Tale of the Tape
Good evening, folks. The market mayhem continues.
Every major index closed in negative territory as the small-caps were today’s weakest link.
Communications and real estate both gained over 1%. $XLRE has rallied in 8 out of the last 10 sessions. Utilities and basic materials both lost more than 1%. Energy dropped 2% as $XLE closed at its lowest price since January 5.
Crypto was quiet. Bitcoin bounced between 32,850 and 30,850.
GameStop didn’t stop— it strangled the shorts. $GME gained another 92%, and the stock is up double-digits after hours. 🃏🔥 God bless the shorts. 🙏
$SPCE took off and sailed 16.8%. $ABNB advanced 8%. Both stocks closed at new all-time highs.
Beyond Meat broke out after the company announced a partnership with PepsiCo. 🥤🥩 🌱
$AMD and Microsoft reported earnings after the close. $MSFT popped to all-time highs after hours. See more below.
Here are the closing prints:
| S&P 500 | 3,849 | -0.15% |
| Nasdaq | 13,626 | -0.07% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,149 | -0.62% |
| Dow Jones | 30,937 | -0.07% |
Earnings Roundup
$MSFT — Microsoft crushed Wall Street’s expectations thanks to tremendous growth from its Intelligent Cloud business segment, which is up 23% YoY.
Here are the numbers:
EPS: $2.03 vs $1.64 est.
Revenue: $43.08B, +17% YoY
Following earnings, $MSFT gapped 4% after hours. Here’s the daily chart:
$AMD — Advanced Micro Devices beat expectations by gaining market share in desktop CPU sales. The company also had a record high for netbook processor sales last quarter.
Read the press release here:
EPS: $0.52 vs $0.47 est.
Revenue: $3.24B, +53% YoY
$AMD was down ~1% after hours.
$VZ — Verizon concluded 2020 on a strong note, beating on top and bottom lines. The company expects strong 5G momentum into 2021.
Here are the numbers:
EPS: $1.21 vs $1.16 est.
Revenue: $34.69B, -0.2% YoY
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said:
2020 was marked by transformational change, including the launch of our 5G nationwide network. We witnessed a mass shift toward virtual collaboration, touchless retail and delivery, remote work, distance learning, and telemedicine.
$VZ fell 3.17%.
$JNJ — Johnson & Johnson exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for Q4 earnings.
Here are the stats:
EPS: $1.82 vs $1.86 est.
Revenue: $22.48B, +8.3% YoY
Here’s a cool infographic:
$JNJ jumped 2.71%.
Pfizer, Covid, & The Flu 💉
According to their executives, partners Pfizer and BioNTech will be able to supply the US with 200M Covid-19 vaccines by late May, 2 months earlier than the companies’ original projections. 🙌
A change in the vaccine’s label now permits 6 doses from each vaccine vial rather than 5, allowing Pfizer to provide an additional 20M doses in Q1 2021.
Today Pfizer’s CEO also said he doesn’t expect coronavirus to go away— he predicts everyone will require an annual Covid-19 shot, just like the flu:
That means it [Covid-19] would disturb neither our lives, nor socioeconomics. We need to be very vigilant about the strains that exist and very vigilant about vaccinating people.
Will Pfizer and BioNTech achieve their goal of 2 billion vaccinations in 2021?
If we learned anything from 2020, it’s that only time will tell. ⏳🤷
PepsiCo Goes Beyond 🌱
PepsiCo and Beyond Meat teamed up today to launch The PLANeT Partnership, tapping into growing consumer demand for eco-friendly, plant-based proteins.
By combining Beyond Meat’s innovation with PepsiCo’s commercial marketing skills, the two companies will develop, produce, and market snacks and beverages made from plant-based protein.
Ram Krishnan, PepsiCo’s Global Chief Commercial Officer, said:
We look forward to combining their unparalleled expertise with our world-class capabilities in brand-building, consumer insights and distribution.
$BYND opened trading 38%, but ultimately closed up 18%. Here’s the daily chart:
Twitter Deal Revue
Twitter announced its acquisition of the email newsletter startup Revue, a move that’ll help users who want to make money from followers. 🤑
Twitter will make Revue’s premium features free for all Twitter users. The platform also plans to lower Revue’s newsletter fee, giving more back to writers per subscription.
The deal will connect influencers and audiences more efficiently, since some of Revue’s current clients include Vox Media, Chicago-Sun Times, and the Markup.
Thanks to Twitter, this could be you driving off with your influencer $$:
Inter-not!
Earlier today, a large part of the eastern US experienced an internet outage. ⚡😬
Some internet company made changes to its network without testing them first, and the changes accidentally sent too much traffic through its peering system.
The outage reached a tipping point around noon. Companies like Verizon and Comcast got heated complaints, although users realized the outage even affected Google, Zoom, and Slack.
By late afternoon, the issue appeared to be resolved. But we’re sure nobody’s work day was affected, right? 🤗 😉
Earnings This Week
Be sure to know when your stocks report earnings. Here’s the earnings calendar.
Links That Don’t Suck
*🎉Watch IBD’s experts pick winning stocks every morning on IBD Live. Try 2 free weeks on us!
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