Good morning, it's Paul here with the SCVR for Wednesday.
See the header above for the running order. It's a mix of small caps & mid caps, as there's not much news today, and I like to look at housebuilders in particular, for read-across on the economy & consumer sentiment/spending. It's fine for us to deviate from the small caps remit when there are other interesting things going on! Reader feedback is that most people actually like it when we veer onto current topics outside small caps, so why not!
Estimated time of completion - probably about 1pm
Edit at 13:26 - today's report is now finished.
Time filler as I wait for the 7am RNS releases
It was certainly an interesting evening yesterday, watching Tesla go even more parabolic, soaring to a peak of something like $970 per share. Then suddenly lurching down by about $100 just before the US close, then settling after-hours (where the US has an active market) at around $900.
This is a very peculiar situation, and reminds me of the late stages of the TMT boom & bust in 1999. Although this time around, the companies that are booming and reaching huge valuations, seem a lot higher quality than the dross that went crazy in price back in 1998-2000 - then eventually joined the 90% fallers club, and often eventually the 99% fallers club - people forget now, but the 2000-2003 bear market was really brutal!
When share prices go parabolic, as Tesla has done, they don't tend to settle quietly settle at a multiple of their previous price (unless it's something like a drug discovery company that has had a major breakthrough). They tend to reach a stratospheric peak, and then crash back down just as fast, often giving up most of the original gains.
Elon Musk should be rushing through an equity fundraising right now, to take advantage of the mania in Tesla shares, but I doubt he will as he seems to not only create, but also believes his own hype. There again, it's difficult not to admire what he has achieved, against the odds, even if the valuation of Tesla is clearly ridiculous.
EDIT: here is a test where the actual range of a Tesla Model 3 turned out to be far lower than claimed, and only marginally ahead of the stunning new electric Porsche Taycan;
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