Thursday’s trading session had the broad market up, with new 52-week highs running at about three times the number of new 52-week lows. The Dow Jones industrials and the S&P 500 traded near the break-even line in the noon hour, while the Nasdaq posted a gain of slightly more than 0.5%. Trading volume was lower than average, as both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq were seeing volume down by about a third.
Crude oil topped $77 a barrel earlier in the morning and traded just below that level on last look. Bitcoin remained virtually steady at around $47,600. (We’ve had a look at what’s ahead for the top bitcoin-mining stocks.) The yield spread on 10-year/two-year Treasuries remained essentially unchanged at around 0.78%.
Electric vehicle maker Nio Inc. (NYSE: NIO) was the top gainer and the most actively traded as of noon Thursday. The stock dropped by nearly 4.5% Wednesday on no specific news and roared back Thursday on a similar lack of news. Nio, along with Xpeng and Li Auto, is expected to report December’s new car sales either over the weekend or first thing Monday morning.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) added more than 5% to its share price on Wednesday and traded up more than 2% in the noon hour Thursday. The company had no specific news. Bloomberg has a story regarding hedge-fund performance in 2021 and how the meme stock spike of late January caused some headaches but little lasting damage to big hedge funds. The fund that took the biggest hit, Melvin Capital, dropped more than half its value in just a few January days. Since being rescued, the fund has posted a gain of 28.5%, leaving it down by about 42% through November.
Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) traded higher again, following a report that the company is working on a feature for its mobile trading app that would give people the ability to roll options contracts. According to a Bloomberg report, options activity accounted for 61% of Robinhood’s third-quarter trading revenue.
Vaccine maker Ocugen Inc. (NASDAQ: OCGN) announced Thursday morning that a Phase 2/3 trial of its Covaxin coronavirus vaccine in children between the ages of 2 and 18 “demonstrated a greater than 93% reduction in severe disease.” The company used the data to support its November application to the U.S. FDA for emergency use authorization for that age group.
Nio’s shares traded up about 13.5% to $32.07 as the noon hour came to a close Thursday. The average daily trading volume is around 43.5 million shares, and nearly 80 million had already traded on the day.
Shares of GameStop traded up about 3.2%, at $158.78 in a 52-week range of $17.08 to $483.00. The average daily trading volume is about 2.4 million shares, and about 950,000 have traded thus far Thursday.
Robinhood stock traded up about 8.0%, at $18.47 in a 52-week range of $16.68 to $85.00. The low was posted Wednesday. The average daily trading volume is about 11 million shares, and about 10.1 million had already changed hands Thursday.
Shares of Ocugen traded up by more than 15% at one point in the morning but then dropped back to trade up about 9.7% at $4.81. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.40 to $18.77, and the average daily trading volume is around 34.1 million. Nearly 18 million shares already had traded.
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