The massive attacks on Palestine have led to a global boycott of several companies perceived as supporting the attackers, Israel. This boycott has impacted the share prices of several large corporations on the US stock exchange, including coffee shop chain Starbucks Corporation (SBUX).
According to Yahoo Finance data, Starbucks Corporation's share price, listed on the Nasdaq, weakened by 0.89 points or 0.96% compared to the previous day, closing at US$91.35 per share on Wednesday (November 1, 2023), local time.
A downward trend in SBUX's share price on the US stock exchange has been observed since Wednesday, October 25, 2023, although it saw a slight increase on Monday, October 30, 2023.
However, SBUX's share price has generally been declining since the beginning of the year. On January 3, 2023, the share price was US$100.83 per share.
Since the beginning of the year, the highest SBUX share price was recorded on May 1, 2023, at US$114.56 per share, while the lowest was on October 3, 2023, at US$89.48 per share.
Citing Fortune.com (October 19, 2023), Starbucks previously sued its workers' union, Starbucks Workers United, for a tweet expressing "Solidarity with Palestine" following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The coffee chain also wants the union to stop using a circular green logo similar to the Starbucks logo.
Starbucks stated in its lawsuit that the union posted the tweet without authorization from its union leaders. The tweet was deleted within 40 minutes.
However, posts and retweets from local branches of Starbucks Workers United supporting Palestinians and condemning Israel were visible for several days afterward.
Starbucks claims that the tweet resulted in over 1,000 complaints and threats at their coffee shops. The company sued its workers' union on the grounds of actions against terrorism.
Besides Starbucks, several other large US corporations have also been boycotted online, resulting in weakened share prices in recent days. These companies include McDonald's, PepsiCo, and The Walt Disney Company.