Tesla’s Crazy Day, in One Chart

By Hannah Recht, Jeremy C.F. Lin, Rita Devlin Marier and Brandon Kochkodin

August 7, 2018

In just 61 characters, Elon Musk changed the future of Tesla. Shares soared, investors reeled and Twitter users had questions for the CEO, whose announcement that he was considering taking Tesla private surprised Wall Street just six days after the company released second-quarter earnings. Here’s our second-by-second recap of the day’s events.

Tesla's Aug. 7 intraday share price

12:19:21—The Financial Times reports Saudi sovereign wealth fund had built a roughly $2B stake in Tesla

12:48:13—Elon Musk tweets that he is considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share

13:40:48—Musk tweets that he won’t be selling his stake

14:13:57—Musk tweets that shareholders can either sell at $420 or maintain a stake in the private company

15:26:48—Musk says in a blog post that the decision is not final and would be subject to a shareholder vote

15:36:33—Musk tweets that investor support is “confirmed”

16:00:00—Tesla shares close up 11 percent