Market volatility is about to worsen next week as trading volume moderates this morning. Bullish investors are about to unwind their chronically bullish outlook after the U.S. posted inflation in food and shelter costs in December 2023.
Interest-sensitive stocks likely peaked from here. Watch out for selling volume in Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JP Morgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Goldman Sachs (GS) to increase on Friday.
In the technology sector, job cuts are resuming. The Federal Reserve’s persistently high interest rates are slowing the economy, hurting the advertising business. Demand for innovation and hardware devices continues to weaken. Alphabet (GOOG) said it would cut hundreds of jobs across its engineering and hardware division.
Job losses at Google are a troubling sign. Alphabet is among the magnificent seven that led the stock market’s uptrend that began in October 2023.
Consumers do not need new features in Google Assistant, so the firm may cut staff in that division.
Neither Apple (AAPL) nor Microsoft (MSFT) announced any major restructuring yet. If they do, look out below. Growing tech firms cannot increase profits by cutting costs. They need stronger underlying business demand.
Seasonally, CES 2024 ends at the end of the week. It will mark a top in semiconductor stocks, especially in shares of Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
