Good Morning!

Happy Pre-Friday 🌞 

Today’s article is brought to you by: 95% human and 5% AI

Market Update

📊 Markets tipped lower Wednesday on stronger-than-expected manufacturing data.

The Institute for Supply Management’s February survey showed that US factory activity declined for the fourth straight month, but was still above analyst expectations.

🟢 Solar company First Solar jumped 15.69% after sharing strong 2023 guidance on the backs of the Inflation Reduction Act.

🔴Lowe’s fell 5.6% after offering a weaker-than-expected 2023 guidance.

Banger Tweet of the Day

Lori Lightfoot lost reelection for Chicago mayor and immediately goes and grabs a rack of Modelo’s. I’d do the same.

Elon Talks, Tesla Drops

The Master Plan: Tesla held its 2023 Investor Day where Elon Musk presented his “Master Plan Part 3” for the company.

Investors didn’t love the pitch: The presentation was full of grandiose vision, but lacked the specifics necessary to get investors behind the plan. Tesla shares fell almost 6% after hours.

Tesla’s goal, announced multiple times throughout, is to produce 20 million EVs by 2030. Tesla produced ~1.3 million vehicles in 2022.

CFO Zach Kirkhorn shared that achieving that target would require around $175 billion in investment, of which Tesla has already spent $28 billion.

Musk declined to comment on any plans for its next model, but did say the company would probably need 10 different models to hit its 2030 goal.

Producing an affordable car for the mass-market is at the top of investors minds, but no real intel has been shared on this front.

Business Bytes

🤳 TikTok rolls out 60-Minute daily time limit for children (WSJ)

• Users under 18 will have to enter a passcode if they stay on the app for over an hour.

• I promise this will do nothing to solve any problems, and TikTok will continue to report increased engagement.

📈 Salesforce shares jump 16% on better-than-expected forecast (CNBC)

• The SaaS pioneer beat Q4 earnings expectations and issued better than expected guidance into Q1 2023.

• The report was much needed for Salesforce, who has dealt with executive turnover, activist investors, and layoffs the last couple months.

💰️ Austin, Texas based VC firm 8VC raised $880mm for its latest fund (Techcrunch)

• General Partner Joe Lonsdale wrote in a blog post that his firms mission is to “fix a broken world”

• SMH, They’ll probably invest in B2B SaaS. VC

🧑‍⚖️ US House Panel approves bill giving Biden power to ban TikTok (Reuters)

• Lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to grant the Biden administration new power to ban TikTok, as well as any other apps considered a security risk.

• I wish Biden could ban my student loans 😭 

🚗 General Motors cuts ~500 salaried workers (WSJ)

• The automaker is desperate to find cost improvements as they prepare to roll out several new models this year.

• GM says the layoffs are performance-related, and that they’re not typical layoffs. Okay buddy.

Eli Lilly Slashes Prices for Diabetes Drugs

Eli Lilly, under pressure to curb drug costs, announced yesterday they are taking steps to reduce the cost of its insulin products.

What’s the Price: The drug-maker is making a couple different pricing changes:

• Cutting the list prices for its most common insulin products by 70%.

• Reducing the price for unbranded insulin from $82 to $25.

• Improve its program that will cap out-of-pocket costs at $35.

The American Diabetes Association praised Eli Lilly’s price cuts and urged other drug makers to follow suit. T1International also praised Eli Lilly but mentioned that even still prices could be too high for many Americans.

Insulin prices can cost anywhere from $95 to hundreds of dollars a month.

The stock rose 1% yesterday on an otherwise red day.

Today’s Challenge: Finish that deliverable you said you would do a week ago.

Thanks for reading, go out and make today a great one.

Much Love,

Andrew (and AI)