A slide in Tesla Inc. on Friday is capping off a round trip of epic proportions in the company’s shares.
Expectations that the electric-vehicle maker would benefit from chief executive Elon Musk’s close relationship with President Donald Trump made its stock one of the top gainers following the Nov. 5 election. That bet, however, has been no match for growing anxiety about Tesla’s core business of selling cars.
Tesla’s shares were down 4.6 per cent at 11:53 on Friday, on track to erase their entire US$700 billion post-election advance. The decline comes alongside a series of blows that have shaken investor confidence in recent weeks, from a January report showing that sales dropped for the first time in a decade last quarter to more recent evidence of Tesla losing its dominant position in Europe and China. Some investors have also grown worried that Musk’s foray into politics has become a distraction from his job as the EV-giant’s CEO.
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