Stock futures fell in overnight trading on Wednesday as the market suggested a strong sell-off amid concerns over increased speculative trading.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 120 points lower. S&P 500 futures fell 0.7% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.8%.
In its earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal 2021, Apple achieved its highest revenue in its history of $ 111.4 billion. Sales for each product category increased by double-digit percentage points. However, the tech giant’s shares fell 3%.
Tesla fell more than 3% in expanded retail after the electric automaker posted worse-than-expected earnings last quarter. The company expects average annual delivery growth of 50% in the future.
Wall Street suffered heavy losses on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Dow recording their worst day since October as the speculative spending spree on sharply shortened stocks kept investors on their toes. Some fear that hedge funds could be forced to reduce their holdings in order to raise cash.
“Brief bottlenecks that lead to implosions in some hedge funds join SPACs, IPOs and Bitcoin as data points supporting a bubble thesis,” said Scott Knapp, chief market strategist at CUNA Mutual Group, in an email . “This is a time of caution for investors.”
The trading volume exploded in the previous session with 23.7 billion shares changing hands. This was the heaviest trading day since at least 2007.
Brick and mortar video game retailer GameStop, a target on the Reddit wallstreetbets chat room, rose another 134% on Wednesday and boosted its profits to a whopping 1,744% in January. AMC Entertainment was up over 300% on Wednesday alone, posting the highest volume ever.
GameStop fell 7% in expanded trading while AMC Entertainment fell 20%. Other heavily shortened names that had bounced back this week, including Bed Bath & Beyond and National Beverage, also fell after hours.
Facebook stock remained relatively unchanged in over-the-counter trading after the company warned that a reversal in pandemic trends could hurt its advertising business. The social media company made its way up and down in the fourth quarter.
Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis as well as live business day programs from around the world.
