Why Tesla Stock Jumped on Tuesday

What happened

Shares of Tesla(NASDAQ:TSLA)jumped on Tuesday, rising 4.29% today.

The stock's gain was likely primarily driven by an upbeat day in the overall market -- especially for growth stocks like Tesla.

So what

Capturing optimism in the overall market on Tuesday, the S&P 500 was up 1.78% today. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, however, was up 2.4%. Many growth stocks like Tesla were up several percentage points or more, rebounding some from a sharp sell-off earlier this month.

Tesla stock's gain today represents a bit of a rebound from a steep sell-off recently. Even including today's gain, the stock has slid 25% from a high of more than $1,243 just a few months ago.

Now what

As the year wraps up, Tesla investors have the company's fourth-quarter vehicle deliveries to look forward to. While the challenging global supply chain and logistics environment that Tesla is operating in makes it difficult to forecast the quarter, analysts are expecting record deliveries during the period. But a wide range of outcomes are possible.

Tesla delivered 241,391 vehicles in its third quarter, representing 73% year-over-year growth. For the current quarter, analysts generally expect 260,000 or more deliveries. This would put total deliveries for the year at over 887,000 -- far higher than the 500,000 vehicles the company delivered in 2020.

The company usually posts its quarterly deliveries within three calendar days of each quarter's end, or somewhere around Jan. 1 to Jan. 3 for Tesla's Q4.