The Week In Review

1/21/22

The major averages sold off once again to end another down week to start 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 450 points or 1.3% The S&P 500 fell 84 points or 1.89% while the Nasdaq Composite declined 385 points or 1.9%. The Nasdaq fell 7% since Monday, track for its worst week since October 2020.

Netflix's disappointing quarterly report is the latest setback for technology investors. Shares of the streaming giant tumbled 23% on Friday after the company's fourth-quarter earnings report showed a slowdown in subscriber growth. Its competitors' shares also declined, with Dow component Disney, which operates the Disney+ streaming service, off 7%.

Netflix is the first major tech stock to report earnings this season, with Apple and Tesla slated to post earnings next week. Tesla lost nearly 4% on Friday. Other tech names like Amazon and Meta Platforms fell 3.6% and 2%, respectively.

Meanwhile, Peloton shares rebounded 10% on Friday. The maker of interactive fitness bicycles and treadmills plunged 23.9% during regular trading on Thursday after CNBC reported that the company is temporarily halting production of its fitness products.

The major losses in growth names have pushed the Nasdaq Composite further in correction territory as rising rates pressure technology stocks by making their lofty valuations look less attractive. Nearing Friday's close, the Nasdaq was down more than 13% from its closing record in November.

The Nasdaq is off to its worst start to the year, through the first 14 trading days, since 2008, according to FactSet.

The Nasdaq Composite's struggle is largely due to a surge in government bond rates this week. The U.S. 10-year Treasury hit as high as 1.9% on Wednesday as investors focused on the Federal Reserve's timeline for raising interest rates and broadly tightening monetary policy. However, bond yields retreated on Friday.

Investors will now be turning their attention to the Fed's January two-day policy meeting, set to start on Tuesday.

During regular trading Thursday, the Dow shed 313 points, or 0.89%. At one point during the session, the 30-stock benchmark was up more than 450 points. A similar reversal played out for the other major averages. The S&P declined 1.1% after earlier advancing 1.53%. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day with a loss of 1.3%, reversing a prior move that had the tech-heavy index up 2.1%.

U.S. stocks this month have often sold off into the close. The S&P 500 on average has fallen 0.16 percentage points in the final hour of trading in January, according to Bespoke Investment Group analysis through Wednesday. That average last-hour performance places January in the bottom 1% of all months and third-worst since 2000, Bespoke found.

Small caps have also been hit hard this week. The Russell 2000 is on track for its worst week since June 2020. The index fell 1.4% on Friday.

Bitcoin is getting hit hard on Friday as investors brace for the Fed and dump riskier assets with higher rates ahead. The digital asset fell more than 10% to around $38,233 on Friday.

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