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Hertz is teaming up with the city of Denver to build out its EV-charging infrastructure.
The rental car company will add more than 5,000 electric vehicles to its Denver fleet, will install public EV chargers and will offer tools and training in and around the city.
Hertz hopes to strike similar deals with other cities around the country.

Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles at a Hertz airport location.
Photo by E.R. Davidson

Hertz is teaming up with the city of Denver — and soon, it hopes, with other cities — to build out its charging infrastructure to support the ongoing transition to electric vehicles.
The partnership is a big step toward helping rental car drivers, including those who may be renting an EV for the first time or in an unfamiliar area, to navigate the often-daunting task of finding a charge. It’ll also see Denver boost availability and education around EVs in a first-of-its-kind effort.

As part of the program, called “Hertz Electrifies,” the rental car company plans to add more than 5,000 EVs to its Denver fleet for daily customers as well as for ongoing rentals to drivers for ride-sharing services like Uber. To support those who rent the EVs, Hertz and its partner BP Pulse, the EV-charging network owned by oil giant BP, will also install public EV chargers at Denver International Airport and at sites around the city, with a focus on underserved communities.
That latter point is key to the deal. In addition to building chargers in lower-income neighborhoods, Hertz will provide EVs, tools and training to the city’s technical high school — and will offer summer job opportunities through Denver’s Youth Employment Program.
“Public private partnerships are very powerful vehicles,” said Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr in an interview with CNBC. “We see what’s happening in mobility, we see the direction of travel. And therefore we can be a force along with a very powerful city and mayor, to sort of move this forward in the way in which I think all of us would like to see, which is broad participation in electrification.”
Scherr said that Hertz plans to share anonymized location data from its rental EVs with the city to help Denver officials determine where to install new charging stations. He expects that some of that data will point to sites in the city’s less affluent neighborhoods, where ride-share drivers using Hertz EVs tend to live.
Denver’s mayor, Michael Hancock, said the city’s goal is to reduce its carbon emissions 80% by 2050, and to completely electrify the city’s own buildings and fleet by the end of this decade. He told CNBC that Hertz’s plan to focus on underserved neighborhoods and to train local students to service EVs could make this deal a “game-changer” for the city.

“I’m always worried about equity and how communities are left behind,” Hancock said in an interview. “Electrification is, I think, one advance in the move towards sustainability that’s going to move faster.”
Hertz previously announced plans to purchase up to 340,000 electric vehicles from Tesla, Polestar and General Motors by 2027. The company currently has about 40,000 Teslas and Polestars available for rental, Scherr said. He expects that number to double by year-end as EVs from GM join the company’s fleet.
Last fall, Hertz and BP Pulse announced they would partner to install thousands of high-speed EV chargers at Hertz locations across the U.S. Some of those chargers will be for the rental car giant’s exclusive use, but many — as in the Denver program — will be open to the public.
Hertz hopes to strike similar deals with other cities around the country. Scherr said the Denver partnership will serve as a template, one that he and Hancock plan to discuss at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting in Washington, D.C., this week.
“This is powerful to have a company like Hertz step up and say we want to do this so that we spread the opportunity in this new revolution in this industry,” Hancock said. “That’s a powerful deal. It’s a big deal for Denver, and it’s going to be a big deal for the nation as it spreads about.”
A Hertz spokesperson confirmed that the company is already in active discussions with other U.S. cities, but declined to be more specific.
“We obviously have a motive, which is to see our business grow,” Scherr said. “To the extent that that is in line with what a city like Denver wants to see, which is advancing sustainability, to put more electric vehicles on the street, to create new jobs in a very fast changing world of mobility, and advance electrification, in kind of a broadly distributed way across neighborhoods around a given city like this one, it’s good for the business of Hertz, it’s good for the city of Denver.”

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“I think what we’re going to settle into is more of an endemic environment with respect to coronaviruses and the Covid virus specifically,” Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Narasimhan, who has previously warned that future pandemics are inevitable, made clear that world leaders must make sure to learn from the coronavirus crisis to be in a better place for future pandemics.
His comments come shortly after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world’s failure to prepare for future pandemics is “straining credulity.”

Novartis said in August that it plans to spin off its generics unit Sandoz to sharpen its focus on its patented prescription medicines.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The chief executive of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis on Thursday warned the coronavirus pandemic will likely settle into an endemic phase and renewed calls for policymakers to sufficiently finance pandemic preparedness.
“If you look over the last two years, we have populations that have built up immunity, you have a virus that’s continuing to make shifts, but I think what we’re going to settle into is more of an endemic environment with respect to coronaviruses and the Covid virus specifically,” Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“That will mean we will have sporadic outbreaks, we will have populations at risk that need to continue to be vaccinated but I would expect as it has been the case with other coronaviruses over the last centuries that the human populations will adapt and will come to a kind of resolution with this virus.”
Narasimhan, who has previously warned that future pandemics are bound to happen, made clear that world leaders must learn from the coronavirus crisis to be in a better place for future pandemics.
“I think what is really important now is we turn our attention to pandemic preparedness for the future,” Narasimhan said.

