Finance

GameStop, MicroStrategy shares rise after Ryan Cohen posts photo with Michael Saylor

Published

3 months ago

February 10, 2025

Traders work underneath GameStop Corp. signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Friday, June 7, 2024.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of GameStop and MicroStrategy were on the rise Monday after Ryan Cohen, CEO of the video game retailer, posted a photo with Michael Saylor, co-founder and chairman of the largest corporate holder of bitcoin.

GameStop, day traders’ favorite meme stock, climbed more than 3%, while MicroStrategy, which recently rebranded as “Strategy,” saw shares rising 2.6%. Cohen uploaded the photo over the weekend on X, sparking speculation that GameStop is plotting another strategy around crypto.

The video game company had expanded into digital services in recent years by offering crypto wallets that let users manage their crypto and nonfungible tokens. However, the firm shut the service down in 2023, citing “regulatory uncertainty.”

Cohen, co-founder of Chewy, bought shares in GameStop in 2020 and joined the board in 2021 as GameStop became one of the key stocks in the WallStreetBets meme trading mania.

His e-commerce experience fueled hopes that he could help modernize the brick-and-mortar retailer, but the company still struggles to adapt to changing spending habits by gamers. Trading in the stock remains highly volatile and speculative as meme stock personality “Roaring Kitty” continues to spur buying from retail investors.

Saylor’s Strategy also has a fan base of retail investors as the firm touted its aggressive bitcoin-buying strategy. In the past year, the firm has raised billions of dollars through the sale of stock or convertible bonds for the sole purpose of purchasing more bitcoin.

Last week, Strategy said it’s almost halfway to its ambitious capital-raising goal as it went on a buying spree throughout the postelection rally. As of Monday, Strategy holds roughly $47 billion worth of bitcoins on its balance sheet, about 2.5% of the total supply.

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Finance

Insiders at UnitedHealth are scooping up tarnished shares

Published

17 hours ago

May 16, 2025

Business Finance News

Key Points

UnitedHealth Group saw some of its insiders step in and purchase declining shares this week.
Kristen Gil, a director at the firm, bought 3,700 shares worth roughly $1 million on Thursday.
Shares of UnitedHealth plunged nearly 11% to $274.35 on Thursday following a report in The Wall Street Journal that the Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into possible Medicare fraud.

Finance

Federal Reserve will reduce staff by 10% in coming years, Powell memo says

Published

18 hours ago

May 16, 2025

Business Finance News

U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, on January 30, 2024.

Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Images

The Federal Reserve will look to reduce its headcount by 10% over the next couple of years, including offering deferred resignation to some older employees, central bank chair Jerome Powell said in a memo.

“Experience here and elsewhere shows that it is healthy for any organization to periodically take a fresh look at its staffing and resources. The Fed has done that from time to time as our work, priorities, or external environment have changed,” Powell said in a memo obtained by CNBC.

The central bank chief added that he has instructed leaders throughout the Fed “to find incremental ways to consolidate functions where appropriate, modernize some business practices, and ensure that we are right-sized and able to meet our statutory mission.” One method for shrinking the staff will be to offer a voluntary deferred resignation program to employees of the Federal Reserve Board who would be fully eligible to retire at the end of 2027.

The central bank said in its 2023 annual report that it had just under 24,000 employees. A 10% reduction would bring that number below 22,000.

The memo comes as the Trump administration has pushed for cost cuts across civil service agencies, spearheaded by Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has previously called the Fed “absurdly overstaffed.” Powell’s memo did not mention Musk or DOGE as a factor in the decision to shrink headcount.

The planned staff cuts were first reported by Bloomberg News.

— CNBC’s Matt Cuddy contributed reporting.