U.S. stocks edged lower on Monday, with investors taking a post-Thanksgiving pause as the holiday shopping season kicked in to high gear and retailers lured bargain hunters with Cyber Monday deals.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 56.68 points, or 0.16%, to 35,333.47, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 8.91 points, or 0.20%, to 4,550.43 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 9.83 points, or 0.07%, to 14,241.02.
Market Movers
Shares in Crown Castle gained 3.4% to $107.15 in response to news that the owner of wireless towers was the target of renewed activist attention.
Elliott Investment Management said it has built a stake of about $2 billion. It said in a letter it made publicly available that it is pressing for leadership changes and for the company to consider selling its fiber-cable business. Elliott didn’t make much initial impact when it first took a position in Crown Castle in 2020.
iRobot shares tumbled 17% after the European Commission said in a statement that it “has informed Amazon (AMZN) of its preliminary view that its proposed acquisition of iRobot may restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners.” On Friday, iRobot shares rose 39% on increased hopes Amazon was set to win full EU antitrust approval for its $1.4 billion acquisition.
Affirm Holdings, a ‘buy now, payer later’ provider jumped 12%. According to Adobe Analytics, BNPL usage is expected to clock an all-time high on Cyber Monday.
Shopify gained 4.9% after the e-commerce platform said it notched a 22% year-over-year jump in Black Friday sales.
Lucid Group fell 1.2% after shares of the EV start-up were downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.
AMC Entertainment shares dropped 1.2% after an unspectacular holiday weekend at the box office. Wish, the latest film from Walt Disney, fell short of expectations and landed third in the three-day box office rankings.
Nvidia stock gained 1%. Shares closed 3% lower on Friday after Reuters reported the chip maker was delaying the launch of one of its new artificial-intelligence chips destined for China until the first quarter of next year.
Cybersecurity company Zscaler closed down 0.6% and was down another 6.3% in after-hours trading in response to its latest earnings report.
Market News
Fast-Fashion Giant Shein Files to Go Public
Shein, the China-founded online fashion company that won over hundreds of millions of shoppers around the world, has confidentially filed to go public in the U.S. in what could be one of the biggest IPOs in years.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have been hired as lead underwriters on the offering, which could happen in 2024, people familiar with the matter said.
More US shoppers tack on buy now, pay later debt for Cyber Monday
A record amount of price-pinched holiday shoppers are expected to use buy now, pay later services for Cyber Monday to relieve stress on their wallets, according to Adobe Analytics.
Shoppers are slated to spend between $12 billion and $12.4 billion online on Monday, with $782 million of purchases made with BNPL services, including Klarna and Affirm (AFRM.O), representing a surge of nearly 19% from last year, the data company said.