Author: admin

By Kosaku Narioka

  Honda Motor cut its annual earnings forecasts after a weak first half, flagging slumping car sales in China and Southeast Asia and a nearly $1 billion drag due to a shortage of chips from Dutch supplier Nexperia. 

  Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara said the semiconductor crunch had affected production in North America since last Monday. He said the carmaker is working to restore production in the week of Nov. 21, as shipments of Nexperia chips from China appear to be resuming. China's Commerce Ministry said earlier this month that the country would permit exports of Nexperia chips in eligible cases, without specifying the criteria. 

  The Japanese automaker on Friday estimated an operating profit hit of 150.0 billion yen, equivalent to $980 million, from the chip shortage for the year through March. 

  Honda also lowered its car sales forecast, blaming weaker sales in Asia and the chip crunch amid a dispute between the Dutch and Chinese governments over control of the semiconductor maker. 

  Kaihara said that demand is weaker in some Southeast Asian nations and that competition is intensifying in countries like Thailand as rival carmakers offer sales incentives and cut auto prices to compete with emerging Chinese players. The company needs to make drastic changes in Asia to address weak sales, he said. 

  Honda now expects group car sales of 3.34 million units this fiscal year, down from 3.62 million forecast previously. First-half sales dropped 5.6% to 1.68 million vehicles. 

  Tariffs remained a drag on results, with U.S. duties reducing operating profit by Y164.3 billion for the six months ended September, the company said. However, it projected a smaller tariff burden of Y385.0 billion for the fiscal year versus a previous estimate of Y450.0 billion. 

  Honda's stock has lagged behind the broader market as U.S. tariffs clouded its earnings outlook. Its shares are up about 3% this year compared with the benchmark Nikkei Stock Average's roughly 26% gain. 

  The automaker said Friday that first-half net profit fell 37% from a year earlier to Y311.83 billion. That missed the Y342.97 billion estimate of analysts in a poll by data provider Quick. Revenue declined 1.5% to Y10.633 trillion. 

  Its motorcycle business fared better, with operating profit increasing 13% to Y368.2 billion as higher sales in Brazil and the Philippines offset a decline in Vietnam. 

  The company also booked Y223.7 billion in one-time electric vehicle-related expenses as it provided for losses and impairment on EVs sold in the U.S. and wrote down EV development assets due to lineup changes. 

  Honda said in May that it planned to cut its EV investment by some $20 billion in the coming years as the demand growth slows. The automaker said it would improve its lineup of hybrid models. That came as some consumers in the U.S. and other markets have shifted to hybrids from pure EVs amid concerns about charging problems and higher prices associated with fully electric cars. 

  For the year ending March, the company projected revenue to decline 4.6% to Y20.700 trillion and net profit to drop 64% to Y300.00 billion. It previously projected revenue of Y21.100 trillion and net profit of Y420.00 billion. 

  Honda was the last of Japan's biggest automakers to report earnings. Earlier this week, Toyota Motor posted stronger second-quarter net profit and raised its full-year sales and earnings guidance despite an expected $9 billion blow from U.S. tariffs. On Thursday, Nissan Motor booked its fifth straight quarterly net loss, driven in part by a tariff hit of more than half a billion dollars. 

  Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com 

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  November 07, 2025 08:24 ET (13:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Pelican Bay Capital Management, an investment management company, released its third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. PBCM Concentrated Value Strategy returned 7.8% in the quarter, compared to a 5.3% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index. YTD, the fund returned 11.2% compared to 11.6% for the index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, PBCM Concentrated Value Strategy highlighted stocks such as Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services operating through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The one-month return of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was 20.15%, and its shares gained 58.65% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 6, 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock closed at $285.34 per share, with a market capitalization of $3.439 trillion.

PBCM Concentrated Value Strategy stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) gained 41% this quarter as they also benefited from increasing demand for their AI services. GOOG’s Gemini AI app has recently surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT app in the Apple app store, and the company’s Tensor Processing Chips have become a viable alternative to Nvidia’s GPUs in Data Center’s dedicated to AI use. I would note that GOOG’s stock price has increased to the top end of our estimated intrinsic valuation range, and we have trimmed our position meaningfully.”

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in the 7th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 178 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the second quarter which was 164 in the previous quarter. In the third quarter of 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) achieved its first-ever $100 billion in revenue. While we acknowledge the potential of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer discussed. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

The vital flow of chips from China to the car industry in Europe looks poised to resume as part of the deal struck last week between Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

The Netherlands has signalled that its standoff with Beijing is close to a resolution amid signs China’s ban on exports of the key car industry components is easing.

The dispute began when the Dutch government took control of chipmaker Nexperia at the end of September amid US security concerns about its Chinese owner, Wingtech. Beijing retaliated by halting all exports from Nexperia’s factories in the country, threatening to disrupt car production in Europe and Japan.

The White House had put Wingtech on a list of companies that would have their exports to the US controlled under its “affiliate rule”. However, as part of the deal between Trump and Xi in Korea, the US authorities will now delay the implementation of this rule for a year in exchange for China pausing its own restrictions on exports of chips and crucial rare-earth minerals.

The Netherlands’ economy minister, Vincent Karremans, said on Thursday he trusted that Nexperia chips would reach customers in Europe and the rest of the world in the coming days.

Meanwhile, one of the main suppliers to the German car industry, Aumovio, confirmed on Friday it had received notice from China that chips supply would resume to its operations.

“We applied for and received an exemption from the export restrictions. We received it ‌the day before yesterday verbally, yesterday in writing,” the Aumovio chief executive, Philipp von Hirschheydt, said after the company reported ⁠its third-quarter results.

At the heart of the dispute is control of Nexperia’s operations in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, after the company was bought by China’s Wingtech in 2018. Karremans took control of the chipmaker on 30 September, amid fears its operations and intellectual property would be moved to China.

Nexperia in the Netherlands said it was “pleased by the one-year suspension by US authorities of the so-called affiliate rule” and also welcomed “China’s commitment to facilitate the resumption of exports from Nexperia’s Chinese facility”.

But it added there continue to be some concerns and it could tell “when products from our facility in China will be delivered”.

The row that threatened to halt car assembly lines in Europe underlines the global nature of car industry’s supply chain and the vulnerability of European and Japanese companies that rely on China for chips.

US authorities had also raised security concerns about Wingtech and Nexperia’s Chinese chief executive, Zhang Xuezheng, in June, court documents show.

Four days after the seizure, China banned exports from Nexperia’s factories in the country, where about 70% of its chips are packaged before distribution. By the end of last month, Nexperia had retaliated by halting chip supplies to a Chinese plant.

Bloomberg reports on Friday cited sources saying the Dutch government was ready to shelve the order that gave it power to block or change key corporate decisions at Nexperia on the condition that China resumes exports of critical chips.

Karremans said the Netherlands had been informed by China and the US that the deal they struck in Korea last month would enable the resumption of supplies from Nexperia’s facilities in China.

“This is also consistent with information provided to the European Commission by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce,” he said.