Today’s Economic Shakers

Tesla takes pre-market tumble as traders react to analyst downgrade…

Tesla’s stock price fell 3.5% in Monday’s pre-market activity following a downgrade by Goldman Sachs earlier this morning.

The sell-off compounds the downside slide that the high-tech carmaker experienced following last week’s poorly received Q-4 earnings report.

Goldman Sachs downgraded Tesla from neutral to sell, offering a new price target for the next six-month period of $185, down from the investment bank’s previous projection of $190.

According to the Goldman Sachs report, the chief concern of the bank’s analyst was that Tesla would be unlikely to meet the targeted delivery date for that company’s new Model 3 sedan.

Tesla’s CEO and founder, Elon Musk, had said during last week’s post-earnings conference call that the Model 3 was on track to meet the company’s projected delivery schedule.

Another concern for the company, according to the analyst's report, was the pace that Tesla is burning through its cash hoard.

Though the company has adequate cash reserves to handle the projected costs of the Model 3 roll-out, it would take Tesla pretty close to the bone, a condition that investors would hardly approve of.

Musk has already said that the company is likely to raise more capital in Q-3 2017, and the possible issuance of $1.7 billion in new shares is a contributing factor mentioned by the Goldman analyst in downgrading Tesla to “sell.”

Adding a level of concern to the near-fate of Tesla is the fact that it’s latest acquisition, SolarCity, remains an unproven revenue-generator, according to the analyst’s report.

Still, Tesla has gained over 40% over the last 3 months, so the Goldman Sachs downgrade provides a solid reason for investors to take some of those profits off the table.

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Gold continues its bullish trajectory following last week’s recent highs...

Gold futures inched back into the positive in early morning trading as investors continue to move capital from the high-flying equity market to the safe haven of precious metals.

Gold saw an increase of 1.6% last week as the shiny metal reached price level not seen since early November 2016. The gain for the commodity was the fourth consecutive week that gold experienced a jump in its price.

Silver was a strong performer last week as well, as it continued its own winning streak of nine weeks in a row of gains. The metal rose by 1.7% for the week ending last Friday.

Gold could continue to see gains over the next several days depending on how investors react to tomorrow’s performance by the President, who will be giving a speech before a joint session of Congress.

Trump, whose promised revisions of the current tax code has served as a recent driver of the equity market bull run, could offer specifics on his tax policies for the first time.

If he does, the market could shift back into full rally mode, though a failure to provide more policy details could have the opposite effect upon stocks, driving capital instead back towards gold and other safe havens such as the Japanese yen.