The US stock market closed with a tremendous fall last week, with the Dow Jones posting its worst week and month since March 2020.
To some extent, this severe market volatility is due to the US presidential elections, together with the worsening situation of COVID-19 all over the world. In fact, investors are becoming more and more concerned about the stubborn increase of new infections, and this doubled when authorities, Europe's in particular, have reinstated quarantine restrictions. Aside from that, global tech giants have released their controversial quarterly reports, which further shattered investor optimism.
Clearly, many are afraid that the gloomy situation last February and March would repeat. Thus, even though economic statistics are improving now and there is an increase in corporate financial performance, many are awaiting new measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
At the moment though, the US economy has grown by 33.1% in the third quarter, much better than the forecast of economists which is only 31%.
To add to that, the incomes of Americans have risen by 0.9% in September, and this is the highest growth recorded in the indicator after a record jump in April this year.
At the same time, spending has also increased, climbing up by 1.4%.
But despite this background, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 157.51 points (0.59%) on Friday, closing at around 26501.60 points. As a matter of fact, the index has dropped by 6.5% over the past week, which was the largest decline it observed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Even the S&P 500 fell by 40.15 points (1.21%), closing at around 3269.96 points. The overall decline of the index last week was 5.6%.
As for Nasdaq, the index was down 274 points (2.45%), settling at 10,911.59 points. The indicator lost 5.5% over the week.
Overall, the decrease in these three major indices was more than 2%.
It seems that the quarterly reports and long-term prospects of large technology companies put particularly negative pressure on the indices.
For example, Twitter Inc. fell by 21.11% in the third quarter, reducing its net profit by 38%.
Apple Inc. also decreased by 5.6%, and this is because even though demand for computers and digital services have increased during the pandemic, sales of iPhones dropped.
Even Amazon.com Inc, whose net profit for nine months of this year has already surpassed the indicator for the entire previous one, was down by 5.45%.
Shares of one of the world's largest social networking sites, Facebook Inc., also dropped by 6.31%.
As for video game developer, Activision Blizzard Inc., shares have decreased by 2.62%. Although its net profit and revenue have increased, the corporation's annual forecast did not meet analysts' expectations.
Meanwhile, Starbucks Corp. saw a drop in price by 1.52%, especially since its net income and revenues decreased significantly.
Honeywell International Inc. also fell 0.21, after losing profit and revenue in the third quarter. However, its figures exceeded analysts' annual expectations, and to add to that, the company promises a recovery and upbeat trend this 4th quarter.
As for Exxon Mobil, shares were down 1.06%, recording another loss last quarter. The reason for this is a drop in mining revenues and weakening demand for fuel in connection with the new wave of coronavirus.
One of the most popular tobacco companies in the world, Altria Group Inc. also fell by 2.14% even amid adjusted profit and revenue above analysts' forecasts.
KKR & Co., despite an increased profit, also dropped by 1.84%.
Lastly, contrary to the experience of the aforementioned companies, Chevron Corp. grew by 1.02%.
