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Heavily Shorted Hertz Soars On Uber Robotaxi Deal

Zero Rss
3 months 2 weeks ago
Heavily Shorted Hertz Soars On Uber Robotaxi Deal

Heavily shorted shares of rental-car company Hertz are soaring in premarket trading after the company announced a partnership with Uber Technologies to scale both autonomous robotaxi and driver-led rideshare operations.

Hertz’s Oro Mobility unit will be used as a fleet-management system for Uber’s next-generation mobility network of autonomous robotaxis. This means Oro will support the critical operating layer: charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, depot staffing, and vehicle logistics.

"Through its partnerships with Uber, Oro will deliver scalable operational and maintenance services across both autonomous and driver-led operations in key U.S. markets, reflecting the breadth of the companies' collaboration across multiple mobility models," Hertz wrote in a press release.

Oro will support Uber’s autonomous robotaxi program using Lucid vehicles equipped with Nuro AV technology. The new service is expected to launch in the San Francisco Bay Area later this year, with possible expansion next year.

What the Hertz-Uber partnership entails:

Autonomous Robotaxi Fleet Management

Oro will support Uber's autonomous robotaxi program of Lucid vehicles equipped with Nuro AV technology, providing day-to-day vehicle asset management, including charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, and depot staffing. Services are expected to launch in the San Francisco Bay Area later this year, as Hertz and Uber explore expansion opportunities in 2027.

Driver-Led Fleet Management

Oro has also partnered with Uber to offer strategic fleet services on the Uber platform, utilizing a fleet of high-quality, well‑maintained vehicles operated by Oro‑employed drivers. The model better enables Uber to meet increasing rider demand with a seamless customer experience, while demonstrating Hertz's ability to deliver turnkey fleet solutions at scale. Following a successful pilot in Atlanta last year, Oro is now also active on the Uber platform in Los Angeles and San Francisco, with Northern New Jersey expected to launch this spring.

"This partnership with Uber establishes Oro as an integrated solution that connects demand with scalable fleet management services. Through this work, we're deepening our capabilities across diverse mobility use cases, and positioning Hertz to play a significant role as the industry evolves," Hertz CEO Gil West wrote in a press release. 

Andrew Macdonald, President and COO of Uber, stated, "Partnering with Hertz's Oro Mobility will help us continue to bring the best autonomous technology onto the Uber platform and accelerate the transition to a hybrid network in which both driver-led and autonomous rideshare operations can scale and serve communities reliably and efficiently." 

The news sent Hertz shares flying in premarket trading, up more than 17%.

Bloomberg data shows Hertz shares are 49% short, equivalent to about 59 million shares. Days to cover stand at around 4.2 days.

Is the squeeze on?

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 09:20
Tyler Durden

After pathetic Game 5, Lakers approaching wrong kind of history: ‘Don’t care about s— like that’

NY Post
3 months 2 weeks ago
The Lakers blew it.  They have no killer instinct. No urgency. No desperation.  They stood around and watched each other miss shots. They struggled to get stops. They were sloppy. Discombobulated. Unfocused.  They sleepwalked through Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Rockets, falling 99-93.  A massively underwhelming performance by LeBron James and...
Melissa Rohlin

Core PCE Rises Most In 3 Years; Savings Rate Tumbles As Spending Far Outpaces Income

Zero Rss
3 months 2 weeks ago
Core PCE Rises Most In 3 Years; Savings Rate Tumbles As Spending Far Outpaces Income

The Fed's favorite inflation indicator - Core PCE - rose 0.3% MoM in January (as expected), a dip from the 0.4% sequential increase in February, with YoY rising by 3.2% (also as expected), slightly higher than the 3.0% in Feb. That is the highest annual increase in Core PCE since Nov 2023. 

The headline PCE jumped notably more, as expected since it includes non-core items like energy and food, rising 0.7% MoM (as expected) driving prices up 3.5% YoY, also as expected, from 2.8% and the highest since May 2023.

Taking a closer look at the headline print shows a surge in non-durable goods, largely the result of soaring gasoline prices.

On the other hand, core PCE was far more muted, with the monthly increase actually the lowest in three months, even as the annual increase keeps mounting.

Finally, supercore PCE was also muted, indicating that the energy price spillover into the broader economy is taking place but not as fast as some feared.

For those worried about the impact of crude oil's recent surge (since the start of the Iran war), it appears - somehow - that PCE's Energy component has already front-run a lot of the move...

Higher prices were met with higher incomes and higher spending (rising in line with one another for a change): personal income rose 0.6%, double the expected 0.3% and a surge from the 0.0% printed last month. Spending meanwhile rose 0.9%, as expected, and also higher from last month's 0.6%.

Ominously, spending growth continues to outpace income growth

And since spending rose more than income once again (as wages are not keeping up with income), the savings rate just tikced down to a fresh 4 years low.

And with rate-cut expectations in free fall - especially after yesterday's hawkish Fed - this latest data will do nothing to support a dovish take going forward (unless oil crashes the global economy and AI takes over all jobs).

 

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 09:04
Tyler Durden

Those Big, Beautiful Bonds

Zero Rss
3 months 2 weeks ago
Those Big, Beautiful Bonds

Authored by Robert Aro via the Mises Institute,

The U.S. Government sells debt on a revolving door basis, yet most people aren’t aware of the mechanism by which this is done. Luckily, ZeroHedge covers the debt auction results, which allows us to articulate one of the structural problems in the Federal Reserve system. As reported last week:

The week’s lone coupon auction priced at 1pm when the Treasury sold $13 BN in 20Y paper, in a solid if not stellar auction.

