Slack → Salesforce?

Tale of the Tape

Good evening, folks. Stocks were quiet on Thanksgiving Eve.

The Nasdaq was the only major index to finish higher while the Dow and S&P 500 both dropped 0.5%.

Energy was the worst sector, falling 2.4%. But $XLE is still up nearly 10% on the week. Stocks can’t soar everyday. 🤷‍♂️ 

Real estate, utilities, tech, and consumer discretionary all gained less than 0.3%.

Earlier today Bitcoin ticked 19,500, which is only a few hundred points off it’s all-time high. In case you forgot, $BTC.X rallied 144% in less than a month following Thanksgiving 2017. Will the crypto craze continue after Turkey Day? Place your bets… 

Palantir popped another 22%. The stock is now up 200% since its IPO earlier this year. Here’s the dazzling daily chart:

Slack soared on the news that Salesforce is “in talks” to acquire the company. $WORK ripped roughly 40%. More on this below.

The markets will be closed tomorrow for Thanksgiving, and Friday is a half-day!

We hope y’all have a Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

Here are the closing prints: 

S&P 5003,629-0.16%
Nasdaq12,094+0.48%
Russell 20001,845-0.46%
Dow Jones29,872-0.58%

Slack → Salesforce?

Salesforce is in talks to acquire Slack. Maybe the deal will close by next week??

Salesforce is an acquisition animal. It bought MuleSoft for $6.5B in 2018 and splurged $15.3B on Tableau in 2019. So… is Slack next? Who knows. 

Dan Ives, Managing Director at Wedbush Securities, said:

This would be a game changer move for Benioff & Co. to further build out its collaboration engine and product footprint as cloud spending ramps across the enterprise.

$WORK ripped 37% on the news and closed at a new all-time high. Here’s the daily chart: 

Earnings Round-Up

Deere and Co. reported Q4 earnings early this morning. The big green tractor beat on top and bottom lines. 

Here are the numbers:

EPS:  $2.39 vs $1.44 est.
Revenue: $9.73B vs $7.23B est.

CEO of John Deere, John C. May, said:

Higher crop prices and improved fundamentals are leading to renewed optimism in the agricultural sector and improving demand for farm equipment. At the same time, we are looking forward to realizing the benefits of our smart industrial operating strategy, which is designed to accelerate the delivery of solutions that will drive improved profitability and sustainability in our customers’ operations.

$DE dropped 2%.

Economic Data

This morning we got a slew of economic data.

Initial jobless claims climbed for the second week in a row to 778,000.

Following the release, Eddy Elfenbein said

This is not a good sign, but I want to see more data.

Here’s the chart from Bloomberg:

Additionally, new home sales and personal income were slightly lower.

Here’s Bloomberg with more.

Rest In Peace, Maradona

The Argentine fútbol phenom Diego Maradona passed away today. 

Maradona won 1 World Cup with the Argentinian National team in 1986, where he scored arguably the greatest goal of all time.

Here’s the incredible run:

Last year, HBO released a documentary on the life of the soccer star. It’s worth watching.

Maradona was 60. RIP 🙏

My mother thinks I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells me. – Diego Maradona

Links That Don’t Suck

🌆 “Coronavirus Should Inspire Us to Rewild Cities to Better Support our Children”

📵 Amazon Web Service Outage Takes Down Major Apps and Sites

🛢 Exxon Documents Reveal More Pessimistic Outlook for Oil Prices

🏀 Dr. J at Harlem’s Famed Rucker Park

🥶 These Days, the Smart Money Is Staying Away From Arctic Drilling

📈 The Winners Won

Happy Thanksgiving!