Stocks struggled to find direction Tuesday as investors took in several economic reports – including data that showed another drop in home prices.
Tech and communication services stocks were two of the biggest decliners today as Treasury yields rose, while energy and industrial stocks were the leaders.
On the economic front, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index showed that home prices were down 0.2% month-over-month in January, marking their seventh straight monthly decline. Year-over-year, home prices were up 3.8%, a notable slowdown from the 5.6% increase seen in December.
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Meanwhile, the Conference Board said that despite the turmoil in the banking industry – including the failure of Silicon Valley Bank – its consumer confidence index rose to 104.2 in March from February's revised 103.4 reading.
"While consumers feel a bit more confident about what's ahead, they are slightly less optimistic about the current landscape," the report states. Uncertainty over jobs is on the rise, while the "latest results also reveal that their expectations of inflation over the next 12 months remains elevated – at 6.3 percent. Overall purchasing plans for appliances continued to soften while automobile purchases saw a slight increase."
In single-stock news, Alibaba Group Holdings (BABA) spiked 14.3% after the Chinese conglomerate said it is splitting into six separate units, including Digital Media and Entertainment, Taobao Tmall Commerce, and Cloud Intelligence. The divisions will each be able to raise funding and undergo an initial public offering (IPO), which will help "unlock shareholder value and foster market competitiveness," the company said. The one exception is the Taobao Tmall Commerce group, which will remain wholly owned by BABA.
As for the major indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% to 32,394, the S&P 500 shed 0.2% to 3,971, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5% to 11,716.
Bitcoin ETFs and cryptocurrency funds to know
We don't often talk about Bitcoin, and for good enough reasons. The cryptocurrency space is risky and volatile – and typically not the most easily stomached environment for buy and hold investors looking to boost their returns over time with the best dividend stocks. That said, it is good to have an eye on what's going on in all corners of the market because so much of it is interconnected.
After a lousy run in 2022, Bitcoin and its fellow cryptocurrencies have had a strong start to the new year. (Bitcoin, specifically, is up more than 60% so far in 2023.) And that's despite turbulence in the industry. Most recently, this includes the failure of key crypto lenders Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank, as well as this week's news that crypto exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao have been sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for "willful evasion" of the law.
"Bitcoin is displaying such unbelievable resilience to what is happening around it, even in the crypto industry, that you have to wonder just how sustainable that can be," says Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at currency data provider OANDA.
While only time will tell which direction digital currencies are headed next, investors curious about the asset class will want to check out the top Bitcoin ETFs and cryptocurrency funds. Although many of these funds stick to stocks involved in cryptocurrency technology, a few names have more direct exposure to the coins themselves.
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