Bearish sentiment brought a surprise takedown across the board today, and although they closed higher than their session lows, the results are naught but ugly: the Dow sold off -1063 points or -3.12%, the S&P 500 was -153 points or -3.56%, the Nasdaq was hit the hardest — down more than -5% for a time — down -647 points or -4.99%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 -84 points or -4.31%. Yesterday’s positive boost was completely wiped out, and the losses added to the overall bearishness we’ve seen over the past month.
This is worth keeping in mind after a trading day like today: many of the companies ransacked by negativity in Thursday’s market are essential cogs in the U.S. — and global — economic wheel, and as such won’t be going anywhere, despite how their shares prices may have fallen today. Are there large problems in the world? Of course — more than usual, in fact. But these essential companies’ stocks will surge back at some point based on demand and progress; there is no alternative.
And no one was spared. This was a mass liquidation across asset classes — a clear assertion of a “risk off” trading environment. Perhaps this was a short-term move to crush all the opportunists looking to further capitalize off the Fed’s strong messaging yesterday for market support through the summer. It also might be a late-cycle move for bear-market purists to make some near-term money ahead of a longer build through the rest of the year. If it was — and if there’s nothing like this in the days, weeks, and months ahead — then it’s likely a very successful endeavor.
Essentially, then, what the market has given investors today is something of a gift, especially to those interested in buying Nasdaq names whose growth trajectories still look historically strong:
NVIDIA
NVDA
fell -7.3% and is down -37.4% year to date,
AMD
AMD
is even slightly worse year to date and -5.6% today, the same as
Apple
AAPL
— they are down year to date -37.5% and -13.9%, respectively.
Microsoft
MSFT
dropped -4.4% today, -17.2% year to date.
These are all strong names in their selective fields, and these price points offer strong upward expectations considering where company guidance was on their recent earnings report calls. None of this is affected by a strong-arm move by bond traders with a negative bent on current market valuations. It also provides another cautionary aspect to those who would care to understand the market based on one day’s worth of trading. Not even the greatest investors of all time can do that.
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