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Tesla shares nudge higher as Q2 inventory dip weighs on delivery hopes

3 min read
Marcin FrąckiewiczMarcin Frąckiewicz

NEW YORK, July 6, 2026, 09:08 (EDT)

  • Tesla was up 1.13% to $397.90 in premarket trading after dropping 7.49% at the close.
  • Tesla’s Q2 deliveries came in 28,368 cars above its Q2 output, suggesting an inventory dip worth 6.3% of what it produced.
  • Nasdaq says July 3 will be a full market holiday for Independence Day. Regular trading hours Monday are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET.

Tesla NASDAQ:TSLA traded higher before the bell Monday but recovered just 14% of Friday’s slide. The stock had sold off after record deliveries failed to hold buyers.

The stock was not dealing with a soft market. At 07:24 a.m. ET, Reuters put Dow futures down 0.04%. S&P 500 futures were up 0.44% and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 1.1%. Chip names traded higher after the holiday-shortened week. “This week, investors will continue to question technology valuations,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. Reuters

MeasureLatest readComparison
Tesla premarket$397.90, +1.13%Shares up $4.45 before the bell
Tesla last close$393.45, -7.49%Lost $31.85 on July 2
Tesla 5-day move+3.62%Remains in the green for the week
Tesla YTD move-12.51%Still off for 2026

Tesla’s July 2 update had eyes on the 480,126 delivery count, but the bigger surprise was the delivery-production gap. The company delivered 28,368 more cars than it made last quarter, most of it Model 3/Y. That signals Tesla dipped into inventory, not just cranked up production.

Q2 categoryProductionDeliveriesDeliveries minus productionGap / production
Model 3/Y442,936467,76224,826 more5.6% higher
Other models8,82212,3643,542 more40.1% higher
Total451,758480,12628,368 more6.3% higher

That’s important since Tesla stock trades on growth. Now, any outperformance needs to show up in earnings, price, margins, or higher output. Delivery beats only support the income line if they don’t rely too much on price cuts, trade-in deals, or low-margin models.

Tesla’s internal sell-side consensus put Q2 deliveries at 406,024 and energy storage at 13.8 GWh. The automaker came in 18.3% above the vehicle estimate but logged storage deployments of 13.5 GWh, missing that line by 0.3 GWh.

Gary Black, The Future Fund’s managing director, posted on X that Tesla shares could bounce this week as analysts boost Q2 and 2026 earnings forecasts. But Black called Tesla “fully priced,” pointing to a high multiple on 2026 earnings and argued the recent EV demand was probably due to rising gas prices, not self-driving buzz. Stocktwits

Morningstar, Inc. NASDAQ:MORN analyst Seth Goldstein boosted his Tesla fair value estimate to $450 from $425 following the latest delivery numbers, which he said came in about 20% above consensus. Goldstein wrote he was surprised by the July 2 selloff but still sees the shares as fairly valued and tells investors to wait for a bigger margin of safety.

Ross Gerber at Gerber Kawasaki went the other way in the quality debate. “Market had a negative reaction to good Tesla sales numbers,” he posted on X, quoted by Benzinga. He pointed to lower gas prices bringing “less demand” and said Tesla “make just 3 models.” Benzinga

Tesla dropped another autonomy headline for traders during the long weekend. Reuters wrote that Tesla now says its robotaxi is live in Miami, after starting unsupervised robotaxi rides in Austin back in June and planning Dallas and Houston next. Waymo from Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ:GOOGL and Amazon.com, Inc.’s NASDAQ:AMZN Zoox are also in the robotaxi race.

Tesla’s Miami launch was limited, Investor’s Business Daily said. The report noted the geofenced zone included sections of West Miami, part of Coral Gables and Sweetwater. It left out downtown, the airport and Miami Beach.

Tesla will post its Q2 numbers after markets close on July 22 and will hold a webcast at 5:30 p.m. ET. The market focus is on whether the company’s delivery beat of 28,368 vehicles actually drove healthy margins or just moved more old inventory.

Marcin Frąckiewicz

About the author

Marcin Frąckiewicz

Marcin Frąckiewicz is the founder of TechStock² and CEO of TS2 Space. He writes about publicly traded space and satellite companies, telecommunications, AI infrastructure and the market forces shaping those sectors. Follow him on Google News or LinkedIn.