Nikola, Fraud Allegations Spread and Plunge Again... Nasdaq Falls for Two Consecutive Days

Hindenburg and Citron Join Nikola Fraud Allegations Row

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The Nasdaq closed the week with two consecutive days of decline.

On the 11th (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 131.06 points (0.48%) to close at 27,665.64, the S&P 500 index increased by 1.78 points (0.05%) to 3,340.97, while the Nasdaq index fell 66.05 points (0.6%) to close at 10,853.55.

The weekly gains were 1.66% for the Dow, 2.51% for the S&P 500, and 4.06% for the Nasdaq.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August rose 0.4% compared to the previous month, raising expectations for economic recovery. This exceeded the Dow Jones consensus forecast of a 0.3% increase but could not prevent the weakness in tech stocks.

Leading stock Apple fell 1.3%. Microsoft dropped about 0.7% amid uncertainties over the TikTok acquisition. Oracle, which showed strength early in the session due to strong earnings, ended down 0.6%.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla rose 0.3%, but hydrogen truck maker Nikola, which faced fraud allegations the previous day, fell 14% again, wiping out the effect of GM's equity investment announced earlier in the week.

While Tesla's decline stabilized, Nikola's losses widened. This was interpreted as a result of another short-selling firm, Citron, following Hindenburg Research, congratulating Hindenburg on its fraud allegations and pledging to cover half of the related litigation costs.

Nikola CEO Trevor Milton strongly dismissed Hindenburg's fraud claims as "an attempt to manipulate the market and profit from our stock price decline," but investors sided with the falling stock price.

CNBC attributed the tech stock decline that day to reports that Japan's SoftBank is considering revising its options investment strategy.

October delivery West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil closed at $37.33 per barrel, up 0.08% (3 cents) from the previous day. On a weekly basis, it fell 6.1%. December delivery gold closed at $1,947.90 per ounce, down 0.8% (16.40 dollars).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.