Tesla trolling
Elon Musk was busy exercising his Twitter-fingers last Friday—the Tesla CEO mocked traders who had bet against the EV maker, as well as the U.S. market regulator—as the Tesla stock hit a new record-high of $1,208 per share.
The news had led to Musk posting some sophomoric tweets directed at the SEC and short-sellers.
“Tesla will make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim,” Musk tweeted on Friday, referencing the time the CEO sent a box of short shorts to hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who has a big short position on Tesla. “Will send some to the [SEC] to comfort them through these difficult times.”
Musk has a history of duelling the SEC on Twitter, and some of his tweets essentially disclosing information about Tesla have cost him several millions of U.S. dollars in fines.
In 2018, the SEC charged Musk with securities fraud for the infamous tweets about taking Tesla private at $420 per share and for claiming “funding secured” for a potential deal. A few days later, Musk agreed to settle the securities fraud charge by the SEC in a settlement that included removing Musk as chairman at Tesla, and Musk and Tesla paying fines of $20 million each.
Tesla shares are up almost 200 percent year-to-date, with shares rising 7.8 percent last Thursday and were up 6.2 percent in premarket trading Monday. Tesla’s valuation now sits at more than $224 billion.
Road to recovery
GM Canada has unveiled its second-quarter results for 2020, reporting 50,074 delivered vehicles in the period, a decrease of 35.5 per cent compared to a year ago.
While the industry experienced significant declines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, GM Canada’s full-size pickup truck sales remained resilient, retail sales showed some early signs of recovery, and the company gained market share in the second quarter.
The company says it is “working hard to emerge from the unprecedented negative impacts of COVID-19 on the Canadian marketplace” and is “starting to see recovery in retail sales,” especially where its recent crossover launches are concerned, according to Sandor Piszar, vice president, sales, service and marketing for GM Canada,
Since the Chevrolet Blazer launched in January of 2019, sales have been steadily increasing. The all-new Chevrolet Trailblazer and Buick Encore GX have been performing well in a highly competitive segment, says the automaker.
FCA’s slide
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Canada (FCA) has seen a significant drop in its
second-quarter 2020 sales when compared with last year’s numbers, according to a media release from the automaker.
In the second quarter of 2020, FCA Canada sold 33,718 vehicles compared to 63,410 sold during the same period.
Sales of the automaker’s Windsor, Ont.-made Pacifica have dropped 52 percent from last year. By 2019’s second quarter, the automaker had sold 2,216 units and now, only 1,065 have been purchased.
“These have been challenging months,” said FCA Canada president and CEO David Buckingham in a statement.
He added that, despite the drops in sales, May and June have shown “steady improvement.”
