What a busy day in the stock market today! Crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) finally started trading, and Wall Street was closely watching. GameStop (NYSE:GME) announced a plan that will leave it virtually debt free, and retail favorite Ocugen (NASDAQ:OCGN) continues to prep for a potential U.S. launch of COVAXIN. So what else did the stock market do today?
To start, the major indices were split at the end of trading. The S&P 500 lost 0.41%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.16%. The Nasdaq Composite also stumbled, losing 0.99%.
So what did the stock market do today? Here are the top three stories.
What Did the Stock Market Do Today? Watch the Coinbase IPO.
Today was an absolutely wild day in the cryptocurrency markets, with Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) setting yet another all-time high above $64,000. The driving force, of course, was the Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) IPO. So with its first few hours in the public markets over, where do things stand?
Coinbase ended the trading day at roughly $328 per share, a market capitalization of just over $85 billion. As other commentators have highlighted, this makes the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange massive. Its valuation is more than three times that of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ), and is neck and neck with oil giant BP (NYSE:BP). The Coinbase IPO caused a frenzy in so-called blockchain and crypto mining stocks, and also spurred investor interest in a wide range of altcoins.
However, Wall Street had astronomically high expectations for COIN stock, setting even the most bullish investors up for a bit of disappointment.
Ahead of the direct listing, Nasdaq set a reference price for COIN stock of $250. As the Wall Street Journal clarifies, no shares actually were traded at that price. Instead, Coinbase saw its first shares trade hands for more than $380, climbing as high as $429 on Wednesday. That means its closing price on Wednesday was technically below its IPO price.
With this in mind, several crypto stocks started to stumble. Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), which had been outperforming in recent days, shed roughly 16%. Bitcoin itself fell, and it is now hanging out near the $62,000 threshold.
Analysts were clear that Coinbase would be volatile once it hit the public markets, and so far, they are not wrong. Keep your eyes on the crypto space tomorrow.
DISCB Stock Delivers a Thrilling Short Squeeze
The Archegos Capital Management fallout continued Wednesday, with Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) unloading another $2 billion of stocks linked to the family investing office. As Bloomberg reported, the latest block sales included top names like Discovery (NASDAQ:DISCA, NASDAQ:DISCB) and iQiyi (NASDAQ:IQ), and also highlighted the longer-lasting risks to brokers.
The block sales also triggered another short squeeze rally in DISCB stock. For investors, the real question is why?
On Wednesday, investors watched DISCB shares gain more than 30% by market close. However, the class A that trade as DISCA dipped nearly 5%. That sort of split movement is not particularly common, but today it was a key sign of a short squeeze.
Importantly, the Archegos-linked sales only included DISCA stock and the class C shares of Discovery that trade as DISCK. DISCB shares are more thinly traded, making them more attractive to investors. We saw this at the end of March, when Zero Hedge reported on the initial short squeeze rally in DISCB.
So what should investors take away from the wild moves in Discovery shares today? The first takeaway is that it is important not to miss the role of liquidity in stock movement. The second takeaway is that short squeeze rallies remain front and center in the wake of the GameStop saga. InvestorPlace contributor Alex Sirois recently highlighted six other equities that look like prime candidates for such price action. You can read more about those short-squeeze stocks here.
Why Goldman Sachs Has Copper Stocks on Watch
Goldman Sachs analyst Jeff Currie had a bold message for investors today: Copper is the new oil.
In fact, Currie issued a new equity report today that was titled just that. Along with a team of other analysts from Goldman, he believes several long-term catalysts are coming that will juice copper prices. With that in mind, he is setting a 2025 price target on copper of $15,000 per ton. That represents more than 60% upside from current prices.
So where does his bullishness come from? To start, Currie believes that decarbonization and renewable energy goals will boost demand for copper. It is a necessary component in clean energy infrastructure, as well as electric vehicle batteries. Because of this, investors bullish in the American Jobs Plan or clean energy stocks in general should be paying close attention to copper. Even more broadly, Currie believes that copper prices are about to be lifted by a multi-year supply crunch. Thanks to Covid-19, copper miners are already racing to keep up with growing demand.
How did we see this play out in the market today? As InvestorPlace contributor Chris MacDonald highlighted, copper stocks are already getting a boost in anticipation of long-term gains. Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was a top gainer, as were Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) and Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO). You can read more about the rally in top copper stocks here.
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.
