The Holy Grail of Space Tech

MARKET MOVERS

• White House announces a $5 billion plan to make highways EV friendly. The initiative, announced by the Departments of Energy and Transportation, will see the money doled out to states over the next five years. The goals: standardize charging systems and reach Biden’s target of 500,000 public EV chargers by 2030 (there are currently about 116,000, highly concentrated in California).

• US inflation surges to 7.5% in the fastest annual rise for 40 years. Stocks dropped, Treasury yields popped. Investors ditched government bonds in reaction to the inflation report that pushed the yield on the benchmark 10 year Treasury up two%. And after the report came out, James Bullard of the St. Louis Fed called for a full 1%, 100 basis points rate rise by July. Source(1:33)

• Uber shares rise on robust delivery services. Rideshare demand, which was briefly knocked by the surge of the Omicron coronavirus variant, improved 67% year on year based on gross bookings, to just 16% off pre-pandemic levels. The company’s delivery business — which includes restaurant meals, groceries, and alcohol — also remained strong, with gross bookings for the unit were up 34% year on year.

• Fewer homeowners are selling. The number of homes for sale is down 28.4% compared to a year ago, according to Realtor.com® data. Economists downplay the effect of the pandemic, particularly the omicron variant, as the culprit. Instead, they say homeowners are hesitant to sell because they’re concerned about having to buy a new home themselves. Read more here.

• Demand for vacation homes now outpacing primary homes. Vacation-home demand is the highest it's been in a year, and just below a record 90% demand gain tallied in September 2020, according to Redfin. Demand for second homes was strong in January as buyers tried to lock in relatively low mortgage payments. Primary homes were up at only 42% from pre-pandemic rates as of January. Read more here.

• Trucker protest hits the auto supply chain. Toyota, Ford, and GM are suspending or scaling back production at several plants as Freedom Convoy protests continue to disrupt a vital trade route along the US–Canada border. Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security warned that brewing copycat protests in the US could threaten the Super Bowl this weekend.

WHAT TO WATCH

• Elon gave a Starship update. The massive, fully reusable spacecraft—which Elon Musk has called “the holy grail of space technology”—could lower launch costs to less than $10 million within two to three years. Starship is expected to be a workhorse for the space industry; NASA wants to use it to bring astronauts to the moon in 2025, and Musk wants to use it for colonizing Mars sometime after that.

• Professor Jeremy Siegel sees Fed hiking a half percent in March if the next CPI is also hot. February CPI is scheduled to come out on March 10, just days before the Fed’s March 15-16 meeting. Siegel said that it makes no sense to even think about rates below one percent when you’re having inflation between seven and eight percent. Read more here.

• Zillow is betting on a housing super app after its home-flipping exit. The idea is to bring together “all the fragmented pieces of the moving process” on one platform. The company set a target of $5 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2025, aided by the app and by driving engagement, and increasing customer transactions and revenue per transaction. Read more here.

• Peloton’s new CEO plans a great comeback story. In an email sent to Peloton employees late Tuesday, Barry McCarthy says he won't squander the opportunity in front of the company and will engineer the great comeback story of the post-Covid era. McCarthy is known for his experience working with founders and helping lead companies with massive membership-based businesses.