August 20, 2023

The Weekend Rip: August 20, 2023

Another week of rising treasury yields pushed stocks to their third straight week of losses. 😬

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

What Happened?

🏚️ Property market contagion fears continue to spread in China, sending Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index back into bear market territory.

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

🛍️ Global bond yields continue their ascent, with the U.S. economic outlook ticking up again, driven by strength in the consumer and inventory builds. Retailers were in focus, with Target missing estimates and Walmart beating them.

📉 Growth stocks that aren’t growing remain under pressure, with Farfetch falling to fresh lows and more pain in payment processor land. Meanwhile, several semiconductors slid on weak guidance, and Sea Ltd. warned of fresh losses as it tries to spur growth.

🏘️ Homebuilders remain in focus as Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway took a small stake in several sector leaders during the second quarter.

📰 Several other stocks made headlines, including AMC Entertainment, CVS and Walgreens, solar ETF $TAN, and U.S. Steel.

🔥 Several names were on the Stocktwits trending tab for most of the week, including $HE, $HKD, $EBET, $TTOO, and $GNS.

Here are the closing prices:

S&P 500	4,370	-2.11%
Nasdaq	13,291	-2.59%
Russell 2000	1,859	-3.41%
Dow Jones	34,501	-2.21%

Bullets

Bullets From The Weekend

💽 The music catalog business is still booming. During the pandemic, a flood of new capital and top-tier sellers drove a boom in the category and record high prices. Like other alternative asset classes, the market has slowed since then but remains larger than pre-pandemic. Analysts say the long-term value of content remains a key focus for buyers. Still, much disparity exists in the market due to the many factors that impact a catalog’s actual and perceived value. Axios has more.

🎰 Is Roblox part of the degenerate economy? Gambling and the gamification of many everyday things have been a significant theme over the last few years. But it’s not without issues. A lawsuit in the Northern District of California alleges that video game developer Roblox illegally facilitates child gambling. The parent-led lawsuit points to third-party gambling sites that invite users to play various casino “games of chance” using Roblox’s in-game currency, Robux. More from TechCrunch.

🏘️ Housing market remains challenging for buyers as investors snap up homes. While rising mortgage rates and record-high prices reduce housing affordability to its lowest level in decades, primary homebuyers continue to feel the pinch from investors who won’t back off. Between 2019 and June 2023, purchases of homes by buyers who intend to live in them fell by over 40%, with investor purchases rising 12% over that same period. Many investors pay in cash in the highly competitive market, further edging out everyday homebuyers. MSN.com 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 light week of economic events, with the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in focus. In addition to the above, check out this week’s complete list of economic releases.

Earnings This Week

Earnings season is nearing its end, with 122 companies reporting this week. Some tickers you may recognize are $NVDA, $ZM, $TOL, $PTON, $DLTR, $AFRM, and more.