Heading into a new trading week, here is a quick roundup of the top five stories from the technology, corporate and cryptocurrency sectors that investors would not want to miss out on from the weekend.
1. Alibaba, Tech Stocks Tumble In Hong Kong: Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese companies — including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) — fell in Hong Kong on Monday amid worries about tighter monetary policy by the U.S. Federal Reserve and surging COVID-19 cases that could impact further economic reopening in Hong Kong.
Other stock markets in Asia — including Australia, India and South Korea — also traded notably lower on Monday ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting scheduled for this week.
2. Activist Hedge Fund Builds Unilever Stake: Nelson Peltz’s activist hedge fund Trian Fund Management LP has built a stake in Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL), it was reported, citing the Financial Times.
The stake building in Unilever comes after the British consumer goods maker faced strong opposition from investors for its plan to buy GlaxoSmithKline plc’s (NYSE:GSK) healthcare unit.
3. U.S. Government Preparing Crypto Strategy: President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to release the federal government’s strategy on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) by February, it was reported, citing Bloomberg. Senior administration officials are drafting an executive order that will be presented to Biden in the coming weeks.
4. Cathie Wood Trims Twitter Stake Amid New NFT Feature: In a marked reversal from just a month ago, Cathie Wood’s money managing firm Ark Investment Management has further reduced its stake in Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR).
The latest stake sale by Ark coincides with Twitter’s inclusion of non fungible tokens (NFT) in profile pictures — a move that was criticized by Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
5. Peloton Urged To Fire CEO, Explore Sale: Activist investor Blackwells Capital LLC has urged connected fitness company Peloton Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ:PTON) to fire its CEO John Foley and explore a sale, it was reported, citing the Wall Street Journal.
Blackwells, which owns a less than 5% stake in Peloton, believes the company could be an attractive acquisition target for larger technology or fitness-oriented companies.
What Else: Among other stories from the weekend, investors would want to check out the EV week in review, speculation about Tesla commenting operations at Giga Berlin, and Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE:KSS) receiving a buyout offer worth $9 billion from a consortium backed by activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP.
Meanwhile, Sony Pictures’ (NYSE:SONY) Spider-Man: No Way Home” has reclaimed the top position at the U.S. box office this weekend, ousting “Scream,” which was released by ViacomCBS Inc.’s (NASDAQ:VIAC) Paramount unit.
