CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk’s companies aren’t fully self-driving and await his steering

In his first week away from the U.S. government’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk is seeing positive activity in his companies. His brain tech startup Neuralink announced a $650 million funding round, while his electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla in May enjoyed a 213% year-on-year jump in sales in Norway.

Granted, Tesla’s encouraging numbers in Norway are an outlier amid a plunge in Europe sales. And the causal link between those rosy developments and Musk’s departure from DOGE is tenuous. Starlink’s funding round and Tesla’s increase in Norway sales occurred while Musk still had his hands full with the White House. Hence, they could have happened with little — or none — of his leadership or input.

But both outcomes serve as reminders of why so many are Musk backers: His companies are, fundamentally, successful ones. Tesla still has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion, and Musk is seeking a valuation of more than $120 billion for his artificial intelligence startup xAI — by contrast, rivals Perplexity AI and Anthropic are looking for valuations at $14 billion and $61.5 billion, respectively.

While Musk’s firms still deserve investor attention, they, like Tesla’s promised full self-driving feature, aren’t completely autonomous. They need a steady — and ideally “super focused” — hand to guide them for the road ahead.

Muted start to June
U.S. stocks posted modest gains Monday, the first trading day of June. The S&P 500 advanced 0.41%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.08% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.67%. Asia-Pacific markets climbed Tuesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.17%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 inched up 0.07% at 2 p.m. Singapore time.

China’s factory activity in May falls sharply
The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 48.3 in May from 50.4 in April, meaning China’s factory activity shrank last month. The reading sharply missed Reuters’ estimates of 50.6 and was the steepest drop since 2022. A gauge for new export orders fell to its lowest level since July 2023, Caixin said, indicating foreign demand is slowing because of U.S. tariffs.

Steel tariffs will hike U.S. prices
The 50% tariff on steel imports that U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday will push up prices of the metal in America, according to analysts. “Already steel prices in the U.S. are higher than anywhere else, and it is a net importer which needs to have volumes coming in. All this does is raise prices there,” Josh Spoores, head of steel Americas analysis at CRU, told CNBC on Monday.

Neuralink raised $650 million
Elon Musk’s Neuralink has closed a $650 million funding round, the brain tech startup announced Monday. ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and other firms participated in the round, according to a press release. Neuralink is building a brain-computer interface, a system that translates brain signals into commands for external technologies.

Tesla sales in Norway jump
Tesla’s sale of new cars in Norway skyrocketed 213% to 2,600 in May from a year earlier, according to official data. The increase was mostly driven by sales of the firm’s revamped Model Y compact sport utility vehicle. That bucks a downward trend across Europe — industry groups on Monday reported significantly lower May sales for new Tesla vehicles in Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Sweden.

[PRO] Tourist spending as bellwether
In February, while luxury brand Moncler was still basking in the glow of a stellar 20% share price surge from January, fund manager Giles Parkinson made a contrarian move: He sold out. Parkinson’s caution wasn’t borne out of analyst reports or traditional financial modeling, but from what he called a “good short-term guide to luxury industry writ large”: the spending patterns of international tourists.

In China, ‘The Great American’ burger is now made with Australian beef

American agricultural products have been vanishing from Chinese stores and restaurants and losing ground to other imports.

At his restaurant in Beijing, Geng Xiaoyun used to offer a special dish of salt-baked chicken feet — or “phoenix talons” as they are called in China — imported from America.

“American chicken feet are so beautiful,” Geng said. “They’re spongy so they taste great. Chinese [chicken] feet just aren’t as good.”

With prices climbing 30% from March due to tariffs, the owner of Kunyuan restaurant had to pull the Chinese delicacy from the menu.