Today’s Market Wrap Up and a Glimpse Into Friday

Stocks are on the comeback trail. All three of the major indices finished the day in the green, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding more than 270 points. The rally comes on the heels of Wednesday’s market sell-off in which the Dow shed more than 300 points.

The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq also retook some recently lost ground on Thursday and closed at fresh all-time highs. Investors are easing back into stocks after learning that weekly jobless claims are on the decline, which is a good sign for the labor market.

Stocks to Watch

Robinhood shares fell more than 27% in the regular session after the company revealed in a filing that early investors are poised to sell close to 100 million shares. Robinhood’s pain was meme stocks’ gain. GameStop and AMC Entertainment advanced 4% and 12%, respectively.

Shares of Virgin Galactic are rocketing higher by more than 5% in the after-hours market. Billionaire Richard Branson’s company revealed that it would begin selling tickets for spaceflights at USD 450K a pop, which should jumpstart revenues. In Q2, Virgin Galactic, which is not yet profitable, reported that it has a “revenue-generating flight” planned for late September.

Shares of Zymergen, a biology-focused company, skyrocketed 75% in the regular session and are up another 10% in extended-hours trading. Zymergen’s gains come on the heels of a recent management shakeup and a poor revenue outlook that triggered a sell-off in the stock earlier this week. Now Zymergen has made its way onto Cathie Wood’s radar and into one of ARK Investment’s funds. ARK Investments is also a Tesla bull.

President Biden is looking to make an electric vehicle push in the U.S., but the administration failed to include Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the plans. Tesla is the biggest EV manufacturer in the country. Musk had a good sense of humor about it and seemed to laugh it off.

Look Ahead

All eyes will be on the employment report for July, which comes out on Friday morning. Wells Fargo economists expect that 865,000 jobs were added to the economy last month. Stock index futures are treading lightly ahead of the employment report and are little changed in after-hours trading.