Musk Trump Tesla Feud Narrative Twist Stock

Getty Images

Analyst: Musk-Trump feud a major twist in Tesla’s stock market story

And for Tesla, narrative matters more than fundamentals.

6/6/25 10:54AM

Barclays’ Dan Levy is one of the few brave Wall Street analysts willing to wade into the Trump-Musk spectacle, publishing a note Friday with thoughts on how to make market sense of the remarkable public bust-up that wiped $150 billion or so from Tesla. Levy, who has an “equal weight” rating on the shares, writes:

“We believe the broader significance of the exchange is that it reflects a reversal of Tesla’s narrative, which had been at a high.
As a reminder, Tesla’s strength post election was largely off the excitement of Elon Musk’s connection with Donald Trump.
We’d argue that the move was likely overkill, but given the strength of the stock in the face of weak fundamentals, we are not fully shocked that an optical blow to the narrative drove a move like this...
We remain slightly negatively biased on the stock — it’s still possible that the Robotaxi launch underwhelms. And perhaps more importantly, we believe the stock hasn’t fully confronted weak fundamentals / challenged auto sales, which don’t seem to matter… until they eventually matter.”

For much of the last year, the ability of Tesla shares to shake off a long string of staggeringly bad news on its core automotive business left fundamentally minded analysts flummoxed. And in many ways, as Levy commented, the right comp for Tesla is bitcoin or some other crypto asset, which has no actual business and trades on market vibes.

That’s because markets are not just bloodless discounting machines constantly calculating the potential for profits over the next 12 to 18 months. They’re also a human institution. And when humans are involved, stories matter. This is even more the case for stocks with a large chunk of individual investors holding shares. About 30% of Tesla shares are thought to be owned by retail traders.

Over the last decade, no one has been more of a master manipulator of market narratives than Elon Musk, who’s combined his extremely online public profile and fantastical visions of the future with periods of actually impressive business performance. The result? A remarkably high — and more or less durable — market premium for the shares.

Then Musk went to DC. As a result of his immersion in right-wing politics and identification with Trump, the story surrounding Tesla has shifted, as Levy said, to one where Tesla’s strength is largely derived from Musk’s personal connection with Trump. It nearly doubled in value in the month after the election, making it a major Trump trade.

With that connection ruptured — perhaps permanently — die-hard Tesla bulls are in the market for a new narrative.

Intel massive stock move after Q1 earnings report

Intel soars by the most in decades after crushing Q1 earnings

A pretty good day.

Matt Phillips1h

Luke Kawa1h

The chip rally is getting so intense, even Qualcomm gets to surge

If you’re a good host, even the last person who shows up to the party gets to have a good time.

On that note, beleaguered Qualcomm — the worst-performing member of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index this year — is staging a furious rally on Friday, with the industry poised to deliver its 18th consecutive session of gains.

Intel’s earnings are buoying the semi space broadly on Friday, and Qualcomm isn’t being left out. Options activity is also elevated and tilted toward the bull side. As of 9:56 a.m. ET, more than 48,000 calls have changed hands, roughly double its full-day average for the past 20 sessions. Its put/call ratio of 0.17 is well below the 20-day average of 0.44.

The San Diego-based firm has been negative in 2026 since the seventh session of the year, and even with today’s advance, remains mired in the red year to date. The stock cratered after reporting Q1 earnings in early February because its poor Q2 guidance seemingly confirmed fears that smartphone sales would come under pressure from rising memory chip prices and limited availability. Smartphone chips are still Qualcomm’s primary business, accounting for nearly two-thirds of revenues in its most recent quarter, and memory chip sellers appear to be incentivized to meet demand from major AI customers first.

Qualcomm reports Q2 earnings next Wednesday, but that release will likely be overshadowed by the four Magnificent 7 hyperscalers releasing results after the close.

Matt Phillips3h

Analysts applaud Intel’s massive Q1

Intel’s massive Q1 numbers and mega Q2 guidance shocked Wall Street and sent shares across the semiconductor industry higher Friday morning.

Here’s how Wall Street analysts are characterizing the far better-than-expected results:

DA Davidson (rating: “neutral,” price target: $77): “Strong 1Q26 earnings that were highlighted by a significant beat on top and bottom-line expectations. Results in the quarter reflect the growing importance of CPUs and advanced packing. We view the recent Terafab announcement as a proof point that Intel is likely to see continued customer acquisition as the United States demands more domestic semiconductor manufacturing.”

