Finance

The number of people receiving unemployment benefits fell by 55%, to 5 million, as of Sept. 11, according to Labor Department data.
Federal unemployment programs ended on Labor Day.
Congress opted not to extend them again.

People receive information as they attend a job fair at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 9, 2021, in Inglewood, California.
PATRICK T. FALLON | AFP | Getty Images

The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell by more than half after the Labor Day “cliff,” when federal assistance ended for millions of people.
There were just over 5 million people receiving jobless aid as of Sept. 11 — a roughly 55% cut from the 11.3 million who’d been collecting benefits the week prior, according to federal data published Thursday.

Pandemic-era programs that offered income support to the unemployed lapsed on Labor Day.
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At that time, workers like the self-employed, independent contractors and long-term unemployed were no longer eligible for federal benefits through those programs, which had been available since March 2020.
The number of ongoing recipients is likely to fall by millions more in coming weeks, too. The 5 million ongoing recipients as of Sept. 11 includes about 2 million people who, on paper, received federal aid through lapsed programs — a dynamic that reflects processing delays and backdated applications, according to labor experts.
Jobless individuals who remain eligible for state benefits can continue to collect that aid. However, they are getting $300 less per week due to the expiration of a federal benefit supplement.

Congress had extended federal benefit programs in December 2020 and again in March 2021 but opted not to do so a third time due to an improving economy and labor market.
Twenty-six states opted out of the programs early to try to nudge recipients back to work. However, available evidence suggests enhanced benefits were not keeping large numbers of workers on the sidelines.
Economists believe other factors like ongoing health risks and childcare responsibilities, especially amid the delta wave of the virus, are playing a bigger role in any worker shortages.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh had urged states with high unemployment rates to continue issuing aid to some unemployed workers using other pots of federally allocated pandemic funds. It doesn’t appear they have done so, however.

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Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:
Lordstown Motors (RIDE) – The electric truck maker was downgraded to “underweight” from “equal-weight” at Morgan Stanley, which notes that the recently announced sale of Lordstown’s Ohio plant to Foxconn values the plant at less than a fifth of prior estimates. Lordstown tumbled 6.8% in the premarket.

Ocugen (OCGN) – The developer of gene therapy treatments soared 10.7% in the premarket after it announced joint development and supply agreements involving its Covid-19 vaccine candidate and its treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration.
PepsiCo (PEP) – The snack and beverage giant beat estimates by 6 cents a share, with quarterly earnings of $1.79 per share. Revenue beat Street forecasts as well. PepsiCo also raised its annual revenue forecast as the easing of pandemic restrictions boosts sales at restaurants and movie theaters. The stock rose 1% premarket.
Facebook (FB) – Facebook staged a modest rebound following a nearly 5% drop Monday, rising 1.1% in premarket action. Monday’s decline came in the wake of a “60 Minutes” whistleblower report as well as a six-hour outage that impacted all of Facebook’s services.
Tesla (TSLA) – Tesla will have to pay former worker Owen Diaz about $137 million, over a hostile work environment that included enduring racist remarks. That ruling came from a San Francisco federal court, with the jury awarding more than attorneys had requested for their client. Tesla rose 1% in premarket trading.
Albertsons (ACI) – The supermarket operator’s shares fell 4% in the premarket after BMO Capital downgraded the stock to “underperform” from “market perform.” BMO notes increasing wage costs and a more price-sensitive consumer environment.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) – Southwest is the latest airline to announce a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for its workers. Employees will have until December 8th to comply, although they will be allowed to apply for religious or medical exemptions.
Veoneer (VNE) – Veoneer agreed to be acquired by investment firm SSW Partners for $37 per share, with SSW then selling the auto tech firm’s sensor and driving platform business to Qualcomm (QCOM). Veoneer had agreed in July to be bought by Canadian auto supplier Magna International (MGA) for $31.25 per share. Veoneer fell 1% in the premarket.
Duckhorn Portfolio (NAPA) – Duckhorn Portfolio reported quarterly profit of 8 cents per share, well above the 1 cent a share consensus estimate. The Calfornia-based wine producer’s revenue also topped Wall Street forecasts. Duckhorn Portfolio issued a better-than-expected full-year earnings outlook as well. Its shares rose 2.2% in premarket trading.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – J&J submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of a booster shot utilizing its Covid-19 vaccine. The FDA had already scheduled an expert panel review of booster data for both J&J and Moderna (MRNA) next week.

