Sweden’s Northvolt on Wednesday said the head of its main plant, Europe’s first homegrown gigafactory for lithium-ion battery cells, will step down with immediate effect.

It comes shortly after the cash-strapped company announced plans to reduce its workforce by about 25% in Sweden as part of a major cost-cutting drive.

Mark Duchesne, CEO of Northvolt Ett, will be replaced on an interim basis by Angéline J. Bilodeau, the firm’s vice president of operations in North America, the company said in a statement.

The position will be held until the end of the year as the company seeks to secure a permanent replacement for CEO of Northvolt Ett, it added.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Northvolt is one of Europe’s most valuable privately held tech firms that builds lithium-ion batteries for the electric vehicle industry. It has partnerships with a number of major European automakers, including Volkswagen and Volvo.

In an update published Sept. 23, Northvolt said that following initial steps taken as part of a strategic review, the company had revised its scope of operations in Sweden “to ensure that its resources are focused on accelerating production in large-scale cell manufacturing at Northvolt Ett.”

The strategic action required the company to cut a total of 1,600 jobs in Sweden, Northvolt said.

Alongside plans to lay off staff, Northvolt said at the time that it would suspend plans for a sizable expansion of Northvolt Ett, noting the project had been intended to provide an additional 30 gigawatt hours of annual cell manufacturing capacity.

On Tuesday, a Northvolt Ett subsidiary filed for bankruptcy following the decision to suspend the expansion project — an update that underscores the group’s deepening financial struggles.

Separately, Swedish automaker Volvo Cars on Wednesday announced deputy CEO Björn Annwall will step down from his current role as part of a management reshuffle.

The reorganization at Volvo Cars comes shortly after the firm scrapped its near-term goal of selling only electric vehicles, citing a need to be “pragmatic and flexible” amid changing market conditions and cooling demand.

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Rebound rally
U.S. stocks rebounded on Tuesday, with all major indexes rising. Technology stocks, in particular, rallied to lift the Nasdaq Composite. APAC

Google, it’s not me, it’s you
Breaking up Google is one recommendation the U.S. Department of Justice made to remedy the tech giant’s monopoly in the search market – a ruling the courts reached in August after the U.S. government filed a case against Google in 2020. Legal experts, however, think a break-up isn’t very likely and that the courts will order Google to pursue other remedies.

Cooling oil prices
Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid reports by The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post that Israel might focus on striking Iran’s military sites in retaliation for its missile attacks. Both West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures retreated 4.63% during U.S. trading hours Tuesday, halting the red-hot rally oil prices have experienced the past week. 

New Zealand cuts rates
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand slashed interest rates by half a percentage point on Wednesday. It’s the second consecutive cut after the RBNZ unexpectedly lowered rates by a quarter point in August. The central bank’s likely to make another half-point cut in November, Paul Bloxham, HSBC’s chief economist for Australia and New Zealand, told CNBC.

[PRO] Time to invest in China?
China’s blue-chip CSI 300 index popped 5.93% on Tuesday after markets returned from their seven-day Golden Week holiday. However, there are signs the sizzling rally is cooling. The CSI 300 is currently down around 5.6% as of Wednesday morning. On the back of such turbulence, CNBC Pro asks two strategists whether now’s the time to invest in China.

After falling 0.96% on Monday, the S&P 500 added 0.97% on Tuesday. (Though it should be noted that doesn’t necessarily mean the S&P erased its losses and is up 1 basis point from Monday to Tuesday. Percentages are hard.)

Likewise, the Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.18% Monday but climbed 1.45% yesterday, zapped higher by a rally in tech stocks like Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks and Meta. The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t have that dramatic a swing, losing 0.94% Monday but advancing 0.3% Tuesday.

October, then, is truly living up to its reputation as the most volatile month for stocks. But investors should keep in mind the uncomfortable swings in markets aren’t always a good signal for the underlying health of stocks.  

“While our expectation is for October to remain choppy, we don’t view the overall market action to be bearish and encourage investors to maintain perspective on the longer-term trends,” Robert Sluymer, technical strategist at RBC Wealth Management, wrote to clients in a Tuesday note.

Investment bank Piper Sandler has the same opinion on October’s turbulence. “October is historically a ‘backing and filling’ month as investors react to Q3 earnings results,” Craig Johnson, chief market technician, wrote in a Tuesday note.

In fact, when stocks dip because of mild repricing or a correction, that’s a good opportunity for investors to swoop in, according to Johnson.

The see-saw motion of stocks in October isn’t all that bad, then, if investors can seize the right time to enter the market or solidify their positions further. It doesn’t have to be spooky season all the time. 

– CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Samantha Subin and Alex Harring contributed to this story.   

