Optical stocks

by market cap)                        
Ticker   Company name Mkt Cap (USD)▼

1. CSCO   Cisco Systems 231.294B; San Jose, California
2. MRVL  Marvell Technology  58.618B; Santa Clara, California
3. CIEN  Ciena   9.331B; Maryland
4. IIVI  II-VI Inc.  6.637B; Pennsylvania
5. LITE  Lumentum Holdings  6.273B  California-based (Lumentum was spun off from JDS Uniphase in 8/2015). 
6. VIAV  Viavi Solutions  3.52B; California
7. INFN  Infinera  1.714B; California
8. ADTN   ADTRAN  992M; Alabama
9. NPTN  NeoPhotonics   809.93M; California
10. AAOI  Applied Optoelectronics  161.33M; Texas-based
11. LPTH  LightPath Technologies  52.91M; Florida

finviz charts:  (vol) https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=211&ta=0&o=-volume&t=CSCO,MRVL,CIEN,IIVI,LITE,VIAV,INFN,ADTN,NPTN,AAOI,LPTH,

charts - avg vol (3 months): 

          

Acquisitions

• Acacia Communications (ACIA) (Massachusetts) was acquired by Cisco Systems (CSCO) for $4.5 billion. (Jan 2021)
• Coherent (COHR) acquired by Lumentum (LITE) (Jan 2021)
• Oclaro (OCLR) acquired by Lumentum (LITE)  (Feb 2018)
• Finisar (FNSR) acquired by II-VI (IIVI) (Nov 2018)
• ClariPhy acquired by Inphi (IPHI) (Dec 2016).  Inphi (IPHI) (California) acquired by Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) for $8.2 billion (October 2020).

©Artremis (EAS 11/30/21)

Electric cars: Polestar

Polestar is a Swedish automotive brand established in 1996 by Volvo Cars' partner Flash/Polestar Racing and acquired in 2015 by Volvo, which itself was acquired by Geely in 2010. Geely describes the Polestar brand as "independent" from 2017 onwards and "co-owned" by it and Volvo Cars.

• Founded: 1996
• Headquarters: Gothenburg, Sweden
• Parent organizations: Geely, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (China)
• Volvo was going bankrupt in the late 1990s and Sweden would not bail them out. So Ford bought Volvo in 1999 and then sold it to the Chinese company (Geely Motors) in 2010.
  
• The Polestar 1 will be built at the rate of one or two per shift at a new Polestar specific plant in China.

Polestar signed an agreement in late September 2021 to be publicly listed through combination with Gores Guggenheim (GGPI), valuing the company at $20B.
Polestar will be 83% owned by the Chinese company Geely and the cars are being made in China. As reported, only 3.5% of the stock is available to the public.

The Polestar 1's wheels measure 21 inches in diameter, fitted with 275/30 and 295/30 (rear) Pirelli P Zeros.

Electric cars: Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI)

Li Auto Inc., also known as Li Xiang, is a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Beijing, with manufacturing facilities in Changzhou. 

• Founder and CEO: Xiang Li (2015–)
• Founded: 2015
• Headquarters: Beijing, China
• Full Time Employees: 6,596
• IPO: July 2020 (Nasdaq)
• https://www.lixiang.com/

Li Auto competes directly with Tesla (TSLA) and Nio (NIO) in the high-end EV market. The company debuted its first and only model, an electric hybrid SUV called the Li ONE, in December 2019. That vehicle carries a price tag ranging from $29,000 to $76,000 and was one of China's top-10 sellers across all fuel types in 2020.

Li Auto's October 2021 deliveries totaled 7,649 vehicles. That number is up from 7,096 in September and a 107% year-over-year increase. Global chip shortages have weighed on production outputs for automakers like Li. But that supply-chain kink seems to be easing. LI stock edged lower on the news.

Li Unveils 2021 SUV Model

Li Auto rolled out the 2021 version of the Li ONE on May 25. The latest model includes upgrades to its advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) and powertrain systems.

These improvements will extend the range capacity of the Li ONE to 1,080 kilometers, or 671 miles. Deliveries of the vehicle began in June.

Li Auto's focus on cost-effective SUVs is the heart of its business strategy. The company was one of the first to successfully commercialize Extended Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs), which require a smaller battery pack. A smaller battery means lower production costs. And multiple power sources provide consumers with a practical solution to China's notorious lack of battery charging infrastructure.

Unlike most other electric vehicles, Li Xiang One is a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV), which can be powered by either petrol or electricity

IPO: July 2020 (Nasdaq)

Founder and CEO Xiang Li 

Before Li Auto, Xiang Li established Autohome, a site for consumers to shop online for cars. By 2008, Autohome became China’s leading online platform for car dealers and consumers with its AI-generated content, comprehensive automobile library and extensive car listings. The company had an impressive 90 per cent market share.

In 2013, Autohome was listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a market value of US$3 billion.

Electric cars: NIO (NYSE: NIO)

NIO is a Chinese automobile manufacturer headquartered in Shanghai, specializing in designing and developing electric autonomous vehicles. The company is also involved in the FIA Formula E Championship, the first single-seater, all-electric racing series.

NIO ES8, a full-size SUV

Powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, a package that is also swappable

CEO William Li said Nio should reach annual production capacity of 150,000 units by the end of 2021. Longer term, Nio aims to double output to 300,000 per year. For context, Nio delivered 20,565 electric vehicles in 2019.

William Li Bin, CEO of Nio, rings the bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during the company’s initial public offering in September, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Estimated to be worth around US$2.8 billion, Li founded Shanghai-based Nio in 2014, with the company taking orders for its first electric SUV in December 2017. Nio raised US$2.1 billion in funding before going public in September 2018 on the New York Stock Exchange, with Li ringing the bell.

