Meme Stock Movers for 12\/10: AMC, GameStop, Lucid, Tesla
Of the three major U.S. stock indexes, the Dow Jones industrials performed best on Thursday, closing flat for the day. Nine of 11 sectors closed lower, led by consumer cyclicals, down 1.7%, and real estate, down 1.36%. Health care added 0.24% to emerge as the day’s big winner. In premarket trading Friday, all three indexes were showing gains. Crude oil was sneaking up on $72 a barrel again, trading up about 1% in Friday’s premarket. Bitcoin also was recovering somewhat, adding $1,148 to trade at $49,143. Yields on 10-year Treasuries were up one basis point at 1.51%.
Two venerable meme stocks had a rough day Thursday. GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) dropped more than 10% following Wednesday evening’s earnings report that left many investors disgusted. Sentiment at WallStreetBets appears to be about evenly divided between HODLers and investors wondering if the company really does have a turnaround plan. Shares traded up about 1.4% at $157.90 in Friday’s premarket.
The other OG meme stock that took a beating on Thursday was AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC). Shares dropped by nearly 9% and traded down another 0.2% in Friday’s premarket. Perhaps CEO Adam Aron’s sale of some $9.65 million in stock precipitated the decline. According to a Bloomberg report, Aron’s recent sales total more than $25 million. Hard to persuade investors to hold on when you appear to be cashing out.
Another CEO who has been forthcoming about selling some of his stock is Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Elon Musk, who has shed nearly $12 billion in the company’s stock over the past several weeks. Musk has said he would sell 10% of his holdings in the company. That’s right around 16 million shares. As of Thursday, Musk had sold more than 11 million shares. Since he began selling shares, Tesla’s share price has dropped by 18% from a November 4 peak, according to Bloomberg.
Musk also joked Thursday that he might ditch his day job and become a full-time social media influencer.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ: LCID) dropped more than 18% on Thursday after announcing a convertible debt issuance to raise $1.75 billion. After markets closed, the company announced that the initial conversion price on the notes would be $54.78, a premium of 50% to Thursday’s closing price of $36.52. Interest on the five-year notes is 1.25% annually. Investors must believe that Lucid’s stock price will rise enough over the next several years to make the deal reasonable. The stock traded up nearly 2% in Friday’s premarket session at $37.21.
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