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1/5(木) テスラ、販売台数伸び悩み

Tesla Car Sales Grow More Slowly Than Expected, Amplifying Concerns

deliveries　納車台数
mortal　致命的な
woe　問題、トラブル
sugarcoat　うわべをよく見せる
fixate　固執させる
assertions　断言、主張

著者：Jack Ewing
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

Tesla said Monday that deliveries in the last three months of the year rose 18% from the previous quarter, disappointing Wall Street analysts and adding to pressure on Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, to focus on making cars rather than overhauling Twitter.

Tesla said it delivered 405,000 electric cars from October through December. Wall Street analysts had predicted that Tesla would sell around 420,000 vehicles, up from 343,000 vehicles in the third quarter.

The company sold a total of 1.3 million cars in 2022, a 40% increase from the year before. That was short of the 50% annual growth target Tesla had set for itself.

While the increases were impressive by auto industry standards, Tesla has become the most valuable carmaker in the world by growing at the sizzling rates more commonly associated with Silicon Valley technology companies.

In recent months, Tesla has appeared vulnerable to competition from established carmakers and to rising borrowing rates which made its electric cars more expensive for people taking out loans. Indications that Tesla is mortal have contributed to a 65% decline in Tesla shares in 2022, and led investors to focus more on conventional measures like sales and profits rather than dreams of world domination.

Fourth-quarter deliveries were below the forecasts of analysts, who had already lowered their expectations, and less than Tesla executives had suggested just a few months ago. Tesla said it produced 440,000 cars during the quarter, 34,000 more than it delivered, suggesting that supply chain problems and production woes were not the main explanation for disappointing sales.

Martin Viecha, head of investor relations at Tesla, said on Twitter that the gap between deliveries and production reflected vehicles in transit to customers.

There was no trading in New York on Monday because of the New Year’s holiday. But the numbers will probably reinforce investor fears that Musk is too focused on Twitter, which he acquired in October.

“No way to sugarcoat this,” Gary Black, managing director of the Future Fund, an investment fund, said on Twitter. He predicted that analysts would reduce their estimates of Tesla sales and profits in 2023. Tesla will report 2022 earnings on Jan. 25.

Last week, Musk tried to reassure Tesla employees, telling them not to fixate on the stock price and repeating assertions that the carmaker would become the most valuable company in the world, Reuters reported.

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1/6(金) Metaの広告手法がEU法で違法と判断

Meta’s Ad Practices Ruled Illegal Under EU Law

Consequential　重大な
Hinge On　次第で決まる
Lengthy　長々しい
Personalize　個々人に合わせる
Comply　従う

著者：Adam Satariano
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

LONDON — Meta suffered a major defeat Wednesday that could severely undercut its Facebook and Instagram advertising business after European Union regulators found it had illegally forced users to effectively accept personalized ads.

The decision, including a fine of 390 million euros ($414 million), has the potential to require Meta to make costly changes to its advertising-based business in the EU, one of its largest markets.

The ruling is one of the most consequential judgments since the 27-nation bloc, home to roughly 450 million people, enacted a landmark data-privacy law aimed at restricting the ability of Facebook and other companies from collecting information about users without their prior consent. The law took effect in 2018.

The case hinges on how Meta receives legal permission from users to collect their data for personalized advertising. The company includes language in its terms of service agreement, the very lengthy statement that users must accept before accessing services like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, that effectively means users must allow their data to be used for personalized ads or stop using Meta’s social media services altogether.

Ireland’s data privacy board, which serves as Meta’s main regulator in the EU because the company’s European headquarters are in Dublin, said EU authorities determined that placing the legal consent within the terms of service essentially forced users to accept personalized ads, violating the European law known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

Meta has three months to outline how it will comply with the ruling. The decision does not specify what the company must do, but it could result in Meta allowing users to choose whether they want their data used for such targeted promotions.

If a large number of users choose not to share their data, it would cut off one of the most valuable parts of Meta’s business. Information about a user’s digital history is used by marketers to get ads in front of people who are the most likely to buy. The practices helped Meta generate $118 billion in revenue in 2021.

Wednesday’s announcement relates to two complaints filed against Meta in 2018. Meta said it will appeal the decision.

