(Reuters) – Shares of Tesla Inc slipped in early trading on Monday, adding to a week of heavy losses after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk closed a combined $6.9 billion of shares in the world’s most valuable carmaker.
Shares of the company, which lost nearly $187 billion in market value last week, fell 2.49% to $1,007.66.
Tesla’s market cap will drop below $1 trillion if its shares drop below $995.75, a milestone it broke late last month after securing its largest-ever order from car rental firm Hertz.
On Sunday, the world’s richest man clashed with Bernie Sanders after a US senator demanded the rich pay a “fair share” of their taxes.
“Tesla shares are sinking following a sell-off based on a Twitter poll last week. And Musk’s Sunday tweet ridiculing a senior politician could add pressure to the stock in the coming weeks,” said Kunal Sawhney, CEO of equity research firm Calkin Group.
“By selling billions of dollars worth of shares, Elon Musk is likely to earn a tax bill of about $15 billion.”
Musk sold 6.36 million Tesla shares last week and now needs to offload about 10 million more to fulfill his pledge to sell his 10% stake in the electric-vehicle maker.
chip supply restrictions
Musk on Saturday https://bit.ly/3ChQVIU asked a Twitter user to “not read too much” comments about PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta’s expectation of the first deliveries of Tesla Semi trucks in the fourth quarter.
“As publicly noted, Tesla chip supply is short term and cell supply constrained long term,” Musk tweeted. “Unless both constraints are addressed, it is not possible to produce additional vehicles in quantity.”
Tesla has weathered the pandemic and the global supply-chain crisis better than rivals, posting record revenue for the fifth quarter in a row.
Meanwhile, “The Big Short” investor Michael Burry again took a jibe at Musk, tweeting https://twitter.com/michaeljburry/status/1460124507109134339, “@elonmusk borrowed against 88.3 million shares, all his Sold the mansion, moved to Texas, and @BernieSanders is asking if he should sell more stock. He doesn’t need the cash. He just wants to sell $TSLA.”
Tesla’s January and February 2022 calls at the $900 strike price were among the top three heavily traded options contracts, according to data from Refinitiv on Friday, suggesting that some traders were assuming more short-term weakness in the stock.
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