Wednesday, March 3, 2021

The Nasdaq Nears Correction Territory

 

By Alex Eule |  Wednesday, March 3

Inverse Relationship. Bonds have become the main event for the stock market, and today was no exception. Stocks were were down substantially for a second straight day. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.7%, giving the tech-heavy index a two-day decline of 4.3%. The S&P 500 was off 1.3%. 

The declines came despite more good news on the vaccine front after President Joe Biden said there should be enough Covid-19 vaccines for all American adults by the end of May, a two-month acceleration from the prior timeline. 

But as we've written several times lately, the dynamics of the bond market currently mean more to investors than virus-related trends. With today's selloff, the S&P 500 is now down slightly since U.S. daily cases peaked at 312,000 on Jan. 8. That continues a strange inverse relationship for stocks and virus cases. 

Tech stocks are on the verge of a correction, usually defined as a 10% drop. The Nasdaq is down 7.8% from its all-time high in mid-February. Rising rates hurt the present-day value of future earnings, the basis of most tech trading.

The 10-year Treasury yield finished the day up six basis points, to 1.47%, nearly back to last week's level. 

Cloud stocks and stay-at-home plays were hit particularly hard. Eric Savitz highlighted three cloud-focused ETFs that were each down 5% or more. Meanwhile, Peloton Interactive and telemedicine firm Teladoc were down 8.4% and 6.7%, respectively. 

Not surprisingly, the tech names gaining ground today were direct beneficiaries of re-opening trends. Lyft was up 8.2% after the ride-sharing company said that the last week of February was its best week for ridership since March 2020. Rival Uber rose 2.7% on the news.

The latest jobs data might have also poured some cold water on the market. A report from payroll processor ADP showed that the economy added 117,000 private jobs in February. Economists were expecting 225,000. The data could be a preview of the government's own jobs report Friday. Matt Klein has more on what to expect from those numbers

 

 


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