Tesla tops Wall Street estimates with 112,000 vehicle deliveries in fourth quarter - CNBC

Tesla Model 3 are located in a Tesla Service Center.

Silas Stein | picture alliance | Getty Images

Tesla delivered a record 112,000 vehicles globally during the fourth quarter, significantly topping Wall Street estimates and achieving an ambitious year-end sales goal of CEO Elon Musk.

Wall Street expected Tesla to deliver 106,000 vehicles to customers during the fourth quarter, which would have just met the company's annual delivery goal of between 360,000 and 400,000 vehicles, a 45% to 65% increase from 2018.

Tesla said it delivered approximately 367,500 vehicles last year, an impressive 50% increase from 2018.

Shares of Tesla were up by about 2% in pre-market trading to roughly $440 per share, a 39% increase over the last 12 months.

Tesla's deliveries are a closely watched number in the industry, providing the closest proximation to sales. It tracks vehicles that have been sold and physically delivered to customers. The number is a barometer for how the company is performing ahead of releasing its quarterly earnings.

Tesla said it delivered 92,550 Model 3 cars and 19,450 Model S and X vehicles during the fourth quarter. The company was expected to deliver 87,900 Model 3, 9,800 Model S and 9,300 Model X vehicles, according to an average of analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Investors were also watching production numbers. In the third quarter of 2019, Tesla delivered more cars than it produced. It manufactured 96,155 vehicles and delivered 97,000 vehicles, setting two personal records for the company, but raising questions about the strength of its manufacturing capabilities.

The electric-car maker said it has produced just under 1,000 cars that are ready for sale at its new factory in Shanghai. Tesla started delivering vehicles to Chinese customers late last month.

Earlier this week, Musk made personal appearances at the company's Fremont car plant and delivery center to cheer on employees, and Tesla fanatics who volunteered to deliver cars to customers ahead of the year-end deadline.

Customers who received their cars in 2019 qualified for an $1,875 tax credit. But if the car was ordered in 2019, and delivered in 2020, they would not qualify.

Tesla is now shipping its vehicles to more locations around the world than ever before, including in the U.K. and China.

This broader customer base is one reason why Tesla assured investors in Q3 that it would hit the low end of its prior guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 deliveries for the full year. The company also wrote then: "Deliveries should increase sequentially and annually, with some expected fluctuations from seasonality. We are highly confident in exceeding 360,000 deliveries this year."

Last quarter, Tesla said it was "positioned to accelerate" growth through production of vehicles at its new plant in Shanghai, and by "increasing build rates on our existing production lines."

In 2018, Tesla sold 245,240 vehicles including 145,846 Model 3s, the company's mid-size, four-door sedan that started production in 2017. By the end of the year in 2018, Tesla said it had already achieved a delivery run-rate of more than 350,000 vehicles annually.

Since then, Tesla has made changes to its main car plant in Fremont, California, to ramp up production and improve the quality of Model 3s built there, to repair its paint shop (which experienced multiple fires in recent years) and to make way for production of its forthcoming SUV, the Model Y, at that location. It also attained financing for, built and began vehicle assembly at a major new factory in Shanghai.

Tesla shares gained more than 20% in 2019, partly owing to sales of the Model 3. Tesla's newest battery electric sedan became the best-selling luxury vehicle on the US market in 2018 and remained in the top spot throughout the past year. However, with production and sales of the Model S and X in decline, Tesla's revenue also declined in the third quarter of 2019, year-over-year, and the company is facing pressure to generate profits consistently.

Follow @CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech industry news.

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2020-01-03 13:18:00Z
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Top 5 Things to Know in the Market on Friday - Investing.com

© Reuters.

Investing.com -- A U.S. airstrike on Baghdad airport kills Iran's most important military commander, sending the price of oil and gold skyrocketing and reversing all of Thursday's gains in equities and then some. The Islamic Republic, which was accused by the U.S. of being behind the attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities in September, has promised swift retaliation. Nothing on the calendar comes close to mattering as much in markets today, but there will be the release of the minutes from the Fed's latest policy meeting and the ISM manufacturing survey. Here's what you need to know on Friday, 3rd January.

1. U.S. airstrike kills Iranian commander; Iran vows revenge

Iran promised swift retaliation after a U.S. airstrike in Iraq killed one of its most senior military leaders.

