Wall Street Ends Up Divided, Weighed Down By Technology – S Chronicles

The New York Stock Exchange ended divided on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq weighed down by technology to start the final week of the year punctuated by a long Christmas weekend.

The Dow Jones Index was up 0.11% to 33,241.56, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 1.38% to 10,353.23 and the broader S&P 500 Index was down 0.40% to 3829.25.

“We started the last week of the year with a mixed market due to a rise in bond yields,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.

“Investors are trying to figure out what’s going to happen to the Federal Reserve in 2023,” he said as the Federal Reserve began scaling back interest rate hikes at its last monetary meeting in December.

US 10-year Treasury yields accelerated, rising to 3.84% from 3.74% on Friday.

Trading volume remained weak on the equity markets after the long weekend.

The traditional “Santa Claus Rally” or Santa’s Bounce, which usually takes place five days before Christmas and two days after on Wall Street, seems out of reach this year.

“It’s a traditionally positive time of year as investors take advantage of the low trading volume to shop for bargains,” said Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare at the opening.

On the positive news side, China announced on Monday the end of mandatory quarantines upon arrival in the country from January 8, the last vestige of its strict “zero-COVID” public health policy. But the positive reaction from investors was short-lived.

In terms of ratings, Tesla’s action, ending its worst year on record, fell 11.41% to $109.10, a new low in two years.

“The stock is under intense pressure as media reports that China could face an extension of its production shutdown,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush.

Tesla, whose stock has also suffered since being taken over by its boss Elon Musk in the cacophony of Twitter, has fallen 65% year-to-date.

In addition to Tesla, its competitors in electric vehicles also collapsed, such as Rivian (-7.31%) and Lucid (7.46%).

The semiconductor sector suffered a partial collapse as chip supplies swelled after running out a few months ago. Nvidia lost 7.14%, AMD 1.94%.

Apple (-1.39%) was also among the sharply declining technology megacaps. The apple company’s sale ended at $130.03, its lowest level since June 2021.

Airline stocks plummeted after a very difficult weekend that saw a massive storm blocking air travel in the middle of the holiday season.

Southwest Airlines, one of the companies that canceled the most flights over the weekend, fell 5.96% to $33.94.

The U.S. Department of Transportation even said in a statement “its concern about Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays” and promised to “investigate whether these cancellations are controllable and whether Southwest is adhering to its service schedule.”

After cutting almost 75% of its flights on Monday, the company cut another 63% on Tuesday morning and warned that it would only take off about a third of its scheduled flights “in the next few days.”

In total, the company had to cancel more than 10,000 flights in just a few days due to the severe snowstorm that hit large parts of the country.