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Stock Market News for Jan 10, 2022

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U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday for the third consecutive session to end the first week of the year in the red as tech stocks continued to take a hit owing to rising interest rates. All the three major indexes ended in negative territory.

How Did The Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) lost less than 0.1% or 4.81 points to close at 36,231.66 points after hitting an intraday low of 36,111.53.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% or 19.02 points to end at 4,677.03 points. The index had at one point of the day hit a low of 4,662.74 points. Consumer discretionary and technology stocks were the worst performers although energy and financial stocks logged in gains.

The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) lost 1.7%, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) lost 0.9%. Six of the 11 sectors of the benchmark index ended in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 1% or 144.96 points to finish at 14,935.90 points after hitting an intraday low of 14,877.63 points. The Nasdaq is now almost 7% lower than its recent high of 16,057.44 points recorded on Nov 19.

Shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) lost 3.3%, while Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD - Free Report) declined 3.1%. NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 4.33% to 18.76. A total of 10.21 billion shares were traded on Thursday, lower than the last 20-session average of 10.4 billion. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.01-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.38-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.

Tech Stocks Take a Hit

After ending 2021 on ahigh, markets are somewhat in a transition phase now which was witnessed almost throughout the week. After Wednesday and Thursday, investors felt jittery once again on Friday that saw a volatile trading session.

This saw tech stocks suffering the most as investors are reconsidering buying them as interest rates continue to rise. The 10-year Treasury yield have been on the rise to being 2022. On Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield hit a high of 1.8% after ending 2021 at just 1.51. One of the major reasons behind this rise in interest rates was the Fed December minutes of the meeting which were released on Friday.

The minutes indicated that the central bank is ready to roll back its financial stimulus than it was expected, which made many anticipate that interest rates will soon go up. This played heavy on markets, with tech stocks suffering the most.

Also, the monthly jobs report somewhat dented investors’ sentiment as the headline figures came in far below expectations.

Economic Data

The jobs report for December was disappointing as the United States added few jobs than expected. The Labor Department reported that the United States added 199,000 jobs in December, far lower than economists’ expectations of 422,000.

However, there were a few positives to the jobs report as hourly earnings rose 0.6%, higher than expected. Also, unemployment rate fell to 3.9% the lowest since February 2020. This was also below expectations of 4.1%.

Weekly Roundup

All the three major indexes started the year recording looses for the week. The Nasdaq ended the week down 4.5%. This is the index’s worst performance since Feb 26, 2021.

The S&P 500 declined 1.9%, while the Dow finished 0.3% lower.
 


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