| | Good morning. With security queues backed up for hours at some US airports due to the partial government shutdown, Delta Air Lines is telling members of Congress to get in line. The carrier said Tuesday that it will temporarily revoke certain travel benefits for federal legislators. At Delta, lawmakers and their staff have access to a special "Capital Desk." Normally, the desk lets them book flights at government rates, rebook at the last minute and hold seats on multiple flights to ensure they can travel for votes. Now, they will be treated like any other customer, at least until they negotiate an end to the shutdown. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said last week that his company is "outraged" that Transportation Security Administration workers, who have been calling in sick in record numbers, are going unpaid. So for the first time in years, Congress will have to face the very music they've stopped paying for. The line starts here, sir. | | | | | | | | Like your aunt and uncle who finally bought that property in Hilton Head after dozens of annual vacations, NASA is looking for somewhere to call home for its off-planet excursions. On Tuesday, the government space agency announced plans to build a base on the moon, redirecting $20 billion originally intended for a space station in lunar orbit. It's a massive project that will take years to pull off. But as your aunt or uncle would say, it just makes more sense this way. And, like you, private space companies are sitting around waiting for an invite. Space Jockeys The plan, NASA insists, is hardly a Project Hail Mary. Barely even a moonshot, really. It comes after roughly a decade of renewed interest and investment in lunar travel that have led to the Artemis II mission, set to launch as soon as April 1. That venture will mark the first manned trip to the moon (for a flyby, not a full landing) since 1972. After that, the US plans to send humans back to the surface by 2028, with initial construction of the moon base by 2030. China, meanwhile, is planning its own lunar landing that year, creating something of a New Age space race. Following the 2028 landing, NASA intends to make twice-yearly trips to the moon in preparation for the moonbase. The plan calls for repurposing equipment originally intended for the abruptly canceled Gateway lunar-orbit space station and tapping at least two private companies to help complete the task. Delays and blown budgets for the Gateway project, however, reveal that the planned moonwalk is still no cakewalk. Meanwhile, most of the major space companies jockeying for key contracts have been experiencing some very terrestrial turbulence recently: - For instance, NASA backed out of a years-old plan to use Boeing's Space Launch System to propel a Lockheed Martin-built Orion crew capsule to the moon as part of its Artemis mission, sources told Bloomberg earlier this month, with the rockets to be replaced by SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle.
- That'd be good news for SpaceX, which has also been tapped along with Blue Origin to build a lunar lander. However, a government audit earlier this month found that both companies face ongoing technical challenges that could cause significant delays; NASA had already bumped its moon landing plans from 2027 to 2028.
In total, NASA said completing the project over the next decade would cost $30 billion. That would require new funding from Congress.   Going Nuclear: The space agency also said Tuesday that it plans to build a nuclear-powered robotic spacecraft to send to Mars by 2028. That trip will involve deploying helicopters to the Martian surface, where a NASA rover recently discovered the oldest evidence yet of water once flowing on the planet. Written by Brian Boyle | | | | | | | | | Photo via Eight Sleep | | | | | | | | | The Great Blackout is the next big trade, at least according to JPMorgan, which calls the aging US power grid a "national security risk" and says it's betting on the solution. On the Power Play JPMorgan's concern is not new. Last October, the bank announced a security and resiliency initiative to facilitate $1.5 trillion in financing and investments to industries critical to national security over the next decade. The bank pledged $10 billion of its own capital. Alongside AI, defense technology, pharmaceutical supply chains, and access to critical minerals, JPMorgan identified grid resilience as one of the initiative's priorities. There's ample evidence to support the concern. For one, the grid is already under strain from data centers required to support the AI boom. Earlier this month, analysts at Wood Mackenzie said plans for US data center additions fell by half in the fourth quarter of 2025 from the third quarter, in part because the grid is nearing its limit. Projected capital spending growth by the largest grid developers, the consultancy added, is poised to slow this year for the first time since 2023, to $94 billion or 58% less than 2025. JPMorgan's own research cited Energy Department projections that AI data centers could require an additional 100 gigawatts of peak capacity by 2030. But the problem is more than turbocharging AI. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation found in January that utilities are retiring coal and gas plants without adding enough capacity to meet growing demand, increasing the risk of dangerous blackouts. "We are headed for a reliability crisis, except now the crisis is not over the horizon, but across the street," Mark Christie, the director of William & Mary Law School's Center for Energy Law, tweeted. JPMorgan's global climate advisory chief, Sarah Kapnick, who authored the bank's new report warning of the grid security risk, told Bloomberg News that the risk also means a potential windfall: - Global grid spending increased to $480 billion in 2025 from $300 billion in 2020, and $5.8 trillion is expected to be spent in the decade through 2035 ($1 trillion in the US), according to JPMorgan.
