Hey Snackers,
Liberty Mutual, an insurance company, recently debuted a new mascot: a yellow puffball named Liberty Biberty. It joins the ranks of America’s surprising deep bench insurance mascots: the Gecko from Geico, Flo from Progressive, and of course its LiMu Emu and Doug, also from Liberty Mutual.
It’s unclear why an industry built around deductibles and actuarial tables has produced some of advertising’s most elaborate fictional universes, Jeff Maurer writes. At this rate, we’re one Super Bowl commercial away from learning the Geico Gecko’s origin story.
Stocks finished up on Tuesday.
Lucid has too many cars and not enough buyers
As fuel prices reach record highs, Americans have another reason to switch from their gas-guzzlers to an electric vehicle or hybrid. So far, that hasn’t come to rescue Lucid Motors.
The American EV company delivered 3,806 vehicles in the quarter ending September 30, coming in well below the roughly 4,700 analysts were expecting. It also produced only 2,954 cars in the quarter, coming in below Wall Street estimates and down 38% from the previous quarter.
For the past year Lucid has produced more cars than it has sold.The company said it is now reducing stockpile amid a cost-cutting campaign. “As part of its operating reset, Lucid continued to align production with near-term demand,” it said.
As is often the case, this appears to be a Lucid-specific issue rather than an industry bellwether. All other signs seem to suggest that after poo-pooing EVs for several years, US consumers are starting to look at cars that may hurt their wallet less.
Both Tesla and Rivian, two of the largest electric vehicle makers in the world, reported more deliveries than expected during the same quarter.
Toyota recently reported that its “electrified vehicle,” consisting mostly of hybrids, kept it afloat in its most recent quarterly report. General Motors plans to introduce hybrid models into its US lineup, a company executive told CNBC on Monday, telling the outlet “we’re not tone-deaf to our customers.”
The Takeaway
Lucid Motors has failed to make a dent in the electric vehicle market for several reasons. The company’s new CEO, Silvio Napoli, started in June and immediately cut staff and eliminated a second production shift at its Arizona factory in an effort to “simplify the company.”
Now he’s trying to shrink the pile of unsold cars, too. Lucid says its broader operating reset is targeting $1.4 billion in cash-flow improvements this year.
Snacks Shots
🤖 Argon: The announcement last week of Gemini 4 Argon has shaken up the race for Best AI, with Gemini’s chances of finishing the year with the best AI on LM Arena spiking from 10% at the end of September all the way up to 36% as of yesterday. This has led to a sharp decline for Anthropic’s Claude, which dropped from a 76% chance of finishing the year with the best AI to a leading but much tighter lead of 48%.
💃 DWTS: Four weeks into the competition, track and field star Ezra Frech has emerged as an early favorite to win this season of “Dancing With The Stars,” with markets pricing the paralympian at a 47% chance of winning the season.
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.
That’s how much nuclear energy Google intends to buy from Constellation Energy over the course of 20 years, per an agreement announced by the hyperscaler on Tuesday.
This comes as more and more tech giants are turning to nuclear energy to fuel power-intensive artificial intelligence ambitions. Google already has agreements with nuclear companies like NextEra Energy while Microsoft plans to buy energy from the shuttered Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania.
What else we’re Snackin’
“The Costco conundrum: Packed parking lots and a falling stock” – from Business Insider
“DeepSeek to Raise at Least $12 Billion in Tencent-Backed Funding” – from Bloomberg
“As rivals cut back in Germany, BMW doubles down” – from The Financial Times
“Skydance Credit Rating Downgraded by Fitch on Massive Debt in Wake of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger” — from Variety
Snack Fact of the Day
The GEICO Gecko debuted in 1999, in which a lower-quality animated Gecko was perched on a microphone (same British accent) asking a crowd to stop confusing him for the insurance company.
Wednesday
Earnings from Applied Digital due out postmarket. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting scheduled for release at 2 p.m. ET