Tesla, Reddit, Alibaba, Fermi and Tesco

Electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla (TSLA) is set to report quarterly deliveries before the US market open on Thursday, with shares up just less than 1% in pre-market trading.

The figures come as a $7,500 (£5,557) federal tax credit on EVs expired on Tuesday 30 September, with carmakers trying to entice potential buyers in the run-up to the deadline.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that consensus for Tesla's third quarter deliveries is “sitting near 440k, though investor expectations are closer to 470k or higher given strong early data”.

“The pull-forward effect from the expiring US EV credit should provide a boost, mirroring trends seen at GM (GM) and Ford (F), while robust weekly numbers from China highlight resilience in a fiercely competitive market,” he said.

“Energy remains the wild card with its lumpy deployment patterns, but a new record is on the cards,” Britzman added. “Shares have been in overdrive for the past few months, and there are some new forces at play with changes to the US tax credits, raising the chance of volatility for what is usually a well-flagged update.”

Shares in Reddit (RDDT) slid nearly 12% in Wednesday's session, falling for the second day in a row, as new data showed the use of its content in AI chatbot ChatGPT had plummeted in mid-September.

According to data from AI search engine tracker Promptwatch, Reddit (RDDT) content was cited in just 2% of ChatGPT responses on Tuesday, much lower than the 9.7% reported the previous month. At its peak in September, Reddit (RDDT) was cited in more than 14% of ChatGPT answers.

However, Reddit (RDDT) was the top social platform cited by the leading AI chatbot, with its content surfacing in 4.3% of ChatGPT's responses on average in September. By comparison, the second-most-cited social platform, LinkedIn, was referenced in just 0.4% of ChatGPT's answers during the month.

Shares in Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) continued to rise on Thursday, with the company's Hong Kong-listed stock up nearly 4%.

This came as JPMorgan (JPM), which has an “overweight” rating on Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA), raised its price target on the stock.

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In addition, Reuters reported on Thursday that Alibaba's (9988.HK, BABA) mapping app Amap logged record daily users on the first day of China's eight-day national day holiday on Wednesday.

Shares in Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) have been on the rise over the past week, as a number of investment analysts raised their price targets on the stock. This came after Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) said it would boost AI spending beyond its original commitment of more than $50bn.

Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) also announced a software deal with Nvidia (NVDA) to integrate the chip giant's AI development tools used for training for robotics and self-driving cars.

US power grid player Fermi (FRMI), which was co-founded by former US energy secretary Rick Perry, surged nearly 55% in its market debut on the Nasdaq (^IXIC) on Wednesday.

The data centre real estate investment trust (REIT) raised $682m in its initial public offering, highlighting investor appetite for getting exposure to AI infrastructure.

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Fermi America co-founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday: “The biggest reason that we went public is because we have a global supply chain and I think it makes it easier for our critical vendors to know who we are if we're a public company.”

“It's probably the most dilutive from a financial engineering standpoint, but I think the benefits of us being public both in London and in New York will give our customers just a greater feeling and understanding about who we are and a great way to attract track our business.”

On the London market, shares in Tesco (TSCO.L) climbed nearly 3% on Thursday, after the supermarket lifted its profit outlook.

In its interim results, released on Thursday, Tesco (TSCO.L) reported group sales of £33.05bn ($44.6bn) for the first half, up 5.1% compared to the same period last year, though profit after tax was down 9.6% to £950m for the first half.

However, Tesco (TSCO.L) lifted its group adjusted operating profit forecast for the year to between £2.9bn and £3.1bn, an increase from the previous range of between £2.7bn and £3.0bn.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: “Expectations were high going into today’s results, yet the juggernaut still managed to impress investors with an uplift to its profit guidance. This suggests there is little sign that the company is losing its dominant grip on the British aisles.

“Tesco (TSCO.L) is a leading force in the UK grocery sector with its market share growing to 28.4% this year. Rival supermarkets typically take market share from each other rather than Tesco (TSCO.L). That’s partly why the stock is largely viewed as the preferred play in the sector.”

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