US stocks were mixed on Thursday. As most investors head into a long holiday weekend, there are several things helping to drive stock prices higher on Thursday.
IPOs Boost Market Sentiment
On April 18 the stock market saw two big IPOs. Both Zoom Video (ZM) and Pinterest (PINS) made their public debuts. For the most part, investors remained skiddish about the latest series of IPOs. What was the reason? A few weeks ago the market witnessed the much anticipated Lyft (LYFT) IPO that has ended is disaster.
The day that Lyft went public, share prices briefly hit highs of $88.60 before closing the day in the red. This trend hasn’t stopped since then. Current stock prices show the company’s shares trading around $55. This abysmal figure is a far cry from even its IPO price of $72.
Needless to say, both Pinterest and Zoom have remained relatively flat. Zoom shares traded in a range of $$60.32 to $66. Pinterest saw a trading channel of $23.05 to $24.99.
Micro-Cap Stocks Rally Back
During the early morning session, the Russell Microcap Index saw a sharp drop to lows of $578.33. But since then, the index has continued to rally higher, nearly surpassing its opening price as of 12:30 PM. What is a microcap stock? These stocks represent companies with a market capitalization of $50 million to $300 million. Traditionally, investors will see plenty of penny stocks on the list.
The higher volatility attracts investors to these equities. This morning, the stock price for a few microcap companies ended up skyrocketing on heavy volume. Among the list of penny stocks, Amyris Inc. (AMRS), Mustang Bio (MBIO), Precipio Inc. (PRPO) and Uxin Limited (UXIN) hit scanners for volume and price movement.
With the short week, it’s likely that the markets could slow down during the afternoon session. Looking ahead to next week, investors will be watching for several key figures notwithstanding the growing list of companies reporting earnings.
