After Elon Musk smokes pot live on YouTube, Tesla executives flee and shares plunge

Tesla stock is in a free fall Friday as chief executive Elon Musk's behavior and high-profile departures give investors reason to worry.

Stock and bond prices hit a record low Wednesday, reports Reuters, and continued to plunge after Musk appeared on comedian Joe Rogan's live podcast Thursday night to smoke a joint and discuss his brain.

Tesla's chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, announced his resignation this week after just one month with the company. His departure was due to "the level of public attention placed on the company," reports Axios, but he said he had "no disagreements with Tesla's leadership." Gaby Toledano, Tesla's head of HR, also said Friday that she would be permanently leaving the company, after she took a leave of absence over the summer, CNBC reports. Toledano was the highest-ranking woman at Tesla.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Tesla shares were down about 9 percent Friday morning, to $254.37. Stocks fell overall as wage growth stoked fears of further rate hikes, so Tesla isn't the only company experiencing a particularly tough day, but Musk's bizarre behavior in recent months reportedly has investors concerned about his leadership.

Tesla's stock has lost a quarter of its value in the last month alone, reports Reuters. Musk has been taking to Twitter to post about taking the company private and to criticize British cave divers — so either investors don't like his tweets, or they just really don't like weed. Read more at CNBC.