opposition forced the White House to abandon prior nominee Michael Barr earlier this year, leaving former Fed official Michael Hsu to serve as the acting OCC chief since May.

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    Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Ulta, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, ChargePoint and more

    Fans gather at local Ulta Beauty in Houston to greet Kylie Jenner at the launch of her cosmetics line on November 18, 2018 in Houston, Texas.
    Rick Kern | Getty Images

    Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
    Ulta — Shares of the cosmetics store dropped 10.6% after the company released long-term financial targets during its investor day. Some investors might be disappointed that Ulta didn’t issue guidance for full-year 2021. The stock is up more than 34% this year.

    ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF — Shares of the long-awaited bitcoin ETF jumped 4.5% in its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday. The fund tracks CME bitcoin futures, or contracts speculating on the future price of bitcoin, not the digital currency itself. It’s the first bitcoin-linked ETF to trade in the U.S.
    Intuitive Surgical — The medical robotics company ticked 1.2% higher in midday trading after releasing encouraging preliminary data from its ION platform’s peripheral lung nodule biopsies. ION is Intuitive’s FDA-approved, robotic-assisted platform for minimally-invasive lung biopsy.
    Johnson & Johnson — Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose 2.3% after the company beat third-quarter earnings-per-share expectations by 25 cents per share. The pharmaceutical company said it sold $502 million of its Covid-19 vaccine in the third-quarter.
    Alibaba — Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant popped 6.1% after the company announced it has developed a custom computer chip that it will use to power its data center servers. 
    ChargePoint Holdings — The electric vehicle infrastructure company rallied 6.4% after Stifel initiated coverage of ChargePoint with a buy rating. The Wall Street firm said it sees positive free cash flow as early as 2024 for the electric vehicle infrastructure company.

    Procter & Gamble — Shares of the consumer giant dipped 1.2% after the company raised its forecast for commodity and freight costs for the remainder of the fiscal year amid persisting inflation. P&G reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $4.11 billion, or $1.61 per share, down from $4.28 billion, or $1.63 per share, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting earnings per share of $1.59.
    Travelers — The insurance stock rose 1.6% after a better-than-expected third-quarter report. Travelers earned $2.60 per share on $8.81 billion in revenue, boosted by a gain in net written premiums.
    Walmart — Shares of the retail giant rose 2.1% after Goldman Sachs added the stock to its conviction buy list. Goldman said in a note to clients that Walmart’s investments in e-commerce and its supply chain should boost profits.
    — with reporting from CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Hannah Miao, Tanaya Macheel and Yun Li.

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    Amazon's new net-zero carbon pledge is focused on the oceans, as shipping giants pursue alternative fuels

    Marine shipping accounts for 1 billion tons of carbon emissions per year, according to the Clean Air Task Force, which worked with the Aspen Institute on a new ocean transportation effort.
    Amazon and IKEA are among the companies making a pledge to only use zero-carbon fuel ocean vessels by 2040.
    New renewable sources of fuel such as marine ammonia will be required, and transitioning the shipping industry away from fossil fuels will require an “intense globally coordinated effort,” according to CATF.

    For the marine shipping industry to cut its carbon footprint in half by 2050, promising technology will need to become reality, and efficiency gains will need to increase as well.
    Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

    Amazon and IKEA are among the major companies pushing the ocean shipping industry to adopt zero-carbon fuel sources for vessels by 2040.
    Marine shipping accounts for 1 billion tons of carbon emissions per year, according to the Clean Air Task Force, which worked with the Aspen Institute on a plan to accelerate a marketplace for zero-carbon shipping among the world’s largest cargo ship owners. The announcement on Tuesday included other consumer-facing companies such as Patagonia, Brooks Running, Inditex, Michelin, Unilever, Tchibo, and Frog Bikes. The announcement did not include cargo companies.

