Revealed: Most influential celebrity movers and shakers of stock market world
Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk tops the charts of celebrities who are most likely to impact stocks, followed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and musician Kanye West.
In fourth place was singer Justin Bieber, followed by model and businesswoman Kylie Jenner.
“With millions of companies to choose from, it’s understandable that some people turn to key figureheads and even celebrities to inspire their financial decisions,” said a report by Money.co.uk, which looked at which celebrities have the biggest impact on a company’s prices from their activity on social media.
The study analysed tweets over the past five years by breaking down the time at which they were posted, and the immediate impact on the stock of the company mentioned.
It found that not only is Musk “the most vocal” about other companies on social media, his tweets have also caused huge differences to share prices as investors take his word as “golden”.
Musk on average caused an 84% average change to the share prices of the companies he mentioned, based on analysis of 17 tweets.
But his most impactful tweet ever was "Use Signal" from earlier this year. He was likely referring to the messaging app in the light of privacy concerns over WhatsApp.
However, it ended up boosting the wrong company's stock, as the Signal app isn't listed. Medical device company Signal Advance's stock went soaring after the tweet.
Use Signal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
His tweets have also impacted cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC-USD) and dogecoin (DOGE-USD), the report said.
Musk also caused a 352% change in the gaming industry as he fuelled the frenzied surge in GameStop (GME) shares. On 26 January Musk tweeted “Gamestonk!!”.
Read more: Online trading platforms crash amid GameStop and AMC stock market frenzy
The made-up word is a combination of GameStop and stonks, a slang term for stocks.
Gamestonk!! https://t.co/RZtkDzAewJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2021
Meanwhile Winfrey, the talk show host, entrepreneur and author, who is also an official spokesperson for Weight Watchers (WW), made a huge impact in January 2016 for the brand when she tweeted “Eat bread. Lose weight. Whaaatttt?", leading to a 23% change to the company's stock price.
Eat bread. Lose weight. Whaaatttt? #ComeJoinMe https://t.co/jUgpk9ToXYhttps://t.co/xtnB53EwSf
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) January 26, 2016
“Investors clearly saw her involvement with the brand as a reason to grab a slice of the action,” said the report.
And then there's West, who caused Gap’s (GPS) stock to soar 23% after he announced a new collaboration between the US retailer and his fashion brand Yeezy, putting the apparel company “officially back on the map - and in a strong position within the market”.
YEEZY AND GAP FORM PARTNERSHIP #WESTDAYEVER pic.twitter.com/NyxgfYTjJM
— ye (@kanyewest) June 26, 2020
As for Bieber, sharing a post from his personal Instagram account of a picture of Crocs (CROX) in a pool with the caption “soon" boosted the shoe company’s shares by 7.6%.
Kylie Jenner of the famous Kardashian clan made headlines in 2018 for tweeting about not using Snapchat (SNAP) any more. This led to a drop of 7% to the company stock price, after many users and investors turned away from the brand.
sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad.
— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018
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