Etsy stock jumps 9% after Elon Musk tweeted he ‘kinda loves it’ and revealed he bought a hand-knit ‘Marvin the Martian’ helm for his dog named after the character
- Musk tweeted his love for Etsy early on Tuesday, sending the stock jumping
- Said he bought his small dog named Marvin the Martian a custom knit helm
- Etsy sock popped in pre-market trading but quickly gave back the gains
- Market watchers called the move ‘ridiculous’ and evidence of ‘peak dumb’
A tweet from Elon Musk sent Etsy stock briefly soaring, after the Tesla CEO revealed that he ‘kinda loves’ the e-commerce platform for handcrafted goods.
‘I kinda love Etsy,’ Musk tweeted early on Tuesday, adding: ‘Bought a hand knit wool Marvin the Martian helm for my dog.’
Etsy shares soared as much as 9 percent in pre-market trading following the tweet, before falling back to earth after the markets opened.
Musk is known to own two dogs, a large one named Gatsby and a small dog, which appears to be some kind of poodle mix, named Marvin the Martian.
A tweet from Elon Musk sent Etsy stock briefly soaring, after the Tesla CEO revealed that he ‘kinda loves’ the e-commerce platform for handcrafted goods
Etsy shares soared as much as 9 percent in pre-market trading following the tweet, before falling back to earth after the markets opened
The Looney Toons character Marvin the Martian is an extraterrestrial who wears a helmet reminiscent of a Roman centurion.
Etsy is an e-commerce platform focused on handmade items and craft supplies, and first went public in 2015.
Since last March the stock has soared more than 570 percent, as pandemic lockdowns and job cuts have driving a boom in small crafters using the site.
There was no other company news immediately before Etsy shares jumped on Tuesday, and the stock movement appeared to be driven by Musk’s tweets, which simply expressed his personal appreciation of the company.
Market watchers expressed skepticism at the move, with CNN Business writer Paul R. La Monica calling it ‘ridiculous’.
‘The stock market is at peak dumb,’ read the headline to La Monica’s article about the baffling Etsy rally.
Musk is known to own two dogs, a large one named Gatsby and a small dog, which appears to be some kind of poodle mix, named Marvin the Martian
In recent months, wild stock rallies based on tenuous rationales have become increasingly common, often fueled by enthusiastic small investors using Robinhood or similar platforms, and amplified by automated trading algorithms at large investment firms.
As a prime example, shares of U.S. videogame retailer GameStop, which, after rising about 250 percent already this year, more than doubled on Monday before paring back.
Traders said short-sellers were quickly buying back in to the stock to cover potential losses while retail investors were piling in to benefit from the surge.
‘Retail investors are a huge part of it,’ said Christopher Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna Financial Group, referring to GameStop.
The Looney Toons character Marvin the Martian (right) is an extraterrestrial who wears a helmet reminiscent of a Roman centurion
Last summer, retail investors drove a huge surge in Hertz stock after the company declared bankruptcy and shares fell to 56 cents.
Hertz stock soared more than 900 percent before the bubble burst and wiped out most of the gains.
Musk has a history of driving stock moves with his tweets, which in the past earned him a sanction from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk settled with the SEC in 2018 over tweets about Tesla’s production plans and a purported plan to take the company private, both of which sent the company’s shares soaring.