welcome to 2023 where things are different okay maybe not stocks started off the new year much the way they ended last year with broad indices logging losses albeit they were relatively small tuesday’s losses were less than 1 across the board but it still wasn’t the start many investors hoped for following a difficult year for 2022 the sp 500 closed at 3840 down 19 the nasdaq 100 closed down over 30 last year at 10940 while the dow jones industrial average was the strongest performer giving up roughly 9 to settle 2022 at 33147 that capped the worst year since 2008 rising inflation was the main culprit for last year’s woes causing interest rates to push higher that in turn led to higher borrowing costs and substantial layoffs especially in the tech sector in 2020 when covid hit an estimated 80000 tech workers were laid off between march and december by comparison in 2022 it’s estimated that 150000 workers in the technology sector lost jobs that trend appears to be continuing as salesforce is out this morning with news they will let go about 10 of their workers while many tech workers have found work and others received severance packages the changing nature of the job market remains to be seen unemployment is still just 37 and isn’t expected to change when the jobs report for december is released this coming friday this is going to be a busy week for economic data later this morning we’ll get a look at job openings when the jolts number is released then this afternoon the minutes from the last fomc meeting will be released but all eyes will be on friday’s employment report although the tech sector has been hit hard employment continues to remain strong what’s more hourly average earnings have been persistently growing it’s estimated that number increased by 5 in december which is often a threshold for markets wage growth of that magnitude is viewed as inflationary so anything below 5 may be seen by markets as a positive individual stocks that were in focus on tuesday included apple and tesla apple is facing production challenges amongst high demand for iphones however concerns out of china where covid rates appear to be soaring have investors worried about upcoming possible shutdown that would disrupt production meanwhile tesla lost more than 12 yesterday after failing to meet 2022 sales targets tesla was one of the worst performing stocks of 2022 down 65 for the year the company has faced a myriad of recent challenges and it will be worth watching to see if the company can regain its onetime tech darling status elsewhere for the first time since 2014 meta and google account for less than 50 of digital ad spending while ad growth continues growing at both companies challengers such as tiktok and amazon have increased their share of spend meta has been especially hard hit since apple implemented security measures that allow users to opt out of having their online activity tracked that tracking allowed for much more targeted ads on facebook it’s too soon to say whether or not we’re seeing a changing of the guard here but this is certainly something worth watching for today volume is still tricky as some are in holiday mode while others are looking for ways to implement their new year’s plan add to this a slew of data coming including of course friday’s employment numbers and we could see some choppy trading the vix remains elevated at just under 23 in premarket trading while indices are looking to open higher we’ll see if we can hold those gains as always i’d stick with your trading plan and long term goals while trying to avoid the daytoday gyrations tastytrade inc commentary for educational purposes only