Just as the auto industry was grappling with BYD ‘s rapid rise, Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi has burst into the market — undercutting Tesla and vowing to become a global player. Even as Apple this year scrapped development of an electric, self-driving car , Xiaomi’s founder and CEO Lei Jun pledged that making a car will not only be his final legacy project, but a product that turns the company into one of the top five automakers in the world in the next two decades. Xiaomi’s Hong Kong-listed shares soared last week to a two-year high after the company introduced its electric SU7 sedan at a price about $4,000 cheaper than Tesla’s Model 3 — and with similar tech capabilities. Wider analyst attention In the last several days, Xiaomi has gained wider attention from auto and tech industry analysts beyond those who previously covered it as only a smartphone play. “Add Xiaomi to the list of capable China auto/tech firms that may represent attractive collaboration candidates as Western legacy auto firms look for ways to achieve higher scale, improved capital discipline and lower execution risks,” Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas said in a note Thursday. Meanwhile, Tesla last week revealed that its deliveries fell in the first quarter from a year ago . Excluding Covid, that was the first decline in Tesla deliveries since 2012, Jonas pointed out. While he still likes Tesla longer-term , he and his team will hold a client webinar on Xiaomi, Tesla and global EVs on Tuesday. “If Xiaomi can continue to outperform peers on [driver assist] and smart cabin features, we believe it is likely to become a disruption force with large growth potential,” Morgan Stanley’s greater China tech hardware analyst, Andy Meng, said in a note Monday. Meng reiterated the bank’s overweight rating on Xiaomi, and its price target of 17.50 Hong Kong dollars ($2.24). Xiaomi shares nearly reached that price during last week’s surge. The stock later gave back much of those gains, and are now little changed on the year. Meanwhile, Tesla shares are down 34% year to date. On Wednesday, Xiaomi said it had received more than 100,000 orders for the SU7, more than 40,000 of which were already locked in and not subject to cancellation. The same day, it held a ceremony celebrating its first batch of car deliveries. Six-month wait times Most customers face wait times of nearly six months or longer, according to Xiaomi’s online sales platform. Taylor Ogan, Shenzhen-based CEO of Snow Bull Capital, said that he’s watching to see how consumers actually like driving the car before he commits to buying Xiaomi shares. “I don’t think it will do particularly well for the stock price [in] the next two quarters,” he said in an interview Friday. “After that, this could be a cash cow. This is something that every single avid Xiaomi ecosystem user needs.” Months ahead of the car launch, Xiaomi announced a new operating system called HyperOS and a strategy to connect consumers with their homes and cars. The company makes most of its revenue from smartphones, but a significant share also comes from a range of home appliances, many of which are controlled using an app. During the recent SU7 launch, Xiaomi CEO Lei touted that when a driver neared home, connected lights and appliances could automatically turn on to pre-determined settings. Such an ecosystem offers “a built-in recurring revenue model that every CEO would dream of,” Ogan said. “On top of that, you can have subscriptions.” He said he sees low odds that the SU7 flops, but said it would be difficult for Xiaomi to recover if the car does disappoint expectations. Although Xiaomi is trying to build out its own ecosystem, the company also supports Apple’s Car Play system and iPads. “We believe the ultimate outcome [of Xiaomi’s EV market entry] would be a faster BEV/NEV penetration in China, thus ICE brands or products would be the main losers,” JPMorgan’s Nick Lai, head of China equity research and head of APAC auto research, said in a note Monday. He was referring to internal combustion engines, battery electric vehicles and new energy vehicles. Recognition and cash Xiaomi’s advantages include existing brand recognition in China, and 110 billion yuan ($15.7 billion) in cash on its balance sheet that can help the company weather a near-term price war, the report said. Lei has said that Xiaomi is currently producing each car at a loss, but noted the company invested in its own factory to boost production. It’s not clear whether the facility is fully operational yet, but Lei claimed last month the factory could churn out an SU7 every 76 seconds in a nearly fully-automated process. “Xiaomi also showcased its EV factory with highly automated production lines for key processes (painting, stamping, die casting, body assembly etc.), backed by its smart manufacturing expertise. We believe high degree of automation should help accelerate its EV profitability improvement in the mid to long term,” JPMorgan technology analyst Gokul Hariharan said in a separate note. The bank has an overweight investment recommendation on Xiaomi, with a price target of 21 Hong Kong dollars. That’s about 35% above where the stock closed Friday. One risk is China’s ability to produce electric cars at prices far below overseas competitors has prompted warnings that trade tensions will grow. Only Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized concerns about China’s overcapacity as she kicked off high-level meetings in the country. But while Xiaomi has hinted at overseas car plans, it has promised to focus on the China market first. Right now, it sells smartphones globally, but not in the U.S.
