| Elon Musk's Tesla plan falls flat, Credit Suisse lures clients with higher deposit rates and the crypto fallout ensnares a US bank. — Kristine Aquino To catch up on the trading day in the UK and Europe, check out Markets Today. Elon Musk's much-hyped third Master Plan for Tesla fell flat after failing to offer any firm detail on the company's long-awaited next generation of electric cars — especially a cheaper EV like the $25,000 model flagged more than two years ago. While Musk confirmed a new plant in Monterrey, Mexico will build the next generation of vehicles, he offered no details on timing, saying a "proper product event" will be held later. Lars Moravy, Tesla's vice-president of vehicle engineering, was similarly vague, answering an analyst's question with only: "We're gonna go as fast as we can." Credit Suisse is escalating efforts to win back clients with deposit rates that are significantly higher than rivals. The Zurich-based lender has raised three-month rates to as much as about 6.5% for new money of $5 million and above in Asia, according to people familiar with the matter. That's close to 100 basis points more than what it offered in December, and is a premium over rivals including UBS, JPMorgan and Citigroup in the region, the people said. The Swiss bank is also offering deposit rates that are a step above rivals in Switzerland, one of the people said.  | Shares of Silvergate Capital, a US bank catering to the crypto sector, plunged as much as 33% after the close of regular trading after it said it needs more time to assess the extent of damage to its finances stemming from last year's crypto rout — including whether it can remain viable. Such an admission by a lender will add to a debate among US lawmakers and regulators over whether banks can manage the risks associated with digital assets. "If this bank fails, it's going to be held up as an example of why banks should be extremely conservative in dealing with crypto companies," said Todd Baker, a senior fellow at Columbia University's Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy. S&P 500 futures fell 0.5% as of 5:35 a.m. in New York, while Nasdaq 100 contracts slid 0.8%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index traded near the day's highs, pressuring all Group-of-10 currencies. Treasuries edged lower, mirroring moves in the euro-area. Oil climbed, while gold and Bitcoin fell. At 8:30 a.m., we'll get initial jobless claims data. Federal Reserve Governor Chris Waller speaks at 2 p.m., while Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will deliver remarks at a separate event at 6 p.m. The US will sell $75 billion of four-week and $40 billion of eight-week bills at 11:30 a.m. Here's what caught our eye over the past 24 hours: Evidence continues to grow that the housing market has stabilized, despite the surge in mortgage rates.
Speaking of housing, on today's episode of the Odd Lots podcast, we speak with Chase Emmerson, the Co-CEO of Emmerson Enterprises, an investor and brokerage of land in Arizona. Basically turning empty land and selling it to homeowners. There are a few really interesting themes in this episode. One is the fact that, as Chase confirms, there are already signs of improvement in 2023 vs. late 2022. In 2022, Emmerson had homebuilders walking away from land purchase agreements, and sacrificing their escrow to break the deal. Now some are starting to come back.
There's a much bigger longer-term story here. Amid the Great Financial Crisis, publicly traded homebuilders got clobbered for having too much undeveloped land on their balance sheet that had no prospect of being monetized. That creates the incentive, driven by shareholders, to let some third party warehouse that risk. Basically let some other entity hold the land on their balance sheet, and then pay a premium to acquire it just when you need it. There's also a water story here, and every state in the Southwest is dealing with drought, and claiming a share of Colorado River water. So hearing Chase discuss real estate expansion (and other expansion in Arizona, such as semiconductor factories) is also interesting. Anyway, this one touches on a lot of timely themes, both short and long term about how the economy works. Find it on Apple, Spotify or elsewhere. Follow Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on Twitter @TheStalwart. | 
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