Tech Stocks Slump, Airbnb IPO Planned
Stocks retreated to end the week on Friday, as news that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for the virus.
Also capturing Wall Street's attention was September's jobs report, which showed the economy added 661,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.4% to 7.9%. Although it was nice to see that increase, it paled in comparison to the 800,000-job gain economists expected.
Tech stocks, which have largely been some of the most volatile names in the market, led Friday's retreat, with the Nasdaq slumping 2.2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 134 points, or 0.5%, to finish at 27,682.
Good news and bad news for Tesla. As far as the business itself is concerned, there's some good news for Tesla (ticker: TSLA), which just announced a record-setting quarter of car deliveries, which clocked in at 139,300, surpassing the 112,000 vehicles sold in the holiday quarter of 2019. Tesla's delivery last quarter were up 44% from the year-ago period.
The bad news is from a stock valuation perspective: Tesla was just snubbed a second time for inclusion in the S&P 500, as Pool Corp. ( POOL) was added to the widely tracked index instead.
Despite the better-than-expected quarter, the S&P snub seized the focus of markets; shares lost 7.4% on Friday.
Airbnb IPO reportedly planned. One of the most highly anticipated upcoming initial public offerings of 2020 is reportedly targeting a November or December public trading debut, with the vacation rental website Airbnb allegedly seeking to raise $3 billion when it goes public.
Although Airbnb's business took a severe hit in the early days of the pandemic, demand has since been coming back, and the company's expected valuation when it goes public will be worth tens of billions of dollars.
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Oil keeps slipping. After falling 4% on Thursday, oil prices fell another 4% on Friday. There's a supply glut at the moment, and global demand concerns stemming from the pandemic aren't helping prices.
