Weekly news summary for April 29 to May 5

Friday, Apr. 29: Elon Musk Sells $8.5B in Tesla Stock

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk has sold $8.5 billion worth of the US electric vehicle (EV) giant’s stock three days after striking a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion.

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that Musk sold 3.7 million shares ($3.3 billion) of Tesla stock on Tuesday. An additional 735,000 ($654 million) sold the next day. Another 5.2 million ($4.5 billion) shares on Friday, bringing the average price at about $883 per share.

Monday, May. 2: StreamCoin Raises $11.7M from ICO

StreamCoin announced that it had raised about $11.7 million from its initial coin offering (ICO), allowing STRM to meet its soft cap target of $11.25 million.

A spokesperson of StreamCoin stated that the company is expected to reveal over a hundred cryptocurrency exchanges where STRM is set to be listed on the same date, with Bybit being one of the exchanges.

Tuesday, May. 3: Lyft Shares Fall on Lackluster Q2 Guidance

Shares of Lyft Inc. took a sharp 27% dive to $22.50 in extended trading on Tuesday. It eliminating $2.8 billion in the ride hailer’s market value after the company reported lackluster second-quarter guidance and warned it would need to increase driver incentives further.

Lyft said it expects second-quarter revenue to hit between $950 million and $1 billion, warning investors that it will have to spend more on its drivers as the recovery of driver supply from the COVID-19 pandemic lows was taking more time than anticipated.

Wednesday, May. 4: US Natural Gas Extends Gains on Supply Concerns

Natural gas prices in the US market extended gains on Wednesday, with futures surging above $8, as fears over supply grew ahead of the summer season that offers the opportunity for high demand.

US natural gas prices rose 5.29% to $3.35. It climbed more than 9% to reach above $8 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Tuesday. This marked its highest since September 2008. Particularly, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine dealt a heavy blow on energy markets worldwide.

Thursday, May. 5: Dollar Down as Fed Dismisses Bigger Rate Hike Bets

The US dollar weakened against major peers on Thursday to record its sharpest decline in over a month after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 50 basis points for the first time since 2000 but discouraged the possibility of 75 basis points rate increases in the future.

The dollar index slipped from a near two-decade high and lost 0.9% to $102.45 following the Fed’s decision. This drove the Aussie to its largest single-day surge on Wednesday. Moreover, the sterling rose 1% to $1.26 ahead of the Bank of England’s (BoE) meeting where a 25 basis points rate hike is expected.