Blank check company Qell Acquisition ($QELLU) is concluding its first week trading on the Nasdaq and will be focusing on companies working in next-generation mobility, transportation, and sustainable industry technology sectors. The company's founder and CEO Barry Engle told Cheddar it can be beneficial for a company to go public via increasingly popular special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) instead of a traditional IPO or a direct listing.
"In periods of volatility like we're seeing now, a SPAC becomes an excellent alternative. It's a quicker, faster route to market," he said.
Engle stressed the stability that a SPAC provides over other options. "Because of the nature of the SPAC, you're able to agree with the target company in advance what the price is. In contrast with a traditional IPO — where, depending on the day you launch, maybe you get lucky, maybe it's a bad day in the market — all of that uncertainty can be removed with a SPAC."
Now that Qell Acquisition is trading on the public market, it will be able to engage with potential targets. When it comes to businesses in industries such as next-generation mobility and transportation, Engle says his team is looking for, "companies in these spaces that are growing, that have winning technologies, and have the opportunity to take advantage of some of these large secular trends." Engle specifically pointed to a move towards electric vehicles and away from internal combustion engines.
Above all, Engle said that it's about the potential these companies have, both on Wall Street and in their particular sectors. With their technologies "these companies will have the opportunity to grow and post extraordinary growth versus the market and versus other companies."
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
