Moderna’s Ethics Hurt Their Price and Tesla Loses a Third of its Value in a Week
Moderna
The biotechnology company’s stock dropped more than 13% Tuesday after pledging their COVID-19 vaccine development process would be immune from political pressure. Some investors were hopeful that political forces might lead to vaccine approval before the November 3 election, but Moderna’s promise indicates a vaccine will not be released before going through the full stages of necessary testing regardless of the White House’s intentions.
This decline is very interesting because Moderna said the promise does not shift anything in their development schedule. A significant factor in yesterday’s poor performance could also be the challenges faced by AstraZeneca are turning investors more bearish on a vaccine being developed in the near future.
Tesla
Tesla’s stock price dropped 21% yesterday and is down about 33% since its high at close on August 31, the day it executed a 5-for-1 stock split. Many factors played into the company’s eye-opening decline. Tesla’s stock price nearly doubled from the time it announced the split until it occurred last week, so a correction was not that surprising.
More concerning for Tesla is Nikola’s deal with GM signalling competition in the EV space and a large investment firm reducing its Tesla holdings. Despite all of this, Tesla is still up nearly 300% on the year so things can’t be too bad for Mr. Musk.
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.