Tesla Stock Has Had a Difficult Year

Tesla stock is having a difficult year, and December was especially bad.

The stock of the EV manufacturer is down 18% this month and more than 50% in 2022, according to data from Yahoo Finance.

Wednesday’s premarket trading saw a 1% decline in the stock. However, despite this, the company’s ticker page continues to receive a lot of traffic from angry brand supporters. Analysts have identified several causes for the startling decline in Tesla’s once unstoppable stock price.

First, there is a greater chance of operational errors at Tesla as Elon Musk concentrates on Twitter, the newest company in his portfolio.

Due to the stock decline, Bernard Arnault, the founder of LVMH, has replaced Musk as the richest man in the world.

Despite this, as shown in the graph below, Tesla continues to dominate other EV-first businesses. The Federal Reserve is anticipated to increase its benchmark interest rate by 0.5 percentage points later on Wednesday. Markets have factored this in. Rather, investors will be paying close attention to the Fed’s updated rate forecasts and what Chairman Jerome Powell says during his press conference following the rating announcement. Economists expect the Fed to maintain its tough stance on inflation, despite the consumer price index cooling for the second month.

According to analysts, poor economic conditions and an aging product line-up have also put pressure on Tesla’s stock. Tesla has postponed the release of several new products, including the much-anticipated Cybertruck.

Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019 to start production in 2021. So far, the truck has not appeared.

Tesla is also facing a backlash from customers due to a delay in delivering self-driving technology via software updates to its electric vehicles.

The company is increasing output at a new vehicle assembly plant in Austin, Texas, and another outside of Berlin, Germany.