Tale of the Tape
Good evening, everyone. It’s Thursday. We’ve almost made it to the weekend.
The Russell 2000 was the only major index to gain 1%. The index closed at its highest price since February 24.
Here’s the Russell 2000 ETF $IWM’s daily chart:
Energy surged. It was the strongest sector by a landslide.
Utilities rallied for the 7th straight day. $XLU closed at its highest price since March 10.
GameStop inked a deal with Microsoft. $GME ripped. More on this below.
Morgan Stanley acquired Eaton Vance for $7B.
Square bought $50M worth of Bitcoin.
Here are the closing prints:
| S&P 500 | 3,446 | +0.80% |
| Nasdaq | 11,421 | +0.50% |
| Russell 2000 | 1,628 | +1.09% |
| Dow Jones | 28,425 | +0.43% |
🌌 Stocktwits After Hours
Tonight on After Hours:
Is A ‘Big Deal’ On Deck?
GameStop Partners with Microsoft
Square Spends $50M on Bitcoin
Listen: Spotify | Apple Podcast | Google
GameStop Inks Microsoft
GameStop announced a partnership with Microsoft. The two join forces to help GameStop further expand its physical and digital video game offerings. The video game retailer will be supported by Dynamic 365, Microsoft’s cloud.
$GME jumped on the news. The stock had its best daily gain on a percentage basis with absurd volume. 67M shares were traded today, 5x its 30-day average. Wow.
$GME climbed 44%. Here’s the daily chart:
Square Buys Bitcoin
Square bought $50M worth of Bitcoin.
Jack’s payment company allocated 1% of its investable assets into the crypto currency.
The company released a whitepaper following the investment. It said:
We’ve chosen to open source this documentation in order to clearly articulate the process behind the execution of our purchase as others consider similar moves.
Bitcoin was up 2% today. $SQ gained 1.84% and closed at an all-time high.
Amazon’s Custom EV
Amazon unveiled its first custom electric delivery vehicle.
Here are a few photos of the EV:
The company expects 10,000 EVs to hit the road by 2022 and 100,000 by 2030.
Amazon partnered with Rivian to complete the build.
Here’s RJ Scaringe, Rivian CEO:
The vehicle we’ve developed with Amazon is not just electric. We prioritized safety and functionality to create a vehicle that’s optimized for package delivery. We thought through how drivers get in and out of the van, what the work space feels like and what the workflow is for delivering packages.
See the press release here.
IBM’s New Baby ☁️
IBM announced that it will make its Managed Infrastructure Services unit a separate public company, called NewCo.
The company says NewCo will launch as the world’s #1 Managed Infrastructure Services provider.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said this about the changes:
As two independent companies, IBM and NewCo will capitalize on their respective strengths. IBM will accelerate clients’ digital transformation journeys, and NewCo will accelerate clients’ infrastructure modernization efforts. This focus will result in greater value, increased innovation, and faster execution for our clients.
$IBM was up 6% on the news. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
Here’s the press release.
Throwback Thursday
Here’s a photo of the restored mural reimagining the signing of the Buttonwood Agreement.
Links That Don’t Suck
❇️ NextEra Energy Surpassed ExxonMobil in Market Value
🤝 Morgan Stanley to Acquire Eaton Vance
🔋 First Tesla Megapacks Deployed at World’s Largest Battery Project with PG&E
🏀 The ETCs Podcast: Kyrie Irving
☕️ Accountable to Darwin vs. Accountable to Newton
💉 Moderna Vows to Not Enforce Covid-19 Vaccine Patents During Pandemic
🎧 Talking Apple Watch on Hodinkee Podcast – On my Om
