Tag: industrial news

Read: Here are the companies in the layoffs spotlight; Salesforce joins Intel, Google, HP, Amazon, Cisco

January 4, 2023

As EU works to coordinate response to China’s COVID wave, Beijing and airlines are unhappy

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European Union officials were working Wednesday to coordinate a response to China’s current surge of COVID cases and were likely to agree on travel restrictions that may upset both Beijing and airlines.

The Chinese government has already slammed the countries that have imposed a COVID test requirement on passengers from China and has threatened countermeasures if more are introduced, the Associated Press reported.

EU Commission spokesman Tim McPhie said Wednesday that most EU nations are in favor of testing prior to departure and are seeking an official position later in the day.

There are concerns that China’s wave may allow for new, potentially more evasive and risky variants of the coronavirus to emerge, although so far, data are showing the variants circulating in China are already in Europe.

On Wednesday the International Air Transport Association, which represents some 300 airlines worldwide, lent its powerful voice to the protests.

“It is extremely disappointing to see this knee-jerk reinstatement of measures that have proven ineffective over the last three years,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh.

“Research undertaken around the arrival of the omicron variant concluded that putting barriers in the way of travel made no difference to the peak spread of infections. At most, restrictions delayed that peak by a few days,” Walsh said.

EU nations are also expected to agree to test wastewater from planes flying in from China to determine whether it contains variants that are not yet prevalent in Europe.

As China reopens after nearly three years of isolation, the U.S. and several other countries will require travelers to show a negative COVID test. The Wall Street Journal explains why some pandemic restrictions are back and what they mean for people traveling to and from China. Photo: Nicola Marfisi/Avalon via ZUMA Press

In the U.S., the seven-day average for new COVID cases has continued to fall and stood at 60,417 on Tuesday, according to a New York Times tracker. That’s down 10% from two weeks ago and below the recent peak of 70,508 on Christmas Eve.

The daily average for hospitalizations was up 8% to 44,504. The average for deaths was 310, down 24% from two weeks ago.

The New York Times tracker notes there is reason to believe current case and death counts could be artificially low, as the people who track those numbers take time off around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Hospitalization data are not typically affected by holiday reporting breaks.

The number of patients with COVID in intensive-care units rose 11% in two weeks, to 5,350. Meanwhile, the test-positivity rate climbed to 16% and has increased by 25% over the past two weeks. Higher test-positivity rates suggest many new COVID cases are not being counted, as results of at-home testing may not be reported to case trackers.

Overall, cases are currently rising in 17 states, led by Mississippi, where they have climbed 78% from two weeks ago. Measured on a per-capita basis, New Jersey and New York are faring the worst, along with several southern states, including Virginia, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• Shares of Lucira Health Inc.
LHDX,
-29.03%
more than quadrupled Tuesday after it submitted an application for emergency-use authorization to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for over-the-counter use of a molecular COVID-19 and flu test, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The test was granted emergency-use authorization for point-of-care use in a healthcare setting in November. The company now “intends to make the test broadly available to consumers both online as well as in pharmacies.”

• Salesforce Inc.
CRM,
+3.57%
has become the latest big tech player to say it hired too aggressively during the COVID pandemic; it is now planning to lay off about 10% of its workforce, MarketWatch’s Emily Bary reported. The company will also exit some real estate and cut back on office space, it disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The plan is aimed at reducing operating costs, boosting operating margins and driving “profitable growth.” “As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” the company’s co-chief executive, Marc Benioff, said in a letter to employees that was also filed with the SEC. The company had 73,541 employees as of Jan. 31, 2022, according to its last annual filing with the SEC.

The recent headlines about tech layoffs don’t seem to match broader economic indicators, which show a strong job market and a historically low unemployment rate. The Wall Street Journal’s Gunjan Banerji explains the disconnect. Illustration: Ali Larkin

• Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
-2.20%
has gone from being a COVID darling to a “show-me” launch story, according to Bank of America analysts, who downgraded the stock to neutral from buy on Wednesday, citing declining COVID revenues and uncertainty about how new products will perform. Analysts are expecting revenue from Pfizer’s COVID vaccine Comirnaty and its antiviral Paxlovid to decline by about $32 billion from 2022, wider than the consensus number of a decline of $25 billion. “While new launches can partially address the $17 billion LOE (loss of exclusivity) hole in 2025 to 2030, longer term growth is unclear,” the analysts wrote in a note to clients.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 666.8 million on Tuesday, while the death toll rose above 6.69 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 100.8 million cases and 1,094,010 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 229.1 million people living in the U.S., equal to 69% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 47 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 15.1% of the overall population.

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January 4, 2023

U.S job openings stay high at 10.5 million and show labor market still very strong

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The numbers: Job openings in the U.S. fell slightly to 10.46 million in November, but workers were still quitting in droves in a sign the labor market remains quite strong — too strong for the Federal Reserve.

Job listings declined from 10.51 million in October, the Labor Department said Wednesday. But openings in October were also revised higher.

The number of job openings is seen as a cue on the health of the labor market and broader U.S. economy. Job postings have slowly receded since hitting an all-time high of 11.9 million last spring.

The jobs market is still too hot for the Fed, however. The Fed is worried high inflation will persist unless hiring slows and a rapid increase in wages tapers off.

There were 1.7 job openings for each unemployed worker in November, well above pre-pandemic levels of 1.2. The Fed is watching that ratio closely and wants to see if fall back to pre-pandemic norms.

Key details: The number of people hired in November dipped to 6.06 million, marking the smallest increase since February 2021.

Rising interest rates, a slowing economy and worries about recession have spurred businesses to fill fewer open jobs.

Yet the number of job quitters edged up to 4.17 million. Quits have topped 4 million for a record 18 months in a row. People quit more often when they think it’s easy to get a better job.

