Protestors at a Tesla dealership in New York (Leonardo Munoz/Getty Images)

Electric Shock

Tesla stock is slumping into the weekend

Blame tariffs, protests, and Q1 delivery estimates.

3/28/25 2:30PM

Tesla’s stock is down 3.3% today. And while, as we’ve mentioned before, the stock doesn’t really need specific reasons to jump up or down, three factors are likely weighing on it ahead of the weekend.

1) Trump tariffs are going to hurt Tesla, too

While Tesla is more sheltered from President Trump’s auto tariffs than other car companies because it domestically manufactures its electric vehicles sold in the US, levies on parts it imports are certainly going to take a toll. Tariffs negatively affect the company’s aim to lower prices and raise margins. Don’t believe us? CEO Elon Musk, Tesla leadership, and the biggest Tesla bull out there, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, have all said so.

2) Protests are scheduled at Tesla locations around the country Saturday

While it might be tough to put an exact number on how damaging the recent string of Tesla protests have been to the brand’s bottom line, having people picketing out front of hundreds of Tesla locations nationewide this weekend doesn’t seem like it’s going to help. An FBI task force to “crack down on violent Tesla attacks” also doesn’t breed brand confidence. Already, Americans’ impression of the company is at an all-time low, following Musk’s forays into American politics. The vast majority of people are aware of the brand, but don’t want to buy it. And the number of used Teslas listed for sale has jumped 33% this year.

3) It reports Q1 deliveries next week and they’re expected to sting

Tesla is scheduled to report Q1 deliveries before market opening next Wednesday, April 2, and by most accounts vehicle sales are not headed toward Tesla’s promised “return to growth.” A Tesla-compiled list of analyst estimates pegs deliveries at 377,000, down from last year’s 387,000 first-quarter deliveries. Estimates this week from Wedbush and Deutsche Bank are even lower, predicting up to an 11% year-on-year decline.

Chris Stokel-Walker

Bot bias

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Companies are getting AI chatbots to smear their competitors

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Prediction markets have, predictably, been given a boost by the summer of sports

Major platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen huge upticks in users of late, thanks in no small part to what’s felt like a recent sporting smorgasbord, with major competitions across hockey, basketball, and soccer soaking up fans’ time (and spending, clearly) at the outset of summer.

While gaming industry groups may not like it, there’s been a huge change in the methods people are using to put money on the big games, with everyone from fortunate NYC bar owners, to a far less fortunate Spanish supporter, turning to prediction markets to try and turn their sports know-how into cold, hard cash.

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

2026 World Cup Reverses Seasonal Lull for Sports Betting Apps

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

South by Southwest Conference and Festivals

Gold Tesla Cybercabs are piling up, but they’re not picking up passengers yet

Low-volume production started in April. Now people are noticing them more and more in the wild.

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TAKING ACCOUNTS

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Britain announces social media ban for under-16s starting early 2027

The UK government plans to use the same model for the restrictions as Australia — but how successful has that case study been so far?

UK Prime Minister Announces Under-16s Social Media Ban

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Anthropic pulls Fable and Mythos access worldwide after Trump administration bars their use by foreign nationals

Only days after releasing two versions of its next-gen AI model, Anthropic has disabled them for users worldwide.

Anthropic says it received a Friday night order from the Trump administration to suspend access to the models for any foreign national (anywhere in the world) — a group that included some Anthropic employees. In response, the company turned off access to everyone.

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5