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Credit a ‘short squeeze’ for the stock market’s big two-day bounce

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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 22, 2025.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

A key force at the center of the stock market’s massive two-day rally is the frantic behavior of short sellers covering their losses.

Hedge fund short sellers recently added more bearish wagers in both single stocks and securities tied to macro developments after the whipsaw early April triggered by President Donald Trump’s tariff rollout and abrupt 90-day pause, according to Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage data.

The increased short position in the market created an environment prone to dramatic upswings due to this artificial buying force. A short seller borrows an asset and quickly sells it; when the security decreases in price, they buy it back more cheaply to profit from the difference.

It can backfire when the security suddenly rallies, short sellers are forced to buy back their borrowed stocks rapidly in order to limit their losses, a Wall Street phenomenon known as a short squeeze.

If the market appeared to be rallying by quite a large amount on no real tangible news, but instead just some walking back of comments on China and the Federal Reserve by Trump, credit this phenomenon.

“Squeeze risk is real today,” John Flood, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, said in an early note to clients Wednesday.

Flood echoed the sentiment of many traders that have said the market appeared coiled for a relief rally because so many hedge funds were caught on the wrong side of this bet.

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Short-covering was on display Tuesday and Wednesday as stocks shot up on signs of easing tensions on trade even though no concrete deals have been reached yet. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday “there is an opportunity for a big deal here” on trade issues between the U.S. and China.

The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average surged another 1,100 points Wednesday at its highs following a 1,000-point gain to end a four-day losing streak. The S&P 500 is up 3.5% week to date after back-to-back winning sessions.

Trump’s quick reversal on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also fueled the positive sentiment. Trump said he has “no intention” of firing Powell, after saying the central bank chief’s “termination cannot come fast enough” just a few days ago.

But take note the rally was quickly fading with the Dow up just 500 points at latest count midday Wednesday. The fading short squeeze boost evident at the open could be a reason for the pullback off the highs.

Also, Goldman’s Flood said hedge funds haven’t gone from short covering to outright buying on the long side, a sign that the rally doesn’t have high conviction behind it.

“I am closely monitoring to see if HF covers in macro and singles start to evolve into long buys,” Flood said. “Also want to see longer duration investors step in and buy names they view as fair value. We have not seen any of this type of action, yet.”

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Stock and crypto trading site eToro prices IPO at $52 per share

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Omar Marques | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

EToro, a stock brokerage platform that’s been ramping up in crypto, has priced its IPO at $52 a share, as the company prepares to test the market’s appetite for new offerings.

The company had planned to sell shares at $46 to $50 each.

IPOs looked poised for a rebound when President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January after a prolonged drought spurred by rising interest rates and inflationary concerns. CoreWeave’s March debut was a welcome sign for IPO hopefuls such as eToro, online lender Klarna and ticket reseller StubHub.

But tariff uncertainty temporarily stalled those plans. The retail trading platform filed for an initial public offering in March, but shelved plans as rising tariff uncertainty rattled markets. Klarna and StubHub did the same.

EToro’s Nasdaq debut, under ticker symbol ETOR, may indicate whether the public market is ready to take on risk. Digital physical therapy company Hinge Health has started its IPO roadshow, and said in a filing on Tuesday that it plans to raise up to $437 million in its upcoming offering. Also on Tuesday, fintech company Chime filed its prospectus with the SEC.

Founded in 2007 by brothers Yoni and Ronen Assia along with David Ring, eToro competes with the likes of Robinhood and makes money through fees related to trading, including spreads on buy and sell orders, and non-trading activities such as withdrawals and currency conversion.

Net income jumped almost thirteenfold last year to $192.4 million from $15.3 million a year earlier. The company has been ramping up its crypto business, with revenue from cryptoassets more than tripling to over $12 million in 2024. One-quarter of its net trading contribution last year came from crypto, up from 10% the prior year.

This isn’t eToro’s first attempt at going public. In 2022, the company scrapped plans to hit the market through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) during a sharp downturn in equity markets. The deal would have valued the company at more than $10 billion.

CEO Yoni Assia told CNBC early last year that eToro was still aiming for a market debut but “evaluating the right opportunity” as it was building relationships with exchanges, including the Nasdaq.

“We definitely are eyeing the public markets,” he said at the time. “I definitely see us becoming eventually a public company.”

EToro said in its prospectus that BlackRock had expressed interest in buying $100 million in shares at the IPO price. The company said it planned to sell 5 million shares in the offering, with existing investors and executives selling another 5 million.

Underwriters for the deal include Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and UBS.

— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed reporting

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Coinbase jumps 22% after S&P 500 inclusion

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Brian Armstrong, chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc., speaks during the Messari Mainnet summit in New York, on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Coinbase shares soared more than 20% on Tuesday and headed for their sharpest rally since the day after President Donald Trump’s election victory following the crypto exchange’s inclusion in the S&P 500.

S&P Global said in a release late Monday that Coinbase is replacing Discover Financial Services, which is in the process of being acquired by Capital One Financial. The change will take effect before trading on Monday.

Stocks added to the S&P 500 often rise in value because funds that track the benchmark will add it to their portfolios. For Coinbase, it’s the latest sharp move in what’s been a volatile few months since Trump was elected to return to the White House.

Coinbase shares rocketed 31% on Nov. 6, the day after the election, on optimism that the incoming administration would adopt more crypto-friendly policies following a challenging and litigious four years during President Joe Biden’s term in office.

The company and CEO Brian Armstrong were key financial supporters in the 2024 campaign, backing pro-crypto candidates up and down the ticket. Coinbase was one of the top corporate donors, giving more than $75 million to a PAC called Fairshake and its affiliates. Armstrong personally contributed more than $1.3 million to a mix of candidates.

While the start of the Trump term has been mostly favorable to the crypto industry, through deregulation and an executive order to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, legislation has thus far stalled. That’s due in part to concerns surrounding Trump’s personal efforts to profit from crypto through a meme coin and other family initiatives.

Coinbase has been on a roller coaster as well, plummeting 26% in February and 20% in March as Trump’s tariff announcements roiled markets and pushed investors out of risk. With Tuesday’s rally, the stock is now up about 2% for the year.

Since going public through a direct listing in 2021, Coinbase has become a bigger part of the U.S. financial system, with bitcoin soaring in value and large institutions gaining regulatory approval to create spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Bitcoin spiked last week, topping $100,000 and nearing its record price reached in January. The crypto currency surpassed $104,000 on Tuesday.

To join the S&P 500, a company must have reported a profit in its latest quarter and have cumulative profit over the four most recent quarters.

Coinbase last week reported net income of $65.6 million, or 24 cents a share, down from $1.18 billion, or $4.40 a share a year earlier, after accounting for the fair value of its crypto investments. Revenue rose 24% to $2.03 billion from $1.64 billion a year ago.

The company last week also announced plans to buy Dubai-based Deribit, a major crypto derivatives exchange for $2.9 billion. The deal, which is the largest in the crypto industry to date, will help Coinbase broaden its footprint outside the U.S.

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