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Elon Musk dominated the spotlight yesterday: Tesla shares sank, SpaceX exploded and Musk threatened a lawsuit over Microsoft's use of Twitter.
What you need to know today
- Tesla shares plunged 9.75% Thursday, one day after the electric vehicle manufacturer reported that its first-quarter income dropped more than 20% year-on-year. CEO Elon Musk, however, is pushing forward with price cuts to boost sales.
- Musk was in the news in his capacity as Twitter CEO as well. On Thursday, Musk threatened to sue Microsoft, accusing the company of "illegally using Twitter data" to train its artificial intelligence model. Musk's threat comes a day after Microsoft was reportedly dropping Twitter from its advertising platform.
- Finally, SpaceX — Musk's spacecraft company — launched its Starship rocket for the first time. But the most powerful rocket ever built exploded in mid-flight. That sounds dire, but such failures are par for the course in spacecraft testing.
- U.S. stocks fell Thursday as all major indexes ended the day in the red. Likewise, European markets closed lower. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.2%, dragged down by a 3.7% fall in autos shares: both Renault and Volvo sank after reporting earnings.
- The European Parliament has passed the world's first comprehensive framework for regulating cryptocurrency. The legislation aims to reduce the risks consumers face when buying crypto, and potentially makes crypto providers liable for any asset losses.
- PRO Investors fled from Tesla after its earnings report, but Ark Invest's Cathie Wood is steadfast in her support of the EV manufacturer. In fact, Wood thinks Tesla can hit $2,000 by 2027.
The bottom line
For all of Elon Musk's idiosyncrasies that frequently put him in the spotlight (and lawsuits with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for that matter), it's hard to deny his business acumen.
Yes, Tesla shares plummeted Thursday. The figure was so bad that it's the stock's steepest fall since July 24, 2019, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group.
But recall how Tesla, not so long ago in December last year, had its "worst month, quarter and year on record," to quote the article's headline. It sank to a 52-week low of $101.81 on Jan. 6 this year. Yet the share managed to double its price to close above $200 in less than a month after that.
Of course, Tesla isn't doing so hot now, but my point is it's important to take a long-term view of the company. Indeed, Cathie Wood has given it a staggering 1,127% upside from its price on Thursday, agreeing with Musk's emphasis on sales volume over profit margins. Telsa will play a huge role — and benefit from — a future self-driving revolution, Wood believes, calling it "one of the most important investment opportunities of our lifetimes."
Musk is, again, at the frontier of the future with SpaceX, his private spacecraft company. Admittedly, Starship exploded after taking off. But such occurrences are part and parcel of spaceflight testing. NASA Chief Bill Nelson even congratulated SpaceX for its flight attempt despite the explosion — or what SpaceX is calling a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."
Which might be a good summary of Twitter, Musk's most contentious company — but investors needn't worry about it since Musk has taken it private, anyway.
Elsewhere in markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.33%, the S&P 500 lost 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite sank 0.8%, dragged down by losses in technology stocks, such as Nvidia's 2.96% fall and Meta's 1.22% slide. Investors grew increasingly concerned about shrinking margins despite companies beating revenue expectations. But the real test will come next week when big tech firms report, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial.
"If we see a lot of degradation over the course of next week because of guidance," he said, "that might cause a multiple contraction and we might see some of the S&P 500 sell off."
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