S&P Global Inc. - SPGI STOCK NEWS

S&P Global Mobility forecasts January 2025 U.S. auto sales to reach 1.15 million units, with a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 16.2 million units. While this represents a slight decrease from December 2024's pace, it marks the fourth consecutive month above the 16-million mark.

The January sales slowdown is attributed to December 2024's strong closeout and adverse weather conditions. Inventory levels are lower entering 2025, with retail advertised inventory at 2.89 million vehicles by December 2024's end, the lowest since July 2024. Light truck SAAR is projected at 13.1 million units, while passenger car SAAR is expected at 3.1 million units.

Battery-electric vehicle (BEV) share is anticipated to maintain at 9.0% in January, as stakeholders evaluate potential changes to BEV incentives. The industry faces an uncertain demand environment in 2025 due to potential policy changes from the new administration.

Inovalon announced a significant leadership transition as founder and CEO Keith Dunleavy, M.D., will retire on March 1, 2025, moving to the Board of Directors. Adam Kansler, former President of S&P Global Market Intelligence, has been appointed as the new CEO.

Under Dr. Dunleavy's 26-year leadership, Inovalon grew into a major healthcare cloud-based software solutions provider, serving over 50,000 healthcare customers. Key achievements include the company's 2015 IPO, 2021 privatization, transformation to a pure-play cloud-based SaaS and DaaS platform provider, and AI implementation. The company manages data from more than 87 billion medical events.

Since its 2021 privatization, Inovalon has achieved double-digit compound annual growth in customer count, EHR NPI connectivity, unique medical event count, revenue, gross margin, and adjusted EBITDA.

CARFAX has announced its sixth annual Top-Rated Dealers Awards, recognizing the nation's leading dealerships based on 7.8 million verified customer ratings. The 2024 winners achieved an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars, with approximately 20% of recipients maintaining their top-rated status since the award's inception six years ago.

The company is also introducing the 5X Top-Rated Dealer Award for dealerships maintaining high customer ratings for five consecutive years. Winning dealerships will receive promotional materials for their showrooms and digital assets, including the ability to showcase their recognition on Vehicle History Reports. They can also promote their achievement on social media using #CARFAXtoprated, and will receive the #GoldenCARFOX recognition.

automotiveMastermind has unveiled enhanced Actionable Intelligence™ features with Mastermind CoPilot, a generative AI-powered sales talk track generator. The system creates instant sales scripts for calls, emails, and SMS communications, leveraging over one billion customer and vehicle data points collected over a decade.

The technology utilizes behavior drivers, customer information, vehicle details, and replacement deal information to generate customized scripts. What sets Mastermind CoPilot apart is its foundation in comprehensive automotive data science and predictive analytics, ensuring highly personalized and accurate messaging for dealership sales professionals.

The company will showcase Mastermind CoPilot at NADA Show in New Orleans at booth #3535, January 24-26, 2025.

S&P Global Commodity Insights has launched pioneering weekly cement and cement clinker price assessments for Turkey and associated freight to Europe and North America. This marks the first-ever cement assessments by a Price Reporting Agency in a market valued at approximately $400 billion.

The initiative comes as the cement industry, accounting for about 8% of global emissions, faces increasing pressure for decarbonization and transparency. The assessments are particularly significant given upcoming regulations like the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism in 2026.

Turkey's position as a major cement and clinker trader, supported by strong logistics, quality standards, and strategic location, makes it a important focus for these assessments. The new suite incorporates market data including bids, offers, trades, and other indicators to reflect spot market values at key cement hubs.

automotiveMastermind has launched Acquire, a new data-driven technology within the Mastermind platform designed to help automotive dealers expand their market share. The product leverages Polk Audiences from S&P Global Mobility and auto finance-related data to identify potential vehicle buyers outside dealers' existing databases.

The system features an interactive Opportunity Map organized by ZIP code, allowing dealers to visualize and target specific neighborhoods and audiences. Acquire automates multi-month direct outreach campaigns and includes customizable marketing templates with features for hero vehicles, personalized discounts, and specific calls to action. The product will be showcased at NADA Show in New Orleans, January 24-26, 2025.

CARFAX reports a concerning rise in unfixed vehicle recalls, with 58.1 million vehicles (one in five) having at least one unresolved recall - a 16% increase in two years. More alarmingly, over 14 million vehicles have two or more unresolved recalls, potentially affecting critical safety components like brakes, airbags, and seatbelts.

The top three states with multiple unfixed recalls are Texas (1.6 million), California (1.5 million), and Florida (901,000). Despite these repairs being available at no cost to car owners, the number of unfixed recalls continues to grow. CARFAX Car Care, a free service monitoring over 67 million registered vehicles, helps drivers track maintenance needs, safety inspections, and new recalls.

automotiveMastermind has enhanced its dealership services by introducing real-time tracking of customer website activity, complementing its Behavior Prediction Score (BPS) system. The new Actionable Intelligence™ feature monitors customers' interactions on dealership websites, including search results, vehicle detail page activity, credit applications, service scheduling, chat conversations, and lead form submissions.

The functionality, integrated into Mastermind's Customer Deal Sheet, enables dealership sales and marketing teams to create personalized customer outreach based on actual shopping behavior. This enhancement builds upon Mastermind's existing capability to predict potential customers and adds prescriptive abilities to respond to real shopping patterns. The company will showcase this new feature at the NADA Show in New Orleans, January 24-26, 2025.

S&P Global Commodity Insights forecasts that cleantech energy supply investments will reach $670 billion in 2025, surpassing upstream oil and gas spending for the first time. Solar PV will represent half of all cleantech investments and two-thirds of installed megawatts.

The report identifies key trends including: supply chain tensions with China's dominance in manufacturing, battery storage transformation of power markets, AI revolution in clean energy management, datacenter-driven clean energy procurement expected to reach 300 TWh annually by 2030, and ammonia's emergence in low-carbon hydrogen production. The CCUS sector is projected to secure 70 million metric tons per year of CO2 capture capacity in 2025.

Despite significant investments, current levels remain insufficient to meet climate goals, particularly the target of tripling renewable capacity by 2030. China is expected to add nearly twice as many gigawatts per dollar compared to the United States, while its market share in PV module production will decline to 65% and battery cell manufacturing to 61% by 2030.