With experts focusing on social media trends to assess market sentiment, retail investors are playing a big part in the year-end surge for U.S. stocks. Goldman Sachs technical specialist Scott Rubner emphasized the need of keeping an eye on Reddit (RDDT, Financial) activity, especially trending names on the WallStreetBets site, with retail traders driving momentum. Rising recently, the S&P 500 Index (SP500) is on Wednesday reaching its 56th record closing high of the year. This fits Rubner's projection that by year-end the index might hit 6,200. With many apparently more active throughout the holiday season, retail traders are seen profiting on the so-called "FOMO" (fear of missing out) surge.
Along with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), prominent references on Wednesday's WallStreetBets discussion thread included Nvidia (NVDA), Intuitive Machines (LUNR, Financial), and Archer Aviation (ACHR, Financial). Rising to prominence amid the 2021 retail trading frenzy, these stocks join traditional meme-stocks favorites such GameStop (GME, Financial), AMC Entertainment (AMC, Financial), and Chewy (CHWY, Financial).
Particularly as they use options and talk about well-known brands, WallStreetBets and like sites have become a gauge for retail investor activity. As part of their larger efforts to grasp retail-driven market trends, analysts keep an eye on these forums.
