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SpaceX subsequently gained $433 billion in market cap, the second-largest daily gain ever for a U.S. company equivalent to the size of Mastercard—the S&P 500’s 24th biggest company. |
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Its first earnings report as a public company, likely over the summer, ought to be a huge test for the stock. But Tesla investors will know there’s a fail-safe—the words and aspirations of Musk himself. |
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SpaceX’s imminent inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 likely means the stock’s record-setting start will continue, generating passive buying by funds indexed to the tech-heavy index. |
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However, at some point—whether that’s this month, this year, or light years into the future—SpaceX will need to back up its valuation with the numbers. If it doesn’t, the crash landing will be just as historic. |
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ARK’s Cathie Wood Doubles Down on Elon Musk Investment |
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One of Elon Musk’s biggest fans is leaning heavily into his latest public listing. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest funds held roughly 3.29 million shares of SpaceX by the end of June 12, the day the rocket-and-satellite company went public. The purchase was spread across several ARK exchange-traded funds. |
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• The ARK Innovation ETF was the largest holder, owning nearly 1.69 million shares valued around $325 million as of Monday’s close. ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF has the largest exposure, as SpaceX shares make up 6.8% of the fund’s portfolio. |
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• Her ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF also bought the stock as one of their top holdings. It’s unclear whether those shares were received as an IPO subscription before trading began, or bought in the open market and the price isn’t known. |
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• ARK trimmed existing holdings, including Tesla, for the new stock. But the firm still holds a large position in Musk’s EV maker as it continues to treat Tesla as one of its highest-conviction artificial-intelligence and autonomy bets. It’s still the top holding in the Innovation fund, at 10.4%. |
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• Wood is known to be comfortable with valuations that traditional investors often find difficult to justify. In ARK’s view, Tesla is a potential robo-taxi, robotics, and energy-storage company, and it expects Tesla shares, now $411 each, to reach $2,600 by 2029. |
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What’s Next: In ARK’s investment thesis, both Tesla and SpaceX are not just leading industrial businesses, but mega platforms where manufacturing scale, proprietary software, AI, and control over critical infrastructure could turn expensive hardware into high-margin technology networks. |
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Truist’s New CEO Signals Missed Opportunity to Wall Street |
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Truist Financial, the ninth-largest U.S. bank, has a new CEO in Michael Lyons, an industry veteran who has spent the past year and a half at financial-tech firm Fiserv. But Wall Street saw it as a missed opportunity, as it’s unlikely Truist would become fodder as a takeover target now. |
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• Shares of both Truist Financial and Fiserv tumbled on Monday and were among the worst performers in the S&P 500. Truist stock has fallen by nearly 7% in five years, after the lender was formed out of a 2019 merger of equals between BB&T Corp. and SunTrust Banks. |
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• Although Lyons, who takes over in September, is seen as a welcome outsider, “such a CEO change usually comes with cultural and [management] upheaval near-term,” UBS analyst Erika Najarian says. That means Truist is more likely to stay independent, she notes. |
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• Bank M&A fever has died down significantly over the past month, according to Truist Securities’ own sector sales specialist Brian Finneran. And prominent Wells Fargo bank analyst Mike Mayo also sees a takeover as doubtful. |
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• Fiserv has struggled during Lyons’ tenure, slashing its revenue guidance last fall. Activist investor Jana Partners built a stake in the company and is pushing for changes, The Wall Street Journal reported in February. |
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What’s Next: Fiserv named executive Takis Georgakopoulos, who joined the company in 2024 from JPMorgan Chase, as its new CEO. Fiserv also said its outlook for this year remains unchanged: organic revenue growth between 1% and 3%, and adjusted earnings of $8 to $8.30 a share. |
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Could Fox’s Roku Bid Draw Interest from Social-Media Platforms? |
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Fox Corp’s proposed $22 billion bid for the streaming technology maker Roku could prompt a bidding war, some analysts say. The combined company would become the third largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing; however, Wall Street on Monday mused if others may outbid Fox. |
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• NewStreet Research analyst Dan Salmon says many companies should have an interest in this transaction, including streaming giants Amazon and Netflix plus YouTube-owner Alphabet and Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook and Instagram. |
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• It makes more sense for the Facebook parent, as it looks to establish itself in the “connected TV,” or CTV, market. The analyst added that TikTok might also have interest in Roku, for the same reasons Meta might be interested. |
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• TikTok has little exposure to the CTV market but is making moves to address that, Salmon said. The acquisition of Roku would accelerate these efforts considerably and guarantee default distribution of a TikTok TV app across the most widely used CTV platform. |
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• Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak doesn’t think rivals will attempt to outbid Fox, noting the potential for antitrust issues and less healthy balance sheets among his reasons. Fox’s cash and stock offer works out to about $64 a Roku share. Fox and Barron’s owner News Corp have common ownership. |
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What’s Next: There is a termination fee for both companies of $866 million if Roku accepts a superior offer or if the board changes its recommendation to shareholders. There is also a separate $1.24 billion termination fee payable by Fox if regulatory approval isn’t secured. |
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Target Taps Fashion Designer Mizrahi to Restore the Magic |
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Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi’s return to Target signals the company is trying to restore some of the cachet it had in the early 2000s, when Target’s collaboration with high-profile brands boosted its appeal and earned it the French-inspired nickname “Tarzjay.” |
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• Mizrahi will become Target’s first creative director at large. The retailer is likely hoping to catch that lightning in the bottle a second time around. Guggenheim’s John Heinbockel said he sees it as another step in the right direction for Target, especially in above-average margin categories. |
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• Given that Target has lagged behind in areas like fashion and home goods where it once dominated, the agreement bolsters the brand’s recent commitment to an elevated portfolio-wide product design process, Heinbockel said. That should contribute to top-line momentum in important discretionary categories. |
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• Management itself sees the process as a multiyear journey to rebuild its merchandising prowess by standing out from the crowd like it did before, says Bernstein analyst Zhihan Ma, who met with CEO Michael Fiddelke and CFO Jim Lee last week. |
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• The latest spending data from Bank of America shows that despite all the pressures heaped on consumers after years of inflation, they’re still spending beyond essentials. BofA’s May aggregated credit and debit card spending rose 5.1% from a year ago, the largest gain in nearly four years. |
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What’s Next: BofA senior economist David Michael Tinsley said spending is more discretionary than necessity-driven. Spending on travel, tourism, and restaurants stands out. Certainly some of that is attributable to the World Cup, but retail excluding gas and dining out was growing almost the same as services. |
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—Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O’Donnell, Rupert Steiner |
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