Bears Prowl Wall Street As Magnificent 7 Tumble; Bitcoin Sinks After Record High: What's Driving Markets Tuesday?

Author: Piero Cingari | March 05, 2024 03:01pm

Volatility knocked on the doors of Wall Street on Tuesday, with major indices all in the red during midday trading as mega-cap tech stocks plunged simultaneously.

All the Magnificent Seven names experienced losses. Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) nosedived over 4%, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ AAPL) shed 2.7%, marking its fifth consecutive session of losses. This decline followed a report indicating a 24% drop in iPhone sales in China during the first six weeks of 2024.

On the data front, signals were mixed. The ISM Services PMI reported a lower-than-expected expansion in February, and factory orders sharply declined in January.

Elsewhere, Bitcoin continued to seize headlines. The largest cryptocurrency surged past all-time highs above $69,000 before plunging by 6% just minutes after reaching the milestone, reflecting some profit-taking behavior among investors.

Meanwhile, Treasury yields experienced a modest downturn as investors pondered the increasing likelihood of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts for the first half of 2024. This ignited gains in long-dated Treasuries, with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT) up 1.2%.

Gold rallied for the fifth consecutive day, reaching an intraday high of $2,141/oz, effectively flirting with the all-time highs reached last December at $2,146.

Tuesday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-Day %Chg
Russell 2000	2,047.85	-0.4%
Dow Jones	38,678.32	-0.8%
S&P 500	5,085.84	-0.9%
Nasdaq 100	17,913.42	-1.7%
CBOE VIX	14.38	6.6%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) fell 0.9% to $508.02, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) fell 0.7% to $387.42 and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) tumbled 1.7% to $436.45, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE), was the outperformer, up by 1.3%, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) sharply underperformed, down 2.4%. 

Tuesday’s Stock Movers

• New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB) rose 17% after KBW analysts noted plans to sell mortgage-servicing rights, boosting capital to bolster its balance sheet and mitigate potential real estate loan losses.
• Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) rose over 12% after better-than-expected quarterly results.
• Albemarle Corp. (NYSE:ALB) declined by more than 11% following a nearly 7% drop on Tuesday, triggered by the company’s disclosure of plans to raise capital through a $2 billion issuance of depositary shares.
• GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLB) shares tumbled 22.4% to $57.80 after the company issued FY25 earnings guidance below estimates.
• Other companies reacting to earnings were Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) (up over 24%) and Stitch Fix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFIX) (down over 19%).
• SoFi Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI) plummeted over 13% as the fintech company unveiled intentions to offer $750 million of convertible senior notes due in 2029, thereby heightening dilution risks for shareholders.
• Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN), Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST), Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX), CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) and ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CHPT) will report after the close.

Read now: Bitcoin Hovers Around New All-Time High, Experts Eye Bullish Future: ‘A Perfect Setup’

Image created using artificial intelligence with Midjourney.

Posted In: ALB BOX CHPT CRWD DIA GTLB JWN NVDA NYCB PAY QQQ ROST SFIX SOFI SPY TGT TLT TSLA XLC XLE