*By Carlo Versano*
Tesla shares sank 3 percent in early trading Monday, following CEO Elon Musk's [announcement](https://www.tesla.com/blog/STAying-public) over the weekend that he is abandoning his controversial plan to take the company private.
The reversal capped 16 days of panic inside Tesla to see whether the idea, put forth in a tweet earlier this month, was viable. It finally became clear, by Musk's own admission, that it was not.
In the blog post, published without the fanfare of his earlier tweets, Musk said it had become clear to him that, while "there was more than enough funding" to take Tesla private, doing so would estrange many of the company's existing shareholders (and most ardent supporters of the company). It was reported that Musk also became wary of the strings attached to taking cash from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which he said expressed both the interest and ability to fund his buyout.
Musk also said the company "absolutely must stay focused on ramping Model 3 and becoming profitable." Advancing such a huge, complex buyout of public shareholders ー one Musk originally valued at $72 billion ー would take resources away from that effort.
While the will-he-won't-he drama that had captivated Wall Street and Silicon Valley for the last three weeks seems to have come to an end, Musk may not be out from under the thumb of regulators yet. The SEC began a formal inquiry into what Musk meant when he tweeted that he had "secured funding" for a buyout and whether that constituted securities fraud.
That investigation is reportedly still underway, even without a go-private deal on the horizon.
A steep budget deficit caused by plummeting tax revenues and escalating school voucher costs will be in focus Monday as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature return for a new session at the state Capitol.
The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years is on its way to the moon. The private lander from Astrobotic Technology blasted off Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, catching a ride on United Launch Alliance's brand new rocket Vulcan.
Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oil fell last year from record highs in 2022, when Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors helped worsen hunger worldwide, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.
Wall Street is drifting higher after reports showed the job market remains solid, but key parts of the economy still don’t look like they’re overheating.
The Biden administration is docking more than $2 million in payments to student loan servicers that failed to send billing statements on time after the end of a pandemic payment freeze.
The nation’s employers added a robust 216,000 jobs last month, the latest sign that the American job market remains resilient even in the face of sharply higher interest rates.
A U.S. labor agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company.
