Stock market today: Dow snaps three-week win streak as Apple slump bites tech

August 5, 2023 Bruce Langford

The Dow closed lower Friday, snapping a three-week win streak as investors weighed up a slump in Apple and a mixed July jobs report showing fewer than expected job gains in July, but an uptick in wages that threatens a re-acceleration in inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%, or 150 points, Nasdaq was down 0.4%, and the S&P 500 fell 0.50%.

July job gains fall short of estimates

This economy created 187,000 new jobs in July, missing economists’ estimates of 200,000, but a tick higher in average hourly earnings and an unexpected fall in unemploymentsuggested that the labor market remains tight and the Federal Reserve likely has more work to do to slow economic growth and inflation.

Treasury , however, tumbled on bets that the Fed may have delivered its final hike last month as its tightening delivered so far appears to be slowing the economy and labor market.

“We still expect the inflation numbers to be good enough to keep the Fed at bay in September, but it’s not a done deal,” Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a note Friday.

Apple rides red sea as iPhone sales fall short, but Amazon takes flight as cloud business shines

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell more than 4% as its better-than-expected quarterly results were overshadowed by worries that weaker iPhone demand likely continued into the current quarter.

While Apple’s management is focused on becoming more operationally efficient by cutting costs, the “gravity of a challenging smartphone market particularly in developed regions that should continue the rest of 2023 is a headwind for the stock,” UBS said in a note.

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), however, took all the plaudits on the earnings stage rising nearly 9% after reporting better-than-expected second results, the highlight of which was better-than-expected performance in its cloud business Amazon web services.

The highlight of the quarter was arguably AWS revenue growth that came in about 2% points better than Street expectations, and most importantly management commentary that pointed towards a rationalization bottom with growth trends that have proved stable through July,” Deutsche Bank said in a note.

Tupperware Brands surges on debt-deal restructure

Tupperware Brands rallied 35% after agreeing to a debt restructuring deal that will help free up about $150 million of cash interest and fees as the container maker continues efforts to turn around its business.

Tupperware (NYSE:TUP) Brands is up over 560% over the past month following the latest rally, with the bulk of gains coming in July, when the stock attracted the attention of meme-stock traders.

Carl Icahn’s conglomerate succumbs to short seller pressure

Legendary investor Carl Icahn’s conglomerate Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP) fell more than 23% after halving its dividend on Friday, just months after short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged the company deploys a “ponzi-like” structure to pay dividend.

Byinvesting.com