It was another bearish week for U.S. stocks as the major indexes suffered weekly declines as the effects of the Federal Reserve’s decision to increase interest rate by 0.50% to 1%, the highest since the year 2000, are still weighing on markets
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) All Share Index (ASI) lost 2.53% for the week representing its 7th week of consecutive decline. It opened, trading at 15,566.6 basis points and it closed the week trading at 15,257.4 basis points. Although the week started bearish for the NYSE in the first three days, Friday’s market bulls managed to trim the damage but was not enough to stop the bleeding.
The NASDAQ posted its 6th week of decline, losing 2.80% during the week under consideration. It started at a basis point of 11,923.03 and ended the week at 11,805.00 basis points. The week in question saw an increase in the volume of transactions against the previous week by 37% as the market recorded a volume of 1.23 billion.
The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 also posted declines, 2.14% and 2.41% respectively. The Dow Jones is on its 7th week of decline while the S&P 500 is on its 6th week of market downturn.
What’s moving the market?
The stock market finished the second week of May with massive losses. The three major indexes started the week with declines, then gained in a sharp rally on Friday after Chairman Jerome Powell held the standpoint that a 75-basis point rate hike was still off the table. The Dow Jones index ended with its seventh weekly loss in a row, marking its longest losing streak since 2001, while the S&P 500 slid 2.4% for its longest weekly losing streak since 2011, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.8%.
In the past six trading days, the U.S. Labor Department delivered four economic reports – wage growth, CPI, PPI and import prices – which together suggested inflation hit its apex in March, welcome news for market participants worried the Fed could spark a recession with a spate of inflation-fighting interest rate hikes.
First-quarter reporting season in the U.S. has reached the final stretch, with 458 companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 78% have delivered consensus beating results, according to Refinitiv. For the first three months of the year, analysts now see aggregate year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 11.1%, up from 6.4% at quarter-end, per Refinitiv.
On Friday, Elon Musk announced that his planned acquisition of Twitter was “temporarily on hold” because of concerns about fake accounts, which sent the stock reeling 9.7%. Also on Friday, Robinhood shares soared 25% after Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, revealed a 7.6% stake in the company.
During the intraday session on Monday, Saudi Aramco (ARMCO) officially topped Apple as the world’s most valuable company on Wednesday. The state-owned energy giant closed the session with a market capitalization of $2.43T, while the iPhone maker ended the day valued at $2.37T. In fact, it’s a trend that has accelerated this year, with the energy sector buoyed by a surge in oil prices following an inflation surge that has curbed demand for high-flying tech stocks. This shows as Aramco shares are up 30% YTD, while Apple’s stock has slid 20% since the start of the year.
Shares of Disney (DIS) initially moved higher after the bell on Wednesday, but then extended a selloff seen in the prior session by falling 2.6% to $102.40 in AH trading. The new 52-week low saw investors focus on the company’s top and bottom-line misses, as well as widening losses at its direct-to-consumer segment. Operating losses for Disney’s streaming business, which also includes ESPN+ and Hulu, tripled to $877M from a year ago, driven by higher programming and production expenses.
The White House announced some measures on Thursday to alleviate the ongoing baby formula shortage, which has worsened in recent weeks because of a major product recall and supply chain problems. In fact, during the first week of May, 43% of baby formula supplies were out of stock across the country, compared to 31% two weeks prior, according to retail pricing data website Datasembly. Many stores have also implemented quotas on how much formula one person can buy at a time, while pediatricians are recommending not to dilute formula (which could be harmful to the kidneys) or switching to other brands.
List of Top 5 Gainers
Although the U.S. markets performed poorly, there are still some notable gainers for the week. They include:
- Hemisphere Media A (HMTV) 72.94%
- Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Ltd (BHVN) 56.23%
- Veru Inc (VERU) 53.66%
- Blue Water Vaccines Inc (BWV) 50.53%
- Compass Therapeutics Inc (CMPX) 50.30%
The top 5 losers include;
- Therapeutics md Inc (TXMD) -59.95%
- Redbox Entertainment Inc (RDBX) -56.35%
- Upstart Holdings Inc (UPST) -54.55%
- Kaleyra Inc (KLR) -52.66%
- Sql Technologies Corp (SKYX) -46.49%
