The booing of Elon Musk at a Dave Chappelle comedy show was one of the clearest sell signals you could ever imagine. It took Musk outside of his bubble in what might have been a receptive audience and showed him largely booed and "wilting like a corn cob" as the viral thread on the moment so hilariously captured.
On a strong equity market tape yesterday and today, shares of TSLA have fallen 8.8%.
It's encouraging that the fall of Tesla isn't bringing down the broader equity market and there's a good argument for that disconnect to continue but it bears watching very closely.
Tesla is still at $500 billion company and the brand is inextricably linked to Elon Musk and his ever-growing infatuation with the culture wars. That threatens to alienate a large part of the Tesla-buying public with no obvious upsides aside from personal publicity. Maybe there is no such thing as bad publicity but Tesla is quickly going from an admired brand to one that's questioned and it's at the same time as FSD hopes fade and competitors close the gap.
I can see the case for a fall to $90 if there are signs of faltering sales but a better question is whether that upends the rest of the market. Equity bears believe the broad market can't bottom until Tesla gets washed out and history is on their side but this week's price action is showing that broader equities can recover with TSLA in freefall.
