markets

Matt Phillips11/21/25

AST SpaceMobile rises on launch plans for new satellite

AST SpaceMobile rose after announcing launch plans for the first of its next-generation satellites next month, as it tries to execute its plan to offer satellite-based broadband service directly to consumers.

The services-from-space trade has been a popular market theme this year, with companies like AST SpaceMobile, EchoStar, Rocket Lab, and Planet Labs all periodically soaring on updates related to their partnerships and launch plans that might allow them to offer broadband and mobile telephone coverage directly to consumers from space.

AST SpaceMobile’s new satellite, the Bluebird 6, is larger than its predecessor, enabling larger amounts of data transmission and bringing the the services-from-space business closer to reality, the company says.

“Our next-generation satellites will soon enable ubiquitous cellular broadband coverage direct to everyday smartphones from space,” Abel Avellan, founder, chairman, and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, said in a statement.

The company, like competitors Rocket Lab and Planet Lab, remains unprofitable and is expected to post quarterly losses for the next two years, at least.

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Max Knoblauch29m

GM says it will take a $6 billion charge in latest major EV write-down

Shares of GM are down about 2% in premarket trading on Friday following the automaker’s announcement on Thursday evening that it expects to take $6 billion in charges in Q4 on its EV pullback.

GM will take an additional $1.1 billion charge on the restructuring of a joint venture in China.

“With the termination of certain consumer tax incentives and the reduction in the stringency of emissions regulations, industry-wide consumer demand for EVs in North America began to slow in 2025. As a result, GM proactively reduced EV capacity,” read a public filing by the company.

The move follows a similar EV-related write-down by rival Ford, which announced a $19.5 billion charge related to its EV pullback.

GM to take $6 billion writedown on EV pullback

GM to take $6 billion writedown on EV pullback

“With the termination of certain consumer tax incentives and the reduction in the stringency of emissions regulations, industry-wide consumer demand for EVs in North America began to slow in 2025. As a result, GM proactively reduced EV capacity,” read a public filing by the company.

The move follows a similar EV-related write-down by rival Ford, which announced a $19.5 billion charge related to its EV pullback.

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Unemployment rate drops by more than expected in December, even with weak job growth

The jobless rate dipped down to 4.4% in December, even as employment grew by just 50,000. Economists anticipated 70,000 jobs would be added, with the unemployment rate edging down to 4.5%.

Ahead of this release, prediction markets implied that job growth for December would be a little north of 80,000.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

In the wake of this report, traders in prediction markets calcified bets that the Fed would do nothing at its January meeting, with probabilities rising to 97% from 93%, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF added to its premarket gains.

Revisions to previous reports were negative, with payrolls for the two last readings being lowered by 76,000, cumulatively.

In the previous report, a joint release of October and November nonfarm payrolls, the unemployment rate had jumped by more than expected to 4.6%. That marked the first time the US unemployment rate increased for four consecutive readings since June 2009.

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Housing stocks rise after Trump calls for $200 billion mortgage bond purchase

Housing-related stocks rose in after-hours trading yesterday, and remained in the green early on Friday, after President Trump said he would direct a large-scale purchase of mortgage bonds in a bid to lower borrowing costs.

In a Truth Social post yesterday, Trump said he is instructing his “Representatives” to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, arguing the move will “drive Mortgage Rates DOWN, monthly payments DOWN, and make the cost of owning a home more affordable.” The purchase will be executed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, per an X post by Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the two firms.

Shares of mortgage lenders surged early Friday, with Rocket Cos and UWM Holdings both up around 6% as of 7 a.m. ET and LoanDepot rising as much as 16.8%. Online real estate platform Opendoor Technologies jumped 8.4%, while home builders like Lennar saw more modest gains.

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Vistra and Oklo soar on nuclear energy deals with Meta to support data center boom

AI utility darling Vistra and zero-revenues nuclear company Oklo are flying higher on Friday after both companies announced deals with Meta.

Shares of both companies are up double digits as of 7:30 a.m. ET.

The social media giant signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Vistra, which will see it buy the output of three nuclear plants “to support Meta’s operations in the region.” Per the press release, more than 15% of the contracted capacity from this deal will constitute a new addition to the PJM region, home to the nation’s largest power grid and ground zero for rising electricity costs. The pact is reminiscent of Meta’s deal with Constellation Energy in June, another 20-year PPA of what’s generated from a nuclear plant in Illinois.

Meta’s agreement with Oklo “provides a mechanism for Meta to prepay for power and provide funding to advance project certainty for Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse development,” with the nuke company aiming for the first phase to be active as soon as 2030, also “to support Meta’s data centers in the region.”

The Mark Zuckerberg-led firm also struck a deal with privately held firm TerraPower to develop up to eight reactors and storage system plants in the US, the first of which is hoped to be delivered as soon as 2032.

“We believe this news is incrementally positive for the entire nuclear energy industry, including OKLO, as it reaffirms the commitment from hyperscalers to start leveraging new energy sources to fuel the AI Revolution with power being the biggest headwind to the industry,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote.

The Trump administration has touted nuclear energy as a way to solve its competing priorities in the development of artificial intelligence. George Pollack, senior US policy analyst at Signum Global, has argued that US leadership can realize only two of these three objectives: preside over an AI boom, boost fossil fuel production at the expense of renewables, and avoid household angst over high energy prices. However, the long lead times involved with developing and deploying nuclear power, as two of agreements show, are seemingly incompatible with short-term fixes. On the other hand, the ambitious, multiyear data center build-out plans envisaged by hyperscalers help explain why they’re willing to wait and plan ahead to lock down energy supply.

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America now has more job seekers than available jobs

US job openings fell to 7.15 million in November, down from 7.45 million in the previous month, marking the lowest level since September 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary report released Wednesday.

The figure came in below all economist forecasts in a Bloomberg survey and declined across most industries, with the biggest pullback seen in leisure and hospitality, healthcare and social assistance, and transportation and warehousing. Only a few industries, including construction and retail, added jobs.

Hiring slowed as well, while layoffs declined to a six-month low, extending the “hire less, fire less” mode that has defined the US labor market for much of the past year — and that shift is making life even tougher not just for aspiring job switchers, but also for those trying to land a job in the first place.

Job seekers vs. job openings — Sherwood News

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