Twitter On Pace For 7-Day Losing Streak

Twitter shares were on pace Monday to decline for a seventh-straight day amid doubts about whether Elon Musk’s $61 billion deal to acquire the social media platform would go through.

Twitter (ticker: TWTR) was down 6.7% to $37.98 on Monday. Unless the stock stages an end-of-day rally, this would the Twitter’s longest losing streak since December, when it also fell for seven consecutive days. The shares have lost 23.5% over this seven-week stretch, their worst decline since March 19, 2020, when the stock lost 29.7%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 4.6% over the same period.

Musk tweeted last week that his acquisition of Twitter was on hold pending details on the number of fake accounts, or bots, that were active on the platform. Twitter has calculated that less than 5% of accounts are fake, but Musk said his team would be conducting a random sample to verify the calculation. Eliminating bots has been a key point for Musk, who said it will help make the platform more valuable.

In a flurry of tweets on Monday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal defended the company’s spam-fighting policies, saying management had shared an overview of the process with Musk a week ago.

“We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter,” he said in a tweet. “We also lock millions of accounts each week that we suspect may be spam – if they can’t pass human verification challenges.”

Musk responded to Agrawal’s thread with a “poop” emoji. The Tesla (TSLA) CEO said last week he was “still committed to [the] acquisition].”

Wall Street still seems to expect that the acquisition will go through, with some speculating it may be a way to renegotiate the price.

“While we believe this review likely delays the acquisition, we would be surprised if there are any material changes to the deal structure as a result of spam/false [daily active users],” wrote Citi analyst Ronald Josey.

Separately, Twitter last week announced it was suspending hiring and would be rescinding some offers. The company also laid off two senior executives.

China’s economic recovery isn’t gaining the momentum money managers are awaiting.

Data from China Beige Book show that the economic green shoots glimpsed in August didn’t sprout further in September. Job growth and consumer spending faltered, while orders for exports came in at the lowest level since March, according to a monthly flash survey of more than 1,300 companies the independent research firm released Thursday evening.

Consumers’ initial revenge spending after Covid restrictions eased could be waning, the results indicate, with the biggest pullbacks in food and luxury items. While travel remains a bright spot ahead of the country’s Mid-Autumn Festival, hospitality firms and chain restaurants saw a sharp decline in sales, according to the survey.

And although policy makers have shown their willingness to stabilise the property market, the data showed another month of slower sales and lower prices in both the residential and commercial sectors.

Even more troubling are the continued problems at Evergrande Group, which has scuttled a plan to restructure itself, raising the risk of a liquidation that could further destabilise the property market and hit confidence about the economy. The embattled developer said it was notified that the company’s chairman Hui Ka Yan, who is under police watch, is suspected of committing criminal offences.

Nicole Kornitzer, who manages the $750 million Buffalo International Fund (ticker: BUIIX), worries about a “recession of expectations” as confidence continues to take a hit, discouraging people and businesses from spending. Kornitzer has only a fraction of the fund’s assets in China at the moment.

Before allocating more to China, Kornitzer said, she needs to see at least a couple quarters of improvement in spending, with consumption broadening beyond travel and dining out. Signs of stabilisation in the housing market would be encouraging as well, she said.

She isn’t alone in her concern about spending. Vivian Lin Thurston, manager for William Blair’s emerging markets and China strategies, said confidence among both consumers and small- and medium-enterprises is still suffering.

“Everyone is still out and about but they don’t buy as much or buy lower-priced goods so retail sales aren’t recovering as strongly and lower-income consumers are still under pressure because their employment and income aren’t back to pre-COVID levels,” said Thurston, who just returned from a visit to China.

“A lot of small- and medium- enterprises are struggling to stay afloat and are definitely taking a wait-and-see approach on whether they can expand. A lot went out of business during Covid and aren’t back yet. So far the stimulus measures have been anemic.”

Beijing needs to do more, especially to stabilise the property sector, Thurston said. The view on the ground is that more help could come in the fourth quarter—or once the Federal Reserve is done raising rates.

The fact that the Fed is raising rates while Beijing is cutting them is already putting pressure on the renminbi. If policy makers in China wait until the Fed is done, that would alleviate one source of pressure before their fiscal stimulus adds its own.

Twitter On Pace For 7-Day Losing Streak

CEO defends its fight against spam.