Week Ending January 31st, 2024
Market Moves 
Weekly Recap

• The NASDAQ led the market on Tuesday. Equity markets finished higher on Tuesday, as technology stocks rebounded from Monday's sell-off that was sparked by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. Every index closed in the green. 
• Tech stocks dragged on DeepSeek news. Shares of Nvidia and other providers of artificial intelligence infrastructure plummeted after reports about the power and efficiency of China’s DeepSeek. The company's AI model reportedly performs comparably to those of leading U.S. technology companies, despite being developed at a fraction of the cost and requiring less computing power. 
• Bond yields edged higher. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield closed at 4.54%. 
• The U.S. dollar advanced versus major currencies. The U.S. dollar advanced against the yen on Tuesday amid fresh tariff threats from the Trump administration.
• WTI oil and gold traded higher. Brent crude oil futures settled up 41 cents, or 0.53%, at $77.49 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 60 cents, or 0.82%, at $73.77.
• All eyes are on the Fed today. Federal Reserve officials are expected to leave interest rates steady this week, giving themselves more time to lower inflation. The Fed’s rate decision will be released at 2 p.m. in Washington on Wednesday and Fed Chair Jerome Powell will hold a post-meeting press conference 30 minutes later.
• Tech earnings season kicks off today. Reports will come in from Meta, Microsoft and Tesla, followed by Apple on Thursday.
• Starbucks shares popped on Q1 results. Starbucks topped Wall Street’s estimates on Tuesday for its quarterly earnings and revenue, but the company’s same-store sales slid for the fourth consecutive quarter.
• Chinese tech company Alibaba released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model. The company claimed it surpassed the highly-acclaimed DeepSeek-V3.

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“They’re skipping a rate cut,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist for EY. “But they want to retain as much optionality as possible to adjust the fed funds rate further through the year."

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Most Active Stocks

• Tesla (TSLA)
• Starbucks (SBUX)
• JetBlue Airways (JBLU)
• Apple (AAPL)
• Rigetti Computing (RGTI)
• Meta (META)
• Nvidia (NVDA)
• Ford Motor Company (F)
• Alibaba Group (BABA)
• CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD)

Weekly Notables

Nextracker Soars on Earnings

Nextracker was a big winner in extended trading on Tuesday, as shares soared after the solar technology company reported a top and bottom line beat for its fiscal third quarter. Even better, management increased its full-year profitability outlook and reported a record backlog.

Target May Face Major Boycott After This Move

Left-wing activists are calling for a boycott on Target stores after the retailer axed its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The big box retailer announced last week that it was getting rid of its DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion) policies.

Earnings Spotlight: Microsoft 

Microsoft will report its second quarter earnings after the bell today. For the quarter, Microsoft is expected to report earnings per share (EPS) of $3.13 on revenue of $68.8 billion, according to Bloomberg consensus data. The company reported EPS of $2.93 on revenue of $62 billion in the same quarter last year.