The so-called quits rate among private-sector workers rose to 3% from 2.9%. It peaked at 3.4% near the end of 2021.

Big picture: The Fed is raising interest rates to slow the economy and reduce the demand for labor as part of a broader strategy to rein in the worst inflation in 40 years.

Fed officials say the appetite for labor is still too strong and needs to slacken. The ratio of job openings to unemployed workers has slipped from a record 2.0 last spring, but that’s still too high for the central bank.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.03%
and S&P 500
SPX,
+0.13%
fell after the job-openings report.

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January 4, 2023

EV Startup Rivian Missed 2022 Production Target

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EV Startup Rivian Missed 2022 Production Target

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What does the stock market’s rocky 2023 start mean for the rest of the year?

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The first trading days of January loom large on Wall Street as being able to foretell the U.S. stock market’s direction for the full year. What does that mean for 2023?

Not much. January’s reputation is largely undeserved. Even when the market declines over the first sessions of January, it still is more likely than not to rise over the remainder of the year.

That should provide some solace to followers of these “first-days-of-January” indicators, who are biting their nails over the stock market’s weakness out of the starting gate on the first trading day of the year.

The accompanying table reviews the track records of the various iterations of these indicators. The percentages are based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.03%
back to its creation in the 1890s.

Length of initial period	% of time DJIA rises over remainder of year when it rises during initial period	% of time DJIA rises over remainder of year when it declines during initial period
First trading day of January	73%	53%
First 2 trading days of January	70%	56%
First 5 trading days of January	70%	58%
All of January	74%	56%

On the one hand, notice that there are greater odds of the market rising if it also rises in the first sessions of January. On the other hand, notice also that even when the market falls in those first sessions the odds of the market rising for the remainder of the year are still above 50%.

To put the table’s data in context, bear in mind that the odds of the stock market rising in any given calendar year are 64% (based on the Dow’s track complete history). So, depending on the “first-day-of-January” indicator on which you focus, the odds of an “up” year increase or decrease by a modest amount — between 6 and 11 percentage points. These differences are only marginally significant at the 95% confidence level that statisticians often use when assessing if a pattern is genuine.

There are several additional reasons not to put too much weight on these first-days-of-January indicators:

There is nothing particularly unique about January. Many other days of the year have the same apparent ability to foretell the market’s direction over the remainder of the next year. A trader intent on following the lead of all such “indicators” would be whipsawed into and out of stocks on a near-daily basis.
The marginally significant success of the early-days-of-January indicators traces in large part to the earlier part of the 20^th century. Since 1960, in contrast, their track records are not statistically significant.

The bottom line? Regardless of how the market performs over the first days of this month, the intelligent bet is that the stock market will rise this year.

Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch. His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited. He can be reached at mark@hulbertratings.com

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Tesla stock wipes out three-day bounce, falls to lowest price in more than 2 years

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It has taken just one day for Tesla Inc.’s stock to erase the entire bounce it enjoyed over the last three days trading sessions of 2022, as disappointing deliveries data helped trigger the biggest selloff in more than two years.

The stock’s
TSLA,
-12.24%
Tuesday drop knocked the electric vehicle maker’s market capitalization to 15th on the list of most valuation S&P 500 index companies.

On Tuesday, Tesla’s market cap fell below that of consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co.
PG,
+0.01%,
with a current market cap of $359.18 billion, and was just below Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
-2.05%
at $352.15 billion, according to FactSet data. Tesla sat just above Chevron Corp.
CVX,
-3.06%,
which was at $336.43 billion. (See list of S&P 500’s 20 most valuable companies as of Tuesday’s closing prices below.)

Tesla’s stock took a $15.08, or 12.2% dive, to $108.10 on Tuesday, to lead the S&P 500’s
SPX,
-0.40%
decliners, after the company reported over the weekend that fourth-quarter deliveries that came up short of expectations for the third quarter in a row. It suffered the biggest one-day decline since it plummeted 21.1% on Sept. 8, 2020, and closed at the lowest price since Aug. 13, 2020.

Don’t miss: Tesla delivery-target miss shows ‘demand cracks clearly happening’ that mean ‘numbers could be materially reset’ for coming years, analysts write.

With about 3.16 billion shares outstanding as of Oct. 18, the stock’s decline shaved about $47.62 billion off Tesla’s market cap, to bring it down to $341.35 billion. That’s a far cry from the peak market cap of $1.24 trillion reached exactly one-year ago.

After the stock hit the deepest oversold reading in its history based on the widely followed Relative Strength Index momentum indicator on Dec. 27, following the longest losing streak in more than four years, it ran up $14.08, or 12.9%, over the past three days.

If there’s a bright side to Tuesday’s stock selloff, it’s that even though the price fell below the Dec. 27 closing price, the RSI ended the day at 24.86, which is up from the Dec. 27 record low of 16.56.

That could be a preliminary sign of what chart watchers call “bullish technical divergence,” which is when prices make lower lows while the RSI makes a higher low. It’s still rather early to make that determination, however, as the stock needs to start bouncing again to see if RSI bottoms above the previous low.

Market caps of the Top 20 most valuable S&P 500 companies:

Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-3.74%
: $1.99 trillion.
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
-0.10%
: $1.79 trillion.
Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
+1.01%

GOOG,
+1.09%
: $1.16 trillion.
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+2.17%
: $875.51 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
BRK.B,
+0.33%

BRK.A,
+0.17%
: $683.72 billion.
UnitedHealth Group Inc.
UNH,
-2.18%
: $484.59 billion.
Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
+0.87%
: $465.88 billion.
Exxon Mobil Corp.
XOM,
-3.44%
: $438.64 billion.
Visa Inc.
V,
-0.18%
: $427.57 billion.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPM,
+0.76%
: $396.34 billion.
Walmart Inc.
WMT,
+1.28%
: $387.26 billion.
Eli Lilly and Co.
LLY,
-0.23%
: $360.29 billion.
Procter & Gamble Co.: $359.18 billion.
Nvidia Corp.: $352.15 billion.
Tesla Inc.: $341.35 billion.
Chevron Corp: $336.43 billion.
Mastercard Inc.
MA,
-0.27%
: $333.43 billion.
Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
+3.66%
: $331.58 billion.
Home Depot Inc.
HD,
+0.02%
: $321.97 billion.
Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
+0.04%
: $287.74 billion.