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SunPower said Tuesday that it is restructuring to focus exclusively on residential solar.
The company is acquiring homes solar company Blue Raven, and announced plans to sell its commercial and industrial business.
“We’re happy to have the clarity for investors on this singularly focused strategy now, focusing on residential moving forward,” said SunPower CEO Peter Faricy.
Shares of the company are down 10% for 2021, but have rallied 70% over the last year.

Construction workers install SunPower tiles on homes in San Ramon, Calif.
Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images

SunPower said Tuesday that it’s restructuring its operations in a bid to focus exclusively on the fast-growing residential solar market. The company is acquiring residential solar provider Blue Raven, while also looking to sell its commercial and industrial business.
SunPower CEO Peter Faricy said the acquisition was a natural fit for several reasons, including that Blue Raven’s customer-first approach aligns with SunPower’s motto. Additionally, more than 90% of Blue Raven’s customers are in 14 states that account for just 5% of SunPower’s sales. In other words, the acquisition expands SunPower’s footprint in places where the company has struggled to seize market share.

“From a strategy point of view, this transaction is an example of something that allows us to serve consumers much faster than we would have otherwise,” Faricy said, adding that the deal will be revenue and EBITDA positive from day one.
SunPower will gain more than 20,000 customers from Blue Raven, adding to the 376,000 residential customers it had at the end of the second quarter.
The total transaction value of the acquisition is up to $165 million, with the cash required to close the deal standing at up to $145 million. SunPower used cash from operations to fund the acquisition, with the majority of the money raised after the company sold 1 million shares of Enphase Energy.

Focusing on residential solar

Faricy said that while the commercial and industrial solar segment is an attractive space to operate in with plenty of growth ahead, the company’s decision to sell the division came down to capital allocation and the opportunity for a streamlined business.
He noted that the unit has garnered interest from potential buyers, but did not disclose any individual names. Faricy also pointed to the attractiveness of the asset, saying that SunPower currently makes money in commercial and industrial through managing contracts, while a future owner could take advantage of both the managing and financing side of the operation.

SunPower intends to use the money from a potential sale to reinvest into its newly core residential business, including around customer acquisition and expanded digital services for homeowners.
“In our case, we’re happy to have the clarity for investors on this singularly focused strategy now, focusing on residential moving forward,” Faricy said.
A restructuring of this nature is not the first for SunPower. In August 2020 the company spun out photovoltaic module maker Maxeon Solar, although the two separate entities still work together.
Shifting the company’s focus to individual consumers is perhaps a natural fit for Faricy, who took the helm of SunPower in April. He was previously CEO of global direct-to-consumer for Discovery Inc., and also served as vice president of Amazon Marketplace.
And while commercial and industrial solar offer alternative growth avenues, the majority of SunPower’s revenue comes from residential operations.
Full-year 2020 sales from residential and light commercial totaled $848 million, while the commercial and industrial unit brought in $254.8 million. The residential unit is also more profitable. Gross margins per watt jumped from $0.19 in 2019 to $0.66 this year, while margins from the commercial and industrial division declined from $0.25 to $0.06 during the same period.
“The facts are the residential business is larger, it’s faster growing and it’s more profitable,” Faricy summarized. “[Residential] is the right place for us to focus on as we move forward, and I think we expect it to be well received by investors.”
Looking forward, SunPower wants to be a one-stop shop for consumers. Rather than having a one-time customer relationship when the system is installed, the company is adding energy storage, electric vehicle capabilities and a host of digital products including energy management systems.
Residential solar installations have jumped in recent years, but at the end of 2020 just 2.7 million, or 3%, of homes across the U.S. sported rooftop panels. President Joe Biden’s climate agenda calls for solar’s portion of electricity generation rising from 3% today to 40% by 2035. Solar installations will need to surge in coming years if these goals are to be met.
But opportunity doesn’t always translate to returns for investors looking to capitalize on long-term trends. After a banner 2020, solar stocks have suffered in 2021. Supply chain bottlenecks, rising raw material costs and policy uncertainty are among the factors that have dented sentiment.
Faricy noted that SunPower has remained largely insulated from the chip shortage, saying that the company has visibility through the end of the calendar year. That said, he acknowledged the difficulty of securing components, saying supply chains are a “lifelong challenge.”
Shares of SunPower are up nearly 6% over the last month, aided by a nearly 10% gain last Friday after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that SunPower would be added to the S&P MidCap 400 prior to the opening bell on Tuesday. The Invesco Solar ETF, by comparison, is down 10% over the last month.
SunPower shares advanced 2% during premarket trading on Tuesday.

