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Tesla falls sharply after Musk and Trump feud gets nasty

The souring of their relationship will likely have a real impact for Tesla’s bottom line, given how much of the company’s business is related to federal credits.

J. Edward Moreno

Tesla is down by double digits after CEO Elon Musk and President Trump had a very public falling out that started off as a budget dispute and escalated to a threat to pull the entrepreneur’s government contracts, marking what appears to be the end of a relationship between the leader of the free world and the world’s richest man.

Musk took issue with the government spending bill the president backed, which the entrepreneur said would add to the government’s debt and undercut the mission he was given to help reduce government spending. The bill also axes the federal EV tax credit for customers, which could dampen demand for Tesla and jeopardizes its revenue from selling regulatory credits, without which Tesla would have posted a loss last quarter.

On Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump responded by saying he’s “very disappointed in Elon.”

“I’ve helped Elon a lot,” he said.

That’s when Tesla began to slip. As the spat escalated, it started to bringing other Trump trades down with it. So far, the dispute has destroyed well over a hundred billion dollars in market value for Tesla alone.

Musk spent a small fortune of his personal wealth getting Trump elected. He responded on X that without him, “Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

Then the gloves came off.

Musk, 54, later (ominously) pointed out that Trump, 78, has 3.5 years left as president “but I will be around for 40+ years…

Then Trump hit him where it hurts. On Truth Social, Trump said the easiest way to save money in the bill would be to cut the many government contracts and subsidies that Musk’s businesses benefit from. In addition to the EV tax credits that have made Teslas more affordable for some, SpaceX counts the US government as one of its largest customers. Musk then alleged that Trump is in the Epstein files.

After Trump was elected, Tesla shares rose as investors banked that Musk’s cozy relationship with the president would benefit the company. But without that relationship, what’s left are policies that mostly hurt Tesla, like tariffs and cutting the EV tax credit. In fact, analysts at JPMorgan estimated the budget bill alone would cut Tesla’s profits in half.

What a ride. At first, Tesla’s relationship with the president was great for the stock. Then the company realized Democrats buy cars, too, and Europeans and other foreign markets didn’t like his political stances. Now, the breakup is hurting.

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Luke Kawa

Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

Intel Earnings Researchers

Wall Street analysts see some issues with Intel’s earnings

Even with the US government as a partial owner, Intel’s turnaround has a long way to go.

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Luke Kawa

Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

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