(Reuters) – Although synthetic graphite has been around for more than 100 years, few companies are supplying the material to makers of electric vehicle batteries and battery electrodes.

Here’s a short list of public and private companies engaged in the development and production of synthetic graphite, regarded as higher purity and offering better performance, for EV batteries:

Anovion (USA)

* Founded: 2022 * Partners: Forge Nano, American Battery Factory * Operations: USA

BTR New Energy Materials (China)

* Founded: 2000 * Investor: Syrah Resources * Partner: CNGR * Operations: China, Indonesia

Kuntian New Energy Technology (China)

* Founded: 2018 * Investors: Sinopec, SK China, A123 Systems, Eve Energy,BTR New Energy Materials, Svolt * Operations: China

Novonix Group (Australia)

* Founded: 2012 * Investor: Phillips 66 * Partners: LG Energy Solution, Kore Power * Operations: Australia, Canada, USA

Resonac Holdings (Japan)

formerly Showa Denko

* Founded: 1939 * Operations: Japan

Shanshan Technology (China)

* Founded: 1989 * Investors: BYD, CATL * Partner: BASF * Operations: China

Vianode (Norway)

* Founded: 2020 * Investors: Elkem, Norsk Hydro * Operations: Norway

Sources: Felixwire, PitchBook

(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Timothy Gardner)

By Ankika Biswas and Shristi Achar A

(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Tuesday as Oracle shares slumped, while investors awaited key inflation readings later this week for clues on the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path.

Cloud-services provider Oracle dropped 11.5% to its lowest intra-day level in a month, after forecasting current-quarter revenue below targets and narrowly missing first-quarter expectations.

Investors await August consumer prices data due on Wednesday and producer prices reading scheduled for Thursday, which will be followed by the Fed’s policy decision on Sept. 20.

A recent uptick in oil prices and strong economic data have fueled concerns over stubborn inflation, clouding the chances of an end to U.S. monetary policy tightening.

“People are a little bit worried about energy prices picking up pretty aggressively in recent weeks and that creates some concerns as we look forward to November,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC.

“It seems regardless that Fed will skip in September, but the inflation data that we get between now and November is critical and the market is at the point where anymore tightening could be a bit excessive and a major headwind.”

Traders see a 91% chance of rates remaining at the current levels in September and a near 53% likelihood of a pause in November, as per the CME FedWatch Tool.

Investors will also monitor the European Central Bank’s policy decision on Thursday, where it is seen holding rates after nine consecutive hikes.

Energy stocks added 1.7%, leading gains among major S&P 500 sectors as oil prices rose 1% on tighter supply outlook. [O/R]

Megacaps Amazon.com and Microsoft dropped 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively, while Apple slipped 0.4% ahead of its new iPhone 15 lineup launch amid uncertainty over market access in China and intensifying competition.

At 9:42 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 44.48 points, or 0.13%, at 34,619.24, the S&P 500 was down 6.78 points, or 0.15%, at 4,480.68, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 18.30 points, or 0.13%, at 13,899.59.

WestRock jumped 6.4% on agreeing to merge with Europe’s Smurfit Kappa to create the world’s largest listed paper and packaging company worth nearly $20 billion.

Paramount Global added 1.0% as a report said major shareholder National Amusements had reached a debt-restructuring deal with its lenders.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.16-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.09-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and eight new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 16 new highs and 77 new lows.

(Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Vinay Dwivedi)

By Aditya Soni

(Reuters) -Oracle shares plunged more than 10% on Tuesday after the company’s weak forecast suggested that strong competition in the cloud-computing industry and a digital spending pullback were weighing on its revenue growth.

The company was on track to lose more than $30 billion in market value. The stock has risen around 50% this year on optimism the rise of generative AI would drive up cloud demand.

Lower-than-expected revenue for the first quarter and a below-estimate forecast for the second, however, signaled the boost from AI would take longer to materialize.

Oracle, known for its database software, has been playing catch-up with cloud majors such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure and Alphabet’s Google Cloud at a time businesses are dialing back tech spending over concerns about the economy.

CEO Safra Catz also warned of near-term weakness in revenue growth at the Cerner health records business, which Oracle bought for $28.3 billion last year. The company is moving customers in the unit to the cloud from license purchases that are recognized upfront.

“We continue to believe high single-digit growth might be unsustainable for Oracle given Cerner integration risks and formidable data center competition,” D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said, as he cut his price target on the stock by 17% to $105.

Most analysts, however, were positive on the company and attributed the share price decline to Oracle’s rally in the run-up to earnings.

