Tesla deliveries drop 13% amid backlash against CEO Elon Musk
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(NEW YORK) — Deliveries of Elon Musk’s Tesla vehicles dropped about 13% compared to a year ago, according to a new release from the company. The decline comes amid criticism of Musk and increased competition.
On Wednesday, Tesla reported it produced over 362,000 vehicles and delivered over 336,000 in the first quarter of 2025. That performance marked a decline compared to the same period one year ago, when Tesla produced over 433,000 vehicles and delivered about 387,000.
Shares of Tesla fell 2.5% in early trading on Wednesday.
The company has faced fierce backlash — including violence and vandalism against its cars and dealerships– as its CEO Elon Musk works in Washington alongside Donald Trump to slash the federal government.
Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at the investment firm Wedbush, a longtime Tesla bull, slammed the report and sharply criticized the company in a note to clients on Wednesday.
“We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses,” Ives said. “They were a disaster on every metric.”
“The time has come for Musk,” Ives added.” It’s a fork in the road moment.”
In its release today, Tesla made no mention of its CEO but did say that a “changeover of Model Y lines across all four of our factories led to the loss of several weeks of production in Q1.” But, it said “the ramp of the New Model Y continues to go well.”
“Thank you to all our customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and supporters who helped us achieve these results,” the release said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The major U.S. airlines thought they were going to have a strong first quarter, but things are not going as well as expected.
Each of the major U.S. airlines has put out guidance pointing to significant economic uncertainty that is directly affecting their domestic bookings this spring.
For its part, Delta was sure this would be a strong first quarter, but this morning the airline’s CEO admitted they were wrong.
Speaking out Tuesday during the J.P. Morgan industrials conference in New York, Southwest, United and American all echoed the same message.
The reasons: Two major plane incidents — including the deadly midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, D.C. — the uncertain economic future, plummeting government travel and reductions to corporate travel.
Overall, bookings fell after the deadly Jan. 29 D.C. crash, rebounded a bit, and then fell again after the Feb. 17 crash in Toronto, in which a regional jet crashed upon landing, overturned and caught fire.
“It caused a lot of shock amongst consumers. There’s a whole generation of consumers that didn’t realize these things can happen,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during the J.P. Morgan conference on Tuesday.
Consumer confidence is unsettled and companies are waiting to see how things shake out. While companies wait, they are booking fewer seats.
Delta expects revenue to be down $500 million — or 4% less than it anticipated this quarter.
Airlines say they will cut capacity — reducing the number of seats they are flying — in order to stabilize the market.
American Airlines has taken a significant hit at the D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport from both the January crash and reductions in government travel.
The airline is reducing capacity there to limit the losses.
United says government travel is down 50%.
One bright spot: Airlines say despite the domestic bookings being weak, international travel remains strong — and airlines believe this summer will still be strong.
(NEW YORK) — Foreign stock markets tumbled on Thursday morning following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a raft of tariffs on America’s trade partners — including a minimum baseline tariff of 10% on all nations.
American trading partners reacted to Trump’s tariffs announcement with condemnation and concern, warning that the measures could touch off a far-reaching and costly trade war.
China — hit with 34% tariffs on top of 20% tariffs Trump previously announced — urged the U.S. to “immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue,” a Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said in a statement.
The tariffs will “endanger global economic development and the stability of the supply chain,” they added.
The European Union — now facing a 20% tariff — is prepared to respond,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “The universal tariffs announced by the U.S. are a major blow to businesses and consumers worldwide,” von der Leyen wrote in a post to X on Thursday.
“We’ll always protect our interests and values,” she added. “We’re also ready to engage. And to go from confrontation to negotiation.”
Asian markets led the global stock market slide on Thursday morning. Japan’s Nikkei index dropped 4% after opening, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 2.4%, South Korea’s KOSPI fell 2.7% and Australia’s ASX 200 fell 2%.
In Europe, the pan-continental STOXX 600 index fell 1.5% to a two-month low. Germany’s DAX fell nearly 2.5%, the French CAC 40 slipped 2.2% and Spain’s IBEX index dropped 1.5%. Britain’s FTSE 100 index lost 1.5%.
U.S. markets closed up ahead of Trump’s Wednesday Rose Garden presentation, but stock futures dropped on Wednesday night. Dow Jones futures plummeted 2.7%, S&P 500 futures sank 3.9% and futures tied to the NASDAQ 100 dropped 4.7%.
