Twitter and Tesla volatility as Elon Musk dumps stock to fund his purchase

FXOpen

In today's age of influencers, there is one figure who can possibly lay claim to being the influencer of all influencers, and that is Elon Musk.

Known for making extremely forthright decisions and taking a leading position in, well, pretty much everything he does, what often appear to be vanity projects for self-promotion end up being sound business moves which disrupt entire industry sectors and lead to massive returns.

A case in point is last year's almost unbelievable scenario in which a tweet put out by Elon Musk crashed the value of five popular cryptocurrencies by almost $1 trillion, and instead of scaring people off in their droves, a large number of conservative, analytical investors bought in, and then a few weeks later a subsequent tweet by Elon Musk caused the values to rise again.

This fascinating working of the media by one man has become one of his trademarks, so much so that Elon Musk has been attempting to acquire Twitter for a few months now.

Just as he appeared to have given up, his interest in buying Twitter has resurfaced, and once again he is dumping shares in Tesla to be able to fund the purchase of it.

Back in April 14 this year, Elon Musk made his initial offer to purchase Twitter for $43 billion, after previously acquiring 9.1% of the company's stock for $2.64 billion. To do this, he leveraged some of his positions at Tesla and made loans, however the deal fell through.

Now it appears that the deal is back on the table and Elon Musk is back in the business of offloading Twitter stock in order to buy Twitter on the open market, a move that has been criticized by many traditional investors and wealth managers.

One comment, coming from Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives yesteday was particularly harsh. "Selling Tesla stocks to fund his Twitter takeover is like giving away caviar to buy $2 pizza" said Mr. Ives.

Tesla stock has been declining in value for a number of weeks, and yesterday's move was no exception. The market reacted to Elon Musk's renewed interest in Twitter with a downward move for Twitter of a further 3.4% on the US market yesterday.

Twitter stock, however, jumped up in value from 50.85 USD at the beginning of the trading session to 51.81 by lunchtime yesterday, showing that investors welcomed the news.

In keeping with Elon Musk's gung-ho approach, there is much volatility now in both stocks and it sometimes appears as though he enjoys this sort of market pandemoneum, hence his continued appetite for causing it!

Buy and sell stocks of the world's biggest publicly-listed companies with CFDs on FXOpen’s trading platform. Open your FXOpen account now or learn more about trading share CFDs with FXOpen.

This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.

Stay ahead of the market!

Subscribe now to our mailing list and receive the latest market news and insights delivered directly to your inbox.

forex

Share CFD Trading with FXOpen

Share CFD Trading with FXOpen

Experience ECN technology for deep liquidity and light-speed trade execution

  • Trade with tight spreads
  • Take advantage of low commissions
  • Choose from 4 trading platforms: MT4, MT5, TradingView, or TickTrader
Learn more

Latest articles

Trader’s Tools

Santa Claus Rally: How Will Christmas Impact Stock Markets in 2024

The Santa Claus rally is a well-known seasonal phenomenon where stock markets often see gains during the final trading days of December and the start of January. But what causes this year-end trend, and how does Christmas influence stock markets

Forex Analysis

GBP/USD Analysis: Pair Recovers from 7-Month Low

The GBP/USD pair dropped below the psychological level of 1.25 today, a level last seen in early May. Over the past two days, the pair has declined by more than 1.5%, driven by central bank decisions.

On

Shares

Micron Technology (MU) Stock Drops 16%

On Wednesday, Micron Technology released its quarterly earnings report after the main trading session closed. The results aligned closely with analysts' expectations: earnings per share came in at $1.79, slightly above the forecast of $1.76, while revenue met

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 60% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.