U.S. stocks fell Friday with the Nasdaq Composite on pace for the worst month since 2008, as Amazon became the latest victim in the technology-led sell-off.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 2.3%, weighed down by Amazon’s post-earnings plunge. The S&P 500 retreated by 2.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed about 500 points, or 1.5%.
The Nasdaq is down around 11%, on pace for its worst monthly performance since October 2008 in the throngs of the financial crisis. The S&P 500 is down more than 7%, its worst month since March 2020 at the onset of the Covid pandemic. The Dow is off by roughly 3% for the month.
March 2020 for instance saw very sharp declines, but equally fast recoveries. The current episode looks much more likely to impose long lasting losses in investors that piled in during the 2021 rally, and is best thought of a ‘creeping bear market,’ that is steadily widening its net over prior market leadership,” Shaoul added.
The Nasdaq Composite sits in bear market territory, more than 22% below its intraday high. The S&P 500 is off its record by more than 12% and the Dow is around 9% lower.
About 80% of S&P 500 companies have beat quarterly earnings expectations, with about half of the index’s members having reported results so far, according to FactSet.
“Despite what we view as a solid overall earnings period so far, the positive results look to be getting overshadowed by some of the broader concerns related to inflation and the Fed,” BMO’s Brian Belski said in a note to clients.
A hot inflation reading Friday underscored the difficult environment. The core personal consumption expenditures price index — the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — rose 5.2% from a year ago.
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