Tesla shareholders are concerned about Elon Musk’s focus on the company after he sold his second major stake in the electric car maker since his takeover of Twitter.
According to data from Refinitiv, Musk’s 13.4 percent share of Tesla is down from about 17 percent a year ago.
The Tesla CEO unloaded another $3.6bn (£2.9bn) in shares, bringing his total for the year to nearly $40bn (£32.3bn).
Tesla’s share price has halved this year, underperforming both automakers and the broader tech-heavy Nasdaq, which is down about 30% this year.
In addition to Tesla and Twitter, where Mr. Musk’s management and tweets draw political attention and backlash, the second-richest man in the world also heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a start-up that develops interfaces to brain to computers.
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What happened from one day to the next
Asian stocks slumped after a pullback on Wall Street as markets expressed dismay at the Federal Reserve’s warning of even higher interest rates ahead after the latest hike.
Oil prices fell while US futures rose higher.
Japan reported that its trade deficit widened to more than 2 trillion yen (£11.9 billion) in November as the combination of higher oil costs and a weak yen pushed up imports. It was the 16th consecutive month of red ink and a record high for the month of November.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.4 percent to 28,051.70 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.9 percent to 19,498.32. The Kospi in Seoul lost 1.3 percent to 2,367.91.
The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.1 percent to 3,173.21 and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.6 percent to 7,204.80.
Stocks fell in Taiwan and Bangkok, but rose in Mumbai.