Let’s offer a quick recap. On Monday we have an explosive gain in stocks, with the S&P 500 ripping more than 3% and the Russell 2000 climbing more than 6%. On Tuesday, we had a mostly mellow day, until a late-session selloff sent equities lower. In the stock market today, we had another powerful move to the upside.
The S&P 500 gained almost 2% at its highs and hit its highest level since early March. It sits just below the key 3,000 level as investors fight conflicting signals.
The charts say one thing — bulls are in control — while the headlines and economics suggest that it makes no sense to buy stocks. We’ll see if the bulls can reclaim the 200-day moving average in the S&P 500 and reclaim 3,000.
Beverage Buyers?
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) CEO James Quincey said that the company is still seeing negative global volumes in May, after a 25% decrease in April. Since the novel coronavirus outbreak began, Coke has lost sales from vital industries like restaurants, movie theaters and stadiums.
As China begins to restart its economy, there’s been an improvement for Coca-Cola, but it has yet to return to pre-crisis volume levels.
Nielsen data showed that alcoholic beverage sales increased 35% year-over-year for the week of May 9. Hard seltzers are seeing impressive growth, up 334% year-over-year for the week. That’s benefiting Boston Beer’s (NYSE:SAM) Truly, while Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) also saw a spike thanks to Cinco de Mayo. Corona — despite its name — and Modelo surely saw a boost as Mexican imports saw a 34% increase.
Movers in the Stock Market Today
Luckin Coffee (NASDAQ:LK) got the green light to resume trading in the stock market today, falling more than 35%. The company has been halted since April 7 after disclosing accounting irregularities. The exchange is currently going through the process to delist shares but for now, trade away.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) just released its first original video game, Crucible. This is a free PC game and will make its money through digital merchandise and seasonal battle passes. Amazon is hoping to break into the competitive world of gaming, which is a $159 billion worldwide industry.
The company is also set to release New World — a multiplayer, open-world online game — in August, which will start at $40. Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Stadia and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Gaming will be potential competitors moving forward.
The Joe Rogan Experience is officially going to become a Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) exclusive. On Sept. 1, it will become available on Spotify before moving there exclusively at the end of the year. According to Rogan, his podcast had 190 million downloads per month last year. Spotify is up over 8% on the news, adding to Tuesday’s gain of 8.4%.
Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN) shares are up over 12% on news that it will be reopening the doors of ten casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi. To bolster liquidity, Penn National Gaming also raised roughly $675 million for general corporate purposes.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
