Major US stock indexes sink as volatile retail favorites soar
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 each fell 0.4% while the Russell 2000 slumped 1.1% on Tuesday.
Your daily confirmation that market breadth was bad: the S&P 500’s advance-decline line was negative for its 12 straight session, surpassing a streak set in September 2001.
Consumer discretionary was the lone S&P 500 sector ETF to advance on the day, thanks in large part to Tesla’s 3.6% jump. Industrials and financials fared the worst. Chip stocks gave back some of their big gains following Broadcom’s earnings, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF down 1.3%.
A lot of the most exciting trading activity is happening outside S&P 500 companies in more volatile names that retail traders have taken a shine to. GameStop booked a 6.3% gain for its highest close since the session before Keith Gill’s livestream in June amid options wagers positioning for a massive spike in the shares by mid-January.
The quantum-computing theme is also in full bloom, with Rigetti Computing and Quantum Computing up more than 30% and 50% on the day, respectively.
This speculative fervor has a big footprint in markets: more money changed hands today trading any one of Quantum Computing, Rigetti Computing, and SoundHound AI than either Visa, Netflix, Oracle, or JPMorgan.