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IT IS NEARLY half a century since the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo on America, turning a modest inflation problem into a protracted bout of soaring prices and economic misery. But the stagflation of the 1970s is back on economists’ minds today, as they confront strengthening inflation and disappointing economic activity. The voices warning of unsettling echoes with the past are influential ones, including Larry Summers and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Mohamed El-Erian of Cambridge University and previously of PIMCO, a bond-fund manager.Stagflation is a particularly thorny problem because it combines two ills—high inflation and weak growth—that do not normally go together. So far this year economic growth across much of the world has been robust and unemployment rates, though generally still above pre-pandemic levels, have fallen. But the recovery seems to be losing momentum, fuelling fears of stagnation. Covid-19 has led to factory closures in much of South-East Asia, hitting industrial production. Consumer sentiment in America is sputtering. Meanwhile, after a decade of sluggishness, price pressures are growing (see chart). Inflation has risen above central-bank targets across most of the world, and exceeds 3% in Britain and the euro area and 5% in America.The economic picture is not as dire as the situation during parts of the 1970s, when inflation in the rich world ran to double digits. But what worries stagflationists is less the precise figures than the fact that an array of forces threatens to keep inflation high even as growth slows—and that these look eerily similar to the factors behind the stagflation of the 1970s.One parallel is that the world economy is once again weathering energy- and food-price shocks. Global food prices have risen by roughly a third over the past year. Gas and coal prices have hit record levels in Asia and Europe. Stocks of both fuels are disconcertingly low in big economies such as China and India; power cuts, already a problem in China, may spread. Rising energy costs will exert more upward pressure on inflation and further darken the economic mood worldwide.Other costs are rising too: shipping rates have soared, because of a shift in consumer spending towards goods and covid-related backlogs at ports. Workers are enjoying greater bargaining power this year, as firms facing surging demand struggle to attract sufficient labour. Unions in Germany, for instance, are demanding higher pay; some are even going on strike.Stagflationists see another similarity with the past in the current economic-policy environment. They fret that macroeconomic thinking has regressed, creating an opening for sustained inflation. In the 1960s and 1970s governments and central banks tolerated rising inflation as they prioritised low unemployment over stable prices. But the bruising experience of stagflation helped shift intellectual thinking, producing a generation of central bankers determined to keep inflation in check. Then, after the global financial crisis and a period of deficient demand, this single-minded focus gave way to greater concern about unemployment. Low interest rates weakened governments’ fiscal discipline, and enabled vast amounts of stimulus during 2020.Now as in the 1970s, the worriers warn, governments and central banks may be tempted to solve supply-side problems by running the economy even hotter, yielding high inflation and disappointing growth.These parallels aside, however, the 1970s provide little guidance for those seeking to understand current troubles. To see this, consider the areas where the historical comparison does not hold. Energy and food-price shocks worry economists because they could become baked into wage bargains and inflation expectations, causing spiralling price rises. Yet the institutions that could underpin a new, long-lived era of labour strength remain weak, for the most part. In 1970 about 38% of workers across the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, were covered by union wage bargains. By 2019, that figure had declined to 16%, the lowest on record.Cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), which