“We strongly believe our approach respects GDPR, and we’re therefore disappointed by these decisions,” Facebook said in a statement.

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1/7(土) ブロードウェイ復活！コロナ以降最高の週

Broadway Bounces Back With ‘Best Week Since the Before Times’

rebound　立ち直り
running　長期公演
boffo　圧倒的成功、大ヒット
caveats　注意事項
toppled　倒した
raft　沢山の

著者：Michael Paulson
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

NEW YORK — Broadway, still struggling to rebound from the lengthy pandemic shutdown, is starting the new year with a sign of hope: Last week was, by far, the best for the industry since the arrival of the coronavirus.

The 33 shows running grossed $51.9 million, which is the most since the final week of 2019. And “The Lion King,” which in the fall celebrated its 25th anniversary on Broadway, notched a remarkable milestone: It grossed $4.3 million, which is the most ever taken in by a show in a single week on Broadway.

The boffo numbers — 21 shows grossed more than $1 million last week — come with caveats. Both Christmas and New Year’s days fell on Sundays, concentrating holiday travelers into a single week. Twenty shows added extra performances for the holiday week, giving nine instead of the usual eight. And ticket prices were high: The average Broadway seat went for $166, up from $128 just four weeks earlier.

But the strong week sent a signal that under the right circumstances, Broadway can deliver. During the holiday week — the week that ended Jan. 1 — the 22 musicals and 11 plays running were, on average, 92% full. Overall attendance was 312,878, which is not a record (in fact, it was the 27th-best-attended week in history, according to the Broadway League) but is good (by comparison, attendance over Thanksgiving week was 259,298).

The two final weeks of the year saw combined grosses of $86.7 million, which is up 115% over last year but down 12% compared with those key holiday weeks in 2019.

According to the group, last week was the third-highest-grossing in history.

“The Lion King,” with a nine-performance week, toppled the previous record for the top-grossing week by a single show, which had been held by “Hamilton,” which grossed $4 million for eight performances during the week that ended Dec. 30, 2018. (The figures are not adjusted for inflation.)

Broadway now enters a period of greater challenge: January and February have historically been weak months for the industry. There are 12 shows scheduled to close this month, which is at the high end of the normal range for January closings. But there are a raft of openings planned in March and April.

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1/8(日) バイデン氏、違法な国境通過に関する大規模な取り締まりを発表

Biden Announces Major Crackdown on Illegal Border Crossings

Crackdown　取り締まり
Asylum　亡命
Offset　相殺する
State of emergency　非常事態宣言
Overhaul　全面的な見直し

著者：Michael D. Shear, Eileen Sullivan and Miriam Jordan
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a far-reaching crackdown on people who seek refuge at the border with Mexico, dramatically expanding restrictions on asylum in the most aggressive effort of his administration to discourage migrants from crossing into the United States.

In remarks at the White House that drew immediate condemnation from human rights organizations, Biden said his administration would deny people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti the chance to apply for asylum if they cross the Mexican border without authorization between official ports of entry.

He said people from those countries, who are among the many tens of thousands of migrants who try to cross the border every month, would be swiftly returned to Mexico instead.

In a concession designed to offset the humanitarian effect of the new restrictions, Biden said that as many as 30,000 people per month from the four countries would be given the chance to migrate legally to the United States if they have the means to afford a plane ticket, get a sponsor, download an app, pass a background check and meet other requirements.

The president said he would make his first trip as president to the border Sunday with a trip to El Paso, Texas, where many migrants have been sleeping on sidewalks. The mayor declared a state of emergency last month and called for the federal government to help alleviate the pressure on resources.

Biden said he would announce new funding to help communities deal with the effects of the migration increase.

Biden acknowledged that the new policies fall far short of a complete overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which he proposed to Congress on the day he took office. He lashed out at Republicans for refusing to even consider that proposal.

Officials have said that most of the recent migrants from Central and South America trying to cross through Mexico to reach the United States are from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.

Migrants from those countries who seek to travel to the United States by passing through Mexico would be automatically ineligible for the new program. And those who try to cross into the United States will be more quickly targeted for removal to Mexico, which has agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants each month from the four countries.

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