Tesla (TSLA) announced mixed second-quarter earnings and revenue late Tuesday, with earnings sinking more than 40% while sales came in above expectations. Tesla stock fell in extended trade, with Chief Executive Elon Musk speaking on the conference call. Musk didn’t provide a lot new on the call, continuing to express optimism about self-driving, the Optimus robot and robotaxi. Trump Ending EV Subsidies Would Be ‘Devastating For Our Competitors’ The earnings call ended with a question from the Wells Fargo analyst about what will happen if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election and does away with the Inflation Reduction Act, including the EV subsidies. Musk, who has endorsed Trump, says that would be “devastating for our competitors” but that it would impact Tesla only slightly. He added that in the long term it could actually help the company. The Tesla head then reiterated that he believes Tesla’s value is tied to autonomy and that if an investor does not believe Tesla will solve vehicle autonomy, then they should “sell their Tesla stock.” “All these other questions are in the noise,” he said. Tesla stock, which is still trading, ended the call down roughly 7%. 6:14 p.m. ET Adam Jonas On Tesla Earnings Analyst notes are starting to come out. Adam Jonas, Morgan Stanley’s high-profile autos analyst and a Tesla bull, writes that there is “no big change in outlook” and that Tesla is “muddling through the EV recession.” Jonas says that the 2024 outlook is “largely identical reiteration of language from the previous quarter’s outlook” and that this “should keep consensus little changed.” “We think this quarter’s stock reaction will come down to the tone and content of the analyst conference call which we expect to may help set the stage for a Master Plan 4 unveil later this year,” Jonas writes. 6:01 p.m. ET Tesla Stock Extends Losses On Call Tesla stock, down 4% heading into the conference call, is now down more than 6%. 5:55 p.m. ET Nvidia AI Chips Hard To Get The Tesla chief is concerned about the demand for Nvidia GPUs. “What we are seeing is that the demand for Nvidia hardware is so high that it’s often difficult to get the GPUs. I’m quite concerned about actually being able to get state of the art video GPUs when we want them. “I think this therefore requires that we put a lot more effort on Dojo in order to ensure that training capability that we need,” Musk said. Musk had downplayed Tesla’s in-house Dojo chip effort in prior conference calls. Musk, in response to a question, confirmed that Tesla redirected some Nvidia GPUs to his sister companies because there was no place to put them. 5:49 p.m. ET Musk Says True Self-Driving ‘Possible’ This Year Musk says that it is “possible” for unsupervised full self-driving by the end of 2024. “I would be shocked if we cannot do it next year.” Musk’s comments are in response to a question when robotaxi will be on the road for riders. The Tesla CEO has said for almost a decade that he expected true self-driving “this year.” 5:44 p.m. ET Musk: Robotaxi Event Oct. 10 Musk kicked off the earnings call by saying that executives “won’t get too much into the product roadmap here because that is reserved for product announcement events.” The Tesla chief adds that the EV giant is on track to deliver a more affordable model in the first half of next year. On the robotaxi, Musk said the unveiling event has been pushed to Oct. 10. He had already confirmed that the event would be pushed back from Aug. 8. “I wanted to make some important changes that I think would improve the vehicle, the sort of the robotaxi, the main thing that we’re going to show and we’re also going to show off a couple of other things,” Musk said.”So moving it back, moving it back a few months, allowed us to improve the robotaxi, as well as add in a couple other things for the product unveil.”   5:33 p.m. ET Conference Call Starts: What To Look For The conference call is getting started. Key questions looking to be answered, include timing around the $25,000 vehicle product and when a robotaxi could hit the roads. Investors should also look for information on vehicle pricing, the 2024 election and auto gross margins. As an aside, Tesla also reported Cybertruck production is on track to achieve profitability by end of year. 5:28 p.m. ET Waiting On The Tesla Earnings Call CEO Elon Musk will take center stage on the Tesla earnings conference call set to start at 5:30 p.m. ET, though Tesla events sometimes get off to a late start. Tesla stock is down 4% following the earnings miss, but Musk’s comments could easily swing shares. Tesla Earnings Tumble The electric-vehicle giant reported Tuesday that earnings fell 43% to 52 cents per share. Meanwhile, quarterly revenue totaled $25.5 billion, up 2% vs. the year-earlier quarter. Analysts had predicted Tesla would report earnings of 61 cents a share with sales sliding to $24.54 billion, according to FactSet. However, Wall Street saw revenue increasing slightly to $25.05 billion. Tesla reported Tuesday it “achieved record quarterly revenues despite a difficult operating environment.” Meanwhile, Tesla’s gross margins fell 23 basis points to 18%. Auto gross margins, excluding regulatory credits and leases, came in at 15.1%, inline with analyst expectations, according to FactSet. Looking ahead, Tesla said in the earnings report that its vehicle volume growth rate in 2024 “may be notably lower than the growth rate” last year. The EV giant added that growth in its energy storage business should outpace its automotive segment. However, Tesla added its plans for new vehicles, including affordable models, remain on track to start production in the first half of 2025. That suggests that mass production won’t start until late 2025 at the earliest. Tesla Stock Tesla stock dropped more than 3% after the close but before the conference call. That followed a 2%

