Dow drops more than 600 points Friday, suffers worst week since October amid GameStop trading frenzy
CNBC: U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday, wrapping up a roller-coaster week on Wall Street as heightened speculative trading by retail investors continued to unnerve the market.
The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 620.74 points, or 2%, to 29,982.62, the first time the 30-stock gauge has closed below the 30,000 mark since Dec. 14. The S&P 500 fell 1.9% to 3,714.24 as 10 sectors registered losses. The Nasdaq Composite slid 2% to 13,070.69 as Apple dropped 3.7% and other major tech names slipped.
All three major averages dropped more than 3% this week, posting their worst week since October. For January, the blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500 fell 2% and 1.1%, respectively, suffering their first negative month in four. The tech-heavy Nasdaq eked out a 1.4% gain on the month. ![]()
Shares of GameStop jumped 67.9% after Robinhood said it would allow limited buying of the stock and other heavily shorted names after restricting access the day before. Robinhood raised more than $1 billion from its existing investors overnight, in addition to tapping bank credit lines, to ensure it had the capital required to allow some trading again in volatile stocks like GameStop.
Investors are concerned that if GameStop continues to rise in such a volatile fashion, it may ripple through the financial markets, causing losses at brokers like Robinhood and forcing hedge funds who bet against the stock to sell other securities to raise cash. Read More














