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Luke Kawa1/3/25

The Hail Mary options bets on another GameStop mania are getting crushed

The lottery-ticket bets looking for another round of intense speculative fervor in GameStop by midway through this month have turned to ashes.

For the January 17 expiry, which is just 14 days away, the most popular option by far are calls with a strike price of $125 — that is, nearly 300% above its current price.

A series of large wagers on another frenzy were made via these call options on December 16, with lopsided options activity that was eerily similar to what preceded the embattled video game and collectibles retailer’s parabolic move higher in the second quarter of 2024. Since that session, even as GameStop shares have rallied about 8% (while the S&P 500 has given back more than 2%), the price of those options contracts has cratered.

On December 16, those options ended the day at $1 with a volume-weighted average price of a little more than $0.75. They’re now trading at $0.15 — 80% below that volume-weighted average price. The nice bump in the stock has been nowhere near robust enough to lift the options as their time value decays.

The open interest has edged higher over this period alongside elevated trading activity in the contract. Volumes were particularly elevated at year-end, with most transactions taking place on the bid side, indicating a motivated seller. So, while the original buyer may have exited the position, there’s still a lot of seemingly extremely low-probability lottery tickets floating around out there.

To quote a track from Light Sweet Crude, “No matter how low you get, you can always go down another 100%.”

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ChargePoint Q1 revenue tops estimates, but cash pile dwindles

ChargePoint, an electric vehicle infrastructure company, topped analysts’ expectations for first-quarter revenue, but its cash pile dropped by about one-third.

Here are the numbers:

Q1 revenue of $101.8 million (compared to analyst estimates of $95.6 million).
A Q1 loss per share of $1.75, compared with a $2.49 loss a year earlier.

After-hours, shares whipsawed as traders digested a slightly more complicated story, with ChargePoint continuing to burn through cash quickly. ChargePoint’s cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet totaled $95.8 million, while only a quarter ago it had held $141.5 million in cash. That’s a drop of 32%.

The industry overall is at a crossroads. With federal subsidy rollbacks, electric vehicle sales continue to continue to look relatively bleak in the United States. But with gas prices elevated because of the Iran war, Americans are looking more closely at EVs again and turning to more fuel-efficient options.

Results for other companies in the space, like Blink Charging Co., have been mixed: this earnings season it beat earnings-per-share estimates for Q1 but missed Wall Street revenue expectations. Meanwhile, another charging network, EVGo, beat on revenue and EPS, but investors’ reaction was mixed given the headwinds in the sector.

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Five Below sinks despite Q1 earnings beat and optimistic Q2 outlook

Discount retailer Five Below delivered impressive Q1 earnings, beating out analyst estimates on Wednesday after the bell. But instead of getting a pat on the back, investors responded by sending the stock down as much as 9% in after-hours trading.

Here are the numbers:

Q1 sales of $1.28 billion (compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion, per FactSet).
Q1 adjusted earnings per share of $2.22 (estimate: $1.77).

The company raised its guidance for the full fiscal year and now projects full-year net sales between $5.40 billion and $5.48 billion (up from the $5.20 billion to $5.30 billion estimated last quarter), beating out analysts’ full-year estimates of $5.36 billion.

Similarly, the company expects Q2 revenue to fall between $1.18 billion and $1.20 billion, above Wall Street expectations of $1.14 billion.

The stock has risen over 80% in the past 12 months as consumers across income brackets search for affordable goods. The retailer has maintained its aggressive expansion campaign, opening 150 net new stores in fiscal year 2025. On Wednesday, Five Below said it still plans to open 150 further locations in fiscal year 2026.

Recently, the company has not only courted customers looking for cheaper everyday items, but also dopamine hits like its “squishy dumplings,” a Wall Street winner, according to analyst Spencer Hanus at Wolfe Research.

“Our continued focus on compelling newness at amazing value and great store execution are at the heart of our operating flywheel,” said Winnie Park, CEO of Five Below. “We successfully amplified social media trends and drove outsized traffic through coordinated merchandising and marketing efforts.”

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CrowdStrike sinks despite beating revenue and earnings for Q1, boosting guidance

CrowdStrike edged past analysts’ estimates for revenue and earnings in its fiscal first quarter.

For FY 2027 Q1, the cybersecurity platform posted:

Revenues of $1.39 billion (estimate: $1.36 billion).
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.10 (estimate: $1.07).
Annual recurring revenue of $5.51 billion, beating analyst estimates of $5.50 billion.
Subscription revenue of $1.32 billion, up 26% year on year.

The company also boosted its annual guidance for revenue and adjusted EPS, and it announced a 4-for-1 stock split.

Still, shares, which had surged some 60% over the past month, fell 8.2% after-hours.

Since Anthropic’s announcement of its forthcoming Mythos model, the cybersecurity industry has been bracing for an explosion in vulnerabilities that may be discovered using such advanced AI models.

In a press release, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said:

“In Q1, the worlds of cybersecurity and frontier AI collided: this was the Mythos moment. CrowdStrike is AI security infrastructure, critical to successful AI adoption.”

Tasha Matsumoto

Stocks break winning streak as oil rises amid strikes in the Middle East

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all dropped as traders assessed attacks in the Gulf.

Sad brown bear

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Max Knoblauch10h

Rivian is on pace for its longest winning streak ever ahead of R2 deliveries next week

EV maker Rivian is climbing for the 10th consecutive day on Wednesday, putting the company on pace for its longest winning streak ever.

The stock has climbed more than 40% in the two-week stretch, as the company prepares to start customer deliveries of its highly anticipated R2 SUV on June 9. The EV will launch at nearly $60,000, with a lower-priced variant in the $45,000 range due to release late next year. Rivian has implied it expects to deliver up to 25,000 R2s this calendar year.

Despite the hot streak, Rivian shares are down about 7% year to date and nearly 90% from their all-time high in late 2021.

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