Morning Brief: Tesla’s Stock Slumps Amid NTSB Probe

Good news for Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn and others who are short Tesla. On Tuesday shares of the controversial electric car maker plunged $25, or more than 8 percent, to close at $279.18 after the National Transportation Safety Board announced it is investigating the fatal March 23 crash of a Tesla near Mountain View, California.

“Unclear if automated control system was active at time of crash,” it stated in a tweet. “Issues examined include: post-crash fire, steps to make vehicle safe for removal from scene.” Tesla is the second-largest U.S. equity short, behind Apple, according to S3 Partners, a financial analytics firm. Einhorn has been famously short the stock for more than a year. Shares of Tesla are down nearly 12 percent year-to-date.

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Shares of General Electric surged 4.3 percent on Tuesday, to $13.44, on an otherwise down day for stocks amid rumors that Warren Buffett is buying the beaten down stock, according to Bloomberg. The industrial giant — Tuesday’s most actively traded stock — was the worst performer among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2016. At year-end, the stock was the fourth-largest long of activist investment firm Trian Fund Management. In October Trian gained a seat on the conglomerate’s board.

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Jason Mudrick’s Mudrick Capital Management has sold more than 1.7 million shares of Verso Corporation in the past ten days, reducing its stake to 1.10 percent of the producer of coated papers. The stake has been passive.