5 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day: Americas

Good morning. Tesla’s shares soar on its plans to roll out cheaper cars as soon as this year, Meta is set to report earnings and there’s ano [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Good morning. Tesla’s shares soar on its plans to roll out cheaper cars as soon as this year, Meta is set to report earnings and there’s another record Treasury auction coming up. Here’s what people are talking about. — [Sofia Horta e Costa]( Want to receive this newsletter in Spanish? [Sign up to get the Five Things: Spanish Edition newsletter](. Tesla on a budget Tesla’s shares are up almost 11% in early New York trading, indicating the stock will recoup some of the 42% it has lost since the start of 2024. The company said [it’s accelerating the launch of cheaper cars](, aiming to start production of new models by early 2025, if not before year-end — well ahead of the late-2025 timing it had previously pledged. The news was enough to offset Tesla’s third quarter of worse-than-expected profit and revenue. The team at Jefferies said CEO Elon Musk seems to be “appeasing the market by accelerating new product launches.” Oh and Martin Viecha, Tesla’s head of investor relations, announced his resignation at the end of yesterday’s analyst call. Meta earnings Meta Platforms — owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — headlines the earnings calendar today. The shares rose 3% on Tuesday amid a “Magnificent Seven” rally as expectations heat up before the release. Meta had already guided earlier this year that first-quarter revenue would be [as much as $37 billion](, far higher than estimates at the time. Investors will be on the lookout for any other shareholder sweeteners after Meta expanded its buyback plans in February and announced its first-ever dividend. Also reporting today are IBM, Boeing, Ford and Chipotle. Record auctions Treasury yields are a little higher across the curve after a solid session yesterday that saw most US government debt advance. A hefty $69 billion sale of two-year notes attracted strong demand, with [one observer calling the auction “impressive.”]( The US government is set to sell a record $70 billion of five-year notes later today — and $44 billion of seven-year notes on Thursday — testing buyer appetite and the market’s ability to absorb supply. The slate of sales can also be an indication of whether [rates have peaked](. Some traders are positioning for the possibility of a deeper slump in Treasuries after a selloff sent yields on various maturities to 2024 highs this month. That includes those betting the Fed will refrain [from cutting borrowing costs]( this year. Beyond Wall Street Shares of Gucci-owner Kering have fallen to the lowest in more than six years in Paris after the group warned that profit [will plunge in the first half of the year](. European chipmakers are getting a lift from an upbeat outlook by [Texas Instruments](, which is rising more than 7% in the US premarket. Chinese developer Country Garden, one of the symbols of the nation’s broader property debt crisis, has [staved off its first default]( in the local bond market for now. Indonesia’s central bank [surprised markets]( by lifting its benchmark interest rate to a record high of 6.25%. Tick tock, TikTok The clock has started running for TikTok in its existential fight to avoid a US ban. Legislation requiring the social media app’s Chinese owners to divest [sailed through Congress](, capped by Senate passage as part of a larger foreign-aid package. President Joe Biden plans to sign it today — beginning a 270-day countdown for a sale or a US prohibition of the popular video-sharing platform. TikTok and Beijing-based ByteDance have vowed to do all they can to stop the measure, arguing it infringes the free-speech rights of the app’s 170 million monthly US users. What we’ve been reading This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours. - UBS is [seriously concerned]( about Switzerland’s capital proposals. - Chinese tourists are embracing [international travel]( again. - Japan is on the brink of [currency intervention](, a former official says. - Hong Kong is launching a [batch of crypto ETFs]( by the end of April. - The world’s [biggest energy traders]( are returning to metals. And finally, here's what Tracy’s interested in this morning PepsiCo has made good use of a strategy that [repeat Odd Lots guest Samuel RinesÂ](likes to call Price Over Volume, or [pushing higher prices onto customers]( to offset lower sales volumes. The POV trend has generally been bad news for the Federal Reserve and its 2% inflation target, but pretty good for businesses trying to preserve profit margins in the face of all that post-pandemic weirdness. Pepsi has just reported its first-quarter earnings for the year. As my Bloomberg colleague Dasha Afanasieva [reports](, the soft drink giant's net revenue rose 2.7% in the period, beating the average analyst forecast of 2.3%. But it was more of a mixed picture when it comes to Pepsi's pricing: organic sales volume contracted by 2% in period, while pricing increased by 5%. Now, a price increase of 5% might sound like a lot. But compare the most recent quarter with what happened last year. In [the first quarter of 2023](, Pepsi notched a price increase of 16%, while volume fell 2%. It was the epitome of the PoV idea, and it helped push up PepsiCo shares to a record at the time. So companies like Pepsi seem to still be preserving some margin, but the strength of the POV trend doesn't appear to be quite what it was. Meanwhile, some other POV posterchildren — like McDonald's and [Wingstop]( — are scheduled to report earnings within the next week or so. It'll be interesting to see what their performance says about pricing too. Tracy Alloway is the co-host of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast. Follow her on X [@tracyalloway]( Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. [Bloomberg Markets Wrap: The latest on what's moving global markets. Tap to read.]( Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Five Things to Start Your Day: Americas Edition newsletter. 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