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Hey Snackers,
Welcome back from the Fourth — For city dwellers, hopefully this means the end of illegal fireworks popping off every night, at all hours of the night, for the past few months. Was almost getting used to it...
Last week was the worst yet for new COVID-19 cases in the US, leading to more roll-backs of economic reopening plans. But markets rallied on a record employment report: 4.8M jobs were added in June (compared to 2.9M expected).
On our pod: Insur-tech startup Lemonade referred to itself as a "cocktail of delightful experience" and used the word "revolutionary" 7 times in its IPO paperwork — our 15-minute daily podcast is looking at why the stock doubled on Day #1 of trading.
Electrify
Tesla becomes the most valuable car company on Earth, passing Toyota
And I think it's gonna be Elon, lon, time... SpaceX Rocket Man and Tesla EV pioneer Elon Musk is having a winning 2020 (unlike the rest of us). In addition to a historic rocket launch and a baby named X Æ A-Xii, Elon has now notched the title: "CEO of world's most valuable car company."
- On Wednesday, Tesla became the most valuable car company in the world. Its market cap is now around $224B, well past long-time #1 Toyota's $205B.
- On Thursday, Tesla backed up that milestone with expectations-beating numbers: It produced 82K cars and delivered 91K last quarter.
Still seeing more Priuses... Tesla's deliveries fell only 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year — impressive, since the April through June quarter was peak corona-conomy shutdown. For reference: GM, Ford and Toyota saw quarterly sales plunge by over 30%. But Tesla's total numbers still pale in comparison to Toyota's:
- 368K: The number of cars Tesla delivered last year, compared to Toyota's 11M (30X more than Tesla).
- Annual profit: What Toyota has delivered for years — Tesla has yet to swing one.
Tesla is a young avocado tree... and Toyota is a mature, profitable orange tree. Investors like Tesla's potential — and stock prices are all about future growth. After years of quarterly losses, Tesla has delivered 3 profitable quarters in a row. Plus, it was able to maintain that momentum during an economic crisis/global pandemic. Investors like what they see, so they're buying the stock hoping for future profit growth.
Highs
Who's up...
Vax off, vax on... Pfizer and BioNTech shares soared on positive data from their COVID-19 vaccine trial. The big pharma companies unveiled an aggressive timeline: Pfizer expects to manufacture up to 100M doses by the end of 2020, and over 1B by end of 2021. Like smaller biotech company Moderna, Pfizer is testing an mRNA vaccine (these have never been approved for human use). Others like Johnson & Johnson are testing more OG traditional candidates. And both types of vaccines are receiving billions in US gov funding.
Double Kardashian makeover... Coty stock jumped after its latest Kardashian investment: the cosmetics giant is dishing out $200M for a 20% stake in Kim Kardashian's makeup brand KKW Beauty. Sales of Coty's own and licensed products (picture CoverGirl makeup and Burberry perfume) have been falling. Now investors hope Insta-famous, direct-to-consumer brands like KKW and Kylie Cosmetics can give 116-year-old Coty a fresh glow.
Lows
...and who's down
Details, please... Shares of freshly IPO'd Nikola plunged 21% last week. The hydrogen-fueled electric truck startup plans to sell electric and hydrogen-powered trucks (products delivered so far = 0). Last week, Nikola started taking preorders for its $60K-$90K Badger pickup to be delivered starting in 2022. But vague tweets from Nikola's founder left investors feeling uneasy. He then said the $5K Badger reservations "sold out" at 1K preorders.
Pull out the blotting papers... The world doesn't want all that oil. Oil prices went negative for the 1st time ever in April. Now they're back around $40 per barrel, but oil giants are losing hope. Fracking pioneer Chesapeake Energy just filed for bankruptcy. Shell wrote down the value of its oil assets by billions, expecting prices to stay low. BP says its oil assets are $17.5B less valuable — not because it thinks the economy won't bounce back, but because it thinks oil won't. Corona-conomy accelerates the energy transition.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Chill: How to practice meditation (and actually stick to it) — sometimes being still and "doing nothing" is actually doing the most.
- Balance: What to do when you strongly disagree with someone you care about — step one: don't assume the worst intentions.
- Learn: You hear about the S&P 500 all the time — Think of it as a stock scoreboard (peep the cool infographic).
- Work: The world's 10 most in-demand jobs that don't directly require a degree, according to LinkedIn.
- Wonder: 50 of the most beautiful natural wonders around the world (apparently pink bodies of water are a thing).
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This Week
- Monday: Markets kick off a full week after an Independence Day break
- Tuesday: Earnings expected from Paychex and Levi Strauss
- Wednesday: Major League Soccer kicks off at Disney World. Earnings expected from Bed Bath & Beyond
- Thursday: Earnings expected from Delta and Walgreens. Weekly jobless claims.
- Friday: Earnings expected from Infosys
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Tesla
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