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Analyst: “Longer-term vectors that drive the stock’s value” haven’t changed for Tesla

A longtime Tesla bull on yesterday’s market meshugas.

Longtime Tesla bull Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley is out with a note putting a characteristically optimistic spin on yesterday’s high-profile feud between Elon Musk and the president. He writes:

1. Credits. We do not believe the phasing out of EV tax credits from the BBB (Big Beautiful Bill) is material to the long term outlook for TSLA.

2. Distraction. We believe Tesla’s recent 50% rally was driven primarily by hopes that Elon Musk would refocus time and attention on Tesla.

3. Cars. While the situation remains fluid, we believe the disagreement will not help Tesla demand but could potentially (temporarily) alienate multiple sides of the political spectrum.

4. Bigger picture. While emotions are running high, we are not convinced the longer-term vectors that drive the stock’s value have changed here. AI leadership, autonomy/robotics, manufacturing, supply chain re-architecture, renewable power, critical infrastructure... Tesla still holds so many valuable cards that are largely apolitical, in our opinion.

5. Volatility. When putting our trading cap on, we have higher conviction in near-term volatility than near-term direction. We reiterate our $410 price target but are prepared for the stock to give up more than just the 4 weeks of performance it has sacrificed so far.”

True-to-form Jonas remains one of the most optimistic Wall Street analysts on the company, with a $410 share price on the stock, about a 35% premium to where the stock was trading midday Friday and far higher than the Wall Street consensus price target of $308.

Jonas writes that his optimism is based on his belief that Tesla’s capabilities in key areas of physical AI (autonomous vehicles, humanoids and other form factors) including data, robotics, energy storage, compute, manufacturing and space/comms/networking/infrastructure offer growth and margin opportunities that greatly exceed those of the traditional EV business,” adding that “the challenges facing Tesla’s current business are widely reported and well known, while the opportunities in the future business are potentially greatly underestimated.”

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The chip rally is getting so intense, even Qualcomm gets to surge

If you’re a good host, even the last person who shows up to the party gets to have a good time.

On that note, beleaguered Qualcomm — the worst-performing member of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index this year — is staging a furious rally on Friday, with the industry poised to deliver its 18th consecutive session of gains.

Intel’s earnings are buoying the semi space broadly on Friday, and Qualcomm isn’t being left out. Options activity is also elevated and tilted toward the bull side. As of 9:56 a.m. ET, more than 48,000 calls have changed hands, roughly double its full-day average for the past 20 sessions. Its put/call ratio of 0.17 is well below the 20-day average of 0.44.

The San Diego-based firm has been negative in 2026 since the seventh session of the year, and even with today’s advance, remains mired in the red year to date. The stock cratered after reporting Q1 earnings in early February because its poor Q2 guidance seemingly confirmed fears that smartphone sales would come under pressure from rising memory chip prices and limited availability. Smartphone chips are still Qualcomm’s primary business, accounting for nearly two-thirds of revenues in its most recent quarter, and memory chip sellers appear to be incentivized to meet demand from major AI customers first.

Qualcomm reports Q2 earnings next Wednesday, but that release will likely be overshadowed by the four Magnificent 7 hyperscalers releasing results after the close.

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Analysts applaud Intel’s massive Q1

Intel’s massive Q1 numbers and mega Q2 guidance shocked Wall Street and sent shares across the semiconductor industry higher Friday morning.

Here’s how Wall Street analysts are characterizing the far better-than-expected results:

DA Davidson (rating: “neutral, price target: $77): Strong 1Q26 earnings that were highlighted by a significant beat on top and bottom-line expectations. Results in the quarter reflect the growing importance of CPUs and advanced packing. We view the recent Terafab announcement as a proof point that Intel is likely to see continued customer acquisition as the United States demands more domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Barclays (rating: “equal weight, price target: $65): The sizable top-line and gross margin beat caught us by surprise as our expectation was for tight supply in Q1. Mgmt expects the supply situation to improve through the year and for yields to improve, which should support growth in server.

HSBC (rating: “buy, price target: $100): The market has been
underestimating Intel’s CPU average selling price upside as well as its ability to re-allocate its own foundry capacity to unlock further CPU unit growth, considering a CPU shortage environment that we expect to persist until 2027e.

Bernstein: (rating: “market perform, price target: $65): Server strength seems demonstrably real, client seems to be holding up for now, commentary around 18A/14A was positive, and there remains hopes for forthcoming packaging announcements. That being said, there were quite a few nuggets for the bears as well; namely while 18A yields are seemingly running better than expected they apparently remain underwhelming, and ASP increases are being met by cost inflation.

JPMorgan (rating: “underweight, price target: $45): EPS quality issues, 2H gross margin headwinds, structural OpEx creep, and a Foundry breakeven timeline that is likely to push beyond YE CY27 keep us at UW even as we raise estimates.

DA Davidson (rating: “neutral, price target: $77): Strong 1Q26 earnings that were highlighted by a significant beat on top and bottom-line expectations. Results in the quarter reflect the growing importance of CPUs and advanced packing. We view the recent Terafab announcement as a proof point that Intel is likely to see continued customer acquisition as the United States demands more domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Barclays (rating: “equal weight, price target: $65): The sizable top-line and gross margin beat caught us by surprise as our expectation was for tight supply in Q1. Mgmt expects the supply situation to improve through the year and for yields to improve, which should support growth in server.

HSBC (rating: “buy, price target: $100): The market has been
underestimating Intel’s CPU average selling price upside as well as its ability to re-allocate its own foundry capacity to unlock further CPU unit growth, considering a CPU shortage environment that we expect to persist until 2027e.

Bernstein: (rating: “market perform, price target: $65): Server strength seems demonstrably real, client seems to be holding up for now, commentary around 18A/14A was positive, and there remains hopes for forthcoming packaging announcements. That being said, there were quite a few nuggets for the bears as well; namely while 18A yields are seemingly running better than expected they apparently remain underwhelming, and ASP increases are being met by cost inflation.

JPMorgan (rating: “underweight, price target: $45): EPS quality issues, 2H gross margin headwinds, structural OpEx creep, and a Foundry breakeven timeline that is likely to push beyond YE CY27 keep us at UW even as we raise estimates.

Hundreds of advocates for marijuana legalization rally and  smoke pot outside the White House.

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The DOJ’s order to reclassify marijuana could be a boon for US cannabis companies. But the devil is in the details.

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TSMC surges as Taiwan eases single-stock investment limits for funds

TSMC’s ADRs jumped 3% in premarket trading on Friday after the island’s financial regulator announced plans to ease limits on funds’ allocations to single funds.

Previously, active fund managers were limited to allocating up to a maximum of 10% of their net assets into any one company. Under the revised framework, local equity funds and active exchange-traded funds that solely invest in Taiwanese stocks can allocate up to 25% of their assets in any listed company if it has a weighting above 10% in the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The new rule, announced Thursday, will come into effect after the regulator issues an order on Friday. Relaxing the long-standing rule will mean fewer restrictions on local money managers taking full advantage of TSMC’s skyrocketing share price. TSMC, now Asia’s largest company by market cap, has seen its share price surge 150% in the past year — adding more to its gains in the last few days after crushing estimates in its first-quarter results.

TSMC is currently the only company that meets that 10% criterion, holding some 44% weight in Taiwan’s benchmark index, though the latest change also moved other large-cap Taiwanese stocks higher on Friday.

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