What a day for Tesla.
First, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 16,373.8 (+115.9, +0.7%)
- S&P 500: 1,838.8 (+19.6, +1.0%)
- Nasdaq: 4,183.0 (+69.7, +1.7%)
And now the top stories:
- JP Morgan beat earnings estimates when it reported Q4 earnings of $1.40 per share, above expectations for $1.37 per share. Revenue of $24.1 billion modestly beat expectations of $24.08 billion.
- At 8:30 a.m. we saw retail sales beat expectations rising 0.2% in December, while analysts were looking for retail sales to stay flat. Core retail sales, ex autos and gas, were up 0.6% on the month, beating expectations for a 0.3% rise.
- The NFIB index of activity and sentiment among small firms rose to 93.9 in December, from 92.5 the previous month. "The index has now recovered almost all the ground lost as a result of the government shutdown," Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a note to clients. "The post-crash peak in the headline, 94.5, is now insight, and in our view a sustained break above that level would be the single biggest reason to be optimistic about economic growth in 2014, because small firms have a huge backlog of pent-up demand for capex."
- Tesla had an absolute monster day with shares rising as much as 15% to $160.83, after the car maker announced 6,900 deliveries in the fourth quarter. That's 20% above their previous guidance for Model S vehicle deliveries. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had said after the Q3 earnings call that Tesla faced production constraints not demand constraints. The stock was also elevated to outperform, from neutral, by Baird analyst Ben Kallo.
- Online documents filed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated that Tesla had issued a formal recall over plugs that risk overheating during charging. But Tesla said the word "recall" is outdated and that the statement was issued Friday and involves customers receiving an upgraded NEMA 14-50 adapter by mail.
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