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Hey Snackers,
KITT is here, and it’s a Buick. GM execs announced that as early as next year, owners of select vehicles will be able to chat with their car via Google Gemini AI. According to the automaker, drivers will be able to talk to their car “as naturally as [they] would to a fellow passenger.” No word yet on if the “Knight Rider” update will enable the kind of witty repartee we came to expect from an intelligent supercar.
Stocks slumped on Wednesday as the downturn in traders’ favorite speculative pockets of the market that started late last week began to infect the blue-chip stocks that have been big winners for major indexes. The indexes still managed to finish well off their lows, however, with the S&P 500 down 0.5%, the Nasdaq 100 about 1% lower, and the Russell 2000 underperforming with a drop of nearly 1.5%.
Tesla posts best quarterly revenue ever in last quarter with EV tax credit
The last quarter with the US government’s EV tax credit was a serious boon for Tesla.Â
The company posted its highest quarterly revenue ever, at $28.1 billion in the third quarter, coming in well ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of $25.3 billion. Earnings were $0.50, matching analysts’ forecast of $0.50.
The latest earnings come after Tesla sold a record number of vehicles in the third quarter, helped by customers who flocked to buy EVs en masse to take advantage of the $7,500 tax credits before they expired.
Tesla accomplished the feat of record sales by offering huge discounts that ate into its profit margins.Â
Its automotive gross margin excluding revenue credits was 15.4% last quarter, down from 17.1% a year earlier. That number was nearly 30% for the third quarter of 2021.
As a countermeasure to the end of the government’s tax credit, Tesla earlier this month unveiled its long-awaited more affordable vehicles, in the form of lower-trim versions of its Model 3 and Model Y. These “Standard” models cost about $5,000 less than previous versions but also have a lot fewer features, with the intention of increasing sales volume as a way to drive overall revenue, though it’s likely that could eat into earnings.
The Takeaway
This was a transitional quarter in a transitional year of a transitional era for Tesla. Quarterly, the company was really trying to roll as many cars off the lot as possible before losing a valuable incentive. This year has also held big launches of the nascent robotaxi product that many see as the future of the automaker. And more broadly, Tesla is calling for a transition to a business where that robotaxi expansion and the Optimus robot development become where most of the company’s value lies.
Regional Air Mobility Is Getting The AI TreatmentÂ
Surf Air Mobility (NYSE: SRFM) is building SurfOS: its proprietary vertical AI platform designed specifically for air mobility. SurfOS is designed to optimize flights, crews, aircraft, and passenger distribution across Surf Air Mobility’s scheduled operations and on-demand service and become the operating system for the air mobility industry.
The platform is designed to create industry intelligence at scale — optimizing regional operations today while paving the way for new electrified aircraft to start flying at scale in the future.
With a blue-chip AI software partnership already in place, Surf Air Mobility is the aviation player making strides towards more efficient, accessible, and sustainable regional air travel.
The momentum unwind accelerates in megacaps
First, high-flying speculative stocks took a nosedive. Then, gold lost some of its shine. Now, the megacap components of the momentum trade are also looking wobbly.
The iShares USA Momentum Factor ETF, which holds stocks with the best risk-adjusted price performance over the past year and six months, trailed the S&P 500 by nearly a point yesterday.
Amid a broader unwind of momentum trades, stocks tied to the nuclear-powered AI trade — Oklo, Nano Nuclear, and Centrus Energy among them — took a particularly hard beating. JPMorgan strategist Arun Jain estimated that retail traders dumped $24 million in Oklo shares in the first hour and a half of trading alone.
The sell-off also hit quantum stocks, which have enjoyed a monster run that’s beginning to sour. Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum both saw large outflows.
The momentum ETF has now notched seven straight sessions of lagging the S&P 500, its longest such streak of underperformance since Q4 2023.
The Takeaway
The negative reactions to GE Vernova and Netflix’s earnings reports — both constituents of the ETF — may be the catalyst for a big retrenchment in the space, the same way Walmart’s disappointing outlook sank the group (and the overall market) in the first quarter.
The Best Thing We Read Today
Elon Musk’s Colossus 2 data center is MACROHARD
The roof of xAI’s new Colossus 2 data center shouts a message to the world that it aims to take on Microsoft, satellite images show.
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What Else We're Snackin'
Traders have priced the probability of a Vikings win over the Los Angeles Chargers during Tuesday Night Football at 63%, according to Robinhood’s* events contract markets
Meta reorganized its AI teams yet again, this time laying off 600 peopleÂ
Standard Chartered said that bitcoin’s dip below $100,000 is “inevitable,” and traders in prediction markets agree
Apple “drastically” cut its iPhone Air production, as it turns out at least in terms of their phones, people don’t like skinny
Employer-provided healthcare premiums rose to an average of $27,000 this year
(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company.)
Snack Fact Of The Day
Din Tai Fung earns more per restaurant than any other chain in the US.
Today's Events
Earnings expected from T-Mobile, Intel, Ford, American Airlines, Hasbro, and Nokia
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