There is a desire for recovery for the Nasdaq hi-tech securities index which, in the last session of January, jumped by more than 1.6%, rising to 13,998 points. The S&P 500 advanced 0.52% to 4,454, while the Dow Jones was little moved, with a change of -0.02% at 34,717 points.
With today, a disappointing month for the US stock market officially ends, the worst since the strong sell-offs that hit Wall Street at the beginning of the pandemic era, or in March 2020. The sentiment is explained by fears of growth out of control of inflation and with the Fed’s undeniably more hawkish tone.
The S&P 500 benchmark index is close to correction territory, down more than 8% from the intraday high tested earlier this month and down 7% in January.
The Dow Jones lost 4.4% in the month, also looking to end the worst month since March 2020.
The Nasdaq Composite instead starts the worst month since October 2008, with a thud of about 15% since last November, ready to end the worst January ever, with a decline in the month equal to -12%.
As if that weren’t enough, the Russell 2000 Small Cap Index is in the bear market.
Among the tech stocks, the rises of Netflix and Spotify stand out.
The latter title reacts to the controversy that exploded on Joe Rogan’s podcast, who ended up in the eye of the storm for his statements which, according to the accusations, have fueled fake news and disinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic, giving an assist to the conspiracy theories.
Rogan, in fact, went so far as to promote the use of ivermectin for the treatment of Covid 19.
In December, according to a Cnbc article, 270 scientists and professionals had written a letter accusing Spotify of turning a blind eye to the spread of fake news and disinformation about Covid.
Yesterday Spotify issued a press release announcing that it will add a disclaimer to each episode broadcast via podcast that will give users the opportunity to discuss Covid, also referring them to public health sites for more information.
CEO Daniel Ek commented that the platform, however, did not want to make the decision to censor its own content.
However, Spotify stock leaps by more than 10% today.
In particular, Citigroup analysts have revised up the buy rating on the Spotify share and also on Netflix, explaining that, in their opinion, the shares of hi-tech companies active in the subscription sector appear cheap.
Tesla also did well, after the outperform upgrade arrived on the stock by Credit Suisse analysts.
This week’s big market mover for Wall Street and global equities will be the publication, Friday, February 4, of the US employment report for the month of January. The White House warned on Friday that the numbers could be affected by the effects of the spread of the Covid Omicron variant.
Economists interviewed by Dow Jones predict, in fact, an increase in jobs by just 178,000 new units, against a stable unemployment rate of 3.9%.
The US quarterly season will continue this week: the budgets of giants of the caliber of
Alphabet, Starbucks, Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), Amazon. About 1/3 of the companies listed on the S&P 500 have reported quarterly results so far, with 77% beating expectations according to FactSet.