Al Root

Tesla stock was rising in early trading Wednesday as it tried to recover from a bad start to the week.

Maybe a television appearance by CEO Elon Musk defending his record is helping.

Shares of the electric vehicle maker were up 2.3% in premarket trading at $230.41, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were both edging up around 0.1%.

Tesla stock dropped 9.9% on Monday and Tuesday combined. Investor sentiment has been weakening amid falling first-quarter and full-year delivery estimates, lower Wall Street price targets, heightened competition from Chinese EV maker BYD, questions about what Tesla will be able to charge for its highest-level driver assistance features as options from other auto makers improve, and politically motivated protests at Tesla facilities.

Musk appeared on Fox News's Hannity on Tuesday evening and addressed the protests in part of the interview. "It's really come as quite a shock to me that there's this level of...hatred and violence from the [political] left," said Musk. "Tesla is a peaceful company, we've never done anything awful."

Most of the interview focused on SpaceX and the return of two astronauts who had been stuck on the International Space Station since June after a Boeing spacecraft ran into technical problems. He also talked to Sean Hannity about President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which Musk directs.

"Our debt had gotten so high that just the interest payments on debt exceed the entire military budget," pointed out Musk while defending DOGE.

Musk's intentions aside, on Tuesday, he and DOGE lost a significant court case over the closing of USAID with U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang essentially stopping DOGE from conducting business the way it has been.

There is a lot of noise swirling around Tesla stock these days. Investors have reacted by selling shares. Coming into Wednesday trading, Tesla stock was down about 47% since the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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March 19, 2025 04:41 ET (08:41 GMT)

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