Tesla (TSLATesla shares rose in late afternoon trading on Tuesday after surging early on Monday but losing steam going into yesterday’s trading session. The news was driven by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Over the weekend, Musk endorsed former President Donald Trump. After the assassination attempt At a campaign rally. Musk’s closeness to Trump is seen as a positive for Tesla, but President Trump’s disdain for EVs Despite the desire to repeal the EV tax credit implemented under President Biden, The Wall Street Journal Musk is reported to be pledging a massive $45 million. He donated to a pro-Trump super PAC for a month, further solidifying his commitment to a second term for Trump (though Musk tweeted: The report was false.
Musk is not the only billionaire to publicly support President Trump, but the government policies that would come with a potential return to the White House would have significant implications for Tesla.
Tesla shares closed up 1.6% on Tuesday.
In other big news for Tesla, the future of its robotaxi fleet is unclear, with Musk essentially confirming late Monday that Tesla is postponing its planned Aug. 8 unveiling of its robotaxi fleet.
“We requested some significant design changes to the front, and the additional time will allow us to show you a few other things.” Musk tweeted: This is a response to a post about Tesla robotaxi changes and delays.
Tesla shares have remained roughly flat so far this year despite a steep drop earlier in the year due to enthusiasm for the company’s robotaxis and shareholder support. Approval of Musk’s controversial compensation packageand new growth Tesla’s Energy Business Tesla’s shares have soared, up about 30% in the past month.
The move led UBS to downgrade the company’s shares last weekend.
“TSLA has always traded at a premium to other future growth plans, but at current levels we believe the undiscernible premium is too large,” UBS analyst Joseph Spack wrote in a client note.
However, analysts at Mizuho and Citi raised their price targets on Tesla and reiterated their neutral ratings, forcing them to keep up with the stock’s performance.
Finally, some new bullish news for Tesla came early Tuesday morning, when Bloomberg reported that the company announced roughly 800 new job openings, ranging from service roles to engineers for its robotaxi and Optimus robotics divisions.
Mid-April Musk emailed Tesla staff More than 10% staff reduction confirmed Previous Report The layoffs could be as much as 20% of the workforce. Musk confirmed the layoffs after Wedbush’s Dan Ives said:For Tesla, UTS was an “unfortunate but necessary step to reduce costs amid weakening growth prospects.”
While the 800 new jobs are tiny compared to the thousands of people believed to have been laid off in the spring, the new hires could signal that Tesla sees its financial situation improving going forward.
Pras Subramanian is a Yahoo Finance reporter covering the auto industry. twitter and Instagram.
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