TOPLINE
The stock market is having one of the worst starts to a year ever—with big names like Moderna and Netflix leading declines—as many of the pandemic-era’s top stocks continue to fall out of favor with investors.
KEY FACTS
Three stocks in the S&P 500 have led the market’s declines this month, each falling more than 35% through Friday’s session: Moderna, Netflix and Etsy.
Vaccine maker Moderna—one of last year’s top-performing stocks—is down nearly 40% amid growing research suggesting the firm’s booster shot is less effective against the rapidly spreading omicron variant.
Streaming giant Netflix, meanwhile, has seen its shares plunge 37% this month—in large part due to lackluster fourth-quarter earnings, which showed a continued slowdown in subscriber growth.
Online retailer Etsy—another pandemic-era favorite stock, which rose 324% in 2020—is down 35% this month as investors continue to rotate out of risky growth stocks and into safer value bets.
Other notable losers this month include semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (down 28%), chipmaker Nvidia (24%), Caesars Entertainment (23%) and Domino’s Pizza (22%).
The market selloff has been widespread, with everything from tech to energy stocks under pressure; Almost half of the stocks in the S&P 500 are now down more than 10% so far in 2022.
SURPRISING FACT:
A majority of the S&P 500’s top-performing stocks so far this year are oil and gas companies. Gains are led by the likes of Halliburton (up 37%), Occidental Petroleum (30%), Hess (24%) and Exxon Mobil (23%). That’s in large part thanks to oil prices rising for six weeks straight, with the price of Brent crude now at around $90 per barrel amid concerns of tight supply and rising demand.
KEY BACKGROUND:
Stocks have swung wildly—especially in the past few weeks—as investors remain fearful of the Federal Reserve’s tightening monetary policy and rising interest rates. That sentiment has sparked a widespread selloff in growth and tech stocks especially. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which is in correction territory after falling nearly 15% since the start of 2022, is on pace for its worst January ever—and its worst month overall since the financial crisis in October 2008, when the index plunged over 17%. With market volatility surging this past week, the S&P 500 also briefly fell into correction territory—at one point 10% below its record high—and now remains close to falling below that level.
By Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff