Stocks fell on Monday, pausing a rally driven by optimism that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates next year.
These stocks made moves today:
Alaska Air
tumbled 14% after it agreed to buy Hawaiian Airlines, a rival for travel in the Pacific region.
Hawaiian Holdings
gained 193% in a blistering move, reflective of the $18-a-share deal price, a hefty premium to the stock’s closing price of $4.86 on Friday. The cash transaction, which Alaska said would expand it as the fifth-largest U.S. airline, is worth $1.9 billion, including some $900 million of Hawaiian’s debt.
Carvana
jumped 14% after JPMorgan upgraded the online used-car retailer to Neutral from Underweight.
Virgin Galactic
slid 18% because founder Richard Branson probably won’t put more money into the space-tourism pioneer.
Palantir Technologies
dropped 9.2%. William Blair analysts noted that customer concerns over data ownership could limit the analytics-software company’s future gains.
Spotify Technology
was up 7.5% after the audio streaming company said it was laying off 17% of staff, or about 1,500 workers, in its third round of job cuts this year. Shares have more than doubled this year, but more layoffs may be a sign that management is increasingly worried about future profits after rapid expansion.
Bitcoin miners, which have wider profit margins when token prices rise, also gained, with
Marathon Digital
up 8.5% and
Riot Platforms
8.9% higher.
Coinbase Global
jumped 5.5% on a surge in the price of
Bitcoin,
which hit a 20-month high. The cryptocurrency broker often trades in step with the largest digital asset. Increased investor interest in cryptos supports the company’s core trading business.
Uber Technologies,
the ride-hailing app, and
Jabil,
the electronics manufacturer, were both gaining after S&P Global said the stocks were among the group being cycled into the benchmark
S&P 500
index. Inclusion in the S&P 500 can push up stocks because many investors buy funds that track the index’s components. Uber advanced 2.2% and Jabil was down 1.3%.
Fisker
fell 6.9% after Evercore ISI analysts downgraded the electric-vehicle start-up to the equivalent of Hold from Buy.
Nvidia
fell 2.7% even after Piper Sandler named the chip giant its top large-cap pick.
Twilio
stock gained 1.1%. The communication tool provider said it’s cutting around 5% of its workforce. The company currently has about 8,156 employees, according to FactSet. It’s incurring $25 million to $35 million in related costs, paying for severances, employee benefits, and other charges. Arjun Bhatia from William Blair sees the changes as positive for profitability, estimating potential savings of $46 million to $62 million annually assuming an average salary ranging from $140,000 to $190,000 per employee, per Glassdoor.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com
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