July 30, 2023

The Weekend Rip: July 30, 2023

It was a volatile but green week in the stock market as investors assessed the Fed’s rate hike, inflation data, and earnings. 💚

Let’s recap and prep you for the week ahead. 📝

What Happened?

📈 The major stock market indexes closed green as one of the market’s most prominent bears threw in the towel. Bullish investors are looking for the next catalyst to take the market even higher.

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

🔺 The Federal Reserve raised rates by another 25 bps, leaving the door open for one more hike. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank raised rates to 23-year highs, and the Bank of Japan surprised markets with its first major policy shift in over a decade.

🛒 Consumer goods companies continue to suggest their days of raising prices may be coming to an end. With price hikes no longer available to offset falling volumes, they have to shift their focus back to spurring demand among cautious consumers.

🤖 In tech, cloud revenue remains the name of the game for Microsoft and Alphabet. Meanwhile, a rebound in advertising revenue drove Meta to new recovery highs.

📉 As for other growth stocks, those that don’t deliver continue to be punished by investors. Some current examples are Spotify, Snapchat, Crocs, and Enphase.

📰 Several other stocks made headlines, including AMC, Chipotle Mexcian Grill, Twitter (sorry, X), Exxon Mobil, and Chevron.

🔥 Several names were on the Stocktwits trending tab for most of the week, including $TUP, $TSLA, $NIO, $QS, and $SIMO.

Here are the closing prices:

S&P 500	4,582	+1.01%
Nasdaq	14,317	+2.02%
Russell 2000	1,982	+1.09%
Dow Jones	35,459	+0.66%

Bullets

Bullets From The Weekend

❌ After a $700 million bailout, Yellow trucking firm shuts down. Yellow received a pandemic loan from the federal government, but that wasn’t enough to help turn it around. Friday, it notified employees it would cease operations and let them all go, as it expects to file bankruptcy in the coming days. As one of the largest freight trucking companies in the U.S., its demise could significantly impact the nation’s supply chain. Yahoo Finance has more.

🌏 X opens up its ad revenue-sharing program globally. Earlier this month, the social media platform began sharing ad revenue with verified U.S. creators, but now it’s rolling out the program for global creators. To be eligible, X users must subscribe to Blue and have at least 15 million impressions within the last three months. Time will tell if it’s enough to keep creators on the platform, which has frustrated many users with its constant changes. More from TechCrunch.

📚 Barnes & Noble is reinventing itself. The bookstore is looking to give itself an indie vibe, but it’s not giving its e-readers the same transformation. After going private and hiring a new CEO in 2019, the company’s attempts to revitalize its Nook e-reader have fallen flat. With the number of e-readers and tablets available at a low price point, it’ll likely take a reinvention of the product to differentiate it and attract demand again. However, it’s unclear if the company is willing or able to make that investment. The Verge 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

It’s a full week of economic events, with U.S. labor market data and several central bank rate decisions. In addition to the above, check out this week’s complete list of economic releases.

Earnings This Week

Earnings season is in full swing, with 1,157 companies reporting this week. Some tickers you may recognize are $AAPL, $AMZN, $SOFI, $AMD, $HOOD, $DKNG, $COIN, and more.