While stock trading app Robinhood’s users may be hesitant to trust the platform again after a series of recent outages, these investors seem to be putting their faith in the federal government amid this market downturn.
Robintrack, a service that keeps counts of how many Robinhood users own a particular stock, shows that its userbase has been loading up on stocks harshly affected by the outbreak.
Behind Ford, which gained about 125,000 Robinhood shareholders over the past month, American Airlines and Delta Airlines stock cracked the top four most popular stocks during that time. The companies are owned by a combined 170,000 Robinhood users that didn't own them a month ago.
The airline industry stands to benefit significantly from the coronavirus stimulus package that passed the Senate Wednesday and the U.S. House on Friday, with $50 billion in grants and loans allocated to help keep passenger airline companies afloat.
As for another company up in the air, Robinhood users jumped at the chance to purchase Boeing stock at a rare price of under $100 dollar a share. It was the eighth most popular new stock purchased over the past month.
As seen below, while stock prices for these companies began to fall, investor interest quickly filled the void.
Earlier Friday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Fox Business that there is no plan for Boeing to receive money from the federal government. Initially, there had been reports that Boeing had requested at least $60 billion in government aid. The Dow’s largest component fell more than 10 percent to end the week.
Cruise lines Carnival and Norwegian were the seventh and 10th most popular Robinhood stocks over the past month, respectively.
At last count Robinhood had more than 10 million accounts, but now the platform is tasked with re-establishing trust with its userbase. Three outages in March shook customer confidence in the service, as investors were forced to the sidelines on historic trading days.
Robinhood is now offering credit to some of those customers and says it fixed the engineering issues that led to the outages.
“An apology alone won't rebuild your trust in us,” the startup said in an email to some customers. “Instead, we hope our actions will."
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Spain's government has fined Airbnb 64 million euros or $75 million for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals. The consumer rights ministry announced the fine on Monday. The ministry stated that many listings lacked proper license numbers or included incorrect information. The move is part of Spain's ongoing efforts to regulate short-term rental companies amid a housing affordability crisis especially in popular urban areas. The ministry ordered Airbnb in May to remove around 65,000 listings for similar violations. The government's consumer rights minister emphasized the impact on families struggling with housing. Airbnb said it plans to challenge the fine in court.
Roomba maker iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but says that it doesn’t expect any disruptions to devices as the more than 30-year-old company is taken private under a restructuring process. iRobot said that it is being acquired by Picea through a court-supervised process. Picea is the company's primary contract manufacturer. The Bedford, Massachusetts-based anticipates completing the prepackaged chapter 11 process by February.
Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime has charged a government minister and three others with abuse of position and falsifying of documents related to a luxury real estate project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The charges came on Monday. The investigation centers on a controversy over a a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound by a company linked to Kushner. The $500 million proposal to build a high-rise hotel, offices and shops at the site has met fierce opposition from experts at home and abroad. Selakovic and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by falsifying documentation.
