Top Financial Stories Wednesday, September 07: Musk Cited Putin Worries To Delay Twitter Deal, Apple To Defend Move Of Selling iPhones Without Charger, Deutsche Bank CEO Signals Recession Risks And More..

Wall Street Journal

Samsung Comments On Chip Sales, Expects Ongoing Weakness To Over To 2023

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd SSNLF sees the sharp downturn in chip sales extending into next year, marking a significant setback for the semiconductor industry reeling from a dramatic pullback in PCs, smartphones, and data servers’ sales.
• “The second half of this year looks bad, and as of now, next year doesn’t really seem to show a clear momentum for much improvement,” said Kyung Kye-hyun, who heads Samsung’s semiconductors unit and serves as the company’s co-CEO, at a media briefing at its new chip fab in Pyeongtaek.
• Despite the slowdown, Kye-hyun said Samsung would continue to expand its investment and R&D spending and exploit the downturn to capture more market share as it previously did.
• Rather than taking sides in the U.S.-China conflict, he chose to find a win-win solution for all sides. China makes up 40% of Samsung’s global tech demand.

Reuters

Apple To Contest Brazil’s Ban of iPhone Without Charger As It Braces To Launch iPhone 14

• Apple Inc AAPL looks to appeal a Brazilian order banning it from selling iPhones without a battery charger, contesting the claims of selling an incomplete product, Reuters reports.
• The Justice Ministry penalized Apple 12.275 million reais ($2.38 million) and ordered it to cancel sales of the iPhone 12 and newer models, in addition to suspending the sale of any iPhone model that does not come with a charger.

Deutsche Bank CEO Signals Recession Risks On Germany, Europe

• Deutsche Bank AG’s DB CEO Christian Sewing warned that China was a considerable risk for Germany and that Europe needed big banks to stave off competition from U.S. banks.
• Sewing added that Germany would “no longer be able to avert a recession” after it became too dependent on Russian energy.

Trump’s Truth Social Deal Stuck At Cliffhanger: DWAC Shareholders Get 2 Final Days To Decide On Merger

• The merger between Digital World Acquisition Corporation DWAC, a special purpose acquisition company, and former President Donald Trump’s social media firm, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), is reportedly on the tenterhooks.
• Digital World CEO Patrick Orlando said Tuesday at a special shareholder meeting that he would push back the deadline for a vote on extending the life of the SPAC by 12 months to Thursday.

Honda To Form JV With Chinese Companies For Battery Supply

• Honda Motor Co Ltd’s HMC Chinese unit plans to form a joint venture with automobile manufacturers Dongfeng Motor Group and Guangzhou Automobile Group.
• The move is expected to facilitate battery procurement for Honda’s electric vehicles.
• Honda will invest 50% into the joint venture, while Dongfeng and Guangzhou will each invest 25% into it.

Mercedes-Benz Plans To Lay Off 3,600 Workers In Brazil

• Mercedes Benz Group DMLRY has decided to cut off 3,600 of its employees in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state due to production pressure.
• The company plans to outsource the production of front axles and medium transmissions, as well as logistics and maintenance services in the Brazilian city of Sao Bernardo.
• The layoff includes 2,200 workers from the Sao Bernardo plant and 1,400 temporary workers whose contracts will not be renewed.

Financial Times

Uber’s Infamous Co-founder Wins Microsoft As First US Investor For His Dark Kitchen Startup

• Microsoft Corp MSFT has become the first U.S.-based investor in Uber Technologies Inc UBER, known to have backed CloudKitchens, the “dark kitchen” startup run by the ride-hailing company’s controversial co-founder Travis Kalanick, the Financial Times reports.
• The investment was part of CloudKitchens’ $850 million funding round that closed in November 2021, valuing it at $15 billion.

