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On Wednesday, Tesla’s stock experienced a turnaround after initially dropping due to a report from Politico indicating that Elon Musk would be reducing his responsibilities connected to the Trump administration “in the coming weeks.”
Ahead of this news, shares of the electric vehicle manufacturer had declined by approximately 4% during early trading, following the company’s report detailing its most challenging sales quarter in the past three years.
According to Politico’s Rachel Bade, President Trump has indicated to his close advisors that Musk is poised to step back from his current official roles in the near future.
As of 12:15:05 PM EDT: Market Open.
Bade’s report surfaced just before Trump was scheduled to hold a press conference about his upcoming tariff initiatives, which he referred to as “Liberation Day.”
A senior official mentioned to Politico that while Musk is expected to diminish his formal responsibilities, he may still serve in an informal advisory capacity to the White House. This shift aligns with growing sentiments among Wall Street analysts, including Dan Ives of Wedbush, who has previously been bullish on Tesla, urging Musk to concentrate more on the company as its stock price has plummeted by 50% since its peak in December 2024.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tesla reported global delivery numbers for the first quarter that fell short of estimates, underscoring significant demand challenges for the electric vehicle maker.
During this quarter, Tesla recorded 336,681 deliveries, notably below the 390,342 forecasts from Bloomberg consensus, marking its weakest delivery performance since the second quarter of 2022.
Tesla stated, “While the refresh of Model Y production lines across all four factories resulted in several weeks of lost output in Q1, the ramp-up of the New Model Y is progressing positively.” The updated Model Y was released globally in March, with some analysts attributing the decrease in demand for the vehicle to this transition.
For more on Tesla’s stock performance and current market trends, continue reading.
Additionally, Tesla reported a total production of 362,615 units across the quarter, deployment of 10.4 GWh in energy storage solutions, and is scheduled to announce its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, April 22.
Sales for Tesla have been stagnant in key regions worldwide. Notably, Tesla’s registration data in major European markets showed a decline in March, highlighting persistent sales challenges in critical areas, compounded by negative perceptions tied to Musk’s political engagements.
In France, registrations fell to just 3,157, down 36.8% from the previous year, as reported by Reuters. Norway saw a steep drop to 2,211 registrations, reflecting a 63.9% decrease, while Sweden’s figures showed a slight decline of 1% to 911.
Similar trends are evident in Scandinavia, traditionally a strong market for electric vehicles, where Denmark’s Tesla registrations plummeted 65.6% to 593, and the Netherlands reported 1,536 registrations, down 61% year-on-year.
“Given the various obstacles facing TSLA, including protests at dealerships and ongoing negative sentiment linked to Musk, these delivery figures represent a significant setback for the company,” Ives remarked in a recent note. “We cannot overlook the dire nature of these numbers; they were disappointing across all dimensions.”
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Source
finance.yahoo.com