Highlights for the morning: gold breaks records, Oracle loses margin, Tesla cuts prices

Gold surpassed $4000 per ounce for the first time in history, reflecting investors' flight to protective assets amid the US government shutdown, pressure on the Fed and global risks. Against this backdrop, Ray Dalio and Jeffrey Gundlach advise holding up to 15-25% of a portfolio in gold as a safe hedge asset. Tesla, on the other hand, introduced cheaper versions of Model Y and Model 3. About these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of October 8.

The cost of gold for the first time in history exceeded the mark of $4000 per ounce and consolidated at this level - amid the U.S. government shutdown, concerns about the state of the economy and Donald Trump's pressure on the Fed, reports Bloomberg. Since the beginning of the year, the metal has risen in price by more than 50%, surpassing equities in terms of returns for the entire XXI century.

Analysts attribute the growth not only to fear, but also to asset reallocation: weakening real yields and expectations of lower interest rates are driving demand for gold, while overvalued AI stocks are losing appeal. Central banks remain big buyers, and gold ETFs saw their largest inflows in three years.

Gold traditionally rises in times of crisis - it has already broken through $1000 after the financial crash of 2008, $2000 during the pandemic and $3000 during Trump's trade wars. The new jump reflects doubts about the Fed's independence and growing global risks, the agency points out.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said investors should keep up to 15% of their portfolio in gold despite record price rises above $4,000 an ounce, CNBC reports. He said gold is a "great diversifier" that performs best when traditional assets fall.

Dalio compared the current situation to the 1970s, when inflation and government debt undermined confidence in paper assets. He emphasized that gold remains a unique protective asset in an era of depreciating currencies: "It's the only thing you can hold without depending on the promises of others". Jeffrey Gundlach, head of DoubleLine Capital, expressed a similar position, suggesting that the share of gold in portfolios should be increased to 25%.

Tesla has released cheaper versions of its popular electric cars - the Model Y Standard and Model 3 Standard, Yahoo Finance reports. Both models are already available for order in the U.S.: the rear-wheel-drive Model Y starts at $39,990 and the Model 3 starts at $36,990. Both have a range of about 321 miles (about 517 kilometers). Deliveries are scheduled for late 2024-early 2025.

Externally, the base Model Y lacks light bars in front and rear and is offered in three colors - gray, white and black. The interior features only black trim, fabric inserts, a 15.4-inch screen and reduced functionality: no autopilot and FSD, only "smart cruise control." Tesla has also eliminated AM/FM radio and atmospheric lighting to keep the cost down.

The release of the models coincided with the end of the federal tax credit for electric cars in the United States. Elon Musk has previously noted that affordable versions will appear exactly after its expiration. The release of cheaper models should stimulate demand - especially after the decline in sales in previous quarters.

Oracle shares are down more than 7% after The Information reported that the profitability of the company's cloud business was well below analysts' expectations, Bloomberg reports. According to internal documents, Oracle earned about $900 million from renting servers with Nvidia chips in the three months ending in August, but made only $125 million in gross profit. In some cases, the company even incurred losses when leasing small batches of GPUs.

Despite falling stock prices, Oracle's shares have surged nearly 70% since the beginning of the year thanks to a boom in demand for computing power for artificial intelligence. The company had previously forecast cloud revenue growth of 700% over three years, which sparked a 36% jump in shares in September.

Analysts note that the low profitability may be temporary - Oracle is actively investing in infrastructure and chip procurement. According to Guggenheim experts, the company remains a key player in AI-learning, offering high performance at a lower price.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 0.4%. In contrast, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was falling by 0.3%.

- In South Korea, the stock exchanges are closed.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.1 percent.

- Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.1%, the S&P 500 added about the same, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor