US LNG exports surge but will buyers in China turn up?
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* Boeing falls on record annual loss, to delay 777X jet
* Microsoft rises after upbeat quarterly results
* GameStop rally quashes hedge funds, sparks short squeeze
* Big-tech earnings in focus later in the day
* Indexes down: Dow 1.20%, S&P 1.61%, Nasdaq 1.30%
(Adds comments, updates prices throughout)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Jan 27 (Reuters) - The Dow and the S&P 500 slid more than 1%
on Wednesday as Boeing slumped on posting a record annual loss,
while declines were exacerbated by hedge funds selling off long
positions to cover a short squeeze sparked by a sharp rally in
GameStop and AMC.
Shares of videogame retailer GameStop Corp GME.N and movie
theater operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC.N each
more than doubled on Wednesday as amateur investors again piled
into the stocks, forcing short-sellers such as Citron to abandon
their losing bets. "As weird as that may sound, what is partially responsible
for what's going on today in the market is that there's a lot of
selling going on to raise cash to cover some of these big shorts
that are just getting pummeled," said Sean O'Hara, president of
Pacer ETF Distributors in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
Focus later in the day will be on the Federal Reserve's
statement after a two-day policy meeting. The central bank is
expected to keep monetary policy locked in crisis-fighting mode,
with investors also looking forward to relief from ongoing
vaccination programs and new fiscal spending plans. Meanwhile, Boeing Co BA.N fell 3.1% and was among the top
drags on the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI after the
planemaker took a hefty $6.5 billion charge on its all-new 777X
jetliner due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of a
two-year safety crisis over its 737 MAX. In a week packed with quarterly earnings from mega-cap
companies, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O rose 1.9% after its results
as the software maker continues to benefit from remote working
and learning trends globally. Microsoft's results set a positive precedent for other
technology-related companies including Apple Inc AAPL.O , Tesla
Inc TSLA.O and Facebook Inc FB.O , which are set to report
quarterly numbers later in the day.
These heavyweight majors have recently come back into favor
after blowout results from streaming giant Netflix Inc NFLX.O ,
and as investors dumped economy-linked banks, energy and
small-cap stocks.
However, concerns about heightened stock market valuations,
raging coronavirus cases and any potential disruption to vaccine
rollouts have spooked investors about a pullback and increase in
volatility in the near-term.
Shares of Apple were up 0.2% by mid-day, while Tesla and
Facebook were down 0.6% and 2.4%, respectively.
The CBOE Market Volatility index .VIX , often used as a
gauge for investor anxiety, rose 5.63 points, hitting its
highest since Jan. 4, the day before the Georgia runoffs.
By 12:32 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 371.41 points, or 1.20%, at 30,565.63, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 61.96 points, or 1.61%, at 3,787.66, and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 177.04 points, or 1.30%, at
13,449.03.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA.O jumped 4.9% after the
drugstore chain named the outgoing chief operating officer of
Starbucks, Roz Brewer, as its CEO. Declining issues outnumbered advancers 3.41-to-1 on the NYSE
and 3.71-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 131 new highs and 19 new lows.