U.S. equities markets closed broadly higher on Friday. The S&P 500 touched a new intra-day high, as did the Dow Jones industrial average. The Dow also closed at a record high. The Nasdaq Composite was higher Monday morning, while the others are nearly flat. Crude oil was inching close to $85 a barrel, and the yield on 10-year Treasuries was up to nearly 1.66%. This is the start of a big week for earnings reports, with many of the biggest tech firms (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google) reporting quarterly results.
Among meme stocks, there were more losers than winners on Friday. Seven of the companies in our watch list fell by double-digit percentages. Camber Energy Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN: CEI) dropped more than 11%, and it traded down by nearly more than 6% in Monday’s premarket session. The company had no specific news, and Friday’s trading volume was about 25% below the daily average of nearly 198 million.
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) has had a rough month. The stock touched its October low on Friday and traded down about 3.6% in Monday’s premarket to break through that line. The company had no specific news. Whatever bump due to last week’s comment from CEO Adam Aron about AMC issuing its own cryptocurrency has petered out.
Progenity Inc. (NASDAQ: PROG) is a biotech firm that develops and sells molecular testing products. The stock closed up more than 18% on Friday on trading volume of 188 million shares, following its announcement that it is developing a test for preeclampsia, a blood press disorder related to pregnancies. More to the point for many retail investors is the high short interest (almost 55% of the company’s float is sold short) and the likelihood of a short squeeze. According to Fintel, Progenity is at the top of the list of possible short squeeze attacks this week.
Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) got a jolt last week from its earnings report, but the share price increases tapered off a bit with new scrutiny of the company’s full self-driving (FSD) software. On Sunday, the company rolled back its latest beta software version after owners complained of false warnings and other problems. The Biden administration last week appointed a critic of FSD and Tesla’s Autopilot software to be a senior advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a move CEO Elon Musk called “extremely biased” against the carmaker.
Tesla may be about to announce some good news. Bloomberg reported Monday morning that car rental giant Hertz has placed an order for 100,000 Tesla vehicles. Citing people with “knowledge of the matter,” the purchase would be the first step in a plan to electrify Hertz’s fleet of cars. Last year, Hertz had more than 400,000 vehicles in its fleet. Tesla’s shares traded up around 4% in Monday’s premarket, above the 52-week high it set on Friday.
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