If you haven’t been keeping tabs on Tesla’s stock price (understandable, it’s like the 1,025th most interesting thing that is happening in a world plagued by chaos), you’ve missed a whole lot of volatility. Crucially, you may have also missed its index displaying the dreaded “death cross,” a historical indicator of a likely downturn for the company.
Business Insider called out the event, which has been hitting the stock indexes of some major players over the last couple of weeks as tariff trouble has hit just about everyone. Tesla is just the latest to see the symbol of bearishness, which occurs when a company’s 50-day moving average crosses and drops below the 200-day average.
The “death cross” showing itself for Tesla shouldn’t come as a huge shock, just given how wild a ride the electric vehicle manufacturer’s value has undergone in the last few months, spurred in large part by the fact that its CEO seems to be more interested in playing wrecking ball to the federal government than actually running the company. Tesla has seen more than a third of its value wiped off the board since the start of the year, despite some spikes along the way when it seemed like Musk might be able to eke out some preferential treatment from the Trump administration. He did get a free advertisement for the company in front of the White House, but that only came after widespread protests against the company put a dent in its reputation and future prospects.
Tesla is far from alone in flashing the “death cross.” The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both showed it as well on Monday, as the indexes continue to fluctuate in wild and somewhat unpredictable ways thanks to the endless uncertainty that the Trump administration has introduced to the market through its blanket tariffs and “will they, won’t they” exceptions that keep getting tacked on and taken off.
Seeing that Tesla got hit with the death cross might provide a little thrill in a Tim Walz laughing at Tesla’s declining stock price kinda way. But I have to be honest, as someone who is not fully immersed in the financial markets, the chart pattern reading kinda strikes me as astrology for guys in suits. Like, because the line displays a pendant shape, that means it’s primed to break out? What does that even mean? You might as well say it’s a good time to buy because Mercury is in retrograde.
Anyway, analysts apparently don’t think death crosses are as reliable of an indicator as they are sometimes described by chart readers. According to Reuters, about half the time that a death cross appears, it marks the worst point for the index rather than a harbinger of a steeper decline. Regardless, it’s probably fine to taunt Tesla-maxxers with this news if you want an easy laugh.
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