Weekly Market Update - 17 June 2024
Apple Intelligence
Apple announced its long-awaited new artificial intelligence features, including tools supported by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The platform will be called “Apple Intelligence” and will help summarize text, create original images and retrieve the most relevant data when users need it. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman was at Monday’s event and wrote on the social media site X that he was “very happy” to be teaming up with Apple. That said, investors appeared lukewarm on the announcement, with Apple shares falling 1.9% on Monday, the biggest decline in more than two weeks.
Source: Bloomberg
Tesla Tariff
Tesla has asked the European Union to subject the company’s electric vehicles to a lower tariff rate than other manufacturers shipping cars into the bloc from China. The automaker requested an individual examination that could lead to a duty level commensurate with the subsidies it has received, according to Olof Gill, a European Commission spokesman. Other firms producing in China can ask for such an investigation late this year to avoid a 21% levy on top of an existing 10% tariff. Tesla has a lot at stake in seeking a lower tariff. CEO Elon Musk has led the charge in shipping EVs into the EU from China, using a factory in Shanghai as the company’s primary hub for exports. While the automaker assembles Model Y sport utility vehicles in Germany, it imports Model 3 sedans into the bloc from the China plant.
Source: Bloomberg
Boeing Deliveries
Boeing delivered 24 commercial jets in May, including 19 of its 737 family aircraft, as parts shortages and fresh scrutiny by China complicated efforts to recover from a crisis engulfing its most popular aircraft. While rival Airbus handed over 53 aircraft last month, Boeing matched its total for April, the lowest monthly tally in more than two years. Boeing has pared back deliveries of its cash cow 737 jets as it slows down work, increases inspections at supplier Spirit AeroSystems Holdings and seeks to reinforce safety at its factories in the wake of a near-catastrophic accident in January. The manufacturer expects to burn through about $8 billion in cash during the first half of the year.
Source: Bloomberg