Tesla CEO Elon Musk certainly isn’t one to shy away from making big promises.
On the company’s earnings call Wednesday, the billionaire entrepreneur said his company was on track to perform a coast-to-coast autonomous drive in three months and that he might set a goal of producing a million units a year of the as-yet-unveiled Model Y compact SUV. .
That target might be surprising to some, given that the electric automaker has fallen well short of production targets for its newest Model 3 vehicle. The company, which originally expected to make 5,000 of the cars *a week,* only delivered 1,550 in total during the fourth quarter.
Still Christian Prenzler, vice president of business development at Teslarati, says, the high expectations are par for the course for the chief executive.
“We’re talking about Elon Musk. Yesterday, he’s launching the world’s most powerful rocket and then lands it,” he told Cheddar after earnings. “It’s not a matter of if he can deliver these vehicles, it’s a matter of whether it’s going to happen in this quarter, the next quarter, or in the following quarter.”
“It’s mostly about how Tesla’s going to tackle these challenges over the next year as they ramp up production.”
Tesla said it still expects to make 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of the second quarter, a target set in January after already being pushed back a few times before that. The company has faced issues with inexperienced workers and in the production of batteries used in the cars. And some analysts fear that as it tries to ramp up manufacturing, it’s going to quickly burn through the $3.4 billion in cash it has on its balance sheet.
For the fourth quarter, Tesla reported its biggest ever loss of $675 million. In after-hours trading, Tesla shares were basically unchanged at $344, having closed at $345.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
