1. The S&P 500 is on track for a muted open Wednesday following another record close Tuesday. Club holding Nvidia helped lift the market Tuesday but earnings loom from fellow chipmaker Micron. Our trusted momentum indicator, the S&P Short Range Oscillator, remains very overbought.

2. Morgan Stanley’s well-known auto analyst Adam Jonas downgraded his view on the U.S. auto industry to “in line” from attractive while also lowering his ratings on Ford, General Motors and Rivian. Jonas cited a range of factors for his sector downgrade, including Chinese competitors and vehicle affordability in the U.S. We sold out of Ford earlier this year.

3. Tyson Food was downgraded to a sell-equivalent underweight at Piper Sander on worsening beef margins and rising chicken supply. Shares, down more than 4% over the past month, were lower Wednesday.

4. KeyBanc upgraded DoorDash to an overweight buy and lifted its price target on the food delivery platform to $177 a share. Analysts said they’ve become more confident in DoorDash’s ability to sustain gross order volume growth and demonstrate operating leverage. The firm also raised its price target on Uber to $90 on a belief that cost discipline can further boost earnings.

5. Wells Fargo upgraded oilfield services provider Baker Hughes to overweight from a hold-equivalent, citing its diversified business model. It lowered its price targets on peers Halliburton and SLB to reflect a more muted macro outlook. Despite a lift Tuesday on China stimulus news, oil prices have been trending lower since the spring.

6. Baird analysts added Foot Locker to their “Bearish Fresh Pick Trading Call” list through November, which means they are negative on the stock over that stretch. They cited what they see as signs of softer spending trends and lower near-term sales visibility. CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge had a nice look at Foot Locker’s turnaround efforts earlier this week.

7. Hewlett Packard Enterprise was upgraded to a buy-equivalent overweight at Barclays on growing AI server revenues, improvement in storage, and accretion from the Juniper Networks deal. The server makers like HPE, Super Micro Computer and Dell Technologies have been a closely followed group this year.

8. Evercore ISI downgraded Union Pacific to a hold-equivalent in line rating from outperform. Analysts think the railroad stock looks fully valued at around $249 a share based on its medium-term earnings outlook.

9. Expedia was downgraded to hold at Cowen on a slower turnaround in its business-to-consumer operations, which include vacation rental platform Vrbo and Hotels.com. Those brands have been losing share, according to analysts.

10. Oppenheimer cut its price target on Club holding Alphabet to $185 a share due to uncertainty on the Department of Justice’s antitrust pursuits. The company lost a case last month over its Google Search business and is in currently in court to defend its advertising business against monopoly allegations.

Sign up for Jim’s Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free

(See here for a full list of the stocks at Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.)

As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade.

THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY, TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER.  NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.  NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Caroline Ellison, the star witness in the prosecution of her former boyfriend, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced Tuesday in New York federal court to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion for her role in the massive fraud and conspiracy that doomed the cryptocurrency exchange once valued at $32 billion.

The prison term was significantly stiffer than the recommendation by the federal Probation Department that Judge Lewis Kaplan sentence Ellison to three years of supervised release, with no time at all behind bars. Ellison’s lawyers also had asked for a no-prison sentence.

Ellison, who had run Alameda Research, a hedge fund connected to FTX, agreed to a plea deal in December 2022, a month after FTX spiraled into bankruptcy. 

Ellison, 29, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and financial fraud charges.

Bankman-Fried, in contrast, chose to stand trial and was convicted of all seven criminal fraud charges against him in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March and ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture.

Bankman-Fried since then has appealed his conviction, and requested a new trial and a different judge, arguing that Kaplan was biased against him.

Late Monday, Ellison’s attorneys in a court filing said they had finalized financial settlements with prosecutors and the FTX debtor’s estate.

Both Bankman-Fried and Ellison had faced the same statutory maximum sentence of about 110 years in prison for their crimes.

But defendants in criminal cases who cooperate with prosecutors instead of fighting the charges particularly in white-collar cases such as FTX, often receive leniency when they are sentenced.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

Global benchmark Brent crude falling below $70 a barrel in early September — its lowest in 33 months — is terrific news for consumers, who will consequently see lower prices at the pump.

It’s also the stuff of nightmares for OPEC+, for whom oil revenues are critical.

The oil producer alliance led by Saudi Arabia earlier this month decided to delay oil production hikes for two additional months in an effort to shore up prices, but so far to no avail. Low global demand forecasts, coupled with new oil supply coming from non-OPEC countries, spell a long period of subdued crude prices. 

It’s led some in the market to ask the question: Have we officially reached “peak oil”? Has demand growth hit its apex, and is it just downhill from here?

By the forecasts of OPEC itself, that’s a hard no. 

The oil producer group’s 2024 World Oil Outlook report, released Tuesday, predicts strong energy demand growth of 24% globally between now and 2050. It also forecasts “robust medium-term growth” in oil demand reaching 112.3 million barrels per day in 2029, an increase of 10.1 million barrels per day compared to 2023.

A fair number of energy analysts appear to disagree with that calculation — not least those at the International Energy Agency. The Paris-based agency sees demand actually leveling off by the end of the decade to around 106 million barrels per day, according to its annual mid-term outlook published in June. The IEA still sees global oil demand rising; it just forecasts a smaller rise, and expects it to peak by the end of the decade. 

The battle of the forecasts between OPEC and the IEA has gained publicity in recent years, with the latter organization pushing hard for a net-zero future. 

S&P Global Commodity Insights, meanwhile, sees the medium-term future as somewhere in between, with demand reaching a peak of 109 million barrels per day in 2034 and gradually declining to fall below 100 million barrels per day in 2050. 

