The Long and Short of it, week ending 04 Feb 2022
Posted:U.S. stock markets rallied strongly through Wednesday, buoyed by strong tech-stock earnings, with
the Nasdaq Composite Index climbing just under 5%. Wednesday’s after-market Meta Platforms
earnings report all but reversed those gains Thursday, with Meta’s stock price plunging 26% and
driving the Nasdaq Composite Index 3.7% lower. Those losses, in turn, were partially reversed Friday
following Amazon’s after-market earnings report Thursday, with Amazon’s stock price surging just
under 14% and the Nasdaq Composite Index increasing 1.6%. Friday’s much stronger-than-expected
Non-Farm Payroll Report, along with the BoE’s rate increase Thursday and growing expectations the
ECB will tighten monetary policy, drove 10-year U.S. Treasury rates 14bps higher to finish the week
above 1.9%. The U.S. dollar, however, weakened significantly over the week, partly as result of the
BoE tightening actions. The Nasdaq Composite Index outperformed both the S&P 500 Index and the
Dow Jones Industrial Average as investors favoured growth/tech stocks over value/cyclical stocks.
At week’s end, the S&P 500 Index gained 1.6% to 4,500.54, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.4%
to 14,098.01, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.7% to 35,089.15, the 10-year U.S.
Treasury rate rose 14bp to 1.92% and the U.S. dollar (as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar index - DXY)
weakened 1.8%.
For More Detail read the following PDF.
The Long and Short of it, week ending 04 Feb 2022
