Tag: Wall Street

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Microsoft and Alphabet report good numbers but Nasdaq slides.

Stocks

Nasdaq 100 futures declined around 0.75%. S&P 500 futures were also down around 0.4%

In after-hours trading, shares of Alphabet dropped more than 5%, while Microsoft slipped 2% after the tech giants, part of the Magnificent Seven posted quarterly earnings. However, both companies achieved on both top and bottom lines. However, advertising revenue for Alphabet came short of analysts’ expectations. 

Tech powerhouse

The tech sector powered the market rally from 2023 into 2024 and is now trading at a relatively high valuation of nearly 29 times its 2024 earnings, according to recent figures. Investors will need to see earnings expansion in order for the tech companies to be able to maintain their elevated levels.

Results were good but not good enough according to Wall Street as stocks were priced for perfection and that wasn’t delivered.

Even though the results were better-than-expected, investors are likely selling because they just want to take some money off the table.

Absolute perfection comes at a price on Wall Street.

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The U.S. GDP up in Q4 as economy grew at a 3.3%

U.S. GDP

The U.S. economy grew at a much faster pace than expected in the final three months of 2023.

The U.S. easily avoided a recession that many had forecast as inevitable, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday 25th January 2024.

Gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualised rate in the final quarter of 2023, according to data from the Commerce Department.

Wall Street consensus was for a figure of 2%.

U.S. BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis

Bureau of Economic Analysis

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Sudden sell-off confounds analysts – is it profit taking or economic woe?

Wall Street

The Nasdaq and Dow hit new all-time highs in recent days and the S&P 500 is hot on their heels.

After nine straight days of gains, Wall Street suddenly reversed an hour and a half before the closing bell on Wednesday 20th December 2023.

The sell-off expanded into Asia overnight, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 leading losses, before stocks across Europe also slid into the red on the Thursday morning, 21st December 2023.

Some indicated Wednesday’s sell-off was as simple as investors taking profits after a nine-day mini bull run, in the absence of any obvious catalyst and with U.S. stocks widely seen as overbought.

Other market analysts pointed to a high volume of zero-day options trading as the death knell for the winning streak.

Time left for a Santa rally?

Markets have been on a tear in recent eeks and months, maybe it’s time for a breather. But some suggest U.S. equities are overbought in general – so, is this something more discerning?

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Dow drops to 33000!

Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) performance on 3rd October 2023.

The Dow fell more than 400 points, turning negative for the year. The main reason for the drop was the surge in U.S. Treasury yields, which reached their highest levels in 16 years.

Higher yields mean higher borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, which could hurt the economic recovery and the housing market.

S&P 500 on 3rd October 2023

Nasdaq on 3rd October 2023

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained a 0.7% on October 3rd, 2023, as some investors saw an opportunity to buy some of the high-growth stocks that had been under pressure recently.

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Meta (Facebook) Posts Strong Wall Street Gain in 2023 – its year of efficiency

UK taxes high!

Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META), formerly known as Facebook, has seen its stock price soar in 2023, a straight nine month gain in a massive turnaround after a dismal performance in 2022. 

Meta is the parent company of social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, as well as the Oculus VR headset and other ventures.

Year of efficiency

Meta’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declared 2023 as the ‘Year of Efficiency‘ for the company, as it tries to cut costs and streamline its operations. The company has also announced layoffs of about 10% of its workforce in 2022 and 2023, as part of its restructuring efforts.

Meta’s stock has almost doubled since January, making it among the top performers on the S&P 500. The company has also seen a boost in the number of daily active users on Facebook, reaching two billion as of the end of December 2022. Meta’s net worth is currently at $89.9 billion, making Zuckerberg the 12th wealthiest person on the planet, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

Surge

Meta’s stock surge comes after a sharp decline in 2022, when the company faced regulatory scrutiny, public backlash and technical glitches over its plans to expand into the metaverse, a virtual reality world where people can interact with each other and through digital content. 

Meta’s stock plummeted by over 60% last year, as Zuckerberg struggled to sell Wall Street on his vision for the future of social media.

Future

Meta is still betting on the metaverse as its long-term goal, and has been investing heavily in AI, VR and AR technologies. The company is reportedly working on a new social media app called ‘Instagram for your thoughts‘, which would allow users to share their thoughts and emotions using brain-computer interfaces. 

The app could launch as soon as next month, according to latest reports.

The metaverse is coming!