The Dow Jones industrial average lost about 1% today, the other major indexes were mixed, and breadth was negative, but there was some surprisingly robust action in individual stocks.
There was a full screen of individual stocks moving more than 10%, with names like ZoomInfo Technologies (ZI) , Repligen Corporation (RGEN) , Ameresco Inc. (AMRC) , Harmony Biosciences Holdings (HRMY) , Pinterest (PINS) , and Uber (UBER) performing extremely well. There was an increased focus on high-risk speculation with some special purpose acquisition company movers and a few squeezes. A good illustration is the outrageous trading in AMTD Digital (HKD) , which had a low today of $668 and a high of $2,555.00.
The market was a little nervous early in the day as it was awaiting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's arrival in Taiwan. There was no major Chinese military action and that absence of escalated global drama provided an intraday bounce. But as the day progressed, there was growing concern that China may retaliate with some economic moves, such as delaying plants that are planned for the U.S.
There are quite a few earnings reports hitting and some very good ones that helped to cause the speculative action. After the close on Tuesday, Airbnb (ABNB) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are trading down on their reports.
Another notable development was weakness in bonds as yields spiked higher. The bond fund (TLT) had a bearish engulfing pattern, but it is still holding the trend line off the June lows. Bonds have been strong on the view that the economy was slowing, but Tuesday it looked like inflation concerns were starting to heat up again.
We have a technically extended market and many macro concerns, but there is an appetite for increased speculation. Enjoy it while it lasts because it can shift extremely fast.
