*By Conor White*
The positive [news](https://cheddar.com/videos/tesla-stock-surges-after-q2-earnings-report) in Tesla's second quarter earnings report outweighed the negatives for most investors, sending shares up more than 12 percent to their highest level in a month.
The electric carmaker announced that Model 3 production is up, but it posted losses of more than $700 million.
Some analysts have fundamental doubts about Tesla's future.
"It's a story stock," said Mark Spiegel, managing member at Stanphyl Capital. "What you have here are: bulls who couldn't care less about balance sheets or profit and loss statements; and you've got bears, or as I would call them, realists, who care a lot about that kind of stuff."
Spiegel counts himself in the latter group. He said in an interview Thursday on Cheddar that Tesla didn't do nearly enough to assuage fears about its future ー and that doesn't even account for all the other car companies eager for a bigger slice of the electric vehicle industry.
"There's a massive amount of competition coming for this company," Speigel said. "Between the Jaguar that's out now and the Audi, Mercedes, and Porsche coming out next year, it's going to destroy Model S and X sales, and that's where \[Tesla's\] margin isーwhatever margin they have."
And even though [outspoken](https://cheddar.com/videos/will-elon-musk-behave-on-this-weeks-earnings-call) CEO Elon Musk behaved on this conference call, there's no telling what he will do next.
After reaching its production goal of 5,000 Model 3 cars per week, Tesla reports it now wants to churn out 10,000 per week, "as fast as we can."
Spiegel dismissed those numbers ー and Tesla more generally.
"They're a perennial over-promiser and under-deliverer," he said.
"The reason they keep putting out these aggressive numbers is it supports the stock, which is an absurd valuation. If Tesla were a normal car company losing this much money, the stock would be in the low single digits."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/tesla-announces-biggest-loss-ever-but-shares-rally).
After a year of reckoning for big technology, Microsoft President Brad Smith is urging his peers to learn from their mistakes and improve their privacy protections ー and for governments to impose regulations that make sure they follow through. "Change is not easy; it's, in fact, painful. But it can be done. And when it is done, everybody is better in my view," he said.
Cigarette giant Altria said it would spend $1.8 billion for a 45 percent stake in Cronos, the Canadian cannabis producer, signaling a massive bet that the legalization of marijuana will spread as cigarette smoking declines. The announcement follows reports that Altria is also talking to Juul about a stake in the wildly-popular vape brand, which would be another hedge against Altria's core tobacco business, which includes brands like Marlboro and Skoal.
PayPal employees are giving its peers a course in crypto token economics. The company has launched an internal blockchain-based incentive platform for employees, Cheddar has learned. The initiative was built over a period of six months by about 25 people in PayPal's San Jose-based innovation lab and launched in mid-November, according to Michael Todasco, the director of innovation.
New York is now the first city in the country to set a minimum pay rate for drivers working for ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft, following a vote on Tuesday by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission. Under the new policy, those drivers will make $17.22 per hour. But Aziz Bah, steward of the Independent Drivers Guild, told Cheddar Wednesday it's only the beginning.
Lyft filed for its initial public offering in a confidential registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it announced in a press release Thursday morning.
The markets rebounded from session lows after news broke the Federal Reserve is considering a new approach to interest rates that could translate to fewer rate hikes in the coming year. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday the Fed is considering a "wait-and-see" mentality for monetary policy, after the anticipated December hike that is by and large already priced into the markets.
StoreMe wants to solve travelers' "schlepping problem." The on-demand app allows travelers to search a location, input the number of bags they have, and make a reservation. That way, as travelers are passing through cities, they can enjoy the sights sans luggage. "This service is convenient, on-demand, and it's totally affordable," Peter Korbel told Cheddar Wednesday.
Care to watch the original "Star Wars" trilogy? Don't assume Disney's forthcoming streaming service Disney+ will have it. And while AT&T owns "Friends," it won't be streaming it exclusively on its own OTT platform when it launches in 2019 ー viewers will still be able to binge the series on Netflix. "Star Wars" and "Friends" are just a couple of the confusing licensing arrangements viewers should expect as more media companies push to debut their own streaming services to rival Netflix and Hulu.
In the virtual-reality world, "Mission Impossible" is possible after all. VR start-up Nomadic has partnered with VRWERX and Paramount to create a "tactile" experience for the "Mission Impossible" movie franchise that will allow users to interact physically with the virtual world of the movie.
After Tumblr announced it would pull so-called "adult content" from its platform, a larger-than-expected group of users erupted in protest. According to Shannon Liao, a tech and culture reporter at The Verge, many flocked to the platform "to browse sex-positive blogs and also different kinds of curated porn," in a "safe place."
