NEW YORK, Jan 24, 2026, 12:25 EST — Market closed.
- Tesla ended Friday little changed after a sharp jump the prior day on a robotaxi update.
- Rivian and Lucid finished lower, keeping pressure on smaller EV names.
- Investors head into Jan. 28 with Tesla results and the Fed decision on the same day.
Tesla shares steadied at Friday’s close after Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company had started Robotaxi rides in Austin without safety monitors in the car, a step investors have been waiting to see outside the lab. (Reuters)
The timing matters. Tesla’s stock has leaned hard on the promise of self-driving and software, not just vehicle volumes, and traders are now watching for proof that the story is moving from talk to revenue.
Next week is loaded even before any new headlines hit. Tesla reports quarterly results on Jan. 28, and the Federal Reserve also wraps a policy meeting that day — two events that can reset risk appetite fast for high-valuation growth names.
Tesla closed down 0.07% at $449.06 on Friday, after rising 4.15% on Thursday. (Investing)
The broader market was mixed on Friday, with the S&P 500 edging up 0.03% while the Dow slipped 0.58%, leaving little help from the tape for EV shares that already trade with a tech-stock beta. (MarketWatch)
TechCrunch reported Tesla began offering passengers robotaxi rides in Austin without a human safety driver in the front seat, after an earlier limited rollout last June that used a safety operator. Musk wrote on X: “Just started Tesla Robotaxi drives in Austin with no safety monitor in the car.” (TechCrunch)
At Davos, Musk also pushed the company’s robotics push, saying Optimus robots could be sold to the public as soon as 2027 and linking that timeline to Tesla’s broader “AI” pitch to investors. (Investopedia)
Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco called the Austin shift “a pivotal moment in proving out its vision-only approach to autonomy,” in a note cited by Investing.com. (Investing)
Musk also leaned into pricing power on software. “The $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve,” he wrote, as Investing.com said Tesla is preparing to move away from one-time purchases toward subscriptions for its Full Self-Driving package — a driver-assistance system that still requires supervision. (Investing)
Rivian closed down 2.27% at $15.95 on Friday, and Lucid fell 3.57% to $11.06, showing the smaller EV names are still trading like funding-and-demand proxies, not defensives. (Investing)
A Form 4 filing showed Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe sold 17,450 shares on Jan. 20 at a weighted average price of about $16.03, under a Rule 10b5-1 plan — a pre-set trading plan used to schedule sales in advance. (SEC)
Investors will get their next hard read on Tesla on Wednesday. The company said it will post fourth-quarter results after market close on Jan. 28 and hold a Q&A webcast at 5:30 p.m. Eastern, with attention likely on margins, the Austin fleet and how quickly software revenue can scale. (Tesla Investor Relations)
Rate risk sits in the background. The Fed’s January meeting runs Jan. 27-28, with the statement and press conference due on Jan. 28 — and EV stocks tend to swing when markets reprice the path for borrowing costs. (Federal Reserve)
But the robotaxi thread cuts both ways. Any safety incident, tighter oversight, or a softer-than-expected earnings outlook could puncture the autonomy premium quickly, and high-multiple names rarely get a second chance in the same week.
When markets reopen on Monday, Jan. 26, traders will be watching whether Tesla’s autonomy news stays “sticky” in price action — and then whether Jan. 28 delivers the details investors still don’t have: scale, timing and margins.
