Stocks Mixed As Investors Await Key Inflation Data; Dow Winning Streak in Jeopardy

Squarespace Jumps On $6.9 Billion PE Buyout Deal

2 hr 42 min ago

Squarespace (SQSP) gained more than 13% after private equity firm Permira announced it was buying the software provider for $6.9 billion, and taking it private.

Permira said the deal would give Squarespace investors $44 per share, a 15.2% premium to Squarespace’s closing price on Friday. Permira said by taking Squarespace private, it will have “the flexibility and resources to invest in enabling entrepreneurs to build better online brands and more easily transact with their customers.”

Squarespace founder and CEO Anthony Casalena noted that the company would continue working with its existing long-term investors, General Atlantic and Accel. Casalena and the two firms own approximately 90% of Squarespace’s voting shares.

Under the terms of the agreement, Casalena will continue to be one of the largest shareholders and remain CEO and board chair. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter.

The stock is up 13.2% at $43.22 late Monday morning.

–Bill McColl

GameStop Soars as ‘Roaring Kitty’ Posts; Trading Halted

4 hr 18 min ago

GameStop (GME) shares more than doubled in early trading Monday as the one-time meme stock appears poised for another wave of activity with the online return of Keith Gill, who was a key driver of the stock’s surge in late 2020 and early 2021. Trading in the stock has been halted.

The mid-pandemic surge that has already been immortalized in documentaries and movies was fueled by waves of trading from an online community of retail traders, driven by a few key figures. One of those was Keith Gill, who is known in the online trading community by a number of different usernames, including “Roaring Kitty” on his YouTube and X accounts.

On Sunday evening, Gill posted to his X account for the first time in nearly three years, returning to the digital world with a meme of a person playing video games leaning forward in his chair, indicating that the player is taking the game more seriously.

Users of the WallStreetBets subreddit, the online community that was central to the GameStop surge of 2020, expressed excitement about Gill’s return, with a number of top posts on the forum about Gill’s post or GameStop’s price as of Monday morning.

GameStop and the company’s stock symbol, GME, were each trending on X Monday morning, with many users celebrating Gill’s return and posting about their investments into the stock.

–Aaron McDade

Arm Shares Up After Report It Will Develop AI Chips

5 hr 23 min ago

Shares in UK-based chip design giant Arm Holdings (ARM) are more than 3% higher in premarket trading after Nikkei Asia reported Sunday that the company plans to develop artificial intelligence (AI) chips, aiming to launch its first prototype in early 2025.

According to the report, Arm—in which Japan’s SoftBank (SFTBY) owns a 90% stake—will establish a new AI chip unit and build a prototype by spring next year before turning to contract manufacturers to have the chips mass produced by fall 2025.

Arm, which makes money by selling royalties on its chip designs, has continued its push into the lucrative AI datacenter market, where tech behemoths such as Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN) have announced plans to build their own in-house chips to power their AI computing requirements, helping to reduce their reliance on AI chip supplying giant Nvidia (NVDA).

The Arm share price has traded within a narrow rising wedge since mid April—a chart pattern technical analysts typically interpret as having a bearish bias because it indicates an easing of buying momentum. In the short-term, the price may continue to oscillate in the wedge until the downward sloping 50-day moving average catches up with the pattern’s top trendline before the stock makes its next significant move. 

Amid a move lower, investors should monitor the $79 level, an area where the price may find buyers near the February pre-breakout level. However, if the price climbs above the wedge, it’s worth keeping in mind that the stock could make another attempt at testing key overhead resistance near prior price action around $145.

The stock is up 3.1% at $112.23 in premarket trading.

–Timothy Smith

Major Stock Index Futures Higher Monday

5 hr 46 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2%.

S&P 500 futures were also up 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.3% at around 8:30 a.m. ET.