Markets: After getting pummeled last year, stocks closed out the first month of 2023...
Markets: After getting pummeled last year, stocks closed out the first month of 2023 much like your friends who did Dry January—without a hangover. All three indexes rose last month, but the tech-focused Nasdaq shined brightest with a gain of more than 11%. Yesterday’s game ball went to Spotify, which revealed strong user growth last quarter.
On tap today: The Fed is expected to announce an interest rate hike of 25 basis points, which would represent a downshift from a series of larger hikes in 2022. Across town, President Biden will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to hopefully make progress on the looming debt ceiling crisis.
Dow ends up about 370 points Tuesday as stocks close out strong January
U.S. stocks finished in the green on Tuesday as the Nasdaq cemented...
U.S. stocks finished in the green on Tuesday as the Nasdaq cemented its best January performance since 2001 amid a broad-based rally in equities that saw some of 2022’s worst performers take the lead.The S&P 500 SPX, +1.46% gained 58.83 points, or about 1.5%, to finish January at 4,076.60, a gain of 6.2% for the month, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That’s the large-cap index’s best monthly gain since October, and its best January since 2019, something that is also true for the Dow. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, 1.67% rose by 190.74 points, or 1.7%, to 11,584.55 on Tuesday, bringing its gain for January to 10.7%. January was also the tech-heavy index’s best month since July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.09% rose by 368.95 points, or 1.1%, to 34,086.04, gaining 2.8% for the month, its best such performance since November. Markets rose in January with the Nasdaq rising for four weeks straight, driven by signs of slowing inflation and hopes that the Federal Reserve might soon end its most aggressive campaign of interest-rate hikes since at least the 1980s.
MarketWatch: PayPal will lay off 7% of its employees as part of a cost-cutting push
PayPal Holdings Inc. plans to lay off about 7% of its staff as...
PayPal Holdings Inc. plans to lay off about 7% of its staff as it continues with broader efforts to reduce costs. Chief Executive Dan Schulman announced the layoffs, which will affect about 2,000 PayPal employees, in an email to the staff Tuesday afternoon.
“While we have made substantial progress in right-sizing our cost structure, and focused our resources on our core strategic priorities, we have more work to do,” Schulman said in the note. “We must continue to change as our world, our customers, and our competitive landscape evolve.”
Some parts of PayPal will be impacted “more than others,” and staffers will find out more details about the impacts to their business units and teams over “the next days and weeks.”
The company will continue to hire “strategically” this year, spokeswoman Amanda Miller told MarketWatch.
Crippling ice storm turns deadly in Texas as crashes mount, power outages skyrocket across South
DALLAS – A dangerous situation is unfolding in ...
DALLAS – A dangerous situation is unfolding in Texas as a long-duration, crippling ice storm has led to numerous reports of crashes that have killed at least one person and mounting power outages across the southern Plains and mid-South.
The storm is the result of a bitter blast of arctic air that is in place across the central U.S. and is expected to have a significant impact on the region over the next few days.
The energy sector is off to a lower start, pressured by weakness in the...
The energy sector is off to a lower start, pressured by weakness in the underlying commodities and in the major equity futures which fell as traders navigate a wave of earnings announcements and the start of the Fed's two-day policy meeting. Earnings season continued to ramp up today with ExxonMobil posting a record $56 billion profit for 2022, beating earnings expectations for the fourth quarter.
WTI crude oil futures extended their slide lower for the third-straight session and hit a two-week low this morning, falling on concerns of further interest rate hikes, strength in the U.S. dollar and ample Russian crude flows. Investors expect the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by 25 basis points Wednesday, with half-point increases coming from the Bank of England and European Central Bank the following day. Further bearish sentiment followed news that Russia's oil loadings from its Ust-Luga port is expected to rise at the beginning of February despite the western sanctions. Traders are also looking for the outcome of an OPEC panel meeting tomorrow with the group expected to recommend keeping the group's current output policy unchanged.
