US markets were in the red on Thursday ahead of the long weekend, with mixed quarterly earnings from major bank's earnings putting investors in the doldrums. However, the enigmatic Elon Musk once again stole the headlines.
Oil, gold and Bitcoin all started the day in the red.
Here are some of the top trending stocks on Thursday:
Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR)
This social media giant is absolutely dominating news flow on Thursday after eccentric Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced a bid to purchase the company.
Musk had recently become Twitter’s biggest individual shareholder, but then stopped short of joining the company’s board of directors. Today we saw the next step in this zig-zagging story when he used the platform to reveal that he has bid more than $40bn to snap up all of Twitter’s shares at $54.20 each.
This initially sent the stock price higher by more than 10% after the market open, though the price has since settled a little lower to around a 3% gain.
Musk has previously exhibited great influence over investors, drawing many to sink their money into Tesla or leading the charge into various cryptocurrencies. As such, this story is likely to factor into the decision-making of many impressionable investors.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC)
This major US banking stock is in the red on Thursday morning after investors were disappointed with the company’s earnings update.
Revenue missed the mark for the bank’s most recent three-month period, coming in around $200m below consensus estimates as mortgage lending flagged. However, earnings per share was higher than analysts had projected for the period.
Prior to today, the company’s share price had performed much better than other big US banks across the year to date due to strong prior earnings and a share buyback. However, Wells Fargo stock was down by more than 6% in early trading on Thursday.
Borqs Technologies (NASDAQ: BRQS)
This Internet of Things (IoT) specialist has seen its share price rocket after announcing the purchase of a 5G licensing agreement with Qualcomm.
The company said this purchase would enable it to design and manufacture 5G products based on the Qualcomm latest technologies for customers worldwide. Borqs said it expected the continued growth of demand for 5G products would be buoyed by the need for strong, seamless, and uninterrupted connectivity with autonomous vehicles.
In early trading the company’s share price had climbed by more than 20%.
Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD)
This drug store chain was another in the news after reporting quarterly earnings, though it has fared better than Wells Fargo.
Rite Aid beat consensus estimates for its fourth quarter as the company confirmed it had exceeded its own expectations for full year 2022.
President and chief executive officer Heyward Donigan, said:
“As we look forward to the year ahead, we are ready and energized to compete in a new post-pandemic normal. We demonstrated the important role that pharmacists play in the everyday health of our customers and are well positioned to grow in a trillion-dollar pharmacy market through our continued leadership as a full-service pharmacy company.”
Rite Aid’s share price has climbed by more than 10% on Thursday morning at the time of writing.
Valneva SE (NASDAQ: VALN)
This French biotech company was well in the green on Thursday morning after UK regulators approved the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, making this the first jurisdiction in which it can be used.
The new vaccine differs from the five others to receive approval in the UK as it is an inactivated whole-virus vaccine. This is similar to the makeup of flu and polio vaccines. The company’s share price had previously taken a big hit in September when the UK government scrapped a supply deal worth more than $1.5bn.
However, this approval could put the stock price on the road to recovery. Valneva’s share price was up by almost 8% in early trading on Thursday.
