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As the world witnessed live Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo’s action removing Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) bottles from his vicinity at a press conference, the beverage company’s stock nosedived within hours.
A fresh controversy has erupted amid the ongoing Euro Cup 2020 tournament after the coke snub. Football fans are calling it 'Bottlegate' as two of the world's most popular drinks face resistance from top football players in the world.
While Cristiano Ronaldo overtly demonstrated his dislike for the beverage on June 15, French football star Paul Pogba followed the suit and quietly removed the non-alcoholic beverage of Heineken N.V. (AMS:HEIA) during a presser a day later.
While Pogba's move did not impact the scrips of the beer-making company, Ronaldo's snub was not received well by the investors and the KO stock has been plunging for the last two days.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a global superstar and is among the most influential figures on social media. His combined followers of Twitter and Instagram stand at 391.2 million and any action by him has strong implications.
Soon after the disapproval of the soft drink, Coca-Cola reportedly suffered a loss of US$ 4 billion within a few hours. This has also led to a 'Twitter frenzy' and people are comparing Ronaldo with Tesla boss Elon Musk, who has grabbed headlines throughout this year over market movements.
Why are people comparing Ronaldo with Elon Musk?
Ronaldo has proved that apart from dribbling the ball magically and giving jolts to his opponents on the field, the football legend can shake stock markets off the field as well – a characteristic people believe possessed by Mr Musk as well.
On May 19, 2021, cryptocurrencies plummeted sharply and led to a massive sell-off across several crypto markets.
According to CoinMarketCap, the combined value of nearly 10,000 crypto coins reduced by approximately US$ 1 trillion in less than a week. The decline was likely triggered by Mr Musk's tweet on May 12 that Tesla won't accept bitcoins as payment for its cars since crypto mining operations have high carbon emissions.
On June 4, bitcoin prices reportedly plunged by seven per cent after the Tesla boss posted tweets on bitcoin along with a 'heartbreak emoji'. It appeared to suggest his breakup with the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
How’s the Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) stock doing?
Search about the company and its ticker symbol has surged in the last two days. It was among one of the most searched terms across several search engines in the world as of Thursday afternoon, June 17.
The Portuguese star's snub resulted in a decline of 0.3 per cent in Coca-Cola share prices by closing bell on June 15.
One-year chart of stock performance, volume and moving average exponential of Coca-Cola (Source: EODHD/Others)
Meanwhile, on June 16, the stock plunged further by 1.3 per cent to close at US$ 54.67 apiece. However, the coke stock might not stay in the penalty box for long as the company may likely bounce back to the pre-pandemic levels amid global economic recovery.
In April this year, the beverage giant claimed that the demand for its products had reached March 2019 levels. As vaccines are being rolled out and normalcy slowly restored, the company aims to increase its sales in future. As per TMX data, Coca-Cola's market cap sits at C$ 235.7 billion and it distributes a quarterly dividend of US$ 0.42 per unit to the stockholders.
