CEO Elon Musk blames macro on Tesla stock being down 60% YTD

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By Senad Karaahmetovic

Yesterday’s trading session yielded another 52-week low for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock after it dropped over 8% to close at $137.80 per share.

Tesla stock price is now down over 60% year-to-date (YTD), vastly underperforming the S&P 500 (-19.8% YTD). The ongoing plunge in Tesla shares prompted more sell-side analysts to cut numbers on the electric vehicle (EV) maker in recent days.

Daiwa analysts slashed the price target on Tesla stock to $177 from $240 per share, citing Twitter distractions and a weak macro environment. Wedbush analysts, on the other hand, have been clear about what has been driving Tesla shares lower in recent months.

Analysts at Wedbush have insisted that the Twitter saga has been “a black eye moment for Musk and been a major overhang on Tesla's stock.”

“It appears Musk's reign as CEO of Twitter will come to an end and thus be a major positive for Tesla's stock starting to slowly remove this albatross from the story,” they wrote in a note. “Time to end this nightmare as CEO of Twitter.”

Still, Musk insists that a challenging macroeconomic environment is to blame for a drop in Tesla stock. Responding to long-time Tesla bull Ross Gerber on Twitter, Musk wrote:

“As bank savings account interest rates, which are guaranteed, start to approach stock market returns, which are *not* guaranteed, people will increasingly move their money out of stocks into cash, thus causing stocks to drop.”

Gerber previously tweeted that “Tesla stock price now reflects the value of having no CEO,” before urging Tesla’s Board of Directors it’s “time for a shake-up.”

In the meantime, Tesla stock price is up over 2% in pre-market Wednesday after Musk said he will resign as Twitter CEO “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.”

“After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” Musk added in a tweet.