Wall Street close: S&P's worst month since March 2020
And finally... the US stock market has closed with strong gains, after a turbulent month in which worries about US interest rate rises, and the Ukraine crisis, hit shares.
The S&P 500 has jumped by 1.9% today, led by technology stock such as Netflix and Tesla which both gained over 10%.
But that still leaves the S&P 500 down around 5.26% in January, its worst month since March 2020.
The Nasdaq surged by 3.4% today, but was still down almost 9% this month --also its worst month since the crash of March 2020.
Stocks bounced for a second day Monday to wrap up a rough January, as investors snapped up some of the tech shares that have been battered all month.
— CNBC (@CNBC) January 31, 2022
The Dow was up 1.17%.
The S&P 500 rose 1.89%.
The Nasdaq surged 3.41%. https://t.co/ogSDEyuLo9 pic.twitter.com/etgY0gwy2K
📈Market Conditions Today📉#DJI ⬆️ 1.16% 💲35,131#SP500 ⬆️ 1.88% 💲4,515#NASDAQ ⬆️ 3.4% 💲14,239#US10Y ⬆️ .21% 💲1.784% #DXY 🔻 .69% 💲96.60#WTI ⬆️ 1.72% 💲88.31#Gold ⬆️ .75% 💲1,798#BTC ⬆️ 2% 💲38,430#ETH ⬆️ 4% 💲2,680
— Real Vision (@RealVision) January 31, 2022
According to Reuters it’s the S&P 500’s worst January drop since 2009, while the Dow had its weakest start to a year since 2016, and it was the Nasdaq’s worst January since 2008.
Fears that the US central bank would hike interest rates four or more times this year, even as the economy slows, hit markets hard this month
As Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities, told CNBC:
Between the amount of volumes that we saw and the massive swings that we saw in markets, the volatility really felt like it had a crescendo,”
Those crescendos usually happen when there is a massive amount of capitulation in markets and everything is for sale,” Hogan added.
“For most of the month we would see money coming out of growth but going into cyclical. Then that would unwind and growth would catch a bit. That was all true until this past week. We’ve seen a bit of the aftermath of that storm, and that seems to be more stabilization.”
Dow jumps 406 points, and Nasdaq Composite’s 3.4% Monday rally cuts brutal monthly loss but still results in worst January since 2008 financial crisis https://t.co/s0RREedcQW
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) January 31, 2022
On that note, goodnight... GW
Mexico in technical recession after weak end to 2021
Mexico has fallen into recession, as supply chain disruption, a new labour law and a lack of economic support in the pandemic all hit its economy.
Mexico’s GDP fell by 0.1% in the last quarter of 2021, statistics body INEGI reported, following a 0.4% in Q3.
Two consecutive quarters of contraction are a technical recession.
Reuters adds:
The disappointing Mexico data comes as Brazil’s weakened economy is in danger of sinking deeper into recession this year ahead of October’s presidential election, as anxiety over the vote and steep interest rate rises continue to hurt growth, according to a Reuters poll.
“With its weak Q4 outturn, Mexico has joined Brazil in technical recession, an extremely disappointing result that leaves real GDP in Mexico a whopping 4% below its mid-2019 pre-Covid peak,” said Fiona Mackie, regional director, Latin America and the Caribbean at Economist Intelligence Unit.
