Elon Musk in a Tesla Roadster.

James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images

• Tesla stock slipped 5% Tuesday, extending Monday’s losses even as the wider market rallied. 
• Shares of the EV-maker have shed about 55% in 2022. 
• Investors have taken a dim view of Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition, fearing it will distract from his Tesla duties. 

Tesla stock dropped more than 5% Tuesday, even as the broader market rallied on upbeat November inflation data. 

Shares of the electric vehicle-maker hovered around $162, and have lost 55% year-to-date. Tesla’s market cap is at $513.96 billion, and has been slashed in half in 2022. 

According to Bloomberg data, Tesla is now trading at roughly 30 times projected earnings, it’s lowest mark ever, as the company faces obstacles including waning demand in China as well as Elon Musk’s entanglements with his recent acquisition of Twitter.

According to Wedbush’s Dan Ives, Tesla now presents a prime target for activist investors because of its falling stock price. That could push the company into launching a stock buyback program, an idea Musk teased in Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call. 

“We also believe activism will start to increase across the broader tech sector as names such as Salesforce and Tesla being two examples will face growing pressure around margins, buybacks, and strategic moves,” Ives said in a Monday note.

Ives recently, too, has warned that Musk’s involvement at Twitter has turned into a “circus show” that’s created controversy on almost a daily basis.

While he warned that investors may fear Musk will sell more Tesla stock to fund efforts at Twitter, the strategist still rates the company at “Outperform,” and gives it a $250 price target. 

“At the end of the day Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk,” Ives said. “Any black eyes for Musk in the Street’s view will be reflected in Tesla’s stock.”

MOSCOW, Idaho (NewsNation) — A month after the gruesome quadruple homicide of four University of Idaho students, a dark cloud still hovers over the university as police have yet to name a suspect or locate the murder weapon as hundreds of students prepare for winter break.

There’s a growing concern from within the community that this case may turn cold.

The students, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were likely asleep when they were each stabbed multiple times in the early morning hours of November 13, authorities have said. Some of the victims had defensive wounds, a coroner has said.

Police say they’re sifting through hundreds of hours of videos and tips for clues, but as no motive, suspect or weapon has been found, families and the community are demanding answers.

The four University of Idaho students who were killed reportedly had their hands bagged at the murder scene to preserve possible DNA evidence.

Forensic expert Joseph Scott Morgan told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that it’s common for perpetrators to unknowingly leave behind hair strands on the victims’ hands. The killer’s skin cells can also become embedded under the nails of their victim.

This news also comes as a former cop revealed online that he that he discovered a glove at the crime scene, and a retired Moscow police captain told DailyMail.com they believe the killer was seeking vengeance against at least one of the students.

Bobby Chacon, a former FBI agent, said he doesn’t think former investigators or detectives should be at the crime scene.

“We would hope that they turn that over to investigators, and the investigators can assess its value. But you have a problem with chain of custody, you have a problem with the verifiability of whether that glove was there when it was there, when it’s found by a third party or a private party, you have to go through an extra layer level process to determine its validity,” he explained.

“So in other words, it’s not found by the crime scene investigation team at the scene. It’s found by a third party, you have to figure out who this third party is where they found it, whether they’re telling you the truth about where they found it and when they found it. So there’s this extra layers of work to do when you have private people out there snooping around,” he added.

Meanwhile, a neighbor of the students reported hearing a scream the night of the killings. Inan Harsh, who lives in an apartment building next to the off-campus home, said he returned from his job as a cook around 1:30 a.m. Nov. 13 and later heard someone yell, he told the Idaho Statesman.

Chacon said he thinks this was probably an off-campus party house and it may not have been uncommon for roommates to hear people coming in at very late hours making noises that others could have passed off just as commonplace for that house.

“It’s also an explanation of why the two roommates downstairs — everybody saying they didn’t wake up, they haven’t heard they didn’t hear anything. We don’t know that, they may have heard something and just dismissed it as drunk roommates coming home later than they they stumbling around into furniture or whatever,” he said. “So we don’t know what those two surviving roommates heard or didn’t hear.”

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. prosecutors charged Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with a host of financial crimes and campaign finance violations on Tuesday, alleging he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors.

The indictment says Bankman-Fried allegedly committed a years-long fraud by diverting investors’ funds to his private hedge fund and using the money to make venture investments, lavish real estate purchases and large political donations.

