Investing

Before the Bell: Twitter Now a Brand, Not a Company; Plus, Cannabis Capers

DEBOVE SOPHIE / iStock via Getty Images

Premarket action on Tuesday had the three major U.S. indexes trading slightly higher. The Dow Jones industrials were up 0.1%, the S&P 500 up 0.16% and the Nasdaq 0.15% higher.

Six of 11 market sectors closed higher on Monday. Industrials (0.90%) and energy (0.65%) posted the day’s best gains. Communications services (−0.69%) and utilities (−0.20%) lagged. The Dow closed up 0.3% and the S&P 500 up 0.1%, but the Nasdaq closed down 0.03% on Monday.

Two-year Treasuries rose three basis points to end the day at 4.00% on Monday, and 10-year notes added two basis points to close at 3.41%. In Tuesday’s premarket, two-year notes traded at around 3.98% and 10-year notes at about 3.40%.

Monday’s trading volume was well below the five-day average. New York Stock Exchange winners outpaced losers by 1,934 to 1,050, while Nasdaq advancers led decliners by 5 to 3.

Storage device maker Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) added 8.22% on Monday to lead the S&P 500, while memory chip maker Micron Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: MU) posted a gain of 8.04%. Korean chipmaker Samsung announced that it would cut memory chip production, and that gave a boost to its rivals. According to research firm IDC, PC shipments in the first quarter tumbled by 29% year over year. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw shipments drop by 40.5%, according to IDC’s preliminary report. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) shipments fell 31.0%, and Lenovo had a decline of 30.3%. IDC also noted that PC shipments are likely to be lower until picking up again at the end of the year.

Shares of electronic trading platform MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTX) retreated 2.21% on Monday. The company had no specific news.

Bitcoin broke through its $30,000 ceiling late Monday, its first trip to that level in 10 months. Bitcoin miners, which had a good month in March, had a very good Monday. Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) added 14.04%, and shares traded up more than 4% in Tuesday’s premarket. Riot Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) soared 15.05 % on Monday and also traded up more than 4% in Tuesday’s premarket. Rising bitcoin prices are very good for these mining companies.

A shakeup in the cannabis business was announced shortly after U.S. markets closed Monday. Hexo Corp. (NASDAQ: HEXO) said that it has reached an agreement to be acquired by rival Tilray Corp. (NASDAQ: TLRY) for the equivalent of $1.25 in Tilray stock for each Tilray share. The deal values Hexo at around $56 million, well below its market cap of around $72 million when Monday’s closing bell rang. Tilray’s market cap is about $1.7 billion, so the deal is unlikely to mean much, except that it reduces the number of rivals by one. The deal is expected to close in June.

Tilray stocked added about 5.4% to close at $2.74 on Monday, and shares traded down about 6.2% in Tuesday’s premarket. Hexo shares closed at $1.64 on Monday and traded down about 22% at $1.28 early Tuesday.

Last week, Twitter Inc. changed its name after being merged into a new company called X Corp., a privately held corporation owned by X Holdings Corp. And who do you suppose owns X Holdings? That’s right.

According to a Slate report late Monday, the company formerly known as Twitter was disestablished in a court filing related to Laura Loomer’s suit against Twitter for booting her off the platform in 2019. She has since been reinstated.

Twitter is now just the brand name for the social media company, and X marks the spot where it died.

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