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This December 26th marks the 30th consecutive year that I have lived somewhere that does not celebrate Boxing Day. The holiday season is just not the same – well, almost not the same – without it. It’s not all that much different in the States today. What with Christmas being on a Thursday this year, myriads of non-essential workers took vacation days to allow themselves a four-day weekend. Apparently, Wall Street employees are more essential than I had thought, because the traders donned their jackets and worked the floor for a full session today. And some interesting things happened. Here are just a few.
The Indices
The Russell and the Nasdaq followed the lead set prior to Christmas by the Dow and the S&P 500. Although it was a light trading day overall, nonetheless, the Russell 2000 rose 0.8% to a record 1,216.49 and the Nasdaq was up 0.9% to 4,814.95, the highest it has been since 2000, before closing up 0.7% at 4,788.06. The Nasdaq is close to reaching a new, record high of 5,048.62
Adding to the good news, both the Dow and the S&P 500 continued to gain ground, with the Dow closing up 0.13% at 18,053.71 and the S&P up 0.33% to 2,088.77.
The GoPro Surprises (?)
GoPro (NASDAQ:GPRO) had it’s IPO six months ago today with an opening price of 28.65. Its 180-day lockdown has now passed. During the last half year, the company’s share price has reached as high as 98.47, but it has not been near that price since early October. In fact, it closed at 53.90 on 19 December, just seven days ago. However, in the three consecutive trading days before Christmas, it closed at 58.00, 61.54 and 66.41, respectively. Today, the GPRO share price closed up 4.25% to 69.23.
GoPro is meeting with unprecedented success in its market, although it is difficult to define exactly what its market is, because the product and the product line of wearable cameras and equipment is in a class all by itself. The very nature of the GoPro product line is geared to Millennials, which is probably a very good target market for any company that combines technology, gadgetry and mobility.
GoPro was the leading camera sold on Amazon during the Christmas season. The end of the lockdown period and the widespread demand for the product – three GoPro products were listed in the Amazon Top 10 Sellers – may be sufficient impetus for the stock to continue to gain ground. But, let us not thumb our noses at any stock that increases by 29% in a single week and is trading at nearly three times its opening price six months ago.
