Ford pivots from EV plans to heavy-duty trucks at Canada facility

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By Nora Eckert and Nathan Gomes

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor (NYSE: F) on Thursday outlined plans to use a Canadian plant it had earmarked for a future electric vehicle to instead build larger, gasoline-powered versions of its flagship F-Series pickup truck.

Ford in April had already delayed the launch of the planned three-row electric SUVs at its Oakville Assembly facility from 2025 to 2027, citing slower than expected growth in EV demand. It said on Thursday it remained committed to those EVs and that timeline but did not say where they would now be built.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker plans to add capacity for 100,000 F-Series Super Duty trucks at the facility, including the ability to use what the company called "future multi-energy technology."

“Super Duty is a vital tool for businesses and people around the world and, even with our Kentucky Truck Plant and Ohio Assembly Plant running flat out, we can’t meet the demand," Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “At the same time, we look forward to introducing three-row electric utility vehicles."

Ford has increasingly leaned into production of hybrid vehicles to win over consumers who aren't ready to go fully electric. The automaker aims to quadruple hybrid production over the next few years.

These lucrative F-150 heavy-duty trucks, which are especially popular for the automaker's commercial business, are also produced at assembly plants in Kentucky and Ohio.

The company plans to invest about $3 billion to expand Super Duty production, including $2.3 billion to install assembly and integrated stamping operations at the Oakville Assembly Complex.

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Nasdaq futures climb as TSMC forecast steers chip stocks recovery.

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By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Ankika Biswas

(Reuters) -Nasdaq futures rose on Thursday, thanks to an upbeat forecast from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing that lifted chip stocks and a rebound in megacaps following a sharp sell-off in the previous session.

U.S.-listed shares of TSMC rose 1.5% in premarket trading after the world's largest contract chipmaker raised its full-year revenue forecast on surging demand for AI chips.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), both TSMC customers, climbed 0.6% and 2.5%, respectively. Other chipmakers including Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Marvell Technology (O: MRVL) and Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM) rose over 1% each.

Barring Intel, chip stocks lost over $500 billion in market value in Wednesday's session following a report that the U.S. was mulling tighter curbs on exports of advanced semiconductor technology to China. Comments on Taiwan from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump also droves losses.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index logged its worst day in four years on Wednesday. The rout in chip stocks also pressured megacap shares.

The group of so-called "Magnificent 7" stocks rose, with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN)

The quarterly earnings season that is underway will be a significant test for whether expensively valued megacaps can keep investors satisfied with strong results.

"While the strong year-to-date performance of the tech sector creates the risk of near-term volatility, we continue to think it is important that investors hold sufficient long-term exposure to the AI trend," said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer, UBS Global Wealth Management.

"Beating on profit may no longer be enough to propel strong rallies, given the high bar set for the tech sector, which already has rich valuations."

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Warner Bros Discovery mulls break-up to boost stock price, FT reports.

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(Reuters) -Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD), the owner of CNN and HBO, has discussed a plan to split its digital streaming and studio businesses from its legacy TV networks in a bid to boost its flailing stock price, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The media giant's shares jumped 6.5% in premarket trading.

CEO David Zaslav is examining several options for the company, ranging from selling assets to separating its Warner Bros movie studio and Max streaming service into a new company, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report said most of the group's debt of about $39 billion as of March 31 could remain with the pay-TV networks business if Warner Bros Discovery breaks up.

The company did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Consolidation in the media industry has picked up this year as cable TV loses millions of customers to cord-cutting and the once dominant companies seek the scale needed to compete with digital streaming giants such as Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX).

Paramount Global agreed to merge with streaming-era upstart Skydance Media earlier in July, marking what some analysts have said was a change of guard from media moguls to tech billionaires as David Ellison will take charge of the company.

Warner Bros Discovery's shares have declined 65% since the 2022 merger that created the company, leaving it with a market value of $20.39 billion.

The stock jumped nearly 8% on Tuesday when BofA Global Research analysts said options including a break-up or sale of the company would yield more shareholder value than a status quo.