Wall Street’s tech giants continued to extend their gains in the week following the Federal Reserve’s November meeting. The Nasdaq 100 once again outperformed other major indices, driven by the Magnificent 7, which includes artificial intelligence winners and tech stocks with the highest market capitalization, such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and Tesla.
The Dow’s blue-chip stocks stalled, while small caps plummeted, retracing more than half of the previous week’s gains. Energy was again the weakest performer among sectors.
Microsoft hot on Apple’s trail
The tech giant Microsoft reached a new all-time high, surpassing $367 per share on Friday, solidifying its position as a major AI winner. Microsoft’s market capitalization has now reached $2.73 trillion, trailing Apple’s by just $150 billion.
Bitcoin now worth more than Tesla
Bitcoin marked its fourth consecutive week of gains amid reports the SEC has initiated talks with Grayscale regarding its application to transform its GBTC trust product into a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded product. The total value of all outstanding Bitcoin crossed the $750 billion mark, surpassing Tesla’s market capitalization.
BlackRock set to launch Ethereum ETF
The world’s largest asset management firm, BlackRock, signaled interest in launching an Ethereum exchange-traded fund on Thursday, a bullish sign for the digital assets space.
Fed’s caution snaps stocks’ win streak
A relatively hawkish speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday ended the U.S. stock market’s longest daily winning streak in over two years. The setback came when Powell suggested that while the Fed is in no hurry to raise interest rates as inflation cools, he did not rule out another hike. He said there is still a substantial distance to cover to achieve the 2% target.
Dueling economic outlooks
Notable investment firms published their economic outlooks for 2024 this past week. While Goldman Sachs still foresees a well-above-consensus growth for the U.S. economy, Wells Fargo presents a rather pessimistic outlook.
Walt Disney’s latest quarter results have a bright side
Disney reported fourth-quarter (fiscal year 2023) revenue of $21.24 billion, a 5% year-over-year increase, albeit falling short of Street expectations. The company’s earnings per share of 82 cents surpassed the Street consensus estimate of 70 cents per share. Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne reiterated the stock should perform better in the future.
The week ahead
All eyes will be on the consumer price index report for October, scheduled for release Tuesday. Economists anticipate that core inflation will hold steady at 4.1% year-on-year.
On Wednesday, the highlights will include the producer price index and retail sales data. Additionally, several Federal Reserve speakers are expected to provide insights throughout the week.
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Among the mega-cap U.S. companies scheduled to announce earnings next week are Home Depot on Tuesday, Cisco Systems on Wednesday and Walmart and Applied Materials on Thursday.
Benzinga is a financial news and data company headquartered in Detroit.
