Shares of Tesla (TSLA) are on the rise after Elon Musk said it is time to bring the company's Semi truck to volume production. This follows a recent outperformance in shares of electric truck hopeful Nikola Corporation (NKLA) after the company previewed its upcoming truck launch event. Nikola came public earlier this month via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.
TIME TO BRING SEMI TO VOLUME PRODUCTION: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it is time to bring the company's Semi truck to volume production, Reuters' Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh reported on Wednesday, citing an email seen by the publication. "Production of the battery and powertrain will take place at Giga Nevada," Musk said in the memo, adding that most of the other work will probably take place in other states, but without stating where.
BADGER RESERVATIONS TO OPEN ON JUNE 29: Also working on producing electric and hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks, Nikola saw its shares rise 103.7% on Monday after founder and executive chairman Trevor Milton announced via tweet that reservations for the company's Badger truck will open on Monday, June 29, the same day as "Nikola World 2020." In a tweet, Milton said that, "Breaking: Nikola World 2020 (Badger World) to be announced Monday, June 29th. Badger reservations open same day. Deposit holders will have dibs on tickets for #nikolaworld2020 Phoenix, AZ. The Badger will dominate ICE trucks live. Be there to see it"
Nikola came public earlier this month via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, VectoIQ.
Meanwhile, Andrew Left's Citron Research predicts shares of Nikola will fall over 50% in just one month. The firm best known for short selling said via Twitter that Nikola shares will fall "back to $40 in a month. The anti-Tesla If you buy here you deserve to lose your $$ considering Milton sold just a week ago at $10. When $TSLA had this mkt cap the Model S was scaled and X was produced. There is no real IP at $NKLA and PR's have been overly promo."
WHAT'S NOTABLE: Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives raised the firm's price target on Tesla to $1,000 from $800, while keeping a Neutral rating on the shares. The analyst believes that with demand for Model 3's ramping stronger than expectations in China heading into summer timeframe, the lockdown easing in the U.S./Europe, and some potentially "game changing" battery developments on the horizon, Tesla's stock likely has room to run further. While the stock has been "roaring higher," Ives thinks the main fundamental catalyst continues to be the "massive" China market which is showing clear signs of a spike in demand heading into the rest of this year.
PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, shares of Tesla have gained almost 8% to $1,010.33. Meanwhile, Nikola's stock has plunged about 11% to $70.99, after more than doubling in price over the past week.
Tesla
+64.08 (+6.81%)
Nikola
-7.35 (-9.24%)