Apu Gomes/Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng
- Tesla rose as much as 10% on Monday after weeks of losses.
- Shares have climbed 16% since CEO Elon Musk’s town hall, where he encouraged employees to hold them.
- Retail investors have been buying at near-record levels amid the sell-off.
Tesla shares surged on Monday, extending gains since Elon Musk called a surprise all-hands meeting with employees last Thursday.
After a 5% gain on Friday, the stock spiked as much as 10% on Monday, bringing its post-meeting gain to 16% at intraday high.
In the Thursday evening town hall, the CEO urged employees to hold on to their shares, which at that point had fallen more than 50% from their all-time high in December. He also hyped the company’s projects, telling workers that the company’s robotics and robotaxi developments would help deliver a “future of abundance.”
A herd of retail investors buying the recent dip has helped the stock. While big investors have increasingly soured on the electric vehicle maker, JPMorgan wrote last week that retail traders have poured $7.3 billion into the stock in the past two weeks.
It signals that retail investors consider the stock’s plunge an opportunity, dismissing issues that have weighed on Musk’s carmaker, which include falling vehicle sales, rising EV competition, and Musk’s work leading DOGE’s government cost-cutting crusade.
His work with DOGE, in particular, has been highly polarizing, generating protests of the company and instances of vandalism.
Analysts have been divided on where the stock is headed, but at least one firm is betting that Musk’s DOGE leadership could offer a silver lining for the company. TD Cowen wrote last week that his politics might nurture a new consumer base in Republican-oriented regions where EV adoption has typically been low.
