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Good morning! Here’s the latest in trending:
Tech edge: “If you are critical of ICE, you should be out there protesting for more Palantir (PLTR),” CEO Alex Karp declares, following blowout earnings that sent shares up 11% in premarket trading.
New rules: China has banned hidden electronic car door handles, making it the first country to outlaw the design popularized by Tesla (TSLA).
It’s a deal: India’s stock market soared after President Trump cut reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods and New Delhi agreed to stop buying Russian oil.
You may have to go back some years to remember the history, but in 2016, Tesla (TSLA) scooped up another Musk-led company called SolarCity. Elon framed the $2.6B deal as a necessary step for “Master Plan, Part Deux,” but Tesla’s Solar Roof would go on to struggle with pricing, production and installation hurdles, and never reached the mass-market scale that was originally promised. A lawsuit eventually ensued that was won by Musk, but something similar might be happening a decade later.
Bigger picture: SolarCity was folded into Tesla Energy, which produced successful and still dominant products, like Powerwall. Strong growth for these battery backup systems was rooted in leveraging the existing customer base of SolarCity—then the largest residential solar installer in the U.S. Tesla also gained a vast distribution network, engineering talent, and inverter designs, helping it become the end-to-end sustainable energy company it is today.
A similar integration is now taking place. Musk just announced that SpaceX (SPACE) would acquire another one of his companies, xAI (X.AI). The price tags are a lot higher this time around – with SpaceX valued at $1T and xAI worth $250B – but the strategy is the same. Musk is looking to unify his company ecosystem once again, benefiting from a conglomerate that would also involve SpaceX subsidiary Starlink for connectivity and internet services.
Zoom out: SolarCity faced a severe liquidity crisis before Tesla acquired it, and xAI has been burning through cash to keep up with the likes of Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI and Google (GOOGL). Highly profitable SpaceX can bankroll xAI’s massive development costs, while leveraging its assets down the line to fund Musk’s “Orbital AI” vision, where data centers move into space to solve energy and cooling constraints on Earth. It would also cement a record-shattering valuation for the combined company, which is planning to IPO sometime later this year. (3 comments)
Here’s the latest Seeking Alpha analysis
Golden Buying Opportunities: Deeply Undervalued With Potential Upside Catalysts
I Can’t Imagine Retiring Without These 2 High Dividends
Why I Won’t Buy REIT ETFs
Silver And Gold: The Rise And Fall Set Up An Option Play
Trump’s New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh: The Impact And Rate Path For 2026
What else is happening…
WSB survey results: Here’s what to expect from the metals meltdown.
January jobs report to be delayed by partial government shutdown.
Walmart (WMT) sees an acceleration in its paid membership program.
Bitcoin drop puts the largest crypto treasury firm under pressure.
California Governor Newsom floats $200M rebate plan for EV industry.
Altman backs Nvidia after report of OpenAI unsatisfied with some chips.
Devon Energy (DVN), Coterra (CTRA) to merge in $58B all-stock deal.
Disney (DIS) falls as expense warning, forecast offset earnings beat.
Trump to launch $12B strategic critical minerals stockpile to counter China.
The U.S. is set to run the economy hot in 2026 – TS Lombard.
Today’s Markets
In Asia, Japan +3.9%. Hong Kong +0.2%. China +1.3%. India +2.5%.
In Europe, at midday, London -0.4%. Paris -0.2%. Frankfurt +0.2%.
Futures at 6:30, Dow -0.1%. S&P +0.2%. Nasdaq +0.4%. Crude flat at $62.13. Gold +5.6% to $4,911.10. Bitcoin +0.4% to $78,051.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +1 bp to 4.29%.
On The Calendar
Companies reporting today include Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Pfizer (PFE).
See the full earnings calendar on Seeking Alpha, as well as today’s economic calendar.
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