Bankman-Fried, who arrested Monday by Bahamian authorities at the request of the U.S. government, was charged with eight counts, ranging from wire fraud to money laundering to conspiracy to commit fraud on the United States. He was also charged with making more than $25,000 in illegal campaign contributions, a notable charge as Bankman-Fried was one of the largest political donors this year.

The indictment is on top of civil charges announced earlier Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which also alleged Bankman-Fried defrauded investors and used proceeds from investors to buy real estate on behalf of himself and family.

Along with the charges, U.S. authorities will seek to have Bankman-Fried forfeit all financial gains he might have received as part of the scheme. They are expected to request his extradition to the U.S., although the timing of that request is unclear. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.

The maximum potential prison exposure from these charges is 115 years, according to Nicholas Biase, a prosecutors spokesperson.

Since FTX collapsed, Bankman-Fried has been holed up in his Bahamian luxury compound in Nassau. A spokesman for Bankman-Fried had no immediate comment on the charges Tuesday. He has a right to contest his extradition, which could delay but probably not stop his transfer to the U.S.

Bankman-Fried was one of the world’s wealthiest people on paper; at one point his net worth reached $26.5 billion, according to Forbes. He was a prominent personality in Washington, donating millions of dollars toward mostly left-leaning political causes and Democratic political campaigns, though he also gave money to Republicans. FTX grew to become the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

That all unraveled quickly last month, when reports called into question the strength of FTX’s balance sheet. Customers moved to withdraw billions of dollars, but FTX could not meet all the requests because it apparently had used its customers’ deposits to fund investments at Bankman-Fried’s trading arm, Alameda Research.

“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

The SEC complaint alleges that Bankman-Fried had raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors since May 2019 by promoting FTX as a safe, responsible platform for trading crypto assets.

Instead, the complaint says, Bankman-Fried diverted customers’ funds to Alameda Research without telling them.

“He then used Alameda as his personal piggy bank to buy luxury condominiums, support political campaigns, and make private investments, among other uses,” the complaint reads. “None of this was disclosed to FTX equity investors or to the platform’s trading customers.”

Alameda did not segregate FTX investor funds and Alameda investments, the SEC said, using that money to “indiscriminately fund its trading operations,” as well as other ventures of Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried’s arrest came just a day before he was due to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., chairwoman of the committee, said she was “disappointed” that the American public, and FTX’s customers, would not get to see Bankman-Fried testify under oath.

That hearing, however, will be held Tuesday, with the new CEO of FTX, John Ray III, giving testimony.

Bankman-Fried said recently that he did not “knowingly” misuse customers’ funds, and said he believes his millions of angry customers will eventually be made whole.

The SEC challenged that assertion Tuesday in its complaint.

“FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr. Bankman-Fried created by, among other things, touting its best-in-class controls, including a proprietary ‘risk engine,’ and FTX’s adherence to specific investor protection principles and detailed terms of service. But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn’t just thin, it was fraudulent,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

“FTX’s collapse highlights the very real risks that unregistered crypto asset trading platforms can pose for investors and customers alike,” Grewal said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass began her first day in office Monday by declaring a state of emergency to grapple with the city’s out-of-control homeless crisis, bidding to move swiftly to get thousands of unhoused people off her city’s streets.

Bass called the declaration “a sea change in how the city tackles homelessness,” making good on a campaign pledge to call the emergency the day she took power. The issue dominated her mayoral race against billionaire developer Rick Carusoz, and the crisis has continued to worsen despite vast public spending increases.

She said Sunday that the many, disparate arms of government must unite to confront homelessness in the nation’s second-largest city. To move in a new direction, “We must have a single strategy” bringing together government, the private sector and other stakeholders, she said at the ceremony.

Trash-strewn encampments and rusting RVs have spread to virtually every neighborhood of Los Angeles, and her declaration on Monday included a grim statistical rundown of the many problems stemming from the homeless crisis.

Fires caused by homeless people constitute a majority of all blazes handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department, averaging 24 a day, according to 2021 figures. About half the homeless population — totaling over 40,000 citywide — suffers from drug or alcohol addiction, and about a third have serious mental illnesses. And homeless deaths average five a day.

Despite more than $1.2 billion in spending for homeless programs in the current city budget, there is scant evidence of change on the streets, and the declaration said the crisis has grown “beyond the control of the normal services, personnel, equipment, and facilities” in Los Angeles.

Advocates for the unhoused cheered the declaration.

