Tesla Shares Plunge 15% Amid Market Sell-Off, Steepest Drop Since 2020

Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla plummeted by greater than 15 per cent on Monday, its largest single-day decline in a number of years amid a broad-based market sell-off sparked by potential recession issues and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariff plans. Shares registered their worst day since September 2020, closing greater than 50 per cent beneath their file closing excessive of $479 on December 17 final yr.

The massacre in Wall Road got here amid issues over declining electrical automobile gross sales and politically pushed protests in opposition to Mr Musk over his involvement within the Trump administration. The Tesla chief, nevertheless, appeared to dismiss the market issues. Replying to a publish on X in regards to the largest single-day drops in Tesla shares, Mr Musk wrote, “It will likely be positive long-term.”

A Look At Tesla Shares

Tesla shares plunged 15.4 per cent by the tip of Monday’s buying and selling session. It was the biggest single-day proportion decline since September 2020, when shares noticed a decline of over 21 per cent in a single day. 

With this, Tesla shares witnessed a complete decline of 41.4 per cent year-to-date to this point in 2025. This features a drop of over 36.6 per cent prior to now months. As of March 10, Tesla inventory has fallen by greater than half to a brand new market cap of $696 billion after reaching its all-time largest market capitalization of $1.5 trillion on December 17. 

UBS has additionally lowered its worth goal on the inventory to $225 from $259, citing decrease supply forecasts for the primary quarter it sees ensuing from softer demand for Tesla’s Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y automobiles. This contributed to the sell-off, together with broader issues in regards to the US financial system dealing with a recession and a widening commerce battle amid President Trump’s tariff threats. 

On Monday, the S&P 500 ended the buying and selling day 2.7 per cent lower–its lowest closing stage since September and its largest day by day proportion decline since December. The Dow Jones Industrial Common, in the meantime, dropped 2 per cent, for its lowest shut since November 4, the day earlier than Mr Trump’s election as President. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 4 per cent to a close to six-month low.

Protests Towards Tesla

Tesla, the place Mr Musk is chief government, has been dealing with protests and even vandalism at a few of its dealerships. Final week, photographs have been fired at a Tesla dealership in Oregon, whereas in Boston, somebody set hearth to the corporate’s charging stations. Authorities additionally arrested some violent protesters for rallying at a Tesla dealership in Decrease Manhattan.

Furthermore, a current report discovered that Tesla automotive gross sales in Germany, Europe’s largest marketplace for electrical automobiles, fell by 76 p.c in February in contrast with a yr earlier, sounding alarm bells for your entire European market. 

Questions Over Musk’s Management

The autumn in Tesla inventory got here as its chief Musk is dealing with questions on how a lot consideration he’s paying to his companies whereas serving as an adviser to President Trump. Over the week, Mr Musk’s enterprise empire – together with Tesla, social media web site X and the rocket maker SpaceX – has run into challenges.

On Monday, as Tesla shares fell, customers of X reported widespread outages. Earlier than that, final week, a SpaceX rocket exploded in Florida throughout launch, showering some locations with particles.

Mr Musk was fast responsible the X points on a cyberattack stemming from Ukraine, with out offering proof. He posted on X that Democratic donors have been chargeable for seeding protests in opposition to Tesla, once more with out proof. In response to the SpaceX explosion, he mentioned on X: “Rockets are arduous.”