Short sellers – those who profit when stocks fall – dominated this past week
The CE 100 stock index slipped 2.2% as only one pillar gained ground in the holiday-shortened week.
The Move segment, Work Pillar and Enablers group were all down 4.7%, 4% and 3.6% respectively.
The short-seller report captures the headlines
Within the Enablers segment, C3.ai plunged about 32%. As reported in recent days by Sites including Bloomberg, Shares plunged, then rebounded slightly, in the wake of a short-seller report by Kerrisdale Capital that alleged the AI-focused firm had engaged in “aggressive accounting” to “inflate its income statement.” Management rejected the letter from C3.ai this week, as CEO Tom Seibel said the report was, as he told Bloomberg, “stock price manipulation.” The letter also alleges that the company’s business is leaning more toward low-margin consulting business than previously disclosed.
In that same group, Google parent Alphabet gained 4.7%, blunting some of the C3.ai impact. The company said One challenge Microsoft plans to add is conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to its search engine. Sundar Pichai, the CEO, outlined the company’s plans in an interview published with The Wall Street Journal last week. He said artificial intelligence will enhance Google’s search function.
“The opportunity space, if anything, is bigger than ever,” Pichai told the Journal.
WeWork undercuts work-focused names, leaving 15.2%. The company announced It has taken note of what we commonly know (Reported by sites like Reuters) as a “poison pill” to limit shareholders from increasing their ownership. By increasing this share, the company can use its net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards to reduce taxes. The announcement comes weeks after the company reached an agreement with SoftBank and other backers to restructure its debt and secure other means of financing.
In the “move” segment, Airbnb lost 11.8%. A short seller report in the Bear Cave Newsletter (short sellers are known as “bears” in Wall Street parlance) said that “Airbnb’s top professional hosts are building their own booking platforms and offering cheaper deals to cut Airbnb, grow their own email lists and distribution, and offers loyalty discounts for Airbnb bookings,” Yahoo Finance reports. “In short, Airbnb’s future will look much different than its past because the company will now have to compete against its best and biggest hosts,” Dorsey wrote.
As reported separately by PYMNTS in recent weeks, Airbnb says hosts are using the service to cope with the rising cost of living.
The online marketplace for short-term home rentals found that 62% of U.S. hosts plan to use their income to cover higher living expenses, 44% use it to pay for food and other necessities, and 42% use it to pay for food and other necessities, according to figures released last month. Helped them stay at home.
These losses were only partially offset by gains in the “Stay Well” vertical.
Johnson & Johnson rose 6.6%. The stock got a lift in the wake of news that the company settled for $8.9 billion to settle a lawsuit over its talc-based baby powder. as reported In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Payments will be made at intervals of 25 years.