“I’m not sure we have learned our lessons of the past that we need to invest in [research and development], we need to invest more in preparedness to be ready for the next pandemic — and I think that should be on the global agenda,” he added.

‘Straining credulity’

His comments come shortly after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world’s failure to prepare for future pandemics is “straining credulity.”

Speaking at WEF on Wednesday, Guterres said, “Somehow — after all we have endured — we have not learned the global public health lessons of the pandemic. We are nowhere near ready for pandemics to come.”
Last month, China abruptly ended most Covid-19 controls, leading to a surge in infections among the population of 1.4 billion.
Beijing reported on Saturday that almost 60,000 people with Covid had died in hospital since the country dropped its strict Covid restrictions last month, a sharp increase from previous figures.
Asked whether it makes pharmacological sense for some governments to take a tough line on the entry of Chinese citizens into their country following Beijing’s reopening, Narasimhan replied, “I think from an epidemiological standpoint, you can certainly call it into question because in the end, we’ve learned the hard way these viruses will move regardless, and they don’t really pay attention to national borders.”
“I continue to believe open borders and open economies are the right solution for the global order,” he added. More

The U.K.’s Manchester Airport said it has briefly shut both runways Thursday following heavy snow.
Manchester falls within one of the several U.K. regions placed under a yellow snow and ice warning.

MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM – JANUARY 28: A passenger aircraft landing at Manchester International Airport approaches the runway on 28 January, 2008, Manchester, England.
Christopher Furlong | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The U.K.’s Manchester Airport said Thursday it has temporarily closed both runways following a period of “heavy snow fall.”
“Health and safety will always be our top priority and operations will resume at the earliest opportunity,” it said.

The U.K. has been seized by a cold snap this week, with the meteorological Met Office issuing several snow and ice yellow warnings across the country, including Manchester.
The notices, which expire at 12 p.m. Thursday, signal potential road and railway travel disruptions.
The office forecasts maximum temperatures of 4 degrees Celsius ( 39.2 Farenheit ) on Thursday.

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It’s that time again! “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he’s giving his answers to callers’ stock questions at rapid speed.

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SoFi Technologies Inc: “There was a report that came out earlier this week that said that they are, like many other banks, struggling with the idea that [interest] rates went up really fast, much quicker than they were ready for. I don’t know.”

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BHP Group Ltd: “Wait a couple of days, then … pull the trigger.”

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Unilever PLC: “I think it’s a very well-run company. … But it’s not going to run overnight.”

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The Philippines has grappled with heavy rain, flooding and landslides since the beginning of January, conditions that have prompted President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to declare an official “state of calamity” in Misamis Occidental province.
At least 28 people have died in January, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and more than 211,000 people have been displaced.
The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, is ranked among the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate-related disasters.

Members of the Philippine Coast Guard wade through floods during a rescue operation, in Isabela City, Basilan province, Philippines, January 11, 2023.
Philippine Coast Guard | via Reuters

The Philippines has grappled with heavy rain, flooding and landslides since the beginning of January, prompting evacuations and spurring President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to declare an official “state of calamity” in the southern province of Misamis Occidental.
At least 28 people have died in January, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and more than 211,000 people have been displaced. Torrential rains have occurred nearly every day this month and have destroyed homes, agriculture and infrastructure across the country.

The downpours are happening even though the Philippines is normally in its cool, dry season from December to February. Misamis Occidental, the Northern Mindanao region and the Eastern Visayas in central Philippines are among the affected areas.
The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, is ranked among the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate-related disasters, but it is a minor contributor to global climate change.
The Philippines is typically hit with 20 typhoons each year and roughly six to nine storms that make landfall annually. The country also experiences frequent landslides and floods that are partly a result of the increasing intensity of tropical cyclones.

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The president, who was recently overseeing aid distribution in Misamis Occidental, said there must be a long-term solution to the flooding in the country.
“We are looking at everything to find a solution,” Marcos said last week. “But in the long term, we need to think about how we can do it so that this never happens again.”
The deadly flooding this month has prompted fears over how climate change is triggering more frequent and intense extreme weather across the country. Typhoons, sea level rise and storm surge, all of which put the Philippines’ urban and coastal populations at high risk, are expected to intensify as climate change worsens.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that the benchmark S&P 500 is at a crossroads, poised to either tumble further or roar higher.
“The charts, as interpreted by Jessica Inskip, suggest that we’re at an important moment where the S&P 500’s found an equilibrium,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that the benchmark S&P 500 is at a crossroads, poised to either tumble further or roar higher.
“The charts, as interpreted by Jessica Inskip, suggest that we’re all at a very important moment where the S&P 500 found an equilibrium between the floor of support and a ceiling of resistance. At this point, something has to give,” he said.