Jennifer Hark Dietz, CEO of the homeless services nonprofit PATH, said the city’s previous “piecemeal” approach to the crisis too often involved law enforcement instead of service providers. She expressed hope that the move would cut down on red tape, bolster outreach and include “tangible housing solutions.”

“From individuals just falling into homelessness, to those living outdoors or in interim housing … we know that the affordable housing they need is just not here,” Dietz said in a statement Monday that backed efforts to speed creation of affordable housing.

Janice Hahn, who heads the county Board of Supervisors, credited Bass with “treating the homelessness crisis with the urgency it demands.”

Bass’ election in November represented a historic marker in the city’s 241-year history. She is the first woman and second Black person to hold the job. The former Democratic congresswoman and legislative leader begins work amid multiple crises. Bass also is tasked with easing rising crime rates and restoring trust in a City Hall shaken by racism and corruption scandals.

Bass — who was on President-elect Joe Biden’s short list for vice president — claimed the post last month after overcoming more than $100 million in spending by rival Caruso, a billionaire and Republican-turned-Democrat who campaigned as a centrist and promised a strong emphasis on public safety.

Caruso would have represented a turn to the political right for the heavily Democratic city. Bass swayed voters by arguing she would be a coalition builder to help heal a troubled city of nearly 4 million.

She took her formal oath privately but was sworn in ceremonially at a downtown theater on Sunday by Vice President Kamala Harris, a longtime friend and former California attorney general.

Bass, 69, ran as the consensus pick of the Democratic establishment and was endorsed by Biden, former President Barack Obama and former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Despite her close ties with the Democratic political community, she has described herself as a change agent who will marshal “all of the resources, all of the skills, the knowledge, the talent of the city” to get homeless people into housing.

She has said she intends to get over 17,000 homeless people into housing in her first year through a mix of interim and permanent facilities.

She also will contend with entrenched urban problems that include a housing shortage, crumbling streets and some of the nation’s worst traffic.

She replaces beleaguered Democrat Eric Garcetti, who ends two bumpy terms with his nomination to become U.S. ambassador to India stalled in the Senate, apparently over sexual misconduct allegations against a former top Garcetti adviser.

Bass takes office as the City Council contends with a racism scandal that led to the resignation of its former president and a powerful labor leader, while one councilman snared in the scandal has resisted calls to resign. Meanwhile, three current or former council members have been indicted or have pleaded guilty to corruption charges.

U.S. central bankers began their last policy-setting meeting of the year Tuesday with data suggesting inflation is finally cooling, allowing them to slow their interest-rate hikes into next year and, traders are now betting, stop short of 5% by March.

Federal Reserve policymakers are still seen raising the policy rate by a half of a percentage point to a range of 4.25%-4.5% on Wednesday, a smaller increase than the 75-basis-point per meeting pace they had stuck to since June but still a large increase by historical standards.

But after a Labor Department report showed consumer prices last month rose at their slowest pace in nearly a year, futures contracts tied to the Fed policy rate moved to price in a further downshift next year. Traders are now betting on 25-basis-point increases at each of the Fed’s first two meetings of 2023 and no more, with some chance the last hike could come in May instead of March.

Either way, that would bring the policy rate to the 4.75%-5% range, lower than some economists expect and markets had been betting, given what has been stubbornly high inflation and a stronger-than-expected labor market for much of this year.

Tuesday’s report showed the consumer price index rose 0.1% in November from the month prior, down from a 0.4% pace in October. The deceleration suggests that the Fed’s most aggressive set of interest-rate hikes in 40 years may finally be starting to slow demand and ease price pressures more broadly.

“Broadly speaking, this is very good news for the Fed – two sequential months of data pointing to softening in inflation,” said Subadra Rajappa, Societe Generale’s head of U.S. rates strategy.

Still, she said, with financial conditions easing – stocks surged after the report – and a 3.7% unemployment rate signaling a still-strong labor market, the Fed may end up needing to lift rates a bit higher than markets are currently pricing.

And when Fed Chair Jerome Powell gives his take on the policy trajectory in his post-meeting news conference Wednesday, she said, “I don’t see him pivoting in a meaningful way on policy – I think it’s just too soon.”

Consumer prices rose 7.1% on year, the smallest increase since December 2021, Tuesday’s data showed.

The increase remains far too high for comfort. The Fed targets 2% annual inflation as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index, which typically runs a percentage point or two lower than the CPI.

Still, the under-the-hood data in the CPI report appeared to bolster the case for the Fed to back off on tightening.

