Energy & Commodities

Tesla posts record profits, offers muddy outlook for batteries, Cybertruck

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) posted a bigger second-quarter profit than expected on Tuesday thanks to higher sales of its less-expensive electric vehicles, as it raised vehicle prices and cut costs.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, however, said a global chip shortage that led to temporary factory shutdowns for the automaker, remains serious, and offered no details on the timing of its Cybertruck and next-generation batteries.

For the first time since late 2019, Tesla profits did not rely on sales of environmental credits to other automakers, a sign of increasing financial health for the manufacturing operation.

Shares of the world’s most valuable automaker rose nearly 1% in extended trade.

In a call with investors and analysts, Tesla executives said that volume production growth for this year will depend on parts availability, as it aims to grow deliveries by more than 50%.

Musk said Tesla has “many calls at midnight, 1 a.m., just with suppliers about resolving a lot of the shortages.”…read more.

Bitcoin’s price rises above $40,000 for first time in over a month

Bitcoin’s price rose above $40,000 on Monday, representing the first time the market has moved above that level since mid-June.

At press time, the cryptocurrency is trading at $40,085 on Coinbase, up more than 17% in the past twenty-four hours. As noted in the chart below, bitcoin’s price last rose above $40,000 on June 16.

The market move comes hours after bitcoin’s push above $39,000 triggered the liquidation of some $883 million in crypto short positions, as The Block reported this morning. 81% of those liquidations were in connection with bitcoin short positions, with $720 million liquidated.

Market observers attributed the price move to a range of possible factors, including speculation about Amazon’s interest in cryptocurrency and the continued scrutiny of the market by Chinese authorities…read more.

Special Olympics Golf Tournament

As you may know, our good friend Michael Campbell is Past President and an Executive Board Member of the BC Special Olympics. He is also actively involved as the Chairman of the Newmont Invitational Golf Tournament which supports the BCSO.

Throughout its history, the Newmont Invitational has been known for its premium golf experience and its power to make a difference for Special Olympics BC’s inspiring athletes and empowering programs. Too often, people with intellectual disabilities are forgotten and left behind by our society, and the pandemic has intensified their isolation. The 2021 Newmont Invitational will be your opportunity to make a critical difference in the lives of athletes who rely on Special Olympics for sport, health, skill building, and most of all, friendships.

We need your help, especially this year.

Sponsoring or Donating an auction item to the Newmont Invitational Golf Tournament directly supports the lives of the athletes. All donations are greatly appreciated!

Examples of past auction items that have been generously donated include:

  • Vacation packages and hotel stays
  • Precious metal bars
  • Media / ad buys
  • Experience packages
  • Stadium suite memberships
  • Luxury alcohol
  • Electronics
  • Gift certificates

If you can’t think of anything that you might have readily available, we encourage you to provide support by reaching out to partners and suppliers for auction item donations. The only way any of this gets done – the only way to break through the noise and bustle of everyday life is to ask people you know – ask your contacts. And that’s where you come in.

These children and adults, along with their families, deserve our support. Special O helps build a bridge to the community at large for many individuals who, before joining Special Olympics, were isolated and alone. This is where our 4,800 athletes across the province and tens of thousands more across the country build friendships and self-esteem. It’s not an exaggeration to say these donations literally change people’s lives.

Sure hope you may be able to help, Please email me at nina@highpci.com.

Nina Parente

Global Property Bubble To Correct, Canada Is The Second Riskiest: Oxford Economics

The whole world might be in a property bubble, but Canada is the second riskiest. That’s the take from Oxford Economics in their latest housing report this morning. Adam Slater, the firm’s lead economist, broke down fundamentals for global markets. He found double-digit overvaluations are widely seen these days. The firm believes a correction is likely to take place, but the longer it’s put off, the worse it will be. Canada is the second riskiest property bubble, only beaten by the Netherlands.

Global Home Prices Are 10% Overvalued
The whole world is overvalued — at least the parts where people eat and sleep. Global property prices are 10% above the long-term trend, says Slater. Using price-to-rent, they estimate the overvaluation rises to 11% for the global index.

Not quite at the pre-Great Recession high in 2006, but getting pretty close. They estimate the price-to-rent ratio reached 13 to 15% back then. However, a different set of economies appear to be at greater risk this time around, such as Canada.

Canada didn’t experience much of a real estate price correction during the Great Recession. The legend is this was due to the prudential lending of their banks, and rock-solid valuations. That’s not entirely true.

Markets like Toronto hadn’t recovered from the previous housing correction by then. On an inflation-adjusted basis, it was cheaper to buy in 2006 than it was to buy in 1990. It didn’t crash because it hadn’t recovered yet. Toronto is about a fifth of the country’s economy, so the legend became that Canada is bulletproof. Even though that wasn’t the take of the current central bank governor back then…read more.

Elon Musk says SpaceX owns Bitcoin and he owns Ethereum in Jack Dorsey talk

Elon Musk confirmed both Tesla and SpaceX own Bitcoin during his discussion with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood today.

In his opening remarks at The B Word panel, Musk said he is ultimately a supporter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies despite his skepticism towards proof of work concepts. He said the only public stock he owns is Tesla, but the only “three meaningful assets” he owns outside of company stock is bitcoin, ether and dogecoin, and that he owns “much more bitcoin than ether or doge.”

In addition to his private holdings, he confirmed SpaceX also owns bitcoin. Musk made headlines earlier this year when he added $1.5 billion in BTC to electric vehicle firm Tesla’s balance sheet. Because SpaceX is private, it was previously unknown that the space exploration tech firm also had a portion of its holdings in the crypto.

Musk did not disclose how much SpaceX holds. The firm could wade further into crypto, though, according to Musk’s comments.

“Bitcoin by itself cannot be the monetary system of the world at the base layer, but at the second layer it’s possible depending on how it’s implemented,” said Musk.

He said SpaceX is “playing a role in this” vision for Bitcoin’s future, although he did not further clarify how the firm is furthering that mission…read more.