A roundup of the region’s stock market results on Friday
🗽 On Wall Street:
After Thursday’s massive sell-off in technology stocks following the disappointing results of Meta (FB), Facebook’s parent company, Amazon (AMZN) shares came to the rescue and boosted the performance of U.S. stock markets on Friday.
The company founded by Jeff Bezos reported earnings that beat expectations on Thursday afternoon, helped by the cloud computing division. Fourth-quarter sales rose 9.4% to $137.4 billion, the Seattle-based company reported.
During Friday’s session, Amazon added $191 billion in market value, an all-time U.S. record.
The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 0.52%, while the Dow Jones Industrials (INDU) fell slightly by 0.06%. The Nasdaq Composite (CCMPDL) advanced 1.58%.
Stock market performance also received a boost after non-farm payrolls increased by 467,000 in January, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. U.S. employers added more jobs than expected last month, despite a rise in Covid-19 infections and closures of Omicron-affected companies.
The yield on the U.S. 10-year note rose to 1.92% after investors began betting on the possibility that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates with a 50 basis point hike in March, Bloomberg reported.
🔑 Key Data:
Oil continues to accumulate gains and both international benchmarks are already trading above $90. Strong demand, driven by the economic recovery that was not slowed down by the Omicron variant, and geopolitical tensions have kept prices above more than seven-year highs.
Brent reached $93, while WTI touched $92. The market has also benefited from the performance of supply, as inventories in the main storage centers are decreasing.
Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco said late last month that consumption will soon return to pre-pandemic levels. The scenario comes as OPEC+ maintains its pace of production increases at the 400,000 barrels per day it has pledged each month.
🥇 The Leader:
Brazil Ibovespa (IBOV) was the best performer in Latin America, closing 0.49% on Friday and returning to positive territory after two consecutive days of losses.
Locaweb (LWSA3), Petro Rio (PRIO3) and Cielo (CIEL3) shares performed well during the day. In addition, Petrobras (PETR4) and Vale (VALE3) shares, helped by international oil prices, also closed Friday with gains.
The Mexican stock exchange rose 0.22%, recovering from Thursday’s fall, after being affected by the slump in the U.S. stock markets.
📉 A Bad Day:
The Chilean stock exchange (IPSA) saw the sharpest drop in the region, with its third consecutive session in the red, falling 0.66% on Friday, closing its second week of the year with straight losses and an accumulated2.62% decline.
On Friday it still closed above 4,425.52 units, however. “Let’s remember that the 4,500 points could act as short-term support, which would project us with a medium-term target at 5,200 points,” Renta 4 analysts said in a commentary.
🍝 For the Dinner Table Debate:
Engineers, designers and video game developers are among the most sought-after profiles for the metaverse, as companies ranging from Nike (NKE) to Gucci prepare to offer products in that space.
To February 4, the Meta (FB) job search engine showed at least 84 job options linked to the development of the metaverse in the U.S., Singapore, Brazil and the U.K. The profiles go from game developers, data managers, marketing experts, creative directors, 3D designers to different engineering profiles.
Nike has at least five jobs that involve specific tasks to grow in the metaverse posted on LinkedIn: virtual materials designers, Blockchain innovation program experts, and engineering managers in the metaverse, innovation engineers and senior 3D game design innovation engineers.
And Gucci, finally, has enabled an offer for a Web3 manager for its company, located in Milan.
The bet is ambitious, because it is not only about the growth of digital jobs, but also about the expectations generated by Mark Zuckerberg from the moment he launched the new world of virtual reality, ensuring that up to 10,000 jobs would be created for its development.