    In 2018, the International Maritime Organization set an initial goal of cutting carbon emissions from international shipping by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008.
    According to Clean Air Task Force research, for the IMO to reach its goals a large part of the international shipping fleet would need to transition to net-zero-carbon fuels. CATF has cited ammonia as a likely option for marine, though it noted that ammonia is approximately 3-7 times more expensive than conventional marine fuel.
    Its research also suggests liquified natural gas as a transition — but only transitional fuel — and small-scale nuclear on-vessel as an underexplored option for the future. It estimated that ships could change over to LNG use for a 15% carbon reduction, but that figure would depend on methane leakage being reduced “well below current levels.”
    “In order to combat the climate crisis, we must rapidly decarbonize marine shipping,” Jonathon Lewis, Director of Transportation Decarbonization at CATF said in a statement announcing the consortium of merchants.
    CATF stated in its research that U.S. shipping is responsible for 80 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, a figure which is increasing, and for the U.S. shipping fleet to meet the IMO 2050 deadline, use of marine ammonia would need to reach as high as 47 million tonnes.

    CATF proposes making marine ammonia from renewables (referred to as green ammonia), nuclear power, or carbon capture and storage operations in industries including fossil fuels (referred to as blue ammonia). But it noted that there is still a long way to go to “make marine ammonia a reality.”
    Current ammonia production has a carbon footprint, mostly from within the fertilizer industry.
    In March of this year, several of the major cargo companies including Maersk, Fleet Management Limited, Keppel Offshore & Marine, Sumitomo Corporation and Yara International began a study of a green ammonia supply chain at the Port of Singapore.”Emitting zero CO2 when combusted, ammonia has long been considered as one of the most promising alternative marine fuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the shipping industry,” the group said in a statement.
    “So far, it is unclear which measures could achieve the emissions reduction targeted by the IMO (much less, reductions that are consistent with the Paris Agreement), but it is unlikely that it will be through technology alone,” CATF wrote in its report on transportation decarbonization. And it said, “The shift to ammonia will need an intense globally coordinated effort.”
    IMO itself implemented a mandatory data collection system for fuel oil consumption of ships in March 2018, and by 2025, set the goal of new ship builds being 30% more energy efficient than those built in 2014, according to its greenhouse gas reduction plan.
    Over the last few years, Amazon has stepped up its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint while it also has taken over more control of its massive logistics operations. In 2019, Amazon first unveiled its pledge to meet the Paris climate agreement goals through the use of renewable energy and new transportation technology, such as electric delivery vehicles, 10 years ahead of the Paris timeline.
    Among its most notable carbon-free transportation investments is electric vehicle maker Rivian, which has raised billions from venture investors including Amazon. The retail giant plans to buy 100,000 electric vehicles from Rivian and, by 2020, Amazon said it had already delivered over 20 million packages using electric vehicles. The retail giant rolled out its custom electric delivery vehicles earlier this year and says it will have 10,000 vehicles on the road by 2022.
    Amazon’s own logistics footprint has grown in recent years to include direct competition with third-party shipping services. By 2028, Amazon is predicted to acquire 200 airplanes for its freight needs. More

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    CDC study shows Pfizer Covid vaccine is 93% effective against hospitalization in 12- to 18-year-olds

    The CDC followed 464 Covid patients ages 12 to 18 spread across 19 U.S. pediatric hospitals from June through September when the delta variant was surging across the country.
    Among the Covid patients, six were vaccinated and 173 were unvaccinated.
    Some 43% required intensive care, and 16% of the critically ill children received life support, with two deaths among the group, according to the study.

    Dr. Salma Elfaki examines 16-year-old Diego Alvarez, a patient in a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial for adolescents being conducted by Accel Research Sites with Nona Pediatric Center in Orlando, Florida, September 25, 2021.
    Paul Hennessy | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

    Pfizer’s Covid vaccine is 93% effective at protecting against hospitalization in 12- to 18-year-olds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a small study released Tuesday.
    The CDC followed 464 Covid patients ages 12 to 18 spread across 19 U.S. pediatric hospitals from June through September when the delta variant was surging across the country. While roughly 72% of them had at least one underlying condition that increased their potential for severe symptoms, researchers found that 97% of those who ended up in the hospital weren’t vaccinated.

