Hello Capitalists!
Get the edge on what you need to know today:
Capitalist Insider: Congress says this trading platform is a China risk
18.4 cents off every gallon? Trump says he is thinking about it
The 10-year yield just hit 5.35%. A $39 billion sale is next
Sponsored Delta Capital
18.4 cents off every gallon? Trump says he is thinking about it
President Trump said Tuesday he is “thinking about” suspending the 18.4-cent federal gasoline tax, as regular averaged $4.36 a gallon, up from $3.13 a year earlier.
No plan attached: He took the question at Anduril Industries in Sparrow Point, Maryland, and gave no further detail on timing or scope. The 18.4-cent figure is the Energy Information Administration’s federal gasoline tax.
Hormuz, then refineries: On Oct. 6 he said Hormuz flows were “even and sometimes exceeding” prewar levels. An Oct. 5 Truth Social post blamed refineries, citing Russian plants hit by Ukraine and closures in blue states including California.
Diesel order already out: An Oct. 5 executive order expands red-dyed diesel access, directs penalty relief for highway use, and reviews whether the diesel tax can be deferred through Dec. 31. He put the trucker saving at about $100 a fill-up.
Pushback on the cause: Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Oct. 4 the strait stays shut until summer-deal conditions are met.
SpaceX is borrowing $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips
SpaceX is seeking about $40 billion through an Apollo-led, chip-backed vehicle to fund what the Financial Times called a “blockbuster” Nvidia order, 16 weeks after a record IPO.
Loan and bond split: ZeroHedge, citing the FT, said the raise is roughly $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt, in a “Project Beignet”-like vehicle collateralized by chips.
IPO and bonds: June’s IPO raised $86 billion, and SpaceX sold $25 billion of investment-grade bonds less than two weeks later. The new talks come less than four months after trading began.
Exclusive hardware: Barron’s reported Musk has praised Jensen Huang and said SpaceX will use only Nvidia hardware, and that the company is preparing to spend tens of billions on that equipment.
Starlink and Grok: Investor’s Business Daily said the chip reports came Tuesday, as SpaceX won approval to launch 15,000 more satellites for Starlink Mobile. Musk also announced changes to the Grok Bot assistant.
Doing $25k a month? Banks stall.
Get $500k approved in 5 minutes!
If you’re a business owner you know that expenses pop up at any time, whether or not you have the cash sitting in the bank
Maybe your restaurant is ready for a second location.
Or your construction company needs to finance new equipment.
Or you need some extra cash to make payroll or renovate your office.
Sometimes you need access to capital now and you don’t have time for all the hoops a bank will put you through.
If your business generates at least $25,000 in monthly revenue, you can apply for business funding from Delta Capital in a few clicks, get an approval in minutes and get funds wired within the hour with no impact on your personal credit.
Whether you’re buying equipment, stocking up on inventory, expanding your business, or taking on your next big opportunity, Delta Capital can approve up to $500,000 in business funding in under 5 minutes. And wire the funds within the hour.
So if your business is generating $25,000 or more a month, click the link
IMF to paralyzed France: Get your house in order
Kristalina Georgieva used a Singapore interview to tell Paris the books have to be tightened, with campus unrest now in week three and investors demanding more yield on French 10-year debt than on Italian debt after a climb of more than 100 basis points this year.
Her warning: In Singapore, Georgieva told CNBC that France had borrowed “shock after shock after shock,” “climbing on this staircase that does not lead to heaven.” She added, “get your house in order.”
Deficit path: She said there is “a very clear recognition” the deficit must come under 5%. It was 5.1% of GDP last year. France is in the EU excessive-deficit procedure, which uses a 3% reference.
Protests and budget: Nationwide student protests, which have turned violent, are in a third week. Paris is starting budget talks and seeking cuts worth tens of billions of euros.
Not 2012, she said: Georgieva said the economy is growing and Europe now has the European Central Bank plus other stability tools. “Bond markets respond to fundamentals,” she said, with inflation, rates, and debt all higher.
The 10-year yield just hit 5.35%. A $39 billion sale is next
The 10-year Treasury yield climbed nearly 8 basis points to 5.35% on Wednesday, the highest since 2002, with a $39 billion note sale ahead and fresh Hormuz strikes pushing Brent back over $100.
Long end at 5.724%: CNBC had the 30-year at 5.724% after an 8.3 basis-point climb, a 24-year high, and the 2-year at 4.818% after a 2.7 basis-point rise. The 10-year sale prints at 1 p.m. ET.
Oil and gilts: Yahoo, citing Bloomberg, said Iranian strikes on Hormuz shipping sent Brent above $102 and put U.K. 30-year gilts back at 6%. French yields rose as much as 14 basis points.
Stocks step back: Yahoo’s AlphaCheck had shares off record highs, with Nvidia and AMD backing away from all-time highs. It put the 10-year at 5.34% and bitcoin down more than 3% near $83,000.
Earlier futures check: ZeroHedge’s had S&P futures off about 0.4% from Tuesday’s record, Brent up 1.4% at $101.94, and the 30-year up 5 basis points at 5.70%.
Porsche will cut 9,000 jobs as margins fell from 18% to 1%
Porsche’s Wednesday restructuring would remove roughly 9,000 positions, about a fourth of the company, on a timetable running to 2030, after a first-half China volume drop of nearly one-third and a margin that fell to 1.1%.
Cuts could go further: The company said the reductions, some already announced, could reach 30%. Last year’s profit margin was 1.1%, down from 18% two years earlier. Chief Executive Michael Leiters presented the plan, Sportwagenschmiede ‘35, at Weissach.
Fewer cars, higher prices: Porsche wants the average price of top-end models up about 20% in the medium term and model variants down about 20%. Development costs are targeted down as much as 20%, production personnel costs as much as 30%, and management posts by 40%.
China is the hole: The New York Times puts first-half China volumes down nearly a third. At the peak China was more than a third of sales. By 2030 that share is expected near 1 in 10. Leiters said a return to those levels “at any cost” would not be “realistic or beneficial.”
Parent takes the hit: Volkswagen owns 75% of Porsche and earlier this year approved a group plan for 100,000 job cuts and a 9% margin by 2030. The Times tied Porsche’s slide to a €6 billion write-down last month and about €700 million in U.S. tariff costs last year.