Tesla Stock Is Stuck in a Rut. How It Starts Moving Higher Again.

Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock was down 20% year to date, but up 25% over the past 12 months. (Dreamstime)

Tesla stock fell Thursday as investors waited to hear from CEO Elon Musk.

Shares of the electric-vehicle maker dropped 0.7%, closing at $319.41, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each gained 0.5%.

The move follows a 3.5% jump on Wednesday. It was a big move, but Tesla stock has been relatively directionless lately. Since the company launched a robo-taxi service on June 22, shares have fallen nine times and risen eight times, entering Thursday trading.

The average daily move has been almost 3% over that span, but shares stood at $322.16 before the robo-taxi launch. They closed at $321.67 on Thursday, down 49 cents.

Investors might just be waiting to hear from Musk. Tesla is due to report earnings on July 23. Along with earnings, investors will want an update about the robo-taxi service, including how fast it can expand and when safety monitors will be allowed to leave the vehicle. They will also be looking for an update about a lower-priced Tesla model promised for later in 2025. No one has seen the car yet. Investors hope it can help arrest sales declines.

In the first half of 2025, Tesla sold 720,803 vehicles, down about 13% year over year. There were a few reasons for the declines. Musk’s foray into politics turned off some core Tesla buyers, politically left-leaning people looking to go green. Trade tension between the U.S. and China has led Chinese buyers to avoid some U.S.-made products. And Tesla updated its most popular car, the Model Y. Updates can create air pockets in sales while buyers wait for the new model, and car companies ramp production of one version up while slowing production of the older version.

Whatever the reason for sales declines, investors want to have confidence that growth will return. Tesla is expected to report earnings per share of 39 cents, according to FactSet, down from 52 cents reported in the second quarter of 2024. Coming into the second quarter report, earnings per share at Tesla have decreased year over year in five of the past eight quarters.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com