Qassem Soleimani was commander of the elite Quds force, an arm of the Revolutionary Guard, and was behind the recent expansion of Iranian military influence from Syria to Yemen.

He was widely seen as the second-most powerful man in Iran after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The attack represents a sharp escalation of recent tensions in Iraq between the various powers vying for influence there, and has further raised fears of a drawn-out conflict across the region.

2. Oil, havens surge

Oil and gold prices surged to their highest in four months in the wake of the attack as traders fearing a severe Iranian response moved to insure themselves against disruptions to world crude supply.

futures rose 3.7% to $63.48 a barrel by 6 AM ET (1100 GMT), while the international benchmark rose 4.0% to $68.89 a barrel. Neither blend has been as high since the immediate aftermath of the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in September, a move which the White House also blamed on Iran.

, meanwhile, rose 1.6% to $1,551.95 a troy ounce. That’s its highest mark since President Donald Trump threatened to escalate the trade war with China back in September. Gold has been tipped for further gains this year by many investment analysts, who argue that with trillions of dollars of government bonds worldwide offering negative yields, the relative fundamentals of non-yielding gold look attractive.

3. Equities reverse Thursday gains

By contrast, U.S. stock markets are set to follow Asian and European markets lower when they open.

By 6:15 AM ET, were down 355 points, or 1.2%, while were down 1.4% and the contract was down 1.6%.

In Europe, the benchmark index was also down 1.1%, with automotive and basic industries stocks faring the worst.

The S&P 500 contract showed an engulfing reversal pattern, having opened above the previous day’s close but then immediately fallen below Thursday’s low. That’s generally thought to be a clearly bearish signal by technical analysts.

4. U.K. housing market picks up; retail boost seen

The U.K. economy wasn’t all doom and gloom at the end of the year after all. House prices rose at the fastest rate in a year, according to mortgage lender Nationwide.

The lender’s closely-watched survey said prices rose 1.4% in December 2019 from a year earlier, an acceleration from a 0.8% rise in November and the fastest annual rise since November 2018.

In addition, fashion chain Next PLC, seen by some as a bellwether for the retail sector, revised its full-year guidance up after saying holiday season sales were slightly above expectations. The news kept Next’s and other retail stocks’ losses within those of the broader market.

That said, the U.K.’s construction purchasing managers index fell again in the month to 44.4 from 45.3, underlining that a key part of the economy is still shrinking.

5. Fed Minutes, ISM Manufacturing PMI due

The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its December policy meeting at 2 PM ET (1900 GMT). We mistakenly reported in yesterday’s Top 5 Things that the release would be on Thursday but it was of course delayed by a day due to the New Year holiday. We apologize for the error.

The New Year holiday also means that the monthly employment report will be released on Jan. 10th, and not on the first Friday of the month as is usual.

For data geeks, there will at least be the ISM manufacturing survey, at its usual time.

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2020-01-03 11:32:00Z
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New Clues Emerge in Carlos Ghosn’s Escape From Japan - The New York Times

TOKYO — New clues emerged on Friday on how Carlos Ghosn pulled off his audacious escape from Japan, as a Turkish charter jet company said its planes were used illegally to pull off the plan, while the Japanese news media reported that surveillance camera footage showed the disgraced auto industry mogul leaving his Tokyo home on Sunday by himself.

Taken together, the disclosures paint a picture of a dash across Japan to a waiting plane that swept Mr. Ghosn across Asia to Lebanon. Still, most of the details of Mr. Ghosn’s getaway remain murky and unconfirmed. The authorities in Japan and Turkey still appear to be investigating how he did it.

Mr. Ghosn — who has maintained his innocence — was facing four charges of financial wrongdoing in Japan and was set to go on trial sometime next year. But he escaped instead, saying that he did not trust what he called the “rigged” Japanese justice system to give him a fair trial. He built and once ran the Nissan-Renault auto alliance, one of the world’s biggest car-making empires, but was arrested after arriving in Tokyo in November 2018.

In Turkey on Friday, MNG Jet, an aircraft charter company, said one of its employees had falsified records to remove Mr. Ghosn’s name from the official documentation for two flights. The company said the employee confessed to acting alone, without management’s knowledge. MNG Jet did not disclose the employee’s name.

