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Tesla falls after Commerce secretary recommends buying stock
- fullshark 2y agoAnother new low for this administration.
- 3D30497420 2y agoI'd say this doesn't even rank in the top 50 terrible things this administration has done since taking office. The car commercial in front of the White House was hilarious though. At least there is some dark humor along with all the, well, actual darkness.
- ko_pivot 2y agoWhether you support Elon/DOGE or not, pretty wild to shred a $1T consumer brand like Elon has.
- josefritzishere 2y agoTesla is absurdly over-valued. They're going to experience a correction eventually... Elon has been delaying the inevitable because he's over leveraged.
- ilrwbwrkhv 2y agoTSLA actual stock price should be 30. Waiting for it to reach there.
- DevX101 2y agoA big part of TSLA's valuation was being a meme stock. Was never actually worth $1T.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoAt one brief period of time, TSLA had an annualized P/E of 40 and a CAGR of 50%. Those were not unreasonable numbers. But with it's now negative CAGR, P/E should be in the range of 10 or so.
- duxup 2y agoIt's hard to buy into their valuation that at one point was ~6x Toyota.
- mingus88 2y agoThis is not his first rodeo trashing a wildly successful brand. When will the board wake up? I guess they never will as his own relatives are board members. He should never be allowed to head a company again after his performance with Twitter and tesla
- joquarky 2y agoHe also effectively dismantled one of the rarest and most coveted achievements in marketing: the transformation of a common verb into a universally recognized reference to a specific product. By renaming Twitter, he erased the cultural shorthand of "tweeting," a level of brand entrenchment that most companies can only dream of attaining.
- josefritzishere 2y agoHow is this not illegal for a government official to reccomend buying stock in a company run by another government official? This is naked corruption.
- unsupp0rted 2y agoElon is only a government official when it suits me. When it doesn't suit me he's an unelected private citizen outsider.
- shawabawa3 2y agoIt is but it doesn't matter when maga control all 3 branches of government
- actionfromafar 2y agoMind your wrong-think.
- regularjack 2y agoAnd he didn't even NFA it. I'm looking forward to the class action of all the people who lost their life savings after following his advice.
- ceejayoz 2y agoThe Commerce secretary will almost certainly be given qualified immunity from civil suits.
- bovermyer 2y agoThe Ministry of Truth would like a word with you.
- ceejayoz 2y agoIt's not strictly illegal, but it's against Federal ethics rules. The problem is, punishment is exclusively up to their superiors. Which, here, is the President. Kellyanne Conway did this in the first Trump admin. No real consequences then, either. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/Kellyanne-Conway-ivanka-trump-ethics.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/Kellyanne-Con... > Federal ethics rules on conflicts of interest specifically exempt the president and vice president. But for any other executive branch employee, the rules prohibit using public office for personal gain, or “for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.”
- unsupp0rted 2y agoWell yeah, it's being shorted left and right. That's not because the intrinsic value has changed, except in the sense that people don't like Musk more and more every week. That won't matter much next time Tesla releases some innovation that is 1 or 2 levels better than the rest of the market. Musk's companies are the epitome of "be so good they can't ignore you, even if they hate you".
- chris_wot 2y agoYou assume they will innovate better than their competitors. Their cyber truck is shoddily built, can’t tow loads properly, can’t get certified for road worthiness in the UK or Europe and has a litany of safety problems. In the meantime, BYD just announced an incredibly fast charge time on their new vehicles Tesla can’t match.
- unsupp0rted 2y ago> You assume they will innovate better than their competitors. Usually when a company has done that 3 or 4 times in recent years, it's a safe bet they'll do it again
- chris_wot 2y agoWhat, precisely, did they innovate in though?
- unsupp0rted 2y agoOh nothing. That's why every school kid across 192 countries has heard of them. Autonomous driving, battery tech, charging connectors, OTA software updates for vehicles, "gigacasting" large vehicle components, wireless charging.
- chris_wot 2y agoAutonomous driving is being implemented with LIDA in many cars, Musk’s cars can’t see through fog. Battery tech is now old news - every car company is doing this and making huge leaps in battery tech. Charging connectors are a dime a dozen now - at least BYDs don’t have flaws like the Cyber Truck where the plug literally gets stuck in the Tesla and majes it immobile. Most car manufacturers have OTA updates in various models of cars now. Ever tried to repair a “gigacasted” car? But you were talking about recent innovations, which haven’t been taken up by other car companies. Could you name some? I can list the opposite of innovation in Tesla cars: unreliable cars, unsafe features throughout the cars, no LIDA sensors and only cameras, large numbers of fatalities involving self driving Teslas, problems with sticking brakes, poorly fitting trim, wheels falling off at speed, tow bars that literally snap off taking out the back of the car, suspension and drive axle failures… want me to go on?
- sz4kerto 2y agoThere's not much to see here I believe - Tesla's valuation is approximately where it was before the election, and that's generally true for tech stocks (Tesla generally moves with the NASDAQ). It made a big swing in the last month, but the news around this is classic post-hoc narrative. Edit: I meant the crashing valuation, not this particular news, apologies for the confusion. I do think that government officials promoting stocks is a terrible precedent to set.
