Breakfast News: Tesla Headlines Q1 Earnings Season

Breakfast News: Tesla Headlines Q1 Earnings Season

April 20, 2026

Source: Image created by Jester AI.

1. Tesla Kicks Off FY2026 Earnings

Tesla (TSLA +3.93%) is due to report its first quarter of fiscal 2026 on Wednesday, with the stock down 11% year to date. It’s been picking up in April, as CEO Elon Musk makes the headlines with the upcoming SpaceX IPO – now widely expected mid-June. Analysts are predicting an uptick in Tesla profit, even after 358,000 vehicle deliveries in Q1 fell short of the expected 370,000.

• Terafab to move at “light speed”: Elon Musk has been urging haste from potential suppliers for his Terafab AI chip-making project, says Bloomberg. The joint venture between Tesla and SpaceX – intended to produce a terawatt of annual computing capacity – could cost over $25 billion in capital expenditure, analysts estimate.
• “Tesla is not valued based on how many cars it can sell this or next quarter”: Fool analyst Emily Flippen last month pointed out Tesla is “valued on optionality, the sheer breadth of what this business could become and the potential for those bets to compound into durable cash flows over decades.”

2. Markets Surge to New Records

Despite the uncertainty regarding dealings with Iran, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both surged to new all-time highs last week – up 4.5% and 6.8% respectively. The Dow Jones fell slightly short of a new record, but still ended the week up 3.2%. The renewed closure of the Strait of Hormuz, however, sent futures down this morning – S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures both fell around 0.5%.

• Oil prices jump: Benchmark crude prices rose more than 6% this morning, after President Trump said the U.S. Navy had taken custody of an Iranian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman. West Texas Intermediate climbed above $88, with Brent Crude over $95.
• Quiet economics week: Tuesday’s March retail sales update marks the main highlight of the week, with a predicted 1.5% rise on the cards – up from 0.6% in February. Friday’s consumer sentiment print for April is expected to edge up to 49. Anything under 100 indicates negative confidence.

3. Report: Google to Sign Chip Deal With Marvell

Alphabet’s (GOOG +0.41%) Google is in discussion with Marvell (MRVL +6.25%) to build two new chips aimed at improving AI model efficiency, reported The Information over the weekend. One is a memory device to help speed up Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU), while the other is a new AI-targeted TPU, the report’s unnamed sources say. Marvell stock jumped over 7% in pre-market trading.

• Google ups the AI stakes: Google TPUs are part of Alphabet’s strategy to try to challenge Nvidia’s (NVDA +1.73%) dominance in the AI processor market – and are increasingly powering the growth of Google Cloud. The new chips could be ready for test production early next year.
• AI infrastructure: Marvell builds the semiconductor devices that handle data connection, communication and storage within AI servers. It handles just the design work, and partners with companies like Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM 0.84%) for fabrication.

4. Selected Foolish Earnings This Week

• Intuitive Surgical (ISRG 0.81%) is scheduled to report Q1 Tuesday, after the Rule Breakers rec finished fiscal 2025 with a 19% revenue rise in Q4, year over year. Watch for upgrade cycle updates for the robotic surgery specialist’s da Vinci 5 system – and eyes open for a higher expected tariffs impact.
• IBM (IBM +0.00%) – recommended in Hidden Gems – posts a Q1 update Wednesday, after AI competition has been putting pressure on the company’s human-led COBOL consulting services. Can Claude AI cut off an important revenue source?
• Intel (INTC +13.79%) commences its fiscal 2026 reporting Thursday, with its stock climbing strongly after the chipmaker said it’s joining Elon Musk’s Terafab project. Intel is up 85% in 2026 year to date.

5. Your Take

Roughly what percentage of your investment portfolio consists of index trackers? Are you happy with this allocation, and why/why not?

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