“Shares were already up a lot recently so Q1 doesn’t look like a short-term catalyst,” Barclays analysts said. But they highlighted strong deferred revenue, AI backlog commentary and some positive signs in the cloud business as positives.

At least 17 brokerages raised their price targets on the stock, pushing the median view to $133, according to LSEG data. That is nearly 5% higher than the company’s last closing price.

Oracle has a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.78, compared with the industry median of 15.42.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Maju Samuel)

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday indicated he was bracing for a long war in Ukraine, saying that Kyiv could use any ceasefire to rearm and that Washington would continue to see Russia as an enemy no matter who won the 2024 U.S. election.

Speaking for several hours at an economic forum in Russia’s Pacific port city of Vladivostok, Putin said Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces had so far failed and the Ukrainian army had sustained heavy losses of 71,000 men in the attacks.

Only when Ukraine was exhausted when it came to men, equipment and ammunition would it talk peace, he said in reply to questions from a Russian television presenter acting as amoderator.

But he said Kyiv would use any cessation of hostilities “to replenish their resources and restore the combat capability of their armed forces.”

Putin said many potential mediators had asked him if Russia was ready to stop fighting but said that Russia could hardly do so when it was facing a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

For there to be any chance of talks, said Putin, Ukraine would first have to cancel its self-imposed legal ban on peace talks and explain what it wanted.

“Then we shall see,” Putin said.

Russia controls about 18% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, and a swathe of eastern and southern Ukraine which it seized after invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year in what it called a special military operation.

The war has sown devastation across cities and the countryside, and killed or injured hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians.

For several months, Ukraine has been battling to try to regain some of the lost territory and has retaken some villages but not yet made significant breakthroughs against heavily fortified Russian lines which are strewn with landmines.

Ukraine says it will not rest until every last Russian soldier is ejected from its land. The West says it wants to help Ukraine defeat Russia – an aim Kremlin officials say is an unrealistic pipedream.

U.S. ELECTION

Putin said the prosecution in the United States of former President Donald Trump was politically motivated and demonstrated the “rottenness” of the U.S. political system.

But the Kremlin chief said that no matter who won next year’s U.S. election, he expected no change in Washington’s policy towards Russia.

“The will be no fundamental changes in the Russian direction in U.S. foreign policy, no matter who is elected president,” Putin said. “The U.S. authorities perceive Russia as an existential enemy.”

Putin also defended his pivot towards Asia, which he said was accelerated by the war and the West’s attempt to constrict the $2.1 trillion Russian economy.

Speaking ahead of a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Putin said the West was trying to deter China from having close relations with Russia, but that such attempts had failed as ties with Beijing were at an unprecedented level.

The West’s decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions was a crime, he said. Such supplies might prolong the war, he added, but they would not change its ultimate outcome.

He also criticised the West’s decision to supply Ukraine with F-16 jets and any possible U.S. supply of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).

The Biden administration is close to approving the shipment of longer-range missiles packed with cluster bombs to Ukraine, Reuters reported this month.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Andrew Osborn and Angus MacSwan)

TAIPEI (Reuters) -TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, will invest up to $100 million in chip designer Arm Holdings Plc’s initial public share offering (IPO), it said on Tuesday.

SoftBank Group’s Arm Holdings, which launched the roadshow last week, aims to raise up to $4.87 billion in its U.S. IPO, according to a regulatory filing.

Arm has already signed up other major clients as cornerstone investors in its IPO, including Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Samsung Electronics.

TSMC’s Chairman Mark Liu said last week that “Arm is an important element of our ecosystem, our technology and our customers’ ecosystem. We want it to be successful, we want it to be healthy. That’s the bottom line.”

TSMC also agreed to purchase 10% equity interest in IMS Nanofabrication Global, LLC from Intel for up to $432.8 million, the company said in a statement.

The investment valued IMS Nanofabrication at approximately $4.3 billion, said Intel, which will retain majority ownership of IMS.

(Reporting by Meg Shen, Editing by Louise Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

By Nell Mackenzie

LONDON (Reuters) – Tesla topped a list of the most shorted large-cap U.S. stocks for a third consecutive month in August, securities lending data firm Hazeltree said in a report on Tuesday.

Tesla stock rallied over 5% on Monday after a Morgan Stanley note suggested the automaker’s Dojo supercomputer could bolster Tesla’s market value.

A short bet expects a stock price to fall.

Hazeltree, which tracks 12,000 equities globally, said the second and third most shorted stocks last month were Charter Communications and Apple respectively.

