The stock market pushed higher on record on Monday, bolstered by enthusiasm about the prospects for continued economic recovery and progress against the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers in Washington appear to be ready to continue efforts to provide Americans with additional stimulus checks, which will further fuel the lamb flames. From noon EST the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^ DJI) climbed 141 points to 31,289. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^ GSPC) increased by 15 points to 3,901, and the Nasdaq Compound (NASDAQINDEX: ^ IXIC) was 75 points higher to 13,931.
Stocks from companies that have recently made public offerings have performed excellently, as their favorable opening results have further inspired investors who end up on the ground floor. On Monday, shares of Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) and Tortoise Acquisition Corp II (NYSE: SNPR) made significant profits as the two companies made progress with their respective strategic objectives.
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Palantir’s vision becomes clearer
Shares of Palantir Technologies rose more than 8% on Monday afternoon. The data analytics firm that had its IPO last September has been shrouded in mystery, but shareholders are excited about its prospects by a major strategic move.
Palantir will work closely with IBM (NYSE: IBM) and joins IBM’s hybrid cloud data platform with Palantir’s application building platform. The move will strengthen the efforts of the two companies to help their mutual customers build applications using artificial intelligence, using the power of IBM’s popular Watson AI system to access critical data insights in the obtain hybrid cloud without extensive technical training.
The move will have dramatic consequences for customers in a variety of different industries. From retail and financial services to healthcare and telecommunications, businesses are working hard to extract big data for insights. The joint platform offering is intended to help those businesses operate more effectively and efficiently.
Palantir works in partnership with other companies on a range of projects, such as helping the oil giant BP (NYSE: BP) with its carbon-neutral aspirations. As Palantir enters into more transactions, investors will see more clearly exactly what is behind the business.
To sign an agreement
The shares of the special acquisition company Tortoise Acquisition Corp. II rose 34% higher. The SPAC has only been public since November, but is already a merger candidate in a hot industry.
Turtle will merge with public infrastructure operator Volta Industries to charge electric vehicles. The SPAC agreement gives Volta an operating value of $ 1.4 billion, with institutional investors investing $ 300 million in additional funds to supplement the SPAC’s own cash. Volta intends to use $ 600 million to expand its charging network faster.
Volta’s business model is interesting. The company earns revenue by selling advertisements on display screens attached to the charging stations, and often works with the businesses that immediately surround the charger. Volta cites data that business partners see better sales figures after installing charging stations, and ads provide a stream of revenue that other charger solutions lack.
Investors were very excited about EV-related stocks, and Tortoise’s success in finding another promising company in the space was well received. It will be interesting to see how much more Volta is up after the deal is finalized and the SPAC merger takes place in the coming months.