Markets are coming off a week where we saw all three major U.S. stock averages end Friday at all time highs. A poor December jobs report and political unrest did little to deter investor enthusiasm. Participants will be able to move past some of the macro headlines as we delve into the Q4 earnings season. Friday will provide plenty of insight into financial conditions as J.P. Morgan (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C), and PNC (PNC) post Q4 results. Tech will be in focus as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) holds its annual conference in a virtual format while Taiwan Semi (TSM) will report earnings and provide guidance on its 2021 CapEx spend. Macro will remain on investors’ minds as CPI (Wednesday), Export/Import Prices (Thursday) and PPI (Friday) will give us a read on inflation as markets watch yields edge higher.
Financial Advisors have plenty of conversation starters for both perspective and current clients. Taking a look at the search patterns from the retail sector, we see the same patterns that were dominating retail interest to close out 2020. Electric Vehicles, big tech, cryptocurrencies and volatile pharmaceutical names remain popular topics. Let us take a look at a few of the names your clients were watching.
- Trivia Question- What sectors in the S&P 500 are expected to see year-over-year earnings growth in Q4? (Answer below)
TrackStarIQ Data
Here are some highlights from Retail searches this week –
| Rank | TOP STOCKS – BY Retail (Total Traffic) This Past Week | Ticker | TOP STOCKS- BY RETAIL (Surge* Traffic) This Past Week | Ticker | TOP ETFs By RETAIL (Total Traffic) This Past Week | Ticker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesla Inc | TSLA | Chimerix Inc | CMRX | SPDR S&P 500 ETF | SPY |
| 2 | Nio Inc | NIO | Lion Group Holding Ltd ADR | LGHL | ARK Innovation ETF | ARKK |
| 3 | Bionano Genomics Inc | BNGO | Bitcoin Services, Inc. | BTSC | Invesco QQQ | QQQ |
| 4 | Jaguar Health Inc | JAGX | CloudCommerce, Inc. | CLWD | ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures | UVXY |
| 5 | Apple Inc | APPL | Oxford Immunotec | OXFD | ARK Genomic Revolution ETF | ARKG |
| 6 | Sundial Growers Inc | SNDL | Sarepta Therapeutics | SRPT | SPDR Gold Trust | GLD |
| 7 | Ocugen Inc | OCGN | Future Fintech Group Inc | FTFT | iShares Silver Trust | SLV |
| 8 | Alibaba Group Holding | BABA | 3D Systems Corp | DDD | Invesco Solar ETF | TAN |
| 9 | Zomedica Pharmaceuticals Corp | ZOM | Petrone Worldwide, Inc. | PFWIQ | iShares Global Clean Energy ETF | ICLN |
| 10 | Marathon Patent Grou | MARA | Optical Cable Corp | OCC | Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund | XLK |
| 11 | Ideanomics Inc | IDEX | Texhoma Energy, Inc. | TXHE | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | IWM |
| 12 | Plug Power Inc | PLUG | Applied Dna Scns | APDN | VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF | SMH |
| 13 | Eversource Energy | ES | Chinanet Online Hld | CNET | Global X Lithium ETF | LIT |
| 14 | FUBOTV INC. | FUBO | Lm Funding America Inc | LMFA | VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF | GDX |
| 15 | Amazon.com Inc | AMZN | World Acceptance Cp | WRLD | Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund | XLE |
| 16 | AT&T Inc | T | Taoping Inc | TAOP | Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund | XLY |
| 17 | Visa Inc | V | Merrimac Industries Inc | MRM | ARK Web x.0 ETF | ARKW |
| 18 | Check-Cap Ltd Ord | CHEK | Scworx Corp | WORX | ProShares UltraPro QQQ | TQQQ |
| 19 | Fuelcell Energy Inc | FCEL | BTCS Inc. | BTCS | iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | VXX |
| 20 | Workhorse Grp | WKHS | Gx Acquisiton Corp Cl A | GXGX | ARK Fintech Innovation ETF | ARKF |
*- Surge data is based on the average traffic from the past two days compared to the average traffic from the previous market week.
- Bionano Genomics (BNGO) #3 in total traffic- We discussed this name in last week’s Sunday AIF. It has remained near the top of total traffic surges after a volatile week which saw shares soar to $7.25 on Monday before rolling back to the $4 area in search of support. BNGO’s rally came after it published a study on autism risk genes. Pharmaceuticals tend to announce secondaries after such rallies which is exactly what BNGO did. BNGO priced a 29 million share offering of common stock at $3.05 per share on Thursday. The stock is showing some signs of finding support at the $4 area
- Jaguar Health (JAGX) #4 in total traffic- Jaguar saw its stock rally 300% last week, running from $1 to $4 after management announced a plan to develop and commercialize Crofelemer, a new drug aimed at helping people with inflammatory diarrhea. This has been a lasting side effect for some COVID patients and is garnering a lot of attention. In addition, JAGX said it is in talks with a potential merger with Swiss Growth Forum to create a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
- Marathon Patent Group (MARA) #10 in total traffic- Bitcoin is on a tear, which means investors are looking at the bitcoin mining stocks as possible secondary plays. MARA has seen its stock rise 152% year-to-date which allowed its market cap to surpass the $1 bln mark. The company has annual sales of approximately $2 million which means it is sporting a rather lofty 588x Price to Sales. H.C. Wainwright recently upgraded the stock after MARA placed an order for a Bitmain S19 miner which would allow MARA to triple the 33,000 miners it currently owns.
- 3D Printing (DDD) #8 in surge traffic- DDD saw its shares rally from $10 to $30 after it announced a successful sale of a non-core software business for approximately $64 mln in cash. DDD also raised it’s guidance outlook well above expectations. The 119 million float has a 28% short interest, so the parabolic reaction is likely a squeeze. We have been seeing an uptick in interest around 3-D printing which leads us to believe it could be a hot topic for clients in 2021.
- BTCS Inc (BTCS) #19 in surge- Another name that is getting picked up in the Bitcoin craze. This over the counter stock saw its management team invest $1.1 million into the company through a convertible preferred share offering this week. The company touts itself as a digital asset and block chain technology company which certainly hits all the buzz words to get picked up in searches. The stock ran from $0.18 to $1.34 as investors searched for bitcoin sympathy plays. We would expect these cryptocurrency names to remain a hot topic for your clients.
Trivia Answer- According to Nasdaq, Construction (+22.7%), Autos (+59%), Medical (+5.5%), Basic Materials (+6.9%), and Aerospace (+4.9%) are expected to see improvement from the prior year.