eBay Spins Off PayPal

PayPal is an independent company once again.

At $46.6 billion, PayPal would have a greater market capitalization than that of eBay, whose value will shrink to around $34 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. PayPal will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “PYPL,” returning to its roots under the same ticker it had before it was acquired by eBay in 2002. It’s a sure sign that investors are seeing growth potential in PayPal, a company that boasted 169 million users and processed $1.1 billion in payments in the second quarter, with transaction volume up 27% over the prior year, the company said recently. The increasing shift for shoppers toward payment channels such as mobile devices, as detailed in a PWC retail report, creates a prime environment for PayPal to thrive in.

PayPal launched in 1998 as Confinity and helped make homocon Peter Thiel a billionaire.

AFA Launches Boycott Of Target

"While other companies are choosing to remain neutral in the culture war, Target is going all out to support homosexual marriage. This is a company whose leaders make a mockery of marriage. They make a mockery of God's Word - and every Christian in this nation should let Target know it is out of step with the majority of Americans who support natural marriage. Are you going to give Target your money, knowing they'll use it to undermine your deeply held beliefs? TAKE ACTION: Target doesn't think you care enough to speak out. In essence, they are saying they don’t think you will take your business elsewhere. I think they underestimate the Christian community. Send your message to Target, urging them to withdraw their support for homosexual marriage and stop undermining long-held American values that marriage is only between one man and one woman." - Posted yesterday to the website of the American Family Association. (Via Good As You)

RELATED: NOM's month-old Target boycott has been the usual hilarious fail. Only 2850 people have bothered to sign NOM's petition. On the day the boycott launched, Target's stock price was $56.99. Yesterday the stock closed at $60.56 - meaning that Target's market cap has increased by $1.83 billion in the last month.

Patrick Stewart Rings In Twitter IPO

The IPO was priced at $26 and at this writing the stock has climbed to $45.

16% More American Millionaires

The number of American millionaires rose by 16% in the last year. Via New York Daily News:

Blazing stock market gains pushed more bank accounts past the $1 million mark last year. The number of millionaires around the globe reached 13.8 million by the end of 2012, up from 12.6 million in the prior year, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group. Private wealth worldwide grew by nearly 8% last year to $136 trillion. The biggest driver was the performance of equity markets, which helped the “haves’ have even more. The U.S. was home to the most millionaire households, with 5.9 million — up about 16% from the prior year.

Meanwhile the number of people using food stamps has soared by 70% since 2008.

Warren Buffett Joins Twitter

One tweet and 330,000 followers.

Associated Press Hacked On Twitter, False Claim Of White House Bombing Sent, Stock Market Nose-Dives In Reaction

After a long string of highly-publicized cyber attacks on high-profile Twitter accounts, today's was doubtlessly the worst so far.

The AP's communications team quickly tweeted from its own account that the main AP Twitter was compromised, but investors had already panicked. The Dow Jones industrial average immediately plunged by more than 140 points.  And there it is: After years of hacks that typically involved little more than obscene language, Twitter's subpar security measures have now caused serious real-world consequences.  Many hacks happen when account owners use guessable passwords or access Twitter over public Wi-Fi and shared computers. If one person who tweets from a corporate account loses his or her phone, an entire corporation's Twitter account could be at risk.

Record High For S&P 500

More evidence of the Obama economy:

Stocks edged higher on Thursday as the S&P 500 rose just above its record closing high, a level that has acted as a significant resistance point in recent weeks. The S&P 500 had been stuck in a fairly tight range, having traded within 10 points of the October 2007 record closing high of 1,565.15 over the previous 13 sessions before successfully piercing that level on Thursday morning.

The Dow average will close out the first quarter with an increase of 11% just in 2013.

Tonight In Manhattan

Gothamist reports:

There are multiple reports of flooding across the city due to the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy that is now upon the city. There have been reports of people trapped and cars floating in the middle of the streets. We've also received reports that many subway lines throughout the city have been flooded as well. The city has now issued a warning to all New Yorkers to go indoors immediately, stay away from windows, and remain indoors until further notice.

Earlier tonight came the report that the storm surge has broken the all-time record of nearly 12 feet that was set in 1821. And it appears to be growing. The MTA's site is down but local television reports that subway service will not likely be restored for several days at the earliest. First floor shops at the South Street Seaport are reportedly completely underwater.  The bridge connecting the A train line to the Rockaways is also submerged.

