NKLA doubles

The general indices don’t tell the story as the SPY is up only 1%. Nor do the FANG stocks. Most today were up less than 1% (AMZN was up over 1% but still under 2%). Instead, it was what I consider the fringe Robin Hood type names that were moving today (those companies that don’t actually make money or that might not have a sustainable business).

TSLA was up over 7% on news that May China sales recovered from their April drop (May was a little bit better than March but the numbers involved are so small I am not sure what, if anything, can be made from them). It still seems like hype over substance and I struggle to find any other $160B company that moves on such tiny data points (but that also ignores big data points such as a 30% drop in global EV sales). If the stall in the stock price during the month of May near $800 was due to the April drop in China then TSLA is really trading up or down based on 7,000 cars? I am still waiting for an entry point to increase my probe in this short but really the only time TSLA actually moved down was due to the virus, not TSLA related fundamentals it seems. In other words, forced selling by speculative buyers is a much better predictor than actual market data. If the central banks were forced to normalise, for example, I would not be surprised to see TSLA at $300 even with better sales in China. As it is, TSLA is over $950 despite only the EU growing as an EV market (and then not for TSLA as competition crushed them). Curious.

BYND was even more surprising, up 21.88% on news of a distribution deal in China. BYND previously over-reacted to news of China test sales last week (and did not react negatively to news of China sourcing, which is interesting). At $162 it is near the highs for the 12 month chart but below its $240 peak. Still, it is 237% off its $48 low, yet another indicator of how much intervention in the markets has affected prices.

Finally, NKLA ended up over 100% on the day (and was halted mid-morning). Hydrogen pick-up trucks are on offer. I was attempting to establish a probe at $42 but closed at my stop of $61 after the halt (for the first time in a long time the stop was hit without any slippage). It did fall to $40 but ended up over $70. It is difficult to really chase it or be too aggressive when I am somewhat shell shocked by all these insane moves. At this point it is more trying not to lose money rather than chasing stocks that move 75% intra-day. Anyway, NKLA went from $12B to $27B market cap due to a pickup truck. Interesting. CMI, by the way, is worth about $28B.