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Apple valued below $2 trillion for the first time in more than 21 months as stock slides

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Apple Inc. finished Tuesday with a valuation below $2 trillion for the first time in more than 21 months amid a continued slide in its stock that reflects concerns about the impact of production issues and the sustainability of consumer demand.

The smartphone giant was valued at $1.990 trillion as of the end of Tuesday trading. Prior to that, Apple hadn’t closed with a valuation south of $2 trillion since March 8, 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data, and its stock price hasn’t implied an intraday valuation below that level since March 30, 2021.

The slide in Apple shares
AAPL,
-3.74%
over the past year has shaved $996.5 billion from the company’s peak closing market capitalization.

The smartphone giant peaked with a closing valuation of $2.986 trillion exactly a year ago, on Jan. 3, 2022. More recently, the company has been dogged by questions about the impact of manufacturing issues in China, where COVID-19 curbs forced production disruptions late last year.

While the company is typically thought to have durable demand on the assumption that customers will delay purchases or put up with long delivery times in order to obtain desired Apple products, some analysts have questioned whether Apple will be able to make up for all of its lost demand in future quarters.

A Nikkei Asia report from earlier this week hinted at demand challenges. The report, which cited anonymous sources, said that Apple has told some of its suppliers to make fewer components for AirPods, Apple Watches and MacBook computers in the first quarter.

Apple didn’t respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.

Apple’s stock was the biggest loser in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.03%
Tuesday.

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Chinese EV stocks rise after strong December deliveries

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Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle makers rose Tuesday in Hong Kong, led by Li Auto Inc., after strong December delivery data.

Li Auto’s shares
2015,
+10.16%
rose after it posted record-high monthly delivery figures for December last Friday, rounding out 2022 with a 47% increase in deliveries for the year.

The car maker said December deliveries rose 51% from a year earlier, and said it was “the fastest emerging new energy automaker in China to surpass the 20,000 monthly delivery mark.”

Li Auto’s shares were up by as much as 8.4% in early Tuesday trading. The city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index
HSI,
+1.66%
was last up 0.7%.

Although China’s persistent supply-chain shortages stemming from Covid restrictions slowed production and sales, Chinese electric-vehicle makers capped a wild year with strong delivery results.

NIO Inc.
9866,
+2.36%
delivered 122.486 vehicles for 2022, up about 34%, while XPeng Inc.’s
9868,
+7.04%
deliveries were 23% higher compared with 2021.

BYD Co.
1211,
+4.88%
reported a 150% increase in December sales, despite production being disrupted by the unwinding of COVID-related measures in the final two weeks of the month. Citi analysts said in a note that they consider BYD a key winner of consolidation in the sector, and maintained a buy rating on the stock with a target price of 640 Hong Kong dollars (US$81.98). BYD shares were last up 3.1% at HK$198.4.

Looking ahead, Citi analyst Jeff Chung projects EV sales in China could grow another 33% in 2023.

Shares of Li Auto were last up 8.3% at HK$83.15, while those of XPeng were 5.1% higher at HK$40.3. NIO shares were last 2.6% higher at HK$80.5.

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January 2, 2023

The Top Luxury Home Builder Is a Buy for 2023

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This article is an excerpt from “Here Are Barron’s 10 Top Stocks for the New Year,” published on Dec. 16, 2022. To see the full list, click here.

With home builder

Toll Brothers

‘ stock down 30% this year, it might look like the roof is caving in. But that’s probably not the case. Yes, mortgage rates have doubled, but Toll (ticker: TOL), the top luxury home builder, is more insulated than its peers, due to the affluent buyers of its homes, which sell for an average of about $1 million. About 20% of Toll buyers pay cash, and many are selling homes for a lot more than they paid for them.

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See: I’m 68, my husband is terminally ill, and his $3 million estate will go to his son. I want to spend the rest of my days traveling – will I have enough money?

January 1, 2023

Trump’s Tax Law Echoed Through His Finances During White House Years

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Returns released by House show provisions of tax code that were used

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Source link

January 1, 2023

I retired at 50, went back to work at 53, and then a medical issue left me jobless: ‘There’s no such thing as a safe amount of money’

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I had always said I was going to retire when I was 50. I had worked and saved since I was 16. Retiring without Medicare and Social Security is a scary thing. I wound up retiring then going back to work. At 53, I took a part-time job with a decent salary for the hours but I was sooooo bored. And then life rang my bell.

I had major medical problems. So major that when I was able to return to work they let me go because they didn’t think I could keep up with the workflow. They were probably right. Nobody else felt comfortable enough with my health issues to hire me. I applied for disability but was denied. I appealed and got my rejection to the appeal while I was in ICU. I appealed again and I was denied because they didn’t think anything changed from my original application.

I am assuming you can imagine what my savings is now. I took early retirement, with the penalty, because I needed income. $4,000 a month wouldn’t have put a dent in my prescriptions.

Everybody needs to know there’s no such thing as a safe amount of money set aside for retirement. Life happens and in the blink of an eye your whole life and everything you worked for can be gone.

Dear reader,

I normally only feature letters with questions for this column, but your note was just so important for other readers that I had to respond — and let others see what you’ve shared.

I’m so very sorry that you experienced this. Wanting to retire early isn’t inherently wrong — so many people wish to do it, especially after decades of working. But without the proper planning, it could lead to despair, especially if an emergency occurs.