Leading analyst Craig Moffett suggests any plans to move U.S. iPhone assembly to India is unrealistic.
Moffett, ranked as a top analyst multiple times by Institutional Investor, sent a memo to clients on Friday after the Financial Times reported Apple was aiming to shift production toward India from China by the end of next year.
He’s questioning how a move could bring down costs tied to tariffs because the iPhone components would still be made in China.
“You have a tremendous menu of problems created by tariffs, and moving to India doesn’t solve all the problems. Now granted, it helps to some degree,” the MoffettNathanson partner and senior managing director told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Friday. “I would question how that’s going to work.”
Moffett contends it’s not so easy to diversify to India — telling clients Apple’s supply chain would still be anchored in China and would likely face resistance.
“The bottom line is a global trade war is a two-front battle, impacting costs and sales. Moving assembly to India might (and we emphasize might) help with the former. The latter may ultimately be the bigger issue,” he wrote to clients.
Moffett cut his Apple price target on Monday to $141 from $184 a share. It implies a 33% drop from Friday’s close. The price target is also the Street low, according to FactSet.
“I don’t think of myself as the biggest Apple bear,” he said. “I think quite highly of Apple. My concern about Apple has been the valuation more than the company.”
Moffett has had a “sell” rating on Apple since Jan. 7. Since then, the company’s shares are down about 14%.
“None of this is because Apple is a bad company. They still have a great balance sheet [and] a great consumer franchise,” he said. “It’s just the reality of there are no good answers when you are a product company, and your products are going to be significantly tariffed, and you’re heading into a market that is likely to have at least some deceleration in consumer demand because of the macro economy.”
Moffett notes Apple also isn’t getting help from its carriers to cushion the blow of tariffs.
“You also have the demand destruction that’s created by potentially higher prices. Remember, you had AT&T, Verizon and T. Mobile all this week come out and say we’re not going to underwrite the additional cost of tariff [on] handsets,” he added. “The consumer is going to have to pay for that. So, you’re going to have some demand destruction that’s going to show up in even longer holding periods and slower upgrade rates — all of which probably trims estimates next year’s consensus.”
According to Moffett, the backlash against Apple in China over U.S. tariffs will also hurt iPhone sales.
“It’s a very real problem,” Moffett said. “Volumes are really going to the Huaweis and the Vivos and the local competitors in China rather than to Apple.”
Apple stock is coming off a winning week — up more than 6%. It comes ahead of the iPhone maker’s quarterly earnings report due next Thursday after the market close.
To get more personalized investment strategies, join us for our next “Fast Money” Live event on Thursday, June 5, at the Nasdaq in Times Square.
In a year that hasn’t been kind to many big-name stocks, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is standing near the top. Berkshire shares have posted a 17% return year-to-date, while the S&P 500 index is down 6%.
That performance places Berkshire among the top 10% of the U.S. market’s large-cap leaders, and the run has been getting Buffett more attention ahead of next weekend’s annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s also good timing for the recently launched VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF(OMAH), which holds the top 20 most heavily weighted stocks in Berkshire Hathaway, as well as shares of Berkshire Hathaway.
“It’s a really well-balanced portfolio chosen by the most successful investor the world has ever seen,” Adam Patti, CEO of VistaShares, said in an appearance this week on CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”
Berkshire’s outperformance of the S&P 500 isn’t limited to 2025. Buffett’s stock has tripled the performance of the market over the past year, and its 185% return over the past five years is more than double the performance of the S&P 500.
