Trump's Twitter account was in overdrive this morning
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) has sunk even deeper into the red at midday, down nearly 300 points, after a tweetstorm from President Donald Trump. Following this morning's retaliatory tariffs from China, Trump seemingly ordered U.S. companies to find "an alternative to China" -- which is hitting trade-sensitive blue chips Apple (AAPL) and Caterpillar (CAT). And after Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole symposium speech failed to shed light on the central bank's rate-cut timeline, Trump tweeted, "who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?".
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- How the freshly inked deal between VMware and Pivotal Software is affecting the two stocks.
- Software stock hits record highs after earnings.
- Plus, options bulls see more upside for CRM; China stock nearly triples; AB InBev's Craft Brew Alliance buyout offer goes flat.
Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) is seeing a pop in the options pits today, following the cloud concern's second-quarter earnings beat and an influx of bull notes, including a price-target lift to $200 from RBC. So far, 117,000 calls and 45,000 puts have crossed the tape, six times what's typically seen at this point. The weekly 8/23 160-strike call is the most popular, with positions being opened here. At last check, CRM is up 3.8% at $153.82.
China stock Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co Ltd (NASDAQ:FFHL) is one of the best stocks on the Nasdaq today. The shares of the plastic film manufacturer have nearly tripled, up 167% at $5.28, after the firm swung to a profit in the second quarter, while net sales rose 10.7%. What's more, the stock hit a five-year high of $6.35 earlier, and is eyeing its first close atop its 320-day moving average since April, a trendline that's capped several rallies over the past year.
One of the worst performing stocks on the Nasdaq today is Craft Brew Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:BREW). The beer issue hit a new three-year bottom of $10.27 earlier, and is now down 18.4% to trade at $10.57, after Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) said it would not be going forward with its plan to purchase the remaining shares of the company. Despite the rejection, Cowen is still bullish, and feels confident about a potential deal between the two brewing companies sometime in the future.