Fastly Stock Plunges 27%, Markets End Lower
All three major U.S. stock market indices finished lower for a third straight day on Thursday. Not only are investors focused on the long-awaited second virus relief package from Congress, but increasingly the path of the virus itself is concerning.
Daily new cases in the U.S. approached 60,000, and the seven-day average of new cases is now up 23% from where it was just two weeks ago. There has always been a concern that the virus could worsen during the fall flu season, and that remains a possibility.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 19 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 28,494.
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Fastly stock the victim of TikTok chaos. Cloud computing company Fastly (ticker: FSLY) released preliminary third-quarter numbers, revealing that revenue from its largest client, TikTok, was much lower than expected due to what the company termed "an uncertain geopolitical environment."
In layman's terms, the drama surrounding the White House's banning of TikTok in the U.S. did no favors for Fastly, which now expects third-quarter revenue to come in between $70 million and $71 million, easily below the $73.5 million to $75.5 million range it had provided before.
FSLY stock fell 27% on the news.
Top traders learned of virus risk early. A report from the New York Times claims that elite traders got access to information on how White House insiders were wary of the virus. This intelligence gave them an informational edge against the public at large in late February, the report says, just as markets were beginning their steep, sudden decline.
Twitter CEO to be subpoenaed. Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in between confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, told the press they plan to issue a subpoena to Twitter ( TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey next Tuesday asking for him to testify before the committee on Oct. 23.
The senators attacked Twitter for restricting the ability to share a controversial New York Post article on Hunter Biden. The company said its handling of the issue was not ideal, but it did cite the violation of two of its policies -- one against hacked information and the other against displaying certain personal information like email addresses -- to justify its actions.
