I am sitting in front of the TV watching as the airwaves and
the social media stream get taken over with the Facebook mania. The Facebook
IPO has turned out to be the biggest media event today May 18, 2012. I am watching
Bloomberg TV now and the presenters are all Facebook as they wait for FB to
start trading on NASDAQ.
Mark Zuckerberg
The pre-trading banter from the presenters are full of
speculation on what the FB price will open at. A $70 price was mentioned based
on the report that a trader in France was getting demand from retail investors
that were ready to buy at that price. On retail stocks trading platforms like
Markets.com, FB quoted prices rose above $100 per share.
The touch of drama and tension were further intensified by
delays experienced by NASDAQ in opening trade on the FB stock.
At 16.15 pm (London Time) Bloomberg announced that NASDAQ was
experiencing delays in opening trade on FB stock.
This delay resulted in a fall in NASDAQ share price
and added to the tension of investors waiting for FB stock to start trading.
The news was that the opening trading volume of about 72 million was what was stalling opening the trade on the FB shares. Bloomberg
also announced that NASDAQ said the massive demand was coming from retail
investors.
Meanwhile, an analyst is speaking on Bloomberg TV on the FB
stock and says that he gets sceptical when he hears of “frenzy” and “mania”, and
advises that investors should be cautious.
Another analyst says he can justify a price target of $70
and price of $10 for FB based on the inputs into the forecast data. Basically, saying optimistic forecasts about FB share price should be taken with a pinch of salt. Another notes that there was a lot of insider selling which should be of
concern.
At 16.29pm Bloomberg finally announced that trade is
expected to open at 11.30 am US time
At 16.30 pm FB starts trading at $42.05 at exactly 11.30 am
US time
At 16.33 pm FB drops to $41.00
At 16.34 pm FB drops to $40.36
At 16.36 pm it drops to $40.06
An analyst speaking on Bloomberg TV says FB has made
fantastic hires which can help it drive its business. That fact was not just driving stocks right now.
At 16.37 pm FB is
selling at $40.02
At 16.39 pm FB drops to $40 and then briefly flirts with
$39.99
At 16.44 pm Bloomberg announced that the share prices of
technology stocks like Zynga, Linkedln, Groupon and the major underwriters of
FB shares are also falling.
At 16.45 pm, FB shares seem to have settled at about $40 per
share, flirts with $38.99 briefly then stays for a few more seconds at $39.95
At 16.48 Bloomberg informed viewers that global stock
markets have lost $4 trillion this month
At 16.49 pm FB share price drops to $38.18
At 16.51 FB flirts with $37.96 dropping below the IPO offer
price for the first time.
At 16.57 pm, Bloomberg TV live coverage of the opening
trade of the historic FB IPO comes to an end and FB is selling at $38.40
In the opening few minutes, FB never neared the optimistic
price of $70 per share. Rather, it has settled below its opening price. Would
it ever go near the $70 price?
Watch this video of Mark Zukerberg meeting My Space founder
What do you think?
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