Tesla stock had one of its best days all year on April Fools’ Day – yes, really

Elon Musk sure had a pretty wild end to 2022, with his new ownership of Twitter continuing to prove turbulent, and stock prices for his car manufacturer Tesla said to be rounding off the year with a $700 billion loss – its worst year ever.

CNBC previously reported that production at the company’s factory in Shanghai will be reduced from January, following a shutdown at the end of this month.

There’s also the additional headache of a California law coming into effect in 2023 which effectively bans Tesla from saying its vehicles are “self-driving”.

Then, on a managerial level, Musk is considered to be “asleep at the wheel” when it comes to leading Tesla, according to Webush tech analyst Dan Ives.

“Mr Musk is viewed as ‘asleep at the wheel’ from a leadership perspective for Tesla at the time investors need a CEO to navigate this Category 5 storm. Instead Musk is laser-focused on Twitter which has been an ongoing nightmare that never ends for investors.”

Since April, Musk has sold almost $23 billion of Tesla stock to fund his takeover of Twitter, which cost $44 billion.

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Meanwhile, US entrepreneur and investor William LeGate wrote on Twitter that there is “not much left” before Tesla stock “goes into a death spiral”, with investors “scrambling to get out while they still can”.

The ongoing crisis facing Tesla has also led to its owner losing the title of the world’s richest person, having been overtaken by French businessman Bernard Renault.

But hey, at least there were some better moments for the automotive company in 2022, such as when one of its better days for stock prices genuinely came on April Fools’ Day.

Google Finance

Yes, really – you can’t make this up.

Back on 1 April, the stock price was $361.53 – a lot better than the $123.18 stock price recorded on Friday.

It had one of its best days on 4 April, with a stock price of $381.82, but even that was a little way off where Tesla started the year, at $399.93.

Oh dear, Elon – there’s always next year, eh?

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