'Bond King' Bill Gross: "Tesla Moves Like a 'Meme Stock'"

"Rising Stock Prices Despite Fundamental Weakening" Criticized

Bill Gross, co-founder of the global bond management firm PIMCO and known on Wall Street as the 'Bond King,' recently described Tesla's stock price movements as resembling a 'meme stock.'

Bill Gross, Pimco Co-founder [Photo by Bill Gross Official Website Capture]

On the 10th (local time), Bill Gross posted on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), "Tesla is moving like a meme stock," pointing out that "the stock price rises despite weak fundamentals." He added, "These days, new meme stocks appear almost daily," and criticized, "Most of them are pump-and-dump stocks, where prices are artificially driven up to realize profits at the peak."

Meme stocks refer to stocks that gain popularity through word of mouth among individual investors on online communities or social media. A representative example is GameStop, which surged 2400% in 2021, forcing Wall Street institutional investors to cover their short positions. Last month, the stock price soared 47% in a single day following news of the return of Roaring Kitty, the individual investor who led the retail investor rebellion on major communities like Reddit during the GameStop saga. In 2022, Gross revealed that he made short-term profits through options trading on meme stocks like GameStop, referring to these stocks as 'lottery ticket stocks,' which drew attention.

CNBC noted, "Gross views individual investors' trading of Tesla stock as speculative," adding, "He seems to believe that Tesla's electric vehicle delivery performance alone is not sufficient to justify such an astonishing rise in stock price." Tesla's second-quarter deliveries totaled 443,956 units, down 4.8% year-over-year but nearly 15% higher than the previous quarter and exceeding market expectations of 439,000 units, positively impacting the stock price.

On the day, Tesla's stock closed at $263.26, up 0.35% from the previous session on the New York Stock Exchange. It has been rising for 11 consecutive trading days since the 25th of last month. Compared to the year-to-date low recorded in April, it has surged by a remarkable 85%. Reports have emerged that short sellers of Tesla have suffered losses amounting to $3.5 billion (approximately 5 trillion KRW) due to this sharp price increase. Market attention is focused on the upcoming Q2 earnings announcement scheduled for the 23rd and the robo-taxi reveal planned for next month.

Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk won a lawsuit over a $500 million (approximately 700 billion KRW) severance pay claim filed by former Twitter employees. After acquiring Twitter in October 2022, Musk laid off 3,000 to 4,000 employees, more than half of the total workforce. The plaintiffs argued that Musk violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by paying only one month's severance pay instead of up to six months as required under the company's layoff plan. However, the court ruled that one-time cash payments like severance pay are not subject to the law, siding with Musk.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.