GameStop Extends Gains Premarket as Eye-Popping Surge Continues

GameStop Corp. extended its jaw-dropping surge in premarket trading on Tuesday, climbing as much as 30% from Monday’s close as bullish day traders kept the upper hand over short sellers.

The stock rose as high as $100 compared with the last closing price of $76.79. It closed 18% higher on Monday, briefly touching a record high of $159.18, and has more than quadrupled this month.

GameStop, which has turned into a battleground for short sellers and retail traders, triggered at least nine trading halts for volatility on Monday. Options trading has also surged.

GameStop’s recent rally has left analyst estimates in the dust, with the average price target by all Wall Street analysts of $13.93 implying the shares will lose more than 80% of their value in the next year. The ratio between its current share price and the average target is by far the biggest in the Russell 3000.

READ: GameStop Shorts Don’t Deserve Such Schadenfreude: John Authers

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Is Running For Governor. Here Are Her Most Egregious Lies.

NBC’s Mehdi Hasan responded to the news that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is running for Arkansas governor with a run-down of her five worst lies as White House press secretary.

Sanders’ two-year tenure in the White House was defined by her “brazen” and “relentless” lying on behalf of former President Donald Trump, Hasan said on Monday’s episode of “The Mehdi Hasan Show” on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.

Hasan listed what he believed were Sanders’ most egregious falsehoods — from fear-mongering about border security to her “ridiculous denialism” of Trump’s promotion of violence.

“An expert in the art of dissembling from the White House podium who now wants to also do it from the governor’s mansion in Little Rock,” he then warned.

Watch the video here:

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Presidential Historian Names The Word That Now Defines Trump’s Place In History

The House on Monday formally delivered its impeachment charges against Donald Trump, the first president to be impeached twice. 

NBC News presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss said the new charges of “incitement of insurrection” put Trump in a unique position in American history ― and not in a good way. 

He tweeted: 

Ten Republican members of the House crossed party lines to join 222 Democrats in voting to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters who were egged on by months of false claims about the election.

That morning, Trump urged the crowd to march on the Capitol and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat” before the assault, which delayed the certification of the 2020 election results. 

Five people were killed, including a police officer, in the violence that ensued. 

England and Wales Covid Deaths Surge to Highest Level Since April

Deaths linked to Covid-19 in England & Wales rose to the highest since the first wave of the disease amid government warnings that the U.K. strain of the virus may be more deadly than first thought.

The number of fatalities involving the disease rose almost 20% to 7,245 in the week ending Jan. 15, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday, the third-highest toll of the pandemic. Fatalities in London, which is at the center of the current outbreak, are running at more than 84% above the five-year average for the second straight week, the data show.

The U.K.’s death toll from Covid-19 is on course to pass 100,000 this week and hospitals are close to capacity. Daily infections have started to decline with the nation in a severe lockdown, while a rapid rollout of vaccines is providing some hope that the peak is passing.

• Total deaths in England & Wales were 30.5% above the five-year average.
• Deaths involving the virus accounted for 40.2% of all deaths in England and Wales in the week — the highest proportion on record
• Almost 90% of all deaths involving Covid record it as the underlying cause, compared with 7.2% for those mentioning influenza and pneumonia

Gold Slides On Dollar Strength

Gold prices eased on Tuesday as the dollar hit a near one-week high against rivals amid escalation of U.S.-China tensions in the South China Sea, continued political uncertainty in Italy and doubts over the speed and size of U.S. stimulus.

Spot gold slipped 0.2 percent to $1,852.50 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.1 percent at $1.851.90.

China announced today it would conduct military exercises in the South China Sea this week, just days after Beijing bristled at a U.S. aircraft carrier group’s entry into the disputed waters.

Meanwhile, index provider MSCI Inc said it will remove five Chinese firms from its global index as of the close on Jan. 27 in the absence of an update on a Trump administration order banning Americans from investing in certain Chinese companies.

Italian Prime Minister Conte is set to resign today and try to form a new coalition government ahead of a key vote on judicial reforms later this week, which commentators suggest the government was on course to lose.

On the stimulus front, U.S. President Joe Biden said he’s open to negotiations on his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal, but didn’t rule out pursuing a Democrat-only route for passage.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier Monday an aid package was unlikely before mid-March, just when jobless benefits from the last package will be running out.

A number of GOP Senators have expressed skepticism about the need for additional stimulus after recently approving a $900 billion relief package.