Stocks: Moderna extends losses, Krispy Kreme short-selling picks up, Victoria’s Secret gets boost

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Brian Sozzi and Julie Hyman examine the market and several of the trending stocks heading into the opening bell.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We are watching some movers ahead of the opening bell on this Wednesday morning. Not just for today, but some longer trend movers as well, as we see futures little change this morning.

Moderna is on our list. And that's because this stock is one of the best performers on the year. But it is had a stinker of a streak more recently. In fact, yesterday it fell for the seventh straight session. It looks like it's on pace to make it an eighth here this morning. And it's down, I guess, more than 50% since its peak back in August. Brian Sozzi, it's interesting to see this kind of movement given what Moderna has done this year.

BRIAN SOZZI: Oh my God, yeah. And Moderna is obviously a key player in all things COVID vaccines globally. But Julie, to see-- I'm looking at Yahoo Finance+ right now-- and to see Moderna shares trading on a forward P of 10.6 times given the outlook-- or the earnings potential of this business over the next three to five years in this post pandemic or this pandemic-driven world, I mean, it's absolutely shocking.

But again, I think you're seeing the stock was roped in or just lured in with some of these other big cap tech names. That's just how it is. Of course, they're not a tech company per se. And also, two, they've lost a little bit headline, the headline momentum, especially after that Pfizer pill news.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, and it's so interesting to me if you look at Moderna in contrast with Pfizer or even with Pfizer's partner BioNTech and how they have performed in contrast. You know, maybe not flying quite as high in the case of Pfizer, but more of a consistency, obviously, has a much more diversified revenue stream. Those shares are also trading lower this morning. But it is interesting how investors have approached these various stories. That there really has been sort of a differentiation between them.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, one name that has flown under the radar really is J&J. I mean, you really don't hear J&J's vaccine being mentioned a whole heck of a lot in this environment.

JULIE HYMAN: Great point. All right, we got the opening bell on this Wednesday morning.

[WALL STREET BELL CHIMING]

That is Blacks In Technology Foundation virtually ringing the opening bell here this morning. It is the largest tech nonprofit for people who are African Americans and people of African descent globally. Pretty cool there.

As we get underway this morning, we are looking at stocks that are not seeing much change here. We've got the NASDAQ still showing yesterday's price for the moment. It will open up in a second. But the Dow and the S&P are trading very slightly higher. And we are watching some other movers as well. There's the NASDAQ opening up about a tenth of 1%.

Krispy Kreme is one that you were watching yesterday, Brian Sozzi. And it's still on number two on our top trending ticker page on Yahoo Finance today. What's going on with Krispy Kreme?

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, traders are just eating this one up, Julie. Big move yesterday. Krispy Kreme seeing the shares down a little bit. My friends over at S3 Partners that track short-selling data, and they do absolutely phenomenal work, they shot me a note that through December or through yesterday, Krispy Kreme has seen a 19% jump in the number of shares shorted, even though the stock was up 5%.

It also saw a short-selling in Krispy Kreme pick up over the past seven days about 4%. I think yesterday, what we saw, essentially, a short-covering rally in Krispy Kreme. I think that just what it boils down to.

JULIE HYMAN: All right. Short and sweet. Sweet.

[LAUGHTER]

Get it? Yeah, no, that wasn't as good as yours. All right.

BRIAN SOZZI: No, no.

JULIE HYMAN: Let's also talk about Victoria's Secret, VSCO is that new ticker on Victoria's Secret. And the company is accelerating a share buyback program-- it is $250 million-- at the same time that it's reaffirming its outlook. And the shares are having quite a bounce on this news.

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised by it. But I guess if you look at how the stock has done since it started trading as a standalone company, maybe it's less surprising because it hasn't done that well over the past several months. It started trading in August. And maybe that reaffirmation of guidance is also reassuring, especially coming as it does at the end of the holiday season.

BRIAN SOZZI: I'm not surprised at all, Julie. We've been talking about this for three weeks. We've been setting up our viewers for success. The holiday season, as we have been discussing, came out strong. MasterCard Spending data earlier in the week, very strong.

You go out there and you look at some Google search trends, and Victoria's Secret products remain amongst the top of that list. And you know, you see the CEO Martin Waters coming out and saying their business was strong right up until Christmas Day. I am not surprised. Not surprised to see this share repurchase program.

Now, this is the first-- if you're making a list, this is the first, I would say, positive pre-announcement from the retail space. Again, we reiterate, expect more in coming weeks.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, I guess I'm just surprised by the magnitude of the gain on the back of this announcement.

BRIAN SOZZI: I'm just trying to-- you got to pat yourself on the shoulder sometime, Julie. You know, just you got to do. Or both shoulders.

JULIE HYMAN: I don't think we should expect for every retailer to do well, though. But we'll find out. All right--