Financials Gain As Worries About Short Squeeze, Brokers Subside -- Financials Roundup

Shares of banks and other financial institutions rose amid hopes that stability was slowly returning to global markets, even as Reddit-inspired day traders continued to wreak havoc in markets for retail stocks and silver.

The day traders' weapon of choice, free-trading app Robinhood, said its parent company raised another $2.4 billion from shareholders, days after investors agreed to pump $1 billion into the online brokerage to help it meet new margin requirements related to GameStop.

"In a dramatic shift, last week's volatility was not driven by coronavirus- or stimulus-related headlines, but rather by a history-making short-squeeze coordinated by a pool of individual investors leveraging social media and online chat groups," said strategists at money manager Nuveen, in a note to clients.

To the Nuveen strategists, the most important implication of the short squeeze was that "individual investors with growing access to capital and markets are a force to be reckoned with."

Write to Rob Curran at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-01-21 1712ET