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Rebound rally
U.S. stocks rebounded on Tuesday, with all major indexes rising. Technology stocks, in particular, rallied to lift the Nasdaq Composite. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.55%. European liquor producers like LVMH, Pernod Ricard and Diageo slumped after China announced anti-dumping measures on brandy products imported from the European Union.

Cooling oil prices
Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid reports Israel might focus on striking Iran’s military sites in retaliation for its missile attacks, according to reports by The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post.  Both West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures retreated 4.63% yesterday, halting the red-hot rally oil prices have experienced the past week. 

GM’s not slowing down
General Motors aims to bring in between $13 billion and $15 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes for 2024. The Detroit automaker also expects its 2025 adjusted earnings to be in a “similar range,” said CFO Paul Jacobson during the company’s investor day. That’d be an accomplishment, given the slowdown in the industry.

Shorting Roblox
Short seller Hindenburg Research alleged on Tuesday that Roblox conflated daily active users with the number of people visiting its platform. This distorts the true number of people accessing Roblox because DAUs could include bots or alternate accounts, Hindenburg said. Roblox denies all claims in the report. 

[PRO] Slower earnings growth
Third-quarter earnings season ramps up this week, with banking giant JPMorgan Chase slated to announce its financial results on Friday. Investors might want to temper expectations. For companies in the S&P 500, Wall Street projects a slower pace of earnings growth compared with its estimate in June, according to FactSet data. 

After falling 0.96% on Monday, the S&P 500 added 0.97% on Tuesday. (Though it should be noted that doesn’t necessarily mean the S&P erased its losses and is up 1 basis point from Monday to Tuesday. Percentages are hard.)

Likewise, the Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.18% Monday but climbed 1.45% yesterday, zapped higher by a rally in tech stocks like Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks and Meta. The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t have that dramatic a swing, losing 0.94% Monday but advancing 0.3% Tuesday.

October, then, is truly living up to its reputation as the most volatile month for stocks. But investors should keep in mind the uncomfortable swings in markets aren’t always a good signal for the underlying health of stocks.  

“While our expectation is for October to remain choppy, we don’t view the overall market action to be bearish and encourage investors to maintain perspective on the longer-term trends,” Robert Sluymer, technical strategist at RBC Wealth Management, wrote to clients in a Tuesday note.

Investment bank Piper Sandler has the same opinion on October’s turbulence. “October is historically a ‘backing and filling’ month as investors react to Q3 earnings results,” Craig Johnson, chief market technician, wrote in a Tuesday note.

In fact, when stocks dip because of mild repricing or a correction, that’s a good opportunity for investors to swoop in, according to Johnson.

The see-saw motion of stocks in October isn’t all that bad, then, if investors can seize the right time to enter the market or solidify their positions further. It doesn’t have to be spooky season all the time. 

– CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Samantha Subin and Alex Harring contributed to this story.   

Nearly 16% of gas stations in Florida had run out of fuel as of late morning Tuesday as people flee north to escape the path of Hurricane Milton, according to data from GasBuddy.

Many stations simply can’t keep up with gasoline demand as millions of Floridians collectively evacuate, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. About 1,200 of the state’s 7,900 gas stations are currently without fuel, according to the data.

“The sheer bulk of this is simply people getting out of harm’s way,” De Haan told CNBC. Prices should not rise as a consequence of the storm because infrastructure and refineries are not expected to be impacted, he said.

Milton is forecast to make landfall on the west-central coast of Florida on Wednesday night and then move east-northeastward across the central part of the state through Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Milton is currently a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. The storm is forecast to remain “an extremely dangerous hurricane” through landfall in Florida, according to the forecasters.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday morning that the state was stockpiling fuel ahead of the storm. Gas stations are running out of fuel and lines are long but there is not a shortage in the state, DeSantis said.

Fuel continues to arrive in Florida by port and trucks have been dispatching supplies to stations in the anticipated impact area, the governor said. The Port of Tampa and other Gulf Coast ports are not receiving ships but the facilities have fuel on hand and dockside operations will continue, he said.

There are no oil refineries in Florida and only 2,000 barrels of oil per day are produced in the state, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. However, there are several terminals along the waterfront in Tampa that could be impacted by Milton, Lipow said.

“They are at risk from storm surge, flooding, and power outages,” Lipow said in a Tuesday note. “Significant damage to these facilities will impact on the ability to get gasoline and diesel back into the area for distribution.”

Gasoline delivery by tanker likely will not be possible in Tampa until Sunday at the earliest, Lipow said. Terminals with power, however, could begin distribution of fuel Saturday and Sunday depending on worker and truck driver availability as well as whether local gas stations are working, he said.