By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Tesla (TSLA) stock was fully in the red on Monday as a result of oil price disputes between Saudi Arabia and Russia. But it remains number one among the most shorted stocks on the market.
On Monday, we wrote about a downward movement of the crypto market that resulted from a plunge in oil prices. After the OPEC and non-OPEC allies failed to reach a consensus on cutting down oil production to control oil prices, Saudi Arabia trimmed crude prices and opened its oil taps for the global market. As a result, international oil benchmark Brent crude has plunged nearly 31% to $31.02 per barrel. The unwinding oil price war caused a massive sell-off of cryptocurrencies and liquidation of long-term contracts. Besides, it took a toll on tech stocks. Let us have a look at the most notable of them — Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock which is down again.
Oil price disputes between Saudi Arabia and Russia have challenged sales of Tesla’s electric vehicle and solar roofs. It firstly refers to those markets where people are unwilling to switch from customary fossil fuels to renewables. Besides, some investors believe that lower gas prices could make transitioning to electric vehicles less compelling, potentially having a negative impact on Tesla. On Monday, Tesla stocks were already down 12.01% at the opening. Later, the carmaker’s shares dropped by 13.57% and closed at $608.
Today in the premarket, TSLA is gaining. It is already 9.05% up and it has reached the level of $663.
While the company’s stock is in the red, its major investor James Anderson believes Tesla is a better run. He explained it by leadership shuffle. After the company had some legal problems, independent directors were hired to supervise Elon Musk. And now, according to Anderson, the company is in a better position.
The electric vehicle manufacturer remains the company with the most shorted stock. Over the last week, its short-sellers made a total of $1.1 billion. On Monday, the mark-to-market profits increased to $1.3 billion. But as S3 Partners company noted, this sum does not cover short-sellers’ loss that currently makes up $6 billion.
How Tesla (TSLA) Stock Combats Coronavirus Outbreak
As well as other tech companies, Tesla has been affected by COVID-19. This influence is reflected in its stock performance. Tesla shares have been mounting to record highs, then swooping to robbery levels. However, even with all its ups and downs, Tesla (TSLA) stock still remains 180% up over the last six months.
Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities said:
“Supply chain issues in China remain a lingering worry. Given the demand overhang from the coronavirus outbreak in China as well as Europe we believe that 1Q unit demand levels will be difficult to hit for Tesla and is a dynamic currently being factored by the Street into the name (as well as its auto/tech brethren). We still believe reaching the company’s 500k unit demand levels for FY20 remain an achievable bogey to hit.”
He believes that Tesla’s position in 2020 is strong and the company’s shares are worth investing in. Obviously, its new quarterly report will be not as good as Q4 2019, but Tesla will definitely do its best to overperform analysts’ expectations by the end of 2020.