Tech stocks took a breather yesterday, with the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) shedding a percentage point on the day. Sector investors are on pins and needles ahead of Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) latest earnings report Wednesday. The Dow managed to hit a fresh record though.
This morning, equities are slipping a bit further along with silver, gold, and crude oil. Treasuries are lower in price, too, while the dollar is flat.
Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ)
We learned yesterday that orders for durable goods surged 9.9% in July. That sounds good, but the headline numbers are often skewed by orders for big-ticket items such as airplanes, and that appeared to be the case here. Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft dipped 0.1% after rising a less-than-previously estimated 0.5% in June. That’s a key proxy for business investment activity, and the lackluster datapoint adds to evidence of a cooling (but not crashing) economy.
Turns out Seagram’s heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. will NOT be buying Paramount Global (PARA). He dropped his $6 billion bid for the troubled streaming media and movie and television studio operator late yesterday, allowing David Ellison to move forward with his $8 billion deal. That transaction will see the son of Oracle Corp. (ORCL) co-founder Larry Ellison merging Paramount into his Skydance Media firm.
Chinese stocks have had a rough go of things the last few years. But PDD Holdings Inc. (PDD) really took it on the chin yesterday, plunging more than 28%. The parent company of the Temu online shopping site warned that Q2 sales would miss forecasts due to increased competition. PDD also said heavy investments in its operations would hurt profitability. The news wiped $55 billion of market cap off the stock.
