'Teflon stocks' are increasingly at-risk, and that's been the takeaway we've warned of over the months related to 'bifurcation', which Netflix's (NFLX) collapse for sure brought home from to broader grasp by Wall Street at last.

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It's been a disconnect (Generals ahead of the hunkered-down troops) over at least the last 6-9 months, that I referred to often as 'bifurcation'. Today's 35% or so decline in Netflix is less about streaming (I mentioned last night not very excited by the entire sector for now), and more related to funds heavyweight over-owned exposure to any of the concentrated big-caps that are not only a group generally priced-for-perfection (hence risky), but also in ETF baskets.

When the 'trap doors' open, such stocks can spill. Hence any major stumble, like you saw with Netflix, tends to be amplified by broad simultaneous exodus. On the other side of essentially the same coin, you get rallies amplified when good results come in. Especially if also unexpected. To wit: upside volatility.

Today that was the case as Tesla (TSLA) beat numbers in a ridiculous sense, hard to say if it's all volume production, but it is sort of higher margin sales (price sort of didn't impede sales, but were increased more than higher production costs)...and that is going to elicit cries that Tesla didn't simply 'pass on higher costs' but made sure they increased prices enough to make more than usual profits.

As they draw in the kind of concentration money managers who chase price (sustaining positions they already own in most cases), that creates the same risk, which doesn't mean a stock like Tesla comes down much more after, but does denote the potential folly (or late stage entry) for buyers 'after' the news.

Tesla's explanation is higher costs (though they accumulated parts inventory before increases of late, hence part of why they made those higher margins), and must of that's related to extraordinary battery costs. This makes all newly developing competition lots more interesting, especially companies that might be able to make a unit profit and undercut premium EV prices concurrently. It is not only Ford (F), but also (if they execute) little companies like Canoo (GOEV), that of course would like to carve-out a slice of the pie over time.

As to Tesla's 'conference call', Musk plans to be 'on the call', which everyone will be monitoring not only with curiosity about how they blew away numbers, but also whether Elon will be selling more shares or not (not he'll have really good rebounds to do that 'if' he intends it) related to his Twitter-control efforts.

So, yes Twitter is the other 'Apple' of Musk's eye, and we still suspect actual Apple (AAPL) might surprise at some point in the near future with some partnership as relates to the often rumored, semi-developed and sometimes discarded (or rumored as such) Apple Car. Remember Canoo's original CEO left to Apple, and then Apple lost a number of their engineers who went elsewhere possibly as Apple was rumored to have discontinued their plans, and possibly molded it into an 'operating system' of sorts.

If so that might infer a partnership with another actual vehicle manufacturer, but nothing about it is clear, which is also typical when dealing with Apple with regard to secrecy. (They do take action against former employees who might violate NDA's with the company, hence there's a sort of 'code of silence' they have managed to enforce.) So I don't know if it's Canoo (of course I'd like that immeasurably) or Hyundai or Kia, or anyone else.

Lastly the Atlanta Fed President Bostick was a bit more circumspect when it comes to rate hikes, and questioned whether the economy could withstand a 75 bp rate hike. And he thinks the U.S. muddles through this. Fine, but just an opinion, these Fed-heads still think this is about monetary policy, not inflation that a number of factors contributed to, and exacerbated by the war.

Simply put, break Oil prices and find a ceasefire in Ukraine, and stocks punch through the 200-DMA with ease. They may anyway, but it would simplify what the S&P (SPX) is trying to achieve without much that's impressive so far.

This upside efforts likely persist, with landmines exceeding gold mines still, at the same time air-pockets are clearly evident when earnings numbers shock.