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

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What a busy, record-setting day in the stock market! Cryptocurrencies jumped, investors eyed several upcoming initial public offerings and the White House was buzzing with updates. So what did the stock market do today? Dive in with InvestorPlace below.

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

Source: Shutterstock

To start, investors should know that the major indices are back in the green, with the S&P 500 hitting another record high. It gained 0.42% on the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0.17%. A jump in several tech stocks helped push the Nasdaq Composite up 1.03% on the day.

So what else did the stock market do today? Here are the top three stories.

What Did the Stock Market Do Today? Talk About Guns.

President Joe Biden revealed his plans for executive actions to curb gun violence today. His announcement follows pressure from activists and lawmakers, and back-to-back mass shootings. Investors had been closely watching gun stocks ahead of the announcement.

So what actually happened on Thursday? Here is what Biden announced:

  • He named David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
  • Biden also directed his administration to take action on ghost guns, a phrase that refers to guns without serial numbers that are sold in kits for home assembly.
  • He ordered the Department of Justice to create a plan for red flag laws, which would allow states to seize firearms from threatening individuals.
  • The president also ordered the DOJ to create a report on gun trafficking.
  • Lastly, he issued an order for funding for community violence intervention programs.

So how did gun stocks react? AMMO (NASDAQ:POWW) gained on the day, as did Vista Outdoor (NYSE:VSTO). Storm, Ruger & Co (NYSE:RGR) and Smith & Wesson (NASDAQ:SWBI) both lost less than 1%. It appears the varying impacts on these gun manufacturers are behind the differences, as well as the overall sentiment on what Biden announced. As one New York Times piece highlighted, many thought the announcement was modest compared to other proposals.

Ryan Cohen Is About to Get Promoted

r/WallStreetBets favorite GameStop (NYSE:GME) once again made news on Thursday.

In its latest press release, the video game retailer shared that six board members were up for election at its annual shareholder meeting on June 9. One of those board members is Ryan Cohen, the Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) founder and activist investor who got himself a seat in January 2021. Now, he is up for election, and GameStop also plans to appoint him chairman of the board.

What does this mean for investors?

All along, it appears that there have been two intersecting narratives with GameStop. One is that GME stock had high short interest, making it the perfect target for a short squeeze. Fueled on by a hatred of hedge funds, r/WallStreetBets banded together to send GameStop to the moon. The other is that thanks to Cohen, GameStop could legitimately turn its business around, and head to the moon in a more traditional fashion. Those stories combined make GME stock and its retail investors so powerful.

Cohen has already found success at GameStop. He has been helping shake up the C-Suite, leading to the resignation of CFO Jim Bell and driving appointments of a new CTO, COO and chief growth officer. The Chewy founder has also helped head a strategic committee, which is focusing on e-commerce and other tech initiatives. With his upcoming promotion to chairman, Cohen has even more potential.

Investors should be sure to keep GME stock on their radar, both for the memes and any big moves.

Coinbase IPO Gives Altcoins a Big Lift

Ahead of the Coinbase IPO, many investors are excited about the potential to cash in on COIN stock. Analysts are too, setting price targets as high as $440 and commenting on its relevance to recent market trends. However, investors should be paying close attention to what the Coinbase IPO means for cryptocurrencies themselves.

As crypto analysis firm Messari highlighted, there is a so-called Coinbase effect with crypto prices. Because Coinbase is so visible as the largest exchange in the United States, it is a big deal when a new token becomes available on its platform. Investors likely saw this with the recent launch of Cardano (CCC:ADA-USD) on Coinbase Pro, but Messari has numbers to back the theory up. In fact, the Coinbase effect is so powerful that Coinbase listings have an average return of 91%, higher than post-listing returns on any of the other exchanges.

With all this in mind, recent news from Coinbase should have investors paying close attention. The exchange announced it would allow trading in four new tokens starting Friday, April 9. Those altcoins are already perking up, notching huge gains in Thursday trading. At one point, Enjin Coin (CCC:ENJ-USD) posted gains of 50%.

As investors continue to clamor for Coinbase to add Dogecoin (CCC:DOGE-USD) and other popular tokens, keep the Coinbase effect in mind. And ahead of the Coinbase IPO, consider what tokens will benefit from its publicly traded status most.

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/2021/04/what-did-the-stock-market-do-today-3-big-stories-gun-stocks-coinbase-ipo-enjin-coin/.

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