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Tesla stock is getting drilled, falls below price it entered the S&P 500

Brian Sozzi
·Executive Editor
·3 min read

The electrified move in Tesla's stock (TSLA) price has short-circuited.

Shares of Tesla tanked about 3% to $693 in trading Tuesday morning, continuing a rout that commenced on Monday. The stock had hit a low of $623 in pre-market trading.

At current pre-market price levels, Tesla's stock is down about 12% to start the week. And at $693 a share, Tesla shares have now fallen below the $695 price level the company entered the S&P 500 with back on Dec. 21, 2020, according to Yahoo Finance Premium data. The stock is now down 1.3% on the year, lagging the S&P 500's 3.2% gain. Shares rose about 695% in 2020.

It's not too hard to spot why Tesla's stock has come under severe pressure.

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First up, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that the price of bitcoin "seemed too high." That's unlikely what Tesla bulls wanted to hear from their supreme leader. Recall that earlier this month, Tesla said it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. If Musk thinks bitcoin has hit a near-term top, it could risk Tesla's investment in bitcoin and by extension, its stock market valuation.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices have plunged below $50,000 following Musk's comments. At about $46,000 currently, bitcoin prices are nearly 20% off from their record high of about $58,000 on Feb. 21.

FEBRUARY 8th 2021: Tesla and CEO Elon Musk purchase $1.5 billion in Bitcoin cryptocurrency under an investment policy and will accept digital currency as a customer payment method for Tesla vehicles and products. - File Photo by: zz/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2020 8/14/20 The Tesla Automobile dealership in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. (NYC)
FEBRUARY 8th 2021: Tesla and CEO Elon Musk purchase $1.5 billion in Bitcoin cryptocurrency under an investment policy and will accept digital currency as a customer payment method for Tesla vehicles and products. - File Photo by: zz/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2020 8/14/20 The Tesla Automobile dealership in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. (NYC) (zz/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx)

Meanwhile on Tuesday, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse took a rare public swipe at Tesla.

“It won’t be easy for Tesla to continue at that speed because the rest of the industry is moving ahead big time,” Zipse reportedly said at a conference, Bloomberg reported.

The comments essentially call into question Tesla's longer-term competitive position as more established vehicle makers — such as BMW — enter the electric vehicle markets.

The sell-off in Tesla has caught the attention of Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities.

"It’s been a number of factors contributing to this red tape for Tesla. First, Tesla stopping sales of its lowest price Model Y coupled by continued price cuts have led to Street demand worries. To this point, we never viewed this Model Y version as moving the needle and continued price cuts is part of the overall Tesla strategy to spur demand. Second, the Bitcoin sell off has attached itself to the Tesla story as now in the eyes of the Street Bitcoin and Tesla are attached at the hip," Ives told Yahoo Finance.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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