Tech Sell-Off Continues

By Hoda Mehr Fri, Mar 5, 2021

Hey Scoopers,

After the better-than-expected job report, investors seemed confident but turned back to the bearish mood after Powell’s statements. — More on that in the “Overall Market” section.

Beyond the overall stock market, a biotechnology company closed a deal that skyrocketed its stock’s price. In contrast, a recent IPO has not met analysts’ expectations. — More on that in the “What’s Up?” and “What’s Down?” sections.

By the way, the line between payment companies and technology companies is getting quite blurry? — More on that in the “Water Cooler” section.

But, first, here is a recap of what happened in the market yesterday:

Market Recap

• U.S. markets: All the indices ended Thursday in the red. Scroll down to the “Overall Market” section to read more.
• Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin price pushed back to under $50K per coin.

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Powell NOT To The Rescue

The stock market closed in the red zone on Thursday for the third day in a row. The indices started the day close to the flat line after the better-than-expected jobs’ report. However, the stocks dipped sharply with another surge in the 10-Year Treasury rate. It ended the trading day at 1.54%.

After the Fed Chair’s public appearance at the WSJ Jobs Summit, investors’ were disappointed that Powell would not attempt to forestall the inflationary pressures anytime soon. Following the statement, indices fell into the red zone.

Another Acquisition

So, what happened?

Shares of Five Prime Therapeutics (Ticker: FPRX) were up by more than 78% on Thursday. Five is a biotechnology company developing protein therapeutics. Yesterday’s spike came after Amgen (Ticker: AMGN) announcing Five Prime’s acquisition at $1.9 billion with a $38 purchase price per share. Amgen’s CEO Robert Bradway stated that Five Prime’s innovative pipeline strengthens Amgen’s oncology leading portfolio.

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Not the Expected Results

So what happened?

Shares of Vroom (Ticker: VRM) were down by more than 27%. Vroom is a recent IPO that operates an e-commerce platform for used vehicles. After it announced a worse-than-expected fourth-quarterly loss, Wall Street turned its back to the company. Despite losing almost one-third of its market value, Vroom’s CEO stated that it is still confident about investing in the future.

Mastercard Going Tech

So what happened?

Mastercard (Ticker: MA) and Samsung (Ticker: SSNLF) have decided to change the way customers use payment cards. After the long-time partnership resulting in revenue growth for both sides, the duo announced a biometric card development partnership.

The idea is to develop a built-in fingerprint scanner on the payment cards, delivering a more secure transaction. The scanner would improve the payment method, turning it into a faster and more reliable payment source. CEOs from Mastercard and Samsung believe that the duo has enough safety and cybersecurity expertise to deliver the innovative endeavor.

These days the line between payment and technology is quite blurry.

If you have any questions, or suggestions let us know by emailing us at members@tradestocks.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

About the Author

The authors of this Scoop are the editorial team at Stock Card, led by Hoda Mehr. Hoda Mehr is CEO and Co-founder of Stock Card and the host of Renegade Investors podcast. She runs a community of 40,000 stock market investors and manages Stock Card's successful flagship portfolio, Roll with Our CEO, on Stock Card Portfolio Store. Hoda is an Economist with an MBA from Concordia, John Molson School of Business. She applies behavioral economics, data journalism, and storytelling to all aspects of her work. Before starting Stock Card, Hoda worked as a strategy and insights lead at technology companies including Symantec, Aimia and Sony. Create a free account to do your stock market research easily and mistake-free: Stock Card Stock Card