automatically translate increases in inflation into higher pay, were a common feature of wage contracts in the 1970s. But the practice has declined dramatically since. In 1976 more than 60% of American union workers were covered by collective-bargaining contracts with COLA provisions; by 1995, the share was down to 22%. A paper published in 2020 by Anna Stansbury of Harvard and Mr Summers argued that a secular decline in bargaining power is the “major structural change” explaining key features of recent macroeconomic performance, including low inflation, notwithstanding the decline in unemployment rates over time. As dramatic as the pandemic has been, it seems unlikely that such a big shift has reversed so quickly.Moreover, stagflation in the 1970s was exacerbated by a sharp decline in productivity growth across rich economies. In the decades after the second world war, governments’ commitment to maintaining demand was accommodated by rocketing growth in productive capacity (the French called the period “les Trente Glorieuses”). But by the early 1970s the long productivity boom had run out of steam. The habit of stoking demand failed to help expand productive potential, and pushed up prices instead. What followed was a long period of disappointing productivity growth. Since the worst of the pandemic, however, it has strengthened: output per hour worked in America grew at about 2% over the year to June, roughly double the average rate of the 2010s. Booming capital expenditure could well mean such gains are sustained.Another important break with the 1970s is that central banks have neither forgotten how to rein in inflation nor lost their commitment to price stability. In the 1970s even some central bankers doubted their power to curb wage and price increases. Arthur Burns, then the chairman of the Federal Reserve, reckoned that “monetary policy could do very little to arrest an inflation that rested so heavily on wage-cost pressures”. Research by Christina and David Romer of the University of California at Berkeley suggests that Mr Burns’s view was a common one at the time. But the end of the era of high inflation demonstrated that central banks could rein in such inflation, and this knowledge has not been lost. Last month Jerome Powell, the Fed’s current chairman, declared that, if “sustained higher inflation were to become a serious concern, we would certainly respond and use our tools to assure that inflation runs at levels that are consistent with our longer-run goal of 2%.”The new fiscal orthodoxy likewise has its limits. Budget deficits around the world are forecast to shrink dramatically from this year to next. In America moderate Democrats’ worries about excessive spending may mean that President Joe Biden’s grand investment plans are pared down—or fail to pass at all. What next for the world economy, then, if it does not face a 1970s re-run? Rocketing energy costs pose a serious risk to the recovery. Soaring prices—or shortages, if governments try to limit rises—will dent households’ and companies’ budgets and hit spending and production. That will come just as governments withdraw stimulus and central banks countenance tighter policy. A demand slowdown could relieve pressure on the supply-constrained parts of the economy: once they have paid their eye-watering electricity bills, for instance, Americans will be less able to afford scarce cars and computers. But it would add a painful coda to nearly two years of covid-19.Another important respect in which the global economy has changed since the 1970s is in its far greater integration through financial markets and supply chains. Trade as a share of global GDP, for instance, has more than doubled since 1970. The uneven recovery from the pandemic has placed intense stress on some of the ties binding together economies. Panicking governments could hoard resources, further disrupting economies.Past experience, therefore, is not the clearest lens through which to view the forces buffeting the global economy. The world has changed dramatically since the 1970s, and globalisation has created a vast network of interdependencies. The system now faces a new, unique test. More

