Tesla shares tumbled on Tuesday after a sharp drop in sales in Europe, while US consumer confidence dragged Wall Street lower.
The electric vehicle maker's sales in Europe and the UK fell by 45.2 per cent year on year in January, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (Acea). Tesla's drop bucked a wider trend in Europe, where new battery-electric car sales rose by 34 per cent in January and captured a 15 per cent market share, according to Acea.
Tesla closed 8.39 per cent lower when trading ended in the US on Tuesday at $302.80 a share. The company's valuation also fell below $1 trillion, to $973.96 billion.
Tesla reported a drop in sales for the first time in 2024, as the company faces increased competition from China's BYD and other car makers.
It also comes as Tesla chief executive Elon Musk intrudes more into European politics. Mr Musk threw his support behind Germany's far-right AfD party and called to congratulate its co-leader on increasing its support from the last election.
Mr Musk is also a close associate of US President Donald Trump after pouring billions of dollars into his 2024 electoral campaign. Since taking charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) on January 20, he has sought to drastically reduce the size of the US federal government and cut off foreign aid.
US consumer confidence dips
US markets remained on edge before Nvidia earnings on Wednesday, as weak consumer confidence dragged stocks lower.
Analysts estimate a quarterly revenue of $38.16 billion for 2025's fourth quarter and an earnings per estimate forecast of 0.85, according to data compiled by Yahoo Finance.
Nvidia fell by 2.8 per cent to $126.63 a share, dragging the Nasdaq Composite down 1.35 per cent. The S&P 500 fell 0.47 per cent while the Dow Jones Industrial Averaged climbed 159.95 points, or 0.37 per cent.
Markets dipped after a new report showed US consumer confidence dipped sharply in February over growing concerns of how Mr Trump's policies will affect the economy. The Consumer Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell by seven points to 98.3, its largest drop since August 2021.
“There was a sharp increase in the mentions of trade and tariffs, back to a level unseen since 2019. Most notably, comments on the current administration and its policies dominated the responses," said Stephanie Guichard, senior economist of global indicators at the Conference Board.
Average 12-month inflation expectations also surged from 5.2 per cent to 5.6 per cent.
“Tariff worries are rattling consumers' cages in a way that they perhaps did not in the current President's first term,” Wells Fargo economists Tim Quinlan and Jeremiah Kohl wrote in a note.
Federal Reserve officials say it is still too soon to know how Mr Trump's policies will affect the inflation battle, although they have indicated in recent weeks they are willing to hold interest rates steady for several months amid policy uncertainty and a lack of progress in bringing down inflation.
“All this uncertainty argues for caution as we look to wrap up the inflation fight. If headwinds persist, we may well need to use policy to lean against that wind,” Richmond Fed president Tom Barkin said earlier on Tuesday.
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
