Tesla’s stock is climbing on Monday as CEO Elon Musk disclosed the purchase of more than 2.5 million shares worth approximately $1 billion.
Shares of the electric vehicle maker rose more than 5% in morning trading.
Musk purchased various amounts of shares at different prices on Friday, according to a regulatory filing. The move may be viewed by the markets as the billionaire remaining confident in the company’s future.
Earlier this month, Tesla released a proposed pay package for Musk that would possibly make him the world’s first trillionaire if he hits a series of extremely aggressive targets for the company over the next decade.
Tesla said in a regulatory filing that it will hand Musk shares worth as much as 12% of the company in a dozen separate packages if the company meets certain performance targets, including massive increases in car production, share price, and operating profit. If approved by shareholders, the new pay package could make Musk the world’s first trillion-dollar executive, and would mark a new level of outsized pay in a country already known for extreme compensation. But the payoff is in shares, not cash, and the goals are extreme as well.
To get his first package of shares equivalent to 1% of the company, Musk would have to convince investors in the stock market that Tesla is worth $2 trillion in total, double what they value it today, and also hit several other milestones. To receive all the shares offered and make him the world’s first trillion-dollar man would require that market value to then rise to $8.5 trillion, double that of the world’s most valuable company now, chipmaker Nvidia.
Investors have grown increasingly worried about the trajectory of the company after Musk had spent so much time in Washington this year, becoming one of the most prominent officials in the Trump administration in its bid to slash the size of the U.S. government.
Tesla is set to hold its annual shareholders meeting on Nov. 6, where investors will vote on the new pay package.
Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O)
China accused Nvidia on Monday of violating the country’s antimonopoly laws and said it would step up scrutiny of the world’s leading chipmaker, escalating tensions with Washington as the two countries held trade talks this week.
Chinese regulators said a preliminary investigation found that Nvidia didn’t comply with conditions imposed when it purchased Mellanox Technologies, a network and data transmission company.
The one-sentence statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation did not mention any punishment, but said it would carry out “further investigation.”
Nvidia didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Regulators said in December that they were investigating the company for suspected violations stemming from the $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox. The deal was completed in 2020 after the Chinese regulator gave conditional approval for Nvidia to buy the Israeli company.
The announcement, which came as the two sides held trade talks in Spain, is the latest tit-for-tat move between Washington and Beijing in their trade battle over technology, focusing on semiconductors and the equipment to make them.
On Saturday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was carrying out an antidumping investigation into certain analog IC chips imported from the U.S., including commodity chips commonly made by companies such as Texas Instruments and ON Semiconductor.
The ministry also announced a separate anti-discrimination probe into U.S. measures against China’s chip sector.
A day earlier, the U.S. had sanctioned two Chinese companies accused of acquiring equipment for major Chinese chipmaker SMIC.
The talks in Madrid between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng concluded Monday with Bessent telling reporters the two sides reached a framework deal for U.S. ownership of TikTok. However, details were scant, and Chinese negotiators provided no confirmation of a deal.
It’s the fourth round of discussions after meetings in London, Geneva, and Stockholm. The two governments have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal tariffs, staving off an all-out trade war.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia has become central to the U.S.-China trade war, as the two sides battle for tech supremacy. The artificial intelligence boom has fueled demand for Nvidia’s advanced processors, making it the world’s most valuable company.
The company has faced restrictions on chip exports to China imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration that were then reinforced by President Donald Trump. Nvidia won approval in July from the Trump administration to sell China its H20 graphics processing unit, which is less powerful and designed to comply with U.S. export curbs.
In all, more than 1.9 million Americans had been unemployed “long term” in August, meaning they had been out of work for 27 weeks or more, a critical cliff when it comes to finding a job. That’s nearly double the 1 million people who were in a similar position in early 2023.
“We have a low-hire, low-fire environment — and that stagnancy means there aren’t a lot of new positions for people to move into,” said Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at the jobs site Indeed. “The probability of becoming unemployed has not gone up that much, but if you become unemployed, it’s much harder to find a job.”
Six months of unemployment often signals a turning point in a person’s job search, according to economists. They’ve likely run out of unemployment insurance benefits and severance payments by then, leaving them on shakier financial ground. People who have been unemployed for more than six months are also more likely to become discouraged and stop looking for work altogether.
The data shows how broadly the job market has cooled ahead of the Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated meeting this week, when policymakers are expected to lower interest rates for the first time this year. Two months of weaker-than-expected jobs numbers, including widespread revisions, have led policymakers to voice concerns that the labor market could continue deteriorating.
Since 1950, the long-term unemployment rate has exceeded 25 percent in only a few other instances and always after a recession: for one month, June 1983, after an inflation-fueled recession; for eight years following the Great Recession in 2009; and for about a year and a half during the coronavirus pandemic.
