AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and some other Redditor favorites extended January’s advance on Monday, while GameStop Corp.’s rally paused, as brokerages removed trading restrictions from all but the most volatile stocks.
AMC rose 26 per cent to US$16.50 at the start of Monday’s session, while GameStop sank as much as 13 per cent at 9:31 a.m. in New York. The video-game retailer surged 1,625 per cent last month, propelled by day traders using Reddit forums to take on the Wall Street establishment and inflict multibillion-dollar losses on hedge funds with large short positions.
Robinhood Markets Inc. is continuing to impose trading curbs on GameStop, movie-theater chain AMC and six other stocks, but on Sunday removed restrictions on 42 others. Clients can buy only 1 share in GameStop, and as many as 10 in AMC. The popular trading app put buying limits in place last week after its clearinghouse deposit requirements for equities increased. Other brokerages including Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade also eased restrictions.
The restrictions held the number of shares traded for the Grapevine, Texas-based video game retailer in check while AMC volume took off. At 9:31 a.m. in New York, just 3.5 million GameStop shares had been traded while AMC’s volume was at 80 million, making it the most actively traded stock on Monday morning worth a dollar or more.
CMC Markets, a UK-based financial services company, is only allowing long trades on a handful of Reddit-touted companies including AMC and GameStop, according to a spokesman. Among other stocks recently favored by the Reddit community, cannabis firm Sundial Growers Inc. gained 21 per cent while Healthier Choices Management, which trades at fractions of a penny, soared as more than a billion shares changed hands.
While AMC shares ruled Monday morning, the movie theater chain was downgraded to sell from neutral by MKM Partners. Analyst Eric Handler cut the stock and halved his price target to US$1, saying that current share prices are almost double the industry’s historical peak.
“The emotion behind the #SaveAMC movement could carry the shares higher in the near-term, but we believe this valuation-be-damned momentum is not sustainable over the long term,” he wrote.
Shift to Silver
The attention of the retail speculators looked to be shifting over the weekend to commodities such as silver, which broke above US$30 an ounce in a move that like GameStop and AMC can be traced back to Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum.
“The emotion behind the #SaveAMC movement could carry the shares higher in the near-term, but we believe this valuation-be-damned momentum is not sustainable over the long term,” he wrote.
European-listed silver miners surged, with Fresnillo Plc rising as much as 21 per cent in its biggest intraday gain since 2008, and Hochschild Mining Plc climbing 18 per cent. U.S.-listed peers also skyrocketed in early trading, with First Majestic Silver Corp. and McEwen Mining Inc. both rising as much as 32 per cent.
“So far, it is not exactly the GameStop anomaly, but it is a hint that the retail traders who just discovered the strength of their unity are out there, looking for new targets — and apparently bigger ones,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said in written comments.
TORONTO – Restaurant Brands International Inc. reported net income of US$357 million for its third quarter, down from US$364 million in the same quarter last year.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its profit amounted to 79 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with 79 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the parent company of Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, totalled US$2.29 billion, up from US$1.84 billion in the same quarter last year.
Consolidated comparable sales were up 0.3 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands says it earned 93 cents US per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 90 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Fortis Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $420 million, up from $394 million in the same quarter last year.
The electric and gas utility says the profit amounted to 85 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 81 cents per share a year earlier.
Fortis says the increase was driven by rate base growth across its utilities, and strong earnings in Arizona largely reflecting new customer rates at Tucson Electric Power.
Revenue in the quarter totalled $2.77 billion, up from $2.72 billion in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Fortis says it earned 85 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 84 cents per share in the third quarter of 2023.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 82 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
TORONTO – Thomson Reuters reported its third-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its revenue rose eight per cent.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says it earned US$301 million or 67 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30. The result compared with a profit of US$367 million or 80 cents US per diluted share in the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter totalled US$1.72 billion, up from US$1.59 billion a year earlier.
In its outlook, Thomson Reuters says it now expects organic revenue growth of 7.0 per cent for its full year, up from earlier expectations for growth of 6.5 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Thomson Reuters says it earned 80 cents US per share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of 82 cents US per share in the same quarter last year.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 76 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
