Broad equity markets continue to drop amid earnings disappointments Updated: 2/5/2014
Investors reacted negatively to a slight miss in ADP’s January private sector job growth estimate of 175,000 vs. expectations of 180,000. Earlier, disappointing earnings forecasts caused a broad selloff, with global equity markets dropping over 3% so far this week.
“Broad equity markets have continued to drop this week amid some disappointing earnings reports and continued turmoil in emerging markets,” said David Krein, Managing Director of NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes. “The decision to continue to taper at Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s last meeting did not buoy the market from its recent slide, as some investors may have hoped.”
INDEX MOVES THIS WEEK
- NASDAQ BIOTECHNOLOGY INDEX (NBI) has continued its recent decline with a 2.97% drop this week. Year-to-date performance for the index is still up 5% on the heels of the Index’s best year in the past decade.
- PHLX OIL SERVICE SECTOR INDEX (OSX) was down 2% as of noon on Wednesday from the most recent Friday close. The price of crude oil was flat from last week at $97.28 per barrel.
- NASDAQ OMX GLOBAL AUTOMOBILE INDEX (QAUTO) is down 3% with the expectation of slowing growth in auto sales in 2014.
INDEX TO WATCH
- Twitter and a handful of other social media companies are expected to report earnings in the next week. Look for activity in the space by tracking the NASDAQ INTERNET INDEX (QNET), which is up 48% year-over-year.
