Given the widespread horror and horror among the Capitol crowd last week that could lead to Trump’s impeachment just days before he was due to leave office, some companies clearly feel they have no choice but to take action.
But investors seem nervous about the consequences. Shares of Twitter fell more than 6% on Monday, while Facebook shares lost 4%.
According to equity analyst Nicholas Hyett, an analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown, the platforms are becoming less popular with Republicans, who crave Trump’s mute, and Democrats, who think the sites should have acted earlier. Given their customer base and ongoing regulatory burden, that’s a tough place to be.
“They are increasingly and inevitably stuck in the middle of this political table tennis, which is just not right,” Hyett said.
What hasn’t been said yet: About 74 million Americans voted for Trump.
In recent days, veteran investors Carl Icahn and Jeremy Grantham have warned of a Wall Street bubble, sparking a new round of debates over asset prices that coincided with political instability in Washington.
Investors continue to pump money into healthcare stocks
Wall Street has made big bets on health care stocks in 2020. With the pandemic raging, they are doubling.
See here: The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the sector, is up nearly 4% this year, while the S&P 500 is up a more modest 1.2% despite a string of record highs.
Some of those increases have been linked to the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Investors are also monitoring research unrelated to the pandemic. Shares of Eli Lilly were up nearly 12% on Monday, making it the top-performing stock in the S&P 500, after the company announced promising early results for its experimental Alzheimer’s drug.
On the Radar: Bespoke Investment Group points out that JPMorgan’s annual healthcare conference, which often coincides with strong stock performance when companies pitch investors, is happening pretty much this week. That could open the door to additional profit.
The next crisis for car manufacturers is a global chip shortage
Details, details: The Louisville plant employs 3,800 hourly wage workers who will receive about 75% of their normal wages by the week’s close, my colleague Chris Isidore of CNN Business reports. It mounts the Ford Escape and the Lincoln version of that SUV, the Corsair.
It is the first shutdown due to an industry-wide problem that is expected to persist for months.
Automakers scaled back orders for computer chips early last year when Covid-19 slowed down car sales and production due to temporary factory closures. When car sales returned faster than expected, manufacturers had to get confused.
According to Kristin Dziczek, vice president of research at the Center for Automotive Research, the problem has been exacerbated by the skyrocketing demand for laptops and other home electronics during the lockdown era.
The average car has between 50 and 150 chips, she said. Everything is necessary to proceed with the assembly of the vehicle.
UBS analysts expect all major automakers to be hit by the bottlenecks during the first three months of the year, with Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and Nissan also addressing supply chain issues.
Next one
Tuesday’s data releases include the NFIB’s small business optimism index for December and job vacancies from November.
Available tomorrow: US inflation data for December will reveal the state of consumer prices as policymakers prepare for another round of stimulus spending.