Data Sheet—Why the China Trade Talks Keep Hammering Tech Stocks
Driving range. Marking the largest tech IPO in five years, Uber priced its shares at $ 45, the low end of its planned range, to raise over $ 8 billion in fresh backing. The deal values the #1 ride hailing firm in the world at about $ 82 billion, which could rise or fall when trading, under the symbol UBER, starts later today. What was the prior larger IPO? Answer below. The company also disclosed it has reached a settlement with 60,000 drivers who had sought arbitration over their employment classification. The deal could cost the company up to $ 170 million.
Mining for moolah. They say on Wall Street that markets don’t hit bottom and start rising until after capitulation, when all the disappointed sellers have given up and gone home. Maybe bitcoin has passed that stage, as the cryptocurrency finally seems to be on the rise. On Thursday, bitcoin nearly reached $ 6,000, its highest level in 2019.
Dropped in the toilet. Speaking of hitting bottom, smartphones sales in North America in the first quarter totaled just 36 million, the lowest in five years, according to research firm Canalys. The 18% drop from last year’s first quarter was also the steepest decline ever seen in the market. Apple grabbed 40% of the shrinking market, Samsung 29%, and LG 13%.
Running up the score. More-than-a-cloud-storage-site Dropbox pleased investors, reporting first quarter revenue rose 22% to $ 386 million while adjusted earnings per share rose 25% to 10 cents. Shares of Dropbox, already up 14% this year, gained another 7% in premarket trading on Friday. At Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com, service revenue jumped 44% to $ 1.9 billion, helping push up its shares 10%. They’ve already gained 31% this year. At Symantec, the story wasn’t the $ 1.2 billion of revenue, but the departure of CEO Greg Clark, who wants to spend more time with his ailing father. The shares had been up 17% this year but plunged 15% in premarket trading.
Rejected. The state-owned wireless carrier of China, China Mobile, won’t be offering service to Americans after the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to reject its application. The state link raises the risk that the carrier could “conduct activities that would seriously jeopardize the national security, law enforcement and economic interests of the United States,” FCC chair Ajit Pai said.
Fly me to the moon. Space loving Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday unveiled a design for a moon lander that his other company, Blue Origin, could build to help NASA get back to the celestial body in a few years. “We are going to build a road to space,” Bezos said at the unveiling. “And then amazing things will happen.” Rival space loving billionaire Elon Musk couldn’t resist tweaking Bezos on Twitter with an off-color joke.
