| Elon Musk tried to buy Twitter for $43 billion

Wall Street news today

Morgan Stanley raised IBM from the same weight to overweight. Morgan Stanley said in upgrading the stock that it believes consumer confidence is improving.

Stephens see SolarEdge and Enphase as overweight. Stephens began reporting on Enphase with a price target of $280 per share and said the company has a "technology leadership." The company also started covering SolarEdge at a price target of $490 per share and said the company would continue to grow rapidly.

Deutsche Bank increased its catalyst phone purchases for Honeywell. Deutsche Bank increased its catalyst subscription to Honeywell shares and said investors were entering the "best time" to buy shares.

Benchmark launch GoDaddy for buy. Benchmark said when it founded the website company that it saw a "compelling" buying opportunity.

Barclays upgraded Delta from equal weight to overweight. Barclays upgraded the airline after earnings reports earlier this week, saying "the long-awaited recovery has arrived".

Morgan Stanley reiterated that Netflix is equally important. Morgan Stanley lowered its stock price target from $450 to $425 ahead of next week's earnings release.

KeyBanc reiterated that Chipotle was overweight. KeyBanc said Mexican restaurant chains remain its top ideas for 2022, adding that it sees a "compelling entry point." Chipotle has industry-leading digital capabilities, undervalued unit growth prospects, strong innovation channels and strong pricing power, and favorable customer demographics that will help protect profit margins from rising costs.

UBS reiterated Neflix as a buy. UBS said it believes Netflix's stock will be profitable next week.

Bank of America upgraded Gartner to a neutral purchase. In upgrading the tech research and consulting firm, Bank of America said it believed "profit margins would be more positive."

UBS reiterated Nike's bid to buy. Silver said in a note Thursday that Nike continues to "effectively respond to the uncertain macro environment" and is "very bullish."

Cowen reiterated that Alphabet outperformed the broader market. Cowen said in a report on Thursday that it was bullish that the tech and search giant would start earning later this month.

Morgan Stanley reiterated Amazon's increase in holdings. Morgan Stanley said in a note Thursday that Amazon's announcement that charging a fuel surcharge for fulfillment fees paid by sellers will be key to accelerating revenue.

The CFRA downgraded Twitter's rating from buy to hold. In downgrading Twitter' ratings, CFRA said the company's arguments were largely fulfilled at current levels, and it believed ElonMusk's offer to buy Twitter would be attractive to shareholders.

A week after a rolling clash with Twitter Inc., Elon Musk went all out to offer to buy the company and warned he could sell his stake in the service if it was rejected, the Wall Street Journal reported.

On Thursday morning, Tesla's CEO tried to buy Twitter for $43 billion, which Musk disclosed in a filing with the SEC — and with a mocking mark. The offer is $54.20 per share.

Twitter seems to be taking the matter seriously. The company confirmed it had received the offer and said its board would review the proposal. It is also weighing a so-called poison pill, a legal mechanism that could prevent Musk from significantly increasing his stake in the company, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Investors are not exaggerated; Twitter's share price hovered flat at about $45 a share, signaling skepticism about whether the deal could be completed.

"Having a public platform that enjoys the greatest trust and broad inclusion is extremely important for the future of civilization. I don't care about the economy at all," Musk said in an interview at a TED conference in Vancouver on Thursday.

Amid the remarks, Musk said he had enough assets to complete the deal, which is not a small statement because his official offer doesn't have any indication of how he might pay the fee. While potential buyers, especially aggressive buyers like Musk, typically approach a company with the money in hand, Musk's filings only say the deal depends on "the completion of the expected financing."

Musk has heard from outside investors that they may be interested in bidding together, people familiar with the matter said. Morgan Stanley, his banker, will also provide some debt financing, the person said.

As musk has often happened, his alliance with Twitter is largely unfolding rapidly, partly in public, and in a way that is difficult to imagine from any other modern business leader. Last week, he revealed that he had acquired more than 9 percent of the company's shares and said he would be passive. He quickly revised his plan to allow for the possibility of his activity, then accepted the offer to join the board, and then said he would not join the board at all.

By Thursday, Musk appeared to have a new plan in place. "I'm not playing a game of back and forth," Musk is said to have told Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor in the scripted dialogue described in the document. "I've come straight to the end.

"Twitter needs to transform into a private company," Musk said in the filing. "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.

Musk did not respond to requests for comment, telling Taylor that he would sell his shares if he did not act as he wished.

Musk's dissenting views on Twitter and its management are much less mysterious. Over the past weekend, he's spent a lot of time criticizing and suggesting on Twitter, and some were later removed. He said Thursday that the company should be more transparent about how and why it promotes content.

In a recent conversation with an acquaintance, Musk was shocked by the way Twitter spoke, questioning the increasing moderation of the post and banning controversial figures from the platform, people familiar with the matter said. Musk is excited to loosen restrictions on what public figures like him can share, the person said.

Musk predicted in his filing Thursday that the company "will neither flourish nor serve this social imperative in its current form." He is one of the most popular people on Twitter, with over 81 million followers.

Twitter said it welcomes feedback from shareholders, including Musk, and is working to improve the platform.

Any relaxation of content moderation or the restoration of banned users, such as former President Donald Trump, could prove polarized. The company banned the then-president's account in January 2021, citing what it called the risk of incitement to violence. The move drew sharp criticism from Trump and some of his supporters.

