Markets
Ford
Ford CEO Jim Farley (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

Why Ford shares are behind the pack

Ford’s sales numbers are good but its stock is down — what gives?

On Wednesday, Ford reported its best November sales numbers since before Covid hit, but it didn’t do much for the industrial icon’s sputtering share price.

The automaker’s share price has lagged inveterate rival GM pretty consistently this year, even though both companies face one of the more challenging backdrops for the industry in recent memory, from issues with Chinese operations to the tough-to-navigate transition to EVs.

But Ford has fallen further behind since July, when the company missed Wall Street’s expectations for earnings by a country mile thanks to the costs of safety recalls and fixes for older models. Those costs have squeezed the company’s operating margins sharply.

The company’s Q3 earnings numbers, issued in late October, didn’t do much to improve the trajectory of the shares, as the company issued a tepid outlook for full-year earnings, and comments from executives did little to assuage analysts of worries that the quality issues are over and done with.

Maybe it’s time for Ford to go back to its old motto from the 1980s.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

The negative reaction after Palantir’s earnings is spreading to other volatile retail favorites

Palantir is the poster child for a richly valued, retail darling, megacap momentum stock. It’s going down on largely good news, and that’s cascading to hit smaller, volatile segments of the market also beloved by the retail community.

Goldman Sachs baskets that track retail favorites and nonprofitable tech stocks are down more than 2% and 3% as of 9:43 a.m. ET, respectively, while the Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF is also off more than 2%.

Long Island highway patrol officer using radar to check speed

Stocks are getting speed checked

A retail favorite failing to build momentum even when it “deserves” to, the most important part of the stock market being told it’s overheating, and the heads of banks warning of a broader pullback.

markets

Spotify notches another quarter of strong active user growth and improved profitability

Spotify shares are up 3.25% as of 6:45 a.m. ET as investors digest the streaming giant’s Q3 earnings, in which the company reported that it added more than 70 million monthly active users, posted revenues that were up 7% from last year, and improved profitability.

Total revenues climbed to €4.27 billion, or around $4.91 billion, for the quarter, while net income came in at €899 million ($1.03 billion), which translated into adjusted earnings per share of €3.28 — ahead of the ~€1.96 that analysts had expected, per FactSet figures cited by The Wall Street Journal. Spotify now counts a whopping 713 million monthly active users, including 281 million premium subscribers, compared to 640 million and 252 million, respectively, on the same quarter last year.

The boosted figures come on the back of a host of new features that the streaming platform’s introduced, such as “lossless listening,” playlist mixing controls, and direct messages. The company is now forecasting that its total monthly active users will climb to 745 million by the end of the fourth quarter.

With the latest gains today, Spotify is now up ~48% year to date, even as cofounder Daniel Ek announced in September that he’d be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, almost 20 years on from the company’s inception.

markets

Michael Burry, of “Big Short” fame, discloses ~$1.1 billion options bet against Nvidia and Palantir

“The Big Short” investor Michael Burry, famous for predicting the 2008 housing crash — and a number of crashes since that haven’t materialized quite as spectacularly — has placed massive bets against Nvidia and Palantir, according to a new regulatory filing for the quarter ended September 30.

The 13-F filing released Monday discloses that Burrys fund, Scion Asset Management, bought put options on roughly 5 million Palantir shares worth $912 million, and 1 million Nvidia shares worth $187 million. Together, the two positions make up 80% of Scions disclosed US equity holdings, per the 13-F.

The 13-F filing released Monday discloses that Burrys fund, Scion Asset Management, bought put options on roughly 5 million Palantir shares worth $912 million, and 1 million Nvidia shares worth $187 million. Together, the two positions make up 80% of Scions disclosed US equity holdings, per the 13-F.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.