US equity markets resumed their slide, dragging the S&P500 to a fresh 2022 low amid a broad-based decline - Dow fell -458-points or -1.54%, having been down as much as -686-points at its session lows. The broader S&P500 dropped -2.11% to 3,640.47, logging its lowest close since 30 November, 2020. Utilities (down -4.07%) led all eleven primary sectors lower. Energy outperformed albeit the sector settled with a -0.13% decline. Occidental Petroleum Corp rose +1.14% after a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing showed that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (down -0.98%) bought another 6M shares, paying as much as US$61.37 per share and lifting their stake in the energy company to 20.9%. The Nasdaq shed -2.81%. Apple Inc – also a Dow component – fell -4.91% to US$142.48 - after Bank of America downgraded the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ (cutting their price target to US$160 per share from US$185), noting that demand trends could worsen heading into the new fiscal year.  Meta Platforms Inc fell -3.67% following a Bloomberg report that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg told staff that the social media and metaverse company is freezing hiring and will take steps to restructure the business. The report follows comments from Mr Zuckerberg on the company’s June quarter earnings call in which he said it was Meta’s plan “to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year. Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas, and I wanted to give our leaders the ability to decide within their teams where to double down, where to backfill attrition, and where to restructure teams while minimizing thrash to the long term initiatives.” The small capitalisation Russell 2000 dropped -2.35%.

Morgans AM: Friday, 30 September 2022

Morgans is Australia's largest national full-service retail stockbroking and wealth management network with more than 240,000 client accounts, 500 authorised representatives and 950 employees operating from offices across all states and territories in Australia.

Morgans AM: Friday, 30 September 2022

Morgans Financial Limited