FRIDAY WRAP: Jewish female climate scientists win, Robyn Denholm’s payday, indestructible metal, and anti-woke stock exchanges

Introduction

IT’S FRIDAYYYYY!!! And we are LIVE, and ALIVE. This is Ari the Data Queen, joined by AnalystHole Matt Moscardi, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and Hazelnut Rallis. On today’s weekly wrap up: Exxon, Tesla, and others.

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Claudia Sheinbaum Elected as Mexico’s First Female President MM DR

1. Mexico’s first woman president was elected 5 years after it started requiring gender parity in government

1. Mexico’s 2019 constitutional reform required that political parties present equal numbers of male and female candidates for all offices.

2. The soon-to-be world leader is a physicist with a doctorate in energy engineering, and was a part of the United Nations panel of climate scientists awarded a Nobel Peace Prize

2. Vermont becomes first state to make fossil fuel companies pay for climate change

1. Allows Vermont to "bill fossil fuel companies retroactively for the costs of addressing, avoiding and adapting to the damages that the emissions from their products have caused" between 1995 and 2024

3. Texas to launch 'anti-woke' stock exchange to rival NYSE and Nasdaq AB

1. Backed by BlackRock and Citadel Securities, the Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas would go up against the Nasdaq and the NYSE and bid to attract global companies.

2. The TXSE, as it is known, wants to tap into companies worried at the increasing rules and compliance costs at the two New York exchanges.

3. The Nasdaq, for example, sets targets for more board diversity - dubbed a 'woke' move by critics. 

4. The new Texas stock exchange promises to be more CEO-friendly.

4. Elon Musk ordered Nvidia to ship thousands of AI chips reserved for Tesla to X and xAI

1. The new information from the emails, read by CNBC, highlights an escalating conflict between Musk and some agitated Tesla shareholders who question whether the billionaire CEO is fulfilling his obligations to Tesla while also running a collection of other companies that require his attention, resources and hefty amounts of capital.

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. Tesla investor, Norway's KLP, to support collective bargaining motion at EV maker's annual meeting

1. Norway’s largest fund will “vote in favour of a shareholder proposal urging the U.S. electric vehicle maker to engage in wage and other labour negotiations as it continues to face industrial action in Sweden.” 

2. Tesla mechanics in Sweden have been striking since Oct. 27

3. Sweden's AMF fund will also support proposal

4. KLP will oppose relocation of Tesla to Texas and ratifying Elon Musk's $56-bln pay package

2. Shareholder Activism Around ESG Is Rising—Just Ask the Church of England DR

1. Investors are increasingly voting against companies’ boards to push for climate policies

3. An Indestructible New Alloy Is Defying the Limits of Metal MM AB 

1. “In newly published research, scientists have revealed a special alloy that could change the game with its combination of temperature tolerance, resistance to wear, and previously unheard of fracture toughness”

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Data

1. $280m in exercised options in 2021 and 2022

2. 1,662,480 shares currently worth $295.8m in unexercised options in 2024

3. Headline: Tesla Chair Warns That Elon Musk May Throw Tantrum If He Doesn't Get Huge Pay Package

1. CORRECTION: Tesla Chairs May Throw Tantrum If She Doesn’t Get Elon Musk Paid and Keep Her Options Worth and Inflated $295.8m

2. Data

1. “Elon is right on the ESG scam. And ESG ratings need to go. 

2. “They’re illogical, they conflate risk and impact, they induce companies to virtue-signal and they’re riddled with conflict of interests.”

