Tesla Stock Rises to End Its Best Month Since January 2023

Tesla stock rose on the final trading day of November, cappingan epic month.

Tesla stock has fallen this week but has had a strong run in November.

Shares of the electric-vehicle maker gained 3.7%, closing at $345.16, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.

There isn’t much news to explain the stock’s move; no analysts upgraded or downgraded the shares. Instead, the stock appears to be adjusting to a wild, holiday-shortened week.

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday said he would put 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico until “such time as drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country.” Investors weren’t ready for a tariff that size on Canada and Mexico, where many cars and car parts sold in the U.S. are manufactured.

Later that day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state would offer a $7,500 tax credit on purchases of electric vehicles if Trump killed the federal credit, which is the same size, as is widely expected. There also is a chance that Newsom would exclude Tesla purchases from qualifying for the state credit.

Coming into Friday, Tesla stock had fallen almost 6% for the week. General Motors and Ford Motor stocks declined about 5% and 1%, respectively. Shares of Rivian Automotive gained 19%.

It was an incredible month for Tesla. Shares gained about 38% in November, one of the best months in the company’s history. The November surge ranks as the 10th biggest gain for the shares and the biggest rally since the stock rose 41% in January 2023.

The best month ever for Tesla stock was May 2013, when shares jumped 81%. That added roughly $8 billion to the company’s market value. November’s gains amounted to more than $300 billion in market value.

November ranked in the top 7% of all months since Tesla stock began in June 2010. The average move, up or down, for Tesla stock over its trading history is about 14%. Shares have gained in 92 months, or about 53% of the time.

Politics is the reason for the big jump in November. Tesla CEO Elon Musk backed Trump’s candidacy and investors believe the growing relationship between the two will help Tesla stock in the long run.

One benefit could be a federal standard for regulating self-driving cars. Tesla plans to launch a self-driving robotaxi service late in 2025.

“This would be a huge step forward in easing U.S. rules for self-driving cars and be a significant tailwind for Tesla’s autonomous and AI vision heading into 2025,” wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a Friday report.

He rates Tesla stock Buy and has a target of $400 for the price, which would value Tesla at more than $1.2 trillion. AI-trained self-driving cars account for a big portion of that.