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S&P 500 Falls 2%: Worst Day Of 2022 So Far As ‘Magnificent Seven’ Loses Nearly $800bn

It was a tough Wednesday for stocks, with two of the three major indexes heading for their worst days in more than a year after the latest round of corporate reports.

KEY FACTS

  • The benchmark S&P 500’s 2.3% drop was its biggest percentage loss since December 2022. The tech Nasdaq’s 3.6% drop marked its worst day since October 2022, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks just 30 stocks, suffered a lighter loss of 1.3%.
  • The losses followed Tuesday afternoon earnings reports from three of the 15 most valuable U.S. companies — Google parent Tesla and credit card giant Visa — that disappointed the market.
  • Tesla’s 12% drop after reporting a 45% year-over-year profit decline was the biggest since January, Visa’s 4% drop after the company’s first quarterly revenue decline of 2020 delivered its biggest daily decline since May 2022 Alphabet’s 5% drop was its worst day since February.
  • The tepid response to Alphabet and Tesla, the first two of the “Magnificent Seven” to report second-quarter results, may bode particularly poorly for the broader market, given the septet’s huge contribution to overall earnings growth and higher marks.
  • Five of the other seven great stocks also fell sharply on Wednesday, with Amazon down 3%, Apple down 3%, Meta down 6%, Microsoft down 4% and Nvidia down 7%.

BIG NUMBER

770 billion dollars. The Magnificent Seven lost roughly that much market value on Wednesday, led by losses of more than $100 billion for Alphabet and Nvidia.

KEY STORY

Next week, four of the remaining “Magnificent Seven” companies will announce their financial results: Microsoft on Tuesday, Meta on Wednesday, Amazon and Apple on Thursday, while Nvidia will announce its results at the end of August. These companies’ rising earnings and increasing price/earnings driven by investor interest in artificial intelligence have supported record market growth since the end of 2022, despite interest rates at their highest level in two decades. All three major indexes hit new all-time highs earlier this month. However, trends have changed in the past week. The S&P and Nasdaq are down 3% and 5%, respectively, from their record highs hit earlier this month. Goldman Sachs strategists warned last week that there was a strong potential for a summer decline because of possible volatility related to geopolitical events.

Only 1% Of Cyprus Farms Use Precision Farming Technologies

Cyprus remains one of the European Union’s least digitised agricultural economies, with just 1% of farms using precision farming technologies in 2023, according to Eurostat.

The findings come as the EU continues to encourage the adoption of digital tools aimed at improving agricultural productivity, efficiency and sustainability.

Internet Access Expands, But Digital Uptake Lags

Internet access has improved across the bloc, although adoption remains uneven. Eurostat found that 43% of EU farms had internet access in 2023, with northern and central European countries leading the way.

Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Austria all reported internet access rates above 90%.

Greater connectivity, however, has not translated into widespread digital adoption. Farm management information systems, which help farmers manage day-to-day operations, were used by only about 11% of EU farms. France was a notable exception, with around 60% of farms using the technology.

Precision Farming Concentrated In Larger Operations

Robotics adoption also remained relatively limited, with only about 7% of EU farms using robotic technologies. Overall, around 18% of farms with utilised agricultural area employed at least one precision farming technology or practice in 2023.

These included robotics for plant protection, band spraying, variable-rate application, precision crop monitoring and soil analysis. Despite representing fewer than one in five farms, these holdings accounted for around 44% of the EU’s utilised agricultural area.

The figures suggest that precision farming remains concentrated among larger agricultural businesses, where investment in digital technologies is typically easier to support.

Cyprus Lags Behind EU Leaders

Luxembourg, Finland and Estonia recorded the highest shares of utilised agricultural area managed by farms using precision farming technologies, each exceeding 75%.

At the other end of the ranking, Cyprus recorded just 1%, while Greece and Romania reported between 10% and 15%. The results indicate that Cyprus remains at an early stage of digital adoption in agriculture, even as precision farming becomes more widespread across parts of the European Union.

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