After struggling for much of 2024 and even being the worst-performing S&P 500 stock for multiple months, Elon Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) maker, Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA), made a major comeback after its most recent delivery report.
Indeed, the stock not only made an impressive surge but rocketed enough to turn green – by 5.84% – in the year-to-date (YTD) chart and a staggering 51.34% in the last 30 days of trading. The ongoing rally ensured Tesla stock price today stands at $263.19.
Still, despite the excitement and the short-term strength, TSLA’s stock rally may not be entirely secure.
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Tesla Motors or Tesla Robotics?
For starters, Elon Musk’s claim that Tesla should be viewed less as a car manufacturer and an artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics company is still largely untested.
While it is true that the EV maker has showcased its ‘Optimus’ robot and is testing its self-driving technology, the former is exceptionally small-scale, and the latter is somewhat dampened by years of delays and the fact that Mercedes (ETR: MBG) is apparently ahead.
The true test for Tesla as an AI company may come on August 8 when Elon Musk hinted an autonomous taxi – generally termed ‘Cybercab’ – will be unveiled. The scale of the event is uncertain as details on what it may entail are scant, and there is some doubt whether it will happen at all, given Musk’s reputation.
Can Tesla stock sustain its rally?
Additionally, the delivery report itself – the publication that kicked off the rally – raises some doubt about TSLA stock’s mid-term prospects.
It is, in fact, strong only when compared to investor fears and shows less that Tesla is out of the woods and more that the situation isn’t quite as bad as it was in January when Musk’s EV maker delivered a single car in South Korea.
In this sense, it is reminiscent of Tesla’s latest earnings report, which triggered a short-lived rally on the merit of not being as bad as most feared.
Purely on the stock market side, it is worrying that TSLA shares are, as of July 10, the most overbought they’ve been since June 2023.
While this opens the possibility of a looming correction on its own, it appears even more concerning given that Tesla experienced a July and August rally last year, only to enter its long and deep decline by September.
Is Tesla a meme stock now?
Finally, TSLA’s recent market moves may have contributed to Bill Gross, the co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), concluding that Tesla is, much like GameStop (NYSE: GME) and Chewy (NYSE: CHWY), a meme stock.
Still, such a view isn’t new. In some circles, the EV maker has been considered a meme stock for years thanks to its reaction to Elon Musk’s comments and actions and its apparently stratospheric valuation compared to peers in the traditional and electric car industries.
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