Goods inflation eased, reflecting a decrease in pandemic-lockdown driven supply chain disruptions, with the measure excluding food and energy falling 0.5%. Meanwhile services inflation rose, driven by a 0.7% monthly jump in owners’ equivalent rent – a measure of what homeowners would earn if they were renting their property.

Still, Fed policymakers say they are watching forward-looking trends like new lease rates that suggest easing in rental inflation next year. And services inflation excluding shelter was unchanged after a decline in October.

After the report, interest-rate futures pointed to about a half percentage point decrease in the Fed policy rate by the end of 2023, an apparent bet on some chance of a recession as higher borrowing costs keep more companies from expanding and slower sales force some into layoffs.

Powell for his part has said the Fed does not want to lower interest rates soon, but rather keep them high to continue to push down on inflation and bring it more decisively back to target.

The Fed will publish updated policymaker projections of unemployment, inflation and interest rates next year and beyond at the close of their meeting on Wednesday.

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There have been no indications of development of enemy offensive teams in the Volyn and Polissia instructions. The Russian invaders have improved pressured mobilization steps in the occupied territories of Donetsk location.

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Retired police captain says Idaho killer was motivated by ‘revenge’ msn.com/en-us/news/cri…

A caravan of more than 1,000 illegal immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua on Sunday “streamed across the southern border into Texas,” the Daily Mail reported Monday.

The caravan, which the Daily Mail says may be “the largest in history,” rushed across the Rio Grande into El Paso. Mexican police appear to have helped the immigrants cross the U.S. border, with images showing police “escorting nearly 20 buses filled with migrants into Ciudad Juarez,” directly across the border from El Paso.

The mass crossing came nine days before the expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows law enforcement to rapidly expel illegal immigrants. A federal judge already struck down the policy, though states are appealing that ruling. The Biden administration, which earlier this year moved to end the policy, has started weighing similar policies as the border crisis worsens.

President Joe Biden has faced widespread criticism for his handling of border crossings, which have broken records since he took office. The president just last week declined to visit the border, saying that “there are more important things going on.”

Administration officials this year pressured the mayor of El Paso, where the caravan crossed Sunday, to cover up the border crisis, the Washington Free Beacon reported in October.

Migrants at that time were already “filling up the city’s shelters and hotels and straining its services,” according to El Paso officials. That strain has intensified, the Daily Mail reported:

El Paso reports that after the 1,000 crossings on Sunday night, Border Patrol now has more than 5,000 illegal immigrants in custody and has released hundreds onto the streets of U.S. cities.

The post Report: ‘Largest Caravan in History’ Crosses Border Into Texas appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The Biden administration’s senior-most nonbinary official is out of a job after stealing one too many women’s suitcases from American airports.

Sam Brinton was unceremoniously dismissed as deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the Department of Energy on Monday, a department spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon. The agency did not disclose the reason for Brinton’s dismissal, but it comes shortly after the erstwhile bureaucrat was slapped with felony charges for stealing luggage from airports in Las Vegas and Minneapolis.

“Sam Brinton is no longer a DOE employee. By law, the Department of Energy cannot comment further on personnel matters,” the spokesperson told the Free Beacon.

Brinton, who identifies as “genderfluid” and uses they/them pronouns, was captured on camera stealing a woman’s bag with contents worth more than $3,670 from Harry Reid International Airport on July 6. Brinton carried out the heist just 18 days after joining the Biden administration as a civil servant. 

“Specifically, Brinton pulled the victim’s luggage from the carousel and examined the tag. Then placed it back on the carousel, looking in all directions for anyone who might be watching, or might approach. Pulling it back off the carousel and demonstrating the same behavior by looking around before walking away with it quickly,” a felony warrant issued against Brinton on Dec. 8 stated.

Detectives were unsuccessful in identifying Brinton as the thief until news surfaced that the nonbinary bureaucrat had been charged in a separate incident for swiping a suitcase with contents worth $2,325 from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport in September.

Brinton, who was known for promoting fetishes and tying sexual partners up like dogs before joining the Biden administration, was placed on leave from the Energy Department in October. The former official faces a hearing for the Minneapolis baggage theft on Dec. 19.

In the meantime, Brinton kept busy by delivering a hands-on seminar at a leather kink conference in late November on the science of spanking and “turning butts red.”

The post Genderfluid Bag Thief Sam Brinton Sent Packing From Biden Energy Department appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.