Tesla boss Elon Musk on March 9, 2020 in Washington. – Susan Walsh / AP / SIPA
But what does Elon Musk play? Electric vehicle maker Tesla plunged to Wall Street on Friday after a series of baffling tweets from its boss, including one that the stock price was “too high”. The title ended the session on a plunge of 10.3%, after having tumbled more than 13% a little earlier. However, it remains up over 65% since the start of the year.
Tesla stock price is too high imo
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020
In conflict with the SEC
The message posted in the afternoon by Tesla’s main shareholder Elon Musk does not explain the potential overvaluation of the company. The unusual leader, however, will no doubt have to find one. His tweet is likely to draw the attention of the financial markets authority, the SEC, who is concerned about the communication of information having consequences on the evolution of the stock market.
And it will not be a first for Elon Musk to have had trouble with the American stock market policeman. His message is reminiscent of another from 2018 in which he indicated a possible withdrawal of Tesla from the stock market. The latest tweet sparked a Homeric showdown between the business owner and the SEC, which resulted in an agreement that he was stripped of his cap as chairman of Tesla’s board of directors.
In 2019, after further hostilities, the agreement was amended to list subjects on which Elon Musk could not tweet without the prior green light from Tesla’s chief legal officer. The list included information on the company’s financial health, potential mergers and acquisitions, production and sales figures for cars, new models of cars, purchasing of Tesla securities and financial products. For the financiers who speculated on Friday on the Tesla stock market collapse, there is therefore no doubt that the leader will not be able to override the sanctions.
Angry
Besides, it is not the only message to have raised the misunderstanding on May 1. All day long, Elon Musk seemed to be playing with Tweeter by launching into a series of messages, disconnected from each other. “I’m going to sell all of my physical goods. Will not own (more) house ”, can we read on his account. In two messages, the whimsical leader reiterates his sharp criticisms against the confinement intended to limit the spread of the Covid-19. “Now give the people back their FREEDOM,” he said, before concluding with “Anger, anger at the death of the light of conscience.”
Already on Wednesday, Elon Musk had called confinement “fascist”, believing that this measure was suffocating businesses. The leader had closed the Tesla plant in California backwards on March 19 and wanted to reopen it on May 4 but the extension of confinement and social distancing thwarts this project. All of this did not stop Tesla from posting net earnings of $ 16 million in the first quarter, a first for the first three months of the year since the group’s creation 17 years ago.
–