“Retiring early is a dream for many people,” said Landon Tan, a certified financial planner. “But those years of not working diminish your chance of a successful retirement more than almost any other metric we toggle when making financial plans.”

Retiring early means there are more years you need to be able to financially cover, and that requires money — a lot of it. When planning to retire early, those extra years need to be considered — at the forefront of retirement, but also in the back end if you live longer than anticipated.

“Today’s retirees are expecting their accumulated assets to work for them for 10-20 years longer than before,” said Glenn Downing, a certified financial planner and founder of CameronDowning. “Centenarians are no longer uncommon. For that to happen successfully, there needs to be more assets — simple as that.” Anyone should prepare to live longer than expected so their money does not outlast them, which can feel daunting.

Those missing years may also affect your Social Security benefits, which so many elderly Americans rely on for most of their retirement income. People retiring early should have a clear picture of what to expect from Social Security in the future, and how their plans may impact those expectations.

Leaving the workforce also means possibly losing out on participating in a group health plan, and I think we can say with certainty the pandemic has shown just how crucial health insurance can be in dire times.

You’re absolutely right: Retiring before Medicare is scary. Healthcare is expensive even without an emergency. Not everyone considers this expense when they’re dreaming about calling it quits in their 50s, but if they don’t have proper insurance lined up when they retire they could be blowing through their retirement budget quickly — or putting themselves in a very dangerous situation. Those years can feel long when Medicare eligibility only begins at age 65 for most Americans. And it also doesn’t take into consideration long-term care, which is an entirely other expense. Think nursing homes, home health aides and necessary medical equipment for daily activities.

Don’t miss: Retiring early this year? Look through Affordable Care Act plans now before the deadline Saturday

Knowing how much is enough to have saved for retirement is very difficult. There is no such thing as one “safe” number before you retire, but there are a few guidelines one can follow to find security in old age.

Part of that equation comes down to personal circumstance: how much you typically spent in your pre-retirement life, how much you anticipate spending in retirement, various financial factors like taxes and cost of housing and utilities, and so on. And as you have experienced — and considerately reminding others — major unexpected emergencies can absolutely derail any sort of financial security.

Another factor is what is available to you in your older years. I’ll get to that in a moment in hopes it may help you or others in similar situations.

Retirees tend to focus on short-term changes, which can cause them to be unprepared for what the future holds, a recent survey found. Many retirees just deal with these emergencies as they come, according to research from the Society of Actuaries. The organization found more than seven in 10 retirees have thought about how their lives will change in the following decades, but only 27% feel financially prepared for it.

More than half of the retirees in the survey said they could not afford more than $25,000 for an unexpected emergency without jeopardizing their retirement security. More than half of Black respondents and Latino respondents said they couldn’t afford to spend $10,000 for a financial shock.

“The world can change around you really quickly, and you need to be prepared for the change and to deal with change,” said Anna Rappaport, a member of the Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Program. Americans didn’t often plan for the shocks life could bring before the pandemic, and that hasn’t necessarily changed since, she said. “The shocks were there before and the landscape just changed a little.”

Check out MarketWatch’s column “Retirement Hacks” for actionable pieces of advice for your own retirement savings journey

But you’re not alone. Many people have fallen into hard times before and during retirement, pandemic or no pandemic. You may already be exhausting all avenues, but this one retiree shared the steps he took when he lost his job at 58. He searched for another job for 18 months before taking one with a 40% pay cut, and had to live a lot leaner until he officially retired at age 64. That lifestyle included taking in a roommate, buying some household items at the dollar store and extreme meal planning. Here’s what he says about his retirement now.

If your medical condition allows, could you take on some part-time work, or find some ways to make money while working from home? Or could you possibly downsize where you live or take in a roommate?

I know you didn’t ask for any suggestions and I’m sure you’re already doing as much as you can to live comfortably, but there are plenty of resources you might want to consider if you haven’t already.

Have you explored any government benefits, such as assistance in costs for housing, heating or groceries? There are many federal and state programs available for seniors with needs for financial assistance — not just Supplemental Security Insurance and Medicaid, though of course those are the most prominently known.

AARP created a list of resources, broken up by state, and has its own services, such as helping people get back to work in their 50s and beyond. GoFundMe also has a list for financial assistance for older Americans. It includes options for housing, food, medicine and getting back into the workforce. States, and sometimes even individual cities, have departments and offices dedicated to aging issues, which you may want to try calling as well. There is help out there, even if it may not feel easy to find.

I wish you the best.

Readers: Do you have suggestions for this reader? Add them in the comments below.

Have a question about your own retirement savings? Email us at HelpMeRetire@marketwatch.com

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December 31, 2022

AMD Stock Should Benefit From Next-Generation Computer Chips

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These reports, excerpted and edited by Barron’s, were issued recently by investment and research firms. The reports are a sampling of analysts’ thinking; they should not be considered the views or recommendations of Barron’s. Some of the reports’ issuers have provided, or hope to provide, investment-banking or other services to the companies being analyzed.

Advanced Micro Devices AMD-Nasdaq

Buy (four stars out of five) • Price $64.52 on Dec. 23

by CFRA

Our Buy recommendation reflects our expectation for significant share gains on the central-processing-unit data-center side from the ramp-up of AMD’s next-generation EPYC processor, greater momentum for AMD’s graphics processing units, and our expectation for balance sheet improvement.

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Read the rest of this article in The Wall Street Journal.

Sam Bankman-Fried Likely to Plead Not Guilty to Fraud Charges

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is likely to plead not guilty to fraud and other charges at his arraignment next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York earlier this month charged Mr. Bankman-Fried with engaging in criminal conduct that contributed to the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse, alleging that he oversaw one of the biggest financial frauds in American history. Mr. Bankman-Fried is likely to appear in person in New York to enter his plea on Jan. 3, one of the people said.

