nasdaq
The Nasdaq 100 is leading the declines of all US markets, falling 1.36% as of the time of writing. Barring any late recovery moves, this could be the 3rd straight losing session for the index.
The fall in the Nasdaq 100 comes as a result of declines in the stock prices of major tech firms listed on the index. Facebook’s shares are down nearly 1% after the company decided to block news feeds in Australia. This move has strengthened calls from owners of conventional media outlets for tougher regulation of online media platforms.
A steep drop in Walmart shares (-3.96%) has also spooked the markets. The company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings but has provided gloomy forward guidance, saying that growth for the 2022 fiscal ear could slow.
The US markets are also struggling to shake off poor US Initial Jobless Claims data, which showed a rise of 861K in new first-time unemployment benefit applications. This figure surpassed the revised previous number and the consensus figure, indicating that progress in raising employment in the US has not made much progress in the last three months.
Thursday’s decline means that the Nasdaq 100 could challenge the ascending channel’s trendline as well as the 13344.2 support level, with a breakdown of this landmark allowing sellers to push towards 13135.5 initially. 12973.9 and the 18 January/1 February 2021 low at 12769.3 could form additional targets to the south.
On the flip side, a bounce from the channel’s lower border could allow for a retest of 26/27 January tops, with 13908.3 serving as the barrier between bulls and the creation of new all-time highs.
