Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Tesla in a tailspin

The Tesla nosedive accelerated Tuesday, its shares plummeting 11% in just one session. The terrible showing was the latest in a seven-day losing streak—Tesla’s longest since 2018—and knocked it out of the S&P 500 Index’s top 10 companies. So what was the bad news this time? A plan to temporarily halt production at its China factory. News of reduced output in Shanghai came on the heels of last week’s report that Tesla was offering US consumers a $7,500 discount to take delivery of its two highest-volume models before year-end. But the electric vehicle maker’s problems seem to run deeper than signs of slowing demand. As 2022 ends, Tesla has seen 69% of its value vanish amid Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and related online antics—and the investor jitters that resulted. As for Tesla’s future? Wall Street doesn’t think it requires shades. Jeffrey Osborne, an analyst at Cowen, said of Tesla, whose valuation has long been pinned to its future growth prospects: “Our sense is the company’s market share has peaked.” —David E. Rovella 

The shine seems to be off Apple as well. The gadget maker’s shares closed at their lowest level since June 2021 amid concerns over iPhone supply during the holidays. Recent weakness has come as production halts at a major iPhone plant in China contributed to the shortfall. Tech managed to drag everyone else down on Tuesday: Here’s your markets wrap.

Gautam Adani has had a spectacular year. He’s become Asia’s richest person, dethroning peer Mukesh Ambani, and the third wealthiest in Bloomberg’s global ranking. While most billionaires have lost money, he’s added $40 billion to his net worth in 2022. Here’s how he did it.

This is the kind of debacle airline passengers remember the next time they buy a ticket, and that’s bad news for Southwest Airlines. The carrier’s massive wave of cancellations just in time for Christmas return-travel was so bad that 80% of its flights were disrupted; it was so bad that even the federal government is investigating. While rivals quickly bounced back from the fallout of a deadly weekend storm, Southwest did not, and as a result found itself responsible for almost three-fourths of all cancellations in the US. And it’s not over: Southwest said it expects the chaos to continue for at least another few days. 

Responsible for almost three-fourths of all cancellations in the US on Monday, Southwest says more chaos is still to come. Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

There’s another problem for flying consumers—especially those who think sky-high fares will soon fall back to Earth. As the travel recovery accelerates and China drops its Covid curbs, the world is running desperately short of planes. With carriers trying to place jet orders that number in the hundreds, supply chain constraints mean those planes won’t be delivered for years. Guess what that means for airfares until then?

The Kremlin banned exports of Russian crude to foreign buyers that adhere to a recently unveiled price cap, but Moscow held back from the most drastic retaliatory measures that could have further disrupted global oil supplies. The US and Europe already stopped buying Russian oil, and for Europe, mild weather and high winds will ease pressure on power grids into the New Year, with warmer temperatures even spreading to the Nordics. Still, the euro area faces a “very difficult economic situation” next year, European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said. “It is very important that individuals and businesses alike are prudent and focus on the long term.”

One of the biggest landowners in Texas oil country, a land bank created out of a 19th-century railroad bankruptcy, managed to double returns for its investors over the course of  2022. It’s starting the new year by suing some of them.

South Korea sent drones across the border into North Korea for the first time on Monday, an unprecedented tit-for-tat military move after Kim Jong Un’s regime dispatched five unmanned aerial vehicles into its air space. Kim has been ratcheting up tensions, firing more missiles and making more provocative moves as the world’s attention has been on Ukraine. The moves may increase the risks for the first major deadly clash between the two countries in years.

South Korean soldiers patrol along a barbed wire fence at the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. Photographer: Ed Jones/AFP

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• Right after FTX filed for bankruptcy, hackers allegedly stole $372 million.
• Ukraine advances, predicts economic growth; Kremlin says surrender.
• Russia has a client state in Africa, where its mercenaries are in charge.
• Some of America’s Amazon package recycling is burned for fuel in India.
• Supreme Court sides with Republicans, keeps Covid border rules in place.
• Bloomberg Opinion: The Trump Supreme Court “nostalgia doctrine.”
• New NY Congressman Santos admits to numerous lies about his past.

A tiny Tokyo-based diagnostics firm that developed the first US-approved spinal fluid test for Alzheimer’s is now doubling down on developing blood tests—an easier method to detect the brain-wasting disease. With a new blockbuster therapy for the affliction expected soon, the race is on to create less onerous testing to see who needs it. 

Fujirebio Holding Inc., a unit of H.U. Group Holdings Inc. with a market value of $1.2 billion, is boosting its line-up of reagents used to detect Alzheimer’s biomarkers in a blood test. Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg

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