TESLA'S WORRY DEEPENS

TESLA bond hits record low, stock slips as investor worry deepens.

Tesla's stock and bond prices dropped on Wednesday after Chief Executive Elon Musk renewed an attack on British caver whom he had previously insulted on social media and a day after Mercedes unveiled a challenge to the  electric car maker.

The stock dropped 2.8 percent to $280.74 the lowest level since late May, following a 4.2 percent decline on Tuesday after Mercedes introduced its first fully electric car in Stockholm.

The $1.8 billion high-yield bond Tesla issued a year ago hit a record low price on Wednesday. It also became more expensive to insure Tesla's bonds against default.

Tesla stock has lost a  quarter of its value since Aug 7, when Musk tweeted that he had secured funding a previously undisclosed plan to take Tesla private.

Musk on Aug 24 abandoned that plan, but he faces lawsuits, and a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the factual accuracy of his tweet that funding for the deal was  ''secured''.

The incident is weighing on investor confidence and has hurt the credibility of Musk, long viewed by Tesla supporters as its most valuable asset.

Also rising concerns about Musk's leadership and focus as Tesla struggles to increase production of its Model 3 mass market sedan, Buzzfeed News reported late on Tuesday that Musk, in an email to the site, called British cave diver Vernon Unsworth a ''child rapist''.

Musk in July apologized to Unsworth for similar insults he made on Twitter following the rescue of a dozen Thai school boys and their Football coach from a cave in Thailand..

Unsworth, who played a leading role in rescue, drew Musk's wrath when he said that a mini submarine created by Musk's rocket company  Space X  to help in the rescue ''had absolutely no chance of working.'' [Agencies]