S&P 500 falls to start the week as investors’ recession fears grow: Live updates

Hedge funds sold out of technology stocks for a third straight week last week, according to Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage data. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1% last week, suffering its first down week in four.

The tech sector saw the largest weekly notional net selling since December 2022, driven by long sales, Goldman data said. The selling in semiconductors was the most prominent, the data said.

— Yun Li

The Global X Cloud Computing ETF (CLOU) slid almost 1.5% in Monday’s session.

2U led the fund down with a drop of more than 5%. Kingsoft, Twilio and Zoom Video were also among the worst performers, with each slipping around 3%.

Monday’s dip puts the fund on pace for its fourth negative session out of the last five.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

The week’s earnings focus may justifiably focus on what used to be called the money center banks —JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup all report Friday, (as does BlackRock, by the way) — but that attention downplays the importance of UnitedHealth’s earnings, also due to be reported Friday.

After all, analysts estimate that UNH’s 2023 revenues will top the combined revenue of all three of those banks. Also bear in mind:

• UNH’s market value ($478b) is >$100 billion bigger than JPM’s ($375b)
• UNH is the largest stock in the price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average ($512.81 at last Thursday’s close), while JPM is 20th ($127.47)
• UNH is the 10^th largest company in the S&P 500 (1.4% of the index), which is weighted by market capitalization, and its importance to the benchmark is about 30% greater than JPM’s (1.09% of the index)
• By sector, health care accounts for 14.2% of the S&P against financials 12.9%

How important is UnitedHealth?

It’s the biggest Medicare Advantage insurer — the fastest-growing and most profitable line of health plans right now. If UNH’s Optum services division were a standalone business, it would be the fifth largest health care company in the U.S. by revenue (estimate $214.5b in 2023).

— Bertha Coombs, Scott Schnipper

The Dow dropped more than 100 points after the open, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq pulled back by 0.7% and 1%, respectively.

— Fred Imbert

Telsey Advisory Group founder and CEO Dana Telsey said she anticipates retailers will report choppiness in consumer behavior over the first quarter, but she still anticipates a soft landing is possible for the economy.

“We are beginning to see people trade down,” Telsey said. She explained that high-end consumers are worried by factors like the banking crisis, while low-end consumers have been hit by a number of developments that have curtailed their spending. These include lower tax refunds and the expiration pandemic support programs such as enhanced SNAP benefits and the student loan payment freeze.

Earlier Monday, Telsey put out a report that said the average tax refund is down 9.8% year over year, according to Internal Revenue Service data as of March 31. But the decline is greater still when you factor in the reduction in the Child Tax Credit and Child and Dependent Care Credit.

Lower-income consumers are shopping stores like Dollar General more frequently and buying fewer items per trip. They’ve also started spending their savings or are running up debt from credit cards or even borrowing from friends, the report said.

Middle- and higher-income consumers are being more mindful of spending, it added.

Telsey said she’s fans of Costco, Walmart, Dollar General and the off-price retailers in this environment as they are “places people can find a value and also offer convenience.”

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Tech stocks lagged in the premarket, with shares of Apple falling 1.3% and Google-parent Alphabet sliding 1%. Amazon shares dropped about 0.9%, and Microsoft shares shed 0.7%.

— Sarah Min

Tesla shares fell nearly 3% before the bell after the company announced another round of price cuts on some vehicles in an attempt to spur demand.

The electric vehicle maker also confirmed plans to build a megapack battery factory in Shanghai capable of assembling 10,000 giant batteries annually.

Elsewhere, data out of China showed a slowdown in auto sales growth in March.

First Republic announced in a filing on Friday that it is suspending dividends for its preferred stock “as a measure of prudent oversight.”

The regional bank had already suspended its common stock dividend last month, as a massive outflow of deposits raised concerns about First Republic’s cash position. The bank also announced that it will report its fourth-quarter results on April 24.

