Amid this year’s damaging hurricane season, with generators in demand, Generac Power Systems has recalled about 64,000 of its portable generators after more than two dozen reports of overheating, some of which resulted in severe burns, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement.
The Wisconsin company received more than two dozen reports, “of the generators overheating and pressurizing or expelling fuel when opened. At least three incidents resulted in severe burn injuries, the commission said.
The “recalled generators’ fuel tank can fail to vent adequately from the rollover valve, causing the gas tank to build up excess pressure and expel fuel when opened, posing fire and burn hazards,” the commission said. The group is advising people to immediately stop using the recalled generators and contact Generac for a free repair kit.
CNN has reached out to Generac for comment.
The generators in question were sold “from April 2011 through June 2023 for between $3,300 and $3,650,” at most home improvement stores, the commission said.
The Thursday recall comes during hurricane season, when many people turn to generators in the aftermath of a storm to provide their homes with electricity.
This year’s hurricane season across the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea runs from June 1 to November 30. Tens of thousands of people are currently without power as post-tropical cyclone Lee continues to bring rain, wind and flooding to parts of Canada’s Atlantic provinces.
When Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida at the end of August, hundreds of thousands of people were left without power.
Tesla shares surged 22% in the past week, making it one of the top performers in a portfolio of stocks recommended by Barron’s.
Eric Thayer/Bloomberg
A portfolio of stocks picked by Barron’s has enjoyed a rally in the past week, as the market anticipates the end of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. A buoyant performance from the auto industry also juiced the portfolio.
The entire stock market has enjoyed a gain in the past week. The S&P 500 is up about 3% in that span, including a pop in the last couple of days. Wednesday, the Fed announced a small interest rate hike, but markets interpreted Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments to mean that the end of rate increases is coming soon.
The rally has helped the average stock in the Barron’s portfolio post a 3.8% gain in the past week. The measure differs from a value-weighted index like the S&P 500, where stocks with bigger market capitalizations have bigger effects on the index.
Almost three quarters of 86 stocks in the Barron’s portfolio are up in the past week, with some of the winners posting mammoth gains. Top performers include Generac
(GNRC), PoolCorp
(POOL) and Olaplex
(OLPX), which gained 15%, 14% and 19%, respectively in the past week.
Some stocks posted even larger gains.
Tesla
(TSLA) gained 22% since last Thursday’s close. In its fourth quarter of 2022 reported on Jan. 25, sales of $24.3 billion beat expectations for $24 billion, while earnings per share of $1.19 came in above estimates of $1.12. Wall Street is confident that, even with the company lowering prices as consumers feel the pain of higher rates, Tesla can keep boosting sales and profit growth. Analysts expect vehicle deliveries to grow 40% from a year earlier to almost 1.85 million in 2023, better than the 31% growth seen in the reported quarter.
“The key debates from here will be on whether vehicle deliveries can reaccelerate (we expect that they will especially starting in 2Q23),” writes Goldman Sachs
analyst Mark Delaney.
Barron’s recommended Tesla stock on Jan. 6, arguing that the the worst of the company’s challenges—including delivery growth—are behind it. The stock is up 67% since then.
Lithia Motors
(LAD), a $7 billion by market capitalization auto dealer, has seen its stock rise 23% in the past week. It reports fourth-quarter earnings Feb 15, but the stock has risen as the picture for auto sales has improved. Tesla’s quarterly performance helped, but so did General Motors‘ (GM). The automating giant reported better-than-expected sales and EPS and said on its earnings call that 2023 will be a “strong year,” one in which analysts expect sales growth.
Barron’s recommended Lithia Motors in April 2022, arguing that the stock was cheap and that production constraints that held sales back would soon be a thing of the past. Since then, the stock is up about 4%.
Lucid Group
(LCID), a $20 billion electric vehicle and battery maker, is up 39% since last Thursday. Earnings are Feb. 22, but strong auto trends already have helped. Lucid, too, is expected to lower prices and aggressively grow deliveries. The stock got a pop late in January on speculation that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund could buy the rest of the company. The fund recently invested $1.5 billion and holds just over 60% of the company.
