Meme Stock Movers for 10/6: Camber Energy, Palantir, SmileDirectClub, Tilray

Investing

Published: October 6, 2021 9:25 am

Last Updated: October 6, 2021 12:01 pm

U.S. markets closed higher Tuesday, following a very poor Monday. Wednesday’s futures market, unfortunately, looked more like Monday than Tuesday, with all three major indexes down by around 1%. Yields on 10-year Treasuries were up to 1.55% in the morning, and the ADP employment data showed the U.S. economy added 568,000 jobs in September, well above the consensus estimate from economists for a gain of around 400,000.

Among meme stocks, Tuesday’s results were pretty evenly balanced. There was, however, one big loser. Before getting to that, note that Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that meme stock investors may be chilling out. These investors are losing their appetite for risk, Bloomberg’s Elena Popina writes. She compared the volume of call option trades and put options trades in the last two weeks of September. Put premiums rose to $480 million. BofA Securities analyst Nitin Saksena said in a note cited by Bloomberg that retail investors are losing “faith in buy-the-dip” and that a “hawkish” turn by the Federal Reserve is threatening market valuations.

Tuesday’s biggest loser was Camber Energy Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN: CEI), which closed down more than 50% at $1.53, following a short seller report from Kerrisdale Capital Management that blistered the company. The stock traded down by around 22% in Wednesday’s premarket session, apparently not mollified by CEO James Doris’s statement that “our business relationships are legitimate and that we are firmly committed to improving the organization’s capitalization and executing on our growth strategy.” Doris also said that the company’s objective is to submit its required federal filings by November 19, the date established by the New York Stock Exchange for curing the failure to file.

SmileDirectClub Inc. (NASDAQ: SDC) closed up more than 15% on Tuesday. The company had no news, and the stock was giving back about 5% in Wednesday’s premarket session.

Cannabis supplier Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY) closed up about 3.4% on Tuesday, ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings report due out before markets open Thursday. The stock traded down about 1.5% in Wednesday’s premarket.

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) closed up by less than 1% on Tuesday. Then the company announced it had won a U.S. Army contract valued at $823 million to help deploy an operating system for defense decision making. The contract runs for seven years, and the clock began running in 2020. According to a report at Barron’s, Palantir beat out U.K.-based BAE Systems for the work. Shares traded up by as much as 10% in after-hours trading Tuesday and were up by about 8% to $25.07 in the premarket.