What Did the Stock Market Do Today? 3 Big Stories to Catch Up On.

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What a day on Wall Street. We saw gains in electric vehicle and blockchain stocks, as well as a rebound in tech names. Investors also saw big moves in the cryptocurrency market, including in little-known names. So what else did the stock market do today? Dive in with InvestorPlace.

Street sign for Wall Street pictured in front of several American flags representing american stocks

Source: Shutterstock

To start, each of the major indices ended up in the green. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.42% and 0.09%, respectively. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite really soared, posting gains of 3.69%.

What else did the stock market do today? Here are the top three stories to catch up on.

What Did the Stock Market Do Today? Cheer on Tech Stocks.

The Nasdaq Composite was on a roll on Tuesday, gaining 4% at its peak. In fact, the tech-heavy index posted its best day since April 2020, shaking off inflation fears and bond yield concerns.

Certain tech stocks gained… big. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) closed higher by more than 18%. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) added 4%. ARK Innovation (NYSEARCA:ARKK), the signature exchange-traded fund from Cathie Wood, rebounded to gain more than 10%. These big moves came as yields on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note started to calm down, and as investors processed chances for economic recovery.

As we wrote this morning, it seems that many investors have changed their tune about Covid-19 stimulus. Just a few days ago, the $1.9 trillion proposal was a cause for inflation fears. Some experts worried that it would simply put too much money into the economy. Now though, many investors are excited for the boost it will bring.

One thing to watch? Not all tech darlings have fully recovered from the slump. C3.ai (NYSE:AI), StitchFix (NASDAQ:SFIX) and Lemonade (NYSE:LMND) are still working to pull themselves out of the year-to-date hole.

Reddit Investors Are Not Giving Up

GameStop (NYSE:GME) continued its rise on Tuesday, closing above $200 after a roughly 20% rally.

The latest move higher comes after the video game retailer announced that Ryan Cohen would head up a strategic committee. Cohen has promised to yank GameStop out of the past, and ultimately, make it into a tech-savvy business. How exactly will he do that? That is unclear. However, Cohen has already brought about the resignation of CFO Jim Bell, and has helped appoint executives to handle e-commerce and customer care.

The promise of a turnaround story has been fueling GME stock, and has been helping other Reddit names. Today, we saw gains in BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC).

Not all r/WallStreetBets stocks were that lucky. Fringe bets like Express (NYSE:EXPR) and audio equipment maker Koss (NASDAQ:KOSS) closed down on the day. This comes after both stocks posted big gains on Monday.

So what should investors be watching? Beyond more meaningful details on the GameStop turnaround, keep a close eye on retail stocks. As CNBC reported today, some of the most actively traded options were in the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEARCA:XRT). GME makes up nearly 9% of the exchange-traded fund, so its recent move higher is giving XRT a boost.

When Will My Selfies Be Worth Millions?

Seriously, I have student debt to pay off.

Perhaps more seriously, these last few days have proven the power of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) hype. Bids on a historic March 2006 tweet from Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey have climbed as high as $2.5 million. Rapper Azealia Banks made headlines with an NFT drop that is not exactly safe for work. An up-and-coming platform is promising to launch a historically significant NFT of Muhammad Ali, and virtual reality platforms like Decentraland (CCC:MANA) are seeing their tokens hit all-time highs.

As we have reported before, the growing interest in NFTs makes sense. Cryptocurrencies are soaring, and investors are increasingly attracted to the idea of decentralized finance. NFTs bring things like gifs, music, digital cats and even gaming avatars into that world.

However, we are also seeing pushback to this popularity. ArtStation faced criticism from social media users after announcing an upcoming NFT launch, and ultimately decided to cancel its plans. Community members were worried about the environmental impact of NFTs. Although ArtStation says it still sees the potential in NFTs and wants to find a more environmentally friendly solution, those concerns were enough to table its plans. Will we see more of this backlash? Or will critics lose out to the popularity of unique taco gifs?

Stay tuned. The NFT story promises to be a wild, celebrity-filled ride.

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. 


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2021/03/what-did-the-stock-market-do-today-3-big-stories-tech-stocks-arkk-nfts-reddit-gme/.

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