Wall Street Today | Hedge funds slash Faang exposure to two-year low

Moomoo Recap US wrote a column · Oct 25, 2021 08:08

Wall Street Today | Hedge funds slash Faang exposure to two-year low

Dow futures fall slightly after the blue-chip average notches third winning week in a row

Stock futures edged lower in overnight trading Sunday after the $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ notched its third positive week in a row at a record high. Dow futures dipped 50 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both fell about 0.1%.

Of the 117 companies in the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ that have reported earnings to date, 84% posted numbers that beat expectations, according to Refinitiv. S&P 500 companies are expected to grow profit by about 35% in the third quarter.

Hedge funds slash Faang exposure to two-year low before earnings

Hedge funds that make both bullish and bearish wagers on stocks are turning skeptical on tech megacaps just days before earnings from the likes of $Apple (AAPL.US)$ and $Meta Platforms (FB.US)$.

Their exposure to the five biggest American companies slipped over the past month, hitting the lowest level in more than two years, according to Goldman Sachs's prime broker. Meanwhile, options traders -- who rushed in to bet on quick gains in 2020 -- are retreating. Total call open interest on that small group of U.S. giants sank to a 14-month low, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Smash-hit bitcoin ETF ups the ante for issuers racing to launch

Ater the stunning success of the $ProShares Bitcoin ETF (BITO.US)$ -- which accumulated more than $1 billion in assets in just days -- the stakes are higher than ever for the queue of issuers hoping to gain a foothold in the sector. Indeed, when the $Valkyrie Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF (BTF.US)$ debuted Friday, 3.1 million shares changed hands. That compares with the 24 million BITO shares traded at Tuesday's launch, which unleashed enthusiasm that helped send Bitcoin to record a day later.

Shiba Inu up 50% to record, becomes 11th-biggest crypto coin

Shiba Inu soared to record highs over the weekend to become the 11th-biggest cryptocurrency by market value.

SHIB, as it's known, was up 50% in the 24 hours through 10:10 a.m. New York time on Sunday, according to pricing from CoinGecko.com, and reached a record earlier in the day.

Home prices rise, and single people are running out of houses to buy

With mortgage rates remaining low, plenty of singles are seeking homes. Often, they are scraping together down payments on their own, so they are looking for more affordable properties.

Single people hoping to buy homes in the current housing market are short on options. The supply of entry-level housing, which Freddie Mac defines as homes up to 1,400 square feet, is near a five-decade low.

Trump's social-media platform joins crowded conservative media field

Former President Donald Trump's planned digital-media venture could quickly become a serious competitor in a crowded field of right-leaning sites and social networks, thanks to Mr. Trump's prominence and online following.

U.S. companies bet shoppers will keep paying higher prices

Corporate giants including $Procter & Gamble (PG.US)$, $NESTLE SA (NSRGF.US)$ and $Verizon (VZ.US)$ say they plan to continue raising prices or pushing customers to buy more expensive products into 2022 to offset fast-growing costs amid a global supply-chain crisis. Gillette razors, Nestlé coffee and Chipotle burritos are among the products that could get more expensive in coming months.

"We have not seen any material reaction from consumers," P&G finance chief Andre Schulten said last week, referring to a string of price increases that went into effect in September.

Facebook confronts growth problems as number of young users in US declines

For almost a decade, $Meta Platforms (FB.US)$ has fretted over an existential problem: it is failing to attract young users in the US.

Internal documents show that the number of US Facebook users under 30 is in decline and that Instagram, which has been phenomenally popular since being bought by Facebook in 2012 for $1bn, appears to be reaching the limits of its growth among younger users in key markets, raising serious questions about the company's future.

Source: Bloomberg, WSJ, CNBC, Financial Times

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