Before his arrest, Mr. Bankman-Fried blamed the loss of customer funds on sloppy record-keeping and a bank-account issue that allowed Alameda Research, an affiliated trading firm, to cover large losses with money destined for FTX. His not guilty plea was widely expected.

Mr. Bankman-Fried stands at odds with his associates—Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, FTX’s former chief technology officer—who both pleaded guilty to criminal offenses similar to those Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with. Both are cooperating with federal investigators.

The collapse of FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda have rattled the nascent world of crypto. Prosecutors allege that Mr. Bankman-Fried took billions of dollars of FTX.com customer money to pay the expenses and debts of his trading firm Alameda Research. Both companies filed for bankruptcy last month. Individual traders who entrusted FTX with their crypto are likely facing lengthy bankruptcy proceedings before they have a chance at seeing any of their funds back.

Write to editors@barrons.com

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U.S. stocks fall on last trading day of 2022, booking monthly losses and worst year since 2008

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U.S. stocks ended lower Friday, booking their worst annual losses since 2008, as tax-loss harvesting along with anxieties about the outlook for corporate profits and the U.S. consumer took their toll.

How stock indexes traded

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.22%
slipped 73.55 points, or 0.2%, to 33,147.25.
The S&P 500
SPX,
-0.25%
shed 9.78 points, or 0.3%, to 3,839.50.
The Nasdaq Composite dipped 11.61 points, or 0.1%, to 10,466.48.

For the week, the Dow fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% and the Nasdaq slid 0.3%. The S&P 500 dropped for a fourth straight week, its longest losing streak since May, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

All three major benchmarks suffered their worst year since 2008 based on percentage declines. The Dow dropped 8.8% in 2022, while the S&P 500 tumbled 19.4% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq plunged 33.1%.

What drove markets

U.S. stocks fell Friday, closing out the last trading session of 2022 with weekly and monthly losses.

Stocks and bonds have been crushed this year as the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate more aggressively than many had expected as it sought to crush the worst inflation in four decades. The S&P 500 ended 2022 with a loss of 19.4%, its worst annual performance since 2008 as the index snapped a three-year win streak, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

“Investors have been on edge,” said Mark Heppenstall, chief investment officer at Penn Mutual Asset Management, in a phone interview Friday. “It seems as though the ability to drive down prices is probably a bit easier given just how crummy the year’s been.”

Stock indexes have slumped in recent weeks as hopes for a Fed policy pivot faded after the central bank in December signaled that it would likely wait until 2024 to cut interest rates.

On the final day of the trading year, markets were also being hit by selling to lock in losses that can be written off of tax bills, a practice known as tax-loss harvesting, according to Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.

An uncertain outlook for 2023 was also taking its toll, as investors fretted about the strength of corporate profits, the economy and the U.S. consumer with fourth-quarter earnings season looming early next year, Forrest said.

“I think the Fed, and then earnings in the middle of January — those are going to set the tone for the next six months. Until then, it’s anybody’s guess,” she added.

The U.S. central bank has raised its benchmark rate by more than four percentage points since the beginning of the year, driving borrowing costs to their highest levels since 2007.

The timing of the Fed’s first interest rate cut will likely have a major impact on markets, according to Forrest, but the outlook remains uncertain, even as the Fed has tried to signal that it plans to keep rates higher for longer.

On the economic data front, the Chicago PMI for December, the last major data release of the year, came in stronger than expected, climbing to 44.9 from 37.2 a month prior. Readings below 50 indicate contraction territory.

Next year, “we’re more likely to shift towards fears around economic growth as opposed to inflation,” said Heppenstall. “I think the decline in growth will eventually lead to a more meaningful decline in inflation.”

Read: Stock-market investors face 3 recession scenarios in 2023

Eric Sterner, CIO of Apollon Wealth Management, said in a phone interview Friday that he’s expecting the U.S. could fall into a recession next year and that the stock market could see a new bottom as companies potentially revise their earnings lower. “I think earnings expectations for 2023 are still too high,” he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite booked modest weekly declines, adding to their December losses. For the month, the Dow fell 4.2%, while the S&P 500 dropped 5.9% and the Nasdaq sank 8.7%, FactSet data show.

Read: Value stocks trounce growth equities in 2022 by historically wide margin

As for bonds, the U.S. Treasury market was set to record its worst year since at least the 1970s.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
3.879%
has jumped 2.330 percentage points this year to 3.826%, its largest annual gain on record based on data going back to 1977, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Two-year Treasury yields
TMUBMUSD02Y,
4.423%
soared 3.669 percentage points in 2022 to 4.399%, while the 30-year yield
TMUBMUSD30Y,
3.971%
jumped 2.046 percentage points to end the year at 3.934%. That marked the largest calendar-year increases ever for each based on data going back to 1973, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Outside the U.S., European stocks capped off their biggest percentage drop for a calendar year since 2018, with the Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
-1.27%,
an index of euro-denominated shares, falling 12.9%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Read: Slumping U.S. stock market lags these international ETFs as 2022 comes to an end

Companies in focus

Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+1.12%
shares rose 1.1% after their worst run of losses in more than four years.
Southwest Airlines
LUV,
+0.87%
shares gained 0.9% as the company said it expected its holiday travel fiasco to impact fourth-quarter profits.
Las Vegas Sands Corp.
LVS,
+2.10%
was among the best performers in the S&P 500 index on Friday, with its shares ending 2.1% higher, as it confirmed renewed gaming concessions in Macau.

—Steve Goldstein contributed to this article.

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Stay up to date on COVID news through MarketWatch’s daily “Coronavirus Update” column.

COVID-related ICU patients rise to 5-month high above 5,000—are new cases really falling?

