Stock futures fell in Wednesday’s early trading hours, as the market prepared to extend strong liquidation amid concerns about increased speculative trading.
Futures in the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 120 points below. S&P 500 futures fell 0.7% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.8%.
Apple recorded its highest revenue ever recorded at $ 111.4 billion in its first fiscal quarter earnings report for fiscal year 2021. Sales for each product category increased by double-digit percentage points. The tech giant’s shares fell 3%, however.
Tesla fell more than 3% in extended negotiations after the electric car maker reported worse than expected earnings in the last quarter. The company also said it expects an average annual growth in deliveries of 50% in the future.
Wall Street suffered heavy losses on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Dow touting their worst day since October, while the speculative frenzy of buying heavily sold shares kept investors nervous. Some fear that the hedge funds being squeezed may be forced to reduce their equity holdings to raise money.
“Small efforts that cause implosions in some hedge funds are joining SPACs, IPOs and bitcoin as data points that support a market bubble thesis,” said Scott Knapp, chief market strategist at CUNA Mutual Group, by and -mail. “This is a time of caution for investors.”
Turnover exploded in the previous session, with 23.7 billion shares changing hands, marking the heaviest trading day since at least 2007.
The physical video game store GameStop, a target in Reddit’s “wallstreetbets” chat room, shot up another 134% on Wednesday, pushing its January earnings to an impressive 1,744%. AMC Entertainment rose more than 300% on Wednesday alone, having the highest volume ever.
GameStop fell 7% in extended negotiations, while AMC Entertainment fell 20%. Other highly shortened names that rose this week, including Bed Bath & Beyond and National Beverage, also fell after hours.
Facebook’s shares remained relatively stable in after-hours trading after the company warned that a reversal in pandemic trends could hurt its advertising business. The social media company outperformed financial results in the fourth quarter.
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