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- US stocks slipped on Friday as investors fueled more volatility throughout the day through the trader and stood against Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine data.
- Reddit traders pushed GameStop, AMC and others higher after brokers removed certain trading restrictions.
- Johnson & Johnson said the vaccine was 66% effective, but the data suggest the shot is less beneficial against the virus strain first identified in South Africa.
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U.S. stocks fell Friday as investors avoided retailers’ speculative commitment and disappointing vaccine data from Johnson & Johnson.
GameStop, AMC and other Reddit favorite stocks recovered when day traders piled up in their risky positions again. The extremely volatile names have gained the center of the market and moves from Robinhood, Interactive Brokers and other platforms to restrict trading have been questioned for congressional hearings and reform.
Market participants fear that the retailers’ target on shorts could force hedge funds to cover their clumsy bets by selling their long positions. Although the phenomenon has shaken only a few funds, strategists have expressed concern about a growing market disruption.
Here is where US indices were open shortly after the 09:30 ET on Friday:
Read more: GameStop has risen more than 600% in the past week. Three experts are breaking up where the stock could go from here, as Reddit’s army of traders make profits and look for the next targets.
“It has already become clear that the stock markets have lost their buoyancy,” said Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda. “Suddenly, the conversation switched to whether we were seeing frothy markets, bubbly behavior, and the downturn was underway.”
Johnson & Johnson announced Friday that the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is 66% effective, far below the efficacy demonstrated by other companies’ dual-dose programs. Johnson & Johnson said the vaccine is also less effective in South Africa, suggesting that the shot is less beneficial in protecting against the more contagious virus strain first identified in the country.
Stocks peaked in January in hopes that the Biden government’s vaccine and stimulus rollout could accelerate US economic recovery. Johnson & Johnson’s announcement highlights the difficulty of ending the pandemic and achieving herd immunity.
Johnson & Johnson sank on the news.
Read more: A Wall Street firm adjusted the Shiller PE ratio to create a better benchmark of the strongest returns on the stock market – and it set out why the beloved benchmark would no longer lower it.
Bitcoin rose above $ 38,500 for the first time since Jan. 15 after Tesla CEO Elon Musk added “#bitcoin” to his Twitter bio. The most popular cryptocurrency hovered around $ 32,000 for about a week after peaking at the beginning of the new year.
Spot gold climbed 1.6% to $ 1,874.08 an ounce. The US dollar weakened slightly against a basket of group-of-20 peers, and treasury yields rose higher.
Oil prices rose. West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil rose 1.1% to $ 52.92 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell 1.1% to $ 56.15 a barrel.
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