Leave it to Tesla Motors (TSLA 9.29%) rock star Elon Musk to spin a reputation-smacking incident as a positive.
Musk turned to the electric-car-maker's blog on Friday, posting details on the Model S sedan fire earlier in the week that sank shares of the high-flying company. Musk explained that the electric car ran into a large metal object on the road, impaling the front module of its battery.
Yes, the battery caught on fire, but according to Musk it could've been worse with a conventional internal-combustion-engine vehicle. There were no injuries in the incident.
Still, the stock still took a 5% hit on the week, but a tipsy valuation will correct itself from time to time.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- Renren (RENN) shares moved higher on reports that Baidu (BIDU 0.14%) would be buying the rest of its daily deals site. Baidu acquired a 59% stake in Renren's Nuomi this summer, and it wouldn't be a bad time for China's leading search engine to go shopping. Baidu's stock hit a fresh 52-week high during the week, and its balance sheet is oozing with cash even after a few recent acquisitions.
- That's one hot sandwich. Potbelly (PBPB -1.75%) was a scorching IPO on Friday. It priced at $14 on Thursday night, only to more than double at the open. It wrapped up its first day of trading at $30.77, up a scintillating 120% higher on the day.
- Facebook (META -1.40%) continues to turn in a strong sophomore year. The leading social-networking website operator is impressing Wall Street with its marketing potential. The latest analyst to wax kindly on the company is Macquarie Equities Research's Ben Schacter. He naturally retained his bullish outperform rating, but he's raising the hit price target on the surging shares from $49 to $62. Facebook will certainly have its challenges as it implements its mobile-monetization strategies, but the market seems to like the dot-com giant that it sold off during the first few months of its public tenure.
