Investing

[Deleterious]

Inside GM’s Newest Weapon in the EV Wars

$110,000 Hummer? 

I guess the success of GM and Ford will depend on their pickup rollout.  Even if they knock it out of the park, will it create new customers?  Or is it just replacing someone who was going to buy and ICE truck?  Maintaining their customer base is nice, but stock prices are driven by growth.

[Motown Bombers]

Hummers were expensive before and the Hummer is a niche vehicle. GM's true EV truck is going to be the Silverado EV. An f150, full optioned, can approach 6 figures. The demand for the F150 Lightning has been strong. Not sure if it is people new to Ford and/or trucks or not. The ICE F150 is still going to be where Ford gets its bread buttered. 

[gehringer_2]

5 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Inside GM’s Newest Weapon in the EV Wars

$110,000 Hummer? 

I guess the success of GM and Ford will depend on their pickup rollout.  Even if they knock it out of the park, will it create new customers?  Or is it just replacing someone who was going to buy and ICE truck?  Maintaining their customer base is nice, but stock prices are driven by growth.

automobiles is not too much of a growth market in the US or Europe. And China is, well, China. In Europe/US you have to depend on stealing market share and TBH, you do that 50/50  based on the other guy's missteps as much as your own product. 🙄

[1776]

So the market, in spite of last week, continues to decline. So have we still got buyers in here? I mean, this is it, right? 🤓

Edited June 1, 2022 by 1776

[pfife]

I'm buying but I'm always buying

[Jim Cowan]

I will be buying within the next week.  We announced a 50 basis point hike today, anticipated for weeks and already priced in.  Expecting another 50 basis points 6 weeks from now, also already priced in.  I'm down about 5% YTD and I am not too disappointed with that.   I don't pick stocks, I just buy the index.

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, Jim Cowan said:

I will be buying within the next week.  We announced a 50 basis point hike today, anticipated for weeks and already priced in.  Expecting another 50 basis points 6 weeks from now, also already priced in.  I'm down about 5% YTD and I am not too disappointed with that.   I don't pick stocks, I just buy the index.

Which index is down only 5%?  

I am down 8% with a mix of S&P, bonds, gold and a consumer staples fund.  

[Deleterious]

Rumor is that Apple is set to announce a new search engine sometime next week.

[Jim Cowan]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Which index is down only 5%?  

I am down 8% with a mix of S&P, bonds, gold and a consumer staples fund.  

Toronto Stock Exchange, heaviest weighting is Financial with Materials the runner-up.  I'm actually down 2.5% YTD, and 5% from my peak around the end of March

[Deleterious]

Ford announced that they are going to 100% online sales with all of their EVs.  No more negotiating either,  all fixed price.  Pretty much like Tesla.

[ewsieg]

9 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Ford announced that they are going to 100% online sales with all of their EVs.  No more negotiating either,  all fixed price.  Pretty much like Tesla.

Interested in if they have buy-in from the dealerships to go in this direction.

[gehringer_2]

1 minute ago, ewsieg said:

Interested in if they have buy-in from the dealerships to go in this direction.

really. There has to be something in the deal for them or they'd be in court again.

[Motown Bombers]

My guess is you take delivery at a dealership of your choice and that dealer receives a cut. You'll probably complete the sale at the dealership and at that time they will try to upsell you on useless warranties and protection packages. In a way Ford has already been doing this. I placed an order for a Mach E through the Ford website and it sent the order to a dealership of my choice where I completed the sale. 

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

My guess is you take delivery at a dealership of your choice and that dealer receives a cut. You'll probably complete the sale at the dealership and at that time they will try to upsell you on useless warranties and protection packages. In a way Ford has already been doing this. I placed an order for a Mach E through the Ford website and it sent the order to a dealership of my choice where I completed the sale. 

makes sense

[Deleterious]

2021 Ford Bronco 'catastrophic engine failure' complaints lead to NHTSA investigation

[gehringer_2]

14 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

2021 Ford Bronco 'catastrophic engine failure' complaints lead to NHTSA investigation

We had a car throw a rod once. It is pretty dramatic when your engine just goes bang and stops!

