How will Tesla fare on the S&P 500, Canada’s role in COVID vaccines, and an update on upstream supply chains
Tuesday’s headlines
Tesla dropped the news that after five straight quarters of profitability, the company will be joining the S&P 500 index on Dec. 21.
Tesla’s revenue continued to gain in Q3 2020, and its stock jumped 10% after the announcement.
The Biden administration is concerned about how President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to transition power will affect the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Biden aides say they expect significant gaps in the logistics plans for distribution because the newly elected administration is unable to meet with people in charge of vaccine development and distribution.
They believe waiting until the inauguration in January will cause extra suffering and unnecessary death.
C.H. Robinson is warning businesses they could lose out on money if they fail to apply for tariff exclusions before the end of the year.
Hundreds of products qualify for rebates and tariff exclusions that many businesses are buying or selling, and business owners could lose out on rightly owed cash.
Owners have until Dec. 31 to apply for those exclusions.
Zach Strickland talks tender rejection rates
After rates took a dip in the second week of November, tender rejections are on the rise again this week.
Strickland says it was interesting to see because rates are increasing out of markets like Dallas and Atlanta when the market across the Southeast has not typically been as volatile.
While there has not yet been a big inflection point for the holiday season, Strickland says that it is coming, especially as drivers move away from the Northwest for the winter months.
Strickland points to a big divergence between reefer and dry van rejections, with reefer rates being incredibly high.
Anthony Smith updates on the economy
With Black Friday around the corner, all eyes are on consumer spending habits during the increased volatility of COVID-19 restrictions.
Smith says that he has been surprised as industrial production and retail sales have both shown upward movement in the past week and manufacturing indices have outpaced expectations.
However, these are still not at their year goal levels, and retailers’ desires to extend Black Friday deals online and to more than just one-day in-store sales may limit those goals being met.
John Gallagher, chief Washington correspondent, discusses electric vehicles
Some people in the agriculture industry are concerned about how a shift to electric vehicles may impact farms.
With the United States being one of the largest users and producers of biofuel, farmers and people in the ag market would lose revenue if combustion engines were no longer allowed to be produced.
Gallagher says that the report published about this shift is more of a hopeful idea instead of a concrete plan to eliminate all vehicles with emissions.
The idea that zero-emission vehicles will completely take over is not a guarantee, more just a goal to work toward.
Ken Sherman, president of IntelliTrans LLC, talks supply chain trends
Looking at the upstream view of the supply chain, Sherman is pleased with how things are going.
He says shipment volumes are rebounding significantly from where they were at the start of the pandemic, but recovery is incredibly dependent on the shippers type of business.
IntelliTrans provides clients a predictive view of how the downstream supply chain looks for the company’s clients.
Sherman believes that while e-commerce and home goods sales have been high and steady, the industrial supply chain took a large dive and is seeing a slow recovery.
Oil and gas and the groups that serve that industry have not seen the recovery because they are still working on learning how to operate on a more automated scale.
Sherman says he expats this automation trend to continue well into 2021, with most businesses aiming to keep remote work into the new year.
You can get more Midday Market Update recaps and recaps for all our shows here.