Wall Street just finished Her worst quarter Since the beginning of the Corona pandemic – a quarter that has been affected by the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) interest rate hike, high inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
During the first three months of the year, the broad-based S&P 500 aggregator index fell 4.95 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.57 percent, and the Nasdaq tech index fell 9.1 percent.
On the first trading day of the second quarter, it looked brighter from the start, but the mood shifted throughout the day, and then the indicators turned to the positive side again. This is what the indicators looked like when trading stopped:
- The S&P 500 closes 0.36 percent higher
- The Dow Jones rose 0.44 percent
- Nasdaq closes 0.28% higher
“The Most Important Persons of the Month”
Friday came Recent job numbers from USA, which showed somewhat lower job growth than expected in March. A total of 431,000 new jobs were created, while the consensus estimate from Bloomberg was 490,000.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in March from 3.8 percent in February, almost as expected, while wage growth jumped from 5.1 percent year-on-year in February to 5.6 percent year-on-year in March. It was as expected.
US employment numbers are often referred to as “the hottest numbers of the month,” because the numbers give an indication of how things are going in the world’s most important economy.
Moreover, investors are closely following the recently inverted yield curve, which historically has signaled an impending recession.
Gamestop status
Game store chain Gamestop, a “meme share” in front of some, rose sharply in aftermarket services Thursday after the company announced plans for a stock split Thursday.
The share is up twelve percent from the start, but has slipped during the day to a nearly five percent increase. With the stock market closed, the stock was down 1.6 percent.
Gamestop said it will seek approval at its upcoming shareholder meeting to increase the number of A shares from 300 million to 1 billion for partial implementation in the form of a dividend.
Chairman Ryan Cohen is leading Gamestop’s shift toward greater digital investment. (Photo: Bill Jerome)
The share rose by as much as 35 percent during the month of March, backed by its loyal following of small savers. The price got a boost a few weeks ago when Chairman Ryan Cohen, the driver behind the company’s digitization strategy, bought another 100,000 shares and increased his ownership to 11.9 percent.
Gamestop and other “meme” shares were first published at the beginning of 2021 by users of online forums like the Wall Street Bets on Reddit.
This phenomenon is explained by the fact that small investors want to take revenge on large hedge funds that have bet on lower prices in related stocks and sabotage them – preferring companies with old business models that analysts predict north and down.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using a link that leads directly to our pages. All or part of the Content may not be copied or otherwise used with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms look here.
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