Tesla Trading Pattern Looks Bleak After Tough Start to 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. investors just closed out the worst half-yearly run since June 2019, and the electric-car maker's shares are approaching a technical level that some chart watchers see as a harbinger of further losses.

The lackluster performance in recent months has culminated with the stock now on the verge of a so-called death cross. That's when a security's average price over the last 50 days falls below that of its 200-day moving average. It's a closely watched technical measure that may portend a period of continued declines. In Tesla's case, the last time shares formed this trading pattern was in February 2019 and preceded a more than 40% decline in the share price to $35.79 from $63.98, within a span of 65 days.

To be sure, while the death cross often implies more pain to come, “sometimes the moving averages will meet and dance together for a bit before bouncing off one another,” said Dan Ushman, the chief executive officer of TrendSpider, a technical analysis software company for traders.

Tesla shares have declined 3.7% in the first six months of the year, underperforming the broader S&P 500 Index amid a growing threat of competition from traditional automakers, as well as lingering concerns about an erosion in its market share in China. They traded at $681.02 on Thursday morning in New York.

Read more: Tesla Stall Shows Analyst Rift on Stratospheric Valuation

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