- In November, JPMorgan was joint bookrunner on a $5 billion financing package for Texas-based VoltaGrid, which makes natural gas-powered microgrids for AI companies.
Shock Stocks: Shares in many grid-sector companies have significantly outperformed the S&P 500's 4.2% decline this year, with one key ETF up more than 8%. Energy equipment manufacturer GE Vernova has risen 39%. Duke Energy and American Electric Power, two of the largest publicly traded US grid operators, are up 8.7% and 11.7%, respectively. Written by Sean Craig | | | | | | | | | | | Wall Street is trading in its fax machine for blockchain. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is teaming up with digital asset company Securitize to develop a tokenized securities trading platform. The partnership follows NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange's January announcement that it was seeking regulatory approval for such a platform, which would enable 24/7 operations, instant settlement and stablecoin-based funding. Securitize will be the exchange's first digital transfer agent, creating blockchain-based versions of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to a statement. T+1 to T+0 While many aspects of tokenized trading would shake up what investors have come to expect from the traditional financial system, instant settlements are particularly noteworthy. The extra time before shares officially move from the seller's pockets to the buyer's introduces clearance and settlement risk and slows payment. You may remember the settlement process from 2021, when Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev placed some of the blame for his platform's suspension of GameStop trading on the then-two-day settlement period. In 2024, the securities market transitioned from T+2 (when transactions settled two days after a trade) to T+1 (just one day). NYSE's new platform could usher in T+0. (While the press release doesn't explicitly say this, it does say that with Securitize, the exchange is developing a "digital transfer agent program intended to support on-chain settlement of tokenized security transactions.") "Instant settlement highlights one of the most important attributes of tokenization," Rich Lee, head of program trading and execution strategy at Baird, told The Daily Upside. "This aligns with the progression in the equity marketplace to shortened settlement times, from T+2 to T+1, as we progress along the roadmap to a T+0 world for equities." NYSE isn't the only market giant looking to reap the benefits of tokenized trading: - Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq's proposal for some stocks to trade and settle in tokenized form.
- Some platforms, including Robinhood and Kraken, offer tokenized stocks, but not to US users.
Waiting on Adoption: Meaningful shifts in the financial system only happen if there's liquidity, interest from participants on both sides of trades and trust from institutions. While crypto and tokenization have gotten a lot of airtime, "the test will be if investors are ready to embrace these new platforms in enough scale to create a meaningful marketplace," Lee said. Written by Mallika Mitra | | | | | - Slowing Down: US business activity hit an 11-month low this month, with the Iran war dragging on business sentiment, according to S&P Global's flash purchasing managers' index.
- Powering Up: Developers in the UK will be required to install solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes, with the government citing the need for "energy security."
- See the Future Tomorrow at 8:15 PM. That's when Doroni unveils the full-scale showroom prototype of its breakthrough flying car. They're targeting deliveries by 2028. Register for the event to unlock 5% in guaranteed investor bonus stock.**
**Partner | | | | Disclaimers *Individual results may vary. The Pod is not a medical device and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. **This is a paid advertisement for Doroni Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.doroni.io/. | | |
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment