It’s not uncommon following a big bull run in the markets that has fully valued or over valued stocks, for some traders to set their sights on plays at the margins of the market. This year, it seems like traders have turned their sights back to the same plays they went for in 2021.
Earlier this year, cryptocurrencies soared again sending Bitcoin and Ether to new all-time highs, but this appears to have played itself out with Bitcoin down 1.6% and Ether down 1.3% this morning. Traders now appear to have set their sights back on meme stocks instead. The first new social media post from meme trader “Roaring Kitty” since 2021 sparked a stampede back into some of the same meme stocks as last time. GameStop soared 74.4% yesterday and it is up 102.5% in premarket trading, while AMC soared 78.4% yesterday and it is up 97.7% premarket today. Blackberry is up 22.2% in premarket action.
Meanwhile in the rest of the market, the US 10-year treasury note yield has popped back up above 4.50% as US producer prices over year indicated inflation pressures are re-accelerating (2.2% vs previous 1.8%) and producer prices over month were worse than expected (0.5% vs street 0.3%). US index futures are now down 0.1%-0.3% having been flat before the inflation news, while in Europe, the Dax is down 0.2% and the FTSE is up 0.1%.
US consumer prices are due tomorrow morning along with the start of housing data for the US and Canada. Speaking of inflation, or some of its underlying causes at least, metal prices are climbing again with Copper up 1.5% and Platinum up 0.7%. Gold is up 0.4%. Energy prices are struggling with US Crude Oil down 0.3% and trading just below $80.00/bbl and Natural Gas down 1.7%.
Ahead of tomorrow’s US retail sales report, retailer earnings season has started this morning on a mixed note. Home Depot is basically flat premarket after beating the street on earnings ($3.63 vs street $3.60) but falling short on sales ($36.4B vs street $36.6B). Walmart reports results on Thursday.