Today’s Economic Shakers

Tesla shares soar in pre-market trading on latest delivery numbers…

Tesla’s stock price rose sharply before Monday’s opening bell in response to a report from the high-tech company stating its latest delivery data.

Shares of Tesla stock reached its highest level in over 2 years in pre-market trading as investors cheered the news that the company had delivered 25,000 vehicles during Q-1 2017, which was an increase of 69% compared to Q-1 2016.

The delivery numbers for the quarter ending in March was a particularly encouraging sign for Tesla, as the company had missed its target for vehicles delivered for Q-4 2016.

Last quarter’s number of vehicles delivered had dropped close to 10% due to issues arising from what the company referred to as short-teerm production problems.

In the breakdown of specific vehicles, Tesla reported that it had delivered around 13,450 of its most popular car, the Model S sedan. That was followed close behind by its sports utility vehicle, the Model X, which saw a delivery of about 11,500 cars.

The company’s statement included projections for Q-2 2017 as well, with expectations of between 47,000-50,000 combined vehicles forecast for the first 6 months of this year.

Tesla is introducing the sale of its new, lower priced Model 3 later in the year, which will bring the car into what is considered to be the more mass-market category of vehicles.

Currently the company’s vehicles fall into the luxury vehicle classification.

Tesla has been performing strongly so far for 2017, as a combination of positive projections, a new round of capital-raising via the sale of additional stock, and a recent purchase of 5% of existing stock by a Chinese company have helped to catapult the stock price up by over 30% on the year.

Tesla was up close to 3% this morning in pre-market trading.

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Eurozone sees decline in unemployment, falling to near eight-year low...

In a report from Eurostat on Monday morning, the statistical office of the European Union said that joblessness fell to 9.5% in February, falling in line with analyst expectations.

The decline in the unemployment rate for the shared-currency region fell to the lowest levels seen in the eurozone since May 2009.

As expected, the data from the Eurostat office showed that the highest rates of unemployment continued in the southern region, with the biggest numbers coming from Greece and Spain.

The region’s leading economy, Germany, continued to have the lowest unemployment rate last month, a trend that has been in place for months.

The data from Eurostat supports the narrative that the region is experiencing continued economic growth, a result that has been generally attributed to the stimulus measures that have been instituted by the European Central Bank.

Overall, the rate of unemployment for the eurozone has fallen substantially over the last 4 years, falling from a high of over 12% at that time.

The breakdown of the joblessness levels showed that Germany had a rate of just 3.9, while Greece had the highest unemployment rate, coming in at 23.1%. That was followed closely by Spain, with a rate of 18%.

The region’s bourses traded mostly flat in early morning trading, coming down from the plus column following news of an explosion in Russia’s St. Petersburg metro station earlier today.