What happened
Shares of Twilio (TWLO -4.41%), Wayfair (W -2.57%), and MongoDB (MDB -3.40%) popped 12.6%, 11.7%, and 11%, respectively on Wednesday, despite a relative lack of company-specific news.
Rather, with both the Dow and S&P 500 up nearly 5% today -- and based on the cadence of their individual gains -- more than anything these three stocks appear to be rising in tandem with the broader market.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
So what
To be fair, that's not to say these three stocks didn't have factors playing to their advantage in conjunction with today's pop.
Early this morning, for example, MongoDB received a positive note from Morgan Stanley's Sangit Singh. The analyst reiterated his "equal weight" rating on the stock but also modestly raised his per-share price target from $72 to $79 -- marking a roughly 1% discount to MongoDB's closing price today. But shares of the open-source database leader were little changed this morning response, drifting higher only into the afternoon as the broader rally gained steam.
Meanwhile, Wayfair's rise today was probably aided by data showing this year marked the strongest retail holiday-shopping season since 2012. According to a new report from Mastercard SpendingPulse, online shopping sales between Nov. 1 and Christmas Eve soared 19.1% year over year. That brought combined online and in-store retail sales up 5.1% year over year -- its strongest growth in six years -- to over $850 million this season. Of course, that data should bode well for Wayfair, which most recently soared late last month after the online home-goods retailer told investors it had an incredible start to the season over the five-day weekend from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
Finally, it's no mystery that Twilio was already enjoying positive momentum on the heels of its own exceptional quarterly results last month. Shares of the cloud-based communications company popped nearly 30% in November after it not only crushed third-quarter estimates -- sales climbed 68% year over year to $169 million, helped both by new customer additions and existing clients paying more for its products -- but also offered better-than-expected forward guidance for revenue growth to remain roughly consistent at 60%. Investors also cheered Twilio's $2 billion strategic acquisition of email delivery service company SendGrid (SEND).
Now what
In any case, it's hardly surprising to see shares of these three companies enjoying outsize gains as the broader market rallies. But we should also keep in mind that in today's volatile market, those gains could evaporate just as quickly as Wall Street shifts its attention back toward concerns for sustained political strife and slowing global economic growth. As such, I think patient shareholders would do well to continue focusing on the health of the businesses underlying these stocks, which will inevitably serve as a much more reliable indicator of their long-term performance.
