Zoom leads local stock gains as economy begins to reopen
Bay Area stocks largely rose Wednesday amid more hopes for the economy opening up, with Zoom Video Communications shares posting sizable gains after the company reported a huge rise in demand for its videoconferencing services during the coronavirus pandemic.
Zoom’s shares surged by 7.6%, to close at $223.87, after the San Jose-based company said late Tuesday that its first-quarter revenue rose by 169% from a year ago, to $328.2 million, and that it now has 265,400 customers with more than 10 employees each, an increase of 354% from the first quarter of 2019.
Zoom’s popularity has also grown as many schools have used its technology for video conferences between staff members, teachers and students. Chief Executive Eric Yuan said that more than 100,000 elementary and secondary schools worldwide used Zoom’s free video service during the quarter.
Along with Zoom, Tesla shares edged up by 0.2%, to $882.96, HP rose 6.88%, to close at $16.86 a share, Apple shares rose 0.6%, to close at $325.12, Twitter surged more than 8%, to $34.88 a share and Cisco Systems shares were up by 0.1%, to end the day at $46.94.
Facebook, however, slipped by 1.1%, to $230.16 a share, a day after some employees staged virtual walkouts to protest the company’s refusal to take down some controversial posts from President Donald Trump about the protests occurring in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last week.
Overall, investor enthusiasm rose on Wall Street amid reports that rioting and looting across the country tapered off Tuesday night, and better-than-expected data from ADP that said privatesector payrolls fell by 2.8 million jobs in May, compared to expectations for losses of 8.8 million jobs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed by 527.24 points, or 2%, to 26,269.89, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.4%, to 3,122.87. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed almost 1% to end the day at 9,682.91