Tesla Stock Set to Drop for 4th Day. Why Shares Can’t Get Out of Their Own Way.

Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down about 18% year to date and up about 53% over the past 12 months. (Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Tesla stock was down in early trading on Monday. After rising for five consecutive days, shares are now at risk of a four-day losing streak.

The electric-vehicle maker’s stock was off 0.7% at $328.10, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.1%.

Trading around $328, Tesla stock is roughly $6 higher than the $322.16 level they closed at on June 20, a couple of days before Tesla launched its self-driving taxi service in Austin, Texas.

It was a modest launch, with a handful of Tesla Model Y vehicles ferrying hand-selected passengers around a limited part of Austin with a safety monitor in the front passenger seat. Still, it was a big deal for investors who expect robo-taxis to unlock a new era of earnings growth for the auto maker.

Shares closed at $348.68 on June 23, the day after the robo-taxi service launch. They just haven’t been able to maintain any momentum since.

As always, the stock market is forward-looking, and most of the robo-taxi-related gains appear to have happened before the actual launch of the service. Shares gained 35% between Tesla’s Oct. 10 robo-taxi event, where management demonstrated robo-taxi technology, and when Tesla started ferrying passengers on June 22.

Now, investors appear to be waiting for catalysts such as additional cities and the removal of the safety monitor.

Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down about 18% this year and up about 53% over the past 12 months.

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