Ford Just Had Its Biggest Two-Day Stock Pop Since 2020

Ford had its best day on the market in six years on Wednesday. Then it added another 8% on Thursday.

The catalyst is not cars.

Why The Stock Is Moving

Ford shares climbed 13% Wednesday. That was the biggest one-day pop since March 2020.

Thursday they added another 8%. That puts the two-day pop at about 25%, the largest swing in six years.

The stock is now around $14.72. That is right at its 52-week high of $14.79.

The trigger was a note from Morgan Stanley. The bank's car team is run by Andrew Percoco.

He kept his rating at Equal-weight with a $14 price target. But the bigger part of his call landed harder than the rating.

The pitch: Ford's new energy storage unit could be worth as much as $10 billion. That is a big number for a side bet inside a car firm.

Market Briefs walks through moves like this each morning in five minutes, with a free investing masterclass thrown in at sign-up.

What Ford Energy Actually Is

Ford Energy is a new unit. It builds battery storage at a plant in Kentucky.

Ford put about $2 billion into it last year to get the side firm off the ground.

The first product is the Ford Energy DC Block. It is a battery pack built with a cheaper, safer type of cell than the type used in most EVs.

The whole pack ships inside a 20-foot box. That is the same size as a freight box on a truck.

The target buyers are data centers, utility firms, and big plants. Ford gets the battery tech through a license deal with CATL, the Chinese battery giant.

The $10 Billion Math

Morgan Stanley sees Ford Energy hitting 25% gross margins at scale. That is a big jump over what Ford makes on cars.

The bank thinks the unit could turn a real profit by 2028. At 20 gigawatt-hours of size, it could throw off $500 million to $600 million in profit a year.

The big swing factor is whether Ford lands deals with what the trade calls hyperscalers. Those are the giant cloud firms like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

They are racing to build out AI data centers. Those sites need a lot of power, and big batteries help keep that power steady.

Worth Noting

Ford is now going head-to-head with Tesla Energy in this space.

Tesla has a head start. Its energy unit booked $12.8 billion in sales in 2025 and is growing fast.

Ford has the brand name, the U.S. plant, and a fresh sell-side story. Tesla has the head start, the track record, and the lead.

The race is just starting.

The Morgan Stanley call sent the stock right to the firm's $14 price target. Whether the rally holds depends on who actually signs a contract.

For more daily reads on what is driving the biggest stocks, sign up for Market Briefs - delivered each weekday with a free 45-minute investing course as a bonus.