Chinese Buyers Spent 83% More on US Homes This Year
They acquired $13.7 billion worth of homes in the US from April 2024 through March, representing an 83% jump from a year earlier, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors.
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Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Health insurance companies have a problem — people are using their plans more
When medical insurance provider Centene (CNC) opened its books to investors on Friday, the company reported a surprising loss and an uptick in usage. The latter is a broader problem for the industry. In the second quarter, Centene reported an adjusted loss of $79 million and a "health benefits ratio" of 93%. Its benefits ratio, or the amount of its revenue derived from premiums that it pays out for medical care, jumped from 87.6% in the same quarter last year. Moves in that figure can have outsized effects on health insurers' financial performance. "Because of the narrow margins of our health plan business, relatively small changes in our HBR can create significant changes in our financial results," Centene wrote in its Q2 earnings report. And the problem is not isolated to Centene. Elevance Health (ELV), which offers plans including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, reported a similar jump in its "benefit expense ratio" to 88.9% in the second quarter, up from 86.3% in the same quarter last year. Both Centene and Elevance attributed the jump especially to their government-subsidized offerings under the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Molina Healthcare (MOH), which reported Q2 earnings earlier this month, reported a similar outlook, attributing its lowered earnings guidance to the same trend facing other medical insurers. "The short-term earnings pressure we are experiencing results from what we believe to be a temporary dislocation between premium rates and medical cost trend which has recently accelerated,' Molina CEO Joseph Zubretsky said in a statement. Elevance stock dropped by roughly 12% after its report earlier this month, while Molina stock dropped by roughly 8%. Both stocks have remained depressed since. Health Care (XLV) is the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 this year. Centene stock dropped by roughly 15% in premarket trading after its earnings release before recovering to a positive gain of roughly 6% by the closing bell on Friday. The buoy was led by CEO Sarah London's announcement that Centene was reinstating earnings guidance after pulling this forecast earlier in the month. The company also reported revenue of $48.7 billion, which topped estimates for $44.2 billion, and said it expects to be able to raise the payments it gets from states for Medicaid plans, which would improve its margins. UnitedHealth's MCR challenge The premium-to-cost ratio will be closely watched at UnitedHealth Group (UNH), which refers to this measure as its "medical care ratio" (MCR) and is slated to release Q2 earnings next week. After seeing its medical care ratio rise to 85.1% in the second quarter last year, UnitedHealth is expected to see its ratio jump to 89.3% this year, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. An increase like that would mean tighter margins and less overhead for a company that already slashed its forecast earlier this year. That news sent its stock price down by 22%, its biggest drop in a single day since 1998. "Management noted care activity trends continue to run ahead of its previous expectations driven by a greater than expected impact at UHC from new members, further acceleration of [Medicare Advantage] utilization and indications of potential broadening trend among adjacent, complex populations," Truist Securities analysts wrote in a May analyst note about UnitedHealth. Closely watched by investors and analysts will also be how UnitedHealth leadership addresses its disclosure Thursday morning that the insurer is facing and complying with a criminal and civil investigation by the Department of Justice over potential fraudulent billing practices in the insurer's Medicare Advantage program. The stock dropped 4.7% through Thursday trading after the disclosure. The probe comes after reporting by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that documented the potentially fraudulent activity by UnitedHealth, among other medical insurers, which included insurers' staff doctors and nurses adding diagnoses to patients' profiles on top of those documented by the patients' doctors. UnitedHealth may have to answer investor inquiries about the investigation on its earnings call on Tuesday, though these are far from the only challenges facing the insurance giant. According to former federal prosecutor Scott Hogan, the DOJ's Medicare probe will be looking to establish a prolonged pattern of wrongdoing by the insurer. "If everything comes back good for the company, if the department [closes its investigation], I think the company will be able to reassure the marketplace," Hogan, who specialized in fraud investigations, told Yahoo Finance on Friday. Even if UnitedHealth is eventually cleared of wrongdoing, he said, "If the investigation takes next steps, whether it's a lawsuit or prolonged investigation, I don't think there are many companies that desire those kinds of headlines." Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tesla Shares Tumble. Is It Time to Buy the Dip or Run for the Hills?