UPDATE: Mayor Bloomberg has just ordered taxis to cease operation.

UPDATE II: The above tweet from the Weather Channel is being debunked by the NYSE itself.

VIDEO: The Con Edison station in the East Village has apparently exploded. Video was taken from the far side of the East River.

Hospital Stocks Soar On SCOTUS Ruling

And insurance company stocks drop. Details.

Corporations Plead With NOM: Please Please Boycott Us TOO!

Apple Stock Quintuples In Three Years

539% to be exact.

The Wealthiest Artist In America

When graffiti artist David Choe spray-painted a mural on the walls of a brand-new company called Facebook, he accepted stock options in lieu of cash. That may have been a $500 million decision.

Facebook's IPO May Come Today

And it will be a whopper.

The online social network Facebook was to file for a $5 billion public stock offering with U.S. securities regulators Wednesday, several news outlets reported. The filing -- half the $10 billion most analysts earlier estimated -- is a starting point Facebook has said could ultimately value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion. That valuation would be one of the largest initial public offerings in U.S. history, CNBC reported.

CNN reports that Facebook's market valuation will likely exceed that of Disney or General Motors.

Kodak May Declare Bankruptcy

The stock market reacted strongly yesterday to a report that Kodak may be about to declare bankruptcy.

The ailing photography pioneer's shares fell to a new all-time low after the Wall Street Journal reported that Kodak is preparing for a bankruptcy filing "in the coming weeks" should it fail to sell a trove of 1,100 digital-imaging patents. Analysts have said the patents could fetch $2 billion to $3 billion, but no takers have emerged since Kodak started shopping them around in July. In November, the 131-year-old company said it could run out of cash in a year if it didn't sell the patents. Even as it looked to a future rooted in its emerging printer business, the company was reporting a third-quarter loss of $222 million — its ninth quarterly loss in three years — and it said its cash reserves had fallen 10 percent in three months. Now, Kodak finds itself in a state of suspended animation.

Kodak shares closed yesterday at 47 cents.

Markets Tumble Over Greek Crisis

Anonymous To Wall Street: We Will Take Down Stock Exchange On October 10th

PC Magazine:

The threat to "erase" the NYSE from the Internet was not explained, though in comments on the YouTube video, some speculated that Anonymous was planning a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack on the public-facing NYSE.com website, similar to DDoS attacks the group has used to take down websites in the past. Others felt that would only be a minor setback for the NYSE and guessed that Anonymous was planning a larger attack, perhaps even an attempt to actually disable trading on the exchange.

Dow Jones Nosedives

World Markets "Plunging"

Today: NGLCC Rings Closing Bell At NYSE

Representatives of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce will ring the stock market's closing bell today in recognition of Pride Month. The market closes at 4pm.

For one special day, the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce®, NYSE Euronext, NGLCCNY, Members of Congress, other LGBT advocacy organizations, and corporate champions will gather at The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) - to celebrate the global launch of LGBT Pride Month. From Stonewall to Federal Hall will take place on Friday, June 5, 2009, and will commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that led to the push for equal rights for LGBT people. The event will include the ringing of the NYSE Closing Bell by the NGLCC, a symposium discussion on the LGBT movement in the 40 years since Stonewall followed by an exclusive cocktail reception on the NYSE Trading Floor. “We are honored to take part in the grand tradition of ringing the Closing Bell for the second time – and to pay tribute to those that have come before us and will come after us in the fight for LGBT equality,” said NGLCC Co-Founder and President Justin Nelson. “The LGBT movement has come a long way in 40 years, and there is no more fitting place than the seat of the financial world to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and to look ahead to tomorrow,” said NGLCC Co-Founder and CEO Chance Mitchell.

Has any other openly gay group run the NYSE bell, or is this a historic first?

Stocks See Best April In Nine Years

Hmm.

April was Wall Street's best month in nine years _ offering some of the most powerful evidence yet that maybe, just maybe, the economy is about to begin a turnaround. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, considered the most reliable measure of the broader market, climbed 9.4 percent in April, its best performance since March 2000, the peak of the dot-com bubble. The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 7.4 percent in April, on top of a 7.7 percent gain in March.

Do things seem any better to YOU?