P2JW028000-5-A00100-17FFFF5178F ***** THURSDAY,JANUARY28, 2021 ~VOL. CCLXXVII NO.22 WSJ.com HHHH $4.00 DJIA 30303.17 g 633.87 2.0% NASDAQ 13270.60 g 2.6% STOXX 600 402.98 g 1.2% 10-YR. TREAS. À 7/32 , yield 1.014% OIL $52.85 À $0.24 GOLD $1,844.90 g $5.80 EURO $1.2114 YEN 104.09 What’s Individual InvestorsRout HedgeFunds Shares of GameStop and 1,641.9% GameStop Thepowerdynamics are than that of DeltaAir Lines News shifting on Wall Street. Indi- Inc. AMC have soared this week Wednesday’stotal dollar vidual investorsare winning While the individuals are trading volume,$28.7B, as investors piled into big—at least fornow—and rel- rejoicing at newfound riches, Business&Finance exceeded the topfive ishing it. the pros arereeling from their momentum trades with companies by market losses.Long-held strategies capitalization. volume rivaling that of giant By Gunjan Banerji, such as evaluatingcompany neye-popping rally in Juliet Chung fundamentals have gone out Ashares of companies tech companies. In many $25billion and Caitlin McCabe thewindowinfavor of mo- that were onceleftfor dead, cases, the froth has been a mentum. War has broken out including GameStop, AMC An eye-popping rally in between professionals losing and BlackBerry, has upended result of individual investors Tesla’s 10-day shares of companies that were billions and the individual in- the natural order between defying hedge funds that have trading average onceleftfor dead including vestorsjeering at them on so- hedge-fund investorsand $24.3 billion GameStopCorp., AMC Enter- cial media. those trying their hand at bet against the stocks. tainment HoldingsInc.and Thefrenzy of activity is trading from their sofas. A1 BlackBerry Ltd. has upended stirring regulatoryand legal the natural order between concerns,aswell as the atten- Major U.S. stock indexes hedge-fund investorsand tion of the Biden administra- suffered their sharpest one- 769.0% thosetrying their hand at tion.The WhiteHouse press daylosses sinceOctober, trading from their sofas. secretary said on Wednesday with the S&P 500 and Nas- $20 Individual investorshave that itseconomic team, in- daq both retreating 2.6% vaulted the three stocks, cludingTreasurySecretary and the Dowfalling 2%. B1 which have received hundreds Janet Yellen, is monitoring the TheFed kept itseasy- Shareperformance of thousands of mentions situation. money policies in place, say- Past 10 trading days acrosssocial media sinceearly Thenewbie investorsare ing that businessactivity January, into the ranks of the PleaseturntopageA10 has softened with the resur- 229.0% most traded stocks in the U.S. genceofCovid-19 cases. A2 market. Short sellers become target On Wednesday, GameStop of vitriol......................................... B1 Apple finished 2020 with shares hit ahigh of $380 in- AMCrides wave after fighting itsmost profitable quarter traday, briefly giving the vid- to avoid bankruptcy................ B2 ever and forthe firsttime Apple eogame retailer amarket Heardonthe Street: Reddit exceeded $100 billion in AMC $15.0 value of $26.5 billion—more bubble justgame fornow... B12 quarterly revenue. A1 BlackBerry Entertainment GameStop Facebook posted record $14.1 billion $28.7billion revenue and profit forthe market cap $19.3 billion fourth quarter while warning $24.2B cap Apple’s Amazon.com GameStop Shows of challenges including grow- 10-day $12.4 ing friction with Apple. B1 avg. $6.8B cap Boeing reported itsbig- volume Epitome of Bubble gest-ever annual lossand took abig financial hit on its Wednesday’s AMC’svolume GameStoptraded newest jetliner,signs that the trading volume Wednesdaywas nearly twicethe BY JAMES MACKINTOSH Thereare plenty of calls for pandemic is compounding $6.7 billion nearly three times 10-day average $10 the stock to go to $1,000 or the company’sproblems. A1 its market cap volume as Apple, the largestpublicly GameStopisthe platonic more(it started the year at Ant Group is planning to traded company ideal of astock bubble. $18.84). Microsoft turn itself into a financial Acombination of easy But GameStop’ssoaring $8.1 holding companyoverseen by money,areal improvement stock—and similar moves in China’scentral bank,respond- in the company’sprospects, BlackBerry, Nokia and oth- ing to regulatorypressure. A1 Trading volume sinceJan. 