Tesla may have just hurt Elon Musk's own case in his battle with the SEC, according to J.P. Morgan. "The now clear incongruence of CEO outlook statements with official company guidance may hurt the perception of management commentary, eroding investor confidence and potentially placing additional pressure on the shares," J.P. Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman said in a note to clients late Wednesday. "Full year delivery guidance was stated in the release to have been 'reaffirmed' at the prior level of 360,000 to 400,000 units, in our view undermining a key tenet of CEO Elon Musk's legal defense against the SEC — that his February 19 tweet that Tesla will make around 500,000 vehicles in 2019 was not new information needing pre-approval," Brinkman said.

Musk is heading to Manhattan federal court on Thursday to continue his faceoff with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims that he violated an earlier deal by posting material information about Tesla on Feb. 19. At that time, Musk tweeted to his more than 24 million Twitter followers: "Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019." tweet Tesla shares fell more than 8 percent in trading Thursday afternoon. Though the government claims that Musk's tweet violated his agreement not to post material information without first seeking approval from company lawyers, the CEO has claimed that the information was innocuous and did not need to be vetted. He will try to convince the court that he did not violate an October fraud settlement and should not be held in contempt. But Tesla's press release Wednesday night may undermine that argument with the latest production updates.

Elon Musk Mike Blake | Reuters