Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price • Hacker News Board

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#61

Post by arcanus » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 6:56 PM UTC

ihsw wrote: post #47

myth_buster wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WaPo: Global markets plunge on oil/China fears. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/01/20/n...

To add more context to this -- the markets have been sliding since Sunday due to Chinese intervention in the markets (including raising RMB reserves for Chinese banks), and there is a lot of shakeup expected from the lifting of Iranian sanctions and the Saudi Aramco IPO internal debate (could be largest IPO in history and it would be company with the largest market cap in history, yes bigger than Apple's). The enviro…

> it would be company with the largest market cap in history, yes bigger than Apple

Apple is not remotely the largest company in history, when adjusted for inflation. The The Dutch East India Company, for instance, was worth over 7 trillion dollars at one point. Likewise, Standard Oil held a monopoly on all the USA's oil at one point and certainly had a several trillion dollar valuation.

Saudi Aramco will be massive, certainly. But not without precedent in history.

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#62

Post by anjc » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 6:57 PM UTC

boomzilla wrote: post #19

dantillberg wrote: post #7

Well, the NASDAQ[0] and DJIA[1] are both off 3% for the day right now, along with every other index around the world. Or, to talk about price movements that are probably a bit more noteworthy, crude oil futures on NYMEX[2] are down ~7%. It's been kind of a (minor) bloodbath so far in the markets today. So, a 10% drop for a young, growth-oriented company is not terribly surprising on a day like today, I'd think. 0: ht…

Well, for some people, myself included, the not-going-so-well recent IPOs (Square, Box, etc.) would help deflate the pressure on housing prices in SF/BA. I feel for the workers at these company, but it's becoming impossible to raise a family here when the rent/mortgage is creeping up to more than half of most people's salary.

It might do more than just deflate pressure a little...

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#63

Post by pc86 » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 6:57 PM UTC

bro_dong_app wrote: post #55

cool story brah, you won't be missed. should have negotiated options at your job.

We should just prevent accounts fresher than 24 hours from posting comments.

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#64

Post by wdmeldon » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 6:59 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #60

jmagoon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but as soon as you buy one you will want housing prices to go up, just like any investment.

A house is more than just an investment, though. It's, you know, the place you live. The catchment area for the schools your kids go to. The hospitals you have access to. And so on.

This is hugely important for "normal" people. Most people have care a lot more about the value of their house not going down than not going up. Breaking even on a house is find because it provides roof over your head.

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#65

Post by anjc » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 6:59 PM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #56

dasil003 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the tech bubble bursts I'm not sure who is going to be buying the $15, undersized lunches that the new wave of food trucks is flooding the market with.

Maybe in SF, but not in the rest of the world. Even here in Silicon Alley, we're a small piece of a very large pie.

It's the opposite surely. Some of the companies and concepts that seem to survive in SF are considered barmey in other wealthy western cities. Startups whose customers are other startups..

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#66

Post by pc86 » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 6:59 PM UTC

JonFish85 wrote: post #44

dantillberg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, yes. I don't own a home, but I would like to someday, so I'm always confused how news about falling home prices is treated as "bad" in general in the media. For me, I celebrate the news. I want housing prices to go kaboom so I can afford one.

The problem with that though is that housing prices are tightly tied to surrounding economic factors. You could go to some crappy neighborhood in a depressed area of the USA and get a great house for "nothing" (relative to, say, CA). If housing prices go kaboom, it's likely because there aren't as many people moving there, and people aren't moving there because there aren't jobs that can support people. And be carefu…

Being underwater is only an issue if you want to sell the house, or lose the ability to pay for it.

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#67

Post by elif » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 6:59 PM UTC

bdcravens wrote: post #59

elif wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coins are up 8.3% on the day, which is strange considering all the bandwagon press universally condemning it. Some of it is correction, but I think generally more people are starting to treat it as a hedge against general global markets--as a haven like gold.

You mean Bitcoin? Probably best to refer to it unambiguously.

I was being intentionally coy to avoid replies from people not interested in what i was actually saying, but in bitcoin flamewars.

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#68

Post by djrogers » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 7:05 PM UTC

bunderbunder wrote: post #52

jmagoon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but as soon as you buy one you will want housing prices to go up, just like any investment.

Especially so for an investment like housing, where rapid growth due to a shift in the popularity of your neighborhood is about the only reliable way for your "investment" to fare much better than sticking money under the mattress would. Sorry for the barb, but that meme (your house as an investment) really bothers me, because it has the potential to do a lot of damage. It's like penny stocks. Sure you can make money…

>rapid growth due to a shift in the popularity of your neighborhood is about the only reliable way for your "investment" to fare much better than sticking money under the mattress would

Pretty shortsighted view there, and demonstrably wrong. Historically housing prices have always risen faster than the rate of inflation - both in 'popular'neighborhoods and elsewhere. Take almost any 10 year period of time and you'd be very very hard pressed to find a region where housing prices didn't dramatically outpace inflation.

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#69

Post by foldor » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 7:05 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #63

bro_dong_app wrote: post #55

cool story brah, you won't be missed. should have negotiated options at your job.

We should just prevent accounts fresher than 24 hours from posting comments.

That's not an answer. There are too many reasons someone would need to post within 24 hours of creating an account. For example, someone creates a blog post that gets posted to HN by someone else and they enter the comments to answer some questions, while the discussion is still going on.

Re: Square stock drops 10%, is now less than IPO price

#70

Post by ryanSrich » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 7:06 PM UTC

JonFish85 wrote: post #44

dantillberg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, yes. I don't own a home, but I would like to someday, so I'm always confused how news about falling home prices is treated as "bad" in general in the media. For me, I celebrate the news. I want housing prices to go kaboom so I can afford one.

The problem with that though is that housing prices are tightly tied to surrounding economic factors. You could go to some crappy neighborhood in a depressed area of the USA and get a great house for "nothing" (relative to, say, CA). If housing prices go kaboom, it's likely because there aren't as many people moving there, and people aren't moving there because there aren't jobs that can support people. And be carefu…

> The problem with that though is that housing prices are tightly tied to surrounding economic factors

I really question what those economic factors are though. For SF it's clearly the availability of high paying jobs. However in Portland, OR (where I live) there are little to no high paying tech jobs available, and yet the housing prices are sky rocketing to levels never seen before.

Given my basic understanding of economics the current climate makes absolutely no sense. Wages have been stagnate for years, college grads have no career outlook (outstanding student debt is now $1.2 trillion), and prices for everything (except for oil) are higher than ever. I've seen friends empty their bank accounts just to pay rent. The concept of savings or retirement for millennial might as well not even exist.