Tesla shares plunge as investors concerned over Musk, Trump feud – National [Video]

Investors bought hundreds of billions of dollars of Tesla stock after Donald Trump was elected on a bet that politics were more important than profits.

In three hours Thursday, they learned yet again how dangerous that gamble could be.

Shares of Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker plunged more than 14 per cent in a stunning wipeout as investors dumped holdings amid a bitter war of words between the president and the world’s richest man. By the end of the trading day, US$150 billion of Tesla’s value had been erased, more than what it would take to buy all the shares of Starbucks and hundreds of other big publicly traded U.S. companies.

In after-hours trading, Tesla shares rose 0.8 per cent.

The disagreement started over the president’s budget bill, then quickly turned nasty. After Musk said that Trump wouldn’t haven’t gotten elected without his help, Trump implied that he may turn the federal government against his companies, including Tesla and …