Deciphering the trader talk in the article, the Treasury took on an additional $13 billion in debt that is repayable in 20 years, paying an annual interest rate of 4.883% (approximately $635 million a year).

A 2.68 bid-to-cover ratio means that for every $1 of debt issued, there were $2.68 in bids, suggesting a healthy market appetite. Only so many entities can lend billions of dollars at a time; here are the three who took the auction:

  • Direct bidders (institutional money like pension funds) took 22.9%;
  • Indirect bidders (foreign central banks) took the brunt at 67.4%;
  • Primary Dealers (JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc.) held just 9.7%.

Since primary dealers are mandated to buy, and since the Fed will buy from them, the free-market price and demand for debt remains a mystery. Therefore, without the Fed’s anti-capitalist intervention, demand would be lower and yields would be higher.

A $13 billion debt still seems incomprehensible, so let’s assume you had $100,000 today and had to keep it in a cash equivalent for the next two decades. What would you choose? If you bought that Treasury, you’ll be earning 4.883% interest each year, and in 2046 you’ll get your principal back in full.

Whether rates go up or down, neither outcome will be pleasant, leaving you, the bondholder, caught between the Unthinkable and the Unimaginable.

The Unthinkable: Should the market demand a higher yield, or should the Fed raise rates, your 4.883% return will no longer be a good deal. If you sell, you’ll take a loss. On a societal level, for each 1% increase in rates, the interest burden on the $39 trillion debt climbs toward an additional $390 billion annually as the debt rolls over. At some point, the interest alone begins to choke the life out of the economy. If there is any consolation, maybe this fights “price inflation,” but even that’s uncertain, and prices could still skyrocket along with rates.

The Unimaginable: U.S. politicians find a way to balance the books and take on less debt… but in reality, history has shown this to be impossible. In all likelihood, the Fed will have to keep rates low and the debt spiral manageable by increasing its bond purchases and the money supply, i.e., inflation in the traditional and honest sense. In this scenario, your 4.883% bond is worth more on paper, but your currency will likely be worth a lot less.

The Fed faces an impossible task. To abstain from intervention is to allow high interest rates to compound on an unrepayable debt. To intervene is to flood the system with debased currency. Either way, the bondholder is the casualty, and the capital structure is the cost.

Feel free to sit with your 4.883% bond and wait for the Fed to make a move. In the end, it almost doesn’t matter whether rates go up or down; you’re simply watching society erode, one basis point at a time. The interest rate is the symptom; the debt mechanism is the disease.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 09:00
Tyler Durden

Russia Says UAE's 'OPECxit' Won't Spark Immediate Price War

Zero Rss
3 months 2 weeks ago
Russia Says UAE's 'OPECxit' Won't Spark Immediate Price War

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax, downplayed fears that the UAE's planned OPEC exit will trigger an immediate oil price war and race to the bottom. 

"In the current situation, what kind of price war can there be when there is a shortage in the market?" Novak said, adding with the Strait of Hormuz remaining all but closed, "a huge amount of oil isn't reaching the market today, and demand is significantly higher than supply."

Novak said Russia and Saudi Arabia have yet to discuss the UAE's decision to leave OPEC, effective Friday. He reiterated that Moscow has no plans to leave the OPEC+ alliance.

Novak's core message is that the global market is supply-starved as the U.S.-Iran war chokes energy flows through the Hormuz waterway. Large volumes of crude remain physically constrained, keeping global demand above available supply and limiting Abu Dhabi's ability to flood the market in the near term.

However, once Washington and Tehran strike a peace deal and reopen the Hormuz chokepoint, that's where Abu Dhabi will be able to ramp up production outside OPEC's quota system. That would inject a fresh wave of supply worldwide, weaken the oil cartel's ability to set a proper price floor, and raise downside risk for Brent once Gulf flows normalize.

JPMorgan analyst Ian Mitchell told clients earlier this week: 

The UAE has announced it will leave OPEC. Flat crude prices will remain driven by the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, but this development will likely mean medium-term prices are lower than they would have been otherwise, though there are many moving parts."

Mitchell added:

"Better too early than too late when it comes to taking profits on EU oil equity longs."

We agree with Mitchell's assessment:

Once the war is over there will be an oil pumpathon free for all. https://t.co/xcm6jH7cWL

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 28, 2026

UBS analyst Henri Patricot told clients a very similar message:

"Limited impact near-term; downside risk for oil prices medium-term." 

Overnight Brent price action commentary from UBS analyst Dominic Ellis:

Brent was briefly over $126/b this morning, and has settled above $124/b, on media reports that President Donald Trump will be briefed Thursday on new military options to pressure Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz.

This follows a move up on Wednesday as Trump publicly acknowledged the likelihood of an extended blockade of the Strait. In its World Economic Outlook a couple weeks ago, the IMF cut its base case for global growth for FY2026 to 3.1% from 3.4%, but this was predicated on a rapid resolution of the Iran situation and a quick resumption of energy flows. I'd argue we're moving towards more bearish scenarios which the market has yet to price in.

Readers can read the full note here: "OPECxit: JPM, UBS React To UAE's Shock Departure From Oil Cartel."

Professional subscribers can read JPM and UBS notes here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 08:40
Tyler Durden

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