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Tesla Motors Model 3 Revealed, 115,000 Orders Already

Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) CEO Elon Musk unveiled the long-awaited Model 3 Thursday night, announcing huge pre-order demand already. Tesla rolled out Model 3 sedans to cheers from the crowd of Tesla owners. Musk said the mass-market vehicle received more than 115,000 reservations in the first 24 hours — before anyone had gotten a peek. At $1,000 each, that’s $1.15 billion in (refundable) deposits to help fund the Model 3’s production. The Model 3 will have a minimum 215-mile battery range, will go from 0-to-60 in less than six seconds and come with autopilot safety features standard. Musk said it will carry five passengers “comfortably.” It will also have front and rear trunks. As expected, it will start at $35,000 before incentives. Musk said he was “fairly confident” that Model 3 deliveries will begin before the end of 2017. Musk said he wanted to show the world “the electric car can be the best car.” He announced plans for a major expansion of Supercharger stations and said supercharging will be standard on Model 3 vehicles. Revenue from the Model S and X was “what’s needed to develop the Model 3,” he said, thanking the crowd of owners for helping to finance that. Earlier in the day, would-be Model 3 owners showed excitement — and commitment — for the latest Tesla offering, with long lines reminiscent of Apple ( AAPL ) iPhone launches — if Apple didn’t actually deliver your phone for another two years. “There’s no lineup for vehicles in this day and age. Audi and BMW and Mercedes have to be awestruck — they just have to be,” Stifel auto analyst James Albertine told IBD in an afternoon phone interview. His team saw lines for Model 3 reservations stretching to the hundreds at some Tesla stores around Washington, D.C., and New York. He estimated about 30 to 40 reservations an hour in the spot checks. Now taking online reservations! Order your Model 3 at https://t.co/8uVlhvzpu5 #Model3 pic.twitter.com/Rj1kn1CPol — Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) April 1, 2016 “Model 3 Unveil:  Watch live tonight at 8:30pm Pacific,” Tesla says on its website. “Reserve online during the event.” At a starting sticker price of $35,000 before incentives, the Model 3 will sell for half the cost of the Model S and the Model X. Albertine had expected pre-orders to come in “very strong” and that the stock “is going to be OK,” despite lofty expectations already built in. Tesla stock closed up 1.3% Thursday at 229.77, though it traded up to 233.50 in late trading ahead of the reveal. (IBD doesn’t rank the company highly at the moment, giving it a Composite Rating of just 28 out of a possible 99. It’s trading around where it was at the beginning of the year, after surging 63% from a February low.) Albertine sees the Model 3 impressing. After Tesla excelled in higher price bands with its current lineup, he expects the company to have “a really easy time taking over share” from internal combustion engine car brands in this new lower-price category. “The (Tesla) S is outselling the S Class,” Albertine said as a case in point, referring to Daimler ’s ( DDAIF ) Mercedes-Benz flagship sedan, with seven decades of development behind it. In 2015, Tesla’s Model S also outsold individual models from Volkswagen ( VLKAY ) units Audi and Porsche, as well as BMW, Tata Motors ’ ( TTM ) Jaguar and Toyota Motors ’ ( TM ) luxury brand Lexus in the U.S. large luxury vehicle category. And Albertine says that electric cars planned by other makers are unlikely to “merit any concern,” as Tesla’s cars are “that much better.” How many reservations will Tesla tally from its first day? “It’s not certain that we’ll know,” Albertine said, noting that Musk “tends to give numbers when the numbers are really good” and that if he doesn’t cite a number, its absence would “probably be viewed negatively.” How many Model 3 reservations will Tesla get this week? Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is a bull on that. He predicted in a research note Wednesday, “Tesla Model 3 will break all the records in consumer tech in dollar terms for pre-order bookings.” He says it is widely believed that bookings could reach 100,000 by the end of the weekend, amounting to “$3.5 billion worth of pre-orders.” But, Albertine notes, “(it’s) important to keep in mind what’s real is the Model S and X, and the Model 3 is many, many quarters away from being production-ready.”

