The Week in Numbers: meme stocks and old shoes
From meme-stock mayhem, to a big deal for old shoes, this is the Week in Numbers.
95% was the surge in AMC's share price on Wednesday... The U.S. cinema chain is enjoying its ride on the "meme stock" rollercoaster, raising hundreds of millions of dollars with two share sales just this week.
Wedbush Securities MD Daniel Ives says retail investors on Reddit are being joined by the big fish:
"Yeah, this is meme-made here, really taken over again, and I think you're really seeing just another leg to the story, which is obviously retail driven, but also institutional, I think sort of getting in on the party here, too."
$1.63 billion is the value of second-hand clothes nowadays. Or at least it's the price Etsy is paying for Depop - the London-based platform for trading new and used apparel. Etsy thinks the takeover will help it target Gen-Z, as young people wake up to the fashion industry's carbon footprint.
15% is reportedly U.S. President Joe Biden's proposed minimum level for corporate taxes. That's a big climb-down from the Democrat's earlier suggestion of 28%, but there's a kicker. If Republicans want to do a deal at the new level, sources say they'll have to sign up to $1 trillion in infrastructure spending.
Three is how many seats activist investors now have on the board of Exxon Mobil. That's up from the two initially declared. The triple victory could pressure Exxon to rethink its policy on climate change. And it's a huge shock for the energy titan. Big firms just don't expect to lose board elections.
And $2.27 billion in shares is the donation to charity by Wang Xing, founder of Chinese food delivery giant Meituan. The gift comes after similar multibillion dollar gestures by the bosses of e-commerce leader Pinduoduo and tech firm Tencent. Coincidentally or not, China's online megafirms are under very close scrutiny by regulators right now.
