Electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA) saw a sharp drop in sales in Europe last month, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association has shown.
New car registrations for Tesla (TSLA) across Europe slid 45% in January year-on-year to 9,945 units, according to the data released on Tuesday. Its share of new car registrations in Europe declined to 1% from 1.8% for the same period last year.
Tesla (TSLA) shares were down more than 1% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, with the stock is trading 18% in the red since the start of the year.
The drop comes after CEO Elon Musk made several high-profile interventions into European politics, including backing the far-right AfD party in the recent federal elections in Germany, and may hint at the Tesla’s chief’s waning popularity with the region’s consumers.
Despite recent share price declines, Wedbush’s Dan Ives is one analyst who remains bullish about Tesla (TSLA). He has reiterated his outperform rating and a $500+ (£396) price target on the stock, despite ongoing concerns about CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in US president Donald Trump’s administration.
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Shares in data analytics software maker Palantir (PLTR) tumbled 10.5% on Monday, taking its losses over the past five days to nearly 24%.
Last week, the Washington Post reported that US defence secretary Pete Hegseth sent a memo to senior military leaders to develop plans to cut 8% from defence spending per year for the next five years.
In a statement on Wednesday, acting deputy secretary of defence Robert G Salesses, said: “Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden administration’s FY26 budget.”
He said that offsets were targeted at 8% of the Biden administration’s 2026 budget, totalling around $50bn, which “will then be spent on programs aligned with president Trump’s priorities”.
NasdaqGS – Delayed Quote•USD
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New York-listed shares in Chinese tech giant Alibaba (BABA) fell more than 10 % on Monday, after Trump signed a memo limiting Chinese spending on US tech.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed shares in Alibaba (9988.HK), were down nearly 4% on Tuesday. This comes after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration was looking at tougher chip restrictions on China. A spokesperson for the US Department of State had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK‘s request for comment at the time of writing.
These developments came after Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) unveiled plans on Monday to invest at least CNY380bn (£41.4bn) in its cloud computing and AI infrastructure over the next three years.
Other Chinese tech stocks also fell on the back of these escalations in US-China trade tensions, with Tencent (0700.HK) down 2.5% and e-commerce company JD.com (9618.HK) falling nearly 4% on Tuesday.
Unilever (ULVR.L) made the surprise announcement on Tuesday that Hein Schumacher was stepping down from his role of CEO, to be replaced by chief financial officer Fernando Fernandez.
The consumer goods giant said Schumacher, who has been CEO for less than two years, would be stepping down on 1 March and would leave the company on 31 May.
In the announcement, Unilever (ULVR.L) said there was no change to its 2025 outlook or the company’s medium-term guidance.
In its recently released annual results, Unilever (ULVR.L) warned of a a “slower start to 2025 with subdued market growth in the near term”. In a blow to the UK market, Unilever also announced that it had chosen Amsterdam for the primary listing of its ice cream business, with the spin out expected to complete by the end of 2025.
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said that Schumacher’s exit was a “surprise twist, cutting short his tenure just as he was steering the consumer goods giant toward a leaner, more profitable future”.
“In his place, the company’s CFO Fernando Fernandez – a seasoned Unilever veteran – is taking the helm,” he said. “Markets typically flinch at abrupt leadership shifts but his deep experience, and a clear mandate to push change with urgency, signal a bold move to accelerate the final stretch of Unilever’s (ULVR.L) turnaround.”
Cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC-USD) sold off heavily on Tuesday morning, falling below the $90,000 mark.
Bitcoin was down 8% at $87,914 at the time of writing, marking its lowest point since November, when the cryptocurrency rallied following Trump’s election win.
However, the price of bitcoin is 16% over the past month, as Trump’s return to the White House has seen a ramping up in trade and geopolitical uncertainty.
Other cryptocurrencies were also down on Tuesday, with Ether (ETH-USD) tumbling 11.5% to $2,380, while Solana (SOL-USD) fell nearly 13% to $136.
According to a Bloomberg report, Adrian Przelozny, chief executive of crypto exchange Independent Reserve, said: “The fall in bitcoin prices is likely related to broader macro uncertainty that has hit most financial markets in the last couple of days and is linked to the various tariffs being announced by President Trump.”
