Investors have pulled in their ears after Trump's threat to withdraw subsidies to and contracts with Elon Musk's various companies. Tesla's share fell by more than 14 percent – the decline means that the company has lost more than 100 billion dollars in market value during the day.
The crash for Tesla dragged the New York stock exchange's broad S&P500 index down, which fell by 0.5 percent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed at minus 0.8 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial index fell by 0.3 percent.
Thursday has been marked by Trump's phone call with China's leader Xi Jinping, which made the stock market turn upwards after Trump's statement that they had had "a very good phone call".
Statistics have also been released during the day showing that more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week than analysts had expected – the highest level in eight months.
