Uber stock plummets for the second day in a row

The Uber share fell 7.6% Friday, its first day as a publicly traded company. The bloodbath continued Monday, the course of the Uber action has further decreased by 10.7%.

It's a sobering moment for the bicycle company. Last October, some Wall Street banks estimated that the company could reach a value of $ 120 billion. At Monday's closing price of $ 37.10, Uber is barely half, at $ 62 billion. (The company accounts for approximately $ 68 billion on a "fully diluted" basis, which includes stock options and other assets that could potentially be converted into shares.)

Monday was also not a good day for the entire stock market, but the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 2.4%, which is relatively modest.

Lyft, Uber's main US competitor, dropped 5.7%, valuing the entire company at $ 13.8 billion. The company's shares have lost a third of its value since its IPO in March.

Uber has never made any annual profit and, in recent quarters, the company has lost more than $ 1 billion a quarter. The company justified these losses by highlighting its rapid growth. Some of these losses reflected efforts to enter new markets as well as aggressive research and development expenses.

Until recently, investors seemed happy to continue to hedge Uber losses in the hope of owning what they hoped would be an extremely profitable technology company. In fact, Uber raised $ 8.1 billion in additional cash on its initial public offering, which will take about two years for the company to burn at its current rate of burn. But Wall Street's patience will not last forever. Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, will face increasing pressure to make the already profitable path of Uber profitable.

Lyft is in a similar situation. It is a considerably smaller company, so its market capitalization, losses and cash cushion are all proportionately less important. But like Uber, Lyft has seen increased losses and rapid revenue growth. And before too long, the company must demonstrate that it can generate profits.