Bloomberg

News Corp Pays Whopping $3.1B For This Popular Sports Rights

• News Corp NWSA and Seven West Media Ltd WANHY extended a seven-year contract worth a whopping A$4.5 billion ($3.1 billion) to retain the television broadcast rights for Australian Rules Football.
• The contract will run from 2025 until 2031, covering Australia’s most watched sport with its grand finale, the highest-rated broadcast in the past two years.
• More than A$640 million a year dwarfs the recent deal for National Rugby League matches. Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd NNMTF won those rights in December for A$115 million yearly from 2023 to 2027.
• The News Corp.-led bid beat out separate proposals from rival U.S. broadcaster Paramount Global PARA and local network Nine.

CNBC

Lowe’s Marketing Chief Leaves Company

• Lowe’s Companies Inc LOW Chief Marketing Officer Marisa Thalberg has left the company as part of the reorganization process.
• The move follows the recent trend of leadership changes in the retail industry.
• Retail companies are facing the heat as stimulus check-fueled spending has started to wither, leading to an inflation-driven pullback in consumer spending patterns.

Benzinga

Tesla Quickens Model 3, Model Y Deliveries Again In China: Here’s The New Wait Period

• Chinese automaker Nio Inc’s NIO rival Tesla Inc TSLA has further slashed the delivery time for its Model 3 and Model Y cars in China to a maximum of 14 weeks.
• According to the company’s Chinese website, the Elon Musk-led U.S. auto giant shortened the delivery waiting period for its best-selling models to six to 10 weeks.
• The buyers will still have to wait for 10 to 14 weeks after placing the orders for the long-range version of Model Y; however, this is still significantly lower compared to a previous wait time of 16 to 20 weeks.

Elon Musk Cited Putin Speech As Excuse To Delay Twitter Deal, Report Says: ‘...If We’re Heading Into World War 3’

• Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk suggested delaying his $44 billion Twitter Inc TWTR acquisition months after Russia invaded Ukraine, reasoning that it wouldn’t “make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into World War 3.”
• In a court hearing on Tuesday, Twitter’s lawyer reportedly cited Musk’s private chats from May 8 with a banker at Morgan Stanley, as the tech giant sought to argue that Musk’s continued attempts to back out of the deal citing concerns over bots were “all pretext.”

Making EV Batteries In US Will Be’ Nicely Profitable’ For Decades To Come: Munster Says These 5 Stocks Stand To Gain Big

• Asia is currently the electric vehicle battery-making hub, and all the top manufacturers are based out of the continent. The U.S. could play catch-up, according to Loup Funds’ Gene Munster.
• Munster expects EV battery manufacturing to take off in the next decade, the venture capitalist said on Twitter on Tuesday. One reason why U.S. production would grow is that currently, about 99% of EV batteries come from Asia.

Bitcoin, Ethereum Lead $364M Crypto Liquidations Amid Market Crash

• More than 103,000 traders were liquidated for $364 million over the last 24 hours.
• Data from CoinGlass shows that the majority of crypto long traders were liquidated on Tuesday.
• Bitcoin (BTC/USD) saw the most liquidations worth $124 million, followed by Ethereum (ETH/USD), which saw $114 million worth of liquidations.

Target, McDonald’s Seek To Raise $2.5B Via Bond Offerings

• In separate SEC documents, Target Corporation TGT filed to raise about $1 billion in bonds due 2032 and McDonald’s Corp MCD about $1.5 billion in two-part bonds due 2052 and 2032.
• The move comes ahead of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting scheduled for September 20-21, where the Fed is expected to decide on whether to go for another 75 bps rate increase.

This Small Biotech Company Touts Promising Data For Alzheimer’s Candidate

• BioVie Inc BIVI shared topline results from an investigator-Sponsored Phase 2 trial of NE3107 for Alzheimer’s Disease.
• The company says that NE3107 is pursuing a two-pronged approach targeting neuroinflammation and insulin resistance.
• The trial enrolled a total of 23 patients. Initial results showed that the measurements for most patients improved with NE3107 treatment, although MCI/mild AD patients showed greater change.

United Airlines Threatens To Suspend Service At JFK Airport: What’s Going On?

• United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL threatened to suspend service to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at the end of October if it is not able to secure additional slots from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
• United CEO Scott Kirby said in a letter to the Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen on Sept. 6 that without permanent slots the airline can’t serve JFK effectively compared to the “larger and more attractive” flight times flown by its competitors.