[Deleterious]

How does their LOI not stipulate Twitter turn that data over to Musk?  When we buy a self storage business ours says what financial data we want and how many years it should go back.  

You almost wonder if Musk just spent a billion dollars to burn Twitter down.  The stock price today is now lower than when he made his offer and it will continue to fall if this falls through.

 

[1776]

To say that Elon Musk is an interesting character would be an understatement.

[gehringer_2]

I think he wants out and this is just a negotiating position to bargain down the $1B walk-away fee. The problem is that the twitter board doesn't want him to walk away now so he has to fabricate an argument with himself. 🙄

[ewsieg]

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I think he wants out and this is just a negotiating position to bargain down the $1B walk-away fee. The problem is that the twitter board doesn't want him to walk away now so he has to fabricate an argument with himself. 🙄

I don't think he wants out, but I think the recent crash resulted in him having to leveraging more Tesla stock than he's willing to use.  That said, I don't think he really trusts the numbers he's getting as well and truly wants to see the real numbers.  It's quite possible that the real numbers might allow him to renegotiate a much lower purchase price.  The problem is, those numbers are based on algorithms.  Determining how that algorithm detects a 'bot' has some subjective aspects to it.

Edited June 8, 2022 by ewsieg

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, ewsieg said:

I don't think he wants out, but I think the recent crash resulted in him having to leveraging more Tesla stock than he's willing to use.  That said, I don't think he really trusts the numbers he's getting as well and truly wants to see the real numbers.  It's quite possible that the real numbers might allow him to renegotiate a much lower purchase price.  The problem is, those numbers are based on algorithms.  Determining how that algorithm detects a 'bot' has some subjective aspects to it.

Could be, but on the other hand, I'm not sure what the value of the *number* of accounts is in any case. The fake/bot accounts can generate traffic far out of proportion to their account population, especially if we assume (with justification) that many of these accounts are operating as paid policy agents of foreign governments (or corps FTM) with the resources to keep them running full tilt. So whether it's 1% or 5% doesn't really tell you much does it? You need posting or RT ratios -or some kind of actual traffic data,  and I haven't heard them talking about that - so to me an argument about a number whose relevance may be questionable in the first place is what smacks of a shadow play. But it's not my field of expertise at all - that's just my impression.

Edited June 8, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Deleterious]

Article is behind a paywall.  But Twitter has decided to hand over the data to Musk.

Here is what I found funny.  The article said Twitter sells that data to multiple companies, so it isn't like its some secret insider info.  But they wouldn't hand it over to a potential buyer of the company?  That seems odd.

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Article is behind a paywall.  But Twitter has decided to hand over the data to Musk.

Here is what I found funny.  The article said Twitter sells that data to multiple companies, so it isn't like its some secret insider info.  But they wouldn't hand it over to a potential buyer of the company?  That seems odd.

On level it seems odd, but the other hand, this is not a merger/buyout *negotiation*, Elon already signed the deal, so the alternative  take would be; "you signed the deal, you had your chance to do due diligence before you signed. We don't owe you anything. Nothing you find out now matters unless you can prove fraud. Close the deal or pay the fee."

Edited June 8, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Deleterious]

This makes me happy.

Michigan is poised to become 14th state to mandate personal finance education

 

[Deleterious]

I mentioned a few weeks ago I believe Apple will eventually open a bank.  We are not quite there yet, but this is a start.

Apple sidelines Goldman Sachs and goes in-house for lending service

Quote

Big Tech’s move into the core banking business has been long feared on Wall Street after years of an uneasy alliance in areas such as mobile payments. In the past, Apple has worked with Goldman to issue a credit card in the US, as well as with banks such as Barclays in the UK to offer financing for purchases of its own devices.

However, those banks’ roles are diminished in its latest financial product.

Goldman Sachs is facilitating Apple Pay Later by allowing Apple to access Mastercard’s network, since the iPhone maker lacks a licence to issue payment credentials directly. But Apple is handling the underwriting and lending using its new subsidiary.

In a statement, Goldman said it was “excited about our partnership with Apple, which will only continue to grow”. 

The set-up will allow Apple to earn interchange fees from each transaction as well as give the company more control over data and help accelerate international expansion of its financial products. However, if a customer fails to pay back the loan, Apple must swallow the loss.