Investing

Midday Meme Stock Report for 12/15: AMC, Bakkt, DraftKings, Nio 

Paul Ausick

Published: December 15, 2021 1:40 pm

Thus far, Wednesday was not a particularly good day for U.S. equity markets. Trading was muted, and all three major indexes traded in the red during the noon hour. This afternoon’s announcement from the Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) is not expected to lift their spirits much either. To add to the day’s load of investor-unfriendly news, the Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed changes to its rules governing insider trading and share buybacks.

Crude oil regained $70 a barrel, but Bitcoin dipped below $47,000 again. Yields on 10-year and two-year Treasury notes were virtually unchanged since early in the morning, and the spread had eased back to Tuesday’s close of 0.77%.

Meme stocks followed the broad markets, with all but a handful of stocks trading in the red as of noon Wednesday. Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio Inc. (NYSE: NIO) was among the big losers, trading down by around 10%. The uncertainty about how U.S.-listed Chinese stocks are likely to be forced to re-list in China is weighing on the stocks. To add to Nio’s woes, Toyota announced Tuesday that it would invest $35 billion between now and 2030 in a lineup of 30 new electric vehicles.

Bakkt Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKKT) shot higher following its late October announcement that it would serve as the custody account provider for the digital assets of Mastercard and Fiserv. The bloom is off the rose now, though, and the stock has dropped about 75% from its October high. The company had no specific news Wednesday.

So far in the second half of this year, shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) have lost about 60% of the nosebleed valuations the theater operator reached in early June. CEO Adam Aron apparently believes that calling out AMC’s main rival is somehow a defense for his company’s woeful showing:

A Canadian court just ruled that Regal/Cineworld, our largest competitor in the U.S./Europe, must pay nearly $1 billion USD in damages over the failed Cineplex merger. Will be appealed, but anything distracting or destabilizing our biggest competitor brings opportunity to AMC. pic.twitter.com/QlevPr54vM

— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) December 15, 2021

Another stock that peaked early this year and has been sliding pretty much ever since is DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG). Since reaching a 52-week high of $74.38 in March, the stock has dropped by about 64% to post a new 52-week low just before noon Wednesday. More than half the U.S. states now allow sports betting, and DraftKings management appears to think that going global is the solution. This could be expensive for shareholders. Sentiment on Reddit seems split between comments like, “DKNG has no bottom” to “I am betting long[t]erm. they’re going to be one of the winners in the sports betting pool.” You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Shares of AMC traded down more than 4% at the end of the noon hour Wednesday at $23.47 in a 52-week range of $1.91 to $72.62. The average daily trading volume is around 43.8 million, and more than 32 million had been traded thus far on the day.

Nio stock traded down about 8.9%, at $29.42 in a 52-week range of $29.06 to $66.99. The low was posted earlier in the day. The average daily trading volume is about 41 million shares, and 52.6 million had already been traded.

Shares of Bakkt traded down about 8% to $12.45, in a 52-week range of $8.00 to $50.80. The average daily trading volume was about 18 million, and only around 1.8 million shares had traded thus far.

DraftKings’s stock traded down about 1.6% to $27.36, in a 52-week range of $26.67 to $74.38. The low was set earlier in the day. The average daily trading volume is about 15 million shares, and just over 10 million had changed hands.

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