By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 closed lower Monday, as the bleeding in Facebook continued, souring sentiment on big tech and offsetting gains in value sectors of the market.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, the Nasdaq fell 0.58%.
Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) fell more than 5% to end the day at 52-week lows, souring sentiment on big tech as the social media continued to struggle to find a bottom following a rout last week on the back of disappointing guidance. The company announced after the closing bell that tech investor Peter Thiel would be step downing from the board of Meta.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) were also nursing losses as investors appear to have one eye on widely expected Federal Reserve rate hikes following last week’s monthly jobs showing a rising wage growth that could keep inflation at a red-hot pace.
“If wage growth fails to moderate they (the Fed) will have no choice but to hike faster— and further—than they currently expect,” Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a note.
Value sectors, however, attempted to plug the gap left by tech, with financials and energy doing most of the heavy lifting.
Energy was up more than 1% even as oil prices took a breather after five-week rally into oversold territory, but are expected to renew their uptrend as supply remains tight at a time when demand continues to rise.
“In our opinion, a somewhat more pronounced consolidation or even correction would be well overdue after seven weeks of rising prices,” Commerzbank said in a note.
Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR), Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB), and Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) were among the biggest sector gainers.
On the earnings front, meanwhile, investors digested mostly bullish quarterly results.
Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) reported better-than-expected earnings as the beef and poultry maker’s growth in the quarter was beefed up by a rising meat prices. Its shares rose more than 12%.
Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) was flat despite its quarterly results beating Wall Street estimates on both the top and bottom lines, driven largely by the toy maker’s partnerships with name brands.
Investor attention was also dominated by a deal activity, with Peloton and Front Airlines hogging the headlines.
Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) surged 21% as multiple suitors including Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Nike (NYSE:NKE) are reportedly looking to make an offer for the beleaguered connected fitness equipment company.
Frontier Group (NASDAQ:ULCC) and Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE) were sharply higher after announcing a merger in a deal valued at $6.6 billion that would see the low-cost airlines combine to create the fifth-largest airline in the U.S.
In other news, Astra Space (NASDAQ:ASTR) slipped nearly 14% after the small rocket builder aborted the launch of its first mission from Florida on Monday.