Tesla, Charter Communications and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Data compiled by research firm Whale Wisdom showed a range of different strategies underlying short bets against Tesla disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 30.

Those included investors with funds taking long and short positions in stocks: Diamond Hill, Leuthold Funds and Forum Funds. A Blackstone fund of funds contained the short positions of other hedge funds and investment managers.

Trades held by the hedge fund AQR Capital Management and the investment manager Federated Hermes aimed to avoid market risk by offsetting rising and falling prices on different asset classes.

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk on Monday posted on his social media platform X a reaction to the short position that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has held against the firm, according to a recent biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson.

“Taking out a short position against Tesla, as Gates did, results in the highest return only if a company goes bankrupt!” posted Musk.

Hedge funds have been shorting U.S. stocks at a rapid pace in recent weeks, a Goldman Sachs note this week showed, and total short bets reached their highest value in six months.

Hedge funds were net short consumer discretionary stocks, which would include Tesla, for the year ending Sept. 8, according to the Goldman note.

“If I’m honest, I’ve only lost money trying to short TSLA,” said Dan Izzo, founder of the hedge fund Blackbird Capital, who did not disclose whether he currently had a position in Tesla.

“Not because I’m wrong about it, but because the market can be irrational for longer than I can afford to be proven right.”

(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe and Kevin Liffey)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh

(Reuters) – For venture capitalists, the scars of bitcoin’s disastrous 2022 run deep.

While breezy bitcoin has bounced back, leaping by about 55% this year, investments in crypto startups have dropped for the fifth straight quarter.

VC crypto bets totaled just under $2.3 billion in April-July this year, the lowest quarterly level for over three years, according to data firm PitchBook. In the first half of 2023, investments were down by almost three-quarters from a year ago to $5 billion.

“The lofty exuberant valuation days are gone,” said Tal Elyashiv, founder and managing partner of SPiCE VC, adding that valuations place on crypto companies had fallen closer in line with their actual performance.

Crypto investors remain haunted by the chaos that descended on the sector last year when the implosion of the FTX exchange and other major firms, including hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, sent shockwaves through the industry.

U.S. regulatory scrutiny has also tightened on the industry.

“The biggest change from the height of the market is more time to do deeper diligence,” said Cameron Peake, partner at Restive Ventures. “There’s not necessarily anything new that is happening, except that funds are actually doing diligence now. Deals are no longer closing in mere days.”

The number of deals that were sealed by the halfway mark of 2023 was 814, down by more than half of 1,862 from the same period in 2022, PitchBook data showed.

“Almost every company in the space tightened up in the aftermath of the carnage of 2022. Those that are raising capital now are probably doing it because they have to,” said Adam Reeds, CEO of Toronto-based crypto finance company Ledn.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near term that changes from ‘have to have’ raises to ‘nice to have’ raises.”

If bitcoin prices are any indication, the investment slump may be short-lived.

VC crypto investments have correlated with crypto asset prices with a lag of roughly three to six months, according to PitchBook, and if current trends continue, VC investment would rise during the second half of 2023.

Bitcoin, which fell 65% last year, jumped over 90% in the first six months of 2023 bitcoin and is now up about 55% year-to-date, at $25,881. Still, it is trading at a third of its 2021 peak of $69,000.

METAVERSE? NFTs?

There has also been a shift in the type of VC investment targets, according to the PitchBook data.

A year ago, the focus was on companies tied to speculative non-fungible tokens, as well as metaverse and Web3 projects that sought to build a future – but still unrealized – iteration of the internet with crypto at its core.

Now, though, crypto bets have shifted towards firms that provide the platform or support the underlying technology of blockchain or cryptocurrencies.

Infrastructure firms such as crypto exchanges, wallets and other fintechs attracted the most investments in 2023 at $325 million, followed by blockchain networks at $220 million and Web3 companies at $274.6 million, according to PitchBook.

In the second quarter, the only two funding rounds over $100 million were scored by LayerZero, a platform that connects two blockchains, and digital identity platform WorldCoin.

“Institutional investors are looking for things that are more durable,” said Alyse Killeen, founder and managing partner of bitcoin-focused venture firm Stillmark.

“We’re seeing less appetite for risk and more appetite for sustaining technology.”

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Wilson and Pravin Char)

By Valerie Insinna and Abhijith Ganapavaram

(Reuters) -Shares in Pratt & Whitney parent RTX Corp hit a two-year low on Monday as it took a $3 billion charge and told airlines hundreds of their Airbus jets would be grounded at any one time in coming years to check for a rare manufacturing flaw.

