- Tesla stock faced heavy selling on Thursday, down around 3% as Wall Street shorts build up once again.
- Amid a slew of worrying headlines, several mainstream media organizations reported a collapse in Tesla vehicle registrations in the key market of California.
- Despite these claims, TSLA bulls shouldnt be too worried due to a mistaken assumption in the reporting.
It has been a stunning few months for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) as Elon Musks EV manufacturer has proven the nay-sayers wrong with a parabolic rally. Unfortunately for nervy bulls eyeing their profits, Wall Streets most heavily shorted stock finally has some bad news to digest.
Tesla Stock Drops Sharply; Dont Blame Morgan Stanley
Cross-Sells data might not paint the whole story when it comes to Tesla demand. | Source: Twitter
Tesla stock has skyrocketed on some incredibly bold moves from Elon Musk, the most impressive of which was his wooing of China with an incredible factory in Shanghai. Most of this positive news helped fuel a historic short squeeze, prompting a massive bear attack on TSLA Monday.
Tesla stock has slipped from its highs amid massive short interest and a downgrade from Morgan Stanley. | Source- Yahoo Finance
While most of the media was obsessing over Morgan Stanleys momentum downgrade to underweight (which is a pretty common occurrence at the bank), they missed a release from Reuters that painted a much darker picture for TSLA, According to the report, demand for Tesla appears to have collapsed in its most prosperous market:
Tesla Incs (TSLA.O) overall vehicle registrations nearly halved in the U.S. state of California during the fourth quarter, according to a Dominion Cross-Sell report, which collates data from state motor vehicle records.. California, a bellwether market for the electric-car maker, plummeted 46.5% to 13,584 in the quarter ended December 2019, from 25,402 in the same period a year earlier. Model 3 registrations, which accounted for about three-fourth of the total, halved to 10,694.
The reason for this huge drop? Allegedly, the diminishing impact of an EV tax credit, which expired at the end of 2019.
Tesla and Apple Have Both Rallied On Handouts
Bearing some correlation to Apples (NASDAQ:APPL) buyback spree fueled by Trumps tax-cuts, the difference here is that Elon Musk is not able to dictate the handouts to impact TSLA, unlike Tim Cook who can use his fat cash pile at Apple however he wants.
Despite all of this, the biggest reason to ignore the registration data is that cross-sell figures have a lag, which means they misrepresent deliveries versus registrations. California takes weeks to report a registration, which would mean the huge delivery in December would probably not have registered. This is also not the first time this effect has happened.
Source-Twitter
Investors looking at bright green screens must ask themselves a tough question. Does Tesla stocks monster rally look sustainable given a gradually worsening macro environment? What they should not do is get too worried about the cataclysmic drop in registrations, whatever CNBC, Reuters or Fox Business might have said.
This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.
More Stories
A teenager from Co Offaly has been “inundated” with orders for his handmade reindeer decorations after his mother put up a post in a popular Facebook group.
Run Windows apps such as Microsoft Office in Linux (Ubuntu) and GNOME as if they were a part of the native OS, including Nautilus integration. – Fmstrat/winapps
With Australia’s relationship with China at a very dangerous stage, the timing of what is expected to be a ‘more nuanced’ approach from a Biden administration could not be more welcome.