EU imposes defeat on Apple, big techs and startups aim at carbon capture and what matters in the market

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EU obliges standard charger

The European Union (EU) announced on Tuesday an agreement for smartphones, tablets and other portable devices sold in the block to adopt only the USB-C charger from 2024.

The rule is considered a defeat for Apple and still needs to be approved by Parliament and the countries of the bloc.

What explains: the purpose of the rule, according to the EU, is to reduce the amount of e-waste and also to ease the pocket of consumers, who will not need a different charger each time they buy a new device.

upset: Apple, which uses a Lightning technology charger, was strongly opposed to the project and said that the adoption of a single charger is a brake on innovation. The USB-C type is used by Samsung and other American rivals in mobile devices.

In numbers: European consumers spend around 2.4 billion of euros (R$ 12.5 billion) a year in cables and adapters to charge their devices, according to EU calculations.

Is here? Brazil still does not have a regulation of this type, but the authorities are on an offensive against the sale of devices without a charger.

Last month, the Ministry of Justice guided the more than 900 Procons units across the country to file administrative proceedings against Apple and Samsung for this reason.

CO2 capture attracts big techs and startups

On the offensive against the climate crisis and to achieve carbon neutrality, just cutting emissions is not enough. Efforts are also needed to remove carbon from the air, a task that has attracted big techs and startups.

Understand: the goal is to store carbon permanently or at least for over a thousand years. This avoids the risks of natural carbon sequestration projects, such as planting trees, which are vulnerable to fire and decay.

• Today the process to sequester CO2 is limited and expensive, but companies like Stripe, Alphabet (which owns Google), Shopify, Meta (which owns Facebook) and McKinsey have committed to spending almost $1 billion to develop more accessible technology.

In numbers: the costs of carbon capture projects revolve around $250 (R$ 1,199) per ton of CO2. The idea is to cut to less than $100 (BRL 479).

startups have bet on geothermal energy, a renewable and cheap source, to power the fans of carbon capture plants. This is what happens in the largest project of its kind in the world, in Iceland, operated by the Swiss company Climeworks, which captured US$ 650 million (R$ 3.1 billion) in April.

More about ESG

The message from the market to the fuel package

The financial market showed this Tuesday (7) its reaction to the package announced the day before by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to reduce fuel taxes until the end of the year.

The fiscal risk of a set of measures that can cost up to BRL 50 billion to the Union made the real the second worst-performing currency against the dollar – behind only the Russian ruble.

In numbers: the american currency rose 1.41% on the day, the BRL 4.87, after reaching R$4.93 during the trading session. The Ibovespa retreated 0.11%, to 110,069 points, going against the US indices.

What explains: although analysts point out that the entry into force of the measures could reduce the price of fuel at the pump and alleviate inflation in the short term, the fear is about the hole in public accounts.

• As there is no room in the ceiling for tens of billions in subsidies, the government intends to tighten up the rule by sending a PEC to Congress.

• The drop in the Ibovespa was not more expressive only because the shares of Petrobras, Vale and Suzano, which are almost 29% index, rose along with commodity prices. The Bloomberg index, which brings together a basket of these items, reached its all-time high on Tuesday.

More about investments:

Dollar outflow: the balance of foreign resources was negative in emerging markets for the third consecutive month, showed the Institute of International Finance. If you exclude China, which had a positive flow, the losses were $9.6 billion (R$ 45 billion) in May.

End of crypto winter? The flow of investments into cryptocurrency funds was positive in May, a sign to some analysts that these assets may be at a price level close to the bottom.

Alternative investments: Vitreo launched a fund that seeks opportunities for gains in the luxury wine market, with the possibility of redemption in cash or bottles of wine. Understand the strategy behind this type of investment here.

Daslu is auctioned for BRL 10 million

In a fierce dispute in the last minutes, Daslu, a traditional Brazilian luxury brand, was auctioned this Tuesday by BRL 10 million.

In numbers: five participants offered 32 bids in the dispute for the brand in the final moments of the auction. The winner, whose name is still withheld, will pay an additional 5% commission to the auctioneer.

• The initial bid was R$1.41 million, and the name Daslu and 50 related sub-brands were involved in the event, such as Villa Daslu, Daslu Casa, Daslu Homem and Daslu Pet.

Money destination: the funds go to a judicial account to pay the creditors of Daslu’s bankrupt estate, which accumulates labor and tax debts.

The brand story: former owner of the most luxurious address in the country, a 15 thousand m² on the Pinheiros waterfront, in the south of São Paulo, Daslu was founded over 60 years ago.

• It became a reference in the luxury market, with imported pieces, from the 1990s onwards. The brand had the role of ambassador for high-end brands and offered luxurious experiences in its stores, such as helipad, spa, restaurants.

• In 2005, it handled about BRL 400 million in sales per year and employed around 1,000 people.

• The empire began to crumble in 2005, after a mega-operation that arrested the owners of Daslu. The investigation pointed out that there was a scheme with shell companies to under-invoice imports to evade taxes.