The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +2.41%) was down more than 87 points as of 11:35 a.m. EDT. Despite the move lower in the broader markets, tech stocks Glu Mobile (GLUU +0.00%) and Kandi Technologies (KNDI 2.76%) surged to start the week. BlackBerry (BBRY +3.42%) was down on hiring news.
Glu Mobile continues Kim Kardashian-fueled rally
Shares of mobile game developer Glu Mobile continued their recent rally: An 11.3% gain on Monday brought the company a roughly 90% share price appreciation in just the last 30 days.
Glu Mobile's hit title Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is the top free app on the iTunes free app charts and has consistently been in the top five since its debut late last month. At the same time, other Glu Mobile titles have also seen success: Dino Hunter: Deadly Shores and Deer Hunter 2014 are among the top 100 apps.
As Glu Mobile's shares continue to rise, investors may wonder if the company has become grossly overvalued. As it only recently achieved profitably, Glu Mobile currently has no trailing price-to-earnings ratio; however, the longer Kim Kardashian dominates the app charts, the more the company stands to make on the game. As a free-to-play title, Glu Mobile benefits from in-game microtransactions, and more people playing will result in more transactions.
Kandi Technologies adds another 6%
Kandi Technologies is another stock that has experienced wild gains in recent days; With Monday's more than 8% gain, the stock is up better than 40% in just the last five trading sessions.
Kandi appears to be benefiting from continuing momentum -- the rally in shares was originally sparked by the company reporting impressive sales of its small electric cars in China. Last quarter, Kandi, in partnership with Geely, sold over 4,000 electric vehicles -- more than double the amount it sold in the prior quarter.
The gain may have also been fueled by the recent sell-off: Although Kandi shares are up more than 75% year to date, shares were nearly cut in half in March and April after the company revealed that it was being investigated by the SEC.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
BlackBerry names new COO
Shares of BlackBerry fell nearly 1% on Monday, worse than the Dow Jones, after the company announced that it had named a new chief operating officer.
Marty Beard will fill the spot, which had been vacant since late last year. Beard's appointment underscores BlackBerry's commitment to the enterprise segment -- previously, he had served as CEO of a company offering cloud computing services to enterprise customers. Bolstering its management team should help BlackBerry in its ongoing turnaround, and appears to be a positive sign for a company aiming to return to profitability.
Yet Beard doesn't appear to be a particularly impressive hire. If BlackBerry does succeed in its ongoing transition, he could be key, but few BlackBerry investors likely knew who he was prior to Monday's announcement. In that context, the muted response seems justified.
