Friday
Dow: +242.68…
Nasdaq: +183.69… S&P: +39.37…
YTD
S&P 500 +20.1% YTD
Nasdaq +17.4% YTD
Dow +15.8% YTD
Russell 2000 +15.3% YTD
The S&P 500 (+0.9%) and Nasdaq (+1.2%) rallied to record highs on Friday, as the market reacted positively to Fed Chair Powell’s Jackson Hole speech on the economy and monetary policy. The Dow was the relative underperformer with a 0.7% gain, while the Russell 2000 pulled ahead with a 2.9% gain. (TNA)
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished in positive territory, growth stocks and value stocks rose alike, and advancing issues outpaced declining issues by a 5:1 margin at the NYSE and by a 3:1 margin at the Nasdaq.
We have moved from extreme fear, to fear, to neutral. Remember that markets usually tank on extreme greed, not fear. My guess is that the needle will start moving to the greed zone soon. So an up market for a while.
It was a week for short squeezes and crypto and NFT’s.
Crazy action in SPRT (there was 60% short) which went from $9 on Monday to a high of $59 on Friday. NFT play, TKAT ran from the $4 area to a high of $14.25. PLBY, which we own, is also an NFT play.
Highly shorted ROOT (35% short) started making a move on Friday as it exploded 28%. Probably goes higher.
Our stock, BBIG, was the biggest of all. The stock exploded 161% on Friday. It has about 50% short interest, and there is ZERO stock available to short, so the shorts should continue to be decimated in this one.
I expect a “buy-in” (brokerages force you to cover) on Monday morning for BBIG, so this could in fact go significantly higher. This move has nothing to do with fundamentals. The other moves I just mentioned had nothing to do with fundies either.
Call option volume started coming in hard on this Friday too. Could be a perfect storm, we’ll see.
BBIG short interest.
Keep your eyes on XELA. Good volume coming in, good chart, and huge short interest. They may eventually get around to jacking this one, so you may want to tuck a few shares away on Monday. A few…never go nuts on these things.
Crypto
Bitcoin, Etherium, and the proxies were awesome last week. We are long MARA and COIN and I also added HUT last week. HUT caught a clean breakout Friday and was +17.0%. I added BTBT as well (crypto) and it popped 23.0% on Friday.
So far so good in crypto land.
Here are some names to watch for the week ahead.
If you took DKNG from last weekend’s spotlight, it ran about $10 this week. Raise stops. Also, if you played LABU or TNA from a week and a half ago raise stops. PENN was highlighted Wednesday. It still looks higher to me.
BITF– In case you don’t already have enough Crypto exposure. Good chart, technicals curling positive, Could be a jumper.
BMBL– Fits my beaten to death oversold theme. Like the setup and the technicals.
FCEL– Another beaten-up name with improving technicals. Also 17% short interest. Stop at 5.50 if you play it.
JMIA– I added this one last week. Still in buy range and it’s bull flagging at the 21-day moving average.
BITW– Yet another crypto play. Trades thin but should go higher if crypto does.
ROOT– Became active Friday on huge volume. 35% short. Could be the start of something.
HVBT– This has been highlighted before. Finally out of that longstanding bullish wedge and is now flagging. Looks good here. Ethereum/blockchain play.
See you in the morning.