Jul 23, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees relief pitcher Luke Weaver (30) reacts during the eighth inning against the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports Jul 23, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Jake Diekman (30) pitches against the New York Yankees during the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Keanu Reeves is aging like the rest of us. And for that reason, “The Matrix” has shared, mortality has been on his mind. “I’m 59, so I’m thinking about death all the time,”  “I’m young old.” Reeves is promoting his first novel, “The Book of Elsewhere.” The book is based on the “BRZRKR” comic book series created by Reeves and written in collaboration with British science fiction author China Miéville. The plot of the new novel is centered on B, an immortal warrior with a death wish. This has also contributed to Reeves’ focus on death, which, he said, he’s trying to keep in perspective. “Hopefully it’s not crippling, but hopefully it’s sensitized [us] to an appreciation of the breath we have, and the relationships that we have the potential to have,” Reeves said. And while some may think B is based on Reeves due to his physical traits like long dark hair, the actor and author is mostly laying claim to inspiring some of the character’s violence. “I think it was influenced by some of the action films that I had done,” said Reeves, who has had big success in his movie franchises, including the “John Wick” films.

  WWE star Cody Rhodes saw a striking resemblance when Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow unveiled his new look. The 2022 Pro Bowler is now sporting a blonde buzz cut as he prepares for the upcoming NFL season. Rhodes had some fun by sharing an altered photo of Burrow with his signature neck tattoo and the undisputed WWE title belt, telling the signal-caller it’s “time to finish your story.” “Finish the story” was Rhodes’ rallying cry during his pursuit of WWE gold. His father Dusty was a decorated world champion in other wrestling promotions, but the WWE title eluded him during his illustrious career. “The American Nightmare” completed his journey when he beat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL in April.

On July 23, both the 2024 U23 Nations League Men’s and Women’s teams went undefeated in the 2024 U23 Nations League Americas Conference Stage 2 in Mexico City. In the women’s final, the United States defeated Mexico 21-18.  Sierra Williams  and  Mikaela Williams  combined for 15 of their team’s 21 points. The Stop 2 championship game was a back-and-forth contest, with neither team taking the lead. Mikaylah Williams brought the team within a win with a crucial two-point play and another point later, giving the United States a 19-15 lead with 2:13 left. Serah Williams scored the final two points to defeat Mexico. The women’s team beat the Cayman Islands 21-0 for their first win of the day.  Morgan Marley , Sierra Williams and Michaela Williams started the win with a balanced attack.  Christina Dalce  scored the first basket with 7:06 left and then scored 8 of the team’s final 12 points to seal the victory. They then defeated Argentina 21-6 to secure a spot in the day’s championship game. In the second game of the day, Mikaela Williams scored a team-high 11 points, including four 2-pointers. The men’s team sealed their undefeated record by defeating Argentina 19-15 to win the championship. Finley Bizjack  (6 points),  Jacob Harvey  (5 points),  Kaden Pierce  (4 points) and  Boden Kapke  (4 points) all contributed to the victory. Argentina led 8-4 at the start, but Pierce, Kapke and Bizjack scored quickly to tie the score. After the two sides exchanged offense and defense, Bizjack made two key shots to help the US team take the lead, and finally made the winning free throw. Like the women, the men’s team opened the game with a win over the Cayman Islands. The United States won the game 21-2 against the Cayman Islands. Harvey hit four two-point shots and finished with nine points, the team’s first win of the day. Four minutes into the game, he hit three consecutive two-point shots to extend the United States’ eight-point lead (10-2) to a 14-point advantage (16-2) in 56 seconds. In the second game of the day, the United States defeated Chile 21-10. This time, Pierce and Bizjack scored a combined 15 points to lead the United States to victory. After Chile narrowed the gap to 3 points, Pierce, Harvey and Bizjack led the team to a 10-1 run to close the game. The men’s and women’s teams will return to action on Wednesday, July 24, for the 3×3 U23 Nations League Round 3. The action will be live streamed  on Youtube.com/FIBA3x3 . Due to a one-day weather delay after the first race, the American men’s and women’s teams ultimately won the first stage of the race. The FIBA ​​3×3 Nations League, launched in 2017, features two age groups, U23 and U21, and dozens of national federations. The 2024 U23 Nations League teams will compete in the FIBA ​​3×3 U23 Nations League Americas Conference in Mexico City from July 22-28. The seven-day tournament will feature six three-match games, with four players in each game, and six players per team can be substituted as needed. The champion of each conference will qualify for the 3×3 U23 World Cup, which will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from September 11-15.