I assume you are talking about today's positive move in TSLA shares.
News we haven't seen yet? Trading on non-public information is illegal. Yes, it happens but I don't think that's what's at play right now.
Short covering? Definitely some of this. But I don't know why you believe a big player can always unwind their short position in a "more elegant" fashion. Please explain. Because sometimes there are no "elegant" ways to close out a large short position.
Accumulation? Yes, definitely some of this. But I don't know why you try to compartmentalize big/small players. Everyone plays in the same marketplace and their effects are additive - you can't really separate out the individual players.
MM's adjusting for Friday? Yes, some of this because that always happens with rising prices.
I don't know that it's productive to try to guess all the individual mechanisms of a general, non-sudden, change in price like TSLA shares are going through. I can never "know" any of this stuff with any certainty so I prefer to analyze it from the overview perspective (all effects rolled up together).
It looks like Tesla is going higher.
I'm still mentally prepared for a quick trip back to $337-$342 in the next week or two but am even more confident that it will power higher than the $350's we are currently in. This baby is on a roll that doesn't want to end (and without some bad news, either macro or micro) I cannot see this ending.