Morgans AM: Wednesday, 1 February 2023

Morgans Financial Limited

US equity markets rallied as solid corporate earnings releases and encouraging inflation data pushed the S&P 500 to its best January since 2019 - Dow rose +369-points or +1.09%, The broader S&P500 gained +1.46%, with Materials and Consumer Discretionary both gaining +2.22% to lead all eleven primary sectors higher. PayPal Holdings Inc rose +2.32% following reports that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dan Schulman had sent an email to staff announcing plans to lay off ~2K employees or ~7% of the company’s workforce. PayPal said in August last year that it was targeting at least US$1.3B in cost savings during 2023. The technology-centric Nasdaq climbed +1.67%, cementing its best January performance since 2001 amid a broad-based rally in equities that saw some of 2022’s worst performers take the lead. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 gained +2.45%.