October 30, 2022

The Weekend Rip: October 30, 2022

Halloween Weekend festivities likely have most of us looking like this skeleton, so we promise to keep today’s issue short. 👍

Let’s recap and prepare for the week ahead.

What Happened?

🟢 Despite weak tech earnings, the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its fourth straight week of gains, helped by Apple. Traders are watching this chart for clues about the major indexes’ next stop.

🤩 This week’s Stocktwits Top 25 report showed outperformance relative to the indexes.

🦅 The Fed’s key inflation indicator indicated the Fed is likely to hike another 75 bps at Wednesday’s meeting. Speculation around global central banks pivoting to looser policy continues. And the yield curve inverted, signaling that a U.S. recession may be ahead. Not to mention, earnings from UPS and other economic bellwethers continue to suggest a meaningful slowdown is in progress.

🏦 European bank stocks are holding up okay. Well, those that aren’t named Credit Suisse.

🗳️ Rishi Sunak became Britain’s third Prime Minister in about two months.

📉 Chinese stocks suffered another sharp loss after several leadership changes during the Chinese Community Party event.

👨‍💻 Tech earnings were a complete disaster. Google, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments missed on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Meta and Amazon also failed to deliver. The saving grace, however, was Apple, which became Friday’s “safe-haven” trade.

🛢️Energy stocks continue to show record profits, pushing many of them to fresh all-time highs.

🐦 And last but not least, Elon Musk took control of the Bird App, creating a lot of uncertainty for the world to grapple with.

🔥 Several names were on the Stocktwits trending tab for a good portion of the week, including $MMTLP, $MULN, $TCDA, $IMPP, and $AVCT.

Here are the closing prices:

S&P 500	3,901	+3.95%
Nasdaq	11,102	+2.24%
Russell 2000	1,847	+6.01%
Dow Jones	32,862	+5.72%

Bullets

Bullets From The Weekend

🔺 Comcast looks to price increases to spur growth. Broadband subscriber growth has stalled, which is a big problem for the multinational telecom conglomerate. As a result, its executives have shifted their focus to APRU (average revenue per user), saying they will raise prices to get more value from their existing customers. Some analysts argue that increasing prices in an increasingly competitive market filled with inflationary pressures could backfire. The company, however, says it can provide a differentiated and superior home experience, which subscribers are willing to pay for. Arstechnica has more.

🐦 Jack Dorsey plans a new Twitter competitor. The Twitter co-founder shared the vision for his decentralized social app Bluesky and announced that it’s seeking beta testers. The platform will use an Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol), a federated network run by multiple sites instead of just one. The company intends to be “a competitor to any company trying to own the underlying fundamentals for social media or the data of the people using it.” More from NDTV.

❌ Musk reportedly ordered layoffs by November 1st. Twitter’s new leader has reportedly ordered company-wide layoffs, which many expected as he apparently told investors he planned to lay off as much as 75% of the company’s workforce. However, he said the cuts would be less dramatic when meeting with staff. With that said, what’s clear is that more cuts are coming, and many expect the official announcement sometime on Monday. Engadget has more.

The Brief

Need a concise summary of what’s going on this week? Look no further. Here’s an overview of important earnings and economic data for the trading week ahead.

Economic Calendar

All eyes will be on Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision and Friday’s employment data. In addition to the above, check out this week’s complete list of economic releases.

Earnings This Week

Earnings season continues to accelerate, with 1,098 companies reporting this week. Some tickers you may recognize are $AMD, $NXPI, $CAR, $UBER, $SOFI, $HOOD, $ROKU, $SQ, $PYPL, $DKNG, and many, many more.