Tesla (TSLA.US) opened up about 2% after Musk endorsed Trump.
1min read Shares of Tesla (TSLA.US) rose in early trading on Monday as the market took an optimistic view of the company after Musk publicly expressed his support for President Trump, while investors were preparing for the company's second-quarter earnings report and awaiting confirmation on whether the Aug. 8 event for its self-driving taxis had been postponed.
Musk over the weekend tweeted several messages expressing his support for the president, which some analysts saw as a sign of what could benefit Tesla if Trump were to win the election.
Earlier this month, Musk appeared to have changed his stance of not donating to either the Republican or Democratic presidential candidates, as he reportedly donated to the American Action PAC, a powerful political action committee based in Texas. Analysts believe Tesla would benefit even if the government were to remove some of its support for electric vehicles.
Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush, said: "I think Trump supports Musk, I think that's a positive. If Trump is elected president, he will ultimately be good for Tesla, not good for electric vehicles... I think that also reflects that Musk has been overlooked under the Obama administration... I think if Trump is elected, Musk will be more in the spotlight. That's a positive for Tesla, especially if you're starting to see electric vehicle tax credits diminish — not good for the industry, not good for Tesla."
Additionally, while earlier reports suggested the delay in the Aug. 8 event would weigh on Tesla's stock, Morgan Stanley said the delay would not have a negative impact.
Analysts at Adam Jonas and his team believe the delay would highlight Tesla's ability to showcase more artificial intelligence beyond its self-driving cars based on an application. The company expects Tesla's "Master Plan" Part 4 to be based on its commercial ambitions in artificial intelligence, robotics and hybrid computing (including the distributed heat and computing in its taxis), which covers from the cloud to the edge. Jonas noted: "Over the next few months/quarters, we expect the world of GenAI (the digital assistant) to collide with the automotive ecosystem."
Tesla shares were up about 2% at the time of writing, having risen more than 40% over the past six weeks.
