Â鶹ӰÊÓ

Skip to main content

Elon Musk's vow to hold on to Tesla stock fails to soothe investors

Share

Tesla Inc shares touched a fresh two-year low in volatile trading on Friday as boss Elon Musk's promise to not sell his shares for at least two years did little to reassure investors.

Musk has offloaded shares worth US$40 billion in the world's most valuable carmaker since late last year, with US$15 billion of that coming after he made similar promises not to sell in April.

That, along with concerns about his distraction with newly bought Twitter and a slowdown in China's economy, have set the electric-car maker's shares on course for their worst year since going public in 2010.

The stock was last up 2 per cent on Friday, recovering from a fall of as much as 3.5 per cent earlier in the session, its lowest since September 2020.

"I won't sell stock until I don't know probably two years from now. Definitely not next year under any circumstances and probably not the year thereafter," Musk said on Thursday.

"If this was another CEO of a Fortune 500 company making that statement, market would be confident that 'he said it, so he's not selling'," said Dennis Dick, head trader and market structure analyst at Triple D Trading.

Known for tweeting about his plans extensively, Musk most recently asked in a Twitter poll if he should quit as the head of Twitter. In 2018, he got into trouble with regulators over a tweet about taking Tesla private.

"Musk looks rattled, vowing not to sell more stock and floating the idea of share buybacks. Short-sellers are firmly in control and there is a lot of hesitation by retail to buy this dip," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

(Reporting by Medha Singh, Srishti Achar and Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Days after a political sign was erected outside Lululemon founder Chip Wilson's Vancouver mansion, the waterfront property has been vandalized with graffiti.

Toronto Coun. Michael Thompson 'forced himself on' a woman who awoke to find him standing over her after she fell asleep drunk, the Crown alleged Monday, as the five-day sexual assault trial of the six-term politician began in Bracebridge, Ont.

A disgraced Winnipeg high school football coach convicted of sexual assault and luring will spend 20 years behind bars.

Two people are in hospital after they were chased and shot at in what appears to be an act of road rage before eventually flipping their car while trying to escape, police say.

Local Spotlight

Videos of a meteor streaking across the skies of southern Ontario have surfaced and small bits of the outer space rock may have made it to land, one astronomy professor says.

A unique form of clouds made an appearance over the skies of Ottawa on Sunday evening.

Bernie Hicks, known as the ‘Batman of Amherst,’ always wanted to sit in a Batmobile until a kind stranger made it happen.

Bubi’s Awesome Eats, located on University Ave West took to social media to announce the closure on Friday.

Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and the Government of Ontario have awarded a $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to design, build and finance a new Far North hospital.

Manitobans are in cleanup mode after intense winds barreled through southern parts of the province this weekend.

Avry Wortman, 13, scored two touchdowns on Sunday during her team's win in the under 14 Greater Moncton Football Association.

A gargantuan gourd – affectionately named ‘Orangina’ by the urban gardeners who grew it in the front yard of their Vancouver home – earned the massive honour of being named B.C.’s heaviest giant pumpkin Saturday.

Chantal Kreviazuk is set to return to Winnipeg to mark a major milestone in her illustrious musical career.

Stay Connected