Tale of the Tape
Happy Friday, Folks! We finally made it through this wild week on Wall Street. Cheers to that!! 🥂
The major indices closed on a low note. The S&P 500 had its worst week since last October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its lowest price since December 14, 2020.
Every sector struggled. Energy dropped 3.3%. Financials, consumer staples, industrials, consumer discretionary, and technology all tumbled more than 2%.
Bitcoin bounced and ticked 38,600 while Ethereum sits within 7% of all-time highs.
Restrictions on new positions got lifted, but buyers remain limited. 🏹 💸
GameStop gapped up and gained 68%, but the stock closed 21.5% off its intraday high. AMC accelerated 53%. 🔥🍿
Abbott Laboratories advanced 2.6% and closed at a new all-time high.
$PINS finished flat while $SNAP settled inside its previous day’s range.
Here are the closing prints:
| S&P 500 | 3,714 | -1.93% |
| Nasdaq | 13,070 | -2.00% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,073 | -1.56% |
| Dow Jones | 29,982 | -2.03% |
Weekly Charts
The Russell 2000 tumbled 4.4%. $RUT closed at its lowest price since January 6, 2021. Here’s the weekly chart:
Energy was this week’s worst sector. $XLE stumbled 6.5%.
Financials also fell 4.5%. Here’s the $XLF weekly chart:
The shorts were squeezed beyond belief. GameStop gained 400%. This weekly chart is a work of art:
AMC accelerated 277%. 🏎️ 💨 On Wednesday, the company sold 63.3M shares and raised more than $300M.
Here’s the weekly chart:
We Got Good News
Today, J&J released the efficacy of its Phase 3 single-dose vaccine trial, featuring an overall 66% effectiveness in preventing moderate to severe Covid-19. Vice Chairman of Johnson & Johnson Paul Stoffels commented:
These topline results with a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine candidate represent a promising moment. The potential to significantly reduce the burden of severe disease, by providing an effective and well-tolerated vaccine with just one immunization, is a critical component of the global public health response.
Novavax also published efficacy results of its Phase 3 UK and South Africa trials today, with over 89% efficacy in the company’s UK trial. Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said:
NVX-CoV2373 is the first vaccine to demonstrate not only high clinical efficacy against COVID-19 but also significant clinical efficacy against both the rapidly emerging UK and South Africa variants…NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis.
$NVAX nearly reached record highs on the news. 🚀 The stock gapped up and gained 65%. Here’s the daily chart:
When Life Gives You Lemons…
You make lemonade. 🍋 Unfortunately, though, at some point you squeeze until the juice runs out. For Citron Research, that day was today.
After more than two decades as one of the most renowned short-sellers, Andrew Left announced on YouTube that he and Citron Research would discontinue short-selling reports, pivoting instead to evaluating companies.
This 180º turn resulted from attacks by $GME and $AMC investors after Left posted a video where he said he was shorting the stocks.
Unfortunately, this change is largely due to the severity of the personal threats he received. After publishing his video, he got death threats aimed at him and his family. That’s unacceptable, and we sincerely hope he stays safe.
Without the sugary profits, it looks like Citron’s lemonade was too bitter for him to continue drinking.
If you enjoyed the squeeze this week, let the world know with your shirt! 🍋 👕
Earnings Roundup
Chevron reported earnings early this morning. The company fell short of expectations as the stock dropped to its lowest price since early January.
Here are the numbers:
EPS: $-0.33 vs $0.08 est
Revenue: $-665M, 107% YoY growth
And here’s the daily chart:
Caterpillar also reported earnings early this morning. $CAT was flat on the day.
Here are the stats:
EPS: $2.12 vs $1.49 est.
Revenue $11.28B, -14.8% YoY growth
X Games Mode
The Winter X Games kicked off in Aspen today! And Shaun White is back, lol.
Fans won’t be allowed at the Games in Pitkin County this year, but you can still stream the action online. Here are some options if you don’t have cable. An Aspen local said:
I’m definitely going to watch it online. I’m excited to see what they’re going to do with the TV cameras. I think they’re going to come up with some cool stuff to keep people interested.
Here’s the Games’ schedule— the snowboard Knuckle Huck kicks off at 8:00 PM ET and you don’t wanna miss it. 🔥🏂 ❄️
In other action sports news, EA announced the Skate 4 development team. 👀 🛹
This Is So Fly
Well, this is certainly a little fancier than a subway station.
Hyundai and Urban Air Port unveiled the world’s first eVTOL hub today, and man it looks cool.
The two companies were selected by the U.K.’s “Future Flight Challenge” to develop infrastructure for the next generation of transportation— air vehicles, which experts estimate could be a $500B market in the US alone. Woah.
This new hub will be completely emission-free, it can be installed in only a couple of days, and will be operated completely off-grid, if need be.
At least this solves the problem we were super worried about… flagging down a flying taxi. 🚕 🛸
Interested? Check it out here.
Links That Don’t Suck
*🎉Watch IBD’s experts pick winning stocks every morning on IBD Live. Try 2 free weeks on us!
🗣 Keith Gill Drove the GameStop Reddit Mania. He Talked to the Journal.
🍋 Here’s How the GameStop Short Squeeze Is like the VW Squeeze of 2008
👀 Exclusive First Look at Richard Branson’s Hyperloop Propulsion Pods
👨🎨 Botticelli’s ‘Young Man’ Portrait Sells for $92.2 Million
🇷🇺 Massive Avalanche Hits Russian Ski Resort
🏔 The Climber’s Refuge Reinterprets Traditional Alpine Chalet
🖼 Discover Raphael’s Sistine Chapel Cartoons in these Ultra-Hi-Res Images
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