The stock market has had a habit of taking three steps forward and two steps back, and on Tuesday, investors got a nice bounce from Monday's drop. There still hasn't been any obvious progress on efforts to get Americans more stimulus money, but market participants today seemed to believe they were getting a little closer to the finish line. Gains for the Dow Jones Industrials (^DJI -0.65%), S&P 500 (^GSPC -1.20%), and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -1.79%) were all less than half a percent.
Today's stock market
|
Index |
Percentage Change |
Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
+0.40% |
+113 |
|
S&P 500 |
+0.47% |
+16 |
|
Nasdaq Composite |
+0.33% |
+38 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
The automotive and transportation industries found themselves at the center of attention on Tuesday. General Motors (GM -0.91%) made some interesting announcements as car fans look forward to Tuesday night's unveiling of a key new electric vehicle. Meanwhile, Uber Technologies (UBER -2.50%) gained ground despite warnings that an initiative in a key state could drive up costs.
Humming along
General Motors saw its stock rise 7%. The legacy automaker is finally starting to respond more aggressively to the push from the electric vehicle industry by coming out with plans for its own expanded slate of cars and trucks.
GM will spend $2 billion in efforts to take an existing manufacturing plant in Tennessee and convert it to produce electric vehicles. The facility will join two other plants in Michigan that either currently or are moving toward making EVs. That includes not only the existing Chevy Bolt but also the new all-electric Cadillac Lyriq, which should hit production lines in the next couple of years.
The moves come in anticipation of Tuesday night's opening of reservations for the GMC Hummer EV billed as "the world's first all-electric supertruck." The Hummer comes as an obvious answer to Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Cybertruck, which got plenty of publicity earlier this year.
Image source: General Motors.
GM has been pretty quiet on the electric vehicle front, even as Tesla got a big head start. Now it'll be interesting to see whether offerings like the Hummer and Cadillac gain traction and help the auto company get back in the EV game.
Uber warns about labor law costs
Elsewhere, shares of Uber Technologies shot higher by 6%. The move came despite some warnings about the potential impact of efforts to reclassify its drivers as employees.
Back in January, California lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), which makes it far harder for companies like Uber to classify gig workers as independent contractors. With the need to actually hire those workers as employees, Uber warned that its costs could move sharply higher and potentially make its business less financially viable in the Golden State.
Now, Uber and other companies that rely on gig workers are urging California residents to vote in favor of Proposition 22. The measure would create a fund to cover benefits regardless of which gigs workers take, in exchange for avoiding AB 5's requirement of treating those workers as employees. If Proposition 22 doesn't pass, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says, then ride prices could go up 25% to 100% or more, depending on location.
Labor advocates still disagree, arguing that Uber is taking advantage of workers. With voters going to the polls two weeks from today, it won't be long before Uber knows its fate.