European leaders were quick to warn of potential knock-on effects.
In a Facebook post, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the tariffs targeted toward the European Union “wrong.”
She added, “We will do everything we can to work towards an agreement with the United States, with the aim of avoiding a trade war that would inevitably weaken the West in favor of other global players.”
German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Wednesday should be remembered as “inflation day” for American consumers. “The U.S. mania for tariffs could set off a spiral that could also pull countries into recession and cause massive damage worldwide,” Habeck said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Trump “acted for his country, and that is his mandate. Today, I will act in Britain’s interests with mine.” The U.K. is facing a 10% tariff on all its goods.
“Clearly, there will be an economic impact from the decisions the U.S. has taken, both here and globally,” Starmer added. “But I want to be crystal clear: we are prepared, indeed one of the great strengths of this nation is our ability to keep a cool head.”
In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo “once again conveyed to the U.S. government that the recent measures are extremely regrettable and have strongly requested that they be reconsidered.” Japan is facing 24% tarrffs.
The measures, he added, “could have a significant impact on economic relations between Japan and the U.S., and ultimately on the global economy and the multilateral trading system as a whole.”
South Korea’s acting President Han Duck-soo instructed the government to “pour out all of its capabilities at its disposal to overcome this trade crisis,” in a statement quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
Han described Trump’s measures — which included 25% tariffs for all South Korean goods — as “very grave” and warned of “the approach of the reality of a global tariff war.”
Smaller nations also railed against Trump’s measures. Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad criticized the 32% tariffs to be imposed on the Pacific island nation as “disproportionate” and “unfair.”
ABC News’ Jack Moore, Leah Sarnoff, Will Gretsky and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday stood firm on his tariff policy, hours after threatening to escalate a global trade war with a 200% tariff on champagne and other alcohol products from the European Union.
“I’m not going to bend at all,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. When asked whether he would reconsider a fresh round of tariffs set to go into effect on April 2, Trump offered a one-word reply: “No.”
U.S. stocks tumbled, erasing some gains in the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq a day earlier. Shares of large European winemakers also fell on Thursday in apparent reaction to Trump’s tariff threat.
The threat of additional U.S. tariffs came after the EU announced plans to slap tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods, including a 50% tariff on whiskey. Those tariffs marked a response to U.S. duties on steel and aluminum imports.
Trump called on the EU to drop its tariff on whiskey, saying the U.S would otherwise “shortly place” a tariff on alcohol products from the EU.
Trump sharply criticized the EU, describing the organization as “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”
In a post on X, French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said: “Donald Trump is escalating the trade war he chose to unleash. France remains determined to retaliate together with the European Commission and our partners. We will not give in to threats and will always protect our sectors.”
If Trump moves forward with his tariff threat, the move could have a significant impact on American consumers.
The US is the world’s largest importer of wine and champagne. The US imported nearly $4.9 billion worth of Wine each year, with $1.6 billion imported from France, according to World Bank Data. In 2023, the US imported more than $1.7 billion worth of champagne.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. is urging the U.S. and EU to come to a resolution that gets the industry back to “zero-to-zero tariffs.”
“This is a model that has allowed spirits exports between the U.S. and EU to flourish and is in line with President Trump’s vision for fair and reciprocal trade,” the council’s President Chris Swonger wrote in a statement.
In his first term, Trump also targeted the alcohol industry. A series of tit-for-tat tariffs hit alcohol products in the U.S. and the EU. The Biden administration suspended those tariffs, but now the industry is once again in the crosshairs. The industry has still been recovering from that first tariff spat.
For the past three years, “U.S. distillers have worked hard to regain solid footing in our largest export market,” Swonger added.
The tariff threats on Thursday mark the latest skirmish in a global trade war. In response to U.S. duties on steel and aluminum, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs applied to $20.7 billion in U.S. goods, government officials said. The U.S. imports more steel and aluminum from Canada than from any other country.
The Trump administration last week slapped a 10% tariff on China, doubling taxes on Chinese imports to 20%. In response, China imposed retaliatory duties on U.S. agricultural goods, deepening a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The trade tensions triggered recession fears on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs last week hiked its odds of a recession from 15% to 20%. Moody’s Analytics raised its gauge of the probability of a recession to 35%.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
