CNBC Daily Open: Tesla's increased costs outweighed its revenue growth

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Taken from CNBC’s Daily Open, our international markets newsletter — Subscribe today

There are generally two ways for a company to increase its profit: increasing sales or cutting costs. Preferably both at the same time — because a rise in revenue might be overshadowed by spiking expenses.

That’s what happened to Tesla

in the third quarter. Revenue at Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company rose 12% year on year, the first increase in three quarters. Despite that, net income plunged 37% from a year earlier.