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The indices fell sharply in the close. Dow gave up 800 points from its peak of 1,600 points. Nasdaq -1.5%. Oil has skyrocketed. Gold and silver have fallen. The 10-year-old Treasury has become a thug.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
At the announcement this morning of a few snippets of a preliminary study of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine, it all broke loose in financial markets, with investors crammed into various things and fleeing other things, and basically giving up some things, amid reports of outages at online brokers Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard and others, where traders couldn’t log into their apps and couldn’t trade in their lifetime.
And that could have saved them money, because after the morning soar, stocks gave up a lot of it and the Nasdaq ended up 1.5% in the red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1,600 points in the morning coming out of the gate, to 29,933. But then it zigzagged lower and in the last 20 minutes, it vanished 400 points, finishing the day up 834 points, or 2.95%, after dropping nearly 800 points from the morning peak.
The S&P 500 Index climbed 137 points to 3646 before dropping more than two-thirds of it and ending the day at 3550, up just 1.2%.
The Nasdaq did not have fun.
The Nasdaq, which contains many pandemic winners, never brought the morning peak under control, fell into the red and ended the day down 1.5%. In particular, among the winners of the pandemic:
- Zoom Video Communications [ZM]: -17.4%
- Netflix [NFLX]: -8.6%
- Amazon [AMZN]: -5.1%
- Facebook [FB]: -5.0%
- Nvidia [NVDA]: -6.4%
- Apple [AAPL]: -2.0%
- Microsoft [MSFT]: -2.4%
- You’re here [TSLA]: -2%
- Alphabet [GOOG], to show that everything about the Nasdaq was not going down, was essentially unchanged.
There has been huge bloodshed in some corners of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space among the Covid-19 “vaccine stocks”, the Covid-19 treatment stocks, and the cancer treatment stocks, including:
- Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings [ARCT], a vaccine stock: -45.4%
- 180 Life Sciences [ATNF], a PSPC wishing to acquire a company in the health sector: -38.1%
- Ocuphire Pharma [OCUP], an anticancer biotech still working on its potential drugs: -37.3%
- Altimmune [ALT], a vaccine stock: -37.1%
- Humanigen [HGEN], a Covid treatment stock: -32.0%
- Vaxart [VXRT], a vaccine stock: -31.6%
- Leap Therapeutics [LPTX], working on cancer treatments: -30.5%
- Biogenic [BIIB]: -28.2%
- Quidel, a stock of vaccines: -28.2%
Biogen dropped its shares 28.2% today, after trading was halted all day Friday, due to an FDA panel that criticized the Alzheimer’s drug on Friday night which Biogen was trying to revive after delisting it last year. This follows a 44% spike on Wednesday. Today’s drop brought stocks back to where they first were in November 2013, with Wednesday’s peak and today’s plunge forming an epic double WTF chart.
Huge winners in many sectors, especially those beaten half to death:
After Pfizer broke the news of the Covid vaccine, its actions [PFE] jumped 15%, then gave up half of those gains and ended the day up 7.7%, at $ 39.20.
There have been big gains across many industries including travel, entertainment, restaurants, mall REITs, retailers, energy, and more. Just a few examples:
- Delta Airlines [DAL]: + 17%.
- Saber [SABR], which provides software as a service to the airline and hospitality industry: + 40.1%
- Carnival corp [CCL], leading cruise line: + 39.3%.
- Norwegian Cruise Line [NCLH]: + 26.7%. After the market closed, it reported a quarterly loss of $ 677 million, as revenue slumped 99.6% to almost nothing ($ 6.5 million), from $ 1.9 billion it a year ago.
- Simon Property Group [SPG], the largest commercial REIT in the US: + 27.9% But after normal hours it released its earnings report, which was more difficult than expected, with total revenues down 25%, and its shares fell more than 7%.
- Even CBL & Associates, which filed for bankruptcy on November 1, saw its penny stock [CBLAQ] skyrocket 46%, but it remains almost worthless at around $ 0.03 per share.
- Macy’s [M] jumped 22% out of the gate, then gave up part of it and closed + 17%.
- AMC [AMC], largest movie chain in the United States, and flirting with the lack of money this year: + 51%, from $ 2.50 yesterday to $ 3.77 today.
- Sundial Growers, a penny of cannabis [SNDL] exploded 83% to $ 0.46 per share. OKAY…
- Chef’s warehouse [CHEF]: + 43%. The company supplies fine dining and other restaurants with specialty food products, and the hope is that those vaccinated will return to the restaurant.
- Texas roadhouse [TXRH]: + 10.7%
- Darden Restaurants [DRI]: + 18.1%.
The price of crude oil has skyrocketed, with WTI up more than 10% at one point, hitting $ 41 – because everyone in business would start flying around the world again and heading to the office once more – before backing down .
Energy stocks jumped at the same pace. For example, Exxon Mobil [XOM] + 12.7%, Chevron [CVX] + 11.6% and Texan shale oil driller Concho Resources [CXO]: + 14.5%.
Long-term treasury securities have become dishonest. Prices have fallen and yields have soared. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed 26 basis points, rising from 0.70% to 0.96% at the close, the highest close since the March crisis. As the prices of long-term treasury bills fell, long-term treasury bond funds and ETFs fell with them. For example, the SPDR Portfolio Long Term Treasury ETF [SPTL] fell 2.0% today.
Gold and silver have been hammered. Gold fell more than 5% on settlement to $ 1,864 per troy ounce, the lowest since July. Gold had a good multi-year run until early August when it hit $ 2,089. Silver fell 7.6% during the day to settle at $ 23.70 an ounce.
After hours. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq index futures are all slightly in the red at the moment. WTI is down 2%, trading at $ 39.47. Gold is turning. And the silver is up 2.3%. Beyond Meat, maker of fake meats, has plunged 28% in after-hours trading to $ 108 at the moment, after dropping 4.0% during the day, after reporting a loss of 19 million. dollars, out of just $ 94 million in revenue. The tiny company still has an inexplicable market cap of around $ 6.9 billion during the after-hours share price. What a day!
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