Wall Street is looking relatively quiet going into the weekend. Fintech companies are taking most of the spotlight with big funding rounds and new product announcements. Tech giants are on the hunt to become self-sustaining chip manufacturers to compete abroad. So what will the stock market do today?
- The S&P 500 is down 0.33%
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.15%
- The Nasdaq Composite is down 0.70%
So what else will the stock market do today? Here are some of the top stories.
What Will the Stock Market Do Today? Watch Intel.
Tech giant Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) will be an interesting play to look out for in the coming days. The company is looking at a merger that could place it in an interesting position, next to that of Taiwan Semiconductors (NYSE:TSM). According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Intel is in serious talks regarding the acquisition of GlobalFoundries. GlobalFoundries is a semiconductor manufacturer based in New York state.
An acquisition of this nature would be huge for Intel for a number of reasons. For one, it would be the largest acquisition in the company’s history. A purchase of GlobalFoundries would be worth around $30 billion; that’s double its largest purchase thus far. But majorly, it would allow Intel to step into a new role within the tech community. Where before, Intel has been relegated to producing chips only for itself, it would be able to build chips for other companies upon closing the GlobalFoundries deal.
This puts Intel where they wanted to be all along: in direct competition with Taiwan Semiconductor, who has a stranglehold on chips built for other companies. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger wants to bring a good deal of chip manufacturing back to U.S. soil, and doing it himself seems like the fastest way to get there.
The purchase is not guaranteed; Intel is simply flirting with the idea as the latter company discusses the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO). In fact, a spokeswoman for GlobalFoundries says the company is not involved in any talks. So, with nothing set in stone, the news isn’t doing much for Intel stock right now outside of a slight boost at the market’s open.
Square Adds Bitcoin Platform
Cryptocurrency is in a bit of an odd place right now. The whole asset class is struggling hard to regain its footing — even the monoliths of Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD) and Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) and flip-flopping hard each day. However, it doesn’t appear that institutions are slowing down on crypto integration.
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) is vastly upping its limits on crypto buying on its platform and removing its yearly limit on buying digital currency. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is now allowing customers to trade on Bitcoin futures.
Square (NYSE:SQ) is one of the most compelling stocks in the digital finance sector, in no small part because of its CEO, Jack Dorsey. In fact, analysts are touting the company as so forward-thinking, they compare it to 19th-century JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). And today, they’re living up to these compliments with the announcement of their new Bitcoin platform.
Dorsey’s company has plans to create a new DeFi framework, where institutions can build new financial services from the ground up, intended for use with cryptocurrency. As of right now, Dorsey says the project is looking solely at Bitcoin integration.
The announcement came in a serious of tweets from Dorsey; as such, we don’t have a ton of detail yet. Notably, though, we know that the product will be open-source, allowing investors to peek behind the curtain at will and judge the product for themselves. This transparency is not new to Square, either; the company is planning to launch an open-source Bitcoin wallet soon.
What Else We’re Watching
- Vaccine star player Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) will be joining the S&P 500 for the first time next week. Analysts aren’t quite bullish on the play, but the company hopes to turn that around with a hefty three-year roadmap.
- Binance (CCC:BNB-USD) is halting all trading on their stock tokens — cryptocurrencies that represent fragments of underlying stocks.
- British fintech unicorn Revolut became the largest private startup in the U.K. after its latest funding round brought in $800 million for the company. This prices the outfit at around $33 billion.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
