By Emily Dattilo and Karishma Vanjani
A tumultuous first quarter is drawing to a close Friday, with markets shaken by banking chaos and more interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
Yet the three-month stretch was an especially good one for technology stocks, including chip maker Nvidia.
Indeed, the Nasdaq-100 -- which contains the 100 biggest stocks in the Nasdaq Composite -- performed best of all three indexes, soaring 18.5%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained 5.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.9% as of Thursday's close, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Here are the quarter's best and worst performers in each index.
Nasdaq-100
Nvidia (ticker: NVDA), up 87% in the first quarter, secured the top spot in two indexes -- the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 -- following a 50% decline in 2022. The semiconductor stock was hurt last year by high inventory levels caused by weak demand for PCs. But things turned around as excitement over the applications of its chips in artificial intelligence gathered steam. At its most recent conference, Nvidia unveiled the DGX cloud service, which allows enterprises to rent AI computing capacity, and a partnership with Adobe $(ADBE)$ to co-develop AI models.
Sirius XM Holdings $(SIRI)$ was the worst performer in the Nasdaq-100, sliding 32%. The satellite and streaming company posted slightly better-than-expected profit for its fourth quarter and offered weaker-than-expected guidance for 2023.
Earlier this month, it announced it would slash its global workforce by about 8%, or 475 people. Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Witz said the cuts were needed "in order for us to maintain a sustainably profitable company."
S&P 500
Nvidia led the S&P 500 for the quarter, as well as the Nasdaq-100.
$First Republic Bank(FRC-N)$ $(FRC)$ landed as the S&P 500's worst performer for the quarter, sinking 89%. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse $(CS)$ made investors skittish, and regional banks felt the brunt of that fear. It is on pace for its worst quarter on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
A consortium of 11 U.S. banks including Bank of America $(BAC.SI)$, Citigroup (C), and JPMorgan $(JPM)$ threw First Republic a lifeline earlier this month, pledging to deposit $30 billion, but investors still don't seem confident in the regional lender, keeping shares lower.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Salesforce $(CRM)$, up 48% in the quarter, etched its place in the Dow's top spot. The gains can be attributed to its epic fourth quarter performance, where revenue surpassed analysts' and management's expectations. The company has disbanded its mergers and acquisitions committee and laid off workers in an attempt to save costs.
Materials conglomerate 3M $(MMM)$ clocked in as the quarter's worst performer in the Dow, sliding 14%.
There were several drivers of that decline. In January, the maker of Scotch tape posted worse-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, offered light guidance for 2023, and announced about 2,500 job cuts.
It was also grappling with lawsuits over potentially faulty earplugs sold to the military that were made by subsidiary Aearo Technologies, and legal struggles involving chemicals manufactured by the company that ended up in water supplies.
Markets weathered a tumultuous first quarter and with earnings season peeking around the bend, investors will need to be on their toes once again.
Write to Emily Dattilo at emily.dattilo@dowjones.com and Karishma Vanjani at karishma.vanjani@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 31, 2023 14:49 ET (18:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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