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Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took office Tuesday, assuming with it one of the most daunting political inboxes in modern British history.
The former finance minister will be tasked with remedying multiple crises, including soaring inflation, higher energy costs, industrial unrest and a battered economy.
Sunak has warned that the U.K. faces a “profound economic challenge,” and pledged to instill “stability and unity.”

Rishi Sunak has been named as the U.K.’s new prime minister and the country’s first leader of color.
Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON — Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assumed office Tuesday and, with it, one of the most daunting political inboxes in modern British history as he attempts to steer the country through an existing cost-of-living crisis, political and social disjuncture, and a looming recession.
The former finance minister was named leader of the Conservative Party — and therefore the country’s next prime minister — on Monday, after his sole competitor, Penny Mordaunt, pulled out of the leadership race moments before the nominations deadline.

The 42-year-old was officially installed in the role Tuesday morning by King Charles III, whom he met at Buckingham Palace after outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss formally tendered her resignation to the monarch.
Sunak’s officiation is momentous not least in that it marks Downing Street’s first prime minister of color and the U.K.’s youngest leader of modern times. It is also King Charles’ first swearing in of a new government, coming just seven weeks after his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, appointed Truss, who resigned 44 days later.
But also because it comes at a time of profound political and economic crisis for the country, with the challenges in Sunak’s office in-tray spanning economic instability, soaring inflation, stretched public finances, industrial unrest and party politics from day one.

The economy in focus

Sunak has so far given little away about his plans once in office, ascending to the top job virtually in silence following a fast-tracked leadership race over the weekend.
However, as a former finance minister who steered Britain through the Covid-19 pandemic, recovering the U.K.’s embattled economy and the country’s status among the investment community is likely to be a top priority.

If the fiscal rules are too loose … this won’t rebuild credibility.

Ruth Gregory
senior U.K. economist, Capital Economics

In his inaugural speech as prime minister Tuesday, Sunak said the challenges facing the country were “profound” and pledged to place “economic stability” at the center of his agenda.
“Right now, our country is facing a profound economic crisis,” Sunak said outside Downing Street.
“Some mistakes were made,” he continued, referencing to the prior government of Liz Truss. “I have been elected as leader of my party and your prime minister, in part, to fix them. And that work begins immediately.”
“I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda. This will mean difficult decisions to come,” he added.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt arrives at the back entrance of Downing Street, London.
Aaron Chown – Pa Images | Pa Images | Getty Images

It is expected that Sunak will retain the current Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, who is credited with calming markets following the Truss government’s cataclysmic mini-budget, and who is due to set out the country’s revised fiscal strategy Monday.
Economists said that could go some way in reasserting the U.K.’s economic stability, but added that investors will be closely watching the forthcoming budget to see exactly how the pair plan to fill a gaping £40 billion ($45 billion) in the public finances.
“If the fiscal rules are too loose and/or the policies announced to fill the fiscal hole are considered unachievable, this won’t rebuild credibility with investors,” Ruth Gregory, senior U.K. economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note Monday.

Soaring inflation and industrial unrest

Still, while Sunak is seen as having safer fiscal hands than his predecessor, investors have warned that any relief rally in financial markets may be short-lived, as the new government has a long way to go in resolving the country’s wider economic ills.
The U.K. is the only G-7 economy not to have re-attained its pre-pandemic GDP level by the second quarter of 2022. Indeed, the economy shrank by 0.3% in August, according to the Office for National Statistics, with some ratings agencies predicting the U.K. is already in a full-year recession.

The U.K. still faces a storm of economic problems. There’s the brewing deep and painful recession, soaring energy prices, inflation running at more than 10%.

Nigel Green
CEO, deVere Group

It comes as the U.K. faces a labor crunch and continued industrial unrest, with widespread strikes among postal workers, rail workers and public barristers having led to months of disruption.
Meanwhile, U.K. inflation returned to a 40-year high of 10.1% in September, and energy prices continue to push higher following Russia’s war in Ukraine, with some energy providers warning of possible blackouts this winter.
“The U.K. still faces a storm of economic problems,” Nigel Green, CEO, deVere Group, said in a note Monday. “There’s the brewing deep and painful recession, soaring energy prices, inflation running at more than 10%, labor gaps, ongoing supply chain dramas, and the Bank of England intent on hiking interest rates.”

