Topline
Stocks broadly sold off for the third consecutive day Friday, with technology stocks once again weighing on the broader market, and Goldman Sachs strategists cautioned the summer may bring a further cooldown for the previously blistering stock market.
Stocks took a breather this week.
Key Facts
The bellwether S&P 500 fell 0.7% and the tech-concentrated Nasdaq tumbled 0.8%, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial average lost 0.9%, or 380 points, while the smaller company focused Russell 2000 fell 0.6%.
Both the S&P (down 2% since last Friday) and Nasdaq (-3.7%) tallied their worst weeks since mid-April, while the Dow and Russell are still in the green for the week, owing to the former two indexes’ heavy weighting toward big technology companies, like Apple (shares down 3% this week), Microsoft (-4%) and Nvidia (-8%).
Nvidia, whose stock fell 3% Friday, headlined the brutal stretch for semiconductor chip stocks which had previously been red-hot as generative artificial intelligence hype built.
The iShares Semiconductor exchange-traded fund (SOXX) fell 9% this week, with prominent Silicon Valley chip makers Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom down 16% and 6% this week, respectively, as global chip stocks broadly struggled after the Biden Administration reportedly considered curbs on Chinese Silicon chip capabilities and news broke of Donald Trump’s skepticism of American protection of Taiwan, an area crucial for manufacturing of the chips.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company behind the wide-spanning technological outages, was the biggest faller of any S&P stock Friday, as shares fell 11%, while other notable losers included Intel with a 5% loss and Tesla with a 4% dip.
What We Don’t Know
If this week’s stock slip turns into a full-fledged slump. Goldman Sachs strategists cautioned in a Friday note to clients they see “risk of a setback in the summer” across global equities and they don’t see much further “equity valuation expansion from here.” The Goldman group, led by Christian Mueller-Glissmann, explained the reasons for their trepidation included the geopolitical risk stemming from the U.S.’ November presidential election, risk of stalling economic growth and the fact that stock prices have largely already baked in the upside of lower interest rates, which investors expect to come to the U.S. by September.
Key Background
Brokerage accounts may have looked ugly over the last few days, but selloffs like this week’s are extremely routine, especially after long stretches of gains, as fund managers and individual investors cash in on their profits and readjust their portfolios. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq are up 9%, 17% and 20% year-to-date, including reinvested dividends, all already on pace to outperform their historic annual returns. The S&P has fallen by more than this week’s 2% loss 16 times over the last two years, a stretch in which the index has gained 45%, shattering its prior record high. Chip stocks similarly remain up big—the SOXX is up 24% year-to-date and almost 90% over the last two years.
What To Watch For
Next week will be the thick of earnings season, with giants like Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, Visa and Coca-Cola all set to report second-quarter results. Analysts project Q2 will be the best annual profit growth for the S&P since 2021, according to FactSet.