Barclays (rating: “equal weight,” price target: $65): “The sizable top-line and gross margin beat caught us by surprise as our expectation was for tight supply in Q1. Mgmt expects the supply situation to improve through the year and for yields to improve, which should support growth in server.”

HSBC (rating: “buy,” price target: $100): “The market has been
underestimating Intel’s CPU average selling price upside as well as its ability to re-allocate its own foundry capacity to unlock further CPU unit growth, considering a CPU shortage environment that we expect to persist until 2027e.”

Bernstein: (rating: “market perform,” price target: $65): “Server strength seems demonstrably real, client seems to be holding up for now, commentary around 18A/14A was positive, and there remains hopes for forthcoming packaging announcements. That being said, there were quite a few nuggets for the bears as well; namely while 18A yields are seemingly running better than expected they apparently remain underwhelming, and ASP increases are being met by cost inflation.”

JPMorgan (rating: “underweight,” price target: $45): “EPS quality issues, 2H gross margin headwinds, structural OpEx creep, and a Foundry breakeven timeline that is likely to push beyond YE CY27 keep us at UW even as we raise estimates.”

Intel crushes Q1 earnings expectations, forecasts strong Q2 revenue, shares soar

DA Davidson (rating: “neutral,” price target: $77): “Strong 1Q26 earnings that were highlighted by a significant beat on top and bottom-line expectations. Results in the quarter reflect the growing importance of CPUs and advanced packing. We view the recent Terafab announcement as a proof point that Intel is likely to see continued customer acquisition as the United States demands more domestic semiconductor manufacturing.”

Barclays (rating: “equal weight,” price target: $65): “The sizable top-line and gross margin beat caught us by surprise as our expectation was for tight supply in Q1. Mgmt expects the supply situation to improve through the year and for yields to improve, which should support growth in server.”

HSBC (rating: “buy,” price target: $100): “The market has been
underestimating Intel’s CPU average selling price upside as well as its ability to re-allocate its own foundry capacity to unlock further CPU unit growth, considering a CPU shortage environment that we expect to persist until 2027e.”

Bernstein: (rating: “market perform,” price target: $65): “Server strength seems demonstrably real, client seems to be holding up for now, commentary around 18A/14A was positive, and there remains hopes for forthcoming packaging announcements. That being said, there were quite a few nuggets for the bears as well; namely while 18A yields are seemingly running better than expected they apparently remain underwhelming, and ASP increases are being met by cost inflation.”

JPMorgan (rating: “underweight,” price target: $45): “EPS quality issues, 2H gross margin headwinds, structural OpEx creep, and a Foundry breakeven timeline that is likely to push beyond YE CY27 keep us at UW even as we raise estimates.”

Hundreds of advocates for marijuana legalization rally and smoke pot outside the White House.

It seems like the US weed industry finally got what it wanted. Why did pot stocks plunge?

The DOJ’s order to reclassify marijuana could be a boon for US cannabis companies. But the devil is in the details.

J. Edward Moreno3h

Claire Yubin Oh6h

TSMC surges as Taiwan eases single-stock investment limits for funds

TSMC’s ADRs jumped 3% in premarket trading on Friday after the island’s financial regulator announced plans to ease limits on funds’ allocations to single funds.

Previously, active fund managers were limited to allocating up to a maximum of 10% of their net assets into any one company. Under the revised framework, local equity funds and active exchange-traded funds that solely invest in Taiwanese stocks can allocate up to 25% of their assets in any listed company if it has a weighting above 10% in the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The new rule, announced Thursday, will come into effect after the regulator issues an order on Friday. Relaxing the long-standing rule will mean fewer restrictions on local money managers taking full advantage of TSMC’s skyrocketing share price. TSMC, now Asia’s largest company by market cap, has seen its share price surge 150% in the past year — adding more to its gains in the last few days after crushing estimates in its first-quarter results.

TSMC is currently the only company that meets that 10% criterion, holding some 44% weight in Taiwan’s benchmark index, though the latest change also moved other large-cap Taiwanese stocks higher on Friday.