Tesla Stock Slumps As Elon Musk Has ‘Super Bad Feeling’ On Economy, Seeks Job Cuts
Updated at 8:09 am EST
Tesla (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report shares moved lower Friday following a report that suggested CEO Elon Musk is looking to pare around 10% of the carmaker’s global workforce.
Musk, who just days ago excoriated Tesla executives who wished to work from home, told employees he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy and wishes to “pause all hiring” for the clean-energy carmaker and trim around 10% of its 100,000 headcount, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
The warning, in the form of a company-wide email, also comes amid what is likely to be a grim quarter for Tesla, which has seen its Shanghai factory close for 22 days, with slowing output on its re-opening, thanks to the city’s strict Covid lockdown.
Deliveries are likely to be impacted, and the group will also need to take a notable write-down on its $1.5 billion in bitcoin holdings, which are down 33% since the end of March.
Scroll to ContinueTheStreet RecommendsMARKETS^DJI^SPXTSLAStock Market Today – 6/3: Stocks Edge Lower With Jobs Data In Focus: Tesla Slumps on ‘Super Bad’ Musk Feeling19 minutes agoMARKETSBMYTPTXBristol-Myers To Buy Turning Point Therapeutics In $4.1 Billion Oncology Deal47 minutes agoMARKETSLULULululemon Stock Higher After Q1 Earnings Beat, Profit Forecast Boost As ‘Targeted’ Price Hikes Offset Inflation Hit1 hour ago Tesla shares have fallen around 34.5% since Musk made his 9.1% stake in Twitter (TWTR) – Get Twitter, Inc. Report public on April 4 as investors have counted the cost of both Musk’s margin loans, his sale of around $9 billion in Tesla shares and the billionaire’s growing leadership portfolio, which includes space exploration group SpaceX, The Boring Company construction company and neurotechnology specialists Neuralink Corp.
Stocks Lower, Jobs Data, Tesla, Lululemon In Focus and ‘Moorhen’ Wins National Spelling Bee – 5 Things You Must KnowTesla shares were marked 4.6% lower in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $739.38 each, a move that would extend the stock’s year-to-date gain to around 30%.
Tesla, which as seen its market value fall more than $450 billion so far this year, is also driving into headwinds powered by surging input costs, a global shortage in semiconductors, supply chain disruption that are limiting parts availability and China’s ongoing ‘zero Covid’ crackdown that has shuttered production at its key Shanghai factory.
Data last week from the China Passenger Car Association (CPAC) showed Tesla produced just 10,757 cars in the world’s biggest market last month, selling just over 1,500 and exporting none, thanks to a 22-day closure of its Shanghai facility during the city’s Covid lockdown.
The April tally is the lowest in 2 years and compares to a sale total of 65,814 in the month of March. Overall car sales in China fell 35.7% from last year in April, the CPCA said, the biggest single-month decline since the pandemic trough of March 2020.