Uniting a divided Conservative Party

Sunak’s task as prime minister is further complicated by deep-rooted divisions within the ruling Conservative Party.
Despite winning significant backing from Tory members of parliament, Sunak is considered a divisive figure within the party, and was largely blamed for the demise of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, after he quit as his finance minister.

Rishi Sunak is tasked with a daunting in-tray as the U.K.’s new prime minister, including a crisis in public finances, political infighting and soaring energy bills.
Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Sunak’s success will therefore closely depend on his ability to galvanize his party and unite them under his new economic and political vision.
Closely watched over the coming days will be Sunak’s appointment of his cabinet, which will provide him an opportunity to overhaul the top ranks of the party and appoint a broad church of ministers from across Tory factions.
The U.K.’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told Sky News Tuesday that Sunak’s government should feature the best ministers available — rather than focusing on those who are loyal — as Truss was criticized for doing.
“We have got to have the first 15 on the pitch. I know that Rishi understands that,” Cleverly said.

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Ford Motor is updating its popular Escape as part of a two-pronged sales strategy alongside the newer, more rugged Bronco Sport.
The starting price for the 2023 Escape ranges from roughly $29,000 for an entry-level model to $40,000 for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
The goal is to differentiate the mainstream Escape from the more rugged Bronco Sport, allowing each vehicle to form a niche in the compact vehicle segment.

2023 Ford Escape ST-Line Elite

DETROIT — Ford Motor is updating its popular Escape as part of a two-pronged sales strategy alongside the newer, more rugged Bronco Sport in the highly competitive compact SUV segment.
Ford expects the new design of the 2023 Escape, in combination with additional convenience and safety technologies, to help it sustain, if not grow, sales of the vehicle.

“The Escape is already our fourth best-selling vehicle within our portfolio, and we think we’ve got an opportunity to grow further,” said Craig Patterson, Ford SUV marketing manager, during a media briefing.
With the update, Ford is also adding a new ST sport package that the company expects to account for roughly half of the vehicle’s sales going forward. It will be available on three models, starting at $995. It features darker styling, larger wheels and other features.
The starting price for the 2023 Escape ranges from roughly $29,000 for an entry-level model to $40,000 for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. That compares with the current lineup with goes for about $27,000 to $41,000.
The 2023 Escape is expected to begin arriving in dealer showrooms early next year. The automaker began taking reservations for the vehicle on Tuesday.
The goal is to differentiate the mainstream Escape from the more rugged Bronco Sport, allowing each vehicle to form a niche in the compact vehicle segment, according to Adrienne Zaski, Escape brand manager.

“This segment is large. It can feel commoditized. We think with the enhancements that we have here we’re going to be able to break out of the sea of sameness,” she said.
U.S. sales of the Escape outsold the Bronco Sport by roughly 30,000 units through the third quarter of this year. The Bronco Sport started arriving in Ford dealerships in the middle of last year.
Both vehicles share the same vehicle platform, or underpinnings, but are produced at different plants. The Bronco Sport is made at a plant in Mexico, while the Escape is assembled at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky.
The 2023 Escape features headlights similar to the electric Mustang Mach-E and is also available with a full LED light bar across the front of the vehicle. Other updates include a refreshed interior, including larger screens; wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; and additional safety features.
The Escape retains its powertrain options, including a traditional hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Every model in the new lineup targets an EPA-estimated range of at least 400 miles per tank, according to Ford. The hybrid with front-wheel-drive targets an EPA-estimated range of more than 550 miles.
Ford said the plug-in hybrid electric model accounts for only about 7% to 8% of current unit sales. Depending on parts and raw material costs, the carmaker may look to expand sales of those vehicles, according to Zaski. Sales of the traditional hybrid is constrained due to supply chain issues and accounts for about 15% to 20% of sale, Patterson said.

