Strong bank stocks and sunny retail sales data lifted markets in the morning, but the major stock indexes all ended the day down
Monday started good for investors, as the Dow went up after strong bank earnings reports and better than expected retail sales data. Despite the conflict between Iran and Israel, oil prices were down. But the momentum didn’t last, as the market’s morning jump gave way to a slowdown, and eventually a selloff in the afternoon.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 248 points, or 0.6%, to 37,735. The S&P 500 lost 1.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq $NDAQ was down 1.8%.
Tesla $TSLA is laying off more than 10% of its global workforce following an abysmal first fiscal quarter that saw the electric vehicle maker fall far short of Wall Street’s sales expectations. The Austin, Texas-based company had been rumored to be planning layoffs for months as it slashed production at its factory in China and paused some stock rewards. Amid all this, Tesla’s senior vice president for energy engineering and powertrain, Andrew Baglino, who has been with the company since 2006, resigned.
Tesla stock closed down 5.6%.
Trump Media & Technology Group said Monday that it will issue millions more shares, sending its stock plunging again.
The company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday morning that it is registering the resale of up to almost 21.5 million new shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants, up to about 146 million shares of common stock, and up to about 4 million warrants to purchase common stock. Certain shares held by insiders may still be restricted from trading until the expiration of a lock-up agreement five to six months after the date of the IPO.
Trump Media stock closed down more than 18%.
Reddit $RDDT stock on Monday fell lower than even the most modest price targets set by investment advisors at big banks and wealth management firms.
Wall Street firms ranging from Deutsche Bank to Piper Sandler and Citizens JMP Securities gave Reddit a buy rating April 15, anticipating the social media company’s share price will rise as high as $55. Meanwhile, JPMorgan $JPM, Morgan Stanley $MS, and Goldman Sachs $GS gave the stock a neutral rating, setting their price targets from $40 to $47.
Reddit stock closed down 5.3%.
Banking stocks including Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab $SCHW, and M&T Bank were rising Monday following the firms’ first quarter earnings reports.
Goldman Sachs stock ended the day up about 3%, while Charles Schwab gained 1.7% and M&T Bank stock rose 4.7%
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America $BAC, and BNY Mellon are set to release earnings reports on Tuesday.
Cloud-based software company Salesforce $CRM is in advanced discussions to acquire the data-management software maker Informatica, according to a new report.
Salesforce stock closed down 7.3% and Informatica lost 6.5%.
Hong Kong announced the approval of its first spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs on Monday. Following the news, Bitcoin bounced back from a weekend decline, topping $66,000. The rebound didn’t last long, however, and Bitcoin dropped to $62,000 late Monday afternoon. The cryptocurrency’s current volatility is at least in part due to the upcoming Bitcoin halving event, which will cut the reward price in half.
- William Gavin, Rocio Fabbro, and Laura Bratton contributed to this article.
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