With Lawsuit in Rear View, Tesla Shifts Into Gear on Production
*By Conor White*
Tesla investors are evidently relieved to have resolution on Elon Musk. On news of the CEO's deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission, shares were up more than 15 percent in early trading Monday.
News of a settlement may give shareholders hope that the company can now refocus on more important issues ー namely its production problems.
"Number one, is Model 3 production hell, which they're still not totally out of," Verge reporter Sean O'Kane said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
The electric car maker might be getting close, though. [According to a report](https://electrek.co/2018/10/01/tesla-production-record-q3-deliveries-crazier/) from Electrek, Tesla ($TSLA) produced around 80,000 vehicles in Q3, including 53,000 Model 3s. That would be a 187 percent increase over Q2. The company could report official numbers as soon as Monday afternoon.
Of course, there are other issues hanging over the company, starting with who will succeed Musk as chairman. According to Saturday's settlement with the SEC, the billionaire founder will be able to remain on as CEO and as a company director, but will cede the chairman role for three years.
"Whoever comes in as chairman, it's going to be really interesting to see how much pressure they apply," O'Kane said.
The latest drama stems from the now-infamous Aug. 7 tweet that Musk had "funding secured" to take his company private. The SEC launched an investigation shortly after and charged the CEO last week with fraud, alleging he misled investors. Musk and Tesla will also both have to pay $20 million in fines, and Musk will be required to have his tweets reviewed by lawyers whenever he mentions the company.
John Reed Stark, president of John Reed Stark Consulting and a long-time SEC attorney, told Cheddar Monday that the agency is sending a clear message about Twitter to every public company.
"With this action, they've essentially told every executive out there, don't do it."
Stark, who spent 11 years as the chief of the SEC Office of Internet Enforcement, said the agency isn't trying to muzzle any executives, but rather wants to ensure the information they're conveying is wholly accurate.
"They just want when anybody at a company speaks to speak truthfully, and fully, and fulsomely, and in a robust manner," he said.
"And they want them to update and correct when they say something that's wrong."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/settlement-secured).
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
