Good Evening. On Monday, U.S. equities rose as investors kept an eye on the possibility of further penalties against Russia, despite persistent concerns about inflation and global economic growth.
The S&P 500 went up by 0.81%. The DOW ended at 0.30% higher, and the NASDAQ finished 1.90% up.
PASSIVE STAKE
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is putting his money where his tweets are.
It was revealed that the sometimes unpredictable Musk had purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter. The holding is classified as a passive one, with a value of close to $3 billion as of Twitter’s closing price on Friday.
The news comes just two weeks after Musk, a long-time Twitter user, questioned the platform’s speech policies. He mentioned the possibility of starting his own social media network to compete with his friend Jack Dorsey’s.
“We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board/management that could ultimately lead to an active stake and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter,” Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a client note early Monday.
As of closing, Twitter soared up by 27.15% to $49.97 per share.
RENTAL
Hertz (HTZ) announced that it plans to buy up to 65,000 electric vehicles from Polestar, an automaker that competes with established brands like Tesla in the electric vehicle industry. Hertz earlier revealed in October 2021 that it has bought 100,000 Tesla Model 3 automobiles for delivery in late 2022.
The car rental company stated that it would purchase these vehicles over a five-year period, with availability beginning in Europe this spring and later this year in North America and Australia.
“For Hertz, the partnership is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to lead in electrification, shared mobility, and a digital-first customer experience,” according to the company’s press statement. “In addition to making the fleet available to its business and leisure customers, Hertz is extending EVs to rideshare drivers as a way to further accelerate electrification.”
THE WEEK AHEAD
SCOTUS confirmation: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is set to be confirmed as the Supreme Court’s first Black woman as early as Thursday. She’ll need a simple majority in the Senate, and she’ll almost certainly get it from all of the Democrats and at least one Republican, Maine’s Susan Collins.
Miami holds a bitcoin extravaganza: The Bitcoin 2022 conference will bring the crypto community to the 305. Expect some big announcements. After all, this is where El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced last year that his country would adopt bitcoin as legal cash. He’ll be speaking once more, along with Peter Thiel, Cathie Wood, and Aaron Rodgers.