What Happened?
Shares of electric vehicle pioneer Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped 8.8% in the morning session after President Trump said he would be buying a Tesla (vehicle), which could be interpreted as a show of support for CEO Elon Musk, who had played an active role in the administration's Department of Government Efficiency. Musk followed up by saying Tesla planned to double its production output in the United States within two years.
Separately, markets experienced a boost after data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that inflation for the month of February 2025 came in better than expected. The CPI (Consumer Price Index - a gauge of the average price consumers pay for goods and services) rose 0.2% from the previous month (vs estimates for a 0.3% increase), while headline inflation rose 2.8% year on year (vs estimates for a 2.9% y/y increase). The data revealed inflation continued to edge closer to the Fed's 2% target, but not quite there yet. The reaction wasn't anything wild, but the sentiment leaned positive. The Nasdaq led the way, climbing 1.4%, boosting some tech stocks.
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What The Market Is Telling Us
Tesla’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 119 moves greater than 2.5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 2 days ago when the stock dropped 10.4% on the news that markets tumbled, extending the weakness from the previous week as concerns over the ongoing trade war continued to spread. Over the weekend, President Trump fielded questions regarding recession worries on FOX News, calling the market struggle "a period of transition," but that didn't do much to calm investors. The sell-off was particularly pronounced in the tech sector, with the Nasdaq falling 3% into correction territory, while the S&P 500 also posted a 2% decline.
Separately, UBS analysts reiterated their Sell rating, adding, "We are lowering our 1Q25 delivery forecast to 367k from the 437k we plugged in as a placeholder post 4Q24 results.".
Tesla is down 34% since the beginning of the year, and at $250.23 per share, it is trading 47.9% below its 52-week high of $479.86 from December 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Tesla’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $6,696.
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