NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped more than 14% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 9% and Lucid Group fell almost 8%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving,” nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.
The stock is now showing a 16% gain for the year after rising the past two days.
U.S. stocks are rising following updates on the economy that kept alive hopes for a coming cut to interest rates. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, as 4 out of every 5 stocks within the index climbed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 562 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%. Nvidia weighed on the market after a report suggested Meta Platforms may spend billions on AI chips from Alphabet instead of it. Treasury yields eased after reports on U.S. retail sales and inflation kept traders betting on a good chance for a cut to interest rates in December.
The U.S. stock market is rallying after it seemed to successfully pass a couple of crucial tests. Not only did Nvidia provide another blockbuster profit report that suggested AI superstar stocks can keep rising, a mixed report on the U.S. jobs market Tuesday also kept alive hopes for more cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 rose 1.7% Thursday and pulled closer to its all-time high set almost a month ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 581 points, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.2%. Walmart also rose after delivering better-than-expected results.
Computer chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly earnings report that is expected to either deepen a recent downturn in the stock market or prompt an ebullient sigh of relief among investors increasingly worried the world’s most valuable company is perched upon an artificial intelligence bubble about to burst.
U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Wednesday and remains near its all-time high set a couple weeks ago.
Shares are higher in Europe and Asia, lifted by technology stocks that have rebounded from last week's losses.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
Stocks are gaining ground on Wall Street following several upbeat economic updates and a steady flow of quarterly reports from U.S. companies.
Nvidia and other technology stocks are propping up Wall Street.
For President Donald Trump, tariffs — or the threat of them — can bend nations to his will.
The mighty heft of Amazon is pulling the U.S. stock market higher. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% Friday, erasing some of its slump from the day before and pulling closer to its all-time high set on Tuesday. The index is on track to close a third straight winning week and a sixth straight winning month, which would be its longest monthly winning streak since 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 65 points, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.1%. Amazon led the way after delivering a much bigger profit than analysts expected. Treasury yields eased a bit in the bond market.
