Tech in the red... The tech-heavy Nasdaq index is still in a correction (down 14% from its November record). Now, all eyes are on earnings coming up from Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta. Amazon’s hot holiday profits could get dinged by wage hikes, while Meta plans to finally break out results for its AR segment. Investors are curious to see if the tech biggies can keep up their streaks, after pandemic thrivers like Netflix and Peloton reported slowing growth. Still, Microsoft's big earnings beat and Apple’s record quarterly sales are encouraging.
Rattling some pills… The FDA halted distribution of Regeneron’s and Eli Lilly’s Covid treatments last week because the drugs haven’t been working against Omicron, which makes up 99% of US cases. Bad news for the drugmakers, since those antibody drugs drove nearly a third of their sales last quarter. Meanwhile, Merck's pioneering Covid pill is showing promise in treating the variant, and is expected to generate $7B in sales this year. We might get updates on how pharma views Omicron variant #2 (it’s a thing) when they report this week.