Hello readers,
It was a crazy day to cap off a wild week on Wall Street. On the political front, the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, his selection of populist JD Vance as his running mate, and increasing chatter that President Joe Biden will remove himself from the Democratic ticket created not just uncertainty but also short term winners and losers.
Among those worst off was the company at the center of the snafu. A software update from the cybersecurity firm for computers running Microsoft software caused chaos around the world, grounding flights, impacting hospitals, and even disrupting stock trading. It wasn't just what sector one was invested in that determined the color on the screen but what segment of the market. In maybe the wildest trend, long-shunned small capitalization and value stocks began an epic rally late last week just as tech stocks swooned.
Is it a preview of coming attractions? A hedge fund manager who has profited from past stock market crashes has turned bearish. Universa's Mark Spitznagel, whose 'Black Swan' fund has made as much as $1 billion in a single day, told Heard Editor Spencer Jakab that we are in 'the greatest bubble in human history.' He sees its bursting after one last hurrah.
For the session on Friday, stocks didn't crash, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 377 points or 0.93% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.81%. U.S. benchmark crude futures dropped by 3.25% with so many flights grounded and other transport disrupted.
Several major companies will report quarterly earnings next week. They include Google parent Alphabet, Tesla, Verizon, AbbVie, Unilever, IBM, and Coca-Cola.
Shares in once-highflying solar energy company SunPower plunged 73% in the week's final two trading sessions after it said it was halting some installations and shipments. In February, Heard on the Street's Jinjoo Lee warned that 'residential solar companies are wilting under high interest rates and less favorable state incentives.'
Stay tuned for more updates on the market's roller coaster ride. Until next time!
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