Wall Street appeared ready to end the first half of 2023 on a high note. Stock indexes climbed just after the opening bell Friday morning, as the Nasdaq led the way with a move higher of more than 1%. Some investors have been surprised at the extent of the rebound from 2022's bear market, particularly as many of the macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns that prevailed last year remain firmly in place.

Indeed, some of the same concerns remain problematic for particular companies. Shares of Nike (NKE 0.19%) fell early Friday after the athletic footwear and apparel giant reported its latest quarterly results. However, in the electric car realm, XPeng (XPEV 10.73%) climbed sharply as it responded to Tesla by making a key strategic move. Read on to learn more about both of these stocks, and find out what the future might hold for them.

Nike slows down

Shares of Nike were down about 2% early Friday. Fiscal fourth-quarter results for the period ended May 31 showed continuing signs of sluggishness in the consumer sector, which could bode poorly for retailers more broadly.

Nike's numbers showed many of the challenges it keeps facing. Revenue was up 5% year over year to $12.8 billion, as the company saw its sales growth take a hit of 3 percentage points due to adverse currency moves. Nike got a good result from its direct-to-consumer segment, where sales jumped 15% on a 24% rise in revenue from company-owned retail store locations. However, gross margin fell due to higher input and shipping costs, as well as greater use of markdowns. As a result, net income dropped 28%, and earnings came in at $0.66 per share.

CEO John Donahoe maintained an upbeat attitude, pointing to Nike's efforts to invest in innovation and building out its digital capabilities. Nike also indicated that it believes that the coming 2024 fiscal year should continue to build momentum toward sustainable and profitable sales growth.

Yet investors weren't satisfied with calls for fiscal first-quarter sales results to be flat to up low single-digit percentages compared to the year-earlier period. Moreover, if other areas of the economy start to perk up, it'll be hard for Nike's stock to keep pace with the rest of the market if it can't follow suit with bottom-line gains.

XPeng heads into the passing lane

Elsewhere, shares of XPeng climbed 8% on Friday morning. The Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs) made a competitive play that it hopes will undercut Tesla in a key part of China's EV market.

XPeng launched its G6 Ultra Smart Coupe SUV in China on Thursday. The vehicle features XPeng's latest technological platform, along with other new features designed to improve the customer experience for EV drivers and passengers.

However, the big news from the release was that XPeng chose to price the G6 starting below $29,000. That's roughly 20% below the price of the Tesla Model Y, which is arguably the most closely aligned Tesla vehicle to the XPeng G6. Between low prices and a significant tax break for electric vehicle purchases, analysts believe that XPeng could see a substantial rise in unit EV sales resulting from the launch.

With Tesla delivery figures due out in the next few days, it'll be interesting to see how the two companies end up comparing. China's EV market is more than large enough to offer both automakers chances at success.