For most of 2026, Tesla has been the Magnificent Seven’s minivan. In October, it’s the only one leaving skid marks.
Tesla (TSLA) stock is up about 6% Monday, on track for its best day since early July and its highest close in about three months. Most of Big Tech is idling, with Apple (AAPL) slipping and Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta (META) barely moving.
391.62 +19.40 (+5.21%)
At close: 4:00:00 PM EDT
390.78 -0.84 (-0.21%)
After hours: 4:29:50 PM EDT
That leaves Tesla with two very different report cards. It’s still down by double digits this year, the worst showing in the Magnificent Seven. But it’s up by double digits in October, the best in the group, while Meta, Alphabet, and Nvidia (NVDA) are all lower for the month.
Tesla is breaking above the $386 area that capped it in October · Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace Tesla is breaking through a crowded spot on the chart
The stock opened above Friday’s high — a gap — and pushed through the $386 area. That level is both Tesla’s highest close of October and roughly its 200-day moving average, a long-term trend line many traders watch. Clearing both at once is what makes this a breakout.
Even so, Tesla remains about a fifth below its record close.
The SpaceX connection
The rally came alongside a Barclays upgrade betting that a Tesla merger with SpaceX (SPCX) would hand shareholders a takeout premium, as Pras Subramanian reported. Barclays raised its price target to $450 from $370. Musk confirmed last week that the two companies had formed independent committees to explore a combination, though no deal has been announced.
Tesla is already in on the joke. On Monday, its Robotaxi service switched on a bigger Houston service area shaped like a Starship rocket, announced with a “Houston, we have liftoff” post. “I swear it’s just a coincidence 😂,” Musk replied on X.
A combination wouldn’t just bring rockets. On Sunday, Musk said SpaceX had closed $40 billion in debt financing to buy AI chips, and he also warned about neoclouds — rent-a-GPU cloud companies such as CoreWeave (CRWV) — as my colleague Ines Ferré reported. A merged company would share that chip bill.
Watch $386. Holding it keeps the liftoff on course, while a slide back below would turn Monday into a one-day pop. Above, the next stop is the low $450s, where Barclays’ target and Tesla’s 2026 closing high nearly overlap.
Internal AI tools helped analyze interview transcripts, research, and draft this post. Humans reviewed, edited, and fact-checked this post before publication.
Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.
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