Tech and AI continued to dominate headlines
Coming off a dismal August performance, investors had high hopes for Wall Street, despite September’s historically bearish tendencies. It looks like history might prevail yet again. Oil prices weighed on stocks to start the week, while the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) was battered on Wednesday and Thursday as interest rate fears weighed on the tech sector. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) started a winning run in lockstep with the selloff, and as of Friday afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are all higher but staring down weekly losses.
More Tech, AI Stocks To Watch
Tech stocks dominated headlines, including a tricky landscape for Apple (AAPL), after Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal reported China planned to extend its iPhone ban in certain capacities. Airbnb (ABNB) stock soared after it was revealed the company’s stock will join the SPX later this month. Options traders blasted streaming concern Roku (ROKU) after the company announced a round of job cuts; and UBS downgraded Square and Cash App operator Block (SQ) on growth deceleration and its impact on price.
The artificial intelligence (AI) sector remains a buzzword. Mizuho upgraded Adobe (ADBE) after praising the company’s generative AI product Adobe Firefly. Similarly, Oracle (ORCL) received a bull note amid potential tailwinds from the AI boom. Rounding things out, C3.asi (AI) failed to capitalize on the optimism, as its fiscal second-quarter results came in worse than analysts anticipated.
Schaeffer’s Senior Staff Weigh in on August’s Pullback
Next week, investors will look towards retail sales data and a key inflation reading for insight into the state of the economy. Meanwhile, Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White thinks there’s a chance September could be reverse last month’s losses, and Senior V.P. of Research Todd Salamone’s seems to agree.
Image and article originally from www.schaeffersresearch.com. Read the original article here.