3. “Matt, if you worked at a regulated financial institution or European company right now, you would be saying something very different. Most corporate people have to DM me as they're afraid to comment publicly. This is a Spac, synthetic CDO, dot.com bubble, that just needs to squashed. Maybe initially well-intentioned but turned into a predatory monster”

4. “the ESG rating agencies on the take, inducing companies to virtue-signal to get into a BS ESG index”

5. Asshole: ESG Whistleblowers!

1. The Tariq Fancy effect in which ex “ESG people” who have never done any actual ESG data work prior to being an “ESG person” audition for Fox News on social media

2. Stuart Kirk, Tariq Fancy, Desiree Fixler - zero of you actually collected the data or built a rating, you all sold stuff

1. If you blow one whistle, does everything look like a whistle after?

3. Data

1. On behalf of the funds, we seek to understand how portfolio company boards—who are elected to serve on behalf of all shareholders effectively carry out their responsibilities. We examine how boards are composed to provide for their companies’ longterm success, how they consult with management on strategy and oversee material risks, how they align executives’ financial incentives with shareholders’ interests, and how they provide and safeguard shareholder rights. The funds seek to ensure that the individuals who serve as board directors to represent the interests of all shareholders are appropriately independent, experienced, committed, capable, and diverse.

2. We have a general view that certain shareholder proposals may not be an appropriate use of shareholder votes, particularly those that address a company’s ordinary business operations or strategy, address matters that do not materially bear on long-term shareholder returns at the company in question, or are duplicative or redundant. As a result, we do not view it as unreasonable that a company would take steps to avoid the cost, complexity, and potential distraction associated with managing shareholder proposals that may be excludable under Rule 14a-8 of the SEC’s proxy rules.

3. Headline: Vanguard says it backed Exxon board, but cites investor rights concerns

1. At each of Exxon’s two prior shareholder meetings (in 2022 and 2023), the company received shareholder proposals requesting that the company set GHG reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement. The Vanguard-advised funds did not support either of these proposals, and they received relatively low support from shareholders (27% and 11% of the votes cast in 2022 and 2023, respectively).

2. In our assessment, the Exxon board demonstrated appropriate oversight of the process and made a compelling argument for why the company’s actions to seek clarity were in the interests of Exxon shareholders in this case

3. Vanguard - I’m saying it here and now - you’re not allowed to buy our data

4. I’ve never seen the idea of governance so misused as whatever you put out in your littler missive justifying backing the Exxon board - I hope they sue you for engaging with them

4. Data

1. There are 585 current and former CEOs on the boards of US large cap companies today

2. 538 of them are men

3. The average board size is 11 people, the average number of women is 3.5

4. Those women should have 32% of board influence, but have 22% - meaning 5 women have as much power as 3 men

5. Headline: BlackRock, Citadel Securities-backed TXSE Group to launch Texas Stock Exchange AB DR

1. It is slated to be “more CEO friendly”

2. It is slated to have no diversity rules

3. Blackrock’s voting policy:

1. In our view, a strong board provides a competitive advantage to a company, providing valuable oversight and contributing to the most important management decisions that support long-term financial performance. 

2. It is in this context that we are interested in diversity in the boardroom. We see it as a means to promoting diversity of thought and avoiding ‘group think’ in the board’s advising of and overseeing management.

3. Increasingly, we see leading boards nominating directors from diverse backgrounds which helps ensure boards can more effectively understand the company’s customers, employees, and communities.

Headline-iest (ALL):

1. AB: Orange juice makers might need a substitute fruit as a historic shortage has prices soaring AB

1. Elon Musk can’t just ask ‘his brother and his besties’ to pay him $46 billion, NYC comptroller says

2. DR: Elon Musk's $46 billion payday is 'not about the money,' Tesla chair says MM DR

3. DR: Costco bails on books because stocking them is too much work

4. DR: Remote Amazon Tribe Finally Gets Internet, Gets Hooked on Porn and Social Media 

5. MM: EY Survey Sheds Light On Whistleblower Woes

1. Death

6. MM: Boeing’s Starliner finally soars, but mission control reports more helium leaks

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: 1a. Claudia Sheinbaum 1b. Doris Burke, the first woman to serve as a game analyst on the television broadcast of a championship final in one of the four major U.S. sports leagues

2. AB: 

3. MM: Arlene Blum and Jill Schneiderman, the only other female Jewish climate scientists outside of Claudia Sheinbaum

4. JS: 

Predictions

1. DR: The US elects its first Jewish/female/climate scientist/feminist President in 3050

2. AB: Elon gets pay package

3. MM: Robyn Denholm’s pay package passes next week

4. JS: