Midday Meme Stock Report for 1/6: Bed Bath & Beyond, Cassava Sciences, Cenntro, Ocugen

Investing

Published: January 6, 2022 1:34 pm

In Thursday’s premarket trading, the Dow Jones industrials traded higher while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 traded lower. The situation then flip-flopped, with the Dow now lower and the others higher. The market was definitely mixed in the noon hour, with higher than average trading volume, more advancers than decliners, and new lows outnumbering new highs. Six market sectors traded higher, with energy (up 1.9%) leading and materials lagging (down 0.8%). Tech stocks continued to suffer, trading down about 0.2% at noon Thursday.

Crude oil briefly broke through the $80-per-barrel level and more recently traded at around $79.90, up 2.5% for the day. Bitcoin traded near $43,000, the level at which we left it in the morning. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes had risen by one more basis point thus far Thursday to trade at around 1.74% in the noon hour. Two-year notes added about two basis points and traded at around 0.88%.

Before markets opened on Thursday, Bed Bath and Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) reported an unexpected loss per share, a revenue miss and a cut in guidance for its fourth-quarter ending next month. The stock inexplicably opened up 15%, although it afterward gave back about half that gain. But really …. Daily trading volume soared, and that has led many observers to declare another meme stock moment for the shares. One good explanation we have seen is that implied volatility on some put options out four to six weeks were giving some investors that old short squeeze feeling again.

Cassava Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVA) touched a two-week high on Wednesday but ended up about 2.8% for the day. Shares traded up near that level again Thursday morning, before pulling back to an increase of around 1%. Once again, certain put options have elevated levels of implied volatility, and a big swing up or down is entirely possible.

Cenntro Electric Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: NAKD) is the new name for the company known just last week as Naked Brand Group. The company’s name change came after its merger with electric van maker Cenntro was completed. There is no word on whether the company plans to keep the current ticker symbol. The stock was trading down by more than a dollar (more than 21%) since Cenntro began trading on Monday.

Ocugen Inc. (NASDAQ: OCGN) was not making much of a move Thursday, but the company did submit a new corporate presentation, including is Covaxin vaccine for COVID-19 currently in Phase 3 clinical trials.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond traded up about 8.9% to $14.56 as the noon hour ended Thursday. The stock’s 52-week range is $13.32 to $53.90, and the average daily trading volume is around 8.8 million shares. More than 33.7 million shares had traded already on Thursday.

Shares of Cassava Sciences were up by less than 1%, at $49.86 in a 52-week range of $8.06 to $146.16. The average daily trading volume is about 4.9 million shares, and just 1.8 million had traded thus far.

Cenntro’s stock traded down more than 7%, at $4.30 in a 52-week range of $3.93 to%51.00. The low was posted Thursday morning. The average daily trading volume is around 4.3 million shares, and that was how many had been traded thus far on the day.

Ocugen stock traded up about 1.1% to $4.23, in a 52-week range of $1.40 to $18.77. The average daily trading volume is around 33.6 million shares, and just 6.5 million had changed hands so far.