Tesla Stock Rises to End Good Week. Thank the Usual Suspects. -- Barrons.com

By Al Root

Tesla stock rose Friday, giving shares a chance to snap a three-week losing streak. Retail traders, as usual, are helping.

Shares of the EV maker were up 0.6% at $321.52 on Friday morning, while the SP 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

Early prices leave Tesla shares up 3.3% for the week. If the stock is stable, or up, on Friday, it will snap a three-week losing streak that sent shares down 24%, including a brutal 18% drop the week Tesla reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings.

Tesla reported about $400 million in operating profit. Wall Street was looking for closer to $1.7 billion. What's more, management didn't have much new to say about Tesla's artificial-intelligence efforts. The AI-trained robo-taxi business, launched in Austin, Texas, in June 2025, is rolling out slowly, and the company is still getting ready, but hasn't started, to mass produce AI-trained robots.

Through the recent declines, retail investors have continued to snap up shares, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Arun Jain, who tracks retail trading activity.

New retail inflows to Tesla stock totaled about $372 million over the five trading days through Wednesday. That's up from $121 million the prior week-long period.

More retail buying can boost shares, but it hasn't helped lately. Retail traders bought almost $800 million in new Tesla stock over the three weeks shares have been falling. The last time retail traders took money off the table was the end of June, with outflows from Tesla stock amounting to $130 million.

Tesla has always been a popular stock with small retail investors. They hold roughly 40% of the stock available to trade, double the percentage retail traders hold of other large tech stocks, according to Bloomberg.

Recent trading patterns show they are as confident as ever in the company's future. This week, that's been enough to help stem recent declines.

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

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 07, 2026 10:29 ET (14:29 GMT)