CNBC.com's MacKenzie Sigalos brings you the day's top business news headlines. On today's show, CNBC's Kate Rooney breaks down the trading restrictions that retail brokerages like Robinhood imposed in the wake of unprecedented volatile action in stocks like GameStop and AMC. Plus, Washington Correspondent Eamon Javers explains the parallels that Republican political strategists see between the populists who gained traction in their party and the populist cause of these amateur Reddit traders.
Robinhood restricts trading in GameStop, other names involved in frenzy
Retail brokerages restricted trading on Thursday in GameStop and other stocks caught in a frenzy that has captivated Wall Street and caused big losses for hedge funds.
Free-stock trading pioneer Robinhood and Interactive Brokers said that in some cases, investors would be able to sell only their positions and not open new ones. Both brokerages raised margin requirements on certain securities.
Robinhood told clients in a blog post that it would close out some positions automatically if the client was at risk of not having the necessary collateral. The Menlo-Park, CA based said it plans to allow limited buys of these securities on Friday.
GameStop's stock closes down more than 40% after brokers place restrictions on trades
Shares of GameStop, the center of a trading frenzy fueled by a Reddit message board, dropped sharply on Thursday after brokers restricted trading on the stock.
GameStop closed at $193.60 per share, down 44.3% from Wednesday's closing price. Earlier in Thursday's session, the stock was up over 25% and down more than 60% and trading was halted several times.
Shares were soaring at one point in premarket trading, briefly topping $500. The stock started to fall as word spread that Robinhood and Interactive Brokers were restricting trading, and it opened the session solidly in the red.
Apple CEO links Facebook's business model to real-world violence
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday linked Facebook's business model, which used data to serve targeted ads, with real-world consequences like violence or reducing public trust in vaccines.
Cook's speech at a data privacy conference in Brussels did not mention Facebook by name, but the social media company was clearly a target of the Apple CEO's warning.
"If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, it does not deserve our praise. It deserves scorn," Cook said.
