Elon Musk Tweets About Tesla Sales, the SEC, and a Special Offer From SpaceX (marketwatch.com)

Tesla's model 3 is now one of the five top-selling sedans in America (while sales of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class are down 28 percent through September), Bloomberg reports. Elon Musk tweeted out a link to their article on Thursday -- but it was his other tweet, a satirical criticism of the SEC, that made headlines. MarketWatch reports: Tesla shares ended 7% lower on Friday as Wall Street reacted to Musk's tweet seemingly out of nowhere late Thursday about the "Shortseller Enrichment Commission." Musk also tweeted that day that short sellers were "value destroyers" and should be illegal. Friday's losses for Tesla "produced more than half a billion in paper profit for the shorts," S3 Partners LLC, which tracks real-time short interest data, said in a note. Since news of the Musk's settlement with the SEC, shorts are up $941 million, S3 Partners said. "Clearly short positions are building in the wake of strong selling by longs, as Musk demonstrates a refusal to keep away from controversy," the note said.
The article notes that last Saturday the SEC settled charges that Musk misled investors with a tweet about taking Tesla private. "Terms of the settlement included requiring Tesla to rein in Musk's social-media communications, but it was unclear when Tesla intends to implement that.... The settlement has yet to be court-approved."

On Friday Musk was back on point, tweeting out the news that Tesla owners "can refer someone to buy a Tesla & get any image they want laser etched in glass & sent to deep space for millions of years."

Comments

Mercedes sales decline

[McGruber]

(while sales of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class are down 28 percent through September)

The Mercedes dealership in Atlanta is basically a huge, 4 story parking garage. About half of the front bottom level is the dealer showroom and there is big facade on the front of the building, so it doesn't quite look like a typical parking garage. The other half of the front of the building is the entrance to the service area -- I think it is about two big garage doors wide. If you drive by before the Dealership opens at (I think) 8 am, you'll see a line of Mercedes cars waiting to get into the service area. I notice the line because it frequently backs up out into the travel lanes on Piedmont Road.

This Mercedes dealership is in a very new and shiny building, probably less than 10 years old, so I was really surprised a couple months ago when I saw construction workers tearing down the front facade of the building -- why would such a new building need major repairs already? It turned out they were installing a giant window on the top deck. The dealership now usually parks a C-class and another car behind that window, and they keep them lit up in spotlights 24/7. It's not a very tasteful display -- it's really a tacky, 3-D billboard, but I guess it is not considered a billboard because it is part of the building.

Anyway, thanks to the design of their building, whenever I pass by this Mercedes dealership, I think tacky product that needs to be frequently brought in for fixing. I am not surprised that their sales are down 28-percent.

I do not own any TSLA stock, nor am I shorting it.