The Stock Market’s No Good, Very Bad Month
Plus the U.S. economy shrinks, Bitcoin saves for retirement, and more
May 4th, 2022
April was a bad month for the stock market, as the S&P 500 fell into correction territory for the second time this year. The GDP numbers were also discouraging as they showed a slightly shrinking economy. It was a good week for Bitcoin fans though as the original cryptocurrency reached two important milestones. Keep reading to get the full scoop on these stories and more!
Clint, Editor-in-Chief
What Everyone’s Been Buzzing About
The stock market had a bad month: Between the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and fears over rising interest rates, April was rough on the U.S. stock markets. The S&P 500 lost 8.8% for the month and entered correction territory. The Nasdaq fared even worse with a monthly decline of 13.3%, while the Dow fell 4.9%. That’s a lot of bad news for short-term traders. But if you’re a buy-and-hold investor, this is a great time to invest as the entire market is effectively “on sale.”
Fidelity is adding Bitcoin to its 401(k) investment lineup: On Tuesday of last week, Fidelity announced the launch of its workplace Digital Assets Account (DAA). The DAA will allow 401(k) plan participants to allocate a portion of their retirement contributions to Bitcoin (BTC). This is huge news for the cryptocurrency industry (and especially for Bitcoin purists). It means that one of the largest U.S. brokerages thinks that BTC will be around long enough that it could be a worthwhile retirement investment and not just a short-term, speculative play. Read our full review of Fidelity >>>
The U.S. economy shrank in Q1: The U.S. GDP dipped by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022. This was its first quarterly decline in nearly two years. The drop was driven in large part by a widening disparity between imports and exports. The upside is that wages and company profits both rose during the quarter and most economists see the dip as a temporary deviation from the country’s ongoing post-pandemic economic recovery.
Meta pleases investors, despite slowing revenue: Shares of Meta, Facebook’s parent, jumped 18% after the company announced its Q1 earnings last Wednesday. The rally wasn’t led by revenue growth, which actually fell to its slowest rate in over a decade. Rather, investors were encouraged by the uptick in users for the Facebook app. That’s much less exciting than the Metaverse work that’s happening over at the company’s Reality Labs, but it’s far more important to the company’s bottom line (at least for now).
Fort Worth, TX is now mining Bitcoin: The city of Fort Worth, Texas announced last week that it had become the first city to begin a Bitcoin mining operation. For now, that operation only includes three Bitmain Antminer S9 mining rigs. But it’s still a landmark moment for Bitcoin believers. We expect other local governments to follow Fort Worth’s lead as more municipalities look to add BTC to their respective balance sheets. Learn more about investing in Bitcoin >>>
What To Keep Your Eye on This Week
Earnings, earnings, earnings: Traditionally, the four earnings seasons are considered to take place in January, April, July, and October. But just because we’ve entered May doesn’t mean that Q1 earnings season is over. A slew of companies will be reporting their earnings this week including noteworthy names such as Airbnb, CVS, Uber, Starbucks, and Zillow.
April Jobs Report: The BLS releases the Employment Situation Summary on the first Friday of every month, so April’s report will be released this Friday, May 6th at 8:30 AM. Last month’s report was encouraging as the unemployment rate dipped to 3.6% — its lowest level since the start of the pandemic. Average hourly earnings also rose by 0.4%. Economists hope to see a continuation of these positive trends.
Staff Favorites
Here are two stories and a video from around the web that our team found interesting:
- The Extraordinary Wealth Created by the Pandemic Housing Market (New York Times)
- Elon Musk Talks Twitter, Tesla and How His Brain Works — Live at TED2022 (YouTube)
- Crypto Is Winning, And Bitcoin Diehards Are Furious About It (The Verge)
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