Nasdaq recovers slightly from a tough week
Nasdaq opened 1.04% up today at $12,856.12 following news of US non-farm payroll figures exceeding expectations. US employment figures outperformed economic forecasts for February, as 379,000 jobs were added to the economy.
Robert Alster, CIO at investment management firm Close Brothers Asset Management, praised the progress of the US economy since the current President’s inauguration.
“Nonetheless, Biden’s pledge for all US adults to have received the vaccine by the end of May, a drop off in coronavirus cases, and tentative relaxation of restrictions all bode well for a continued improvement in the employment numbers.”
“A further boost will be given once the $1.9tn Covid-19 stimulus bill reaches the Resolute desk. With the injection of the vaccine and cash, the President will be hoping he can get the US economy back on the front foot.”
It follows a week of downward movement following the sell-off of technology stocks which came about as a result of the news of rising bond yields. Stocks in Apple, Tesla and Amazon dropped by $1.6tn since the index’s closing high on 12 February 2021, according to an analyst from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Nasdaq Top Movers
Cisco Systems (3.15%), Fiserv (2.10%) and Micron Technology (1.69%) were the top movers on the index at early morning trading.
At the bottom end of the New York exchange, Okta (-3.81%), Tesla (-2.99%) and Costco (-2.16), are the day’s biggest fallers so far, as Elon Musk’s company continues its recent slump.
Coinbase
Nearly a decade after its founding, Coinbase, a trading platform for crypto buyers, is set to go public as the company has has been valued around $100bn.
The company, which will be listed on the Nasdaq exchange, earned revenue of $1.3bn in 2020, up from $534m in 2019, while recording a profit of $322m in 2020, following a $30m loss the year before.
Ark Innovation ETF
Ark Invest’s famous Innovation ETF saw its gains for 2021 wiped out this week as rising US bond yields resulted in a sell-off of a number of Nasdaq companies. The fund’s top five holdings – Tesla, Square, Roku, Teladoc and Spotify – lost on average 17% over a one month period.