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Conway Gittens: This is Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. This is what we are seeing today on TheStreet.
Wall Street is on edge Wednesday after geopolitical tensions and a potentially economy-damaging labor strike kept investors on edge. Meanwhile, the good news in the workplace went unnoticed. Private hiring recovered more than expected in September, according to payroll company ADP. But on the corporate front, Nike's quarterly sales fell more than expected. Profits exceeded forecasts, but this was largely due to cost reductions.
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In other news: Elon Musk's purchase of x is turning out to be a very bad investment for the billionaire. Since he took over the company formerly known as twitter, x's value has plummeted about 80 percent to just $9.4 billion, according to Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund estimates. Musk paid $44 billion for the company in 2022.
That estimate is based on the shares Fidelity still owns. At the end of August, he says his stake was worth just $4.2 million, down 24 percent from the previous month… and well below the perceived value of $19.6 million in the time of Musk's purchase.
Other estimates of the value of x are less dire, but not by much. Top Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told CNN that x is probably worth about $15 billion, and was worth about $30 billion when Musk closed the deal.
Related: Elon Musk's challenges intensify across 3 continents: latest updates
Analysts and marketing experts attribute the decline in x's market value to Musk himself. Since taking over, it has scared away advertisers by allowing controversial content, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories to proliferate on the site.
But not all the news is bad, x said monthly active users increased 6 percent in the second quarter to 570 million monthly active users… and that's still a lot of eyeballs for advertisers who are willing to pay.
That will be enough for your daily report. From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm Conway Gittens of TheStreet.
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