Tesla stock jumps after poll tells Elon Musk he should step away from Twitter

Tesla shares jumped in anticipation of Elon Musk stepping back from Twitter., the social media company that has distracted him from running the electric-car maker for months.

Tesla’s stock rose as much as 5.3% before the start of regular trading Monday. The shares have plunged 58% since Musk disclosed in early April that he’d taken a stake in Twitter, underperforming the 15% drop in the S&P 500 Index.

Musk, 51, tweeted Sunday that he would abide by the results of a poll asking whether he should step down as head of Twitter. Users cast more than 17.5 million votes, and 57.5% were in favor of him relinquishing the role.

Tesla’s chief executive officer has previously taken his cues from Twitter users on decisions ranging from whether he should trim his stake in the car company, to whether he should reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account. Whereas Musk’s decisions after those polls were relatively straightforward, it’s less clear what he’ll do next with Twitter. Musk has tweeted that it will be difficult to find another CEO and written that the company “has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May.”

“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive,” he said in another post. “There is no successor.”

Tesla closed last week at a two-year low, costing Musk his position atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. While its CEO has been preoccupied with Twitter, the carmaker has been cutting prices and production in China and offering incentives for customers to take delivery of vehicles in the US.