Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he visits the construction site of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, August 13, 2021. Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters
Nov 8 (Reuters) – Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) fell on Monday as chief Elon Musk, known for his Twitter banter, proposed the sale of about a tenth of his holdings in the electric-car maker after conducting a poll on the social network.
The poll asking Musk’s over 62.5 million followers if he should sell stock garnered more than 3.5 million votes, with 57.9% of the people voting “yes”. read more
Here is a timeline tracing Musk’s candid Twitter posts that have impacted the market.
* Aug. 7, 2018: Shares closed up nearly 11% after Musk tweeted during market hours: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”
Later that month, a post on Tesla’s public blog announced that Musk had abandoned the attempted privatization process.
In September 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Musk for fraud and sought to remove him from Tesla. [https://reut.rs/3mTlpws]
* May 1, 2020: Tesla erased around $13 billion from its market value after Musk tweeted “Tesla stock price is too high.” [https://reut.rs/3bSzqUY]
* Dec. 20, 2020: Dogecoin soared after Musk tweeted, “One word: Doge.” read more
* Jan. 25, 2021 – Musk tweeted he “kinda loves Etsy”, taking the e-commerce company’s stock to a record high.
* Jan. 26, 2021: GameStop surged 50% after Musk tweeted “Gamestonk!!”, along with a link to Reddit’s Wallstreetbets stock trading discussion group, where supporters affectionately refer to the Tesla CEO as “Papa Musk.” read more
* Jan. 28, 2021: Polish games producer CD Projekt’s shares (CDR.WA) rose after Musk tweeted “The esthetics of Cyberpunk are incredible btw…..”
* Jan. 29, 2021: Musk adds “#bitcoin” to his Twitter bio, driving a 14% surge in the largest cryptocurrency.
In January, total market value of all cryptocurrencies reached more than $1 trillion for the first time. The billionaire has since taken the tag off. read more
* Feb. 4, 2021: Musk tweets “Doge” in reference to a cryptocurrency based on a popular internet meme. He later tweeted, “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto.” and “I am become meme, Destroyer of shorts.” Dogecoin surged more than 60%.
* May 7, 2021: Musk tweeted “Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!” read more
* May 9, 2021: Dogecoin tanked after Musk called it “a hustle” on SNL. Musk tweeted “SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year – Mission paid for in Doge – 1st crypto in space – 1st meme in space To the mooooonnn!!” read more
* May 12: Cryptocurrencies tumbled after Musk tweeted Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as a payment, and “Energy usage trend over past few months is insane.” read more
* June 4, 2021: Bitcoin fell more than 7% after Musk tweeted “#Bitcoin”, a broken-heart emoji and a picture of a couple discussing a break. read more
June 14, 2021: Cryptocurrency…
Read More: How tweets by Tesla’s Elon Musk have moved markets