Tale of the Tape
Good evening, folks. Forget march madness. This market is mad. 🤯
The major indices closed mixed. The Qs quickly collapsed from $330 to $321 early this morning, but reversed and closed in positive territory. Here’s the $QQQ intraday chart:
Utilities gained 2% as $XLU closed at its highest price since last November. Is this a flight to safety? Time will tell. Energy was the worst sector— $XLE lost 1%.
Biotech bounced higher. $XBI accelerated 3% and closed at a new all-time high.
Ethereum ticked a new all-time high and Bitcoin briefly bounced back.
The shorts got squeezed again. GameStop ticked a high of $159.18 before closing at $76.79. BlackBerry also bounced higher. $BB closed at its highest price since 2011, and the company issued a statement on the recent trading activity.
BlackBerry said: The Company is not aware of any material, undisclosed corporate developments and has no material change in its business or affairs that has not been publicly disclosed that would account for the recent increase in the market price or trading volume of its common shares.
Apple and Facebook both closed higher. The two companies are expected to report earnings on Wednesday. 💰
Here are the closing prints:
| S&P 500 | 3,855 | +0.36% |
| Nasdaq | 13,636 | +0.69% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,163 | -0.25% |
| Dow Jones | 30,960 | -0.12% |
This Isn’t a $GME Anymore
Having fun yet??
Paradigm shifts are few and far between in mature industries. However, when they do happen, the aftershock is felt for years. Today may have been one of those days, so buckle up. 🏎️ 🔥
After successfully pumping up $GME on Friday, the internet did it again, gapping the stock up 48.7% pre-market. It didn’t stop there, though— a little over an hour after market open, it hit an ATH of $159.18 before closing at $76.79.
Here’s the daily chart:
Hedge funds couldn’t believe it either, and Melvin Capital Management actually had to be bailed out by Citadel LLC and Point72 Asset Management after it made the mistake of shorting $GME, among other stocks. These guys probably should’ve realized that it’s officially open season on bears. lol.
The market has never been this accessible to the public before. Howard Lindzon, co-founder of Stocktwits, foresaw this in a blog post back in 2012:
Finally, with Stocktwits, there is a place that is a better representation of the ‘retail’ bucket… ‘The Instividual’. We have accounts at Schwab, Etrade, Lightspeed, Interactive Brokers and Think or Swim. We really can be a nightmare. We trade stocks, we love to chirp, we have opinions just like the analysts, but we don’t get any of the support. We may have blown up the family nest egg, but not that of the country’s (see Citibank, Merrill, etc…the ‘Institutions’). We wake up every day loving to do what we do. It’s fun.
The “investiduals” were on fire today, as the $GME Stocktwits stream continues to see a massive uptick in message volume.
How long will the shorts get squeezed? Time will tell.
Modern Problems Require Moderna Solutions
Moderna announced today that it believes its vaccine will be effective against new variants of Covid popping up around the globe, including both the UK and South African strains. 🦠
That being said, Moderna’s also testing a booster shot for the South African variant based on preliminary research that antibody responses can decline.
Analysts say that the speed at which Moderna was able to produce a booster shot shows flexibility in the vaccine’s mRNA structure, which is promising for any future variants that could pop up.
That sound you just heard was everyone breathing a collective sigh of relief upon hearing this news. 🙏
CA Lifts Stay-at-Home Order
Today, California lifted its regional coronavirus stay-at-home order. The state even cancelled its curfew, allowing Californians to stay out until 5 am rather than 10 pm. 🥳 🍻
The move comes as California’s Covid-19 conditions improve— restaurants and personal services like salons will even be allowed to reopen in some areas
California’s public health director, Dr. Tomas Aragon, said:
Together, we changed our activities knowing our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it’s important to recognize our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner.
Good news always feels good these days. Here’s the Associated Press with the details.
Made in the U.S.A. 🇺🇸
President Joe Biden just signed an executive order that will boost US spending power, domestic manufacturing, and encourage tech market creation.
Basically, Mr. President’s saying “Buy American.” 🇺🇸
The order will strengthen US manufacturing sectors by guiding the government’s $600B goods and services budget— it’s necessary because the US’ lower wages and environmental standards resulted in the outsourcing of manufacturing to other countries, something that might be tough to reverse.
President Joe Biden isn’t afraid of a challenge, though. A government official commented on the President’s new order:
[Joe Biden] does not accept the defeatist idea that automation, globalization mean that we can’t have good-paying union jobs here in America.
It’s a Party in the USA.
Earnings Roundup
Kimberly-Clark beat on top and bottom lines before the open today. Management also announced a 6.5% dividend hike.
Here are the stats:
EPS: $1.69 vs $1.61 est.
Revenue: $4.8B, +6% YoY
CEO Mike Hsu said:
In 2020, we grew organic sales 6 percent, with healthy underlying performance and increased demand because of COVID-19. We also significantly increased brand investments and improved our market share positions. In addition, we achieved $575 million of cost savings and returned $2.15 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Finally, we grew adjusted earnings per share 12 percent, well above our medium-term objective.
$KMB closed up 3.25%.
Steel Dynamics reported stellar earnings and revenue stats after the bell. Earnings grew 56.5% YoY.
Here are the numbers:
EPS: $0.97 vs $0.86 est.
Revenue: $2.6B, +9.75% YoY
$STLD was flat after-hours.
Earnings This Week
Be sure to know when your stocks report earnings. Here’s the earnings calendar.
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