LVMH Smashes Another European Record

Luxury goods giant LVMH is the first European company to surpass $500 billion in market value. 💰

The parent company’s brands include Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon, Hennessy, Givenchy, Bulgari, and Sephora. And its 17% rise in first-quarter sales more than doubled analyst estimates. That, plus a profit from recurring operations of 21.1 billion euros, marked its second consecutive year of record results. 📈

As for the driver? Higher-income consumers continue to spend despite uncertainty in the economy. Additionally, China’s Covid reopening fueled a rebound in travel by high-end spenders.

The results send $LVMUY shares to fresh all-time highs, further boosting CEO Bernard Arnault’s net worth (currently the world’s richest person). 🤑

This begs the question, if LVMH is the first to pass $500 billion, what else is on the list? You can find a complete list here, but below are the top 10. 👇

Nio & Nikola’s Never-Ending Story

No matter the day, there seems to be an endless stream of electric vehicle (EV) industry news. Let’s get into today’s headlines. 📰

First up is China’s Nio, which just received an additional $2.2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings, which raised its stake to 20.1%. The fund had last invested in Nio during July, with a $1 billion investment. 

Read It

Chinese Smartphone Maker Unveils EV

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi is entering the highly competitive electric vehicle (EV) market, revealing its first electric car this weekend. 👀

The consumer electronics company unveiled its SU7 sedan, which it says it spent more than $1.4 billion to develop. The vehicle is set to roll out in China next year and is attempting to do something Faraday Future and other competitors have failed to do: create a software-focused vehicle that matches the technology people find in their phones to what’s happening in their cars. 

Read It

Trouble Continues For Telecoms

We last talked about Telecom stocks about six months ago, when their stocks came under significant pressure due to slowing growth, competition concerns, and regulatory issues. We then discussed them in October when investors dumped defensive stocks for higher-yielding treasuries with no risk.

Prices have since rebounded sharply with the broader market as investors priced in Fed rate cuts this year. However, Verizon was back in the news today for a not-so-great reason. Let’s dig in. 👇

Read It

PayPal Pops Ahead Of Key Event

It’s been a rough few years for payment giant PayPal, with shares falling 85% peak-to-trough. Recently, the stock has begun to rebound with other beaten-down tech names but remains about 80% below all-time highs. In other words, it would need to nearly 5x its share price to reach those levels again. 📈

While that may seem a ways off, investors have recently pushed shares to their best three-day run since the end of 2022. That’s because the company promised to roll out new “customer-backed innovation” at an event next Thursday, with its new CEO Alex Chriss saying, “It is very clear what we need to do.”

Read It