Episode 84: Wild Week of Trading as Crypto Falls off the Rails
It's been a wild week of trading on Wall Street with many speculative shares moving in tandem with cryptocurrency prices, and strategists say “get used to it.” “It’s very skittish. I think that’s the word of the day,” Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton said. Wednesday “was a good reminder we’re still in pullback mode. … I think it’s definitely influenced retail sentiment.” The sharp sell-off in high flyers like Tesla and cryptocurrencies Wednesday soured investor sentiment, but many believe the market is more likely in a pullback and not entering a larger correction. Major stock indexes bounced back on Thursday.
AT&T is offloading its media properties, Amazon is taking the opposite approach. The e-commerce behemoth is in talks to buy MGM, the movie studio that owns James Bond, Survivor, and other franchises.
Oat milk icon Oatly raised $1.4B in its IPO on Wednesday, snagging a frothy $10B valuation — more than Beyond Meat's current market cap. Yesterday, Oatly shares soared 19% during their first day on the Nasdaq. The performance of this launch eased investors' concerns about IPOs in general, which have been underwhelming recently.
Robinhood is giving amateur investors access to shares in an initial public offering in its latest move to democratize retail investing. IPO shares have historically been set aside for Wall Street’s institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals. Retail traders typically don’t have a vehicle to buy into newly listed companies until those shares begin trading on an exchange, which is often after the share price has surged. “We’re starting to roll out IPO Access, a new product that will give you the opportunity to buy shares of companies at their IPO price, before trading on public exchanges. With IPO Access, you can now participate in upcoming IPOs with no account minimums,” Robinhood said in a blog post-Thursday.
Market Close
Dow 30 34,208.57 +124.42 (+0.37%)
S&P 500 4,155.87 -3.25 (-0.08%)
Nasdaq 13,470.99 -64.75 ( -0.48%)
IPO
We reported a couple of weeks ago that FIGS, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based medical scrubs and healthcare apparel brand, set IPO terms to 22.5 million shares at $16–$19. Priced at the midpoint, FIGS would have a fully diluted value of $3.4 billion. The company plans to list on the NYSE (FIGS). In an update on the non-traditional method they are taking for their IPO, FIGS will list their shares on Robinhood, prior to officially trading on the New York Stock Exchange. FIGS reports $58 million of profit on $263 million in revenue for 2020, while shareholders include Viking Global, PSERS, Breyer Capital, Thermal and Reform Ventures. (http://axios.link/PlNb)