    “These data suggest that increasing vaccination coverage among this group could reduce the incidence of severe COVID-19 in the United States,” CDC researchers wrote in their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

    Among the Covid patients, six were vaccinated and 173 were unvaccinated. Some 43% required intensive care, and 16% of the critically ill children received life support, with two deaths among the group, according to the study.
    The CDC’s findings are similar to the results of a study conducted in Israel, which found that Pfizer’s Covid vaccine was almost 92% effective in preventing hospitalization among 12- to 15-year-old patients. But the Israeli study did not feature enough cases to properly gauge the vaccine’s full effectiveness against Covid hospitalizations, the CDC wrote.

    CNBC Health & Science

    Some 61% of the study’s participants were from the South, the CDC said, since the region experienced elevated levels of Covid transmission from June through September. The high concentration of Southern patients also could’ve affected the findings, researchers said.
    The Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for anyone over 16 on Aug. 23, leaving it on emergency use status for children 12 to 15, pending further review. More than 104 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s vaccines, while over 9 million have already received a Pfizer booster dose, the CDC reported as of Tuesday.

    The CDC authorized Pfizer’s boosters for select at-risk groups last month, including anyone 65 and older, all medically vulnerable adults and those who face exposure to Covid due to their work. U.S. health leaders have refrained from approving boosters for those 12 to 18, citing their strong likelihood for surviving Covid and concerns over the risk of two vaccine-induced rare heart inflammation conditions, myocarditis and pericarditis.
    Researchers noted that the study was limited by its small sample size, which prevented them from properly measuring vaccine effectiveness in patients with underlying conditions. They added that they also could not determine the vaccine’s effectiveness against different Covid variants and said some participants may have misrepresented their self-reported vaccination status.
    Pfizer is currently waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its shots for children 5 to 11. The company released data in September that indicated its two-dose vaccine regimen yielded a “robust” immune response among the younger pediatric age group, and the FDA could clear the shots later this month.
    The CDC reported that 46% of 12- to 15-year-olds in the U.S. were fully vaccinated against Covid, while 54% of 16- to 17-year olds had received a complete series of doses as of Monday.

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    NBA lands first cryptocurrency sponsorship with Coinbase

    NBA agreed to a sponsorship deal with Coinbase.
    Terms of the deal were not provided, but Coinbase will get WNBA, NBA G League and USA Basketball branding.

    The Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange app pictured on the screen of an iPhone on February 12, 2018.
    Chesnot | Getty Images

    The National Basketball Association is preparing  for its 75th anniversary on Tuesday. But it also increased its presence in the cryptocurrency space as it braces for the future.
    The NBA agreed to its first cryptocurrency sponsorship deal with Coinbase, the publicly traded company that makes an exchange for crypto trading. In the agreement, Coinbase will leverage just about all the NBA’s platforms including the WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and USA Basketball. Terms of the deal were not provided.

    Coinbase is a software platform that allows cryptocurrency transactions, and the company makes money from fees. Coinbase is traded on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “COIN” with a $64 billion market cap. Coinbase stock was up 3.5% Tuesday afternoon.
    The deal with Coinbase comes one day after NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed the league is projecting $10 billion in revenue for the 2021-22 season. That estimation is helped by fans returning to NBA arenas, which account for 40% of league revenue. Sponsorships accounted for about $1.4 billion last season, according to valuation firm IEG.
    That figure should increase with the Coinbase deal.
    The tech firm wants to increase awareness around blockchain technology to grow the crypto economy. Hence, the NBA will provide the company exposure including in Tuesday’s regular-season tip-off games on WarnerMedia property Turner Sports. Coinbase will also get presenting partner rights for the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup and the USA Basketball men’s and women’s national team exhibition tours.

    A diamond-themed logo commemorating the NBA’s 75th anniversary is shown on the court during a game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons during the 2021 NBA Summer League at the Thomas & Mack Center on August 8, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
    Ethan Miller | Getty Images

    In a statement, NBA executive Kerry Tatlock labeled Coinbase “a natural fit” for the league’s cryptocurrency asset. NBA clubs have already leveraged crypto-related deals, including the Portland Trail Blazers’ jersey patch and Miami Heat arena naming rights.