News outlets in Turkey reported this week that Mr. Ghosn left on a plane from Osaka, Japan, late Sunday aboard a business jet and landed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport. He then switched planes and flew to Beirut, the reports said.

The news accounts match the flight records of a Bombardier business aircraft operated by MNG Jet that took off from Osaka just after 11 p.m. local time and landed in Istanbul about 12 hours later, according to data from FlightAware, a flight tracking service.

MNG Jet said it had no indication the two flights were connected. It said it filed its criminal complaint in Turkey on Wednesday and that it “hopes that the people who illegally used and/or facilitated the use of the services of the company will be duly prosecuted.”

It is not clear how Mr. Ghosn, who was under heavy surveillance in Tokyo, could have eluded the authorities and make his way to Osaka, which is roughly 300 miles west of Tokyo.

In Japan on Friday, news outlets reported that Mr. Ghosn walked out of his Tokyo home alone on Sunday but never came back. The news reports cited anonymous sources with knowledge of footage of the cameras surrounding his rented house in a central district of the city.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Mr. Ghosn, after leaving his home, met up with a group that helped his escape to Lebanon, according to the national broadcaster NHK and the economic daily Nikkei Shimbun.

The footage described in the news reports was from security cameras installed in front of the two-story house in an upscale neighborhood in the city center, the outlets reported, citing sources close to the investigation. Three surveillance cameras had been installed above the doorway of Mr. Ghosn’s house as part of a bail agreement that placed tight restrictions on his movements and ability to communicate with the outside world.

The mystery has fed into some colorful theories. At least one Lebanese news media outlet had reported that Mr. Ghosn was smuggled out of his home in a musical instrument box. Lebanese officials have said Mr. Ghosn — who is a citizen of France, Lebanon and Brazil — arrived legally with a French passport, even though he had agreed to surrender three of his passports to his lawyers as a condition of his bail.

The Japanese authorities have stayed conspicuously silent about the escape of the country’s most high-profile criminal defendant. Prosecutors raided Mr. Ghosn’s Tokyo home on Thursday afternoon. Mr. Ghosn’s departure appeared to be timed for the eve of Japan’s weeklong New Year’s holiday, the country’s most important.

Still, signs are mounting that Japanese officials are responding. On Thursday, Albert Serhan, the Lebanese justice minister, said that the country’s public prosecutor had received a red notice from Interpol related to Mr. Ghosn’s case, according to the state-run National News Agency. Such a notice is issued for individuals wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence.

Interpol’s online list of public red notices did not show an entry for Mr. Ghosn as of early Friday.

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2020-01-03 08:59:00Z
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US jobless claims edge lower but trend points to uptick in filings - CNBC

The number of Americans filing claims for jobless benefits edged lower last week, a positive signal for the U.S. labor market amid recent signs that new claims may be trending slightly higher.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended Dec. 28, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected 225,000 new claims last week.

While claims have been volatile in recent weeks around the U.S. holiday season and end of the year, longer-term averages point to a slight increase in new claims.

The four-week moving average of initial claims rose by 4,750 to 233,250, the highest level since January 2018.

Still, the underlying trend in claims remains consistent with a labor market that is resisting signs of weakness in other parts of the economy, such as a slowdown in U.S. manufacturing and lackluster business investment. Economists have attributed the weakness to uncertainty around a U.S.-China trade war launched under U.S. President Donald Trump.

In November, the U.S. unemployment rate fell back to 3.5%, the lowest in nearly half a century.

The drop in claims in the latest week unwound a surge in new claims three weeks earlier that appeared to reflect a late Thanksgiving Day this year compared to 2018. By the end of the latest week, the number of new claims was at its lowest since the Nov. 30 week.

Labor market strength is underpinning consumer spending, keeping the economy on a moderate growth path despite headwinds from trade tensions and slowing global growth that have weighed on manufacturing.

Thursday's claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid rose 5,000 to 1.73 million for the week ended Dec. 21.

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2020-01-02 13:32:00Z
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Irrational exuberance? Why last year’s stellar returns may have been a reversal of ‘excessive pessimism’ - MarketWatch

On the first working day of 2020, let’s take a moment to appreciate the virtues of a vice: laziness.

Say what you will about new year’s resolutions, but last year, letting a boring old S&P 500-tracking index fund do its work was one of the best investment decisions around.

Including dividend reinvestment, the S&P 500 SPX, +0.29%  returned 33% in 2019, outperforming virtually every national index and very nearly every investment strategy.

