Tesla rises on robotaxi announcement: Trending ticker

Tesla's shares (TSLA) are moving after CEO Elon Musk posted on X announcing that the company will unveil its robotaxi on August 8. The stock has had a bumpy year so far, with shares of the company down 30% year-to-date.

Yahoo Finance Reporter Pras Subramanian joins Market Domination to analyze Musk's announcement and discuss the long-awaited Tesla Model 2.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination.

Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

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- Time now for the day's Trending Tickers as we approach the closing bell on Wall Street. And we start with Tesla charging up in today's trade. The move coming after CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on X announcing the company will be unveiling a Robotaxi on August 8. Joining us here to discuss is Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian. Pras, it's very convenient that this announcement of an announcement came just after a report from Reuters that Tesla was abandoning its mass market car project.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, you know, it's-- he's declaring this Robotaxi's coming, but then also sort of not sort of announcing or not-- or not confirming whether the model 2 is gonna be canceled or not.

- He did say la-- that the Reuters' report was not correct.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Not-- they're lying again, right? Something like that. But also, not also saying that what's happening to model 2. So anyway, you've got a mix of voices on Wall Street here. Deutsche Bank is saying the good and the bad. The good is they're doubling down on a-- on a technology that is favorab-- favorably economics. Few-- a few OEMs can actually imitate this sort of software solution here.

But then the bad is the model 2 is not happening potentially. And that's like a driver of long-term growth for the stock. It mean better-- higher margins, volume play, improved free cash flow. Those are the things that are sort of concern without the model 2. You want-- Tasha Keeney's out there with ARK saying this is 2/3 over $2,000, our price target, is the autonomy. Then you have Craig Irvin at ROTH [? write ?] [? miles ?] saying, it's like an eclipse. It's obfuscating they announce it. Obfuscating the problems of the company. It's a momentum trade, right, today, but obfuscating the fundamental problems at Tesla right now.

- I mean, I do wonder-- I mean, the challenge-- in a way, it's easier, I think, as a member of the media to try to figure out Tesla because it's like, oh, this person said that, this person said this, put them together, maybe it's this. As an analyst, when you're used to very heavily regulated communications from companies that you believe can be reliable, all these sorts of things, very different when it comes to Tesla.

And I'm just curious, will there ever be a point where folks who have made up their mind on the company, one way or the other, would ever be persuaded that things are actually the opposite direction? Right? You have your permabears in Tesla, you have your permabulls on Tesla, it does not seem like there is much in the middle. Well, we've now, you know, changed our model materially based on some development.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah. It's almost like the jobs reality distortion field where people get sucked in, and they want to believe whatever the good side is of whatever Musk proclamation we see. And this was basically a proclamation at the end of the bell-- after the bell on Friday that just turned the tide from a really bad day for the stock after a bad week. We're talking about this to, look at us now, wait till August, we're gonna see this Robotaxi. No pedals, no wheels. But then, on the flip side is, well, where is the model 2? That's supposed to be a huge growth driver. So you can see both sides.

- Well, and the other reminder is, unveiling a new product and actually making the product and bringing it to market are two very different things, especially when it comes to Tesla. Look at the gap between announcing the Cybertruck and coming out with the Cybertruck. Look at the promises of full self-driving and what it actually does. I mean, we've seen this movie before.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, I mean, those regulatory hurdles aside, a lot of analysts are talking about, can we see something? And I think this is, at least in that step, we're gonna see--

- It's something.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: --what is a model 2 or Robotaxis? We're gonna see a new product. I think it's a big deal aside from everything else.