Tesla's Stock Drops Billions After Elon Musk's Tweetstorm Friday

Friday Techcrunch reported Elon Musk tweeted to his 33.4 million followers that Tesla's stock price "was 'too high' in his opinion, immediately sending shares into a free fall and in possible violation of an agreement reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year." Tesla's shares plummetted nearly 12% over the next 30 minutes, which reduced Tesla's valuation by over $14 billion, the BBC reports, while reducing Musk's own stake by $3 billion, according to an article shared by long-time Slashdot reader UnresolvedExternal. "In other tweets, he said his girlfriend was mad at him, while another simply read: 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light of consciousness.'" Even at the end of the day Tesla's shares were still down 7.17%. But Techcrunch called Musk's stock-price tweet "just one of many sent out in rapid fire that covered everything from demands to 'give people back their freedom' and lines from the U.S. National Anthem to quotes from poet Dylan Thomas and a claim that he will sell all of his possessions." Rolling Stone has more on what they're calling Musk's "quarantine tantrum," noting that in a Wednesday earnings call, Musk had also complained about restrictions on non-essential businesses and ordinary people. "To say that they cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist... give people back their goddamn freedom." The magazine notes this drew a scathing rebuttal on nationwide TV from The Daily Show's Trevor Noah: "Finally, someone has decided to call out this fascist American government that's asking people to please stay in their houses to try and save their own lives," Noah said sarcastically. "I mean, you're not even allowed to go to the grocery store anymore! Well, actually, you can go to the grocery store, but you can't even go for a walk! I mean, you can do that too, but what about the beach? You're not allowed to go to the beach, except for all the states where you're allowed to go to the beach. But you definitely can't go to H&M, and that is the definition of fascism." CNN Business writes that Musk, "heralded for years as a pioneer in space travel and transportation, has recently veered into disseminating coronavirus misinformation," adding that Musk's comments "also come in stark contrast to those made by some of his peers in Silicon Valley, who have urged caution on reopening." "I worry that reopening certain places too quickly, before infection rates have been reduced to very minimal levels, will almost guarantee future outbreaks and worsen longer-term health and economic outcomes," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call Wednesday.

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