Shares of Tesla, a U.S. electric vehicle company, plunged more than 6% on the 20th (local time) in line with allegations of sexual harassment by CEO Elon Musk, collapsing into the so-called “600-dollar range.” It is the first time since August last year that Tesla’s stock price has fallen to the $600 level.
Tesla shares closed at $663.90 on the Nasdaq market, plunging 6.42 percent. Reuters reported that stock prices fell after Musk’s alleged sexual harassment.
The U.S. economic media Business Insider reported the previous day that Musk was suspected of stuttering the legs of a female flight attendant and demanding sexual behavior on a SpaceX jet bound for London in 2016. Musk denied that it was “not true at all,” but the market seems to have taken it seriously. MarketWatch said Tesla’s stock price has been bad all week and has been aggravated by allegations of sexual harassment. Tesla fell 13.73 percent this week alone and fell 37.18 percent this year.
Foreign media diagnosed that the “Musk risk” has been added at a time when the weak technology stocks caused by inflation and China’s COVID-19 blockade have become negative factors. Even before the allegations of sexual harassment, Musk was rumored to have made back-and-forth moves and real-life political remarks surrounding the acquisition of Twitter.
Musk recently clashed with Twitter executives by saying that the acquisition would be temporarily suspended, saying that the ratio of spam and fake accounts provided by Twitter is unreliable. Market watchers analyzed that Musk fell for a spam account to lower the acquisition price.
Dan Ibis, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, sarcastically said, “The pilot is watching a Netflix show when the plane meets thunderstorms (rainstorms and rain).” Musk criticized the U.S. Democratic Party on the 18th as a “party of division and hatred,” declaring that he would vote Republican in the November midterm elections.
Reuters reported that Musk’s political remarks and allegations of sexual harassment could undermine his and Tesla shares values. The New York Times (NYT) also pointed out that Musk’s actions could harm Tesla’s business, but there is no independent board to restrain it. Meanwhile, the hashtag #Boycott Tesla to cancel the order for Tesla cars spread on Twitter