'Please mine more nickel,' Musk urges as Tesla boosts production

U.S. Bond Markets Are Driving Force Behind the New Gold Rush

(Bloomberg) -- Deepening negative real yields in the U.S. Treasury market are fueling a frenetic rally in gold that’s boosting the precious metal toward a record.Bullion has gained 24% this year and is about $45 from an all-time high. And with five-year Treasuries now yielding -1.16% once the effects of inflation are stripped out, the lowest close in seven years, there’s little reason to expect a slowdown in precious-metal buying as investors fret about the economic outlook, prospects for further outbreaks of Covid-19 and the impact of central-bank bond buying.“Gold is a superior form of purchasing power protection and as real rates dive significantly below zero here, gold is relatively more attractive as a hedge,” said Peter Grosskopf, chief executive officer at Sprott Inc., a precious metals specialist with about $8 billion under management.With investors looking for safe-haven assets that won’t lose value, they’re pouring record amounts into precious-metal exchange-traded funds....

Daimler Targets Profit After Weathering Worst of Virus Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Daimler AG came through the worst of the coronavirus crisis better than feared and sees enough signs of recovery in auto demand to forecast a profit this year.After Tesla Inc. managed to stay profitable even in the midst of a global pandemic, the Mercedes-Benz maker showed traditional carmakers could weather the storm as well.Daimler anticipates earnings before interest and taxes and free cash flow to be positive in 2020, albeit lower than the previous year, the Stuttgart, Germany-based manufacturer said Thursday in a statement. The outlook is based on an assumption that the economy continues to rebound and there’s no second wave of the coronavirus.Not everyone is as optimistic. Ford Motor Co. forecast a second-quarter operating loss of more than $5 billion. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV withdrew its guidance in May after a worse-than-expected first-quarter loss, saying it may raise more money. That same month, Nissan Motor Co. reported...

Tesla's $200 Billion Question Remains Unanswered

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- You know Tesla Inc. is maturing as a carmaker when it manages to be slightly dull. Wednesday evening’s earnings update was even more eagerly anticipated than usual after the recent surge in its share price. Elon Musk’s company has added an astonishing $200 billion to its already ample market capitalization since the end of March.Confirmation that Tesla will add a second U.S. factory in Austin, Texas is certainly something to celebrate — especially for the workers it will employ there to build its Cybertruck and other products. So too is the fourth consecutive quarter of net profit, which may prompt the company’s inclusion in the S&P500.And yet the earnings call — where Musk has in the past ranted about “fascist” virus lockdowns and attacked analysts for asking “boring, bonehead” questions — was a bit of a snooze. It even featured a long discussion about insurance and Musk’s appreciation for the actuarial profession.In the current economic environment,...

Bounceback in U.S. shale oil output is unlikely to last the summer

A reopening of some major economies locked down due to the coronavirus has lifted global oil prices and encouraged U.S. shale producers to return at least a third of the 2 million barrels per day (bpd) curtailed since April. With most new drilling halted and OPEC relaxing curbs that have underpinned the oil-price recovery, shale output will slide again in autumn, said oil executives and analysts. Shale output falls off faster than at conventional oil wells, a factor that will lead to output declining by September....