Monthly Buzz: Stage set for another year of wonder

Hey, mooers! Welcome back to Monthly Buzz!

The new year didn’t start as investors hoped, with bears closing the major indexes red the first week. Stocks and bonds were under pressure as better-than-expected jobs data pushed the rate cut hopes into the second quarter. Stocks rallied in the second week, but the approval of the Spot Bitcoin ETFs was the main focus. A false SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) tweet led to sharp market swings, but the ETF was officially approved the next day.

Just into the election year, Trump's victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses drove a surge in related concept stocks. The focus next turned to semiconductors, with TSMC's optimistic outlook adding fuel to the sector's fire. Big tech company earnings then kicked in, pushing the major indexes to record highs, only to show weakness on the last day.

All three major indexes finished the month in the green. The Dow was up 1.22%, and the S&P 500 was up 1.59% during the month. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.85% (Data as of Jan 31, 2024).

At a sectoral level, the Communication Services and Information Technology sector take the lead, while Real Estate, Materials, and Consumer Discretionary retraced gains. For now, interest rates and earnings continue to drive sector performance.

Let's take a look at how the stocks that created the most buzz on the moomoo app performed during the month:

Jan 04: Tesla shares dropped 4.01% after the company said that it delivered about 1.81 million EVs worldwide in 2023, meeting its full-year guidance and slightly beating Wall Street's expectations. The results come as concerns are growing on Wall Street about the level of demand for the company's cars -- and EVs more broadly -- in the year ahead.

Jan 25: Tesla shares fell 12.13% after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. Tesla management said automotive sales growth in 2024 would be substantially below 2023. After the earnings call, the average analyst target price for Tesla stock is down to about $226, about $12 lower than the pre-call level, according to FactSet.

Jan 08: Nvidia Corporation shares soared 6.43% after the company announced the GeForce RTX SUPER desktop GPUs and its expanded partnerships in the drug-discovery space. The rally also comes ahead of the company's unveiling of new chips at the CES consumer-technology conference in Las Vegas.

Jan 19: Nvidia Corporation shares climbed 4.17% as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in an Instagram Reels video posted Thursday that the company is planning to amass approximately 350,000 H100 GPUs from Nvidia to advance the company's AI goals.

Jan 17: AMC Cinemas shares fell 8.67% after the company said it engaged in a series of private exchange agreements between Dec. 28 and Dec. 29, 2023, according to a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Jan 08: AMC shares rallied 2.32% after announcing that TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR concert film is officially the highest-grossing film in box office history among concert films and documentary films.

Jan 18: AMC shares gained 7.79% following Citigroup's adjusted price target on AMC Entertainment to $4.10 from $5.75, maintaining a Sell Rating.

Jan 09: Bit Brother shares fell 10.77% after the company announced a 1-for-1000 reverse stock split of shares, and the stock would begin trading on a split-adjusted basis from January 10th, 2024.

Jan 17: Bit Brother shares dropped 25.86% after the company filed a registration statement for the potential sale of up to $500 million of its securities, including the company's class A ordinary shares, preferred shares, debt securities, warrants, units and rights. The company aims to use the proceeds to fund the development and commercialization of its projects and for general corporate purposes.

Jan 23: Bit Brother shares bounced 32.06% after the company requested immediate withdrawal of its registration statement on Form F-3 filed with the SEC on January 16, 2024.

Jan 02: Advanced Micro Devices shares slid 5.99% following reports of the Netherlands' decision to block exports of specific lithography systems to China. This move complements U.S. export restrictions and aligns with a September directive mandating Dutch semiconductor firms to seek official approval before exporting specific chip-making tools.

Jan 08: Advanced Micro Devicesple shares rallied 5.48% after the company announced the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT graphics card ahead of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2024. It has also launched Ryzen AI, which brings dedicated AI neural processing units to desktop personal computer processors for the first time, and the new Ryzen 5000 processors that offer more choices for productivity, gaming, and content creation.

Jan 31: Advanced Micro Devicesple shares retraced 2.54% after the company released its Q4 earnings and projected lower-than-expected revenue in the first quarter, citing weakness in some of its core markets even as sales of artificial intelligence chips grow.

Jan 02: NIO Inc. shares plummeted 7.17% after the company said it delivered 18,012 vehicles in December 2023, increasing by 13.9% year-over-year. Shares of electric vehicle makers traded lower as delivery data failed to spark investor interest following a stellar 2023 for the group.

Jan 16: NIO Inc. slid 8.65% after Tesla continued to cut prices, due to heightened global competition. Other automakers joined the declines.

Jan 30: NIO Inc. dropped 5.7% after BYD published a disappointing estimate of profit for last year. The disappointing profit outlook underscores how tough competition is getting among EV makers. It's particularly fierce in China, the biggest market for EVs.

Jan 04: Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. shares soared 12.1% after the company provided a Bitcoin production update for December. Marathon also said it increased its average operational hash rate from 18% month-over-month to 22.4 EH/s, which helped drive the record production numbers.

Jan 11: Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. shares slid 12.60% after the SEC approved the listing and trading of Spot Bitcoin ETFs. Cryptocurrency mining companies have suffered a massive sell-off.

Jan 26: Marathon Digital Holdings Inc shares rallied 9.71%. Bitcoin is rebounding above $41,000 following a dip a week after spot bitcoin ETFs were approved.

Jan 16: Shares of Phunware, Inc. are surging 453.49% on Tuesday following news of Donald Trump's winning a major victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses. Phunware has ties to Trump dating back to 2020 when the company announced that it was working on the development, launch and ongoing management of the Trump-Pence 2020 Reelection Campaign's mobile application portfolio.

Jan 17: Phunware, Inc. shares fell 61.29% after the company announced a $7 million registered direct offering. After the market close on Tuesday, Phunware said it entered into a definitive agreement for the issuance and sale of approximately 87.5 million shares of common stock at 8 cents per share.

Jan 02: The shares of Apple slid 3.58% after Barclays analyst Tim Long downgraded the stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight and lowered the price target from $161 to $160.The analyst picks up weakness in iPhone volumes and mix and a lack of bounce-back in Macs, iPads, and wearables.

Jan 18: Apple shares rallied 2.46% after BofA Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan upgraded the company from Neutral to Buy and raised the price target from $208 to $225. The re-rating reflected a more robust multi-year iPhone upgrade cycle driven by the need for the latest hardware to enable Generative AI features likely for introduction in 2024 and 2025.

Jan 23: Alibaba Group Holdings stocks jumped 7.85% following a report in The New York Times that co-founder Jack Ma and Chairman Joe Tsai bought millions worth of shares in the company in Q4. Bloomberg reported the Chinese government is considering a package of measures to prop up the stock market, citing anonymous sources.

That's all for today's Monthly Buzz. Thanks for reading!