Shares of banks and other financial institutions rose as the "short squeeze" orchestrated by Reddit users in GameStop, silver and other investments appeared to wane.
The outperformance of GameStop, which at one point became the largest company in the Russell 2000, hurt the performance of actively managed mutual funds that use the small-cap index as their benchmark, said analysts at brokerage Bank of America Global Research, in a note to clients.
"Here we were watching the daily Covid-19 news, stimulus drama, and earnings reports, and wham, the 'Reddit Revolution' whacks stocks and totally wipes out a mostly nice January for the stock market," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at money manager The Leuthold Group.
Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-02-21 1739ET