Tesla Motors Model 3 Launch Live Updates: Online Reservations Open

Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) will unveil its mass-market Model 3 soon, with the big reveal starting around 8:30 p.m. Online reservations began at 7:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, it dropped jaws. “There’s no lineup for vehicles in this day and age. Audi and BMW and Mercedes have to be awestruck — they just have to be,” Stifel auto analyst James Albertine told IBD in an afternoon phone interview. His team saw lines for Model 3 reservations stretching to the hundreds at some Tesla stores around Washington, D.C., and New York. He estimated about 30 to 40 reservations an hour in the spot checks. Back-of-the-napkin math would mean that if about 100 U.S. stores take 30 reservations an hour for nine hours a day, that’s 27,000 reservations representing $945 million worth of potential sales in the U.S. alone, and all before online reservations began. (But not all stores may have seen such traffic, nor may the traffic have flowed consistently through the day. And at a refundable $1,000 a pop, analysts say, reservations could see some attrition when the Model 3 finally starts to roll off the line in late 2017.) Launch Party Updates IBD is at the launch event at Tesla’s Los Angeles design studio, with a crowd of Tesla owners and journalists. CEO Elon Musk is expected to take the stage around 8:30 p.m. Pacific, along with a live webcast. Now taking online reservations! Order your Model 3 at https://t.co/8uVlhvzpu5 #Model3 pic.twitter.com/Rj1kn1CPol — Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) April 1, 2016 “Model 3 Unveil:  Watch live tonight at 8:30pm Pacific,” Tesla says on its website. “Reserve online during the event.” At a starting sticker price of $35,000 before incentives, the Model 3 will sell for half the cost of the Model S and the Model X. Albertine expects pre-orders to come in “very strong” and that the stock “is going to be OK,” despite lofty expectations already built in. Tesla stock closed up 1.3% Thursday at 229.77, though it traded up to 233.50 in late trading ahead of the reveal. (IBD doesn’t rank the company highly at the moment, giving it a Composite Rating of just 28 out of a possible 99. It’s trading around where it was at the beginning of the year, after surging 63% from a February low.) Albertine sees the Model 3 impressing. After Tesla excelled in higher price bands with its current lineup, he expects the company to have “a really easy time taking over share” from internal combustion engine car brands in this new lower-price category. “The (Tesla) S is outselling the S Class,” Albertine said as a case in point, referring to Daimler ’s ( DDAIF ) Mercedes-Benz flagship sedan, with seven decades of development behind it. In 2015, Tesla’s Model S also outsold individual models from Volkswagen ( VLKAY ) units Audi and Porsche, as well as BMW, Tata Motors ’ ( TTM ) Jaguar and Toyota Motors ’ ( TM ) luxury brand Lexus in the U.S. large luxury vehicle category. And Albertine says that electric cars planned by other makers are unlikely to “merit any concern,” as Tesla’s cars are “that much better.” How many reservations will Tesla tally from its first day? “It’s not certain that we’ll know,” Albertine said, noting that Musk “tends to give numbers when the numbers are really good” and that if he doesn’t cite a number, its absence would “probably be viewed negatively.” How many Model 3 reservations will Tesla get this week? Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is a bull on that. He predicted in a research note Wednesday, “Tesla Model 3 will break all the records in consumer tech in dollar terms for pre-order bookings.” He says it is widely believed that bookings could reach 100,000 by the end of the weekend, amounting to “$3.5 billion worth of pre-orders.” But, Albertine notes, “(it’s) important to keep in mind what’s real is the Model S and X, and the Model 3 is many, many quarters away from being production-ready.”

Why Brazil ETFs Are Gaining Despite Economic And Political Risks?

