Here are five things you need to know by Monday, February 1st:
1. – Stock futures increase as Reddit Crowd becomes precious metals
Stock futures rose on Monday due to volatile retail anxiety, especially in GameStop shares (GME) – Get the report and AMC Entertainment (AMC) – Get the report, declined as day traders focused on precious metals.
Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 240 points, the S&P 500 futures rose 38 points and the Nasdaq futures rose 133 points.
Silver became the new target for retail investors over the weekend, with a 13% increase in futures.
Shares ended sharply lower Friday amid continued continued Wall Street retail frenzy and concerns about the distribution of coronavirus vaccines. The S&P 500 recorded its biggest weekly decline since October.
The Dow and S&P 500 lost 3.3% last week and the Nasdaq fell 3.5%.
On the stimulus front, 10 Republican senators proposed a $ 600 billion coronavirus aid plan, an alternative to the Biden administration’s $ 1.9 trillion package.
2. – Silver is a new target for retail investors
Silver prices rose on Monday as Reddit’s craze around sharply short stocks spread to the metals market.
Spot silver traded up 8.69% early Monday to $ 29.35 an ounce. Futures had risen to 13% over the weekend, with silver crossing $ 30 an ounce for the first time since 2013.
Twitter Trend: “#silversqueeze”.
The people in the RedSit forum at WallStreetBets have focused on silver and the iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) – Get the report, with traders seeing it as a way to hurt big banks who believe they have been artificially suppressing prices.
BlackRock (BLK) – Get the report According to Bloomberg, iShares Silver Trust, the largest product traded on metal tracking stock exchanges, recorded net inflows of $ 944 million.
The scope of a brief reduction in silver is less obvious, as money managers have maintained a net long position on silver since mid-2019, Bloomberg reported, citing futures and options data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“Last week’s events have shown that it is unwise to doubt the purchasing power of retail investors, and this has been demonstrated enough again in the silver market,” said Howie Lee, an economist at OCBC Bank. “It may be a little harder for them to squeeze the silver market than with GameStop (the former is much bigger and more liquid), but the momentum seems to be right for them right now.”
3. – Robinhood reduces the restricted trading list to eight shares
Robinhood, the online commerce app, has reduced the number of businesses it had imposed business limits on by 50.
Opening new positions in GameStop, AMC Entertainment, BlackBerry (BB) – Get the report, Express (EXPR) – Get the report, Genius Brands (GNUS) – Get the report, Koss Corp. (KOSS) – Get the report, Brand new (NAKD) – Get the report and Nokia (ENOUGH) – Get the report Monday will be limited, Robinhood said on its website.
GameStop was up 4.46% in premarket trading on Monday to $ 339.50. Shares have gained 1.643% so far in 2021.
Robinhood said last week that it had to limit trading to 50 shares due to the huge costs associated with liquidating the massive number of transactions.
“It wasn’t because we wanted to prevent people from buying those shares,” Robinhood said.
The trading app was burned last week after its decision to impose trade restrictions, along with limits imposed by online brokerages, sparked a clamor between social media groups and elected officials alleging an effort. of Wall Street to protect itself against newly empowered populist investors.
4. – This week’s calendar: Amazon and Alphabet earnings, US jobs report
Warner Music Group earnings reports are expected Monday (WMG) – Get the report, Cirrus Logic (CRUS) – Get the report, ON Semiconductor (ACTIVATED) – Get the report, Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) – Get the report and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) – Get the report.
Amazon reports are expected starting this week (AMZN) – Get the report, Alphabet (GOOGL) – Get the report, Alibaba (BABA) – Get the report, United parcel service (SAI) – Get the report, Pfizer (PFE) – Get the report, Chipotle (CMG) – Get the report, Amgen (AMGN) – Get the report, Exxon Mobil (XOM) – Get the report, AbbVie (ABBV) – Get the report, PayPal (PYPL) – Get the report, Electronic Arts (SHE) – Get the report, Spotify (STAIN) – Get the report, Merck (MRK) – Get the report, Penn National Gaming (PENN) – Get the report, Snap (SNAP) – Get the report, Ford (F) – Get the report, Pinterest (PINS) – Get the report and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) – Get the report.
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Monday’s U.S. economic calendar includes the January Markit Manufacturing PMI (final) at 9:45 a.m. ET and the January ISM Manufacturing Index at 10 a.m. and construction spending in December at 10 a.m.
Economic reports expected later this week include the official U.S. non-farm payroll report for January, durable goods orders, and factory orders.
5. – Exxon and Chevron reportedly discussed a merger last year
The top executives of Exxon Mobil and Chevron (CLC) – Get the report discussed the merger of the two oil companies last year after the coronavirus pandemic stung demand for oil and gas, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Discussions were described as preliminary and are not ongoing, but could return in the future, people familiar with the talks told the newspaper.
A merger of the energy giants would create a company with a market value of more than $ 350 billion. Together, they would form the world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalization and production, and produce about 7 million barrels of oil and gas a day according to pre-pandemic levels, the newspaper noted.
Saudi Aramco is number 1 in both measures.