U.S. markets closed mixed on Monday, after reflecting further on President Biden’s nomination of Fed Chair Jerome Powell for a second term. The initial reaction was positive and share prices mostly rose. By the closing bell, however, rising bond yields indicated that growth (i.e., tech) stocks were likely to be facing more expensive capital. That cooled the initial enthusiasm.
Tuesday morning, Biden announced a release of 50 million barrels of crude from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in conjunction with releases by other major consuming nations, including the United Kingdom, China, India, France and South Korea. This action sets up a potential conflict with the OPEC+ producers that have been adamant about keeping production flat. Yields on 10-year Treasuries ended Monday at around 1.63% but were up three basis points Tuesday morning.
Losers far outnumbered winners among meme stocks Monday. Among the biggest losers was consumer genetics company 23andMe Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ME), which announced that it was redeeming all its outstanding warrants by December 22. Warrant holders who exercise by that date may choose between a cash price of $11.50 per Class A share or a cashless exchange for Class A shares. The stock closed at $8.99, a drop of 9.8% from last Friday’s closing price of $9.97.
Another stock that posted a 9% loss was Progenity Inc. (NASDAQ: PROG). In an SEC filing on Monday, the company revealed an at-the-market offering of stock at a total offering price of $90 million through three brokerages. The stock closed down 9% at $4.45 per share and traded down about 2.2% at $4.33 in premarket trading Tuesday.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) closed up about 8.2% on Monday to $247.55. The company had no specific news and traded down by more than 1% Tuesday morning. Over the past month, GameStop shares have added about 41%, and there’s not been any fundamental reason for the leap.
Electric vehicle maker Canoo Inc. (NASDAQ: GOEV) added 14% to its share price on Monday to close at $11.43. In SEC filings Monday, the company revealed activist investor Tony Aquila, board chair and chief executive of Canoo and head of AFV Partners, acquired approximately 35.3 million shares of Canoo common stock from DD Global. According to the filing, the sale was required in order for DD Global, a Hong Kong-based firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands, to meet restrictions on foreign ownership under a U.S. National Security Agreement signed last December. DD Global and its partners retain ownership of 44.2 million Canoo shares, or about 18.5% of Canoo’s outstanding shares.
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