Trading results for 14-17 April 2025
The past week, though short, was quite eventful. That said, it clearly did not meet the expectations of market participants. The week opened on a positive note – hardly surprising, as many had hoped for a continued rebound following the news that President Trump’s new tariffs had been delayed by 90 days.
However, as we can see, the euphoria quickly faded – the bulls only had enough strength for a few days. After that, the momentum deflated and prices steadily began to fall again. Fortunately, there were no significant sell-offs this time, but the overall mood remained negative. Even when something positive occurred, its effect was akin to a painkiller – short-lived. As a result, things returned to the status quo and yet another trading day ended in the red.
Thursday – the final trading day of the week – was particularly telling. It began with clear optimism following strong earnings from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM), the world’s largest chipmaker. This news seemed enough to lift market spirits. And indeed, it worked – for half a day. The hype soon faded, trading was sluggish and volumes were low, ending around neutral levels.
Later on Thursday, the highly anticipated earnings report from Netflix (NFLX) was released. It was an excellent report – investors were pleased with both profit and revenue, as well as forecasts for Q2 and the full year. All in all, a typically impressive performance. Except for one thing… Normally, Netflix shares would jump 10%, or even 15%, after such results. This time, however, the stock added just 4% in after-hours trading – and even that gain faded by Monday. In short, something felt off here too.
As a result, the entire week was essentially written off, and the key takeaway is this: all major U.S. indexes resumed their decline, and talk of any real recovery seems premature. Strangely enough, the benchmark S&P 500 index suffered the least, finishing the week with a modest 1.50% drop. Meanwhile, two seemingly very different indexes – the conservative Dow Jones (DJIA-30) and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite – both lost around 2.6%.
Old man Dow took a hit mainly due to a plunge in shares of UnitedHealth (UNH), a leader in health insurance, which collapsed after a disappointing quarterly report. The company openly acknowledged failures in its Medicare Advantage services. As for Nasdaq, its losses were primarily driven by renewed sell-offs in the chipmaker sector – particularly Nvidia (NVDA), which lost nearly 10% of its market value over the week.
An industry breakdown of the week also makes for interesting reading. On the surface, the picture seems fairly positive – 8 out of 11 sectors ended in the green. But a closer look at the top performers raises some concern. Leading the pack was the oil and gas sector – not surprising given the recent rebound in oil prices. The materials sector also saw a solid 4.73% gain, driven by a sharp rise in gold prices, practically guaranteeing gains for miners.
Beyond that, most demand was concentrated in defensive sectors – utilities, consumer defensive and real estate. Investors are clearly fleeing riskier assets, which explains why the "holy trinity" of growth – technology, consumer cyclicals and communication services – were the week’s main losers, with average losses of around 0.7%.
As for the ITS index family, there was reason to be proud. The global companies index, ITS World (ITSW), managed to close in the green, posting a modest gain of 0.21%. As we’ve said before, its key strength is strong geographic diversification – which helped keep it afloat.
The Islamic securities index, ITS Shariah (ITSS), had a more modest week. Understandably so – its portfolio consists entirely of U.S. stocks. Nevertheless, even with such a composition, ITSS outperformed most U.S. indexes, limiting its weekly loss to just 1.01%.
In conclusion, the market is clearly going through a rough patch. All major indexes are near their yearly lows and, more importantly from a technical perspective, they are hovering near levels where a real trend reversal could begin. This suggests that the coming days could prove decisive for determining the market’s next move.