Shares of Ford Motor Co. shot up 34% over the past two days, closing Wednesday at $5.39
NEW YORK —
The Latest on the action in the financial markets (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
Shares of Ford Motor Co. shot up 34% over the past two days, closing Wednesday at $5.39.
The spike came less than a week after the company suspended its dividend and borrowed $15.4 billion to weather any coronavirus-related downturn.
On Tuesday, Ford announced it was working with GE Health Care and 3M to make ventilators and respirators to help fight the virus.
Ford shares are still down 22.6% this month, compared with a 16.2% drop in the S&P 500. The major automakers have closed factories and many dealerships across the U.S. are shut as governments and industries respond to the widening virus outbreak.
Stocks scored their first back-to-back gains since a brutal sell-off began five weeks ago, but much of an early rally faded late Wednesday as a last-minute dispute threatened to hold up a $2 trillion economic rescue package in Congress.
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12:53 p.m.
Cannabis stocks are flying high as investors see green following a recent surge in marijuana sales as people forced to stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic stock up.
Shares in most of the big cannabis companies are up sharply this week following reports of a spike in demand as consumers attempt to stock up in fear of a dragged-out shutdown of stores throughout the U.S.
A snapshot of adult-use marijuana sales over several days last week showed increases of more than twofold in California and a 50% spike in Washington state, according to data from industry tracker Headset.
“We believe other states are likely seeing similar upticks in sales,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Bobby Burleson wrote in a research note last week. “This strength has benefited wholesale as well.”
California and New York have excluded cannabis shops from mandates to shut down non-essential businesses. But uncertainty over whether a broader shutdown will close shops in other states where marijuana sales are legal is clouding the outlook for the industry.
Cannabis stocks got beaten down for much of 2019 as investors’ enthusiasm about the prospects for strong growth and blockbuster company mergers dimmed.
MedMen Enterprises is among the big gainers. It’s up 54% this week, but remains down about 91% from a year ago.