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While many have been focused on the apparent explosion of COVID cases in China, and the lack of reliable data from China’s government, there are signs suggesting the U.S. situation is also getting worse even as case counts and deaths are falling.

At first look, initial fears of another COVID surge in the U.S. over the holidays may be overblown. About a week after the year-end holiday gatherings began, the seven-day average of new COVID cases fell to a more than three-week low of 58,354 on Thursday, down 9% from two weeks ago and down 17% from a recent peak of 70,508 on Christmas Eve, according to a New York Times tracker.

And the daily average for deaths fell has fallen to a three-week low of 355, and has dropped 5% in two weeks.

But as the NYT tracker has been warning, case and death counts could be “artificially low” this week, as officials who track those numbers take vacation for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Therefore, hospitalization data, which is typically not affected by holidays, should remain more reliable.

And by that measure, the numbers are getting worrisome.

The daily average of hospitalizations rose to 41,620 on Thursday, up 3% from two weeks ago but also the highest number seen since mid-August.

There are 29 states that have seen hospitalizations increase from two weeks ago, including 20 states that have seen double-digit percentage increases, led by South Carolina at 54%, West Virginia at 52% and Louisiana at 47%.

The number of severe COVID cases is also seeing a troubling rise, the daily average of COVID-related patients in intensive care units (ICUs) climbed to 5,080 on Thursday. That’s up 10% from two weeks ago, and the most seen since July 30.

The New York Times

Another sign that the fall in case counts is artificial is that the test positivity rate has been rising, to a four-month high above 14% on Thursday, with 41 states seeing double-digit positivity rates.

“Higher test positivity rates are a sign that many infections are not reported — even if they are tested at home. This results in a more severe undercount of cases,” the NYT tracker said.

Meanwhile in China, amid a “lack of adequate and transparent” data from China’s government, there is reason to believe the situation will still get a lot worse before it gets better.

U.K. health firm Airfinity estimates that new daily COVID cases in China is currently running at about 1.8 million, based on data from China’s regional provinces, and on new-case trajectories from areas that also lifted zero-COVID policies, such as Hong Kong.

That case number is expected to more than double, to about 3.7 million a day, in mid-January, Airfinity estimates, before another surge in March takes the number up to about 4.2 million per day.

As a result of the concerns over surging case counts, Spain joined the growing number of countries that are requiring COVID tests for air passengers arriving from China, as the Associated Press reported. This comes after the European Union said Thursday that it is “assessing” the situation in China.

The U.S. will also require those arriving from China to take a PCR test, starting Jan. 5, while Japan started requiring a test on Friday. Other countries requiring a test for air passengers from China include Italy, India and South Korea.

The BBC reported that the U.K. was set to announce that travelers will need to show a negative COVID test before they board a plane from China.

In other COVID news, China’s National Medical Products Administration has given emergency approval to Merck & Co. Inc.’s
MRK,
-0.33%
COVID antiviral molnupiravir. That joins Pfizer Inc.’s
PFE,
-0.96%
Paxlovid, which has already been approved for use in China. Merck’s stock, which fell 0.4% in afternoon trading Friday, has soared 44.0% in 2022, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.88%
has lost 9.4%.

Novavax Inc.
NVAX,
+0.21%
said Friday that it has initiated a Phase 2 trial for its COVID-19-Influenza Combination (CIC) vaccine candidate in people aged 50 through 80. “We believe that like influenza, COVID-19 will also be seasonal moving forward, and that there is room in the market for new alternatives to provide better protection against the impact of influenza, particularly in older adults, and to explore the potential to combine this with protection from COVID,” said Chief Executive Stanley Erck. Novavax’s stock, which eased 0.3% Friday, has plunged 93.2% year to date while the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-1.03%
has dropped 20.1%.

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These 20 stocks were the biggest losers of 2022

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This has been the year of reckoning for Big Tech stocks — even those of companies that have continued to grow sales by double digits.

Below is a list of the 20 stocks in the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.72%
that have declined the most in 2022.

First, here’s how the 11 sectors of the benchmark index have performed this year:

S&P 500 sector	2022 price change	Forward P/E	Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021
Energy	57.8%	9.6	11.1
Utilities	-0.5%	18.8	20.4
Consumer Staples	-2.7%	20.9	21.8
Healthcare	-3.2%	17.4	17.2
Industrials	-6.7%	18.0	20.8
Financials	-12.1%	11.7	14.6
Materials	-13.4%	15.6	16.6
Real Estate	-27.7%	16.2	24.2
Information Technology	-28.8%	19.6	28.1
Consumer Discretionary	-37.4%	20.7	33.2
Communication Services	-40.4%	14.0	20.8
S&P 500	-19.2%	16.5	21.4
Source: FactSet

The energy sector has been the only one to show a gain in 2022, and it has been a whopper, even as West Texas Intermediate crude oil
CL.1,
+0.41%
has given up most of its gains from earlier in the year. Here’s why investors are still confident in the supply/demand setup for oil and energy stocks.

Looking at the worst-performing sectors, you might wonder why the consumer discretionary and communication services sectors have fared worse than information-technology, the core tech sector. One reason is that S&P Dow Jones Indices can surprise investors with its sector choices. The consumer discretionary sector includes Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+0.70%
and Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
-1.17%,
which has fallen nearly 50% this year. The communications sector includes Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
-1.21%,
along with Match Group Inc.
MTCH,
+0.50%,
which is down 69% for 2022, and Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
-0.44%,
which is down 52% this year.

There have been many reasons easy to cite for Big Tech’s decline, such as a questionable change in strategy for Facebook’s holding company, Meta, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put so much of the company’s resources into developing a new world that most people don’t wish to enter, at least yet. Meta’s shares were down 64% for 2022 through Dec. 29.

