All major benchmarks were substantially higher at midday
The major benchmarks are recovering from yesterday's massive selloff, as investors celebrated upbeat earnings reports from major tech names, while online platforms such as Robinhood have limited trading of heavily shorted stocks, easing fears that a bubble may be forming. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was last seen up over 500 points, while the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are also enjoying substantial gains. In terms of data, fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) missed Wall Street's estimates, while weekly jobless claims came in better-than-expected at 847,000 for the week ending on Jan. 23.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- E-tail giant brushes off Deutsche Bank downgrade.
- JetBlue stock bounces off fourth-quarter revenue beat.
- Plus, options traders eye new Reddit target; mining stock surges on tax fraud decision; and BlackBerry stock plummets following online trading restrictions.
One stock seeing notable options activity today is American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL), last seen up 9.3% to trade at $18.13, after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter losses. A short squeeze may also be pushing the stock higher, after the airline was mentioned Reddit's WallStreetBets forum. So far, 436,000 calls and 165,000 puts have crossed the tape, or six times the intraday average. Most popular is the 2/5 19-strike call, followed by the 20-strike call in the same weekly series, with new positions currently being opened at both. AAL has been particularly volatile of late. The shares rallied to the the $22 level after dropping to a May 14, all-time low of $8.25. And while the security stopped just short of this level today, in the last six months AAL has added roughly 54%.
Surging on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today is First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE:AG), up 33.1% at $18.49 at last check, after earlier hitting an eight-year high of $19.29. The impressive bull gap came after Bloomberg reported a judge in Mexico City declined to charge the company with criminal tax fraud in initial court hearings. The security has spent the past several months struggling with overhead pressure at the $15 mark, but now shares have more than tripled off the stock's March lows with support the 40-day moving average. Over the last nine months, the security has added no less than 127.9%.
Near the bottom of the NYSE today is BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE:BB), down 40.8% to trade at $14.78 at last check, after online trading platforms such as Interactive Brokers and Robinhood placed restrictions on multiple stocks following ramped up speculative trading activity. Similarly to GameStop (GME), BlackBerry is now the target of Reddit. Ramped up buying sent the security surging to a 10-year high of $28.77 yesterday, after struggling with resistance at the $8 mark for the past several months. Year-over-year, BB now carries a 123.2% lead.