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THE HEADLINES
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HACK-TOGETHER-A-THON
Elon Musk is sleeping under his desk and channeling his inner PT Barnum to hand build Model 3’s under the big top among a circus of media coverage.
Tesla’s goal? Produce 5k of the sedans in a week. According to employees, and Musk’s tweets, as of early Sunday AM: mission accomplished. The 5,000th EV rolled off the line and passed inspection.
Of course, this comes the same week as Tesla’s quarterly delivery and production numbers are set to drop. Musk’s mass producers have engaged in the equivalent of an Adderall fueled cram sesh, dubbed all-out “burst” builds by wary analysts. These are often used to create an estimate for production numbers. Textbook over promising, under delivering.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “No word on why the billionaire can’t just buy a Tempurpedic bed for the office and instead is choosing to go the George Costanza route.”
TARIFFS, EH?
Canada announced tariffs on $12.5B of U.S goods as a result of the U.S imposing cross-border taxes on steel and aluminum coming from our neighbors to the north last month.
Whether or not Canada is being uncharacteristically impolite is up for debate, but they aren’t the only other government retaliating against US tariffs. The EU announced that they will be levying a 25% tariff on certain US goods and China, Mexico, and others have been quick to counter.
The economic consequences of the counterstrike are already rearing their ugly head, with Harley Davidson announcing last week that it will move certain operations to the EU. General Motors is the latest U.S company to announce that the newly imposed tariffs could result in a “smaller GM.”
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Eye for an eye seems like a great strategy.”
CROWN JUUL
Juul Labs Inc. most recent round of funding includes a $1.2B investment, or, roughly the price of one pack of cigarettes in NYC. After the deal closes the company’s valuation will stand right around $16B. The company’s current backers include Tiger Global Management and Fidelity Investments.
What’s the preferred vape maker of US high school students to do with all this new capital? Expand overseas, of course. As of last month, Juul controls over 68% of the US vape market, but the product is currently only available in Israel outside of the US.
Juul’s competitors in the traditional tobacco space are certainly feeling the pinch (yes, that’s a dipping pun) with Philip Morris International Inc shares down 23% this year, and British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco down 24% and 15%, respectively.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Sure, Juul would like to expand internationally, but let’s be realistic, as long as there are college parties at SEC schools, there will be an American market for Juul’s products.”
IN OTHER NEWS
- Sprint and AT&T will raise their administrative fees, a move that will bring each company hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue. As if phone bills weren’t expensive enough already.
- Inflation hit its six-year high this past May, achieving the Feds target of 2%.
- Apple announced Friday that they will be building their own maps database, a move that might leave TomTom upstream without a paddle. They’ve been data partners with Apple for the past 6 years. All good things must come to an end.
- Deutsche Bank may fall out of the Euro Stoxx 50 thanks to its large decrease in market cap. DB’s stock price has already fallen 40% this year and an exit from the Euro Stoxx 50 will cut the bank off from ETFs with $45B in assets that follow the index. Godspeed.
- US indices were up Friday:
- DOW: +0.23%
- S&P 500: +0.08%
- NASDAQ: +0.09%