Tesla Shares Tumble Ahead of Earnings Report

Markets in Asia and Europe were mostly higher on Tuesday, and U.S. futures were up after a rally across major stock market indexes on Monday.

It was a promising start to a blockbuster week of earnings from big-name companies that could determine if the market can maintain gains after a recent drop, exacerbated by geopolitical tensions last week.

Tuesday’s highlight will be Tesla reporting its quarterly earnings after the bell. It has not been a great start to the year for Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company; shares on Monday closed at their lowest price in more than a year, and so far in 2024 have fallen more than 40 percent.

The price plunged on April 15 when Tesla announced it would be laying off 10 percent of its global workforce, roughly 14,000 workers. In early April, the EV maker said that its Q1 product deliveries fell 8.5 percent from the same period in 2023. It marked the first year-over-year decline since 2020.

A line of Tesla cars charge — A line of Tesla cars charging on July 17, 2022, in Nephi, Utah. Elon Musk’s company is facing increased competition and a sales slowdown in the EV market.

George Frey/Getty Images

Wall Street analyst Dan Ives said at the time it was “a code red situation” for Musk and Tesla, in an interview with CNN.

Tesla recently saw its valuation drop below $500 billion and Musk has seen his personal fortune decline. He has slipped from first to fourth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, behind French luxury-goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, whom Musk once challenged to a cage fight.

The world’s most valuable carmaker is dealing with increased competition and a slowdown in sales across the EV market. The company announced price cuts on models in several markets around the world last week. Musk said, “Tesla prices must change frequently in order to match production with demand,” in response to criticism of the pricing strategy.

Meanwhile, thousands of the auto company’s much-discussed and derided Cybertruck are being recalled due to a sticky accelerator pedal.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla is the first of the so-called Magnificent Seven to report its Q1 earnings this week. Meta, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet report later in the week. Amazon, Apple and Nvidia make up the rest of the group of tech giants that dominate the market. The pressure is on; last week the seven companies lost a combined $950 billion in value, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Other companies reporting Tuesday include Visa, PepsiCo, Lockheed Martin, Spotify and General Motors.