Sometimes it stinks to be a bitcoin play:Hey, if you want to ride the bitcoin wave as an investor you have to be prepared for randomly getting your face punched in. Case in point are those Johnny- come-latelies who bought payment tech company Square (SQ) after it enabled buying and selling of bitcoin in its Cashapp. Shares plopped 5% on Wednesday as Fed Chair Janet Yellen said bitcoin is "highly speculative." What, you thought she was going to trash the U.S. dollar? Come on people. Anyhow, Square's stock is now below its 50-day moving average. Memo to Square executives: This month would be a good time to explain to analysts and investors (again) that Square is way more than a bitcoin play. Hit those phones, Jack Dorsey.
There are two ways to look at this one:Scrolling around Twitter last night I came across a plug for Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella appearing on the Daily Show. Obviously I had to watch this -- it's not often the CEO of a publicly traded tech giant pops out-of-the-blue onto the set of a comedy show. First instinct is to say that seeing his stock spike almost 40% this year Nadella is starting to relax a little bit by appearing on TV. At that point, maybe investors should be hitting the sell button come the open on Thursday. But the interview turned out to be quite the contrary, a reminder on WHY Microsoft's stock still has a promising longer-term outlook under Nadella's leadership. Nadella has managed to not only reinvent Microsoft, but to also humanize it for Wall Street and the broader public. Microsoft was once viewed as a villain but it's now seen as a giant friendly startup changing the world (not saying it IS that, just the perception). A good deal of that perception change is being fueled by Nadella and with a ton of cash on hand and a strong innovation pipeline (see Xbox One), investors should stay optimistic on Microsoft.
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