There’s a reason New York never sleeps, and it’s probably related to the neverending reel of stories coming out of Wall Street as 3 stocks make headlines
The market got back to its best on Wednesday after big moves from tech giants such as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) helped the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: QQQ) surge ahead of its Dow Jones (NYSEARCA: DIA) and S&P 500 (NYSEARCA: VOO) counterparts. With all major indexes clinging on to green territory, the Nasdaq has managed to hit yet another all-time high, bringing its total record closes in 2020 to 25.
Despite Wednesday’s record daily increase in new COVID-19 cases, Wall Street remains unperturbed and instead looks positively on a number of stocks that are making big moves. So, here are 3 stocks to keep an eye on today.
1. Nvidia
It feels like every day I log into work I have something to say about Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). The chip-maker is a personal favorite stock of mine and 2020 has shown me why it is also a great addition to any portfolio. Its stock rose a respectable 3.5% on Wednesday after the news broke that, for the first time ever, it had become the most valuable chip-maker in the U.S., overtaking Intel (NASDAQ: INTC).
It is no surprise to see this happen as Nvidia has rebounded magnificently from the March sell-off, soaring almost 70% since then compared to Intel’s 3% loss. In general, chipmakers such as Nvidia and its rival, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) have outperformed the market in 2020, and Nvidia has been at the head of this charge with trading platform Fidelity reporting that it was among its top traded stocks. It will be interesting to see now how investors react when the market opens today, as Nvidia has risen as much as 2% pre-market.
2. Slack
It seems like a long time since we heard from Slack (NYSE: WORK), as the workplace collaboration software-maker appeared to have taken a backseat to other at-home stocks such as Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM) and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). However, in just its sixth instance during its 11-year history, Slack made an acquisition, purchasing advanced-directory business Rimeto for an undisclosed fee. The move sent Slack shares soaring 9% on Wednesday after CEO Stewart Butterfield confirmed that Rimeto would be offered to premium customers as well as being a standalone product, while it would also not affect the companies fiscal financial outlook.
Slack has enjoyed a strong run in 2020 so far, rising 48% YTD despite intense competition from Microsoft Teams (NASDAQ: MSFT), which has been adding users by the millions. The two rivals currently hold a duopoly over the workplace collaboration industry which, thanks to acceleration related to the coronavirus, is expected to be worth more than $50 billion by 2026. What might intrigue investors more from the announcement, though, is Butterfield’s claims that Slack was now flush with cash due to a $1.4 billion cash raise, which could see the company snap up even more startups going forward. It looks like Slack is finally taking the fight to Teams with more premium offerings.
3. Twitter
For years investors in Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) have lamented the company’s lack of innovation, with many questioning if CEO Jack Dorsey should stay at the helm as he also balances his duties as head of Square (NYSE: SQ). Despite that, monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) have risen — up to 166 million in Q1 2020 — and ad revenue still beat estimates in Q1 at $808 million. Even so, it looks like Twitter is gearing up to expand its revenue stream through a subscription service according to reports on Wednesday, sending shares up more than 7%.
Ironically, it was Twitter users who got their eyes on a job posting for a developer to work on a team codenamed Gryphon, before it was removed. The post stated: “We are building a subscription platform, one that can be reused by other teams in the future. This is a first for Twitter!” It’s unclear how such a service would work, but with Twitter currently generating the majority of its revenue via ad sales and data licensing, an exclusive content subscription could just work. With any luck, we will receive an update from Twitter on the matter, but we will just have to wait and see. Either way, investor and user reactions have been largely positive, with shares climbing close to 2% after hours.
MyWallSt operates a full disclosure policy. MyWallSt staff currently hold long positions in companies mentioned above Read our full disclosure policy here.