Medicare Agent News: Red Start

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Red Start

By Nicholas Jasinski | Tuesday, January 3

New Year, Same Market. Stocks got off to an inauspicious start to the new year on Tuesday, with early morning gains quickly fading. By the close, the S&P 500 was down 0.4%, the Nasdaq Composite had lost 0.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 0.03%.

Energy stocks—coming off a more-than 60% return in 2022—took it on the chin today. The price of WTI crude oil slid 4.1%, to $76.93 a barrel, as traders worried that Chinese demand could falter if Covid-19 cases in the world's second-largest economy continue to surge. The Energy Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund dropped 3.5% on the day.

Tesla, the classic anti-oil stock, also started 2023 on the wrong foot. The electric-vehicle pioneer said it delivered about 405,000 units in the fourth quarter, a quarterly record. That brought its 2022 total to 1.3 million vehicles delivered, up a whopping 40% from 2021.

But the number was below the company's target and Wall Street's consensus estimate for 420,000 fourth-quarter deliveries. That's despite Tesla recently offering discounts to customers.

Tesla stock—which shed 65% of its value in 2022—kicked off 2023 with a 12% decline. The next major catalyst for the stock should be on Jan. 25, when Tesla publishes its financial results for the fourth quarter. Management's 2023 outlook will be a key focus.

Read more on the latest Tesla news from Barron's Al Root here.

In other bearish headlines today, Apple's 3.7% loss—on reports that the company cut its first-quarter orders for AirPods, Apple Watches, and MacBooks—brought Apple's market value below $2 trillion for the first time since 2021.

Apple's market cap is down more than $1 trillion from its peak of nearly $3 trillion about a year ago. It's the second company to earn that trillion-dollar loss distinction, following Amazon.com, which entered the club last week.

In aggregate, value stocks still appear to be the most in favor on Wall Street. The value subset of the S&P 500 ticked up 0.5% today, while growth peers slid 1.2%. In 2022, value topped growth by more than 20 percentage points.

The calendar may have flipped, but some things remain just the same.