    Sports leagues have embraced cryptocurrency sponsorships this year, as its helping with a V-shape recovery for leagues following pandemic losses. NBA teams, Formula 1, Major League Baseball and even New York-based Drone Racing League have landed crypto sponsorships. Platform Algorand will pay DRL $100 million over five years, and last June F1 also struck a $100 million deal with Crypto.com.
    The National Football League hit pause on crypto deals, though. Last August, the NFL restricted its teams from negotiating sponsorships as it studies the business, according to The Athletic. But the NFL may reconsider crypto agreements especially with its Super Bowl halftime show rights on the market.
    The NBA’s 75th anniversary season starts Tuesday with a doubleheader as the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks host the Brooklyn Nets. The second game will feature the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors.

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    Automakers are spending billions to produce battery cells for EVs in the U.S.

    As supply chains globally remain in distress, automakers are spending billions to localize production of battery cells to meet what’s expected to be a rapid adoption in electric vehicles.
    Other than Tesla, the country’s electric vehicle sales leader, automakers have been reluctant to invest in battery cell production until recently.
    Based on a rolling five-year average of announced investments, AlixPartners expects companies to invest $330 billion in the next five years throughout the EV supply chain globally.

    Dane Hardware (right), Ford design and release engineer, and Mary Fredrick, Ford battery validation engineer, measure the voltage of a battery using a digital multimeter at Ford’s Battery Benchmarking and Test Laboratory in Allen Park, Michigan.

    As supply chains remain in distress across the globe, automakers are spending billions to move production of battery cells to their home countries to meet what’s expected to be rapidly growing demand for electric vehicles over the next decade.
    Automakers from Detroit to Japan plan to simplify supply chains to lower costs, ease logistics and avoid massive disruptions. A global shortage of semiconductor chips has highlighted the industry’s reliance on overseas manufacturers for the parts.

    Those based in or that have large operations in the U.S. are also hoping to appease the Biden administration, which has called for companies to bring supply chains to the U.S.
    Other than Tesla, the country’s electric vehicle sales leader, automakers have been reluctant to invest in battery cell production until recently. Instead, they’ve relied on suppliers, largely based in Asia, to build such parts. Many, including Tesla, have or plan to partner with battery cell suppliers such as Panasonic and LG Chem to produce the parts.
    “There’s the rapid electrification that’s going to happen, plus the Covid-19 semiconductor shortage has really taught us that we need to do more than just rely on battery as a commodity,” said Arun Kumar, a managing director in the automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners. “You’re going to see this accelerate even more, in our viewpoint, primarily because localization becomes an important factor, if you really think about producing batteries at scale.”

    Electric vehicles are powered by battery packs that have modules, which hold the cells. The packs are by far the most important and costly part of an EV. They can also weigh hundreds to thousands of pounds, making shipping more difficult than smaller items such as small semiconductor chips.

    $330 billion in EVs

    Based on a rolling five-year average of announced investments, AlixPartners expects companies to invest $330 billion in the next five years throughout the EV supply chain globally. About a third of that is expected to be for batteries, largely in the China and Europe, while the U.S. attempts to catch up.

    That forecast is up by 65% from an expected $200 billion from 2018, according to Kumar.
    “Electrification is occurring faster than many were thinking even a few years ago,” he said. “The plans OEMs have in place have started to change dramatically.”
    The investments are being made in preparation for new demand. While plug-in vehicles, including all-electric and plug-in hybrids, are forecast to only account for 4% of the U.S. market this year, there’s expected to be a rapid adoption globally over the next decade, including the U.S.

    AlixPartners expects about 28% of vehicles globally to be EVs by 2030. In the U.S., LMC Automotive expects about a third of new vehicles sales in the U.S. to be EVs by then.
    Panasonic, led by Tesla, is the country’s largest producer of battery cells, according to a report by Argonne National Laboratory that was written for the U.S. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. The Japanese company supplied battery cells to 70.9% of vehicles sold in 2020 in the U.S., according to the report.
    But others, such as LG Chem and SK Innovation, are partnering with automakers and making their own moves.

