What happened
Investors are sending Tesla's (TSLA 12.06%) share price sliding today as they process a few bits of news, including that the company's CEO, Elon Musk, is now Twitter's largest shareholder and that the Federal Reserve could accelerate its plans to tackle inflation.
As a result, the electric vehicle stock was down by 4.5% as of 10:27 a.m. ET.
So what
Let's start with comments made by Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard yesterday, in which she said that the Fed "will continue tightening monetary policy methodically through a series of interest rate increases and by starting to reduce the balance sheet at a rapid pace as soon as our May meeting."
Image source: Tesla.
Investors already knew the Federal Reserve would be hiking interest rates and reducing its balance sheet, but the directness of her comments made investors' ears perk up.
Higher interest rates are meant to get inflation -- which is at a 40-year high -- under control. But they could also cause the economy to grow at a slower pace, which has sparked fears of a potential recession.
All of this sent investors scurrying and helped cause the S&P 500 to drop more than 1% this morning. And Tesla's shares are likely sliding down right along with it.
Additionally, investors found out yesterday that Musk is now on Twitter's board of directors after he became the social media company's largest shareholder. Tesla investors may be concerned that Musk could be spreading himself too thin -- he's also the CEO of SpaceX -- and might not focus his time enough on Tesla.
Now what
In addition to all of the above, Tesla investors are still likely processing the news that the company delivered 310,000 vehicles in the first quarter, below the 317,000 analysts were expecting.
Missing an estimate that Wall Street made isn't a huge deal, but when you couple it with the fact that Musk may be focusing some of his attention on another company, it's not all that surprising that some Tesla investors are a little concerned right now.
