Coffee With Greta: Elon Musk Joins Twitter Board
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DJIA Futures: -69 (-0.2%)
SPX Futures: -9 (-0.2%)
NASDAQ Futures: -44 (-0.3%)
Good morning friends!
Futures are slipping as the market gives up Monday’s tech rally.
Let’s get right to it!
Musk Joins Twitter’s Board of Directors
Twitter (TWTR) shares are up 5.4% in premarket trade after the company announced Elon Musk will join the board of directors.
In a tweet, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said he was “excited to share” they are appointing Musk to the board.
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022
An SEC filing shows Musk will serve as a Class II director and his term will expire in 2024.
During that term and 90 days after, his stake cannot surpass 14.9%.
TWTR shares surged 27% on Monday, marking the company’s best day since its IPO in November 2013.
That rally came after a new SEC filing revealed Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk had purchased a 9.2% stake in the social media company on March 14.
His purchase of 73,486,938 TWTR shares makes him the largest shareholder in the company.
Many analysts expect him to use his stake to push for change at Twitter after being an outspoken critic of the social media platform in the past.
In a tweet Monday night, Musk asked his followers if they want an edit button on Twitter.
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Cruisers Are Back
Carnival Corp (CCL) shares are jumping 5.1% ahead of the open after reporting its busiest week of bookings ever.
Carnival said the week between March 28 and April 3 set a new record for weekly bookings.
The company saw a double-digit increase in bookings from its previous record week.
22 of Carnival’s 23 ships are back in operations at U.S. ports.
The final ship will return on May 2 and a new ship will be introduced in November.
Foreign Trade Deficit Dips
The U.S. trade deficit dipped in February.
The Commerce Department reported the deficit fell 0.1% to $89.2 billion.
The decline came as exports jumped 1.8$ to $228.6 billion and imports rose 1.3% to $317.8 billion.
That was the fourth month in a row imports topped $300 billion.
The U.S. trade deficit has been volatile as the American economy reopened faster than our global trading partners.
Oil Climbs Ahead of New Russia Sanctions
Oil prices are higher today as the U.S. and Europe plan a new round of sanctions against Moscow.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures are up 1.1% to over $104 per barrel while Brent crude futures are up 1% to over $108 per barrel.
Talks remain stalled between the U.S. and Iran to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
That deal is expected to allow Iran to help alleviate supply issues in the global oil market.
Treasury Yield Curve Remains Inverted
Two parts of the Treasury yield curve remain inverted as traders look ahead to the Fed minutes this week.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury note is 2.48% while the yield on the 10-year note is 2.47%.
The 5-year Treasury yield is 2.62% while the 30-year bond yield is 2.53%.
Several Fed officials are set to speak about the economy today.
Fed Governor Lael Brainard speaks at 11:00 a.m. ET, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly speaks at 12:30 p.m. ET, and New York Fed President John Williams speaks at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Former Fed Governor Lawrence Lindsey warned inflation will cause a recession in Q3.
Lindsey told CNBC on Monday, “Inflation is eating into consumer spending power, they’re going to have to cut back”.
He said the Fed is “nowhere close” to getting inflation under control and he sees those pressures rising further this year.
In Case You Missed It
- Tesla (TSLA) shares rallied 5.6% on Monday after the electric automaker reported a record number of deliveries in Q1. Tesla delivered 310,048 vehicles and produced 305,407 vehicles last quarter. Model 3 and Model Y vehicles made up 295,324 of those deliveries.