The warning comes on top of a spate of durability problems for Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan series, which RTX — then named Raytheon — acquired through an industry merger in 2020.

In July, RTX said a rare powder metal defect could lead to the cracking of some engine components and called for accelerated inspections affecting 200 engines by mid-September.

On Monday, it said it now estimates it will have to pull a total of 600 to 700 engines off their Airbus A320neo jets for lengthy quality inspections between 2023 and 2026.

Repair work that CEO Greg Hayes had initially expected would take 60 days is now projected to last up to 300 days per engine. An average of 350 jets could be grounded per year through 2026, with as many as 650 jets sitting idle in the first half of 2024.

RTX shares fell 7.9% in late trading to $76.89 after hitting a low of $76.71. In Paris, Airbus shares fell 1.3%.

Pratt & Whitney competes with GE-Safran joint-venture CFM to power the A320neo series, which competes with the exclusively CFM-powered Boeing 737 MAX.

Disclosing higher-than-expected gross costs of $6-7 billion for dealing with the problem, RTX said it expected an up to $3.5 billion pre-tax hit to profits over the next several years.

It lowered its $9 billion free cash flow goal for 2025 to approximately $7.5 billion, and decreased its projected reported sales figure for 2023 by $5.5 billion.

German partner MTU Aero Engines, which controls 18% of the GTF program, said it might have to bear 1 billion euros in extra costs but that it was too early to say how this year’s financial goals would be affected.

Speaking to analysts, Hayes acknowledged the problem “will have a significant impact on our customers.”

Some have already been forced to park their A320neo-family jets to wait for spare engines following durability problems.

Hungary’s Wizz Air, one of Europe’s largest lost-cost airlines, estimated that its capacity could be reduced by 10% in the second half of 2024 by the powder issue.

Germany’s Lufthansa, which was first to introduce the GTF engine series, said it was evaluating the situation.

AIRBUS KEEPS DELIVERY GOAL

Of U.S. carriers, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Hawaiian Airlines have the largest exposure to the GTF problem, according to Jefferies. None of the airlines responded immediately to a request for comment.

Robert Stallard, an analyst with Vertical Research Partners, said the RTX charges were larger than expected.

Airbus said the problem is not expected to impact 2023 deliveries or the planned production ramp-up in 2024.

Industry sources said the new checks could exacerbate a tug of war for engines between airplane factories and repair shops, as airlines clamor for engines to be diverted from assembly lines and made available as spares to keep existing jets flying.

Already grappling with fractured supply chains, Airbus has so far been reluctant to soften delivery targets in order to release engines to the spares pool.

The quality issue relates to a “rare condition” in powder metal used to manufacture engine parts, such as high pressure turbine disks and high-pressure compressor disks, that could result in micro-cracks and fatigue.

During a production ramp up in 2015, a microscopic contaminant was introduced into the powdered metal made by RTX subsidiary HMI in Clayville, New York, which could not be detected by previous inspection methods, Hayes said.

“At last count there have been nine changes to the process to ensure the purity of the powder,” said Hayes who added he is “confident” the problem is resolved.

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna in Washington, Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru, Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Nick Zieminski and Grant McCool)

By Noel Randewich and Shristi Achar A

(Reuters) – The Nasdaq closed sharply higher on Monday as Tesla surged on optimism around artificial intelligence and investors awaited inflation data due later this week.

Tesla rallied 10% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the electric car maker to “overweight” from “equal-weight,” saying its Dojo supercomputer could boost the company’s market value by nearly $600 billion.

Other megacaps also rose, with Amazon climbing 3.5% and Microsoft adding 1.1%.

Meta Platforms jumped 3.25% after a report on Sunday said the social media platform was working on a new, more powerful AI system.

Walt Disney added 1.2% and Charter Communications rose 3.2% after they reached a deal for Disney’s programming, including ESPN, to return to the Spectrum cable service just hours ahead of the start of NFL “Monday Night Football.”

Investors are looking to August consumer price index data due on Wednesday for clues about how close the Federal Reserve may be to ending its campaign of interest rate hikes. That will be followed by producer price data on Thursday.

A New York Fed survey showed Americans’ overall views on inflation were little changed in August, as they predicted rising costs for homes and food, while expecting bleaker personal financial health.

“What we’re seeing is a lot of positive sentiment that is really tied to bullishness around the likely CPI and PPI numbers being more in line with moderation,” said Greg Bassuk, chief executive officer of AXS Investments in New York.

“As long as the inflation numbers for August come in within the band of expectations, we’re going to see the Fed move away from additional rate hikes.”

