What happened in the markets last week
Rising oil prices, falling stocks and falling Treasury yields. Iran, CPI data and semiconductor stocks in focus.
Stocks fell. The decline was largely attributable to big semiconductor stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) and Micron (MU), which tumbled on concerns about flagging demand from AI companies. The return of active conflict between Iran and the U.S. (and rising oil prices) didn’t help. The small-cap Russell 2000 was less affected than the large-cap indexes, but it declined as well. We have a roundup of the cheapest index funds here.
Energy was the best-performing sector this week, tech was the worst. Pretty self-explanatory: rising oil prices are good for energy. When the giant semiconductor companies fall, they drag the whole tech sector down with them. If you want to try to ride the wave in energy, we have a list of the top-performing energy ETFs. If you want to try to buy the dip in the top-performing tech stocks, we have a list of those here.
SpaceX (SPCX) fell below its IPO price. Quite a bit below its IPO price, actually. Investors who got IPO shares are now down more than 8% from their entry price of $135. That could mean SpaceX shares are on sale, or it could mean that they were overvalued at their debut and could fall further. Check out our overview of how to invest in SpaceX (and how to avoid investing in SpaceX) here.
Oil prices rose. The Brent crude benchmark jumped more than 10% as conflict between the U.S. and Iran intensified following the collapse of the ceasefire, and little progress was made toward a new peace deal. Interested in investing in oil? We have an article about that.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell. One piece of good news for the markets last week was softer-than-expected inflation data from the consumer price index report on Tuesday, which has tempered expectations for rate hikes from the Federal Reserve in the near future. (But the Iran situation could undo that optimism if it continues to push up oil prices.) Falling yields mean rising prices. We have a primer on how to buy bonds (and a little more explanation about that falling yields/rising prices thing) here.
Bitcoin recovered slightly, but gold didn’t. We have a roundup of the best crypto platforms. If you’re interested in buying gold while it’s down from recent highs, check out our primer on the different ways to do it.