You might also blame the Twitter-related antics and sales of Tesla shares by CEO Elon Musk for the 65% decline in the electric-vehicle maker’s stock this year. But Tesla had a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 120.3 at the end of 2021, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.72%
traded for 21.4 times its weighted forward earnings estimate, according to FactSet. Those P/E ratios have now declined to 21.7 and 16.4, respectively. So Tesla no longer appears to be a very expensive stock, especially for a company that increased its vehicle deliveries by 42% in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Analysts polled by FactSet expect Tesla’s stock to double during 2023. It nearly made this list of 20 EV stocks expected to rebound the most in 2023.

The worst-performing S&P 500 stocks of 2022

Here are the 20 stocks in the S&P 500 that fell the most for 2022 through the close on Dec. 29.

Company	Ticker	2022 price change	Forward P/E	Forward P/E as of Dec. 32, 2021
Generac Holdings Inc.	GNRC, -0.84%	-71.4%	13.7	30.2
Match Group Inc.	MTCH, +0.50%	-68.9%	20.1	48.5
Align Technology Inc.	ALGN, -0.52%	-67.7%	27.4	48.7
Tesla Inc.	TSLA, +0.70%	-65.4%	21.7	120.3
SVB Financial Group	SIVB, -0.38%	-65.4%	10.8	23.0
Catalent Inc.	CTLT, -0.40%	-64.6%	13.0	32.5
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A	META, -1.21%	-64.2%	14.7	23.5
Signature Bank	SBNY, -0.34%	-64.1%	6.2	18.6
PayPal Holdings Inc.	PYPL, -0.01%	-62.6%	14.8	36.0
V.F. Corp.	VFC, +0.15%	-62.5%	11.9	20.4
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Series A	WBD, -1.64%	-59.9%	N/A	7.5
Carnival Corp.	CCL, -0.23%	-59.8%	38.1	N/A
Stanley Black & Decker Inc.	SWK, -0.42%	-59.8%	17.0	15.9
Lumen Technologies Inc.	LUMN, -1.79%	-57.8%	7.7	7.8
Zebra Technologies Corp. Class A	ZBRA, -0.44%	-56.7%	14.5	30.1
Dish Network Corp. Class A	DISH, -0.96%	-56.5%	8.6	10.9
Caesars Entertainment Inc.	CZR, +0.24%	-55.7%	51.4	144.5
Lincoln National Corp.	LNC, +0.26%	-55.1%	3.4	6.2
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.	AMD, -0.97%	-55.0%	17.8	43.1
Seagate Technology Holdings PLC	STX, -0.55%	-53.1%	15.0	12.4
Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers for more information about the companies.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Another way of measuring the biggest stock-market losers of 2022

It is one thing to have a large decline based on the share price, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. How much of a decline have investors seen in the holdings of their shares during the year? The S&P 500’s total market capitalization declined to $31.66 trillion as of Dec. 28 (the most recent figure available) from $40.36 trillion at the end of 2021, according to FactSet.

Shareholders of these companies have suffered the largest declines in market cap during 2022.

Company	Ticker	2022 market capitalization change ($bil)	2022 price change
Apple Inc.	AAPL, -0.63%	-$851	-27.0%
Amazon.com Inc.	AMZN, -1.17%	-$832	-49.5%
Microsoft Corp.	MSFT, -1.15%	-$728	-28.3%
Tesla Inc.	TSLA, +0.70%	-$677	-65.4%
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A	META, -1.21%	-$465	-64.2%
Nvidia Corp.	NVDA, -1.37%	-$376	-50.3%
PayPal Holdings Inc.	PYPL, -0.01%	-$141	-62.6%
Netflix Inc.	NFLX, -0.44%	-$138	-51.7%
Walt Disney Co.	DIS, -1.62%	-$123	-43.7%
Salesforce Inc.	CRM, -0.96%	-$118	-47.8%
Source: FactSet

So there is your surprise for today: Apple is this year’s biggest stock-market loser.

Don’t miss: Best stock picks for 2023: Here are Wall Street analysts’ most heavily favored choices

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Trump’s tax returns are now public after long fight with Congress

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The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday.

Experts will be looking closely at large business losses reported by Trump that significantly reduced his tax liability. For instance, he paid no federal taxes in 2020.

“Trump paid miniscule income taxes in 2015-2020, and almost no income taxes for the prior three decades,” said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center in Washington, in an email.

“We also have learned that, in the 1990s and 2000s, Trump claimed business losses of tens and sometimes hundreds of millions annually. I studied these a few years ago and found some real, and some fake,” he added.

“It is still early to determine how much of Trump’s most recent losses were real or fake,” Rosenthal said.

Read: Trump paid $0 taxes in 2020. He’s not alone

Analysts are also going to pore over the documents for any details of Trump’s foreign business dealings.

Some certified public accountants who looked at the documents say the returns show that the U.S. tax system has been written to “incentivize” real estate investing.

Bottom line: In order to generate these kinds of losses, you need to be super rich. It’s not a poor man’s game,” said Jonathan Medows, managing member of Medows CPA PLLC in New York.

Read: CPAs have questions about Trump’s tax returns

David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and longtime Trump critic, in a post on his non-profit news organization DC Report, called the former president’s tax returns “a rich environment in which questionable conduct is found throughout the filings and needs only seasoned auditors to uncover fictional expenditures.”

He said that Trump was warned by two New York state judges in trials about his 1984 taxes not to deduct huge expenses in businesses with no revenue.

“That Trump persisted in using the same fraudulent technique in six years of recent tax returns is powerful evidence of criminal intent,” Johnston wrote.

In a statement, Trump said his returns show “how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs.”

Key words: Trump on release of his tax returns

Some experts said they were going to look at the returns for details about Trump’s foreign sources of income. The documents show that Trump had foreign bank accounts while he was president.

