Morgans AM: Tuesday, 29 March 2022

Morgans Financial Limited

US equity markets reversed earlier session losses to settle higher, with technology stocks leading the rebound - Dow up +95-points or +0.27%, recovering from an earlier decline of over >300-points. The broader S&P500 rose +0.71% to 4,575.52, falling short of the 4,587.77 level needed to mark an exit from official correction territory. Consumer Discretionary climbed +2.67% to lead eight of the eleven primary sectors higher. Energy (down -2.56%) was the worst performing primary sector overnight as crude prices retreated, with Chevron Corp down -1.75% and Exxon Mobil Corp -2.81% Tesla Inc rallied +% after the electric vehicle giant disclosed plans to enable a stock split, which would be the second in two years. The Nasdaq rallied +1.31% to 14,354.90, the highest settlement for the technology-centric index since 9 February. Apple Inc rose +0.50% to log its longest winning streak in more than a decade, climbing for ten consecutive sessions. The latest modest rise came despite a report from the Nikkei Asian Review saying that the company intends to lower production orders for its new iPhone SE by roughly 2M to 3M devices for the June quarter. The U.S. tech giant also reduced orders for its AirPods earphones by more than >10M units for all of 2022, as the company predicted lukewarm demand and wanted to reduce the level of inventories. Apple also asked suppliers to make a couple of million fewer units of the entire iPhone 13 range than previously planned, but said this adjustment was based on seasonal demand. Netflix Inc rose +1.25% despite executives predicting that growth would suffer much more than expected at the beginning of 2022. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 settled flat.