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Stocks tumbled on Wednesday after fresh December retail sales data renewed fears of a recession. Investors also took profits on gains from earlier this month, spurred by soft economic data that suggested the Federal Reserve is winning its fight against inflation.
The S&P 500 fell to its lowest level in about a month, while the Nasdaq broke a seven-day streak of gains.
To explain the analysis from Inskip, who is the director of product and education at OptionsPlay, Cramer examined the daily chart of the S&P 500 dating back to November 2021.

Arrows pointing outwards

The chart shows that earnings season is often a time of volatility marked by strong rallies and declines. It also shows that the S&P 500 has been on a downtrend for over a year, with the downtrend line acting as a ceiling of resistance for the market since the Federal Reserve began its battle against inflation in November 2021, according to Cramer.
Inskip notes that the ceiling has never been breached even after powerful rallies from the last two earnings cycles, he added.

But while the past two earnings seasons started with the index at levels close to the low end of its trading end, the current fourth-quarter earnings season saw the S&P 500 start right below the ceiling, Cramer said.
“Good [earnings] numbers could give us more upside than we’ve seen from the last few quarters, but bad ones might mean the S&P heads right back down to the low end of the range,” he said.
For more analysis, watch Cramer’s full explanation below.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer warned investors that stocks could continue to fall — at least in the near future.
Stocks tumbled on Wednesday after December retail sales data heightened fears of a recession and investors took profits on gains from earlier this month.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday warned investors that stocks could continue to fall — at least in the near future.
“I think we have a … period of consolidation, as we get rid of the weak-handed investors. And we certainly wash out those who got carried away and committed personal fouls, like buying bitcoin above $20,000 or fooling around in meme stocks,” he said.

Stocks tumbled on Wednesday after December retail sales data heightened fears of a recession and investors took profits on gains from earlier this month. The S&P 500 closed at its lowest level since Dec. 15, and the Nasdaq Composite fell, breaking a seven-day win streak.
“Right now, the market’s working off one of the most overbought conditions we’ve had in ages. In the last two weeks, we simply rallied too far, too fast. It’s not that everything’s horrible,” Cramer said.
He pointed out that while Microsoft said that it’s laying off 10,000 employees, other industries have stayed much more resilient. Many companies, including United Airlines recently, have reported great quarters so far this earnings season, he added.
“Vast swaths of the economy are holding up just fine. The problem lies in tech, as I’ve been telling you for months on end,” he said.
However, that won’t stop the market from enduring more pain, at least in the short term, Cramer warned. “The bears — they will be out in full force tomorrow.”

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Sentiment rose four points to 35 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.
“While NAHB is forecasting a decline for single-family starts this year compared to 2022, it appears a turning point for housing lies ahead,” said Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist.

Builder sentiment in the single-family housing market posted an unexpected gain in January, rising for the first time in 12 straight months. Economists had predicted a slight decline.
Sentiment rose 4 points to 35 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Anything below 50 is still considered negative sentiment. The metric stood at 83 in January 2022.

“It appears the low point for builder sentiment in this cycle was registered in December, even as many builders continue to use a variety of incentives, including price reductions, to bolster sales,” said Jerry Konter, NAHB chairman and a homebuilder from Savannah, Georgia. “The rise in builder sentiment also means that cycle lows for permits and starts are likely near, and a rebound for home building could be underway later in 2023.”

Homes under construction in Tucson, Arizona, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. Sales of new U.S. homes retreated in January after a flurry of purchases at the end of 2021, indicating a jump in mortgage rates may be starting to restrain demand.
Rebecca Noble | Bloomberg | Getty Images

All three of the index’s components posted gains in January: current sales conditions rose 4 points to 40, sales expectations in the next six months increased 2 points to 37, and buyer traffic rose 3 points to 23.
Both builders and consumers are likely responding to the recent drop in mortgage rates. The average contract interest rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage last peaked at 7.37% at the end of October, according to Mortgage News Daily. It then fell throughout December and stood at 6.17% as of Tuesday.
“While NAHB is forecasting a decline for single-family starts this year compared to 2022, it appears a turning point for housing lies ahead,” said Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist. “In the coming quarters, single-family home building will rise off of cycle lows as mortgage rates are expected to trend lower and boost housing affordability.”

Dietz noted the nation still has a structural housing deficit of 1.5 million units and said improved affordability should increase demand.
A measure of mortgage applications to purchase a home did rise sharply last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Unfortunately, the number of new listings on the market is down from a year ago.

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