Tesla hit with a pair of downgrades amid fallout from Trump feud
9 June 2025 18:41
(BLOOMBERG)Tesla Inc. was hit with a pair of downgrades on Monday, underscoring mounting concerns on Wall Street about the electric-vehicle maker's outlook following last week's clash between Chief Executive Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.Both Argus Research and Baird cut the stock to the equivalent of hold ratings, cementing Tesla's reputation as the least-loved megacap stock among analysts. Shares fell 1.6% in premarket trading.The downgrades mark the latest hurdle for Tesla, shares of which are down about 27% in 2025, making it the weakest performer of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. Tesla shares had rallied in the wake of Trump's reelection, which Musk vigorously supported, but are down almost 40% off their peak in December.Much of the stock's recent decline came after the high-profile blowup between Musk and Trump last week. While Musk subsequently suggested he was open to making amends, the tensions are seen as a significant headwind overhanging the shares."Looking ahead, we are concerned that the war of words between President Trump and Elon Musk, along with expiration of EV credits, could further weaken demand for new Teslas,' wrote analysts at Argus Research, who downgraded the stock to hold from buy.The feud, they added, is emblematic of how the stock "appears to be currently trading on non-fundamentals events.' This view was echoed by Baird, which cut the stock to neutral from outperform."The recent incident between Musk and President Trump exemplifies key-person risk associated with Musk's political activities,' analyst Ben Kallo wrote. "While we have no indication of how the relationship may change or what either will do, we see the situation as adding uncertainty to TSLA's outlook. Additionally, we believe this may heighten questions regarding brand damage, which we expect will persist until sustained evidence of volume growth avails itself.'Musk's comments about Tesla's robotaxi program "are a bit too optimistic, and we believe this excitement has been priced into shares,' Baird said. The service, which focuses on driverless vehicles and artificial intelligence, is scheduled to launch in Austin this week.
The two downgrades underline how Tesla is the megacap viewed most skeptically by Wall Street. Fewer than half of the analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying the shares, by far the weakest such ratio among the market's biggest companies.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Etihad
4 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Tesla hit with a pair of downgrades amid fallout from Trump feud
9 June 2025 18:41 (BLOOMBERG)Tesla Inc. was hit with a pair of downgrades on Monday, underscoring mounting concerns on Wall Street about the electric-vehicle maker's outlook following last week's clash between Chief Executive Elon Musk and President Donald Argus Research and Baird cut the stock to the equivalent of hold ratings, cementing Tesla's reputation as the least-loved megacap stock among analysts. Shares fell 1.6% in premarket downgrades mark the latest hurdle for Tesla, shares of which are down about 27% in 2025, making it the weakest performer of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. Tesla shares had rallied in the wake of Trump's reelection, which Musk vigorously supported, but are down almost 40% off their peak in of the stock's recent decline came after the high-profile blowup between Musk and Trump last week. While Musk subsequently suggested he was open to making amends, the tensions are seen as a significant headwind overhanging the shares."Looking ahead, we are concerned that the war of words between President Trump and Elon Musk, along with expiration of EV credits, could further weaken demand for new Teslas,' wrote analysts at Argus Research, who downgraded the stock to hold from feud, they added, is emblematic of how the stock "appears to be currently trading on non-fundamentals events.' This view was echoed by Baird, which cut the stock to neutral from outperform."The recent incident between Musk and President Trump exemplifies key-person risk associated with Musk's political activities,' analyst Ben Kallo wrote. "While we have no indication of how the relationship may change or what either will do, we see the situation as adding uncertainty to TSLA's outlook. Additionally, we believe this may heighten questions regarding brand damage, which we expect will persist until sustained evidence of volume growth avails itself.'Musk's comments about Tesla's robotaxi program "are a bit too optimistic, and we believe this excitement has been priced into shares,' Baird said. The service, which focuses on driverless vehicles and artificial intelligence, is scheduled to launch in Austin this week. The two downgrades underline how Tesla is the megacap viewed most skeptically by Wall Street. Fewer than half of the analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying the shares, by far the weakest such ratio among the market's biggest companies.
Zawya
5 hours ago
- Zawya
Oil prices steady ahead of US-China trade talks
Oil prices were stable on Monday as investors awaited U.S.-China trade talks in London in the hope that a deal could boost the global economic outlook and subsequently fuel demand. Brent crude futures gained 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $66.58 a barrel by 1312 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose by 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $64.64. Brent rose 4% last week and WTI 6.2% as the prospect of a U.S.-China trade deal boosted risk appetite for some investors. U.S. President Trump and China's leader Xi Jinping spoke on the telephone on Thursday before U.S. and Chinese officials meet in London on Monday in an effort to calm trade tensions between the two nations. A trade deal between the U.S. and China could support the global economic outlook and in turn boost demand for commodities including oil. Monday's talks could dampen the impact on prices of a slew of Chinese data releases, said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore. Chinese export growth slowed to a three-month low in May as U.S. tariffs curbed shipments while factory gate deflation deepened to its worst in two years, heaping pressure on the world's second-largest economy at home and abroad. "Bad timing for crude oil, which was testing the top of the range and knocking on the door of a technical break above $65," Sycamore said, referring to WTI prices. The data also showed that China's crude oil imports declined in May to the lowest daily rate in four months as state-owned and independent refiners began planned maintenance. The prospect of a potential China-U.S. trade deal outweighed concern over the price impact from increased output by the OPEC+ group of oil producers next month. (Reporting by Robert Harvey in London, Florence Tan in Singapore and Colleen Howe in Beijing. Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London Editing by David Goodman and David Evans)
Al Etihad
9 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Wall Street futures subdued ahead of US-China trade talks
9 June 2025 14:45 (Reuters)US stock index futures were subdued on Monday as investors looked ahead to talks between the United States and China aimed at mending a trade rift that has rattled financial markets for much of the officials from both countries will meet in London to address disagreements around a preliminary agreement struck last month in Geneva that had briefly cooled tensions between the world's largest second-round of meetings comes four days after US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke by phone, their first direct interaction since Trump's January 20 inauguration. The leaders had, however, left key issues unresolved for future benchmark S&P 500 closed above 6,000 on Friday for the first time since February 21, following a better-than-expected jobs report and a rebound in Tesla's of more trade deals between the US and its major trading partners, along with upbeat earnings and tame inflation data, helped US equities rally in May, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq notching their best monthly gains since November S&P 500 remains a little over 2% below all-time highs touched in February, while the Nasdaq is about 3% below its record peaks reached in joined major brokerages in raising its year-end target for the S&P 500, citing renewed optimism in corporate earnings resilience and the accelerating momentum of artificial intelligence-driven growth. It sees the benchmark ending the year at 6,300, compare with 5,800 forecast data releases this week include readings on May consumer prices and initial jobless claims. While investors widely expect the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates unchanged next week, focus will be on any signs of pick-up in inflation as Trump's tariffs risk raising price currently expect nearly two rate cuts by the end of this year, with the first cut seen in September, according to data compiled by 05:56 am ET, Dow E-minis were up 27 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 4.5 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 7.5 points, or 0.03%. Most megacap and growth stocks were mixed in premarket trading. Tesla shares fell 2.5% after a report said Baird downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "outperform".