Born in August 1974 on a dairy farm in Anhui province. Li attended Peking University where he received his bachelor’s degree in sociology as well as a minor in law.

After receiving investments from major tech companies such as Tencent, Baidu and Lenovo, Li founded Nio in 2014. By 2016, it had debuted its two-door sports car, Nio EP9, at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Six EP9s were sold to investors for £2.5 million (US$3.2 million) each and the EP9 went on to set fastest lap records for an electric vehicle at various race circuits around the world.

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JPMorgan expects the EV share of the total China car market to quadruple to 20% in 2025 from under 5% in 2019. The costs of producing EVs and traditional vehicles will reach parity by 2023, driven by lower battery costs, the firm says.

China, the world's biggest market for electric cars, wants EVs to be 25% of all new car sales by 2025.

Unlike Tesla, Nio does not manufacture its own vehicles. It partners with China's Jianghuai Automobile Group on manufacturing the ES8, ES6 and EC6 utility vehicles.

As part of its "Battery as a Service" strategy, Nio also runs battery-leasing and battery-swapping services. Essentially, the car and the battery are sold separately. Subscribers to the program can rent the battery for a monthly fee.

Battery swapping was first available on the NIO ES8

Unlike Tesla, which has tried battery swapping but has never deployed it on a large scale and relies instead on its Supercharger network, Nio has built a functioning network of 131 battery-swap stations that covers a few thousand kilometers of Chinese expressways.

   

 

 

The NIO ET7 was unveiled in China on 9 January 2021 at the 'NIO Day' event in Chengdu, retaining many design cues of the 2019 NIO ET Preview concept car. It will be launched in early 2022 with a starting price of ¥448.000 (~$69,200 USD). It acts as a direct competitor to Tesla's Model S sedan in China.

Range of 621 miles (or a nice, round 1,000km).

 

Alibaba's lost treasure sends market value below Walmart

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. took its first name from the tale of a woodcutter who found treasure hidden by 40 thieves. Now the Chinese online retailer finds its market value dwindling, just as the thieves’ stash did in the story. Alibaba fell below the value of Walmart Inc., the world’s biggest retailer by sales, on Friday for the first time since August 2016. The reversal followed a 54% plunge in Alibaba’s value from a record $858.1 billion last October, before a Chinese government crackdown on technology-driven companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Lithium stocks

Electric vehicles (EVs) are upending the status quo of internal combustion vehicles. Fueling this shift to electric power requires next-generation battery technology and an ample supply of lithium, the key raw material for lithium-ion batteries.

 ETFs (avg daily vol)  

• LIT  Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF (861K)

Stocks:

(by market cap)                        
Ticker  Company name Mkt Cap (USD)▼

1. ALB  Albemarle  28.20B; North Carolina
2. SQM  Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile  15.93B; Chile; world’s biggest lithium producer
3. LTHM   Livent  4.08B  Pennsylvania  ; subsidiary of FMC Corporation (FMC)
4. LAC  Lithium Americas   2.70B  Canada; previously knowns as Western Lithium; owns the Thacker Pass lithium project located in Humboldt County in northern Nevada
5. SLI  Standard Lithium  941.775M;  Vancouver, Canada
6. PLL  Piedmont Lithium Inc. 868.39M; North Carolina; previously known as WCP Resources; owns the Piedmont lithium project in North Carolina.  Piedmont Lithium will supply spodumene for Tesla electric cars for five years. Piedmont redomiciled to become a US corporation in May 2021 (previously based in Australia)
7. CBAT   CBAK Energy Technology  246.67M; China; manufacturer of lithium batteries 
8. WWR  Westwater Resources 127.07M; lithium and graphite; Colorado; formerly known as Uranium Resources (NASDAQ:URRE)

finviz charts (ave vol - 3 MONTHS, new window): https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=211&t=ALB,SQM,LTHM,LAC,SLI,PLL,CBAT,WWR&ta=0&o=-averagevolume

       

©Artremis / EAS (9/10/21)

The DAX 30 will become the DAX 40 in September 2021

German carmaker Porsche and sportswear maker Puma will join the nation's premier DAX stock index, as it expands to 40 from 30 companies in the biggest overhaul of its 33-year history, the exchange operator Deutsche Börse said on Friday, Sept. 3. 2021.

 

The DAX 30 is Germany’s flagship index, representing 30 of the country’s largest companies by market capitalisation. But following an announcement by the exchange operator Deutsche Boerse in 2020, it is set to become even larger when it switches to the DAX 40, incorporating ten of the largest companies from Germany’s MDAX listing.

The decision was made in conjunction with a set of further reforms to the German index, such as the toughening of corporate governance rules, following an accounting scandal at payment processing company and former DAX 30 constituent Wirecard.

Index additions

Potential additions to the index include aerospace giant Airbus SE, e-commerce operator Zalando, and global reinsurance group Hannover Rueck SE, with other likely additions including property company LEG Immobilien and Siemens Energy.

Components of the DAX 30 as of September 21, 2020.

Selection criteria change

While previously the DAX 30 considered stock exchange turnover for its rankings, now index members will be considered for liquidity levels instead.

New members will have to demonstrate the usual market capitalisation credentials, but now they must prove their profitability over their two most recent annual financial statements. This has implications for companies similar to Delivery Hero, which replaced Wirecard in the DAX 30 despite having never recorded a profit. Under the new rules, Delivery Hero would not be eligible.

How might the DAX 40 impact traders?

As mentioned, the expansion of the DAX 40 will mean more companies, more sectors, and the potential for revised weighting. This may mean giants such as software company SAP, which currently has the largest weighting in the index, may exert less influence over the DAX’s moves once the changes come in.