The Electric: A Reset for Tesla? Musk Pledges Focus But Robotaxi Remains Fuzzy

The market-moving news from Tesla’s earnings call was Elon Musk promising to spend more time at the car company and less in Washington. 

It helped send the stock up nearly 8% on Wednesday, and it turned the outlook of even recently critical analysts positive again. Among them was Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives, who said the damage Musk had done to the Tesla brand had now been contained. “I believe it’s a new chapter, and he leaves a dark chapter in the past,” Ives told Bloomberg TV.

But Musk actually spent the bulk of the call talking about cars. He tried to mollify investors worried about a second year of declining electric vehicle sales—and seemed to succeed, at least for now. But his remarks suggested more turmoil ahead for the company.