The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped, while the Nasdaq plummeted as tech firms were hammered once more. Microsoft (MSFT) shares fell after news that former CEO and co-founder, Bill Gates resigned from the company’s board of directors amid an investigation into a previous connection with a colleague. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin plummeted further in response to fresh tweets from Tesla (TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk.
Microsoft’s stock is down after the Wall Street Journal reported that board members determined that Bill Gates, the company’s founder, would have to resign from the board of directors in 2020 while they investigated a previous intimate involvement with a female Microsoft employee. According to reports, the coupling was judged unsuitable.
According to a person familiar with the situation, board members entrusted with the probe contacted a legal firm in late 2019. It happened after an engineer wrote a letter claiming she had a long-term sexual connection with Mr Gates.
READ: Stay-at-Home Stocks: Microsoft, Apple, Facebook surge after upbeat results from Netflix
The Nasdaq was the worst-performing major index, although it still managed to gain 0.4 percent by closing around session highs. The largest loser was Comcast (CMCSA), which fell more than 5%, followed by Peloton (PTON), an at-home workout stock.
The S&P 500 index also dropped, but only by 0.3 percent. Discovery (DISCA) was one of the worst performers, falling 5% on rumours of a merger with WarnerMedia. The deal is worth $43 billion.
Despite being the best-performing major index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped back near its 50-day line. It did, however, fall less than 0.2 percent, dropping roughly 50 points. Merck was the best-performing Dow component, climbing roughly 2%. The pharma stock was able to reclaim its 200-day line as a result of this.
Dow Chemical was also doing well, rising 1.5 percent as shares surged out of the purchase zone on a flat basis. The best time to purchase was at $67.37.
READ: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin: Story of a 27-year-old Crypto billionaire
Meanwhile, Tesla shares continued to struggle, closing off lows to lose just over 2% on the day. TSLA’s stock has plunged by more than 20% in the last four weeks. Tesla shares achieved a new high of 900.40 on January 25, after soaring 93 percent from a 466 buy point.
Bitcoin started falling at the weekend after Musk replied “Indeed” to a tweet from @CryptoWhale which mused about the possibility Tesla may sell their entire $1.9 billion Bitcoin stake. Musk later posted a follow-up tweet early Monday, where he said, “To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin.” Bitcoin’s price dropped as low as $42,212 before recovering. According to Coindesk, it was trading at about $44,000, down more than 3% from the previous day’s pricing.
The cryptocurrency had already been lambasted following Musk’s announcement that his company will no longer accept Bitcoin as payment for automobiles in a tweet.
AT&T struck an agreement on Monday to merge its multimedia company WarnerMedia with Discovery, clearing the path for one of Hollywood’s biggest studios to compete with Netflix and Disney.
AT&T will unwind its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, which concluded just under three years ago, and build a new media firm with Discovery under the terms of the agreement. According to The Financial Times, the merger would establish a new company independent from AT&T that might be worth up to $150 billion, including debt.
