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.
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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.