OPEC, by contrast, sees demand hitting a whopping 120 million barrels per day by 2050. 

All parties agree that demand will fall in the developing world, while rising in emerging markets led by India. 

It was the late Saudi Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani who said in 2000: “The Stone Age came to an end not for a lack of stones and the Oil Age will end, but not for a lack of oil.”

Real estate is a key puzzle piece in achieving the U.S.’ climate goals, according to federal officials.

Residential and commercial buildings account for 31% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, after accounting for “indirect” emissions like electricity use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s more than other economic sectors like transportation and agriculture.

The Biden administration has adopted various policies to cut residential emissions.

The Inflation Reduction Act, enacted in 2022, offers financial benefits including tax breaks and rebates to homeowners who make their homes more energy-efficient, for example. The White House also recently issued guidelines for buildings in order to be considered “zero emissions,” meaning they are “energy efficient, free of onsite emissions from energy use and powered solely from clean energy,” according to the Department of Energy.

More from Personal Finance:
How EVs and gasoline cars compare on total cost
Here’s how to buy renewable energy from your electric utility
8 easy — and cheap — ways to cut your carbon emissions

Morgan Wojciechowski, 33, is among the first homeowners to get that federal “zero emissions” label. (That assessment was bestowed by the third-party firm Pearl Certification.)

Wojciechowski, her husband Casey, and their three dogs — Dixie, Bo and Charlie — moved into the newly built residence in Williamsburg, Virginia, in August 2023.

Wojciechowski, who is also the president of Healthy Communities, a local real-estate developer focused on sustainable construction, spoke with CNBC about her new home, its financial benefits and how consumers can best upgrade their homes to be more efficient.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Greg Iacurci: What does it mean for your home to be considered ‘zero emissions’?

Morgan Wojciechowski: It’s a very, very, very highly efficient home that’s all-electric. Those are kind of the first two bullet points of the White House definition.

The third part is we are part of the green energy program with [our power provider] Dominion. Not only am I producing solar [energy] and any excess is going back onto the grid, but the power from the grid coming into my home is clean and sustainable. It’s about $10 extra a month for me to get that clean energy.

GI: How much did your house cost to build?

MW: Like $1.1 million.

GI: And how big is the house?

MW: 5,800 square feet.

It’s a large home. But mine is not what everybody’s doing. My home was my personal project because I believe in sustainability and wanted to do it in a home that would be my forever home. But one that’s more replicable would be like what [Healthy Communities] builds at Walnut Farm, which is like 1,500 square feet. We’re selling it for $433,000.

GI: Can you break down your home’s estimated savings?

MW: Our utility bills are projected to be about $917 a year with [solar] panels, or around $80 a month.

The annual savings are $7,226 [relative to an average U.S. home, according to rater TopBuild Home Services]. That’s just from the efficiency of the home with solar.

If you took the solar production away, I would be saving $5,431 annually. The solar offsets it.

GI: What do you mean solar offsets it?

MW: You create energy. Your home uses that energy and sends excess energy back to Dominion. Those credits are stored in an account, and then those credits offset your bill. It’s called net metering.

GI: So the power company is paying you that money?

MW: Those credits are applied to your next billing cycle. They offset your overall utility bill, and that’s where your savings come in.

Solar panels only make sense if you build an energy-efficient home that’s really all-electric.

GI: Why is that?

MW: You have to have a home that’s constructed energy-efficiently enough or retrofitted — by replacing your windows with higher-grade windows, adding insulation — so that you will need fewer panels on your rooftop, so you have a quicker return on your investment. Solar only makes sense if you’re going to have a return on your investment within a few years.

GI: That makes solar more attractive?

MW: If you don’t do energy-efficient upgrades to a pre-existing home or if you don’t build a home that’s energy-efficient enough, you have to add more panels to compensate for the lack of energy efficiency. And if that number gets too big it turns people upside down.

Solar has to make sense with the home that you’re putting it on, or else, don’t do it. Maybe just upgrade your windows, add insulation, condition your crawl space, upgrade your mechanical systems.

There are a lot of things consumers can do. You don’t have to do it all at one time. You don’t have to have a solar home to be zero emissions; you have to have an energy-efficient house that’s all-electric, and you have to buy renewable energy from your utility company.

That’s extremely approachable. Lots of people can do that. Everybody can join in at their level of sustainability.

GI: How do you recommend people get started?

MW: I would tell a consumer, why don’t you start with windows and doors. That’s a very easy one. Do that and see how you notice any [efficiency] changes.

In a lot of older homes windows are very old and they leak. Air is coming in and out. If you think about it, a house is like an envelope. You you want to seal the inside of your home the best that you can.  

I would hit insulation next.

A lot of older homes have HVAC systems, duct work inside of their attic. Insulate it so that it’s a conditioned space, so that those building systems don’t have to work in overdrive to keep up with really hot temperatures or really cold temperatures. That keeps it more energy efficient.

And there are tax incentives [available] for energy-efficient upgrades to your home. Consumers can get and write them off, so that’s attractive to people as well.

GI: If you’re a renter, there are certain things that are out of your control. I suppose you can ask your landlord.

MW: Depending upon what your rental situation is. I feel like that’s a little bit more daunting, to change someone else’s mind. Once you get to your own home, eventually, then you have more say of what you can do.

Until then, you could be mindful about the energy you use. Turn lights off. I mean, that’s a real thing. People don’t turn lights off. I mean, even though I have a really efficient home, I have timers on things because I don’t want to be wasting energy. That’s an easy one that anybody could do.