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Investors are mostly holding their breath before the election, with the stock market rising slightly on Monday, Inflation watch: Higher CPI expected for October, What tech layoffs mean to the economy, and more financial news.
Volume on the stock market was lower as investors are holding their breath over Tuesday’s election results. Nonetheless, The S&P 500 notched up 0.4% while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100-tracking Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) added 1%, Investor’s Business Daily reported.
The 10-year treasury continues its climb, moving up three basis points to 4.19%.
The October consumer price index (CPI) data will be released at 8:30 AM ET on Thursday. Analysts expect the forecast to climb to 0.7%, three points higher than September’s 0.4%, for an annualized rate of 8.0%. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, is also expected to rise by 0.5%, just under September’s 0.6%, yielding an annualized rate of 6.6%.
Tech companies are announcing a concerning number of layoffs and hiring freezes, CNN has noted. Twitter reduced nearly half of its 7,500-person workforce after Elon musk took over. It comes as major companies have seen their stock falling sharply in recent weeks, including Amazon, Apple, and Meta. Amazon shares are down over 47 percent this year. All three companies have instituted hiring freezes. Online payment giant Stripe announced it would be laying off roughly 14 percent of its staff.
While third-quarter corporate earnings and a positive jobs report signal, a strong economy overall, not every type of business is performing accordingly. The tech layoffs are a response to softening consumer demand, and it should signal other types of businesses and products to pay close attention to their trends and numbers.
Large-scale layoffs could begin at meta as soon as Wednesday, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, with thousands of employees expected to be impacted, the report said, CNBC reported. The company reported at the end of September, it had over 87,000 employees on its payroll. Meta shares have plummeted 73% this year and have fallen to their lowest since early 2016. The former giant of social media is currently the worst performer in the S&P 500 in 2022.
days after reducing its workforce by half, Twitter is reportedly asking for some employees to return, according to a report from Bloomberg that cited two sources from within the company. Allegedly, current Twitter management reached the realization it accidentally laid off some employees it needed or recognized that the experience of some employees was essential to building features Elon Musk desires to add to the platform, Engadget reported.
