Tale of the Tape
Good evening, folks. The market of stocks struggled as the S&P 500 had its worst day since October 28, 2020.
Here’s today’s S&P 500 heat map:
Every major index closed in negative territory. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.6%.
Like the major indices, every sector settled in the red. 💔 Communications, consumer discretionary, and healthcare all lost more than 3%. Basic materials and financials also fell 2.95%.
The VIX ticked its highest level since last November. Is more turbulence ahead? Time will tell.
Bitcoin briefly broke below 30K while Ethereum sits 13% away from its all-time high.
It’s open season on short sellers. GameStop gained another 134%. 🔥🎮🔥 The stock is up 1,744% in 2021. That begs the question, how many shorts are left? Place your bets…
The Fed met for the first time this year and left rates unchanged. Read the official statement here.
Stitch Fix continued its earnings drift. $SFIX is up 113% since the company reported earnings last December.
Apple, Facebook, and Tesla all tumbled after reporting earnings after the close. See more below.
Here are the closing prints:
| S&P 500 | 3,750 | -2.57% |
| Nasdaq | 13,270 | -2.61% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,108 | -1.91% |
| Dow Jones | 30,303 | -2.05% |
Earnings Roundup
Apple reported killer numbers, surpassing $100B in revenue for the first time ever. 💰 Sales for all product categories rose by double-digit percentage points.
Here are the details:
EPS: $1.68 vs $1.41 est.
Revenue: $111.4B, +21% YoY
Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, said:
Our December quarter business performance was fueled by double-digit growth in each product category, which drove all-time revenue records in each of our geographic segments and an all-time high for our installed base of active devices. These results helped us generate record operating cash flow of $38.8 billion.
$AAPL fell 1% after hours.
Facebook beat on top and bottom lines, but warned of impact from Apple’s privacy changes.
Here are the numbers:
EPS: $3.88 vs $3.22 est.
Revenue: $28.07B, +33.2% YoY
Daily active users: 1.84B vs 1.83B est.
$FB flew 1.5% after hours.
Tesla reported earnings after the bell, missed on earnings, but posting another profitable quarter. The company expects annual average delivery growth of 50% moving forward.
Here are the stats:
EPS: $0.80 vs $1.03 est.
Revenue: $10.74B, +45.5% YoY
$TSLA tumbled 3% after hours.
Sorry, Shawty
Well, the shorts had a short life span today. ☠️
Internet investors continued their dominance in the market. Today’s trading session will be talked about in finance classes for years to come. The name ‘Robinhood’ takes the cake for the most aptly named brokerage. lol.
It appears the internet craved some nostalgia today— all the stocks that crushed the shorts look like they came out of the 1990s. What’s next? Neon windbreakers?
The stars of the day were $AMC, $GME, $EXPR, and $KOSS. Oh, and we can’t forget about Tootsie Roll or Blockbuster, either.
Here are a few insane charts from today:
$AMC △ 301%
$GME △ 134%
$EXPR △ 214%
$KOSS △ 480%
President Biden Goes Green ♻️
President Biden is signing green executive actions left and right to provide (eco-friendly) boosts to the US economy.
Some of his orders include halting oil and gas leases on federal property and cutting aid to fossil fuels. The President said:
In my view, we’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis… This is a case where conscience and convenience cross paths, where dealing with this existential threat to the planet and increasing our economic growth and prosperity are one and the same. When I think of climate change and the answers to it, I think of jobs.
In contrast to Donald Trump’s support of the oil, gas, and coal industries, President Joe Biden’s policies intend to provide union jobs in eco-friendly infrastructure and clean energy.
Will the US finally go green? 💚 ♻️ Here’s Reuters with more.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Jack Ma disappeared, regrouped, and restructured… Ant Group will become a financial holding company overseen by China’s central bank. 🇨🇳 🐜
After its massive IPO was shut down by China’s government in November, Ant Group is restructuring to permit government supervision. By converting to a financial holding company, Ant will be governed like a bank, despite its executives “despising compliance” and “engaging in regulatory arbitrage.”
Eswar Prasad, previous leader of the International Monetary Fund’s China division, said:
Financial regulators were concerned that Ant’s regulatory arbitrage had allowed the company to provide a rosy picture of its overall financial position and hide the financial risks engendered by its aggressive expansion into new lines of business
So how’s Ant feeling now? Well, the company wanted to break into internet-technology, but you can’t always get what you want. 🤷
GM Hopes to AD-vance its Brand
Apparently, GM is a big proponent of the whole “gotta spend money to make money” idea, because the company announced today that it’ll be airing two 60-second ads during the Super Bowl.
One ad will feature its new logo and an updated focus on EVs, while the other will showcase its Cadillac brand and the much- anticipated Lyriq EV.
The CMO, Melissa Grady, seems especially stoked about the car’s debut. She said the ad will:
…Surprise and delight audiences by transporting an iconic piece of pop-culture history into the future.
In that case, we’ll make sure to have our popcorn ready, Melissa. 🍿
Earnings This Week
Be sure to know when your stocks report earnings. Here’s the earnings calendar.
Links That Don’t Suck
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