Investing

Meme Stock Movers for 1/3: American Virtual Cloud, Camber Energy, Naked Brands, Tesla

Paul Ausick

Published: January 3, 2022 9:05 am

While all three major indexes closed slightly lower last Friday, 2021 was a good year for U.S. markets. The S&P 500 gained 27.7% last year, the Nasdaq Composite added about 20.7%, and the Dow Jones industrials rose 19.5%. The Nasdaq 100 rose just over 27%. In Monday’s futures action, all three major indexes are up by around 0.5% or more.

Crude oil traded up at around $75.50 a barrel, and Bitcoin has recovered a bit to trade at just over $47,000. The yield on a 10-year Treasury note was essentially unchanged at 1.54%, while the two-year note rose slightly to tighten the spread marginally.

Monday’s big headline came from Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), which reported Sunday that it had delivered 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter to bring its total for the year to around 936,000, up 87% year over year. The company also produced 305,840 vehicles at its two existing plants in California and Shanghai. Two more assembly plants, one near Austin, Texas, and the other near Berlin, Germany, are expected to come online this year.

Three of China’s leading electric vehicle makers (Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto) also reported monthly deliveries this past weekend. Combined, the three automakers delivered more than 40,000 units for December. For all of 2021, Xpeng increased deliveries by nearly 300% to 98,155 units, while Li Auto delivered 90,941, an increase of 177%, and Nio shipped 91,249, up more than 100% for the year.

Tesla stock traded up more than 7% in Monday’s premarket session, while the three Chinese EV makers all traded up between 2% and 3%.

American Virtual Cloud Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AVCT) added nearly 10% on Friday to lead a short list of meme stocks that posted gains for the day. The stock traded down about 4.5% in Monday’s premarket, and it is fourth on Fintel’s weekly list of stocks most likely to see a short squeeze in the week ahead. While just 11.6% of the stock’s float is sold short, according to Nasdaq data, nearly half is reported to be shorted in dark pools.

Australia-based Naked Brand Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: NAKD) completed its business combination with Cenntro Automotive on Friday. Now, the former lingerie company (anyone remember Frederick’s of Hollywood?) will be led by Cenntro’s board chair and chief executive, Peter Wang, and focus on manufacturing commercial EVs. According to the announcement, the combined company has more than $250 million in available cash and less than $10 million in liabilities.

The company has changed its name to Cenntro Electric Group Ltd., but as of Monday morning, it was still listed as Naked Brand under the old ticker.

Camber Energy Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN: CEI) reported in an SEC filing Monday morning that shareholders at its December 30 special meeting approved an amendment to the company’s articles of incorporation increasing the number of authorized shares from 250 million to 1 billion. The stock dropped 4.5% on Friday but had recovered all that in Monday’s premarket session.