Tesla Motors shares rose just after it made public the fake news of its upcoming product the Model W, a supposed attempt to mock Apple, which is set to release its Apple Watch later this month. However, shares ended the day on a decline when Tesla admitted that the news was an April Fools’ Day prank.
Fake news stirred Tesla stock
A tweet and a blog post just minutes before the close of the market, said, “Tesla today announced a whole new product line called the Model W.” In addition, it stated that in line with media predictions, “It’s a watch. That’s what the “W” stands for.” Further, the post claimed that the upcoming watch “is in no way a competitive response to what some other company is doing.”
Following the news, Tesla’s shares lifted by almost $1.50 from its then-price to land at $188.50. As recorded, about 400,000 shares were traded during this time, which marked the highest trading volume in a minute since Feb. 12. However, the stock soon corrected itself to end at $187.59, a few cents down from the previous day’s close.
This rise in the stock price following the prank was meager as compared to the one observed earlier this week when Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the company’s prospects to come up with a new major product line, which many believe to be power storage. That day, Tesla’s shares shot up by 4%, leading to a growth of more than $1 billion in the company’s market cap.
Amazon too played a prank
Along with Tesla, Amazon also played a joke by restructuring its website to make it the way it appeared in 1999. Moreover, the e-commerce company seemed to trick people with the announcement of its physical Dash button, which enables consumers to reorder a product with just a push.
As Apple seeks to launch its watch next week, some believe that the bogus announcement of a watch reflected Tesla’s effort to mock the iPhone maker. But it seems like not only individuals but also news outlets like Reuters were fooled by Tesla, which regretted publishing the news based on it.