Citadel’s multistrategy flagship fund Wellington gained 7.8% in September, bringing its year-to-date performance to 18.5%, according to a person familiar with the returns.
The S&P 500 fell 4.8% last month, posting its worst month since March 2020 and breaking a seven-month winning streak.
The hedge-fund industry has been attracting new capital this year as the return of volatility sent investors to alternative assets.

Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO, Citadel
Mike Blake | Reuters

The volatile September was a golden opportunity for billionaire investor Ken Griffin to shine as his main hedge fund crushed the market with outperformance.
Citadel’s multistrategy flagship fund Wellington gained 7.8% in September, bringing its year-to-date performance to 18.5%, according to a person familiar with the returns.

All five of the investment strategies of the fund — equities, commodities, global fixed income and macro, credit, and quantitative strategies — all registered gains last month, the person said.
The overall stock market suffered a roller-coaster ride in September as inflation fears, slowing growth and rising rates kept investors on edge. The S&P 500 fell 4.8% last month, posting its worst month since March 2020 and breaking a seven-month winning streak. The blue-chip Dow and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.3% and 5.3%, respectively, suffering their worst months of the year.

The hedge-fund industry has been attracting new capital this year as the return of volatility sent investors to alternative assets. Hedge funds saw another $12 billion in inflows in August, bringing the overall assets under management to a record $3.622 trillion, according to data from eVestment.
Citadel’s other multistrategy fund, Tactical Trading, gained 3.9% in September and is up 14.1% this year.
The hedge-fund community gained about 10% in 2021 through the end of August, according to HFR. Citadel’s returns were first reported by Business Insider.

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Stock futures rose modestly in overnight trading on Monday following a tech-led sell-off as investors continued to dump high-flying shares in the face of rising rates.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 45 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.3%.

On Monday, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.1% for its sixth negative day in seven as tech heavyweights Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft all fell at least 2%. Shares of Facebook slipped 4.9%. The blue-chip Dow shed more than 300 points, while the S&P 500 lost 1.3%.
“Investors have grown increasingly uneasy as accelerating economic activity and monetary stimulus give way to slowing growth and steps toward policy normalization,” said Seema Shah, Principal Global Investors’ chief strategist.
A recent jump in bond yields caused investors to flee highly valued tech stocks as higher rates make their future profits less attractive. The 10-year Treasury yield traded slightly up at 1.48% on Monday after hitting a high of 1.56% last week.
The market suffered a tumultuous September as inflation fears, slowing growth and rising rates kept investors on edge. The S&P 500 fell 4.8% last month, posting its worst month since March 2020 and breaking a seven-month winning streak. The equity benchmark is now 5.4% off its all-time high reached in early September, but has still gained 14.5% year to date.
In Washington, lawmakers are still trying to agree to raise or suspend the U.S. borrowing limit and avert a dangerous first-ever default on the national debt. The Treasury Department warned last week that lawmakers must address the debt ceiling before Oct. 18 when officials estimate the U.S. will exhaust emergency efforts to honor its bond payments.

Still, some believe the outlook for equities remain robust after the weak September as the economy continues to rebound from the Covid crisis.
“We do not believe the recent bout of de-risking will lead to sustained falls, and maintain the stance to keep buying into any weakness,” Marko Kolanovic, JPMorgan’s chief global markets strategist, said in a note.

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Facebook’s logo displayed on a phone screen.
Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto via Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Facebook — Facebook shares fell 4.9% after a company whistleblower unveiled her identify and accused the social media giant of a “betrayal of democracy.” The whistleblower leaked documents to The Wall Street Journal and Congress, revealing Facebook executives were aware of negative impacts of its platforms on young people. Twitter dropped 5.8 % as concern of more regulation in the space loomed.

Ford Motor — Ford’s stock rallied 1.3% after the automaker’s U.S. vehicle sales showed signs of improvement during the third quarter. Sales improved from losses of more than 30% in July and August, to 17.7% in September. Ford still saw year-over-year sales fall by 27.4%, but the decline was narrower than forecasted.
General Motors — General Motors shares gained roughly 1.6% after activist firm Engine No. 1 announced an investment in the automaker. The hedge fund said it supported GM’s advancements in the electric vehicle space. Engine No. 1 gained prominence earlier this year by successfully placing three climate-focused independent directors on Exxon Mobil’s board.
Tesla — Shares of the electric car maker rose 0.8% despite the tech-led sell-off in the broader market. The rally came after Tesla said it delivered 241,300 vehicles in the third quarter, topping analysts’ expectations. The stock is up about 10% this year after a blockbuster 2020.
Moderna, Novavax, Merck— Shares of the two Covid-19 vaccine makers declined for a second trading day after Merck’s new Covid antiviral pill showed positive results in a clinical trial. Moderna fell nearly 4.5%, while Novavax slid 1.8%. Merck rallied 2.1%.
Southwest Airlines — The airline stocks bucked the broader market’s downtrend to rise 1.3% following an upgrade to overweight from equal weight from Barclays. Analyst Brandon Oglenski also upgraded the North American airlines sector to positive from neutral, even as uncertainty remains around the return of business travel.

