Markets moved sharply higher on Friday, as investors reacted favorably to positive comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the central bank's symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. That was especially good news for the growth-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 2.02%), which was up more than 1% at midday on Friday.
It isn't every day that you see a Nasdaq stock double in value, but that happened on Friday. Below, we'll take a closer look at Support.com (SPRT) and what made it rise so much, along with examining some better-known stocks with more modest but still respectable gains on the day.
Getting Support
Shares of Support.com soared more than 130% at midday on Friday. The move followed a better than 40% rise for the fledgling software company on Thursday, and reflects a combination of factors that once again show that retail investors are playing a major role in how individual stocks move.
Support.com has historically sought to provide outsourced customer support functions for business customers, looking to serve industries across the economy with voice, chat, and self-serve customer service functions. Yet the company took an interest in the cryptocurrency arena earlier this year, announcing a merger with crypto mining company Greenidge Generation. That has linked the company's fortunes to those of the cryptocurrency market, and with prices of many of the most-followed crypto tokens having recovered substantially in recent weeks, Support.com has gained more attention.
Image source: Getty Images.
In fact, that heightened visibility from retail investors might well have spawned the big move higher for Support.com. Like many other stocks that retail investors have focused their efforts on lately, Support.com has a substantial following of institutional investors that are selling the stock short. That's reopened a playbook that individual investors have used on a number of occasions in 2021 to try to prompt a short squeeze, and that's a big part of why a stock that was priced at $2 per share as recently March is now sporting a share price 25 times that level currently.
As market participants have learned from the experiences of companies like AMC Entertainment Holdings and GameStop, share prices can stay at elevated levels for a long time even when there are substantial challenges that their underlying fundamental businesses still have to overcome. Support.com's inconsistent profitability and falling revenue make it an unlikely candidate for a rebound, but that doesn't mean the stock won't keep soaring from here.
A good day for growth stocks
More broadly, growth investors reacted favorably to the Fed news. High-growth stocks benefit from the availability of cheap financing and the added value of future earnings from low interest rates, so the Fed's relatively dovish stance fits well with most of their business models. For instance, Coupa Software (COUP) was up 6% early Friday afternoon, while GoodRx Holdings (GDRX 1.55%) picked up 5%.
Earnings also provided some boosts. Workday (WDAY -1.19%) climbed 10% after posting strong results on Thursday afternoon. Generally, software-as-a-service companies have fared well, and low rates help support the value of their recurring revenue far into the future as well.
Smart investors should focus more on the long-term prospects for proven successful businesses than on companies with weak fundamentals getting attention for technical reasons. The same stocks that double in a day can get cut in half the next for no additional reason, but great companies can often generate huge returns that will benefit investors for years to come.