Twitter's Stock Price Jumped 15 Percent Today. Here's Why. The tech company reported its third-quarter earnings and helped lead a rebound for the Entrepreneur Index™.
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The stock market responded to its recent woes with a mighty tweet today.
Led by Twitter -- up 15.47 percent on the day -- the market rebounded from yesterday's plunge with a strong day across all segments of the market. The Entrepreneur Index™ was up 3.45 percent with 53 of 60 stocks posting gains for the day.
Twitter's third quarter results, reported before the market opened, got the ball rolling. The social media network's average monthly users figure was down as expected due to its battle with automated bot accounts, but it beat earnings estimates by 7 percent and had a 29 percent surge in advertising revenues. Microsoft also reported strong earnings overnight.
Twitter wasn't the only company in the Entrepreneur Index™ to inspire some confidence in the market. Elon Musk delivered as promised. Tesla posted a healthy profit of $312 million in the third quarter and the stock was up 9.14 percent. Ford got in on the act too. While down nearly 30 percent so far this year, the stock gained 9.9 percent after Ford beat earnings estimates by a penny and revenue estimates by more than 10 percent today.
Telecom giant Comcast, the fifth most valuable company on the Entrepreneur Index™ at $164 billion, also got a 5.04 percent pop in its stock price after reporting great earnings this morning. CEO Brian Roberts credited the company's investment in broadband infrastructure for helping it add significantly more high-speed internet customers than expected. Last month, the company won a $39 billion bidding war with Disney/Fox for British broadcaster Sky. The stock is down 11.4 percent for the year.
It was technology stocks, however, that led the market higher today. The Nasdaq Composite, down 11 percent for the month after yesterday's close, was up 2.95 percent today, while the Dow and S&P 500 indexes were up 1.63 percent and 1.86 percent.
Every tech stock on the Entrepreneur Index™ posted a gain for the day. Amazon.com, which along with Alphabet Inc. will report earnings after the market closes today, had the second biggest gain in the sector after Twitter, rising 7.09 percent. Alphabet Inc. (4.27 percent), Adobe Systems Inc. (6.07 percent) and salesforce.com (5.66 percent) also had notable gains. Netflix, down 18 percent for the month coming into today, was up 3.66 percent.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals had a big bounce after yesterday's nearly 10 percent drop, gaining 5.56 percent. Kimco Realty Corp. and Simon Property Group both reported strong earnings and saw their share prices rise 6.23 percent and 3.91 percent respectively.
Stocks that have been slammed lately also saw good gains. Homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc., down 30 percent in the year to date was up 3.49 percent. Asset managers BlackRock and Franklin Resources, which have been plunging along with the markets this month, were both up more than 3.5 percent today.
Just six stocks on the Entrepreneur Index™ declined on the day. J.M. Smucker Company (-0.68 percent) and Rollins Inc (-0.96 percent), two of only nine stocks that had gains yesterday, were both down slightly.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals was the odd man out on the index today. While recently battered biotech stocks were up sharply today, Regeneron was down 4.11 percent -- the biggest decline by far on the Entrepreneur Index™. The market appears spooked that the Food and Drug Administration didn't approve a pre-filled syringe version of the company's blockbuster eye disease drug Eylea. The drug had U.S. sales of $3.7 billion last year.
The Entrepreneur Index™ collects the top 60 publicly traded companies founded and run by entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit is a valuable asset for any business, and this index recognizes its importance, no matter how much a company has grown. These inspirational businesses can be tracked in real time on Entrepreneur.com.