- chris_wot 2y agoNot much to see when a senior public official makes a stock recommendation? LOL!
- bananalychee 2y agoSad to see Hacker News turn into Reddit, flagging the only informative comment because it does not validate the mob's hatred. This headline is meaningless, and by the way, $TSLA has shot up alongside the US tech sector and is now positive. Will we get updates on the front page every five minutes?
- addicted 2y agoWhether the comment is informative or not it dismisses the news article without even tackling the actual issue which is the commerce secretary recommending the stick for which the presidents closest advisor is the CEO/largest shareholder. I disagree with the downvotes but it is very close to distracting the actual issue at hand by dismissing the more minor issue which is the stock price movement.
- bananalychee 2y agoThat's certainly a more interesting topic of discussion, but this submission is not about the issue that you and I would rather discuss, it is about short-term movements in the price of a stock that moved in the same direction as the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ.
- chris_wot 2y agoIn Australia we have mandatory voting. The worst we got was Scott Morrison, and that was pretty awful. But he isn’t patch on your current president. If you had mandatory voting (and a sane polling day) you’re likely have a better represented Congress and Senate. Instead, you have Trump.
- actionfromafar 2y agoYes, that's explicitly the point. Districts are working hard to make it difficult for the "wrong" (i.e. not likely MAGA) voter to vote.
- rini17 2y agoAFAIK with their serious issues with both social security numbers and voting implementations itself, I don't think they would be able to effectively enforce that.
- chris_wot 2y agoYeah, we don’t worry about TFNs or anything like that. We mark off our name with our address and roll, and just show our drivers license which is the best form of identification in Australia. We vote on the weekend. We all go and buy democracy sausage and a drink for the local school we vote at and we respectfully queue up for a short time period and vote quietly. Nobody tries to arrest us for offering a water bottle to people in the queue. We are kind of sane. I wish you guys could experience it!
- throw0101d 2y ago> If you had mandatory voting (and a sane polling day) you’re likely have a better represented Congress and Senate. There are/were active programs to manipulate representation even if people voted: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP
- crazygringo 2y agoActually, recent data shows people who didn't vote are even more biased towards Trump than those who did, when they've been surveyed. There are a of problems we need to fix. Mandatory voting doesn't seem to be the solution though.
- zamalek 2y agoSo people who invade the seat of power are good people worthy of pardons, and people peacefully protesting are terrorists? I thought that "fascist" may have been slightly misused prior to this, but investigating peaceful protest crosses a very serious line.
- dylan604 2y ago[flagged]
- nick_ 2y agoDo you think the people who are setting fire to Teslas are the same people trading Tesla stock? Even remotely close to the same kind of people?
- dylan604 2y agoDoesn't matter that they are not. It is happening, and it is always going to be grouped together because the end goal is the same. Like it or not, that's what happens in the real world.
- ceejayoz 2y agoThe definition of "terrorism" is a bit fluid right now. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-f... > France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration. > “I learned with concern that a French researcher” on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) “who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250320-us-denies-entry-to-french-scientist-over-hateful-messages https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250320-us-denies-ent... > US agents found messages about the treatment of scientists under the new US administration that "showed hatred towards Trump and could be qualified as terrorism", the same source said.
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoExpect this post, and any even obliquely critical of Musk or Trump, to be flagged into oblivion. I've tried to not be cynical but it's bleedingly obvious that there are a group of Musk/Trump supporters here flagging these posts. Various discussions claim that it's political (and thus "off topic") posts that are flooding HN but there has been very few appearing on the front page, even though they're sunk out of view these posts attract many upvotes and comments. There are all sorts of off-topic and incidental posts on HN and that's always been the case. Now there is aggressive censorship of one type of post. Just skipping or hiding posts that you're not interested in is not enough apparently. There is not much that can be done about it, dang has essentially shrugged, which is fine. But please lets not pretend its not happening and that it's not absolutely repugnant.
- 1970-01-01 2y agoYou're complaining about "no politics" rules consistently. Why do you think we need them?
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoNo I'm not, I'm saying this particular subject should not be treated differently. I only reference politics because it's other people's focus, or excuse for censoring.
- Redoubts 2y ago> there has been very few appearing on the front page, there are like 3-5 of these a day
- disgruntledphd2 2y agoI think it depends on where you go. These stories typically drop off /news pretty quickly, but /active has loads and loads of them. I also seem to see flagged ones, which is probably down to my settings.
- 2y ago
- seper8 2y agoWhat a banana republic the USA has turned into. Literal oligarchy happening out in the open, in front of our eyes. Waiting for the delays for Austin robotaxi to be announced, then more red for Tesla.
