🚘 Tesla diehards 🚗

Last week we got delivery numbers out of Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid. Tesla saw deliveries down by 60,000 year over year, but nevertheless the stock popped upward on the news. Markets!

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DELIVERIES, SCHMELIVERIES  Lithium batteries, silver linings, die-hard loyalists Last week we got delivery numbers out of Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid. One of those carmakers, Lucid, delivered an additional thousand vehicles and saw its shares rise slightly. Another one, Rivian, saw deliveries drop by 3,000, and its shares dipped. Detecting a pattern? Well, of course, Tesla saw deliveries down by 60,000 year over year, but nevertheless the stock popped upward on the news. Markets! Tesla, as usual, is the gravity-defying enterprise here, and there are a few reasons why. Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives flagged that though the 384,000 deliveries fell short of consensus estimates, they were better than the "whisper number" of 365,000 — the unofficial, unpublished number that Wall Street really expected. The miss versus consensus was overall pretty narrow, coming in about 1% under, a narrower miss than last quarter.  While the stock has ridden high the past few months on optimism over the company's now launched robotaxi program, Tesla has also faced numerous headwinds, including weak demand, fierce competition, and a couple of public feuds with President Donald Trump. Through the stock's ups and downs, retail investors have remained exceedingly loyal to Tesla. The EV company has a higher portion of small individual investors than the other Magnificent 7 stocks, with 38% of its shares owned not by insiders or large institutions.  THE TAKEAWAY Tesla bulls are buying what CEO Elon Musk is selling. "The future of the company is fundamentally based on large-scale autonomous cars and large scale and large volume, vast numbers of autonomous humanoid robots," Musk said on the latest earnings call, reiterating a point he's made again and again. In other words: don't miss the forest (autonomy) for the trees (struggling vehicle sales). Read more Presented by iShares Simplify income investing. Looking to invest for monthly income, but don't want to navigate the complexities of the process on your own?  The iShares Flexible Income Active ETF (BINC) seeks a higher monthly income potential. The fund's objective is to maximize long-term income by investing in a broad range of sectors such as debt and income-producing securities. Led by Rick Rieder (awarded Morningstar's Outstanding Portfolio Manager in 20231), BINC can help you navigate the volatile bond market. The ETF gives investors access to harder-to-reach fixed income sectors through an experienced, research-focused investment team. iShares ETFs give you more flexibility, more choice, and more opportunity to help you pursue your financial goals. Discover how BINC could help you. ZOOM OUT Stories we're obsessed with Is Centene a canary in the insurance coal mine? 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Home Depot is moving on with a $4.3 billion pivot Here's what the over $2 billion for AI-related spending in the GOP tax bill would go to Snack Fact of the Day This year, the UK experienced its second-warmest June since 1884. This Week Tuesday: May consumer credit Wednesday: May Fed meeting minutes Thursday: Earnings expected from Delta, Conagra Brands, and Levi Strauss & Co.  Friday: Monthly US federal budget Advertiser's disclosures: 1 Rick Rieder, BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, was granted the 2023 Morningstar Award for Investing Excellence: Outstanding Portfolio Manager. https://newsroom.morningstar.com/newsroom/news-archive/press-release-details/2023/Winners-Announced-for-2023-U.S.-Morningstar-Awards-for-Investing-Excellence/default.aspx  Carefully consider the Funds' investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses before investing. 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