Wall Street logged weekly losses on Friday after a recent uptick in oil prices and stronger-than-expected economic data fueled concerns of sticky inflation and interest rates staying higher for longer.

Traders see a 93% chance that the central bank will hold its interest rates at current levels at its September meeting, while chances of a pause in November stand at 57%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Fed officials have entered a blackout period, during which they usually do not make public comments, until the policy decision outcome on Sept. 20.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.67% to end at 4,487.46 points.

The Nasdaq gained 1.14% at 13,917.89 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25% to 34,663.72 points.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 9.3 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 10.0 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, nine rose, led by consumer discretionary, up 2.77%, followed by a 1.17% gain in communication services.

Qualcomm advanced 3.9% after the chipmaker signed a new deal with Apple to supply 5G chips to the iPhone maker until at least 2026.

Hostess Brands surged 19.1% after J. M. Smucker said it would buy the Twinkies-maker in a $5.6 billion deal.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.5-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 14 new highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 36 new highs and 199 new lows.

(Reporting by Ankika Biswas, Shreyashi Sanyal and Shubham Batra in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Vinay Dwivedi and Richard Chang)

By Valerie Insinna and Abhijith Ganapavaram

(Reuters) – RTX Corp shares hit a two-year low on Monday after it announced that hundreds of Airbus A320neo jets will be grounded through 2026 as its Pratt & Whitney engines unit removes geared turbofan engines (GTF) for quality checks.

As the result of a powder metal defect that could lead to the cracking of engine components, which RTX first described in July, the company now estimates it will pull 600 to 700 engines off jets for inspections and take a $3 billion charge in the third quarter, said RTX, formerly Raytheon.

Repair work, which RTX CEO Greg Hayes initially expected would take 60 days, is now projected to last up to 300 days per engine. An average of 350 jets could be grounded per year through 2026, with as many as 650 jets sitting idle in the first half of 2024.

The new financial disclosures and lengthening work scope are likely to add to customer frustrations on the beleaguered GTF engine, which has been plagued by durability problems that have forced airlines to park jets.

RTX shares hit an over two-year low of $77.18 in early trade before recovering slightly to $77.57 by midday. Airbus shares were down 0.8%.

RTX anticipates an up to $3.5 billion pre-tax hit to its profit over the next several years as a result of the problem. It lowered its $9 billion free cash flow goal for 2025 to approximately $7.5 billion, and decreased its projected reported sales figure for 2023 by $5.5 billion.

European low-cost airline Wizz Air said on Monday that its initial estimates indicate capacity could be reduced 10% in the second half of 2024 due to the issue.

A spokesperson for German carrier Lufthansa said it was evaluating the situation.

U.S. CARRIERS AMONG AIRLINES WITH MOST EXPOSURE -JEFFERIES

Of U.S. carriers, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airwaysand Hawaiian Airlines have the largest exposure to the GTF problem, according to Jefferies. Spirit, JetBlue and Hawaiian did not immediately return a request for comment.

Hayes acknowledged on a call with investors that the problem “will have a significant impact on our customers,” with executives stating it will financially compensate carriers.

Robert Stallard, an analyst with Vertical Research Partners, said the RTX charges were “larger than expected” given initial estimates.

German partner MTU Aero Engines, which controls 18% of the GTF program, said its own revenues and profit could be affected this year but it was too early make a precise assessment.

Airbus said it was supporting customers as they work with RTX to resolve the issue, and that the problem is not expected to impact 2023 deliveries or the planned production ramp up in 2024.

The quality issue relates to a “rare condition” in powder metal used to manufacture engine parts, such as high pressure turbine disks and high-pressure compressor disks, that could result in micro-cracks and fatigue.

During a production ramp up in 2015, a microscopic contaminant was introduced into the powdered metal made by RTX subsidiary HMI in Clayville, New York, which could not be detected by the company’s previous inspection methods, Hayes said.

“At last count there have been nine changes to the process to ensure the purity of the powder,” said Hayes who added he is “confident” the problem is resolved.

The company expects to release a service bulletin in the next 60 days laying out an inspection protocol for high pressure turbine disks and compressor disks, and will replace as many disks as possible during shop visits, executives said. (This story has been corrected to change the cross-head to ‘U.S. CARRIERS AMONG AIRLINES WITH MOST EXPOSURE’ from ‘U.S. CARRIERS HAVE LARGEST EXPOSURE’, below paragraph 8)

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna in Washington, Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru, Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Nick Zieminski, Grant McCool)