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Summary
- S&P 500 ticked down 0.76%, Dow Jones shed 0.94%, NASDAQ plunged 1.12%.
- Amazon to sell stake worth US$148 million in food delivery start-up Deliveroo.
- SoftBank-backed US real estate firm Compass aims for a US$10 bn valuation in IPO debut.
US markets edged lower on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated in a Congressional hearing that he does not expect major inflationary pressure from stimulus spending.
The S&P 500 ticked down 0.76% to 3910.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.94% to 32423.15. The NASDAQ Composite Index plunged 1.12% to 13227.70, and the small-cap Russell 2000 dropped 3.58% to 2185.69.
Mr. Powell stressed that inflation would not be large or persistent but if it does, the bank will have tools to deal with it. He told the lawmakers that the central bank will continue to maintain a loose monetary policy, noting that a full recovery may still take time, although it has rebounded strongly.
Markets saw lackluster trade during the session, weighed down by all sectors, with basic materials, energy, and financial stocks taking a bigger hit than others. Investors remained cautious over the central bank’s plans for interest rates, bond purchases, and impact from likely inflation. The 10-year Treasury bond yields, which had climbed sharply on the positive economic outlook, retreated for the third-straight day on Tuesday to 1.624 percent from 1.695 in the previous session.
ViacomCBS stocks (VIAC) nosedived more than 6 percent at 1:14 pm ET after the media company said it will sell US$3 billion worth of common and preferred shares. The stock had surged 55.6 percent month to date. Shares of Carnival Corp. plunged 6.5 percent after it pushed back its tour plans for the Italian Costa Cruise by a month. The tour operator had been hit by covid disruptions.
Meanwhile, several companies have announced plans to go public amid the current IPO craze. The SoftBank-backed American real estate firm, Compass Inc., aims for a US$10 billion valuation in stock-exchange debut. The company, which runs a software platform for real estate agents, plans to sell 36 million shares for US$23 to US$26 per share, it said in a filing.
Budget carrier Frontier Group targets a US$4.52 billion valuation in IPO. The Colorado-based company plans to sell 30 million shares for US$19-US$21 per share. Earnings of the airline industry had fallen sharply during the pandemic.
Furthermore, Amazon plans to sell a stake worth up to US$148 million in the UK-based food delivery start-up Deliveroo, which is planning to debut in the London Stock Exchange. The American e-commerce behemoth would own around 11.5 percent of Deliveroo after the IPO.
In Tuesday’s session, consumer non-cyclicals, technology, consumer-cyclicals, healthcare, energy, industrials, financials, and basic materials stocks pulled back, while shares of Utilities, real estate saw muted gains.
©Kalkine Group 2021.
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Top Gainers
Top performers on S&P 500 included WEC Energy Group Inc (4.07%), CMS Energy Corp (3.47%), Nextera Energy Inc (3.25%), and Alliant Energy Corp (3.03%). On NASDAQ, top performers were Dolphin Entertainment Inc (236.33%), Benitec Biopharma Inc (190.28%), Liquid Media Group Ltd (22.92%), and Oncolytics Biotech Inc (17.26%). On Dow Jones, Procter & Gamble Co (1.86%), Walmart Inc (1.19%), Coca-Cola Co (0.76%), and Microsoft Corp (0.67%) were among the leaders.
Top Losers
Top laggards on S&P 500 included ViacomCBS Inc (-9.06%), PVH Corp (-8.24%), Freeport-McMoRan Inc (-8.03%), and Borgwarner Inc (-7.96%). On NASDAQ, Frequency Therapeutics Inc (-77.98%), Windtree Therapeutics Inc (-34.29%), Jiayin Group Inc (-29.92%), and Anixa Biosciences Inc (-29.31%) were the losers. On Dow Jones, Dow Inc (-4.35%), Boeing Co (-3.97%), Caterpillar Inc (-3.44%), and Intel Corp (-3.28%) were the laggards.
Image Source: EODHD/Others, NASDAQ 1-Year price chart, March 23, 2021.
Volume Movers
Top volume movers are Apple Inc (21.36M), ViacomCBS Inc (12.54M), Ford Motor Co (12.23M), General Electric Co (11.40M), American Airlines Group Inc (10.84M), Intel Corp (10.65M), Bank of America Corp (10.48M), Microsoft Corp (10.47M), Freeport-McMoRan Inc (10.27M), Cisco Systems Inc (9.62M), Dolphin Entertainment Inc (31.78M), Liquid Media Group Ltd (22.39M), Sundial Growers Inc (21.06M), Benitec Biopharma Inc (18.40M), Genius Brands International Inc (14.07M), ViacomCBS Inc (12.54M), and Verizon Communications Inc (5.84M).
Futures & Commodities
Gold futures were down 0.71% to $1,725.80 per ounce, silver prices dropped 2.60% to $25.098 per ounce, and copper declined 2.70% to $4.0278.
Brent oil futures were down 0.02% to $60.37 and WTI crude shed 6.79% to $57.38 per barrel.
Bond Market
The 30-year treasury bond yields were down 2.23% to 2.329, while the 10-year bond yields dropped 3.44% to 1.624.
US Dollar Futures Index was down 0.66% to 92.350.
Also read: Facebook Ties Up With Canada Govt To Spread COVID Vaccine Info
Meanwhile, officials of the Biden administration are finalizing details of the covid spending plan under various categories like infrastructure, education, climate change initiatives, and economy, etc. They expect to brief the president on the details of the proposal later this week.
In other developments, AstraZeneca has said that it will reissue its vaccine trial data after an independent review board ruled that the information given to the health authorities may be outdated. The company promised to furnish the details of its final analysis within the next two days.
