- U.S. equities declined which snapped a four-week winning streak for the large-cap S&P 500 Index. Recent hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials along with the release of July’s meeting minutes reignited inflationary pressure concerns for investors.
- Within the S&P 500, most sectors fell aside from consumer staples, energy, and utilities which rose. The communication services sector was weighed down by FaceBook parent company Meta Platforms which fell almost 7% last week. Other mega-cap names including Amazon, Apple, and Netflix lagged more than 3%.
- Meme stocks, including GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings quite popular among retail investors, slid meaningfully last week. Notably, Bed Bath & Beyond saw a plummet in its stock price by more than 40% on Friday after billionaire activist investor Ryan Cohen sold his entire stake in the company. Cohen is the founder of e-commerce company Chewy and the current chairman of GameStop. He took a sizable position in Bed Bath & Beyond in March inciting changes to the company, only to liquidate it all last week.
- Large-cap stocks led small-caps last week while value marginally outperformed growth, although all equity size and style segments were lower.
