Financial Mindset

Tesla’s earning calls in the last few quarters have always been a study in extremes: The EV-maker’s profits from making and selling cars and batteries keeps shrinking, while CEO Elon Musk’s promises of wonders to come for the likes of robotaxis and humanoid robots keep ballooning. The Q1 edition, held after the market close on April 22, set a new standard. Digging into financial statements reveals that Tesla earned almost zip in repeatable, bedrock profits on the EV side. Yet Musk greatly ramped his already super-ambitious investment agenda for pending blockbusters, “revolutionary” offerings that he’s long promised as a year or two away, but that suffer serial delays, and keep gestating as prototypes either in the labs, or making trial runs on the roads. So the question arises that didn’t get answered on the call: How is Tesla going to pay for all that extra CapEx when the only arm generating cash is fading? And can it possibly earn a big enough return on all the capital newly piled ...

Southwest Airlines Co. reported adjusted quarterly profit and revenue that fell just shy of Wall Street’s expectations, as the US carrier joins rivals in grappling with higher fuel costs. Shares in the Dallas-based airline extended losses in aftermarket trading after Southwest declined to update its  full-year profit guidance  of at least $4 a share, underscoring the volatility in the industry.  It said achieving those results would require lower fuel prices mixed with stronger revenue performance. It also projected second-quarter adjusted EPS in a range of 35 cents to 65 cents, with analysts expecting 59 cents.   Southwest fell 3.8% and closed at $39.35 in regular trading Wednesday, mirroring stock declines of other carriers.  Southwest’s decision is broadly in line with other carriers contending with fuel costs driven higher by the US-Iran war. Rival carrier Delta Air Lines Inc. has declined to update its full-year forecast, while others such as United A...

Lululemon Athletica Inc. named Heidi O’Neill its new chief executive officer on Wednesday as the athletic retailer looks to move beyond a turbulent period of slowing growth and investor unrest. O’Neill, who was most recently Nike Inc.’s president of consumer, product and brand, will take over as permanent CEO on September 8, the company said in a statement. Calvin McDonald, who had led Lululemon since 2018, left his post in January and went on to lead a beauty business. Lululemon shares dropped as much as 7% in postmarket trading. The shares had fallen more than 21% so far this year as of Wednesday’s close.  O’Neill arrives with a series of fires to put out. Recent product mishaps, including selling leggings that were see-through, and a disappointing sales outlook, have left investors concerned that the company can pull itself out of a rut. Sales growth has slowed since losing share to trendier competitors. Elliott Investment Management has built a stake of more than $1 billi...

New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows a surprising phenomenon: The average age of first-time homebuyers getting a mortgage has barely budged over the past two decades, remaining in the mid-30s. At first glance, that doesn’t seem to make sense. You’d think that given the steep rise in home prices versus incomes, it’s primarily the young who delay purchases as they get stuck in rentals waiting for paychecks, and banking savings. The evidence says not so. Expanding on the New York Fed’s findings, a new study from the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center concludes that the same problem is haunting would-be buyers at all age levels. “When purchasing power declines, fewer people buy homes at 28—but also fewer purchase at 38 or 48,” writes the author, the Housing Center’s co-director Ed Pinto. “The result is a broad-based drop in home ownership.” The AEI also points to a disturbing trend that amounts to the de-democratization of American housing. “The less-rich a...

The new leadership of the AI power startup Fermi is feuding with its fired CEO and top shareholder over a potential sale of the company. The struggling Texas company, which went public last year at a nearly $20 billion market cap, aspires to build the largest data center campus in the world, called Project Matador, in the Texas Panhandle, but it has struggled to nail down anchor tenants. Fermi is now advising against recommendations from its fired co-founder and CEO to sell the company. The company’s market cap has plunged to less than $3.2 billion as of April 21. The former CEO, Toby Neugebauer, who’s the top Fermi shareholder, said he was fired “without cause” last week and now supports an immediate process to sell the company in order to make “money for all shareholders.” Neugebauer said his family and former executive allies own about 40% of Fermi shares. Neugebauer and former chief financial officer Miles Everson, who abruptly resigned April 20, remain Fermi board members. Als...

Southeast Asia’s motorists are increasingly feeling the pinch as the Iran energy crisis extends into its eighth week. Fuel prices have soared across the region, and drivers are waiting in long lines outside petrol stations in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, hoping to fill their tanks. While oil prices have slipped from their highs just a few weeks ago—West Texas Intermediate crude is currently hovering around $90 per barrel—they are still far above pre-war levels. The closed Strait of Hormuz, as well as export bans of refined fuel products from countries like China and South Korea, have cut off petrol supplies in Asia.  But across the region, drivers may have found an answer: electric vehicles. Chinese EV giant BYD received the most orders of any automaker at the Bangkok Auto Show in early April, beating Toyota for the first time . Among the top ten brands, seven were Chinese.  Energy security concerns are shaping EV demand, says Samuel Chng, a research assistant ...

Iran’s military declared the Strait of Hormuz closed again on Saturday after a head-spinning 24 hours of mixed messages from the regime that underscored friction between competing power centers. Early Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strait was “completely” open to ships that followed Iran’s established route. President Donald Trump also announced Iran had reopened the narrow waterway, sparking a massive stock market rally. But the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps soon asserted it remained in firm control of the strait. Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, also took the unusual step of criticizing Araghchi’s declaration that the strait was fully open, calling it “a complete lack of tact in information dissemination.” Fars, another IRGC-linked news agency, piled on Araghchi, saying that “following the unexpected tweet from the foreign minister about the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian society has been plunged into an atmosphere of...