Tesla’s sweet and sour news | Calamatta Cuschieri

European markets closed mixed on Thursday as the Trump-Kim summit ended abruptly weighing down the market. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed the session down by 0.12%. Basic resources was the worst performer in the European session as fresh reports Chinese factory activity dropped to a three year low in February. The UK’s Rolls Royce was down almost 3% after a staggering loss of £2.9 billion. The airplane engine manufacturer blamed the loss on the higher prices charged on fixing Trent 1000 engines.

US markets where marginally lower on Thursday as the S&P 500 closed 0.28% down while the Dow 30 closed 69.16 points lower. The decline comes following data showing an economic growth slowdown in the fourth quarter. Bookings Holdings slumped 11% after disappointing earnings while Monster Beverage climbed 8.7%. HP dived a staggering 17.3% after earnings showed severe weakness in revenue.

MSE was up 0.715% on Thursday helped primarily by IHI that over the span of 21 trades saw a significant gain of 6.06%. MaltaPost also made some good ground during the day rising 4.1%. There was only one loser for the day being BOV plc that shed 0.79% of its value.

Tesla’s sweet and sour news

Elon Musk told reporters on Thursday that Tesla has started taking orders for the $35,000 model 3. This was great news for the company, finally delivering on its 2 year old promise the South African Entrepreneur had made. On the other hand he announced some bad news including job cuts and closing stores in order to trim costs. The worst of the news was by far the announcement that the company will not post a profit in the first quarter. This sent the stock tumbling afterhours wiping the gains it had made previously during the day as investors had trusted Musk’s promise that Tesla’s loss making days are over.

China Trade deal being finalized

Reports show that a final US-China trade deal is underway that could get the two president’s signature in weeks. If the deal fails to get approval from one of the leaders, the US will be imposing $200 billion in new tariffs on Chinese imports. This will surely be damaging to both nations but given the state of the Chinese economy, there is no doubt that Trump has the higher ground. If the tariffs are imposed the IMF will be cutting US and China growth estimates by 0.2% and 0.6% respectively.
 

This article was issued by Aaron Saliba, Junior Trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article are being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.