    ‘Increasingly going vertical’

    Automaker Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, and LG Chem’s Energy Solution spinoff on Monday announced an agreement to form a joint venture to produce battery cells and modules for North America. The companies did not provide financial details, but it will add to billions in already announced investments.
    Toyota Motor on Monday also said it plans to invest about $3.4 billion (380 billion yen) on automotive battery development and production in the United States through 2030, including a new $1.3 billion battery plant.

    “The 10s of billions of dollars that are being invested by most of the big automakers over the next five to 10 years on making the transition to electric, the last thing they want to do is be stuck without key components that they need whether it be batteries or chips,” said Guidehouse Insights principal analyst Sam Abuelsamid. “They are increasing going vertical in some cases or diversifying their supplies in other cases.”
    The announcements Monday come after Ford Motor said last month it will invest more than $11.4 billion in new U.S. facilities that will create nearly 11,000 jobs to produce electric vehicles and batteries, including twin lithium-ion battery plants in central Kentucky through a joint venture with SK Innovation.
    “Due to Covid and now the reaction to the semiconductor shortage, our government and companies are looking to onshore,” said James Lewis, a senior vice president with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which works with automakers. “Car companies in particular don’t want to get caught out again the way they were caught out on chips.”

    U.S. plants

    Following Tesla’s lead, General Motors could be next to produce it’s own battery cells and packs in the U.S. Through a joint venture with LG Energy Solution, the Detroit automaker is scheduled to begin cell production at an Ohio plant next year. The plant is expected to be the first of at least four, including another announced in Tennessee, in the coming years.
    There are 27 battery facilities, including cells and packs, that have been announced or are currently operating in the U.S., according to the Center for Automotive Research.
    Separately from the battery plant announcements, iPhone maker Foxconn, which is preparing to produce EVs, on Monday said it plans to produce electric cars and buses for auto brands in China, North America, Europe and other markets.
    The Taiwanese company last month announced it will purchase an Ohio factory from embattled EV start-up Lordstown Motors for production of a vehicle for the company as well as EV start-up Fisker.
    “This is the wave of the future,” Lewis said. “This is a modernization of our auto industry.”

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    Gas prices are at a seven-year high and expected to keep rising. How to save at the pump

    Gas prices are at a level not seen since 2014.
    The states with the highest average per-gallon prices are California ($4.45), Hawaii ($4.13) and Nevada ($3.90).
    Here are tips for reducing what you spend to fill up your tank.

    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    You may want to get used to higher prices at the pump, at least for now.
    As of Monday, the average cost of a gallon of gas was $3.30, up 7.5 cents from a month ago and $1.08 higher than a year ago, according to fuel savings app GasBuddy. By Tuesday, the average had crept up to $3.32 — a price not seen since 2014.

    “It just continues to go up,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “I think it’s just a matter of time until we get to $3.35 and maybe $3.40 until things get caught up.”
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    Global demand for oil remains high, yet supply remains tight. The cost of crude is above $80 a barrel, according to AAA. In August, the price per barrel was in the low $60s. Crude accounts for roughly half the price of gas.
    The states with the highest average per-gallon prices are California ($4.45), Hawaii ($4.13) and Nevada ($3.90). The lowest average prices are in Texas ($2.92), Oklahoma ($2.94) and Arkansas ($2.97).
    There are ways for drivers to save on gas. For starters, you can drive more gently, which can make your car’s engine operate more efficiently, De Haan said. In other words, don’t do things like speed or race from light to light.

    “But it’s hard to convince motorists to back off their lead foot,” he said. 
    Additionally, shop around for the best price. Depending on where you live, there can be big price swings between gas stations. And even if the difference in price per gallon may only be a few pennies, it can still add up to hundreds of dollars per year. Even prices from one state to another can vary significantly.
    “Too many motorists just pull up to the closest pump and end up overpaying,” De Haan said.

    Additionally, there are apps — including GasBuddy, Gas Guru and AAA TripTik — you can use to find the best prices along your route. 
    It’s also worth looking into loyalty programs, which many major gas station chains have. They generally are free and can offer cents-per-gallon discounts, De Haan said.
    However, credit cards that offer discounts for gas purchases might not be the best option unless you routinely pay off the card’s balance. In other words, you could end up paying more in interest than the discount itself.

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