For the decade, according to Deutsche Bank, the S&P 500 returned a cool 256%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.30%  returned 347%.

So the obvious question is, can the gains continue?

Tim Duy, a University of Oregon professor who closely tracks the Federal Reserve, plotted the return of the S&P 500 on a logarithmic scale to show that the current gains are nothing like the acceleration from the late 1990s.

“This doesn’t surprise me as I think fears of financial excess are overplayed, effectively a case of fighting the last war,” he writes. Duy also notes the level shift down since the 2007-09 recession, which he says is suggestive that a less optimistic view of the world, has already been priced into the market.

Duy also examined S&P 500 performance after the first Fed rate increase of the cycle, and finds the current performance in line with the pre-2015 average. Duy says the current performance is not “an unexplainable deviation from fundamentals” but rather an expected recovery from excessive pessimism.

The buzz

There was little new information for traders to chew on, besides the People’s Bank of China deciding to cut bank reserve requirements to help shore up the world’s second-largest economy.

Data released Thursday showed Initial jobless claims fell 2,000 from an upwardly revised 224,000, showing layoffs are still rare.

While not market moving, the saga of Carlos Ghosn is still getting attention, as details of how the former Nissan and Renault executive left Japan for Lebanon still remain murky, and possibly could involve being smuggled in a musical instrument case. Turkey has detained seven individuals in connection with Ghosn’s brief travel through Istanbul.

The markets

U.S. stock futures were pointing to a strong start on Thursday, with futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, +0.58%  gaining 164 points. See Market Snapshot.

European SXXP, +1.01% and Asian stocks ADOW, +0.26%  also rose.

In currency markets, the British pound GBPUSD, -0.5509% sagged while most of the other major pairs saw little movement.

Random reads

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says Domino’s Pizza DPZ, +0.18%  exploited those who celebrated the new year in Times Square by charging $30 for pizza.

Also on the pizza front, ‘Papa’ John Schnatter vows to eat 50 pizzas in 30 days.

A New York state assemblyman who tweeted there was no excuse for driving impaired was arrested days later for, yes, driving impaired.

In the U.K., cassette sales reached a 15-year high last year.

Need to Know starts early and is updated until the opening bell, but sign up here to get it delivered once to your email box. Be sure to check the Need to Know item. The emailed version will be sent out at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern.

Follow MarketWatch on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

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2020-01-02 12:53:00Z
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Japan tries to solve the mystery of Carlos Ghosn's audacious escape - CNN

Japanese media reported that Tokyo district prosecutors entered the property on Thursday. CNN affiliate TV Asahi also reported that prosecutors were working with police to access CCTV video around his home as part of their investigation.

Ghosn — the former chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, and former chairman and CEO of their alliance partner, Renault — had been awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial wrongdoing, including allegations that he understated his income for years and funneled $5 million of Nissan's money to a car dealership he controlled. He was ousted from his posts at Nissan (NSANF) and Mitsubishi Motors following his arrest in November 2018, and later resigned from Renault (RNLSY).

As a condition of being released on bail, Ghosn was required to stay in Japan. But his case was completely upended earlier this week after Ghosn revealed that he had fled Japan for Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system.

It is still not clear how Ghosn, who is a citizen of France, Brazil and Lebanon, was able to slip out of Japan. Reuters and the Financial Times have reported that he was smuggled out of Tokyo by a private security company -— a plot that the media organizations say took months to concoct.

The governor of Istanbul said in a statement Thursday that Turkish police have detained seven people in connection with an investigation into Ghosn's "illegal escape" from Japan. Anadolu news agency said that Ghosn traveled via the city's Ataturk airport. Police detained four pilots of a private airline, a company manager and two ground staff at the request of the Istanbul prosecutor, according to the statement from the governor's office.

Flight tracker Flightradar24 showed a private jet flying from Osaka, Japan, to Istanbul and then another continuing to Lebanon at the time Ghosn is said to have arrived in the country.

CNN Business has been unable to verify the circumstances behind his departure, and Ghosn did not elaborate on his escape in his public statement earlier this week.

Japan's justice ministry, the Tokyo prosecutor's office and the city's district court have not responded to requests from CNN Business this week for comment about Ghosn's escape. Government offices are closed this week for the New Year holiday.

