Investors have been pleased to see the stock market mount such a sizable recovery over the past couple of weeks, as the investing community has seemed to get more comfortable with the new state of affairs on the geopolitical and macroeconomic scene. Inflationary pressures and war in Ukraine might not end in the immediate future, but even with the challenges they present, those issues aren't completely removing optimism from the market. As of 8:30 a.m. ET, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 1.18%) were up 94 points to 34,698, while S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.26%) futures gained 16 points to 4,529 and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 1.99%) futures rose 66 points to 14,829.
It'll be well into April before earnings season hits its highest point, but even now, a few companies are discussing how they've done recently. Chinese electric vehicle company Nio (NIO -0.36%) released its latest results late Thursday, and shareholders weren't entirely happy with what they saw. However, elsewhere in the transportation and mobility space, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) specialist Joby Aviation (JOBY) picked up steam on good news.
Image source: Nio.
Nio coasts ahead
Nio released its fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday evening. The stock was down more than 5% in premarket trading Friday morning.
Nio's numbers were mixed. Investors had already known that vehicle deliveries were up sharply, with total unit volume exceeding 25,000 in the fourth quarter. That was up 44% from the year-earlier quarter, and for 2021 as a whole, Nio delivered more than 91,400 vehicles -- double what it had in 2020.
That success showed up in vehicle revenue, which rose 49% year over year to $1.45 billion. However, Nio continued to lose money, with adjusted quarterly losses widening to $0.21 per share from $0.16 a year ago.
Moreover, investors seemed unimpressed with Nio's near-term guidance. The EV maker expects to deliver 25,000 to 26,000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2022, which would be up 25% to 30% from the first quarter of 2021 but only flat from three months ago. Similarly, revenue projections for $1.51 billion to $1.57 billion would represent a slowing of growth that shareholders don't want to see just yet.
Nio has done a good job in the Chinese EV market, and it's scheduled to begin delivering its ET7 sedan next week. In a competitive space, though, Nio can't afford to take its foot off the gas.
Joby takes off
Meanwhile, shares of Joby Aviation were up 4% in premarket trading. The developer of eVTOL aircraft released its latest financial report, but more importantly, it announced it would resume testing of its products.
Joby's financial numbers made the company's preproduction status clear. The company had no revenue and posted operating losses of $77 million. Net income was actually positive, but those gains came purely from the fact that sizable declines in its stock price provided a positive accounting adjustment in the fair value of warrants and earnout shares held by certain investors.
More importantly, though, Joby has resumed flight testing of its second preproduction prototype from its facility in California. Joby had paused the testing program when its first prototype was involved in an accident earlier this year. Based on testing results from 2021, though, Joby had determined that its eVTOL prototype could have more than 150 miles of endurance on a charge, flying more than 5,300 miles in total and generating huge amounts of test data for further analysis.
Eventually, Joby hopes to be able to transport up to four passengers at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. The stock remains well below its best levels over the past year, but there's still quite a bit of optimism about the eVTOL market generally and the role Joby could play in its development.
