New York, Feb 10, 2026, 09:49 EST — Regular session
- Tesla shares picked up roughly 1.7% at the open, extending Monday’s bounce.
- A new report on xAI’s latest financing round put Tesla’s AI and robotaxi narrative back in the spotlight, with ties to Elon Musk drawing renewed attention.
- This week’s U.S. jobs numbers are looming, with investors on edge—they could shift rate expectations and hit high-growth stocks.
Tesla jumped 1.7% to $424.36 early Tuesday, building on Monday’s $417.32 close. The opening print landed at $418.08, with shares dipping to $416.74 at the session’s low.
This shift is significant: Tesla is back in the rate-sensitive, narrative-driven camp. Lately, traders have stopped viewing it as just another car company—instead, it’s a proxy for AI and self-driving bets. That mix makes the stock especially volatile whenever macro data forces a rethink on rate expectations.
The Musk effect isn’t subtle. News swirling around his various companies tends to jolt interest—and money—in Tesla’s direction, or send it spinning off, particularly when topics like chips, data centers, or autonomous driving crop up.
Apollo Global Management is nearing completion of a $3.4 billion loan to an investment vehicle aiming to purchase Nvidia chips for leasing to Musk’s xAI, according to Reuters, which cited The Information on Monday. The deal could wrap up as early as this week, with Valor Equity Partners handling the arrangement, the report noted. 1
Alphabet’s Waymo is now running fully autonomous in Nashville, it announced, ratcheting up driverless activity as competition intensifies in the U.S. The company says its fleet tops 2,500 vehicles across multiple markets. In Nashville, Waymo is partnering with Lyft to offer commercial rides. 2
Tesla has been working to steer attention toward its autonomy push, as its core EV business starts to show signs of maturity. Back in late January, the company announced a $2 billion investment in xAI and confirmed that Cybercab production remained scheduled for this year. CFO Vaibhav Taneja also told investors to expect capital expenditures topping $20 billion in 2024. “(That) makes rollout metrics — not deliveries — the most important leading indicator from here,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com. 3
On the other hand, investors are still shelling out for revenue that hasn’t materialized yet. That keeps Tesla exposed—one offhand headline can jolt sentiment hard.
Still, that rebound in the stock could evaporate fast if investors sense delays on the autonomy timeline, or if the focus swings back to rising borrowing costs. Competition is getting tougher. And there’s no getting around the big risks—execution, regulatory, and the lingering uncertainty over fully driverless services.
Macro takes center stage next, with the Labor Department finally set to release the overdue January jobs data on Wednesday. Economists in a Reuters poll are looking for a 70,000 gain in nonfarm payrolls. “The demand versus supply question is important for monetary policy,” said Dario Perkins, managing director of global macro at TS Lombard. 4