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Imerys says its Emili Project will be located at a site in the center of France.
The company is targeting 34,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide production each year from 2028.
The EU plans to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans from 2035. The U.K., which left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, is pursuing similar targets.

A Lithium-ion battery photographed at a Volkswagen facility in Germany. The EU is looking to increase the number of electric vehicles on its roads in the coming years.
Ronny Hartmann | AFP | Getty Images

Paris-headquartered minerals giant Imerys plans to develop a lithium extraction project that it’s hoped will help meet demand and secure supply for Europe’s emerging electric vehicle market.
In a statement Monday, Imerys said its Emili Project would be located at a site in the center of France, with the company targeting 34,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide production each year from 2028.

According to the business, this level of production would be enough to “equip approximately 700,000 electrical vehicles per year.”
Alongside its use in cell phones, computers, tablets and a host of other gadgets synonymous with modern life, lithium — which some have dubbed “white gold” — is crucial to the batteries that power electric vehicles.
The project being planned by Imerys is taking shape at a time when major economies like the EU are looking to ramp up the number of electric vehicles on their roads.

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The EU plans to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans from 2035. The U.K., which left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, is pursuing similar targets.
With demand for lithium rising, the European Union — of which France is a member — is attempting to shore up its own supplies and reduce dependency on other parts of the world.   

In a translation of her State of the Union speech last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas.”
As well as addressing security of supply, von der Leyen, who switched between several languages during her speech, also stressed the importance of processing.
“Today, China controls the global processing industry,” she said. “Almost 90% … of rare earth[s] and 60% of lithium are processed in China.”
“So we will identify strategic projects all along the supply chain, from extracting to refining, from processing to recycling,” she added. “And we will build up strategic reserves where supply is at risk.”

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

Back in France, Imerys said it was finalizing what it described as a “technical scoping study” in order to “explore various operational options and refine geological and industrial aspects relating to the lithium extraction and processing method.”
The site selected for the project has, since the end of the 19th century, been used to produce a type of clay called kaolin for use in the ceramics industry.
The construction capital expenditure of the proposed lithium project is estimated to be around 1 billion euros (roughly $980 million), Imerys added.
“Upon successful completion, the project would contribute to the French and European Union’s energy transition ambitions,” the company said. “It would also increase Europe’s industrial sovereignty at a time when car and battery manufacturers are heavily dependent on imported lithium, which is a key element in the energy transition.”
In recent years, a range of factors has created pressure points when it comes to the supply of the materials crucial for EVs, an issue the International Energy Agency highlighted earlier this year in its Global EV Outlook.
“The rapid increase in EV sales during the pandemic has tested the resilience of battery supply chains, and Russia’s war in Ukraine has further exacerbated the challenge,” the IEA’s report noted, adding that prices of materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel have soared.
“In May 2022, lithium prices were over seven times higher than at the start of 2021,” it added. “Unprecedented battery demand and a lack of structural investment in new supply capacity are key factors.”

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In a recent interview with CNBC, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz sketched out the current state of play, as he saw it when it came to the raw materials required for EVs and their batteries.
“Raw material prices have been quite volatile in the last 12 to 18 months — some have spiked and actually some have come back down again,” Ola Kallenius said.
“But it is true as we become electric, all-electric and more and more automakers go into the electric space, there is a need to increase mining capacities and refining capacities for lithium, nickel, and some of those raw materials that are needed to produce electric cars.”
“We have everything that we need now, but we need to look into the mid to long-term and work with the mining industry here to increase capacities.” More

Shares of many U.S.-listed Chinese companies, including EV makers BYD, Li Auto, Nio and Xpeng, opened the week sharply lower.
With China’s president, Xi Jinping, now set for a third term and further restrictions likely, investors are souring on non-state-owned Chinese companies.

Nio began deliveries of its new ET7, an upscale electric sedan, on Monday, March 28, 2022.

