Wallstreet
Across the global markets, major indices on Wall Street on Thursday closed in the red zone with the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq dropping massively by 1.75% (559 points) and 3.56% (473 points) respectively.
The S&P 500 fell 2.45% with Tesla shares falling by as much as 8.27% at market close.
Reddit Stocks
Retail investors camping on Reddit this week continued to push shares of several companies, including GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Some of the companies favored by Reddit users including Gamestop skyrocketed by as much as 100% on Wednesday and made significant gains on Thursday as well.
Last week, GameStop investor Keith Gill said he had increased his long position by more than 100% to 100,000 shares according to Wallstreet Journal.
Commenting on the recent short squeeze, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger told Yahoo Finance that brokers shouldn’t “lure in” gamblers that create trading frenzies.
“If you’re selling them gambling services and you make profits off it like many of these new brokers who specialize in luring gamblers in, I think it’s a dirty way to make money. And I think we’re crazy to allow it,” he said.
Global Markets Major News
Airbnb Earnings
Vacation rental online marketplace Airbnb on Thursday reported its earnings with revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 dropping by 22% to $859 million year on year.
The company reported a net loss of $3.9 billion during the period under review, against a loss of $351.5 million recorded during the final trimester in the previous year. The company attributed the loss to charges related to its Initial Public Offering (IPO) earlier this year.
Airbnb began trading on the Nasdaq Exchange in December at a price of $146 per share, surging 115% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of $68 per share.
For the full year period, Airbnb’s revenue fell 29% to $3.4 billion with a net loss of $4.6 billion
On Thursday, the shares declined by as much as 9% in the after-hours trading, to sell for $181.89.
Twitter Earnings & New Strategy
Shares of social networking service Twitter Inc. rose by more than 6% on Thursday to reach a new record high of more than $76 driven by impressive Q1 earnings report and a new monetization strategy.
The company said it targets to have at least $7.5 billion in revenue by 2023, compared to $3.7 billion reported in the previous year. Twitter also said that it targets a daily user base of at least 315 million by the end of 2023.
Additionally, Twitter announced new upcoming features and the main one is dubbed so-called Super Follows which will enable its users to make money from their followers in exchange of exclusive content.
Twitter also hinted at possible paid subscriptions that would offer its users a new source of revenue.
Tesla wins the Victoria Big Battery project
Electric car manufacturer Tesla has won a contract to supply the Victoria Big Battery project in Australia worth $127 million.
Neoen’s 300MW/450MWh battery project in Victoria, Australia, known as the Victorian Big Battery, is part of Victoria state’s plans to reach 50% renewable energy by 2030.
“We are on track to deliver this project before the next Australian summer and are looking forward to playing our part in helping Victoria reach its ambitious target of 50% renewable energy by 2030,” the French company said in a statement.
Coinbase IPO
Digital currency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. on Thursday submitted documents to directly list its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker “COIN.”
According to a filling document with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Coinbase’s 2020 revenue came in at $1.27 billion, while net income stood at $322 million. Operating expenses were at $869 million.
US initial jobless claims
The number of initial jobless claims in the US came in at 730,000 in the week ending February 20, declining by 111,000 from the previous week’s level, the US Department of Labor reported on Thursday.
The four-week moving average was 807,750 a decrease of 20,500 from the previous week’s revised average.
