stocks

Professional network LinkedIn is making some investors on Wall Street awfully happy.

In premarket trading this morning, LinkedIn shares were up over 10 percent to $102.90. In early morning trading, the company's stock has risen to $106.83, helping it to boost its market capitalization to over $11 billion. Since the beginning of the year, LinkedIn's shares are up 70 percent.

LinkedIn's strong showing today has resulted from its impressive performance during the second quarter. The professioinal network yesterday reported that it earned a $2.8 million profit during the second quarter on $228.2 million … Read more

Facebook's stock is dropping again, this time hitting an all-time low of $19.91 today.

The social-network company's stock price has been hovering around $20 a share, occasionally dipping under.

How bad is that? Well, $19 a share puts Facebook at half the value of its offering price of $38.

Facebook closed at $20.88 yesterday, but its lowest closing price to date is $20.84.

The stock has been on a continuous decline since Facebook reported second-quarter earnings last week.

It was a three-in-one blow today for Facebook execs announcing their departure from the company.

All Things Digital reports that Director of Platform Partnerships Ethan Beard first said he was planning to leave the company; then, Platform Marketing Director Katie Mitic said she had plans to leave too. And finally, Facebook's Mobile Platform Marketing Manager Jonathan Matus also announced his departure.

All three employees made the announcements on their Facebook timelines and said that they've had good experiences working at the social network. Beard wrote, "I've had the pleasure of helping build an ecosystem of incredible … Read more

It's been a dismal week for Zynga. First news of bleak revenue growth in the second quarter followed by plunging stock prices, then accusations of insider trading... and now the gaming company is being slapped with two shareholder lawsuits.

The almost identical lawsuits are being filed by two California law firms seeking class-action status on behalf of stockholders who are accusing Zynga of not warning them about slumping revenue growth before the company's shares plummeted 42 percent last week, according to Reuters.

"Zynga misrepresented or failed to disclose material adverse facts about its business, operations, and growth … Read more

Twitter started prioritizing money talk on its site today with the announcement of "cashtags." These are clickable ticker symbols, like $AAPL, $GOOG, and $FB, which take users to search results about the company's finances and stocks.

Twitter made the announcement via a tweet in which it wrote: "Now you can click on ticker symbols like $GE on http://twitter.com to see search results about stocks and companies."

According to The Verge, the cashtags come on the heels of other user-created Twitter innovations, such as the @reply and the #hashtag. (The hashtag, for instance, evolved … Read more

Facebook investors are bracing for yet another disappointing day on the Nasdaq.

The social network's shares are trading down 12.8 percent to $23.40 in premarket trading today. If this keeps up and the stock closes the day around that level, it would mark the stock's lowest per-share closing price since Facebook went public in May. Facebook's lowest closing price so far is $25.52.

Facebook's drop is due to a disappointing showing in the second quarter that saw the world's largest social network post a loss of $157 million on $1.2 billion … Read more

commentary Facebook will report its first quarterly earnings as a public company today when the markets close. The hype is unbelievable. It's almost like the company's IPO all over again.

Here are 10 headlines to give you an idea of the type of scrutiny the social-networking giant is enduring:

Geek fashion isn't always subtle. There are Boba Fett winter hats, Game Boy dresses, and eye-screaming Marty McFly hats. And then there's this set of Helix Stockings. Subtle, tasteful Helix Stockings.

For the science lady who has everything, these $17.99 stockings are off-black and made from nylon and spandex with a velvet-like DNA helix design running nearly a foot long on the side.… Read more

Nasdaq plans to release its Facebook IPO investor compensation plan next week and it will probably be more than the $40 million originally proposed, Fox Business News reported today.

The deal will be all cash and Nasdaq is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission on a second draft of the proposal, unnamed sources told Fox.

The SEC has declined to comment. We have a call into the Nasdaq and will update when we get more information.

The stock exchange's bungle of the social network company's opening day of trading has been widely criticized.

Facebook's first day … Read more