(Reuters) – Shares of Eastman Kodak Co
The U.S. International Development Finance Corp said on Tuesday it would sign a letter of interest to provide the loan to Kodak, once an industry leader in cameras and the imaging business. (https://bit.ly/2P2bzXB)
Kodak shares rose four-fold on Wednesday, with retail traders on the popular Robinhood trading app piling into the stock.
Its shares have gone from trading at $2 to more than $30 apiece in three days and short selling specialists S3 Partners said that sellers were still scurrying to cover their short positions. The financial analytics firm said 9.48% of the stock was currently being “shorted”, where investors bet that the shares will fall.
The participation of retail investors has spiked since COVID-19 lockdowns were introduced and they are credited with sparking rallies of between 300% and 500% in stocks of bankrupt or soon-to-be-bankrupt companies such as Hertz
The loan to Kodak comes at a time when the Trump administration has been looking to bolster the ability to produce drugs and their raw materials in the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the industry’s dependence on China and India for its supply chain.
(Reporting by Neha Malara; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