U.S.-traded shares of Chinese electric vehicle makers were among those hit by a dramatic sell-off Monday, as investors soured on non-state-run Chinese companies following a weekend of dramatic political developments in China.
Shares of Li Auto ended the day down 17%, Nio’s closed nearly 16% lower, and Xpeng Motors’ dropped 12% in trading in New York, while shares of larger BYD closed down over 8%. Other prominent Chinese companies including Alibaba and Tencent Music Entertainment suffered similarly dramatic declines.

The sell-off followed a weekend in which President Xi Jinping appeared poised for an unprecedented third term as China’s leader after naming a series of loyalists to the Politburo standing committee, the inner circle of power in China’s ruling Communist Party.   
Under Xi’s leadership, China’s government has increased restrictions on speech and movement and tightened regulations on technology companies. Analysts see further constraints ahead, with Bernstein’s Mark Schilsky writing in a Monday morning note that Chinese stocks are now “uninvestable.”
Xpeng separately on Monday debuted a new version of its advanced driver-assist system, called XNGP. The new system, a direct rival to Tesla’s Autopilot, allows for limited hands-free driving in some urban environments as well as on highways.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday offered investors a list of companies whose solid quarters he believes have helped the market rally recently.
“Earnings are sharply better than expected, and that — not just the idea that the Fed might pause the rate hikes after its upcoming meeting — was what’s driving the market’s newfound strength,” he said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday offered investors a list of companies whose solid quarters he believes have helped the market rally recently.
Here is his list:

Bank of America
Johnson & Johnson
Goldman Sachs
Lockheed Martin
Netflix
Procter & Gamble
IBM
Tesla
AT&T
Tractor Supply
CSX
SLB
American Express

“Earnings are sharply better than expected, and that — not just the idea that the Fed might pause the rate hikes after its upcoming meeting — was what’s driving the market’s newfound strength,” Cramer said.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Federal Reserve could move to slow the pace of interest rate hikes in December.
Cramer’s comments come during a busy earnings week featuring some of the world’s biggest companies. Some of the names set to report this week are Big Tech firms like Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple, as well as retail giants like Coca-Cola.
Out of the firms that reported standout results recently, Netflix and IBM had the best quarters, Cramer said, advising investors to buy the streaming giant’s stock “aggressively” and keep an eye on IBM’s stock price.
He added that the companies which reported solid earnings extend beyond his list, strengthening his case that they’ve helped buoy the stock market recently. “I could’ve picked 10 more winners,” he said.

Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble.

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Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

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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Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc: “I think it may be time to pull the trigger.”
Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Morgan Stanley.

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Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said that the spiking U.S. dollar could peak soon.
To explain Carley Garner’s analysis, Cramer examined the weekly chart of the dollar index going back to 2017.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said that the spiking U.S. dollar could peak soon.
“The strong dollar has become an albatross around the neck of an already beaten-down market, but now the charts, at last, as interpreted by Carley Garner, suggest the dollar could be peaking,” he said.

The value of the U.S. dollar has surged in recent months, driven by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate raises and the hot U.S. economy. That’s been a headwind to companies that conduct business largely overseas and are therefore subject to an unfavorable exchange rate. 
“Everything else — stocks, commodities, bonds — have all swung back this year. As Garner sees it, the greenback is the last holdout, and she doesn’t think it will last,” he said.
To explain Garner’s analysis, Cramer examined the weekly chart of the dollar index going back to 2017.

Arrows pointing outwards

The dollar’s been known to make “dramatic tops,” according to Garner, and the last three peaks follow a trend line that dates back to 2016, Cramer said. The dollar’s just under that trend line, which is a ceiling of resistance and a potential point of reversal, he said.
Garner expects that the dollar will fall if it can’t break through that ceiling.

“Currently, the dollar index is at 112, and she wouldn’t be surprised if it hits 105 on the downside,” he said, adding that Garner believes the dollar index could tumble all the way to 97, where it was trading before Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.
For more analysis, watch Cramer’s full explanation below.

