The stocks in the United States kicked off the year on the wrong foot on Tuesday. The US markets ended lower as technology shares started the year on negative note, impacting the Nasdaq Composite. Index lost by ~1.6%, and S&P 500 saw a decline of ~0.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a victory in an eleventh-hour to end marginally higher by ~0.1%.
US markets ended lower
Major indexes saw negative impacts from the mega caps such as Apple, Inc., which declined post being downgraded by Barclays. Nvidia saw a decline after it was retreated post Dutch government instructed ASML Holdings—the leading supplier of chipmaking equipment—to cease their shipments to China.
Bitcoin saw an increase to over $45,000 Tuesday, with investors awaiting Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision regarding at least one of the spot Bitcoin ETF applications. This decision is due by Jan. 10 2024. Shares of Apple, Inc. was downgraded due to the disappointment in the iPhone 15 sales and subdued outlook for the hardware business.
Other technology firms, Salesforce and Microsoft saw a decline of 2.6% and 1.4%, respectively. This was seen because investors decided to walk away with their respective profits, which were seen in 2023, from these stocks.
The dismal session which was seen in the US indexes was after the year where Wall Street’s 3 frontline indexes saw double-digit gains as a result of optimism regarding AI and stabilizing inflation. S&P 500 closed the year’s last week within just ~1% of the record closing high it touched in early 2022.
US equities were hammered on Tuesday
The US equities were hammered on Tuesday as the US Treasury yields saw a significant increase, with yield on 10-Y notes increasing above ~4.00% to the two-week high before they declined marginally to ~3.937%.
Fluctuations in the Treasury yields exhibited the impacted expectations of the investors regarding the rate cuts in the present year. Collectively, these measures impacted the growth stocks – in addition to tech stocks – that should benefit from favorable interest rate environment.
The US Fed’s December policy meeting minutes and several labor market data points supported the market movements in December 2023 as market participants continue to assess timing of expected rate cuts.
The US central bank is expected to keep the interest rates steady in its January meeting. However, the traders continue to project ~70% probability of the 25-basis point cut in the month of March.
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