The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 1.62% today, March 12. That’s a jump of 9 basis points on the day. Following the recent pattern, the climb in yields meant a drop in the prices of technology stocks. Among BIG TECH stocks Apple (AAPL) fell 0.76%; Facebook (FB) dropped 2.00%; Amazon (AMZN) was lower by 0.77%; Alphabet (GOOG) slid 1.50%; and Microsoft (MSFT) lost 0.58%.
Back on February 23, I wrote a post with the headline “Everything is down today” and added that while I wasn’t buying everything on the dip I was doing some selective nibbling. Today’s market looks almost exactly the same–if a bit more so because this drop is coming after recent weakness.
At 3:30 p.m. New York time today, March 3, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was 1.47%. That’s up from yesterday’s 1.42%. So much for any thoughts that yesterday’s rally in bonds and drop in yields might be the beginning of a larger move.
Microsoft reported its earnings for the company’s fiscal second quarter 2021 earnings today, Tuesday, January 26, after the close. Revenue of $43.1 billion easily beat Wall Street projections of $40.2 billion. Earnings per share of $2.03 crushed expectations for $1.64 a share. Microsoft’s shares were up 1.22% in the regular session and then gained another 4.30% in after-hours trading.
Stocks went nowhere today, January 26, as everyone waited for earnings news from Microsoft (MSFT) after the close today and Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB) tomorrow. Stands to reason, no? You wouldn’t want to be buying if Microsoft was going to disappoint. And you wouldn’t want to be selling in case Microsoft beat expectations.
This week brings fourth quarter earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT) on Tuesday, and Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB) on Wednesday to add fuel to the Big Tech rally. The NASDAQ 100, the home of big tech stocks, climbed 4.4% last week. Apple is expected to report record fourth quarter earnings. And that will certainly help technology stocks in general. But I’d also count the diversity of the companies reporting this week on the positive side of the ledger.
After barely dragging higher over the last month, big tech stocks turned red hot this week. And next week, when we get earnings from Microsoft (MSFT), APPLE (AAPL) and Facebook (FB) could be even hotter.
Today the Standard & Poor’s 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the NASDAQ Composite all hit record highs. Likely cause? The peaceful inauguration of Joe Biden as President? Yesterday’s report of blow out gains in subscribers in the fourth quarter from Netflix (NFLX)? While the sigh of relief that the country wasn’t enveloped in another wave of violence at the 46th President took the oath of office certainly played a role, my vote on causation today goes to yesterday’s news from Netflix that the company added 8.5 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, far ahead of Wall Street projections for 6.03 million added subscribers. Netflix shares closed up 16.85% today.
After the market close today, January 19, Netflix (NFLX) reported that it had added 8.51 million subscribers in the fourth quarter. Wall Street was expecting an add of 6.03 million. In after hours trading shares of Netflix gained 13.13%.
At the close today the Standard & Poor’s 500 was off 0.66%. The Dow Jones industrial Average was lower by 0.29%. The NASDAQ Composite had fallen 1.255 and the NASDAQ 100 had dropped 1.55%. The small cap Russell 2000 was down just 0.03%. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) finished with a loss of 1.33%. As you might conclude from those results from the indexes, the big culprit in today’s retreat was technology, especially big technology stocks.
Of course, a sector can rally on new cash coming off the sidelines. Often, however, when one sector rallies another falls as investors use profits from that sector to fund new buys. That seems to be what happened today when “green” stocks rallied and technology shares fell.
I’m starting up my videos on JubakAM.com again–this time using YouTube as a platform. The third YouTube video on What Apple and Microsoft’s moves on Intel mean for technology stocks went up today.
