Tesla stock continues to be battered and 2022 will end as its worst on record.
Shares in the world’s largest electric car manufacturer have been in freefall since Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October but also steadily declined in the first 10 months of the year. Yahoo Finance reports that as of December 28, Tesla’s stock price was down 41 per cent in the last month, 60 per cent in the last three months, 55 per cent in the last six months, and 70 per cent this year. Tesla stock reached as low as $109.10 on December 28 but rebounded to $122.87 on December 30 at the time of publishing. Overall, the electric carmaker has lost over $700 billion in market valuation.
Of course, Tesla is not the only car manufacturer to have endured a steep decline in its stock price this year. The entire S&P 500 is down 19 per cent, shares in Ford are down 46 per cent, and General Motors shares have fallen 43 per cent. The decline in Tesla stock has seen it lose $241 billion in market cap while Musk’s net worth has fallen by $141 billion this year.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says that the decline in Tesla stock comes in part due to perceived weak demand in the United States and China, as well as the ongoing fiasco with Twitter.
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“Musk set off this five-alarm fire on Tesla’s stock and he is the only one that can extinguish it. It’s a perfect storm between the Musk Twitter fiasco and now demand cracking,” Ives told Yahoo Finance.
Tesla’s stock price fell by 11 per cent on Tuesday after it was revealed that it has halted production at its Shanghai factory for a week. While production will resume for 17 days, it will then be halted again between January 20 and January 31 for Chinese New Year, Reuters reports.
The electric car manufacturer is doing whatever it can to prop up demand. It recently announced that new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles purchased from its existing new-car inventory are eligible for a $7,500 discount.
