Tesla shares fell early Thursday after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick used a TV appearance to urge Americans to buy stock in Elon Musk's car company.
Cabinet secretaries don't typically recommend individual stocks, much less those linked to the president's closest adviser.
His recommendation was potentially overshadowed, though, by one of Tesla's most fervent defenders on Wall Street calling the company's situation a "crisis."
"I think, if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla," Lutnick said on Fox News Wednesday evening. "It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It'll never be this cheap again."
"I mean, who wouldn't invest in Elon Musk? You gotta be kidding me."
Lutnick's comments are part of what has effectively become a Trump administration campaign to defend Tesla.
Last week President Trump held a public showcase of Tesla's cars at the White House.
Amid a wave of "Tesla Takedown" rallies at dealerships nationwide, top administration officials have pledged to investigate protesters for domestic terrorism.
Lutnick's recommendation came as one of Wall Street's most bullish Tesla analysts sounded the alarm on the company's future.
Posted by John3262005
4 Comments
literally enron like behavior. this is actually sickening
I wonder why the American government is recommending the stock of a particular company? The mind boggles at the level of corruption.
Having the Trump admin hype up this house of cards isn’t going to save them. Their value has been almost entirely based on Elon convincing investors Tesla will dominate the future EV market, but after years of essentially no innovation, they’re straght up getting out competed in countries like China.
If you’re having to offer $0 down or 0% APR, just to boost sales, and your board is dumping basically every share they receive while buying literally none, you are in trouble. Wait until their Q1 financials get released next month, it’s going to get ugly fast.
Obviously this is incredibly corrupt, but it’s a bit gobsmacking as well. How would they think that traders are going to see this as anything other than a desperate attempt to prop up a collapsing stock? For all his evil Elmo is supposed to be a smart guy, and yet he doesn’t get this. Concerning.