Shares of First Republic were down 4% in premarket trading.

— Jesse Pound

The drain on U.S. bank deposits has slowed following an industry crisis last month, according to recent Federal Reserve data.

For all banks, deposits fell by a seasonally adjusted $64.7 billion, or 0.37%, for the period ending March 29, the Fed reported Friday. That compared to a decline of $172.1 billion, or nearly 1%, for the previous week. Domestically chartered large banks saw outflows of nearly $40 billion while small banks were little changed.

On non-seasonally adjusted basis, deposits actually increased by $42.3 billion.

The usage of Fed emergency lending programs instituted at the same time that Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank fell also was stable.

Discount window borrowing averaged just over $71 billion for the week ended April 5, down from $104.9 billion the previous week. Bank Term Funding Program averaged $68.2 billion, up from $62.6 billion.

Bank stocks pointed lower Monday morning, with the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF off 0.6% in premarket trading and the SPDR Bank ETF down fractionally.

—Jeff Cox

Apple shares slid 1.3% in premarket trading on Monday after International Data Corporation reported that global shipments of traditional PCs fell nearly 30% year over year in the first quarter, while Mac sales dropped 40% over the same time period. IDC cited poor demand, excess inventory and deteriorating macroeconomic environment.

“Though channel inventory has depleted in the last few months, it’s still well above the healthy four to six week range,” Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, said in a Sunday release. “Even with heavy discounting, channels and PC makers can expect elevated inventory to persist into the middle of the year and potentially into the third quarter.”

These are some of the stocks making the biggest moves before the bell:

Micron Technology – Shares jumped more than 6% following news that Samsung Electronics plans to cut memory chip production near term. Many Wall Street analysts said the move could accelerate a recovery within the memory chip industry.

Pioneer Natural Resources – The stock popped 7% before the bell after the Wall Street Journal reported that Exxon Mobil has held informal talks to acquire Pioneer. Exxon shares fell 0.6%.

Tesla – The electric vehicle stock fell nearly 2% before the bell. Tesla said it plans to build a “megapack” battery factory in Shanghai and cut some vehicle prices again.

Read the full list of stocks moving in the premarket here.

— Samantha Subin

KBW analyst Steven Kwok downgraded Block to market perform from outperform, citing pressure from small risks that are piling up.

“We think SQ’s risk/reward profile has become less attractive as multiple risks are starting to add up,” he wrote. “The big items revolve around rising competition within acquiring, and potential for regulatory scrutiny within its Cash App segment.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Brian Evans

Wall Street is preparing for a big earnings season, as Delta Air Lines and major banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are set to report this week.

“Many are now gearing up to hear from Corporate America over the coming weeks to receive granular details into the state of the economy,” wrote Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge.

Crisafulli he also said that, while worries of a “hard landing” have calmed slightly, “market participants are far from relieved.”

“Before Q1 earnings, the Mar CPI arrives on Wed, and the reading is expected to be very mixed, with a huge drop in headline inflation but a small uptick in the core number,” he said.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

Sell mining shares and invest in energy stocks instead — that’s the message from the Swiss investment bank UBS.

On the one hand, the bank believes that “unsynchronized” global growth and recessionary concerns in the U.S. make it difficult for mining companies to perform well. On the other hand, UBS expects energy stocks to continue delivering bumper cash flow this year, according to UBS.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Futures tied to the major averages opened slightly higher Sunday evening.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 52 points, or 0.15%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.16% and Nasdaq 100 futures hovered above the flat line at 0.02%.

On Thursday, the major averages rose to end a holiday-shortened trading week. However, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite posted weekly losses, while the Dow notched a weekly gain.

The S&P 500 lost 0.1% on the week, its first losing week in four, finishing at 4,105.02. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.1% over the course of the week to 12,087.96. The 30-stock Dow posted a weekly gain of 0.6% to close out at 33,485.29.

— Tanaya Macheel