Tesla shares recouped some losses triggered by a spat between CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, although a truce appeared uncertain on Friday as a White House official said the president was not keen on talking to his former ally.
The stock rose 4% after a steep fall in the previous session that wiped out $152 billion in market value when the world’s most powerful man and its richest publicly entered a war of words over the tax and spending bill.
Earlier, a Politico report had said Trump and Musk were likely to talk later in the day. Musk had signalled on X he was open to easing tensions with the president, agreeing with calls for a detente from users on the social media platform.
Tensions escalated on Thursday after Musk stepped up his criticism of Trump’s sweeping tax bill, which proposed largely ending the popular $7,500 EV tax incentive by the end of 2025. In response, Trump suggested cuts to the government’s contracts with Musk’s companies, including rocket maker SpaceX.
Tesla stock is down 29.5% this year after a 14% drop on Thursday. Still, the shares trade at 120 times expected earnings, a lofty multiple compared to other automakers and even tech giants such as Nvidia.
The shares have been on a turbulent ride since last July when Musk backed Trump’s White House bid. They surged initially as investors bet on less regulatory pressure for robotaxis, but tumbled due to soft sales and brand fallout from Musk’s political stance.
all Street rebounded on Friday and U.S. Treasury yields jumped as a generally upbeat employment report and a bounce-back in Tesla shares helped put the indexes on track for weekly advances.
All three major U.S. stock indexes surged from the starting gate with robust gains, while bitcoin jumped and crude prices touched their highest level since late April.
The U.S. economy added 139,000 jobs in May, topping analyst expectations, while the unemployment rate held firm at 4.2%, according to the Labor Department. The report also showed hotter-than-anticipated wage growth, rounding out a report that is unlikely to convince the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut its key policy rate in the near-term.
U.S. Treasury yields also rode the wave of the upbeat jobs data. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 7.5 basis points to 4.47%, from 4.395% late on Thursday. The 30-year bond yield rose 5.1 basis points to 4.9346% from 4.884% late on Thursday.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.31%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 6.86 points, or 0.31%
Emerging market stocks fell 1.29 points, or 0.11%, to 1,181.39. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 0.14% to 622.39, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 187.12 points, or 0.50%, to 37,741.61.
The dollar gained ground against major currencies in the wake of the better-than-expected employment data.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.57% to 99.22, with the euro down 0.48% at $1.1389.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 1% to 144.96.