A currency trader walks near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. Asian shares slipped Friday after a retreat on Wall Street that left the Nasdaq composite down 2.5%.(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Currency traders watch computer monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. Asian shares slipped Friday after a retreat on Wall Street that left the Nasdaq composite down 2.5%.(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A currency trader stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. Asian shares slipped Friday after a retreat on Wall Street that left the Nasdaq composite down 2.5%.(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Currency traders watch computer monitors at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. Asian shares slipped Friday after a retreat on Wall Street that left the Nasdaq composite down 2.5%.(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A sign for Wall Street hangs in front of the New York Stock Exchange, July 8, 2021. Stocks are opening modestly higher on Wall Street, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, potentially setting the S&P 500 up for a third gain in a row after what has been a weak start to the year. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
A Wall Street sign is seen next to surveillance equipment outside the New York Stock Exchange, Oct. 5, 2021, in New York. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street Friday, Jan. 14, 2022 keeping the S&P 500 on course for its second weekly decline in a row. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)
Stocks edged lower in morning trading on Wall Street Friday, keeping the major indexes on course for their second weekly decline in a row.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 10:16 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 182 points, or 0.5%, to 35,931 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3%.
Banks were the biggest weight on the market. JPMorgan Chase fell 4.4% after reporting that its profits fell 14% in the latest quarter from a year earlier as its trading business slumped. Citigroup fell 1.9% after reporting its latest results.
A wide range of retailers and other companies that rely on direct consumer spending also fell following a weak retail sales report for December. Home Depot fell 1.6% and Whirlpool fell 3.3%.
Technology stocks gained ground and tempered the market's losses.
U.S. crude oil prices rose 1% and helped send energy stocks higher. Chevron rose 1.6%.
Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.75% from 1.70% late Thursday.
The Commerce Department reported that retail sales sank 1.9% in December after Americans cut their spending in the face of product shortages, rising prices and the onset of the omicron variant. It's the latest in a series of economic reports this week that has raised concern about inflation and its impact on businesses finances and consumer spending.
The Labor Department reported on Wednesday that consumer inflation jumped at the fastest pace in nearly 40 years last month, a 7% spike from a year earlier that is increasing household expenses and biting into wage gains. The government agency also reported on Thursday that prices at the wholesale level surged by a record 9.7% for all of 2021.
Rising prices have been prompting businesses to pass more costs on to consumers. Consumers have been pulling back on spending at department stores, restaurants and online as a result of higher prices and supply shortages.
Businesses are also feeling the impact from inflation. Paint maker Sherwin-Williams fell 1.9% after reporting disappointing fourth-quarter earnings because of raw materials costs and supply chain problems. Boston Beer, which makes Sam Adams beer, slumped 6.8% after cutting its earnings forecast because of supply chain problems.
Concerns over persistently rising inflation are also prompting the Federal Reserve to trim its bond purchases and consider raising interest rates earlier and more often than Wall Street had expected less than a year ago.
7 E-Commerce Stocks That Aren’t Tangled in the Supply ChainE-commerce is being identified as a prime contributor to our current supply chain difficulties. Flush with cash during the pandemic, many Americans took to shopping online as part of their new normal. Demand quickly outpaced supply, particularly as many factories were dealing with labor shortages due to Covid-19 restrictions.
While that may oversimplify the problem with the global supply chain, there’s little doubt that e-commerce transactions have made an impact. In fact, e-commerce was one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s part of the continuing digitization of the economy. And that makes it a segment that investors can’t afford to ignore.
Just how much of an impact does e-commerce make? In 2020 alone, there were 454 billion transactions worldwide totaling $4.2 trillion in sales. But that only tells part of the story. As big as that number is, it makes up less than 20% (17.8%) of all retail sales worldwide. A large number of those transactions go through Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
However, if you missed out on buying Amazon when it was still “just” an online bookseller, you may find a share price of over $3,000 per share a little tough to swallow. That’s why we’ve put together this special presentation. We’ve identified seven companies that are likely to perform well despite the current supply chain crisis and have business models that will be sustainable even when supply and demand get back into balance.
View the "7 E-Commerce Stocks That Aren’t Tangled in the Supply Chain".
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