- netsharc 2y agoIn an imaginary future... Elon: "The robotaxis are working great!" Press: "What about these 10 fatal accidents in the first week?" Elon: "Cut the cameras, arrest that woman! If any news media reports this they'll be prosecuted, and I'll post your home address and where your kids go to school on X.". NTSB: "We've been DOGE'ed so we have no information about any Tesla Robotaxi accidents. As far as we can see, 0 fatalities with Tesla cars!" NTSB whisteblower: "Not mentioned is that they're being blindfolded so they can't see shit!". Press release: "Austin city government has taken the option [totally not under duress] to use Tesla's robotaxis for transport of all government workers. The mayor said, reading from a scribbled note 'this will improve efficiency and save costs.'. The city will pay Tesla $50 million in the first year, increasing to $150 million in 5 years." Stock market: "Sell, sell, sell!" Elon: "These investors shorting TSLA are breaking the law and violating free speech. If they don't invest in TSLA we're going to send the IRS!"
- duxup 2y agoPeak cronyism from the current administration.
- jauntywundrkind 2y agoPeak cronyism so far!
- watwut 2y agoNah peek cronyism is when Musk company is getting new large nasa contracts after Musks getting control over government. And when people doing regulation actions against Musk were fired.
- r00fus 2y agoNo, that will happen with Tesla, SpaceX and other cronies get massively lucrative no-bid contracts from various government agencies.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jampa 2y agoPeople are saying Tesla stock is falling due to Musk, but he has been an asshole publically since the Thailand incident where he called the rescue diver a pedophile. It is falling because it is a bad stock with no ground in reality: it is clear that Tesla has lost all its positive momentum. When was the last time we heard about Tesla delivering something exciting? Meanwhile, BYD just announced their 1000V platform this week, God's eye FSD for every car last month (and they are already selling those in China). On the other hand, Tesla has just been promising the world and delivering nothing but more promises and pushing deadlines. Take that last demo they made in Universal Studios. Everything was faked, the robot was human-controlled, and the FSD was in a controlled environment with a human in the background, ready to intervene. Now look at that P/E. It sits at >100 in a company that is not growing anymore, 2x-3x more valuable than Toyota. You really can't justify it.
- trowawee 2y agoThe financials have always been crap, though. A lot of his previous assholery was limited to very online people. Guarantee if you poll 100 people if they've heard of the "Thailand pedo guy thing with Musk", most will have no idea what you're talking about. Now it's on every news channel every night.
- alamortsubite 2y ago> People are saying Tesla stock is falling due to Musk, but he has been an asshole publically since the Thailand incident I agree, but I also think the full-throated nazi salutes on tv delivered a greater blow to Tesla's customer base than your comment implies.
- ryandrake 2y agoExactly. Tesla's business performance may or may not be good, but OP's analysis is ignoring the huge elephant in the room. It's true that Elon has been an asshole for a long time, but his recent actions cross the line from asshole into something an order of magnitude worse.
- 2y ago
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoWow. Cabinet members are openly shilling stocks now? Stocks of well-connected government insiders? The US is acting like a third-world country.
- archagon 2y agoDid you miss the friggin’ president turning the White House front lawn into a Tesla showroom? This feels like small potatoes in comparison.
- jqpabc123 2y ago"It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It'll never be this cheap again." Proof on multiple levels that the primary skills of this administration are con artistry and fascism --- which are more or less the same . The PE ratio of the typical auto manufacturer is around 10 or less. GM, Ford, Toyota --- all less than 10. The PE of Tesla is 115 --- and they sell fewer cars than any of the above. By any reasonable measure for an auto manufacturer, Tesla is outrageously overpriced. And before someone drops Musk's line that Tesla is something other than an auto manufacturer, allow me to point out 90% of Tesla earnings come from the manufacture and sale of autos. ETTD --- Everything Trump Touches Dies. Tesla is working to become the latest example.
- wraaath 2y agoOne other thing that hasn't been heavily talked about: What $/share on TSLA will trigger margin calls on the massive loans that Musk took out collateralized by his TSLA stock. Once those get triggered, the snowball effect of market sales by the loan holders will accelerate the downward price trajectory.
- disqard 2y agoAs much as I want his house of cards to implode, I'm worried about contagion. I'll never forget how his Twitter mass-layoffs initiated that same practice to spread throughout the tech industry (yes, it was coming, but he did "cast the first stone"). For better or worse, what Elon Husk does today, the rest of the stock market does tomorrow.
- submeta 2y agoTesla‘s valuation was partly stemming from what was projected on Musk: A whiz-„kid“ who was treated like he found cure for cancer. Many quickly realized that he could not deliver (a self driving car) or a refuge in space for when humanity will be killed by a mega-asteriod. Slowly he demystifies himself by coming up with crude far right ideas and by not delivering.
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoWhatever you think about Musk or Trump, it's very strange that government officials are pushing each other's stock. It's a hard sell you'd expect from a boiler room: "It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It'll never be this cheap again." "I mean, who wouldn't invest in Elon Musk? You gotta be kidding me."
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- orwin 2y agoAlfred Hugenberg didn't end well either, even when he supported the winning side.
- iJohnDoe 2y ago> Last week President Trump held a public showcase of Tesla's cars at the White House. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/13/tesla-trump-white-house-musk https://www.axios.com/2025/03/13/tesla-trump-white-house-mus... What the heck?!? Has a president ever done anything like this before? The only good thing is that while the president was selling cars is that he wasn't doing any other boneheaded thing at that moment. Let's keep the president selling cars.