U.S. stocks edged lower after a round of economic data reminded Wall Street that stagflation is here. Stocks won’t be able to do much as summer trading volumes are here and a pivotal inflation report is awaited.
Tech stocks continue to weaken after another semiconductor maker delivered a revenue warning. It appears it is a challenging market for everyone after both Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Micron (NASDAQ:MU) had to slash their outlooks. Micron’s business update blamed the disappointing outlook as macroeconomic factors and persistent supply-chain constraints. Micron noted it has seen a broadening of customer inventory adjustments. After falling the most in the first half of the year, it seems big tech’s recent rebound might be overdone.
Micron
Wall Street read Micron’s filing and highlighted, “we expect significant sequential declines in revenue and margins.” Micron shares have already been beaten up for most of the year, so this might not be that bad of a rough patch for Micron investors. The news wasn’t all negative for Micron as it also announced it will be taking advantage of grants and have the biggest investment in U.S. memory manufacturing. The $40-billion investment is expected to create around 40,000 jobs.
U.S. Data
The NFIB small business report did not paint an optimistic picture, as businesses struggle to navigate through historic inflation, labor shortages and supply-chain disruptions. The headline reading unexpectedly rose 0.4 points in July to 89.9, which is really a small improvement when you consider how far it has plunged. Some business owners are expecting better business conditions, but that is only happening after last month’s record low. Selling prices eased somewhat, but the net percent still raising prices is inflationary.
Housing Market
A big uptick in Redfin’s records showed the housing market is starting to cool. For the month of July, homes that were on the market for 30 days or longer without going under contract rose 12.5% from a year ago. This was the first year-over-year increase since the beginning of the pandemic and almost the biggest increase on record, for this decade-old report.
The brightest spot in the economy during the pandemic is feeling both the impact of the Fed rate increases and a weakening consumer.
Bitcoin
{{1057391|Bitcoin}}’s rally is stalling as crypto traders need to see what happens with tomorrow’s inflation report. Inflation is what killed Bitcoin late last year and if pricing pressures are showing significant signs of easing, Bitcoin might be able to burst above its recent trading range.
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