The NewsRoom Syndicate

Despite the negative publicity and even political attacks that the Robinhood brokerage firm and app has had last week more people are opening up accounts with them and more of their customers are piling into Gamestop Corp. (NYSE: GME) stock.

Robinhood provides its customers with a list of the 100 most popular and widely owned stocks and ranks them by the number of people who own them. On Thursday morning Gamestop Corp. (NYSE: GME) was number 23 on this list and by Saturday morning it was number 15, showing that many additional customers, probably several hundred thousand, bought the stock to add to their account.

On Friday Gamestop Corp. (NYSE: GME) was the 12 most actively traded mid-cap/large cap stock on all of the US stock exchanges, while AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) was number one, doing over 500 million shares of volume and has also been targeted as a stock with a huge short position to buy by the WallStreetBets Reddit message board community. That community itself had 4.1 million members on it as of Thursday at 2:00 PM EST and gained over 2.6 million additional members by Saturday morning.

All of this demonstrates massive herd activity in the financial markets. The WallStreetBets message board also has targeted silver investing and the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) exchange traded fund as something to buy. The ETF went up 1.09% on 113 million shares and helped to fuel sympathy gains in silver mining stocks both large and small. On Friday, Robinhood also restricted trading in it to no more than five shares, along with 50 additional stocks.

This trading action in silver has gotten the attention of many so called “silver bugs,” such as Steven Tremblay, a private investor whose tagline on Twitter is, “I am an investor that strongly believes we are in the biggest debt bubble in the history of mankind. I am a strong believer in gold, silver, and health.” He was interviewed by Palisades Radio in this segment.

Steven Tremblay calls silver a “miracle metal.” Time will tell if more of the WallStreetBets and Robinhood herd buys enough of it to get silver ETF’s and stocks to appear on the Robinhood top 100 list. None have yet.

Last month, the number of December home sales hit a record high for that month, as the boom in real estate simply continues. Last year, real estate prices went up $2.5 trillion in value, which is the most in a single year since 2005, according to a Zillow analysis.

Home prices nationally rose 12.9% from where they were a year ago in December, according to an Associated Press story today. Contract signings are a sign for future purchases to take place within 30-60 days, so today’s report suggests more sales are coming to take more homes off of the market.

The gains are expected to continue in 2021 “Builder confidence, perhaps in reaction to the boosted demand, hit record highs and more homes are being built as a result,” said Zillow economist Treh Manhertz.

Of course, the gains are being fueled by zero interest rates, which is making it easier for people to buy homes and attracting money into the real estate market for investment purposes. News4 AJAX did a segment on how the market is booming in northeast Florida.

Despite the rise in real estate prices there is blaring weakness in most of the US economy as fourth quarter GDP numbers released yesterday showed a big reduction in the growth rebound that took place in the third quarter and a continued decline in personnel incomes.

This morning shares of Gamestop Corp (NYSE: GME) are poised to gap up on the opening bell with a 100%+ percentage gain from yesterday’s close following news that the Robinhood brokerage company has lifted some of the trading restrictions for its customers for the stock. Robinhood has been in the news and under attack by opinion makers and various politicians for restricting trading in the stock, however all of the news coverage and media attention has served to attract so much attention to the company and its trading app that this morning it has risen to be the number one most downloaded app in the Apple and Android stores.

This is very noteworthy for Gamestop (NYSE: GME) stock trading today, because the stock is ranked number 23 out of the 100 most owned stocks among Robinhood traders. Notice that Reddit is number two on this list. At 2:00 PM EST yesterday the WallStreetBets Reddit group that has been the focus of attention around Gamestop stock trading had 4.2 million members. As of now it has 6 million.

You can’t see the stocks at the top of this list, this is just a screen shot of part of it. The number one stock is Apple and second is Tesla. Robinhood users tend to closely follow this top 100 list and trade in a way that creates herd like behavior. It will be fascinating to watch how this unfolds going forward. The company has been under political attack yesterday from several politicians and the Senate is soon to hold hearings on the trading activities around Gamestop (NYSE: GME) and surrounding figures and events.

The CEO of Robinhood appeared on CNBC Thursday to defend his company and explain its decisions.

This is an ongoing story.

This morning the US Commerce Department released its second round of US Gross Domestic Product numbers for the fourth quarter of 2020, showing that the US economy grew by 4%. This is a sharp slowdown in the 33% expansion in the US economy that came as a third quarter rebound from the first half annual collapse thanks to the Covid shutdowns, lost jobs, and simple social distancing to avoid the virus undertaken by millions. Overall the US economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020.

The first half plunge in GDP in the United States was historic and the course of the year was a wild one of contraction and expansion, but as we go into 2021 things are slowing. Pockets of strength in the economy were in real estate, fixed investment, and stock market gains, all driven in part due to a Federal Reserve policy of zero interest rates and bond buying operations. While the economy grew in the second half of the year of 2020, the average American suffered as their personal income decreased $339.7 billion in the fourth quarter and $541.5 billion in the third quarter. Without the massive government stimulus the entire economy would collapse.

Donald Trump left the White House last week, but this week he is in Florida setting up his “Office of the Former President,” where he is hoping to keep his Trump movement going as a potent force in American politics. What is setting up is a war between the Trump faction of the American right-wing and the more “establishment” or “moderate” Republican Party, typified now by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Liz Cheney.

One test of the movement is emerging in Ohio, because of the announcement by Republican Senator Rob Portman that he is not going to run for re-election in two years. This is setting up a coming Republican Primary battle for that seat between what will be a Trump candidate and a more moderate Republican, or group of them.

Politico reports that “the Republican primary could quickly become crowded and nasty, especially as the party works to rebuild itself and figure out the path forward in the wake of Trump’s defeat. A number of Republicans could be in the mix. Rep. Jim Jordan, a close Trump ally, has previously been eyed as a potential statewide candidate.”

Other potential candidates include Ohio Treasurer Johsh Mandel, Representative Steve Stivers, and rumors that Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance might make a go at running.

Meanwhile the New York Times reported that “Sarah Longwell, the executive director of the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump group, said she and her colleagues planned to raise and spend $50 million to defend the 10 pro-impeachment House Republicans in primary contests and attack those who voted to object to the Electoral College results after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. She said the group would aim to defeat Mr. Jordan in an Ohio Senate primary if he runs against an establishment-minded Republican.”

Of course an open seat leaves a chance for Democrats to try to win another seat in Congress.

OHIO SENATE: Rob Portman’s surprise retirement gives Dems a critical opening they wouldn’t have had in 2022. Still, Ohio was Safe R with Portman, and TO START WITH, I’d lower it only to Likely R. Can’t ignore Ohio trends since 2016, plus midterm usually adds lift to out-party.

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) January 25, 2021

NEW: Rob Portman (R-OH) will not seek re-election to the Senate in 2022. Republicans are also vacating seats in the swing states of PA and NC.

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) January 25, 2021

The battle between the Trump movement and the rest of the Republican Party will be a key story for the next four years.

Bills filed in the Tennessee General Assembly would prevent governmental agencies from requiring vaccines or immunizations against a person’s will or as a condition of employment. Two in the Tennessee Senate and two in the Tennessee House are identical across the chambers. Senator Janice Bowling (R-District 16) introduced the Senate bills. “There should not be any coercion on anybody’s part to force someone to submit to any kind of medical procedure that they don’t want,” Bowling said.

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