Top 10 Stock Market Moving Headlines From Last Week: Apple, Tesla, Microsoft Earnings, Ackman Buys Netflix, Bitcoin News And More

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Here are the top ten stock market moving headlines of the past week.

10. Bill Ackman Buys Netflix Shares: It was reported on Wednesday that Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman bought a new large position in Netflix Inc NFLX shares. Ackman tweeted that Pershing Square bought 3.1 million shares of Netflix after the streaming giant saw shares fall post earnings. Ackman said Pershing Square is a top 20 holder of the company’s shares.

“We are delighted that the market has presented us with this opportunity,” Ackman said.

9. Tesla Earnings: Electric vehicle giant Tesla Inc TSLA reported fourth quarter revenue of $17.7 billion, up 65% year-over-year after market close Wednesday. The total beat a consensus estimate of $16.4 billion from analysts, according to Benzinga Pro. Fourth quarter earnings per share of $2.54 also beat analysts’ estimates. The company produced 305,840 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up 70% year-over-year. Deliveries for the fourth quarter were 308,650, up 71% year-over-year.

CEO Elon Musk called 2021 a “breakthrough year for Tesla and for electric vehicles in general.” The CEO said the company should achieve full-self driving in 2022. The Cybertruck and Tesla Semi are expected to hit production next year, according to Musk. The Optimus artificial intelligence robot from Tesla was called the most important product development the company is working on in 2022.

8. Fed Leaves Rates Unchanged: One of the most watched market items of the week was the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates unchanged in a unanimous vote. While rates were unchanged this time, the FOMC acknowledged inflation above 2% and the potential to raise the federal funds rate in the future.

7. Microsoft Earnings: Microsoft Corp MSFT reported second quarter financial results after market close Tuesday. The technology giant saw revenue of $51.7 billion in the quarter, up 20% year-over-year, beating the analyst estimate of $50.9 billion. Many business lines for Microsoft saw double-digit gains. The company’s cloud business saw strong growth across business segments, with overall Microsoft Cloud revenue up 32% year-over-year to $22.1 billion. Shares of Microsoft fell after the earnings report, only to shoot higher after the company’s conference call and guidance from the company.

6. Ark Invest Bitcoin Price Prediction: In Ark Invest’s annual research report “Big Ideas 2022,” analyst Yassine Elmandjra wrote that Bitcoin BTC/USD could increase significantly as nations adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender. The analyst said Bitcoin’s market cap could scale more than 25-fold in the next decade. The price of Bitcoin could hit more than $1 million, according to the research.

5. Robinhood Earnings: Shares of Robinhood Markets HOOD dipped below $10 after reporting fourth quarter earnings after market close Thursday. The company reported quarterly revenue of $363 million, up 14% year-over-year. The total beat a Street consensus estimate of $362.1 million.

Cryptocurrency revenue was $48 million in the fourth quarter, up 304% year-over-year, but down from a total of $51 million in the previous quarter. The company ended the fourth quarter with 22.7 million monthly active users, down 8% from the previous quarter.

The company highlighted it was working on new trading hours, plans for crypto wallets and rolling out its crypto platform for international customers in 2022.

4. Apple Earnings: Apple Inc AAPL reported first quarter earnings after market close Thursday. The company reported revenue of $123.9 billion, up 11% year-over-year. The revenue came in ahead of projections from analysts. Product sales were up 9.2% year-over-year, while Services revenue grew by 23.9% year-over-year. Apple also recognized a strong quarter in China as one of the keys to the quarter’s growth.

iPhone sales were strong in the first quarter. The company is expected to release the iPhone SE3 in April or May of 2022 and a new iPhone 14 later in 2022.

3. Market Volatility: Increased market volatility continued to be a large story of the trading week, with a big week of earnings reports from large capitalization companies, including around half of the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Several of the companies that reported saw earnings beats but fell short on revenue estimates from analysts.

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) shot higher earlier in the week due to market uncertainty.

2. Putin Comments on Bitcoin: Russian President Vladimir Putin said in comments during the week that Russia could do well mining Bitcoin. The comments came after the country’s Finance Ministry said a ban on the cryptocurrency was not necessary. Putin called for the country’s central bank and government to meet and discuss the cryptocurrency in the future.

1. Spotify Removes Neil Young: Music lovers won’t be able to listen to songs from Neil Young on Spotify Technology SPOT streaming platform after his music was pulled. The move comes after Young asked for his songs to be removed if the streaming company did not part ways with Joe Rogan. Young cited misinformation over COVID-19 being shared by Rogan on his podcast. Young, who had over six million monthly listeners on Spotify, can be heard on SiriusXM Holdings SIRI with the Neil Young Radio channel.