Elon Flips The Bird

“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.” – Elon Musk

Heading into today, it was looking like a quiet start to what was looking like a slow week as the economic calendar is light and earnings season doesn’t kick off for at least another week.  That changed a bit following news that Elon Musk had taken a passive 9.2% stake in Twitter (TWTR) pushing the stock up by more than 25% in pre-market trading to its highest level since late November.  Last week on Twitter, Musk made the statement at the top of this note and then followed up with the question, “What should be done?”  Well, this morning we appear to be getting an answer. Twitter has long been criticized for not realizing its full potential, and TWTR shareholders are hoping Musk can move the company in that direction.

With the stock poised to open up more than 20% this morning, it will be just the fourth time in its history as a public company in 2013 that TWTR has gapped up more than 20%.  Two of those days were in reaction to earnings (July 2014 and February 2018), and then on the day of its IPO in November 2013.  Today, it’s all Elon.