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Shares ended sharply higher on Friday, ending a tumultuous week of trading in the US markets that concluded with all three major stock indexes posting weekly gains.
But despite the optimistic note that the last full week of March has been delivered, strategists and market participants were tweeting about a large block swap in the closing minutes of Friday trading that could portend further tension on The market, which has been subjected to episodes of turbulence like rising interest rates amid COVID vaccine rollout and a $ 1.9 trillion aid package complicate the financial outlook.
Media stocks were hammered on Friday, with shares in ViacomCBS and Discovery being part of what Bloomberg News reported as an “unprecedented” $ 35 billion in bulk deals, which included Chinese companies as well as conglomerates. American media.
Both stocks ended the week down more than 27%, capping a period in which class B shares of ViacomCBS VIAC,
finish at its lowest level since Jan. 25 and book its biggest daily percentage drop in history.
Discovery shares DISCA,
Meanwhile, they posted their biggest single-day decline since September 18, 2008, falling to their lowest close since February 4 and producing the second-worst performance among S&P 500 stocks, with the second-highest activity of all the members of the open sea. market benchmark.
A Sunday Bloomberg News report, citing people familiar with the matter, pointed to Archegos Capital Management LLC – the family office of trader Bill Hwang – as the institution that sold a major block of Viacom and Discovery as well as shares of dumping of Chinese technology companies. and other American media conglomerates.
It’s unclear what the big sales will ultimately mean for Monday’s US opening, but market players have been eagerly awaiting.
“While the speed of the fall has attracted attention for all the wrong reasons, which has prompted speculation in a large-scale margin call liquidation, what most people seem to have missed is that these two companies have seen their share prices almost quadruple since last October. year, ”wrote Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, in a Sunday memo.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
closed up 453.40 points, or 1.4%, on Friday, the S&P 500 SPX index,
finished 65.02 points, or 1.7%, up to 3,974.54, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP,
rose 161.05 points, or 1.2%, to end at 13,138.72.
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