Episode 9

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U.S. stocks retreated Friday, with the Dow posting its worst weekly performance since October as traders warily eyed the Federal Reserve for hints of where monetary policy is headed.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.6%, or about 530 points, in 4 p.m. trading Friday. The index of blue-chip stocks dropped more than 3% this week.  The S&P 500 declined 1.3%. The Nasdaq Composite also ticked 0.9% lower, as large technology stocks also fell. Policy makers had signaled Wednesday that they expect to raise interest rates by late 2023, sooner than they had previously anticipated. Sentiment waned again on Friday after Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis leader James Bullard said on CNBC that he expects the first rate increase even sooner, in late 2022.Wall Street Journal

Crude oil prices hit it’s highest price in 2 1/2 years

Jobless claims on the rise

Year of the Individual Investor: For years, individual investors’ trading activity rarely made a splash on Wall Street. That started to change in 2019, when online brokerages moved en masse to commission-free trading. The Covid-19 pandemic further accelerated individuals’ interest in stocks last year, allowing those stuck at home to try their hands at trading through historic market volatility. Together, those forces helped drive individual investors’ share of U.S. equities trading volume to 20% last year, roughly double the figure from a decade before, according to data from Larry Tabb, head of market-structure research at Bloomberg Intelligence.Wall Street Journal

Microsoft (MSFT): Microsoft’s board has named CEO Satya Nadella as chair, marking the first time a person has held both the positions since the company’s co-founder Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive in 2000. The change is the latest acknowledgement of the role Nadella has played in revitalizing the tech giant. During his seven-year tenure as CEO, Microsoft has witnessed sharp growth in its Azure cloud computing, productivity and gaming divisions. Nadella has also overseen several successful acquisitions including Minecraft, LinkedIn, GitHub and, more recently, gaming behemoth ZeniMax. Today, Microsoft is the world’s second-most valuable company behind Apple with a market value above $1.9 trillion. Microsoft appoints CEO Satya Nadella as chairman (yahoo.com)Microsoft Corp. plans to add four new data centers within China by early 2022 in a wider effort to expand its service capacity across Asia, according to people familiar with its strategy who asked not to be named as its details are not public. Microsoft’s expansion in China is among the fastest for the company on the continent and in March it an...