Tesla crashes on Wall Street after disappointing quarterly numbers – E24

The electric car giant will be reviewed by shareholders after weak quarterly numbers on Wednesday.

This is what the main indicators look like before 17.45 Norwegian time:

• The S&P 500 collective index rose 0.42%.
• The Nasdaq technology index rose 0.55 percent
• The Dow Jones index rose 0.19 percent

Since Friday, the S&P 500 has closed at record highs every day. The collective index closed on Wednesday at 4,868.55 points.

A barrel of North Sea oil is currently trading at $81.40 per barrel. There is an increase of 1.86 percent since midnight.

Tesla disappointment

On Tuesday evening, Tesla presented its quarterly numbers for the fourth quarter of 2023. The numbers were lower than expected.

Tesla's earnings per share came in lower than expected in the fourth quarter at 71 cents, which was lower than what economists Bloomberg spoke with had expected. The consensus was 73 cents per share.

• The company's sales reached $25.2 billion in the fourth quarter, equivalent to 264 billion kroner. It is also lower than the numbers that were expected.
• At the same time, there is an increase of 3 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
• Net profit reached $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, representing a sharp increase from $3.7 billion in the same period in 2022.

Tesla delivered 484,507 vehicles in the fourth quarter of last year. Big price cuts helped push sales numbers to record levels, American writes CNBC.

The price cut also comes as a result of strong competition from other companies, including China's BYD.

Over the full year, Tesla increased the number of vehicle deliveries by 38 percent in 2023, bringing their total to 1.85 million. Meanwhile, Tesla warned the market yesterday that volume will decline in 2024.

The stock was immediately downgraded in post-market trading on Wednesday.

At around 17.45, the share is down 10.7 percent.

The journey continues

Wall Street airline stocks had a strong rebound on Tuesday, following quarterly numbers released by United Airlines on Monday evening after closing time. There, they lowered their own forecasts for the first quarter, due to problems with the Boeing 737 MAX 9.

US aviation authorities ordered the planes to be grounded after a fuselage panel fell off during a flight of an eight-week-old Alaska Airlines 737-Max just after the new year.

This was the first indication of the economic consequences of the flight's refusal by US aviation authorities. United Airlines has 79 aircraft of this type in its fleet.

Alaska Airlines Group said Thursday it expects to lose up to $150 million due to the grounding of the models.

This is how airline stocks have fared on Wall Street so far on Thursday:

• United shares rose 3.47 percent
• American Airlines shares rose 8.61 percent
• Delta rises 3.43 percent
• Alaska Airgroup shares rose 3.40 percent
• Southwest Airlines shares rose 1.64 percent

Strong numbers are published by IBM

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) also reported new quarterly numbers. Investors welcomed the numbers issued by the IT giant, which exceeded analysts' expectations.

The stock rose 13.15 percent to about 17.45.

Stronger than expected growth

The US economy grew by 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter.

In advance, growth of 2 percent was expected, according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Personal spending is the biggest driver of GDP. According to Bloomberg, it grew by 2.8 percent.

In all of 2023, the US economy grew by 2.5 percent.

The latest figures indicate that US consumption has held up well, despite rising interest rates and persistent inflation.

US interest rates have remained unchanged in the 5.25-5.50 percent range since July, the highest level in 22 years.

At its December rate meeting, the Fed signaled three rate cuts in 2024. This contributed to significant market optimism in the days leading up to Christmas with high expectations for rate cuts already in March.