What's going on?

The current economic situation is making a dummy out of every industry, and Europe�s carmakers � which have already seen sales fall by more than 7% this year � are bracing for the worst.

What does this mean?

The autos industry is already on the back tire because it�s �cyclical�, which means cars are one of the first purchases consumers will sideline if they�re preparing for, say, a pandemic. But the industry has another roadblock too: there might not be any cars available even if people want them. BMW, for one, announced on Wednesday that it would shut down its European and South African factories for a while, and so did arch-rival Daimler and the world�s biggest automaker Volkswagen. And while recent border closures � including between the US and Canada � don�t affect essential trade, cars might not fall into that category for long if Tesla�s anything to go by�

Why should I care?

For markets: Tesla goes into shutdown.

There�s a lot of correlation between stocks at the moment � i.e. they all tend to move in the same direction at the same time � which makes backing an individual company even harder than usual. But Tesla�s stock, which dropped 10% on Wednesday, fell by more than most. The carmaker had initially kept its Califonia plant open, but the government � which deemed the business non-essential � shut it down on Wednesday. The investors who then sold off Tesla�s stock probably did so because of the damage a shutdown will have on its ability to manufacture and deliver its electric vehicles.

Zooming out: Prime the pump.

The oil price plumbed lows not seen since 2002 on Wednesday, due in part to Saudi Arabia�s increase in production (tweet this). Tesla drivers might not need to pay much attention, but other car-owners are all ears: their gas costs are now likely to come down sooner or later.