The Brazil stock market has been one of the best performers this month with the benchmark Ibovespa gaining 16% as of March 24, 2016. Several Brazilian ETFs – Shares MSCI Brazil Capped (NYSEARCA: EWZ ), Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (NYSEARCA: BRF ), iShares MSCI Brazil Small-Cap (NYSEARCA: EWZS ) and Global X Brazil Mid Cap ETF (NYSEARCA: BRAZ ) – have jumped 28.3%, 20.3%, 24.7% and 19%, respectively, in the last 30 days (as of March 24) (read: Catch these Brazil ETFs on a Rebound ). The rally came on the back of speculations regarding a change in government. Brazil has been witnessing a highly charged political drama since the beginning of this month when speculations that President Dilma Rousseff will be impeached were afoot. Even her major coalition partner, the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), is working on policies including welfare cuts if the Rousseff government is toppled and it comes to power. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Bar Association has filed a new request for impeachment proceedings to Congress. Rousseff is under political pressure regarding one of the largest corruption controversies in Brazil. The bribery scandal surrounding Brazil’s national petroleum company Petrobras continues to involve several of the country’s politicians. Investors in favor of a change in government believe that new leadership could be in a better position to revive the battered economy. Apart from that, markets were also buoyed by potential rate cuts by Brazil’s central bank. Although in its meeting earlier in March, the central bank kept the benchmark rate at 14.25%, several analysts believe that it might consider lowering interest rates later in the year. A rate cut could help boost consumer and corporate spending. Once the star performer of BRIC and emerging markets, Brazil is currently in shambles thanks to the economic slowdown and an endless streak of corruption scandals. A new government could infuse a fresh lease of life into the ailing economy which otherwise is expected to contract for the second straight year in 2016. After shrinking 3.9% in 2015, the economy is expected to contract by 3.5% this year. Other worrying factors include an increasing unemployment rate, rising inflation and the currency losing its value. Although it is questionable how long the rally will continue, a new government might revive the moribund economy. So, investors looking to tap into this market could consider the following ETFs in the days to come. EWZ in Focus This product tracks the MSCI Brazil 25/50 Index and is the largest and most popular ETF in the space with AUM of over $2.6 billion and average daily volume of more than 20.6 million shares. It charges 64 bps in fees per year from investors. Holding 61 stocks in its basket, the fund is highly concentrated in its top two holdings with one-fifth of the portfolio invested in them. In terms of industrial exposure, financials dominates the fund’s return at 35.5%, followed by consumer staples (19.8%), energy (10.3%) and materials (9.6%) (read: Fragile Five ETFs Not At All Fragile This Year? ). BRF in Focus This fund provides exposure to the small cap equities of the Brazilian market and tracks the Market Vectors Brazil Small Cap Index. The fund holds a total of 57 small cap stocks and has a total asset base of $76.9 million. The fund trades an average daily volume of 58,000 shares. The fund is well diversified with no stock holding more than 5% of weight. Among the different sectors, consumer discretionary and consumer staples occupy the top two positions with 42% of investment made in these two categories. Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF charges a fee of 60 basis points for the investment. Investors, however, should invest in small cap companies with caution as these are more volatile than their large cap counterparts. EWZS in Focus Another fund tapping the small cap companies of the Brazilian market is EWZS. The fund seeks to track the MSCI Brazil Small Cap Index. The fund has a total asset base of $19.9 million and trades in average daily volume of almost 43,000 shares. The fund holds a total of 52 stocks with none holding more than 6.5% weight. Among sectors, the fund has almost 40% of assets invested in consumer discretionary followed by industrials (16%) and financials (13.4%). The fund charges an expense ratio of 64 basis points (read: Emerging Market Crisis: 5 ETFs Down Over 30% in 2015 ). BRAZ in Focus The Brazil Mid Cap ETF has been designed to tap the mid cap market of Brazil. The fund seeks to track the Solactive Brazil Mid Cap Index. The fund, through an asset base of $3.3 million, taps 41 stocks. The fund has an average daily volume of 1,400 shares. However, BRAZ appears to be highly concentrated in the top 10 holdings with 51% of the assets invested in those securities. Among sectors, the fund has 19% invested in utilities, thereby holding the top position in terms of sector exposure. The investors pay an expense ratio of 69 basis points for the investment made in the fund. Original Post