Stock Market Mainly Higher As Twitter Soars On Elon Musk’s Blockbuster News

The stock market was mostly higher Monday morning as the Nasdaq led thanks to strength in technology and social media stocks following Elon Musk’s disclosure of a major stake in Twitter (TWTR).

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The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.1% at 10 a.m. ET. Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) rose 1.5% and Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (XCL), which has a heavy weighting in internet stocks, climbed 2%.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4%. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Russell 2000 small-cap index were both down 0.1%. Volume fell on the Nasdaq and rose on the NYSE compared with the same time on Friday.

Twitter soared nearly 22% after Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk disclosed ownership of a 9% stake in the social media company.

Musk Discloses 9% Stake In Twitter

In an SEC filing Monday, Musk reported owning about 73.5 million shares of Twitter. The stake is valued at $2.89 billion as of Friday’s closing price, the Wall Street Journal said. It makes Musk Twitter’s largest shareholder. Twitter is the best performing stock in the S&P 500 today, and is on track for its second-best day ever, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Meanwhile, Tesla fell 0.6% though it continues to work on a cup base. The company announced on Saturday first-quarter deliveries of about 310,000 vehicles. The total, which met estimates, marked a quarterly record and an increase from some 309,000 deliveries in the fourth quarter.

Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) tumbled 9% to a Jan. 10 low in an apparent reaction to the Twitter news. The stock slid Thursday after Bloomberg reported that downloads of Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media app, had plunged 95% since launch. But the figure could be misleading. Digital World is a SPAC that plans to bring Truth Social public. The app was launched to rival Twitter, which Trump and many critics say restricts free speech.

Starbucks (SBUX) fell 5% in a gap-down after the company announced it is immediately halting its stock buybacks.

Howard Schultz, who has returned as interim CEO, said in a letter to shareholders the move will allow Starbucks to “invest more into our people and our stores — the only way to create long-term value for all stakeholders.” Starbucks stock is digging itself out of a 33% hole suffered in the first 2 1/2 months of the year.

SunPower, Roku Among Stock Market Movers

SunPower (SPWR) gapped up to a nearly 9% gain in heavy trading, which put the stock back at its 200-day moving average for the first time since Dec. 3. Bank of America upgraded the solar power stock to neutral from underperform, while Goldman Sachs raised its price target to 20 from 15.

Roku (ROKU) jumped 6% in big volume after the company announced it reached a multiyear extension for Amazon.com‘s (AMZN) Prime Video and IMDb to remain on Roku’s platform. Terms were not disclosed in a brief statement.

Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) pared its gain to 0.1%.

Callon Petroleum (CPE) is on track for a new closing high. New Fortress Energy (NFE) jumped more than 6% and is 35% above a 35.80 buy point.

European stocks were mildly higher in afternoon trading. The London FTSE 100 and Paris CAC 40 rose 0.2%. The German DAX climbed 0.1%.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng rallied 2.1% today. Reports said a potential compromise by Chinese regulators on audit inspections could avert delistings of Chinese stocks on U.S. exchanges. The Tokyo Nikkei 225 rose nearly 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite was closed.

The price of U.S. crude oil rose 3% to $102.29 a barrel. The price went back above $100 after falling sharply last week on the Biden administration’s plan to release about 1 million barrels a day from U.S. strategic reserves for six months.

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