The pickup in months-long unemployment coincides with a broader cooling in the labor market. Although the overall unemployment rate, 4.3 percent, is near longtime lows, many employers have frozen hiring as they wait to see how new tariffs and other economic policies will affect business. Layoffs are rising, too, with weekly claims for unemployment insurance reaching the highest level since October 2021.
For the unemployed, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find new work — now an average of six months, a month longer than before the pandemic, according to Labor Department data. And for the first time in four years, there are more unemployed people in the United States than there are job openings.
“I have 15-plus years in IT, I thought I should be able to step into any job,” said Steve Beal, 47, who has been unemployed since March 2024, when he was laid off from a six-figure job at Best Buy’s corporate office in Minnesota. “But so far I’ve applied to at least 300 jobs, and it’s all rejections. Even with referrals, networking, résumé services, I haven’t gotten anywhere.”
Separate data this week showed that Americans’ confidence in their ability to find a new job is at a record low. A survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that people say there’s less than a 45 percent chance they could find a job in the next three months if they were to suddenly become unemployed, which is the lowest reading since the survey began in 2013.
Felicia Enriquez, a paralegal in Los Angeles, lost her job in July 2024. In the 14 months since, she’s applied to hundreds of openings without success. Local government jobs have dried up, and even temp agencies are coming up empty, she said.
Her unemployment benefits — $400 a week — ran out in February, and she’s six months behind on rent. So far, Enriquez’s landlord has been understanding, but she said she worries about what will happen to her and her 16-year-old daughter when that goodwill runs out. Already, she’s relying on food stamps to buy groceries.
“It gets harder the longer it gets. That’s the vicious part,” the 47-year-old said. “At the beginning, when you lose your job, you have money saved up, you get unemployment, things are okay. But when that runs out, then you really have to worry.”
Studies have found that workers who are unemployed long-term are less likely to find jobs than others. They’re also more likely to drop out of the workforce entirely. A 2014 study by economists at Princeton University found that nearly half of those unemployed for seven months or longer, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, ended up leaving the labor force.
“The longer people linger in unemployment, the more likely they are to lose their contacts and connections, and after an extended period of time, their skills can depreciate,” said Francine Blau, a labor economist and professor emeritus at Cornell University. “And there is the possibility that employers see [long-term unemployment] as a sign of a less desirable worker.”
Finding work has been especially tough for younger workers and recent college graduates, who are entering a job market with few entry-level openings. The share of unemployed workers who are new to the labor force remains elevated after hitting a 37-year high earlier this summer.
Nelson E. Caballero graduated in December with a degree in communications from Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. He said he’s emailed his résumé and cover letter to every public relations firm in the Washington, D.C., area with entry-level openings but has gotten just three responses in nine months: All telling him they’re not hiring at the moment.
The 27-year-old is living with his parents and fretting about what comes next.
“I feel stuck,” Caballero said. “Moving out, buying a car, getting married — it all feels like a pipe dream right now. I don’t mind living with mom and dad, but they can’t keep supporting me forever.”
In Grantsville, Utah, Jessica Howard lost her job seven months ago at a health care technology company, after 17 years there. Since then, she’s spruced up her résumé several times and applied to nearly 400 jobs. But finding a new position feels impossible, she said, especially since she’s competing with many others laid off this year.
For now, Howard has temporarily put her mortgage on hold and is using savings to pay for food, gas, and other necessities. But it’s been tough to keep sending out applications and preparing for interviews after months of trying.
“They say not to take it personally, but after a while, the rejections really get to you,” she said. “It kills your confidence, and you start to wonder: Do I really have these skills? Have I ever had these skills? It starts to break you down emotionally.”
Is the Fed rate policy issues is the public’s fault? It appears the public has not been returning their questionnaires.🤔
The Fed has relied on sample consumer survey data provided by the Labor Dept to supply our CPI models. The bi-annual survey data techniques have been around since the 60’s. They should be replaced by real live data.
What’s the cost of keeping these outdated data sources?
The CPI has been overstated due to the use of sample rent data from only 7K households. How many people aren’t returning their surveys?
BLS “Shelter Rent” survey data is still at +4% inflation. Actual US apartment rents have been flat and even negative since 2022. Overstated rent data has steered the Fed to increase interest rates 11 times and to hold rates too high.
Is there an easy solution? Use real rent data gathered monthly by companies that produce national rent information.
Fed Chair justified rate hikes and said “rents were stubborn”. As it turns out our data collection methods were stubborn. The Fed’s too high rate policy increased borrowing costs to future home owners. Over 5 million households are waiting for lower cost mortgages. The banks doubled credit rates; student loan defaults went to over 62%.
The data collection issue at the Fed is now the public’s fault?