Business

Car batteries at a factory in Nanjing in China's eastern Jiangsu province.Str | Afp | Getty ImagesPARIS, France — The push to commercialize solid-state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) is well underway, but analysts say auto giants could be on the cusp of turning to a different kind of transformative science.Solid-state batteries have long been billed as the "holy grail" of sustainable driving. As the name suggests, solid-state batteries contain a solid electrolyte, made from materials such as ceramics. That makes them different from conventional lithium-ion batteries, which contain liquid electrolyte.This next-generation technology theoretically packs more energy into each unit of volume than lithium-ion batteries. Proponents say it offers safer, cheaper and more powerful batteries f...

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesUnitedHealth Group provided a 2025 profit forecast below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, saying it expects pressure across its government-supported health insurance businesses, and its shares fell 9%.The largest U.S. health insurer forecast a profit of as much as $30 per share. That upper end was below analysts' estimates of $31.18 per share, according to LSEG data.CEO Andrew Witty said the company was setting next year's forecast "more conservatively than is typical" due in part to cuts in payments from the government for Medicare plans and low state payment rates for Medicaid plans for low-income people.The insurance bellwether's comments also dragged shares of rivals CVS Health, Elevance and Humana down 3% to 5%.UnitedHealth's third-quarter med...

Traders, gamblers and politicos now have new tools to express their views this election cycle in the form of event contracts, but the new markets still need to win over Wall Street power players and the legal system to become investment stars. Kalshi and Interactive Brokers launched presidential election contracts this month on their nascent platforms after Kalshi won a key round in its legal fight with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC is seeking to shut down the markets on appeal, but the presidential election promises to be a big opportunity for the platforms to prove themselves to investors while the process works its way through the courts. The platforms previously consisted mainly of lightly traded contracts around other events, like economic data releases. Those ser...

An icon of ASML is displayed on a smartphone, with an ASML chip visible in the background.Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesShares in semiconductor equipment maker ASML fell 16% on Tuesday after the Dutch company published financial results a day early, issuing disappointing sales forecasts.The move pulled other chip stocks lower, with Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom all falling after the report.ASML, which is based in Veldhoven, Netherlands, said it expects net sales for 2025 to come in between 30 billion euros and 35 billion euros ($32.7 billion and $38.1 billion), at the lower half of the range it had previously provided.Net bookings for the September quarter were 2.6 billion euros ($2.83 billion), the company said — well below the 5.6 billion euro LSEG consensus estimate. ...

Cars sit in a Chevrolet dealership's lot in Chicago on June 20, 2024.Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesDETROIT — A growing number of Americans with auto loans owe more than their vehicles are worth, according to a report Tuesday from Edmunds.com.The auto data and consumer research company reports the average amount owed on so-called upside-down loans climbed to an all-time high of $6,458 during the third quarter. That compares to $6,255 in the prior quarter and $5,808 a year earlier.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsUpside-down car loans are not necessarily dire on their own, but a growing number of consumers being underwater is another indication of pressure on American consumers.A sign of that strain came last month, when the Federal Reserve reported delinquency rates on au...

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens during a town hall at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and Fairgrounds in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on October 14, 2024. Jim Watson | Afp | Getty ImagesKamala Harris mocked Donald Trump's behavior at an unusual campaign event, where the GOP presidential nominee cut short a question-and-answer session to listen to music with the crowd for nearly 40 minutes."Hope he's okay," Harris, the Democratic nominee, wrote on X early Tuesday morning.The vice president's tweet was replying to her campaign X account's post saying, "Trump appears lost, confused, and frozen on stage as multiple songs play for 30+ minutes and the crowd pours out of the venue early."It was one of many posts by social media users that raised eyebrows...

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social is shown on a cell phone in Chicago on March 25, 2024.Scott Olson | Getty ImagesTrump Media shares closed down nearly 10% Tuesday, after a wild trading session that was briefly halted due to volatility when the Truth Social owner's stock suddenly plunged in price.DJT shares, which had been up more than 13% earlier Tuesday afternoon, abruptly turned more than 6% lower on the day at the time the halt occurred. Trump Media continued to fall after the five-minute trading halt lifted at 2:47 p.m. ET.Trump Media settled at $27.06 per share.The stock price whipsawed during an extremely volatile trading session in which more than 97 million shares traded hands — multiple times the company's 30-...

Former U.S. President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 2020.Kevin Dietsch | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDonald Trump's new crypto project is off to a rough start.World Liberty Financial, which aspires to be a sort of crypto bank, launched its token sale on Tuesday, a day after project co-founder Zachary Folkman said "well over 100,000 people" are on the whitelist to invest.But WLF's website suffered regular and lengthy outages for much of the morning and early afternoon, contributing to a limited number of sales. Only about 4,300 unique walled addresses hold the token as of Tuesday afternoon, according to blockchain data tracked by Etherscan, representing roughly 4% of the total number of people who registered.The platform says it has sold more t...

A United Airlines Boeing 737-MAX 8 aircraft departs at San Diego International Airport en route to New York on Aug. 24, 2024.Kevin Carter | Getty ImagesUnited Airlines said Tuesday that it is starting a $1.5 billion share buyback as the carrier reported higher-than-expected earnings for the busy summer travel season and forecast strong results for the last three months of the year.United expects to earn an adjusted $2.50 to $3.00 a share in the fourth quarter, compared to $2.00 a share a year earlier and the $2.68 analysts polled by LSEG estimated.Here is what United reported for the third quarter compared with what Wall Street expected, based on average estimates compiled by LSEG:Earnings per share: $3.33 adjusted vs. $3.17 expectedRevenue: $14.84 billion vs. $14.78 billion expectedThe sh...

The U.S. economy may not experience a "soft landing" after all. A soft landing occurs when economic growth slows just enough to bring down inflation below the Federal Reserve's 2% target without tipping the economy into a recession. Many on the Street expect this to be the case, as the central bank starts to lower interest rates. BNY Wealth's Alicia Levine has a more optimistic view. She thinks the economy is experiencing a no-landing scenario as it continues to expand without slowing down. "So far, clearly bank earnings are coming in better than expected, both top line and bottom line. Net interest income is better than expected. So, that is a good signal for the economy," the firm's head of investment strategy and equities told CNBC's " Squawk Box " on Tuesday. "The other thing that that...