Key Points For a second straight quarter, Tesla posted weak auto deliveries and revenue. The company once again hyped its robotaxi and robot ambitions. The stock is largely valued based on future bets paying off, making it risky to own. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has long been a stock that's traded more on the vision of its founder Elon Musk than on its actual fundamentals. However, with the stock sinking following Tesla's lackluster second-quarter earnings report -- despite more big promises around robotaxis and robots -- reality might finally be catching up to it. Musk has done a lot of brand damage to Tesla over the past six months or so. His funding of President Donald Trump's campaign and overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) angered many liberal-leaning consumers. He then later got in a very public feud with the President he helped get elected, alienating himself and Tesla from many conservatives, as well. The fallout could be seen in Tesla's Q2 numbers, while tariffs also stung the company. Meanwhile, it will soon see an even potentially bigger headwind due to the expiration of the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) credit by the end of third-quarter 2025. Its core auto business is struggling For the second straight quarter, Tesla saw big declines in its core auto business. After a 13% drop in deliveries in the first quarter, deliveries fell by the same amount in Q2. Model 3 and Model Y deliveries decreased by 12%, while other models plunged by 52%. Tesla's auto revenue plunged 16% to $16.7 billion in the quarter. Within its auto revenue, its regulatory credits, which are pure gross margin, fell by more than half to $429 million. Not surprisingly, this affected Tesla's profitability in the quarter. Even worse for the company is that many of these regulatory credits will soon be going away. Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" will eliminate the current federal $7,500 EV tax credit at the end of September. As a result, Musk admitted that the company could be in for a "few rough quarters" ahead. Overall, Tesla's revenue fell 12% to $22.5 billion. Its energy generation and storage revenue dropped 7% to $2.8 billion, while its service revenue climbed 17% to nearly $3.1 billion. Adjusted earnings per share sank 23% to $0.40, while its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) declined by 7% to $3.4 billion. Tesla's cash flow is also starting to take a hit. Its operating cash flow sank 30% to $2.5 billion, while its free cash flow cratered by 89% to $146 million. More big promises Given Tesla's poor operating results, it was not surprising that Musk and the rest of management directed the conversation toward Tesla's big bets on autonomous driving and robotics. Musk claimed that Tesla will expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to cover half of the U.S. population by the end of this year, pending regulatory approval. Now, of course, such a statement makes little sense. The company is currently only testing a small geofenced area in Austin, Texas, with safety drivers, and it has already had a number of safety issues in this small pilot. Its technology appears nowhere close to ready to be adopted in cities countrywide. But let's say, for argument's sake, that the technology and regulatory approvals work out. The company would then need hundreds of thousands of Level 4 autonomous driving vehicles on the road (not its current Level 2 vehicles). Beyond that, it would also need service and cleaning centers, as well as charging infrastructure in place to handle a fleet of that size. It would also need to have a consumer-facing platform that can handle things like pre-trip pricing, dynamic fare calculations, disputes, and refunds. There is no evidence that Tesla has any of this in place. Meanwhile, Musk continued to sing the praises of his Optimus robot, saying it will be Tesla's biggest product ever. He said Optimus 3 has an "exquisite" design with no significant flaws. He's looking to have a prototype of the new robot by the end of this year and then scale production next year. He then wants to be able to produce 1 million Optimus robots a year within five years. Once again, this seems ambitious. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is currently an AI robotics leader, and companies like Boston Dynamics have showcased robots with advanced mobility, so robots can be hugely useful. However, all Tesla has ever demonstrated is a humanoid robot that could only do carefully choreographed tasks. Today, most factory automation is done by specialized, fixed-purpose robots. The use case for a humanoid robot is still very questionable. Should investors buy the dip? Even after the stock pullback, Tesla's stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of over 170x based on 2025 analyst estimates, while its profitable auto peers -- like Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis -- generally have multiples of 10 or less. With its core auto business struggling, this indicates that the bulk of Tesla's market cap is predicated on ambitions that may or may not pan out. Given the company's track record of overpromising and under-delivering, this is not a bet I'd make. Should you buy stock in Tesla right now? The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors and Stellantis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Tesla Shares Tumble. Is It Time to Buy the Dip or Run for the Hills? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
LGES signs new copper foil deal with SK Nexilis
South Korea's SK Nexilis Company has agreed to supply local battery electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer LG Energy Solution Company (LGES) with up to KRW 3 trillion (US$ 2.2 billion) worth of copper foil over the next 5-6 years, according to unconfirmed local reports. Copper foil is a key component of EV batteries, used mainly as separator material between cathodes and anodes. This is understood to have been the first deal signed between the two companies in the last five years, after LGES and LG Chem ceased signing new business with SK Group's SK On, SK Nexilis and SKIET, following a dispute over alleged leaks of trade secrets in 2020. Local officials have suggested that the thaw in relations between the two sides is due mainly to growing pressure for South Korea battery manufacturers to reduce their dependence on Chinese supply chains, as they look to expand their businesses in the US. A local industry official told reporters the relationship between the two companies 'has improved under the current management. The Trump administration's supply chain policy of decoupling from China led them to renew their supply deal.' An SK Nexilis official confirmed that his company had held new talks with LGES, but did not confirm the agreement. "LGES signs new copper foil deal with SK Nexilis" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
