*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).
Compound has raised $8 million in funding for its newest venture, money markets for Ethereum assets which allow investors to earn interest on their cryptocurrency. Robert Leshner, founder and CEO of Compound, said this is new technology for cryptocurrency lending markets.
Facebook announced its newest VR headset that will ship next year. "Oculus Quest" offers users the same virtual experience, but now users are able to move more freely while wearing the headset. Andrew Bosworth, VP of VR/AR at Facebook, said this is the next step in better connecting people around the world.
Sonny Perdue, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, said American farmers understand the need for tariffs on Chinese imports, even if they might feel some short-term pain. After President Trump imposed tariffs on China, American farmers began to feel the effects. China is the largest importer of American soybeans and that revenue stream has now been cut off. The federal government pledged $12 billion as temporary relief for farmers affected by Trump's tariffs.
Bumped is a new app that tracks how much its users spend on products from publicly traded companies and rewards them with shares of those same companies' stock. David Nelsen, CEO and founder of Bumped, said in the world of consumer rewards, this is uncharted territory.
Polestar 1, Volvo's newest electric performance brand, has made its way to the U.S. Thomas Ingenlath, the CEO of Polestar, said the car should have the longest "pure electric" range on the market.
The e-scooter boom has led to two fatalities ー both on Lime products ー the first documented deaths since scooters charged into the public square earlier this year. Emily Warren, senior director of policy and public affairs at Lime, said in order for e-scooters to become integrated into everyday transportation, there needs to be infrastructure put in place to keep scooter riders safe.
In an exclusive interview with Cheddar as part of the debut of Cheddar Rides, MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim outlined the plan to keep the 225,000 people who commute between North Brooklyn and Manhattan via the L train moving.
Shares of SVMK, otherwise known as SurveyMonkey, opened at $18.75, well above the original IPO price of $12.
SVMK, the parent of the online polling company SurveyMonkey ($SVMK), will begin trading as a public company Wednesday, looking to ride the wave of strong tech IPOs from the likes of Eventbrite, Farfetch, and Sonos.
Fintech firms' grand promise had been to unbundle services like checking, savings, lending, and wealth management. But as the big banks adapted to the ever-changing market, start-ups like Simple are now rebundling again. CEO Dickson Chu confirmed to Cheddar that the company, which was acquired by BBVA Compass in 2014, began offering personal loans up to $40,000 through a partnership with online lending company Prosper.
Load More