The sun is shining, the weather is warm and the trading week is finally over! Wall Street did not disappoint on Friday, offering up a ton of news for investors to digest. Streaming stocks took a hit on an analyst note, WeWork agreed to come public again and Mia Khalifa spoke out about top movers. So what else did the stock market do today? Dive in with InvestorPlace below.
To start, the major indices all ended the day in the green. The S&P 500 gained 1.66% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.39%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.24%.
So what else did the stock market do today? Take a look at these three top stories.
What Did the Stock Market Do Today? Watch China.
The selloff in Chinese stocks continued today, as U.S.-China relations further soured.
One key news driver is that earlier this week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted measures from the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. In other words, regulators are willing to implement and enforce the legislation. The bill calls for the delisting of foreign companies that fail to comply with U.S. auditing standards over a certain time period, and requires companies to disclose government ownership and oversight. Because many investors see it as targeting Chinese companies, stocks like iQiyi (NASDAQ:IQ), Tencent Music Entertainment (NYSE:TME) and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) continue to fall.
Making matters worse was news this morning that Goldman Sachs was facilitating large block sales of Chinese stocks. BIDU and TME stocks fell on the news, as did Vipshop Holdings (NYSE:VIPS). Chilly trade relations and delisting threats are thrusting these equities down.
But as investors learned, the situation works both ways. As the team at Morning Brew reported, Chinese influencers are burning Nike (NYSE:NKE) sneakers online and boycotting H&M products. Driving the blowback are past comments from the companies regarding allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang. Something to watch: How will current events impact companies behind the 2022 Beijing Olympics? Names in question include Visa (NYSE:V) and Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB).
One more note: Chinese education stocks were also in the spotlight, generating top gainers and top losers. Elite Education (NASDAQ:EEIQ) made its Wall Street debut and saw shares gain nearly 290%. Other stocks like New Oriental Education (NYSE:EDU) were less fortunate, with shares selling off today. Investors can attribute the discrepancy to new policies in China limiting which students are eligible for online-only educations.
JPMorgan Called the Shipping Stocks Rally
JPMorgan analysts told their clients to buy oil, energy and shipping stocks to hedge their portfolios. Investors did just that on Friday, piling into top names like Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) and Frontline (NYSE:FRO). With the Ever Given container ship still blocking the Suez Canal, economists are calling for shortages of toilet paper and a worsening chip crisis.
For shipping stocks, the blockage could prove to be a short-term silver lining.
As Nordic American wrote to its shareholders, an ongoing blockage will require its fleet of Suezmax tankers to re-route. In the coming days, the company is planning to divert those tankers around Africa, reducing the number of voyages its fleet can take. Less voyages means reduced shipping capacity, and reduced shipping capacity means higher freight rates. In the short term, higher freight rates mean higher profits.
Investors were doing that math today, leading NAT stock to gain nearly 15%. While this is a short-term bump, it may help ease the pain from another round of consumer goods shortages and supply-chain stress. And as Chris MacDonald wrote, the longer the Ever Given stays stuck, the more appealing shipping stocks become.
Remember That $3,000 Price Target on Tesla?
Teens and tweens have influencers like Addison Rae, Loren Gray and Charli D’Amelio to look up to. Retail investors have influencers like Elon Musk, Dave Portnoy… and Cathie Wood.
As the Wall Street Journal wrote recently, these stock market influencers easily sell stocks in the way other influencers promote skinny teas or the latest face wash. When Musk played into the GameStop (NYSE:GME) frenzy through a simple tweet, shares soared. Retail investors follow these figures with fervor, on social media and in their portfolios.
Wood stands out. She is not just a social media persona — she is behind the iconic Ark Invest. Her exchange-traded funds have led the way with investments in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Bitcoin (CCC:BTC) and in themes like gene-editing and space exploration. Retail investors subscribe to daily updates on what Ark buys and sells. That is why when she set a price target of $3,000 on Tesla stock, Wall Street took notice.
Sure, Tesla is more than the leading electric vehicle maker. It is a tech company with cutting-edge innovations in EV batteries, autonomous driving, solar power and residential energy storage. But as InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Tom Yeung questions, is Tesla stock really worth $3,000? And what does it mean to set such a sky-high price target?
Yeung cautions that investors should see her eye-grabbing price targets as marketing tactics for Ark and her exchange-traded funds. Symbols of Wall Street and its elite. As he summarizes: “Buy some TSLA stock if you want. But make sure you leave room for the investments that sit beyond the reach of Wall Street’s elite.”
On the date of publication, Sarah Smith did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
Sarah Smith is a Web Content Producer with InvestorPlace.com.
