The combined market capitalisation of the Magnificent Seven set of US technology megacaps has shed $2.3 trillion since its peak in July, as outlined by AJ Bell’s investment director Russ Mould today.
As Mould highlighted, this returns the Magnificent Seven, comprising Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Facebook parent Meta and Tesla, to its May levels, standing only 5% above where it was in November 2021.
CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD), the cybersecurity firm at the centre of a disastrous global IT outage, is at risk of legal action from the litany of airlines, telecoms groups and retailers that were knocked offline in July following a botched Microsoft content upgrade.
Delta Airlines reportedly became the first major corporation to launch compensation claims against both CrowdStrike and Microsoft after engaging David Boies, the chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner, to pursue legal action.
With the Nasdaq heading for a 10% plunge, some analysts were telling clients not to panic and that they should use the market sell-off to go "bargain hunting".
The US tech-powered stock exchange fell over 3% on Thursday and another 2.4% on Friday, with futures pointing to another 4.5% dive on Monday as Japan's Nikkei crashed 12.4%, Taiwan's benchmark dropped 7.5%, and European benchmarks all fell over 2%.
Ignore British American Tobacco PLC's (LSE:BATS) disappointing first-half numbers, suggests Jefferies, and look further out where the future appears increasingly bullish.
Stripping out Canada, the US bank pointed out that excluding US 'reduced risk products', such as vapes, sales growth "remained strong despite an inventory unwind, while there's an expected roll-out tailwind in the second half".
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) shares hit an all-time high last week but if the engine maker meets its top-end cash flow targets, Citigroup analysts suggest it could fly another 50% higher.
The FTSE 100-listed group’s 2027 free cash flow target of between £2.8 billion and £3.1 billion looks “much more credible” following results last week, the analysts wrote in a note.
With the Olympics kicking into its second full-week, GB will be hoping for yet more golds, but they won't be alone.
Investors have been flocking to gold as a safe haven asset during the current market uncertainty, with the price of the precious metal having jumped more than 1.75% to £1,900 in the last week.
Prudential PLC (LSE:PRU) shares are set to remain downtrodden under wider global pressure for the foreseeable future, Deutsche Bank analysts have warned.
The London-listed insurer faced a downgrade by the bank as a result in a note on Monday, being re-rated from a “buy” to a “hold”.
A UK broker expects the bid for Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS) to go ahead even though the timetable was suspended on Friday after the Cabinet Office launched a National Security investigation.
Blocking the transaction would be difficult, says Peel Hunt, especially as the bidder, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, already owns power plants in the UK, which could pose a greater threat to national security.
Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) faced a downgrade by Citigroup on Monday, which pointed to an ongoing overhang from the UK’s motor finance review.
An “overweight” rating was reiterated for the UK banking sector as a whole in the note from Citi, but Lloyds was nudged down from a “buy” to a “neutral”.