What happened

Cannabis stocks plummeted on Tuesday morning before rebounding later in the day. Here's how some of the most popular marijuana stocks fared: 

  • Sundial Growers (SNDL 10.11%), down 11.9%
  • Aphria (APHA), down 6.7%
  • Tilray (TLRY), down 5.7%
  • Cronos Group (CRON 4.66%), down 4.8%
  • Aurora Cannabis (ACB 18.15%), down 4.8%
  • Canopy Growth (CGC 15.03%), down 4.6%
  • HEXO (HEXO), down 4%

So what

Weed stocks have been popular trades in 2021. The prospect of marijuana legalization in the U.S. has led investors to bid up the prices of many cannabis companies in recent weeks.

A list of declining stock prices.

Pot stocks fell hard on Tuesday. Image source: Getty Images.

Today, however, many traders decided to sell their marijuana stocks and take some profits off the table. There wasn't much in the way of news that appeared to spark the sell-off, other than a general decline in the stock market averages and a relatively steep drop in the prices of many higher-risk stocks.

Now what

Cannabis stocks can be extremely volatile; that's part of the allure for traders who want to generate quick gains. Volatility cuts both ways, though, and it can be brutal when stocks move violently to the downside.

Fortunately, Sundial, Aphria, Tilray, Cronos, Aurora, Canopy, and HEXO all recovered most of their losses by the close of trading after being down between 13% to 23% earlier in the day. Perhaps investors began to once again focus on recent progress toward legalization, such as New Jersey's move to permit sales of recreational marijuana in the state.