• Aussie markets have opened higher this morning
  • EV maker Tesla slumps on missed quarterly deliveries, Twitter craps the bed in tough 24hrs for Elon
  • Biggest ASX small cap winners: ECS Botanics (ASX:ECS), 4DS Memory (ASX:4DS), Carbon Revolution (ASX:CBR)

 

Aussie markets have opened higher this morning, jumping 0.8% in early trade as the market finally looks like it’s shaken off its post-post-Christmas stupor and decided to get down to business.

That’s despite a tremulous performance in the US overnight, which saw the NASDAQ take a 0.76% hit, and saw Tesla leading the way down, falling more than 12% as the market continues to turn its back on its once-favourite son.

Last night’s Tesla slump came after the EV manufacturer missed its quarterly estimates for the third straight time, despite reportedly super-desperate measures from Musk which included his plea to Tesla workers to help deliver vehicles to new owners before December 31.

But it seems that asking Janice from Accounting to drive a Model 3 out to Salt Lake City on Christmas Eve was too little, too late for Tesla.

The company was aiming at 427,000 vehicles for the quarter, but fell short by 22,000 – and even though it was a foreshadowed shortfall, it seems that Wall Street didn’t want to miss a golden opportunity to kick its once-Golden Boy while he’s already down.

2022 was a rough year for Tesla (a bunch of stuff happened, and the company shed around 65% of its value), and for its CEO, the inimitable Elon Musk… although it did bring about a milestone for Musk that is unlikely to be bested any time soon.

Musk, according to Bloomberg, rang in the New Year with the knowledge that he is the first person in history to lose US$200 billion – and that was before last night’s nosedive in Tesla’s trading price.

On top of that US$200 billion pantsing is this little nugget: we are just 4 days into 2023, and Musk has personally already seen his fortune shrink by  US$9 billion this year alone.

Of course, it’s not like that’s going to mean he can’t afford to buy food or clothes or an untrackable private jet or another doomed social media platform, but still… that’s a heartbreakingly massive chunk of change to see disappearing off into the ether.

And it’s not like anyone is really going to feel bad for him. Musk is still the world’s second-richest person… although the gap between him and Indian industrialist Gautam Adani which used to be daylight is closing faster than a unionised Tesla factory. Zing!

The one thing that is very clear, though, is that Tesla in general has a massive image problem – one that isn’t being helped by news from Korea, where the company has been fined 2.85 billion won (which sounds like a lot, but is really only a bit over US$2 million).

The reason? It turns out that a Tesla’s range falls by up to  a whopping 50.5% in cold weather – something that the sales literature in Korea didn’t mention, which is more than a little bit problematic.

In its defence, Tesla does reportedly share some tips on its website to help drivers prepare for longer drives in cold weather – which possibly includes “Add 24 extra batteries” and “Why not wear comfortable, waterproof shoes that can withstand several miles of walking in the snow?”

Plus, there’s the usual news of Tesla drivers being a bit Tesla driver-ish, like this chap in Germany who drove onto the autobahn, turned on the autopilot, attached a weight to the steering wheel so the car would think he had his hands on the wheel… and went to sleep, snoozing his way through a 15-minute police chase before finally realising the police wanted to have a word with him.

To be fair, German police are blaming drugs for that particular incident, but all I’m saying is that he wouldn’t have gotten very far if he’d tried that sort of stunt in a Porsche.

It’s precisely the kind of story that makes for fantastic social media fodder, and normally I’d be sharing several scathing Tweets about it – however, Twitter seems to be broken this morning.

The only thing appearing in my feed – which is usually home to a panoply of deep thinkers, razor-sharp satire and political intrigue – is refusing to show me anything other than a string of pointless cat videos.

So here’s one of those… which we can’t embed like we normally would, because even that simple function is broken, so you’ll have to click on the link manually like a pleb.

https://twitter.com/weirdlilguys/status/1610281451286679554

#ThanksElon

 

TO MARKETS

It’s a day later than we would have liked, but Australian markets are into positive territory for 2023 at last, hitting a +1.4% high at 11.30am, before easing slightly as we began the run towards lunch.