Legal experts and political analysts say that Japan is probably trying to figure out whether Ghosn violated immigration law when he left the country — not that there's much of a chance of forcing him to return.

Prosecutors in Tokyo are now likely retracing Ghosn's moves through Japan, collecting surveillance footage and searching for potential collaborators said Nobuo Gohara, a former prosecutor who now runs a compliance and law office in Japan.

Gohara added that Ghosn's trial is almost certainly now canceled. The bigger question, he said, is how Japanese authorities will respond to Ghosn's attacks on them, now that he is able to speak freely about his detention.

Ghosn has repeatedly denied the charges against him, and claimed that his arrest was part of a plot to remove him from the automotive empire he built. In his statement this week, he said he would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied."

Japan can't force Lebanon to send Ghosn back, said Keith Henry, the founder and representative director of Asia Strategy, a research and policy firm based in Tokyo. The two countries have no extradition agreement.

"It is a bigger deal for [Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe and Japan than for Ghosn," Henry said. "No matter what they do now, it is very difficult to overcome the embarrassment of letting go one of the most high-profile suspects" of corporate scandal since Japan's economic boom that followed World War II.

— CNN's Isil Sariyuce in Istanbul contributed to this article.

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2020-01-02 12:34:00Z
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Japan tries to solve the mystery of Carlos Ghosn's audacious escape - CNN

Japanese media reported that Tokyo district prosecutors entered the property on Thursday. CNN affiliate TV Asahi also reported that prosecutors were working with police to access CCTV video around his home as part of their investigation.

Ghosn — the former chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, and former chairman and CEO of their alliance partner, Renault — had been awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial wrongdoing, including allegations that he understated his income for years and funneled $5 million of Nissan's money to a car dealership he controlled. He was ousted from his posts at Nissan (NSANF) and Mitsubishi Motors following his arrest in November 2018, and later resigned from Renault (RNLSY).

As a condition of being released on bail, Ghosn was required to stay in Japan. But his case was completely upended earlier this week after Ghosn revealed that he had fled Japan for Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system.

It is still not clear how Ghosn, who is a citizen of France, Brazil and Lebanon, was able to slip out of Japan. Reuters and the Financial Times have reported that he was smuggled out of Tokyo by a private security company -— a plot that the media organizations say took months to concoct.

Turkish state media reported Thursday that seven people have been detained in Istanbul on suspicion of helping Ghosn flee to Lebanon. Anadolu news agency said that Ghosn traveled via the city's Ataturk airport, where police detained four pilots of a private airline, two ground staff and the director of a cargo company. Flight tracker Flightradar24 showed a private jet flying from Osaka, Japan, to Istanbul and then another continuing to Lebanon at the time Ghosn is said to have arrived in the country.

CNN Business has been unable to verify the circumstances behind his departure, and Ghosn did not elaborate on his escape in his public statement earlier this week.

Japan's justice ministry, the Tokyo prosecutor's office and the city's district court have not responded to requests from CNN Business this week for comment about Ghosn's escape. Government offices are closed this week for the New Year holiday.

Legal experts and political analysts say that Japan is probably trying to figure out whether Ghosn violated immigration law when he left the country — not that there's much of a chance of forcing him to return.

Prosecutors in Tokyo are now likely retracing Ghosn's moves through Japan, collecting surveillance footage and searching for potential collaborators said Nobuo Gohara, a former prosecutor who now runs a compliance and law office in Japan.

Gohara added that Ghosn's trial is almost certainly now canceled. The bigger question, he said, is how Japanese authorities will respond to Ghosn's attacks on them, now that he is able to speak freely about his detention.

Ghosn has repeatedly denied the charges against him, and claimed that his arrest was part of a plot to remove him from the automotive empire he built. In his statement this week, he said he would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied."

Japan can't force Lebanon to send Ghosn back, said Keith Henry, the founder and representative director of Asia Strategy, a research and policy firm based in Tokyo. The two countries have no extradition agreement.

"It is a bigger deal for [Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe and Japan than for Ghosn," Henry said. "No matter what they do now, it is very difficult to overcome the embarrassment of letting go one of the most high-profile suspects" of corporate scandal since Japan's economic boom that followed World War II.

— CNN's Isil Sariyuce in Istanbul contributed to this article.

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2020-01-02 10:29:00Z
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