Elon Musk makes R383 billion in a day

Tesla and other tech shares roared back to life on Wall Street Tuesday, powering higher after a period of weakness as Congress neared final passage of a $1.9 trillion economic aid package.

South African-born billionaire Elon Musk made a record $25 billion (R383.3 billion) in one day after Tesla Inc.’s 20% jump on Wall Street on Tuesday.

According to reports, this is Tesla’s biggest jump in more than a year, pushing Musk’s fortune to $174 billion.

Besides Tesla, which jumped nearly 20 percent, Apple, Facebook and Amazon all surged around four percent or more.

“The fact that we’re up substantially is a good indication that maybe Nasdaq has found a bottom,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities, who cited Tuesday’s pullback in Treasury yields as a factor supporting tech shares.

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Investors have pencilled in a jump in economic growth throughout 2021, boosted in part by Biden’s plan, which includes stimulus checks of up to $1,400 to most US households and extensions of unemployment benefits, among other items.

The OECD sharply raised its 2021 global growth forecast, projecting the global economy will expand by 5.6 percent, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from its December forecast, and saying the outlook has “improved markedly in recent months.”

ALSO READ: Tesla CEO Elon Musk now world’s wealthiest person

Among individual companies, Boeing jumped 3.0 percent after posting February plane orders that exceeded cancelations for the first month since November 2019.

GameStop continued its wild ride, surging 26.9 percent as the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing looking at recent volatility in the stock in the aftermath of a buying campaign by retail investors on the social networking website Reddit.

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