It’s InfoTech (+1.97%) and Financials (+1.47%) that are leading the charge this morning, with Discretionary (+1.33%) and Materials (1.21%) trending nicely in behind – and only Energy,  the undisputed star of the whole of 2022, lagging into negative territory, down 1.05% so far today.

There are a trio of billion dollar babies in the Top Gainers lists this morning, including Sayona (ASX:SYA), moving true to form and swingin’ like it’s the 60s, up 7.9% this morning on no news.

Also climbing today is Silver Lake (ASX:SLR), up 5.0% while Magellan (ASX:MFG) is up a tidy 6.2% in morning trade – again, in both cases, on no particular news.

Not that there’s much in the way of news emerging from the market today in general, most likely because everybody who’s anybody is making the most of the holiday period, hunkered down in a caravan park outside Toukley on the Glorious New South Wales Mid-North Coast™or wherever it is that the rich and famous like to holiday this time of year.

Or perhaps they’re overseas – let’s go see who we can spot while we take a look at the international markets.

 

NOT THE ASX

US markets put in a bit of a sad showing for their first day back from holidays, with the major indices dropping throughout the day while Wall Street People shook the holiday season snow from their boots (and out of their noses) in preparation for the busy year ahead.

The S&P 500 finished lower by 0.40%, the Dow by 0.03% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq by 0.76% – with the star of the show (for all the wrong reasons) the aforementioned Tesla 12%  meltdown.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei is down 1.49% during its first trading day for 2023, on news that Stockhead’s very own Super Pete Farquhar has been spotted losing his shirt through a series of increasingly massive bets on skinny guys at an underground sumo event in Japan.

In China, the highly-anticipated Covid Mega-Outbreak of 2023 is in full swing, with a number of countries – including Australia – announcing strict travel restrictions that will apply to people arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Chinese state media is absolutely foaming at the mouth in anger at news that other countries would dare to tell Chinese citizens that they have to provide a negative Covid test or they won’t be allowed in.

China says that there will be retribution of some sort – and what that will look like is anyone’s guess – over what it says are “disproportionate” and “simply unacceptable” anti-Covid policies.

“We do not believe the entry restriction measures some countries have taken against China are science-based,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning Ning said, on behalf of a country famous for believing that eating a critically-endangered tiger’s dong will make you good in bed.

Meanwhile, British data company Airfinity reckons that China’s staring down the barrel of 1.3 million Covid deaths – and that’s just between December 1, 2022 and April 2023.

The Hang Seng is up around 1.0%, and Shanghai is flat in early trade… make of that what you will.

In crypto news, a dog-themed Doge rip-off is surging to the rescue of ailing and flailing Solana, helping the token rebound from terribly steep losses since November. The assistance from the Solana-blockchain based BONK (no, really…) is up a ridiculous 98% over the past 24 hours.

Rob “Dude… seriously?” Badman is across things over at Mooners and Shakers – where he, at least, is able to make sense of it all.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for January 4 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Leading the Small Caps charge this morning is some solid news for ECS Botanics (ASX:ECS), which has surged 19% on news that it’s inked a deal to supply Ilios Santė GmbH with a minimum $9.9 million worth of GMP manufactured, medicinal cannabis products over 3 years.

There’s been a huge spike in volume behind embattled memory tech company 4DS Memory (ASX:4DS), which has shot up 18.1% this morning despite a complete lack of any market-moving news since the last time it went bonkers for no apparent reason in early December last year.

And Carbon Revolution (ASX:CBR), manufacturer of carbon fibre wheels for things that go fast, is also experiencing a surge in volume and price, which has already caught the eye of the ASX watchdogs.

Carbon Revolution is in the process of organising short-term bridging finance solutions to keep the lights on while a deal that would see it merge with Twin Ridge Capital Acquisition Corp is finalised – which was announced in late November.

Today, however, it’s up 17.2% on a large bump in volume, since responding to the ASX query that came in December’s late mail.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for January 4 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

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