[ad_1]
Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk at the Viva Technology conference on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France.
Chesnot | Getty Images News | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
What you need to know today
Muted markets
Major U.S. indexes inched up fractionally Monday, in a quiet start to the second half of the year. European markets mostly traded lower. The Stoxx 600 Index slipped 0.21%, dragged down by AstraZeneca’s 8% drop after disappointing results from a trial of an experimental lung cancer drug. However, Italy’s FTSE MIB Index added 0.77% to hit a 52-week high.
Electrifying growth
Tesla shares popped 6.9% yesterday after the company reported a staggering 83% year-over-year growth in deliveries during the second quarter. Other electric vehicle makers are delivering the goods too, literally. Rivian shares jumped 17.4% after the company reported 12,640 deliveries during the second quarter, up 59% from the previous quarter. Xpeng, the Chinese electric vehicle maker, climbed 4.17% after it said it delivered 23,205 vehicles in the second quarter, its first increase after more than a year of declines.
12 stars and a rising sun
The European Union wants to cooperate more closely with Japan on technologies like artificial intelligence and semiconductor chips, said EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who met the Japanese government yesterday. The EU’s partnerships with Japan and other Asian countries, like South Korea, are part of the bloc’s efforts to “de-risk” from China.
Flocking to bluer skies
Twitter competitor Bluesky experienced “record-high traffic” Saturday after Twitter temporarily limited the number of posts users can view per day. Elon Musk, Twitter’s executive chairman and CTO, said the move was because of “extreme levels of data scraping.” Bluesky is backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and is still in an invite-only beta phase.
[PRO] New high for the S&P 500?
Fundstrat founder Tom Lee thinks the S&P 500 can hit 4,825 by the end of the year. That represents an 8% rise from Monday’s close of 4,455.59 and a level that surpasses the previous record of 4,821. Lee acknowledged his call is “aggressive,” but pointed out that since 1950, when the S&P gained over 10% in the first half and was lower in the previous year, the median gain for the rest of the year was 12%.
The bottom line
Markets in the U.S. closed early ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
Just 32.8 million shares of the SPDR S&P 500, an ETF that tracks the S&P index, were traded — far below its 30-day average of 85.3 million and its lowest volume since November. That was reflected in the marginal moves indexes made. The S&P 500 advanced 0.12%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.21%.
Still, one stock set off fireworks on a quiet day. Tesla shares popped 6.9% and helped drive forward other electric vehicle stocks, such as Rivian, Fisker and Lucid.
“It was a jaw dropper,” Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives said, referring to Tesla’s blockbuster report on its second-quarter deliveries. “Those price cuts, that was the poker move that they needed to make to put an iron fence around their install base.”
But Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi Jr., a longtime bear on the stock, expressed concerns over those price cuts. “The key question for investors is what might margins be?” Sacconaghi said. “We worry that Tesla will have to further lower prices in 2023 and/or 2024 to meet unit expectations.”
U.S. markets will be closed today as traders celebrate Independence Day. On the agenda: barbecues. And while not literally on the grill, broader indexes should have a sizzling July, if history is any guide: CNBC’s Robert Hum noted that since 2009, the month has been the best of the year for the S&P and Nasdaq, and the second best for the Dow.
[ad_2]