13 technical support from a ers—is abubble in micro- Alphabet short squeeze cosm, with lessons forthose Tesla posted itsfirst full- $7.3 ANALYSIS and amad rush of us worrying about froth year profit and laid out plans AMC to getrich or die elsewhereinthe market. forasharp increase in pro- BlackBerry Entertainment trying pushed stock in the GameStop’srise started duction over coming years. B1 $5 retailer up 64-fold from late with some genuinely good Exxon is preparing to August to Wednesday’sclose. news,just as bubbles always makechanges to itsboard Anyone who has held on for do.RyanCohen, who built up and adopt other measures 10 days made gains of more and sold online pet-food re- as it faces pressurefroma than 10 times their money. tailer Chewy,started building pair of activist investors. B1 It is tempting to see what is nowa13% stakefor GameStopasmerely clown- his RC Ventures in GameStop World-Wide ish behavior in achat room last year.Hepushed forthe having some amusing effects staid mall-based seller of on astock few care about. videogames to improveits Biden took steps to ad- That would be amistake. internet sales.This month he dressclimatechange, sus- Sure,the wildly popular joined the board. pending newoil and gas Reddit group wallstreet- Mr.Cohen’sarrival means leases on federal land and Jan.13272Jan.13J72an.13 7bets—slogan: like4chan GameStopatleast has a confronting the issue through found aBloombergtermi- chanceofjoining the 21st diplomatic,conservation Sources: DowJones Market Data (volume, market value); FactSet (performance) nal—is full of childish chat. PleaseturntopageA10 and other initiatives. A4 Thepresident plans to sign moreimmigration-re- lated executiveactions revers- Boeing’sBiggest Loss Apple Profit Hits Record ing Trump’spolicies on asy- lum seekersand refugees. A4 TheDHS issued itsfirst- Reflects Pandemic Toll ever national terrorism bul- As Sales Pass $100 Billion letin about violent domestic extremists, warning they could BY DOUG CAMERON trouble following the grounding AND ANDREW TANGEL of the 737MAX.Quality prob- BY TIM HIGGINS lion in quarterly revenue.Profit Theresultsarrived Wednes- attack in the coming weeks, lems with itspopular 787 rose 29% to $28.76billion in dayduring the biggest week for emboldened by the Jan. 6 Boeing Co.reported itslarg- Dreamliner jet have halted de- Apple Inc.finished 2020 with the three months ended in De- corporateearningsthis quarter storming of the Capitol. A3 est-ever annual lossand took a liveries sinceOctober. itsmost profitable quarter ever, cember,its fiscal firstquarter. as Apple,Tesla Inc.and Face- Twosenators from op- big financial hit on itsnewest ThedelayleavesBoeing even fueled by an uptick in higher- On aper-sharebasis,Apple book Inc.sought to appease in- positesides of the aisle jetliner,signs that the Covid-19 morereliant on itsdefense end iPhone sales and apan- said it earned $1.68,exceeding vestor concerns over whether were working to build sup- pandemic is compounding the business and other troubled demic-induced surge in demand the$1.41 predicted by analysts their rapid growth will continue. port forcensuring Trump aerospacegiant’sproblems. commercial-aircraftprograms forits laptops and tablets. in aFactSet survey. Tesla posted itssixth straight over his rhetoric ahead of Theplane maker said the to reverseheavy losses,asthe Altogether,the Cupertino, “Wecould not be moreop- quarter of profitsbut fell in af- the Capitol riot as an alter- new777X, itslargest passenger pandemic has sapped demand Calif., companygenerated timistic,” AppleChief Execu- PleaseturntopageA6 nativetoproceeding to an jet, would be at least three fornew planes.Executives $111.4billion in quarterly sales, tiveTim Cook said in an inter- impeachment trial. A6 yearslatefor airline customers, said Wednesdaythey didn’t ex- an all-time high and the first view about the company’s Facebook’s revenue surges on the latest Boeing plane to hit PleaseturntopageA4 time it has exceeded $100 bil- product lineup. advertising.................................... B1 APfizerlab study found that mutations identified in the U.K. and South Africahad only small impactsonthe effective- nessofantibodies generated Ant Group Bends to China Pressure by itsCovid-19 vaccine. A7 TheEuropean Union de- BY JING YANG by billionaire Jack Ma, to be- shed itsimageasafinancial- manded that AstraZeneca come afinancial holding com- services provider andfashion stick to apreviously agreed AntGroup Co.isplanning panyinits entirety,subjecting itself as an internet-technology THE THREAT to turn itself intoafinancial it to morestringent capital re- company, which helped it com- to schedule fordelivering holding companyoverseen by quirements, the people said. mand lofty valuations.Before doses of itsCovid-19 vac- China’scentral bank,respond- Ant, in response, has submit- its blockbuster initial public of- cine to the bloc. A8 OF EXTORTION ing to pressure to fall fully in tedtoauthorities an outline of fering wascalled off in Novem- ThePentagon sent aB-52 line with financial regulations, arestructuring plan, they said. ber,Ant had been on track to bomber acrossthe Persian people familiar with the mat- Theplan representsasig- go public at avaluation north Gulf region, the sixth