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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion that overturned out the abortion rights case Roe v. Wade, assured the late Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2005 that he considered a key legal basis for Roe to be “settled,” a new book reveals.
“I am a believer in precedents,” the conservative Alito told Kennedy, the liberal Massachusett Democratic senator wrote in his diary in November 2005, The New York Times reported.
The comment was made as Alito was seeking Senate confirmation to the high court, during a visit to Kennedy’s office, according to the diary citation.
The 1973 decision in Roe established for the first time that there was a federal constitutional right to abortion.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) boards an elevator after walking off the floor of the U.S. Senate after a roll call vote to achieve cloture on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court passed 72 to 25 January 30, 2006 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion this summer overturning the abortion rights case Roe v. Wade, assured the late Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2005 that he considered a key legal basis for Roe to be “settled,” a new report reveals.
“I am a believer in precedents,” the conservative Alito told Kennedy, the liberal Massachusetts Democratic senator wrote in his diary in November 2005, The New York Times reported.

“I believe that there is a right to privacy. I think it’s settled as part of the liberty clause of the 14th Amendment and the Fifth Amendment,” Alito said, according to the diary citation.
“So I recognize there is a right to privacy. I’m a believer in precedents. I think on the Roe case that’s about as far as I can go,” Alito said to Kennedy, a staunch defender of abortion rights who died in 2009.
The comment was made as Alito was seeking Senate confirmation to the court during a visit to Kennedy’s office, wrote John Farrell in the Times report. Farrell’s new book, “Ted Kennedy: A Life,” which features details of the diary entries, is being published Tuesday.

The 1973 decision in Roe established for the first time that there was a federal constitutional right to abortion.
Roe was based on a prior high court decision, Griswold v. Connecticut, which in 1965 found that there was a constitutional right to marital privacy, in a case related to married couples having been barred from using birth control.

Conservatives for decades attacked Roe as flawed, in part with the argument that the Constitution does not explicitly state individuals have a right to privacy, much less one to abortion.

Associate Justice Samuel Alito poses during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021.
Erin Schaff | Pool | Reuters

During his meeting with Alito, Kennedy was skeptical of the judge, who as a lawyer in the Justice Department during the Reagan administration had written a memo in 1985 that noted he opposed Roe.
“Judge Alito assured Mr. Kennedy that he should not put much stock in the memo,” the Times reported.
“He had been seeking a promotion and wrote what he thought his bosses wanted to hear. ‘I was a younger person,’ Judge Alito said. ‘I’ve matured a lot.’ ”
Alito also said that his views on Roe being erroneously decided were “personal,” according to Kennedy’s diary.

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“Those are personal,” Alito said, Kennedy wrote in the diary. “But I’ve got constitutional responsibilities and those are going to be the determining views.”
Despite that assurance, Kennedy voted against confirming Alito to the Supreme Court.
Alito didn’t return a request submitted to the Supreme Court’s press office seeking comment on the Times article.
In July, Alito wrote the majority decision in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned both Roe and another landmark abortion rights case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which was decided in 1992.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito wrote.
“Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division,” he wrote, noting that those cases “must be overruled.”
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” he wrote.
It was that amendment, the 14th, which Alito reportedly had told Kennedy almost 17 years earlier established a right to privacy.
But Alito’s opinion in Dobbs said that abortion is a “fundamentally different” right than ones such as “intimate sexual relations, contraception, and marriage,” because “it destroys … ‘fetal life.'”
The Dobbs ruling meant that individual states would again have the authority to strictly limit or even ban abortion, or to allow it with loose restrictions.
Abortion has been largely banned in at least 13 states since Dobbs was issued.
In a concurring opinion with Dobbs, Alito’s fellow conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote that other landmark rulings by the court that established gay rights and the right to contraception should be reconsidered now that Roe had been tossed out.
Thomas said in his opinion that those rulings “were demonstrably erroneous decisions.”
The cases he mentioned are Griswold v. Connecticut; Lawrence v. Texas, which in 2003 established the right to engage in private sexual acts; and the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which said there is a right to same-sex marriage.
Thomas noted that all those decisions are based on interpretations of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
He wrote that the constitutional clause guarantees only “process” for depriving a person of life, liberty or property cannot be used “to define the substance of those rights.”

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