Devon Energy, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum — Energy stocks popped as oil prices surged as OPEC+ agreed to stick to a plan for a gradual output hike. Devon Energy advanced 5.3%, Marathon Oil gained 4.1% and Occidental Petroleum added 2.1%.
Dupont de Nemours — The materials stock rose 1.5% after JPMorgan upgraded DuPont to overweight from neutral. The investment firm said DuPont should beat earnings expectations in 2022 and 2023.
Union Pacific — The railroad stock rose 1.9% after Barclays upgraded Union Pacific to overweight from equal weight. The investment firm said in a note that the railroad industry should rebound in 2022 as supply chain issues are worked out, raising U.S. shipping demand.
— CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald, Yun Li and Jesse Pound contributed reporting

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Upstart activist firm Engine No. 1 has taken a stake in General Motors, which it believes is taking the necessary steps to become an automaker of the future.
“We think that this can become a growth company again. … We think this stock could triple over the next five years,” Engine No. 1 founder Chris James said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The firm rose to prominence after waging a successful campaign against Exxon.

Engine No. 1, the firm that rose to prominence after waging a successful campaign against Exxon, announced Monday an investment in General Motors. This time, the upstart activist’s stake signals support for the automaker as it transitions to electric vehicles.
Engine No. 1 pointed to the similarities between Exxon and GM, noting that each company is in an industry undergoing a transformation. But unlike Exxon, GM is taking actionable steps in what the firm believes is an imperative for long-term success: linking ESG criteria to economic outcomes.

“GM, with the support of a really strong management team and a great board, has decided that they’re going to embrace the future. They’re going to make the investments necessary in order to be successful during this transition,” Engine No. 1 founder Chris James said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
In January, GM announced plans to exclusively offer electric vehicles by 2035, which is part of a broader plan to become carbon neutral by 2040. By 2025, the company plans to release 30 new electric vehicles globally as part of a $27 billion investment in electric and autonomous vehicles.
James said GM’s “all in, both feet in the pool approach” toward embracing EVs is rare for an incumbent company and sets the automaker up for success. Rather than looking to protect its legacy business first and foremost, which is the typical move, James said the company is embracing change.
Tesla has focused on battery electric vehicles from the start, and Wall Street has rewarded the company for its leadership in EV production. The company’s market cap is well above $700 billion, according to FactSet, significantly ahead of GM’s $77.1 billion valuation. But the latter delivers millions more cars each year than Tesla does, and James noted this advantage of scale positions GM for future returns.
“We think that this can become a growth company again. … We think this stock could triple over the next five years, and that, for us, is something that gets us pretty excited,” he said. “We think for the first time, they have the ability to gain an enormous amount of market share.”

James said that with Exxon and GM, the goal was to zero in on what’s best for the company over the long-term. He shies away from the description of “activist investor,” preferring to call himself an active owner.
Still, the firm is coming off a high-profile campaign against Exxon. The firm began targeting the oil giant in December with just a 0.02% position. After a monthslong battle, Engine No. 1 successfully placed three of its four nominees on Exxon’s board.
“We’re not going at all hostile, we think they’re doing the right thing,” James said of GM. He added that CEO Mary Barra and the automaker’s entire management team have been open to discussions about the company’s future and long-term goals.
“It was a real difference and it couldn’t have been more of a 180 than what we faced when we were talking to Exxon during the early stages,” he said.
Shares of GM are up more than 30% for 2021, and have gained roughly 80% over the last year.

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