Thursday Premarket Newsmakers: China EV Sales, Lucid Secondary Offering

Premarket action on Thursday had the three major U.S. indexes moving slightly higher. The Dow Jones industrials were up 0.03%, the S&P 500 up 0.23% and the Nasdaq 0.17% higher.

Three of China’s U.S.-traded electric vehicle (EV) makers reported May sales early Thursday. Li Auto Inc. (NASDAQ: LI) delivered 28,277 new energy vehicles (China’s designation for EVs) last month, the company’s third consecutive month with deliveries of 20,000 or more. For the first five months of 2023, Li has delivered 363,876 units, an increase of 146% year over year.

Nio Inc. (NYSE: NIO) delivered 6,155 units last month. For the year to date, Nio has delivered 43,854 units. Nio’s year has been essentially the reverse of Xpeng’s. February sales reached 12,000 but have declined to just over half the number in only four months. Sales are up 22% year over year for the first five months of 2023.

Xpeng Inc. (NYSE: XPEV) delivered 7,506 vehicles in May. For the year to date, Xpeng has delivered 32,815 units, virtually all in China. While the numbers are low, deliveries have increased every month this year, starting at 5,218 in January, but cumulative year-over-year sales are down more than 40%.

Closer to home, after U.S. markets closed Wednesday, luxury EV maker Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ: LCID) priced an underwritten public offering of 173.5 million shares of common stock and a private placement of 265.7 million shares of common stock with majority owner Ayar Third Investment, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). The public offering is expected to produce gross proceeds of around $1.2 billion, and the private placement will yield $1.8 billion in gross proceeds.

Needless to say, shareholders are unhappy at the dilution and took the stock down by more than 10% in premarket trading Thursday. Based on an outstanding share count of around 1.83 billion shares, the new shares are equal to about 24% of the shares outstanding. PIF already owned approximately 60% of Lucid’s outstanding stock.

The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday night voted 314 to 117 to ignore the U.S. debt ceiling until after the 2024 presidential election. The Senate will now debate the bill, and a vote is expected this weekend. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the United States has enough cash to pay its bills only until June 5.

Here is a look at how U.S. markets fared on Wednesday.

Seven of 11 market sectors closed lower on Wednesday. Energy (−1.88%) and industrials (−1.4%) had the day’s biggest losses. Utilities (0.96%) and health care (0.85%) posted the day’s best gains. The Dow closed down 0.41%, the S&P 500 down 0.61% and the Nasdaq down 0.63% on Wednesday.

Two-year Treasuries dropped six basis points to end Wednesday at 4.40%, and 10-year notes dipped by five basis points to close at 3.64%. In Thursday’s premarket, two-year notes were trading at around 4.43% and 10-year notes at about 3.67%.

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