By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
Friday’s losses came along with the coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting new all-time highs and European countries announcing new lockdowns. Besides, this messy week comes just three days before the U.S. election, and traders are preparing for mutable market moves next week.
This trading week has been quite difficult. On the one hand, many companies shared their Q3 2020 financial results and beat analysts’ estimates, which can not but cheer investors up. On the other hand, the number of coronavirus cases has surged. This adds to uncertainty related to the upcoming presidential election in the U.S. Yesterday, stocks saw a slide, three major market indices closed in the red, and it seems Wall Street is seeing the worst week since March. Friday’s trading became the market’s first back-to-back monthly loss since the first pandemic peak earlier this year.
Let us see how the worst week ended for Wall Street. On Friday, Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX: .DJI) was 500 points down at one point but slightly recovered by the end of the session. It closed 157.51 points lower, or 0.6%, at 26,501.60. Another index S&P 500 (INDEXSP: .INX) closed 1.2% down, at 3,269.96. This week, Dow Jones and S&P 500 have lost 6.5% and 5.6% respectively, which marks their biggest weekly losses since March. Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ: .IXIC) dropped by 2.5% to 10,911.59 on Friday. It has also lost over 5% this week and headed for its worst one-week performance since March.
The losses came along with the coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting new all-time highs and European countries announcing new lockdowns. Besides, this messy week comes just three days before the U.S. election, and traders are preparing for mutable market moves next week.
Strategists at MRB Partners wrote:
“Massive policy stimulus, positive medical developments and high hopes for a return to pre-pandemic economic activity levels have provided a solid boost to equity markets. However, mounting new economic restrictions, particularly in Europe, despite being forecastable and in lagged response to the re-acceleration in COVID-19 infections, only caught investors’ attention this week, triggering sharp losses.”
What’s Up with Stocks?
All the four biggest tech companies beat third-quarter earnings estimates. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB), and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) managed to top expectations. However, all of them except Amazon saw a significant drop in sales. For example, Apple reported a 20% decline in iPhone sales and failed to provide investors any guidance for the quarter ahead. Facebook reported a decline in active users in Canada and the U.S. and warned of the upcoming challenging year.
On Friday, most tech stocks closed in the red. Apple dropped 5.60% to $108.86 at the close on Friday, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares lost 1.10% to $202.47. Amazon stock declined by 5.45% to end at $3,036.15. Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) stock plunged by 21.11% to $41.36.