Nonferrous Metals

I am impressed by Elon Musk’s cost cutting, efficiency-driven approach across his companies that translate to excellent report card.

I see Tesla’s strong Q1 earnings as partly supported by geopolitical factors, improved free cash flow from cost discipline and some revenue growth.

However, EV delivery volumes fell short of expectations and this weakness may become more evident over the next few quarters. Subsequently, it will affect its revenue numbers and its margin.

About the Iran-US issue: Trump's just throwing a lot of lies and hyperbole here and there to muddle the truth about the hole he dug for himself (and to which, he is dragging the world into). But for now, I think the markets just have to do what it has to do -- thrive and trade. A "cautious optimism" would be the appropriate way to describe how the market is responding to the oil and geopolitical crisis we have now.

Tesla’s Q1 definitely gives the AI/auto story more fuel, but I don’t think margin pressure is gone yet. Positive FCF and an EPS beat are strong, but the revenue miss and Musk warning that capex will surge tell me Tesla is still very much in investment mode.

So yes, the long-term story looks stronger — but near term, investors may still have to deal with margin compression before all that spending starts to pay off.