Bourse

The pandemic made 2020 a wild year for Wall Street

New York (AFP) - Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, does not hold back in describing 2020 on Wall Street: "a year of extreme extremes." From the start of the coronavirus pandemic that sent stocks crashing, to their resurgence after the approval of vaccines holding the best hope for eradicating the disease, here's a look back at the year in US stocks: March: Historic crashAfter a rather quiet January and February, Wall Street suddenly collapsed in March, frightened by the arrival of Covid-19 and its consequences for the world's largest economy. The major New York in...

Tesla to join elite S&P index, shaking up Wall Street

New York (AFP) - Tesla is set to join an elite group of companies in a key Wall Street index, a move which gives greater prominence to the high-flying electric carmaker and forces money managers to reshuffle their portfolios. The company founded by Elon Musk becomes part of the Standard & Poor's 500 index on Monday, which means that investment funds based on that index will be holders of the stock. Tesla stock has already seen a spectacular rise this year of 680 percent, and with a market capitalization of some $600 billion it will be the richest company to enter the prestigious S&P index.  It...

As Trump rails against election outcome, Wall Street shrugs

Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump is mounting an unprecedented, and thus far unsuccessful, challenge to last week's presidential election, but that hasn't shaken Wall Street's forward momentum.Some analysts say the president's multi-state legal challenge to Democratic candidate Joe Biden's victory in the November 3 election is about boosting Trump's image as he prepares to leave the White House, and unlikely to affect stock indices that have little tolerance for uncertainty."My guess is, Trump is building his brand for the next round of whatever publicity he's going to try to garner...

However the US election goes, Wall Street marches on

Washington (AFP) - From the US presidential election to the state of the economy, on paper this week did not go well for Wall Street, and yet stock indices climbed ever higher.Wall Street's preferred candidate President Donald Trump has lost key states and may indeed lose the White House. The US economy is still suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, and Congress could remain split between Democrats and Republicans for the next two years, meaning much-needed stimulus spending may come haltingly or be undersized.The ingredients are all there for US stocks to plunge -- and yet the Dow Jones In...

Playboy set to emerge anew as public company

New York (AFP) - Playboy will become a public company again under a deal announced Thursday with the group famous for the iconic nudes in its long-running lifestyle magazine.The deal will make Playboy Enterprises a publicly traded firm nine years after going private and a long period of turmoil for the group which from its founding in the 1950s broke taboos on sexual content.The plan calls for investors in a special purpose acquisition corporation to buy Playboy, which will be listed on the Nasdaq as PLBY, in a deal valued at $381 million -- including $142 million in debt.The deal led by the s...