See: What could be learned from Trump’s tax returns

Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee said they voted to release the Trump tax returns to help improve the tax laws. Republicans warned that the release would set a precedent where political parties routinely release the tax returns of their opponents.

Another question is why the Internal Revenue Service failed to audit Trump’s tax returns as it routinely does for U.S. presidents.

See: Trump taxes could rev up fight over IRS funding

On Jan. 3, Republicans will take control of the House along with the tax-writing committee.

Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia who is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said the Trump tax returns “underscore the fact that our tax laws are often inequitable and that enforcement of them is often unjust.”

Rep. Kevin Brady, the Republican from Texas who was the minority leader of the Ways and Means panel and is leaving Congress in January, said Democrats did not release the Trump tax records for any legislative purpose but wanted to “unleash a dangerous new political weapon” at the former president.

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China Regulator Says Futu, Up Fintech Violated Laws

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China Regulator Says Futu, Up Fintech Violated Laws

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These 20 stocks were the biggest winners of 2022

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Even during a year in which the S&P 500 index declined 19%, with 72% of its stocks in the red, there were plenty of winners.

Before showing you the list of the best performers in the benchmark index, let’s look at a preview: Here’s how the 11 sectors of the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.25%
performed for the year:

Index	2022 price change	Forward P/E	Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021
Energy	59.0%	9.7	11.1
Utilities	-1.4%	18.9	20.4
Consumer Staples	-3.2%	21.0	21.8
Health Care	-3.6%	17.6	17.2
Industrials	-7.1%	18.3	20.8
Financials	-12.4%	11.9	14.6
Materials	-14.1%	15.8	16.6
Real Estate	-28.4%	16.5	24.2
Information Technology	-28.9%	20.1	28.1
Consumer Discretionary	-37.6%	21.3	33.2
Communication Services	-40.4%	14.3	20.8
S&P 500	-19.4%	16.8	21.4
Source: FactSet

Maybe you aren’t surprised to see that the energy sector was the only one to increase during 2022. But it might surprise you to see that despite the sector’s weighted price increase of 59%, its forward price-to-earnings ratio declined and remains very low relative to all other sectors.

It might also surprise you that West Texas Intermediate crude oil
CL.1,
+2.69%
gave up most of its gains from earlier in the year:

FactSet

The reason investors are still confident in energy stocks is that oil producers have remained cautious when it comes to capital spending. They don’t want to increase supply enough to cause prices to crash, as they did in the run-up to the summer of 2014, after which prices fell steadily through early 2016, causing bankruptcies and consolidation in the industry.

Now the oil companies are focusing on maintaining supply, raising dividends and buying back shares, as Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s
OXY,
+1.14%
chief executive explained in a recent interview with Matt Peterson. Click here for more about Occidental and the long-term supply/demand outlook for oil.

Best-performing S&P 500 stocks of 2022

Here are the 20 stocks in the benchmark index that rose most during 2022, excluding dividends. Proving that there are always exceptions, not all of them are in the energy sector.

Company	Ticker	Sector	Industry	2022 price change
Occidental Petroleum Corp.	OXY, +1.14%	Energy	Oil & Gas Production	117.3%
Hess Corp.	HES, +0.68%	Energy	Oil & Gas Production	91.6%
Marathon Petroleum Corp.	MPC, +0.18%	Energy	Oil Refining/ Marketing	81.9%
Exxon Mobil Corp.	XOM, +1.01%	Energy	Integrated Oil	80.3%
Schlumberger Ltd.	SLB, +1.04%	Energy	Contract Drilling	78.5%
APA Corp.	APA, +1.68%	Energy	Integrated Oil	73.6%
Halliburton Co.	HAL, +1.23%	Energy	Oil & Gas Production	72.1%
First Solar Inc.	FSLR, +0.68%	Information Technology	Semiconductors	71.9%
Valero Energy Corp.	VLO, +0.43%	Energy	Oil Refining/ Marketing	68.9%
Marathon Oil Corp.	MRO, +1.08%	Energy	Oil & Gas Production	64.9%
ConocoPhillips	COP, +1.38%	Energy	Oil & Gas Production	63.5%
Steel Dynamics Inc.	STLD, -0.72%	Materials	Steel	57.4%
EQT Corp.	EQT, -0.12%	Energy	Oil & Gas Production	55.1%
Chevron Corp.	CVX, +0.66%	Energy	Integrated Oil	53.0%
McKesson Corp.	MCK,	Health Care	Medical Distributors	50.9%
Cardinal Health Inc.	CAH, -0.46%	Health Care	Medical Distributors	49.3%
EOG Resources Inc.	EOG, +0.69%	Energy	Oil & Gas Production	45.8%
Enphase Energy Inc.	ENPH, -0.20%	Information Technology	Semiconductors	44.8%
Merck & Co. Inc.	MRK, +0.12%	Health Care	Pharmaceuticals	44.8%
Cigna Corp.	CI, +0.19%	Health Care	Managed Health Care	44.3%
Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers for more information about the companies.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Don’t Miss: These 20 stocks were the biggest losers of 2022

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China Approves Merck’s Molnupiravir for Emergency Use, Regulator Says

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China’s top drug regulator said Friday that it approved Merck & Co.’s Molnupiravir for emergency use on Thursday, as the country grapples with waves of infections after Beijing abruptly reversed its stringent Covid-19 restrictions earlier this month.

The National Medical Products Administration said it is requiring the approval holder to continue relevant research, complete conditional requirements and submit follow-up research results in a timely manner, according to a statement posted on its website Friday.

Write to Singapore Editors at singaporeeditors@dowjones.com

Corrections & Amplifications

This item was corrected at 0856 GMT to reflect China’s top drug regulator said it approved Merck & Co.’s Molnupiravir for emergency use on Thursday. The original version incorrectly said the approval came on Wednesday in the first paragraph.

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