US stocks trade mostly lower as Wall Street strategists size up risk of a recession

Advertisement
US stocks trade mostly lower as Wall Street strategists size up risk of a recession
A trader works at the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York, the United States, on March 9, 2022.Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty
  • US stocks traded mostly lower on Monday as Wall Street sizes up the risk of an economic recession.
  • Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said the US is at a "very, very high risk of recession."
  • Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson said any bounce in the stock market should be viewed as a bear market rally.
Advertisement

US stocks traded mostly lower on Monday as Wall Street sized up the potential for an economic recession over the next year following six straight weeks of losses for the S&P 500.

Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told CBS News' Face The Nation that the US is at a "very, very high risk of recession" on Sunday. "If I were running a big company, I would be very prepared for it. If I was a consumer, I'd be prepared for it," he said.

Separately, analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded their US GDP forecast and said the S&P 500 could fall another 11% to 3,600 in the event of a recession. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson said a recession is possible and any bounce in the stock market should be viewed as a bear market rally with more downside still to come.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Monday:

JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic said in a note on Monday that the stock market is pricing in too high of a chance of an economic recession, and that ultimately earnings are proving resilient. Kolanovic sees a big bounce ahead as the stock market has sold off too much.

Advertisement

First-quarter earnings continue to roll in, with 91% of S&P 500 companies having already reported results. Of those companies, 76% beat profit estimates by a median of 8%, according to Fundstrat. Meanwhile, 72% of those companies beat revenue estimates by a median of 3%.

Wheat prices surged by more than 4% to two-month highs after India, the world's second largest producer of the grain, banned exports amid concerns of a global shortage due to Russia's war against Ukraine.

Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried doesn't see a future for bitcoin as a payments network, because its "proof of work" system won't be able to handle millions of transactions, he told the Financial Times. The comments come amid a reckoning for the crypto industry following the implosion of Terra.

Renaissance Technologies more than doubled its Tesla stake, supercharged its GameStop bet, and slashed its AMC Entertainment holdings in the first quarter of this year, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.

Michael Burry, the investor of "The Big Short" fame, placed a bet against Apple and loaded up on other stocks last quarter including Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Discovery, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed on Monday.

Advertisement

Twitter stock fell 8% on Monday to levels not seen since before Elon Musk disclosed a 9% stake in the social media company. Musk has cast doubt on his deal to acquire the company for $44 billion, and Wedbush now sees the deal likely not happening.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose as much as much as 2.95% to $113.75 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped as much as 2.18% to $113.98.

Bitcoin fell 2.40% to $29,551. Ether prices fell 3.33% to $2,004.

Gold rose as much as 0.92% to $1,824.80 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 4 basis points to 2.89%.

{{}}