However, Musk's turn as a Twitter agitator could have an impact on Twitter's management, regardless of whether his ideas are implemented or not, said Rich Greenfield, an analyst at LightShed Partners. "Putting that pressure on management is likely to lead to better execution, faster execution on Twitter, no matter what happens to Musk," Greenfield said.

Musk's bid comes at a time when Twitter is looking to add more users and increase revenue. The company said about a year ago that it would work to at least double its revenue to $7.5 billion by the end of 2023, when it would reach at least 315 million so-called monetizable daily active users.

The company's revenue in 2021 was $5.08 billion, up 37 percent from the previous year. The number of daily users increased by 13% to about 217 million. If the company maintains this pace by the end of 2023, it will exceed its revenue target, but will not be able to achieve the sign of expanding its user base.

The bid adds to the whirlwind surrounding the company. According to a filing earlier this month, Musk began buying Twitter stock on Jan. 31, when it was trading at $36.83. These purchases continued until April 1. Musk's stake in the company was made public on April 4, and his plans to join the board were announced on April 5.

The offer of $54.20 per share represents a 54% premium the day before Musk started investing in Twitter, compared to a premium of 38% the day before the investment was publicly announced.

U.S. stocks fell, with major indexes falling weekly as investors feared soaring inflation and slowing growth began to affect businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 113.36 points, or 0.3 percent, to 34,451.23 on Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 54 points, or 1.2 percent, to 4392.59, after the broader-cap index rose 1.1 percent the day in a row, falling for three straight days. The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite fell 292.51 points, or 2.1 percent, to 13,351.08 points, following a 2 percent gain the day before.

The stock market snaked lower in the final hour of trading, deepening the declines in all three indexes this week. Some traders said the combined volume was about 15 percent lower and about 15 percent below this year's daily average, according to Dow Jones market data, helping to accelerate Thursday afternoon's decline. U.S. stocks were closed on Friday due to a shortened trading week from the holiday.

This week, as the earnings season officially kicks off, investors saw for the first time how the company performed in the first quarter of 2022. Over the past year, corporate earnings have largely collapsed due to government stimulus measures and strong consumer spending. Traders and investors fear that rising inflation will end the trend.

Large U.S. banks are expected to suffer comparisons with lucrative profits during the pandemic. According to FactSet, analysts expect S&P 500 banks to have seen their first-quarter earnings decline 37 percent from a year ago.

Going forward, corporate performance will be scrutinized to guide how companies manage the Fed's tighter policies, which are expected to raise interest rates.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.808 percent from 2.688 percent on Wednesday. While shaken in recent days, yields on benchmark notes hit their highest level since January 2019 earlier this week as investors prepared for rate hikes. Bond yields and price movements are reversed.

When it comes to economic news, U.S. consumer confidence rose in April, more than the consensus forecast of economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal, according to the University of Michigan. Consumer retail and food and beverage spending rose 0.5 percent in March from the previous month, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In commodity markets, international oil benchmark Brent crude oil closed up 2.7 percent to $111.70 a barrel, up nearly 9 percent this week. Natural gas prices rose to unusual levels this season. Natural gas futures for U.S. May deliveries rose 4.3 percent on Thursday to close at $7.3,000 a million British thermal units, up 96 percent so far this year and the highest settlement value since October 2008.

Overseas, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.7 percent as gains in travel stocks balanced losses for telecom companies. The ECB said in a statement on Thursday that recent economic data has made it more likely that the bank will end its net bond purchases in the third quarter, confirming plans to quickly reverse the accommodative monetary policy adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Asia, stock markets are mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.2 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent and the Shanghai Composite rose 1.2 percent.

According to Barron's, Steinway Musical Instruments Holdings, a prominent piano maker backed by hedge fund tycoon John Paulson, has applied again for listing.

According to the April 14 prospectus, Steinway did not disclose how many shares it would sell or the potential price range. This information should appear in future documents. Shares of the New York-based company will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol STWY.

Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and Barclays were the lead underwriters of the deal.

In 1853, German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway developed the first Steinway piano in an attic in Manhattan. Steinway now produces pianos through its factories in Astoria, New York, and Hamburg, Germany.

In 2015, the company launched a series of self-playing pianos, Steinway Spirio, which accounted for about 32 percent of the piano division's net sales in fiscal 2021, the prospectus said. Steinway also owns a collection of alto pianos from the Boston and Essex brands. The company sells its pianos through a retail showroom owned by 33 companies and a network of about 180 third-party dealers.

Steinway is profitable. Net income for the year ended December 31 increased by 14.4% from USD 51.8 million in 2020 to approximately USD 59.3 million. The prospectus said sales increased by about 30% in 2021 to $538.4 million. The prospectus said the company had reduced its debt burden in 2016 from $311.6 million in 2016 to $50.9 million in 2021.

The IPO represents Steinway's return to the open markets. The company went public in 1996, raised $63.1 million, and was listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2013, Paulson privatized Steinway. The tycoon's Paulson Pianissimo owned 100 percent of Steinway before the IPO. The prospectus said that after the IPO, Paulson and certain affiliated entities will have a majority of more than the total voting power.

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