Stocks rebound some following yesterday's rout Stocks recovered much of their losses on Thursday from a rout on Wednesday that was the market's worst in three months. Apple, Facebook and Tesla all slid following their earnings reports last night, but the trio's underperformance didn't prevent the Dow and S&P from rising over 1% apiece. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the advance report showed a Q4 GDP growth rate of 4.0% versus the 33.4% clip in Q3 and 31.4% decline in Q2. The advance indicators report revealed a December narrowing in the goods trade deficit to $82.5B from an all-time high of $85.5B in November. Initial jobless claims contracted 67,000 to 847,000 in the week ended January 23. New home sales bounced 1.6% to a 842,000 home rate in December. The leading indicators index inched 0.3% higher to 109.5 in December TOP NEWS: Shares of Apple ($AAPL) fell 3.5% despite the warm reception among Wall Street analysts to the company's report of Q1 revenue and EPS that beat consensus expectations. RBC Capital analyst Robert Muller said the company "delivered on all fronts" considering "elevated expectations" coming into yesterday's Q1 report, while DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte said the company's Q1 results "cemented" his view that Apple's first lineup of smartphones on 5G networks is well positioned due to carrier support as well as favorable discretionary income and work/learn from home trends during the pandemic. Shares of Facebook ($FB) closed 2.6% lower after the company also beat consensus forecasts on the top and bottom lines of its fourth quarter report. Evercore ISI analyst Kevin Rippey, who was among many on Wall Street to raise his firm's price target on Facebook, noted that the company's battle with Apple is escalating and added that he increasingly believes the Facebook versus Apple battle "is far more important a risk factor than regulation." Tesla ($TSLA) shares declined 3.3% after what Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas called a quarter "for the true believers," who must look at the trade-off between a significant profit miss versus consensus against the company's stronger than expected cash flow and outlook for "extremely rapid expansion." Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner raised the firm's price target on Tesla to $900 from $890 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares, recommending that investors use today's post-earnings weakness to accumulate shares, while JMP Securities analyst Joseph Osha downgraded Tesla to Market Perform from Outperform after the report. In the latest turns in the "WallStreetBets" saga that has recently grabbed headlines, and driven incredible volatility in a number of smaller-cap stocks, Robinhood said in a post to its corporate blog that it "continuously monitor[s] the markets and make[s] changes where necessary." In light of recent volatility, Robinhood is restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, it has said. Its restriction list now includes "$AAL, $AMC, $BB, $BBBY, $CTRM, $EXPR, $GME, $KOSS, $NAKD, $NOK, $SNDL, $TR, and $TRVG." The restrictions continued, as commission-free online stock trading platform Webull said it wouldn't allow clients to open new positions in AMC Entertainment ($AMC), GameStop ($GME), and Koss Corp. ($KOSS), while Bloomberg reported that E-Trade ($MS) has restricted the purchase of GameStop and AMC shares. Meanwhile, Interactive Brokers ($IBKR) said via Twitter that, "Interactive Brokers has put AMC, BB, EXPR, GME, and KOSS option trading into liquidation only due to the extraordinary volatility in the markets. In addition, long stock positions will require 100% margin and short stock positions will require 300% margin until further notice. [...] We do not believe this situation will subside until the exchanges and regulators halt or put certain symbols into liquidation only. We will continue to monitor market conditions and may add or remove symbols as may be warranted." In other news, General Motors ($GM) announced that it intends to become carbon neutral in its global products and operations by 2040, with the car maker aspiring to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty vehicles by 2035. In addition, the company plans to offer 30 all-electric models "by mid-decade." Additionally, The Wall Street Journal reported that BowX Acquisition ($BOWX) is among special purpose acquisition companies in talks to merger with WeWork ($WE). MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was First Majestic ($AG), which has surged 21.6% higher. The company said it is "not aware of any material, undisclosed information related to the company that would account for the recent increase in the market price and level of trading volume of its ordinary shares." Also higher were American Airlines ($AAL) and Mastercard ($MA), which gained a respective 9.3% and 2.8% after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was GSX Techedu ($GSX), which declined 26.8% after Goldman Sachs analyst Christine Cho downgraded the stock to Sell from Neutral. Also lower were Levi Strauss ($LEVI) and NextGen Healthcare ($NXGN), which fell 5.8% and 8.8%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results. Reviewing Thursday's economic data:Fourth quarter real GDP increased at an annualized rate of 4.0% (Briefing.com consensus 4.4%) following a 33.4% increase in the third quarter.The key takeaway from the report is that growth clearly moderated, but at the same time, it held up quite well in light of the concerns surrounding the election, the surge in coronavirus cases, the delayed passage of the $900 billion stimulus, and deterioration in the labor market. That should build some confidence in recovery potential as the year progresses, vaccination efforts improve, and pent-up demand is unleashed.Initial jobless claims decreased by 67,000 for the week ending January 23 to 847,000 (Briefing.com consensus 875,000). Continuing claims for the week ending January 16 decreased by 203,000 to 4.771 million.The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims improved; however, they still aren't a cause for celebration at the current level.New home sales increased 1.6% m/m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 842,000 in December (Briefing.com consensus 860,000) from a downwardly revised 829,000 (from 841,000) in November.The key takeaway from the report is that new home sales, which are counted when contracts are signed, moderated for the second straight month from the torrid recovery pace seen in the July to October period that ran at an average sales pace of 968,000. Higher sales prices are presumably contributing to the moderating pace of sales.The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI) increased 0.3% m/m in December, as expected. That increase followed an upwardly revised 0.7% increase (from 0.6%) for November.The key takeaway from the report is that the strength in component indicators was widespread, with seven of the 10 indicators making positive contributions.The Advance report for International Trade in Goods for December showed a deficit of $82.5 billion versus $85.5 billion in November. The Advance report for Retail Inventories for December increased 1.0%, and the Advance report for Wholesale Inventories for December increased 0.1%.Russell 2000 +6.7% YTDNasdaq Composite +3.5% YTDS&P 500 +0.8% YTDDow Jones Industrial Average UNCH YTDMarket SnapshotDow30603.36+300.19(0.99%)Nasdaq13337.16+66.56(0.50%)SP 5003787.38+36.61(0.98%)10-yr Note -3/321.053NYSEAdv 2168 Dec 954 Vol 1.4 blnNasdaqAdv 2140 Dec 1675 Vol 9.6 blnIndustry WatchStrong: Financials, Materials, Industrials, Health CareWeak: Consumer Discretionary, Real EstateMoving the Market-- Stocks rebound as brokerage firms halt the short-squeeze mania-- Another round of mostly better than expected earnings reports-- Encouraging GDP dataDisclosure: I may trade in the ticker symbols mentioned, both long or short. My articles represent my personal opinion and analysis and should not be taken as investment advice. Readers should do their own research before making decisions to buy or sell securities. 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