Publicly-held companies can now make disclosures via social media.
Evidence of social media's power to move markets came on April 23, when the Dow fell 150 points after a hijacked Associated Press Twitter account falsely reported explosions at the White House.
Twitter and Facebook are now sources of legitimate financial news too. After investigating a 2012 Facebook (FB) post from Netflix (NFLX) that sent its stock up, the SEC ruled in April that publicly held companies could make disclosures via social media.
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Expect more tweets about profits -- and more difficulty following the market.
Long-term investors should tune out Twitter, says Stamford, Conn., financial planner Matthew Tuttle. Actively trading stocks? Set up a watch list of ticker symbols using an app like HootSuite.
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| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 14,960.59 | -216.95 | -1.43% |
| Nasdaq | 3,401.48 | -43.78 | -1.27% |
| S&P 500 | 1,608.90 | -22.48 | -1.38% |
| Treasuries | 2.09 | -0.01 | -0.67% |
| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 13.09 | -0.28 | -2.13% |
| Ford Motor Co | 15.25 | -0.46 | -2.92% |
| Microsoft Corp | 34.78 | -0.21 | -0.60% |
| Cisco Systems Inc | 24.32 | -0.04 | -0.16% |
| General Electric Co | 23.32 | -0.37 | -1.58% |
| Overnight Avg Rate | Latest | Change | Last Week |
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| 15 yr fixed | 3.33% | 3.08% | |
| 5/1 ARM | 2.76% | 2.74% | |
| 30 yr refi | 4.00% | 3.93% | |
| 15 yr refi | 3.13% | 3.07% |
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