Tesla was the worst performing stock in the Cheddar 50 Wednesday, falling more than 7 percent to its lowest level in more than a year.
Shares of the electric automaker were plagued by a downgrade by Moody’s, a crash investigation, and a backlogged production line.
“All those things combined with a skittish technology market...is really weighing on the shares,” explained Efraim Levy, and analyst at CFRA.
On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board announced it is opening an investigation into a fatal car crash involving a Tesla in California last week.
The company hasn’t been able to provide many details about what happened and is still “unclear if automated control system was active at time of crash.” This would be Tesla’s second NTSB investigation in as many years.
Also on Tuesday, Moody’s downgraded Tesla’s credit rating because of a “significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle,” the agency said in a release. This delay may then force the company to seek out extra funding.
However, some experts and investors remain bullish on the carmaker’s long term outlook.
CFRA maintains its hold position on the shares.
“Ultimately, the direction that we’re going is more electrification,” said Levy.
“I would never bet against Elon Musk’s ability to raise capital,” said Frederic Lambert, Editor-in-chief of Electrek. “Historically, he’s been very consistent on that front.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/cfras-efraim-levy-explains-why-he-maintains-hold-opinion-on-tesla).
Despite challenges like inflation, labor and product shortages, and the Omicron variant, holiday sales saw record levels of growth this year, according to a new report from Mastercard SpendingPulse. The group reports on national retail sales across all payment types, finding that holiday sales rose at the fastest pace in 17 years this year. Mastercard senior advisor and former chariman and CEO of Saks Incorporated Steve Sadove joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Keith Fitz-Gerald, chief investment officer at Fitz-Gerald Group, spoke to Cheddar about the growing competition for Tesla's electric cars in China as tech giant Huawei enters the race. "There's a lot of legacy worry, but that does not discount the possibility that Elon might have a contender on his hands," he said about the sometimes troubled telecom company. Fitz-Gerald also gave a nod to two other local rivals, Nio and XPeng, noting the latter as having something of an edge with its CEO He Xiopeng being lauded by Chinese state media.
2021 was a wild ride for the world of cryptos. Both Bitcoin and Etherum hit new all-time highs, as well as other coins like SHIB-INU. According to several experts, crypto is here to stay and is expected to blast off in the year 2022 as more and more people invest in the crypto world. The host of "The O Show" Wendy O, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Over the past year, the new love for gaming has created a huge demand for the consumption of content on streaming platforms. All this has caused a rise in gaming influencers all over the world. Founder of Viral Nation Joe Gagliese and Digital Video Executive Andrew Wall, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
