The Rundown - Tesla Beats Q2 Delivery Estimates, Cruise Ship Stocks Threatened By Hurricane Beryl

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

Stock market update for July 2, 2024.

Public.com presents the rundown, your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Tuesday, July 2nd. In today's episode, we preview Tesla's delivery numbers that are coming out today, and they aren't expected to be so great, but could they surprise us? Also, Paramount is looking for a streaming partner, but who's it going to be? Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how many Americans plan to travel this summer. All right, let's go. Well, it was a great start to the week.

start to the second half of the year for the stock market. All three major indices moved higher on Monday. In fact, the NASDAQ closed at record highs. And it was a very 2024 type of day where the big tech names carried the indices. In fact, more than 75% of the S&P 500 were down on Monday, but every single one of the giant Mag 7 companies was up. And that was enough to push the index in the green. I mean, I'm not complaining. Tesla was a big winner yesterday, up more than 6%, but we'll cover them more in a bit. Now, the July 4th week tends to be low volumes. even investors are trading in their charts for more time at the pool. And remember, the markets will be closed on Thursday.

But there are a few companies still making some news. So let's talk about them. All right, let's run through some headlines. Starting with Tesla. Tesla is reporting their second quarter delivery numbers today. And it's expected to be their second straight quarter of decline year over year. It's been a pretty tough time for Tesla. They're facing tougher competition, lower demand, and lower subsidies have all been a contributing factor for lower sales.

It's one of the reasons why Tesla's stock dropped more than 20% in the first half of the year. Now, to be fair, Tesla did warn shareholders about this. They told shareholders back in January that they expected notably lower sales this year, and they reiterated that outlook in April. So we really shouldn't be that surprised. But there was some optimism on Monday that Tesla's delivery numbers might not be that bad. Chinese EV companies reported strong delivery numbers, which might be a sign that Tesla might do the same. Remember, China has a pretty big market for Tesla.

So investors were pretty optimistic on Monday. It's one of the reasons why the stock jumped more than 6%. So we'll see how they do, but there's no denying that overall sales of EVs are slowing down across the board. And that's one of the reasons why Tesla is betting a lot on their autonomous technology. They're actually expected to reveal the Robotaxy on August 8th. And a little tidbit here, Elon just followed Uber founder Travis Kalenik on X. So I wonder what those two guys are cooking up.

And just got some breaking news. As I'm recording this podcast, the Tesla delivery numbers just dropped, and they beat Wall Street estimates. Tesla delivered nearly 444,000 cars in Q2, which was more than the 439,000 that Wall Street was expecting. So I guess the optimism was justified. It's still a 4.8% drop from last year, so it's not like their business is growing or anything. The pressure is still on for them to show something interesting at this robo taxi announcement on August 8 to really get investor optimism back into the company. But, you know, at least they beat Wall Street estimates, which is always nice.

Let's shift gears and talk about another company that's been struggling a bit this year, Paramount. The entertainment giant is holding talks with other streaming companies to potentially merge Paramount Plus with another streaming platform. These discussions include what a merge platform would look like as well as what the financial ownership of this new service would be. Now Warner Brothers, the parent company of Max or HBO Max or HBO, whatever you want to call it these days, has expressed interest in a Paramount Plus merger. So maybe we'll see a new streaming platform with the House of Dragon, Game of Thrones, and Yellowstone. I guess that'd be pretty cool. Comcast NBC, the parent company of Peacock, has also shown interests. At the end of the day, we're starting to finally see consolidation and bundling happening

in streaming. These entertainment companies are realizing that trying to operate an independent streaming app isn't very good business. In fact, most of them are still losing money outside of the major ones like Netflix. So now they're deciding to work together. Like there's a Disney and Max bundle coming out later this summer, and Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV will be bundled via Comcast. Now, these companies could just work together and make like one super streaming app

With all the content, that would be awesome because I'm tired of shuffling through four streaming apps to find something to watch. Just give it all to me in one place, please. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Typically, we start the segment off with some winners, but today there really wasn't anything notable, so we're going to highlight a couple companies that are struggling. One of them being cruise companies. Carnival crews and Norwegian crews are both down in the pre-market after dropping more than

5% on Monday because of the threat of Hurricane Barrel. The hurricane is currently wrecking havoc in the Caribbean, it's the earliest Category 5 hurricane to form in the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane has caused cruise ships to reroute in the region. As someone who grew up in Florida and Texas, I mean, hurricanes are no joke. Hopefully everyone that's being impacted by this hurricane is staying safe. In fact, I'm actually on vacation in Cancun right now. And Hurricane Barrel is expected to make landfall here around Friday. So yeah, I'm kind of nervous right now. I'm not going to lie. Now, investors are also kind of nervous because this could be an early sign of a dangerous hurricane

season, which could impact the cruise business this summer. And as a result, both Carnival and Norwegian crew stocks were down on Monday and down another 1% in the pre-market today. Also, Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike shares are falling after Piper Sandler downgraded the stock to neutral. Piper believes the stock has fully priced in its growth potential for the next 12 months and it's concerned about further upside. Now, CrowdStrike has been a popular stock this year. It's up nearly 60% year to date. But Piper Sandler's price target stands at $400 per share. CrowdStrike stock is down more than 2% in the pre-market on this news. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Americans have the travel bug. June 2024 was the busiest month ever at U.S.

airports with an average of 2.7 million passengers per day passing through TSA checkpoints. In fact, more than 32 million people are projected to fly between June 27th and July 8th, which is a 5.4% rise over last year's 4th of July holiday volume travels, according to the TSA. I was one of those people. I'm currently in Cancun right now, as I mentioned earlier. Now, a couple weeks ago, 2.99 million people were screened in a single day, which is the most ever. So there's a chance that that record gets broken for the July 4th holiday. And lower prices could be partially driving this trend. Airfares have dropped 5.9% since May of 2023, according to the latest CPI data. And to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if like social media posts are creating FOMO for people. I mean, my Instagram

feed is just full of pictures of Europe or somewhere tropical. So that could also be creating the urge to travel, you know? Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Whether you're listening on your European vacation or your commute to work, we really do appreciate all the support for this podcast. I know it's a relatively slow week, but we're here to keep you guys in the loop of all the things that are happening in the markets. If you guys enjoy the show, please hit us with that five-star rating on Apple and Spotify that engagement really does help to show. Thank you guys so much for listening. Shout out to Connor and Mike for all the help behind the scenes. We'll see you guys back here tomorrow.

This is the rundown. Your real-time resource for news events and trends in the markets. All views presented in the show reflect the opinions of the guests. You should not take any mention of a publicly traded security as recommendation to buy, sell or hold that security. Rundown guests are not financial advisors and are not affiliated with public holdings or its subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult. Respective professionals. Learn more at public.com disclosures. In partnership with Zaidamani, brokerage services for U.S. listed, registered securities are offered by Open to the Public Investing Incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.