Berkshire Hathaway is one of 2025’s top performing stocks.
In addition to this long-term track record of success in the market, Berkshire Hathaway is getting a lot of attention right now for the record amount of cash Buffett is holding as he trimmed stakes in big stocks including Apple, which has proven to be a great strategy. The S&P 500 has experienced extreme short-term volatility since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Even after a recent recovery, the S&P is still down 8% since the start of Trump’s second term.
“The market has been momentum driven for many years, the switch has flipped and we’re looking at quality in terms of exposure, and Berkshire Hathaway has performed incredibly well this year, handily outperforming the S&P 500,” said Patti.
Berkshire Hathaway famously doesn’t pay a dividend, with Buffett holding firm over many decades in the belief that he can re-invest cash to create more value for shareholders. In a letter to shareholders in February, Buffett wrote that Berkshire shareholders “can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities — mostly American equities.”
The lack of a dividend payment has been an issue over the years for some shareholders at Berkshire who do want income from the market, according to Patti, who added that his firm conducted research among investors in designing the ETF. “Who doesn’t want to invest like Buffett, but with income?” he said.
So, in addition to being tied to the performance of Berkshire and the stock picks of Buffett, the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF is designed to produce income of 15% annually through a strategy of selling call options and distributing monthly payments of 1.25% to shareholders. This income strategy has become more popular in the ETF space, with more asset managers launching funds to capture income opportunities and more investors adopting the approach amid market volatility.
People shop for produce at a Walmart in Rosemead, California, on April 11, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images
A growing number of Americans are using buy now, pay later loans to buy groceries, and more people are paying those bills late, according to new Lending Tree data released Friday.
The figures are the latest indicator that some consumers are cracking under the pressure of an uncertain economy and are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries as they contend with persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns around tariffs.
In a survey conducted April 2-3 of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79, around half reported having used buy now, pay later services. Of those consumers, 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, the firm said.
Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior, the survey found.
Lending Tree’s chief consumer finance analyst, Matt Schulz, said that of those respondents who said they paid a BNPL bill late, most said it was by no more than a week or so.
“A lot of people are struggling and looking for ways to extend their budget,” Schulz said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still really high. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and other economic issues, and it’s all going to add up to a lot of people looking for ways to extend their budget however they can.”
“For an awful lot of people, that’s going to mean leaning on buy now, pay later loans, for better or for worse,” he said.
He stopped short of calling the results a recession indicator but said conditions are expected to decline further before they get better.
“I do think it’s going to get worse, at least in the short term,” said Schulz. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of reason to expect these numbers to get better in the near term.”
The loans, which allow consumers to split up purchases into several smaller payments, are a popular alternative to credit cards because they often don’t charge interest. But consumers can see high fees if they pay late, and they can run into problems if they stack up multiple loans. In Lending Tree’s survey, 60% of BNPL users said they’ve had multiple loans at once, with nearly a fourth saying they have held three or more at once.
“It’s just really important for people to be cautious when they use these things, because even though they can be a really good interest-free tool to help you kind of make it from one paycheck to the next, there’s also a lot of risk in mismanaging it,” said Schulz. “So people should tread lightly.”
Lending Tree’s findings come after Billboard revealed that about 60% of general admission Coachella attendees funded their concert tickets with buy now, pay later loans, sparking a debate on the state of the economy and how consumers are using debt to keep up their lifestyles. A recent announcement from DoorDash that it would begin accepting BNPL financing from Klarna for food deliveries led to widespread mockery and jokes that Americans were struggling so much that they were now being forced to finance cheeseburgers and burritos.
Over the last few years, consumers have held up relatively well, even in the face of persistent inflation and high interest rates, because the job market was strong and wage growth had kept up with inflation — at least for some workers.
Earlier this year, however, large companies including Walmart and Delta Airlines began warning that the dynamic had begun to shift and they were seeing cracks in demand, which was leading to worse-than-expected sales forecasts.