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Reddit’s stock briefly pumped yesterday after an old news article resurfaced — it’s deeply in the red today

An old Reuters article about a Reddit-Google partnership sent RDDT sharply higher yesterday.

3/18/25 11:33AM

With Reddit’s stock down ~50% since its early February peak, investors in Reddit haven’t had much to celebrate in the last month or so, as the AI momentum reversal has wrecked many of the highest-flying stocks of 2024.

But for a brief moment yesterday, traders sprung into action to bid up the stock, with Reddit breaking out of its market malaise and shares surging ~12% from 2:45 to 3:05 p.m. ET.

The apparent catalyst? A partnership with none other than Google, with numerous outlets running with a headline — Google expands Reddit partnership — that appears to have originated on Reuters, detailing how Reddit will be able to “use Google’s Vertex AI.” The only problem is that the news was more than a year old. A blog post from Google’s website dated February 22, 2024, confirms the details that many of the syndicated versions of the piece — such as this one, which remains on MSN — discussed.

Within about an hour the stock had soared ~12% higher before promptly giving up all the gains, and retail traders, writing on Reddit, weren’t happy:

RDDT Reuters pump and dump
byu/steamcube instocks

Reuters itself appears to have withdrawn the article entirely, with a piece in its place that reads:

“March 17 (Reuters) - A story on Google expanding its partnership with Reddit was based on outdated information and has been withdrawn.
There will be no substitute.”

So, why is Reddit getting hammered again this morning? There are a few possible reasons:

Reddit is strongly correlated with the “risk-on momentum trade” in Big Tech stocks. With the market down, led lower by names like Meta and Tesla, Reddit is coming under pressure.
Unfavorable analyst coverage: according to Barron’s, Redburn analysts launched coverage of the social networking site on Monday with a sell rating and a price target of $75.
Comments made by the company’s CEO last week, which implied that it was more valuable to use its data internally than license it to Google or OpenAI. Part of some investors’ bull theses on the stock was that it would continue to sign lucrative AI licensing deals.

Rani Molla12/31/25

Rather than fully cracking down on scam ads, Meta worked to make them harder to find

In its latest piece on Meta’s scam ads, Reuters found that the social media giant didn’t just remove fraudulent ads from its platforms — it also worked to make them harder for governments and journalists to find.

Fearing that Japanese regulators would require universal advertiser verification — a measure Meta estimated would cost roughly $2 billion to implement and potentially reduce its revenue by nearly 5% — the company took steps to make scam ads less “discoverable” to “regulators, investigators and journalists,” according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters.

“So successful was the search-result cleanup that Meta, the documents show, added the tactic to a ‘general global playbook’ it has deployed against regulatory scrutiny in other markets, including the United States, Europe, India, Australia, Brazil and Thailand,” Reuters wrote.

Previous Reuters reporting found Meta internally projected that about 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads tied to scams and banned goods, though the company later said that estimate was overly broad. Reuters also reported the rate was double in China.

Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show

Rani Molla12/31/25

Michael Burry, the “Big Short” investor who called Tesla “ridiculously overvalued,” is not currently shorting Tesla

Earlier this month, “The Big Short” investor Michael Burry said Tesla has been “ridiculously overvalued” for “a good long time” — and reiterated that message in a post on X on Tuesday. But the once prominent Tesla short seller isn’t currently betting against the stock.

I am not short
— Cassandra Unchained (@michaeljburry) December 31, 2025

Asked directly whether he would short Tesla now, Burry replied simply: “I am not short.”

Tesla is expected to report a double-digit decline in fourth-quarter deliveries this week.

Rani Molla12/30/25

SoftBank becomes OpenAI’s biggest backer after fully funding $40 billion investment

SoftBank has fully funded its $40 billion investment in OpenAI, overtaking Microsoft as the company’s largest financial backer, CNBC reports. The deal was contingent on OpenAI transitioning to a for-profit public benefit corporation, which it did in September.

However, longtime partner Microsoft retains substantial influence over OpenAI with its roughly $13 billion investment, which translates to a stake worth about 27% of the startup’s valuation — which has been cited as high as $830 billion — as well as exclusive cloud and commercial licensing rights tied to Azure.

Softbank has fully funded $40 billion investment in OpenAI, sources tell CNBC

Rani Molla12/30/25

Tesla-compiled estimates show Q4 deliveries expected to fall 15% from last year

A Tesla-compiled average of analyst estimates pegs fourth-quarter deliveries at 422,850, which would mark a 15% slump from the 495,570 the company delivered in the same quarter last year, if realized. The full-year estimate of 1.6 million vehicles would represent an 8% decline from 2024 and the second annual decline for the EV company. The estimates are notably lower than the consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg and FactSet, which have been declining over the past month.

The market-implied odds derived from event contracts show that most traders think Tesla deliveries will be more than 410,000 but less than 420,000 in the quarter ending December.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

While Tesla typically shares its compilation of analyst estimates with institutional investors, this is the first time the company has shared those numbers on its own website. Tesla’s numbers include estimates from Daiwa, DB, Wedbush, OpCo, Canaccord, Baird, Wolfe, Exane, GS, RBC, Evercore ISI, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Jefferies, Needham & Co., HSBC, Cantor Fitzgerald, and William Blair.

Actual numbers are expected Friday.

Rani Molla12/29/25

Cybertruck battery material supplier writes down Tesla deal by 99%

South Korea’s L&F Co., a supplier of battery material for Tesla’s “apocalypse-proof” Cybertruck, has written down the value of its Tesla contract by more than 99%, Bloomberg reports — another sign that Cybertruck sales are faltering.

The company cited changes in supply quantities, slashing a contract valued at nearly $3 billion in 2023 to about $7,000 now.