Five celebrities who rocked the stock market through social media

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Reality TV star and socialite Kylie Jenner wiped $1.3bn (£900m) off the stock market value of Snap, the software company behind Snapchat, with a single tweet on Wednesday evening.

The social messaging app, already reeling from the negative reaction to a recent update to its interface, now finds itself struggling to regain momentum after the star’s criticism was retweeted more than 60,000 times (and counting).

But Jenner is only one of several celebrities whose interventions have shaken the markets.

The Kardashian sibling’s tweet, which reached 24.5m followers and caused a 7 per cent drop in Snapchat’s value, “underlines the fragility of social networking platforms from a corporate finance perspective”, according to John Illsley, director at accountancy firm Moore Stephens.

New platforms like Snapchat are more vulnerable to challenges from influential opposition voices as they lack the loyalty cultivated over time enjoyed by more established brands, according to Illsley.

Whether Jenner’s tweet represents a temporary blip for Snapchat or has done more lasting damage to its value remains to be seen.

The US President has often exploited his social media influence to rattle corporations.

One of the most notable examples was an attack on Boeing in December 2016, arguing that “costs are out of control” on the aircraft manufacturer’s proposed new Air Force One commission, a 747 being built for $4bn (£2.9bn). “Cancel order!” he typed, sending stock tumbling by almost $2 (£1.43) a share.

Trump followed this by attacking Lockheed Martin over the expense of its F-35 fighter jet programme for the US Air Force.

This in turn caused shares to fall by more than five per cent and shaved $3.5bn (£2.5bn) from the aerospace giant’s market value before it recovered.

In January 2017, he did the same to Toyota, wiping $1.2bn (£859m) from the Japanese carmarker’s value after he expressed his opposition to the company’s proposed relocation of its manufacturing operations from the US to Mexico.

Trump also used his account to criticise luxury department store Nordstrom in February 2017 for declining to carry his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line – an “outrageous” abuse of his office for business purposes, according to former Barack Obama ethics adviser Norm Eisen.

Nordstrom’s stock dropped a full 1 per cent in value – 23p a share – within a minute of Trump’s tweet before recovering moments later.

The beloved chat show host and actress sent Weight Watchers stock soaring 14 per cent last month after she gave an inspirational speech at the Golden Globes that went viral.

Shares in the weight loss company – in which Oprah owns a 10 per cent stake – achieved a top price of $53.60 (£38.30) apiece as a result of the address, which was so impressive it led many to speculate on whether a future presidential run might be in the pipeline.

The former US First Lady also benefited a major brand when she went viral. Mrs Obama wore an £8,575 Versace rose gold gown to a White House State Dinner in October 2016 with then-Italian PM Matteo Renzi.

Wall Street saw an immediate rise in the company’s share value and dubbed her “mark-up Michelle” in tribute.

The eccentric anti-virus software mogul has recently taken to addressing his Twitter followers on the benefits of “altcoins” – minor cryptocurrencies smaller than Bitcoin traded on wildly volatile markets.

On 15 December, McAfee tweeted that a new altcoin called SAFEX constituted “the majority of my holdings”, implying it was a sound investment for others to follow.

Moments later the price of SAFEX shot up by 92 per cent, according to CoinMarketCap, before settling down.

He repeated the trick a week later promoting a different altcoin named Electroneum, its price spiking 57 per cent, and has since done the same for BURST, Digibyte and others.

Interestingly, only two – Humaniq and Factom – have failed to climb back up to their McAfee-inspired peak following the inevitable post-recommendation slump, according to Motherboard.

Perhaps getting in on the act, pop star Katy Perry recently posted pictures of her fingernails painted with cryptocurrency logos on Instagram.

Whether this is a precursor to a McAfee-style promotional onslaught remains unclear, but Perry is the most followed person on Twitter and could certainly be an altcoin influencer if she chose to weaponise her fan base.