The stock market experienced a significant downturn on October 20, 2023, with the S&P 500 declining by 1.27%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also saw a downturn, finishing 0.87% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.56%. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 0.65% to 4.912.
Access management company Okta (OKTA, Financial) experienced a significant security breach, causing its shares to tumble by 11%. The breach allowed a hacker to view files uploaded by certain customers as part of support cases. This incident has raised concerns about the security of Okta's systems and its ability to protect customer data.
Oracle (ORCL, Financial) shares also fell by more than 6.5% following the company's AI executive forum. Despite this, several Wall Street analysts defended the IT giant, expressing confidence in the company's ability to use artificial intelligence to expand its products and compete with other companies.
Meanwhile, SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG, Financial) saw a significant decline in its shares, falling by 27.3%. The company cut its outlook for Q3 revenues, gross margins, and operating income, and also predicted "significantly lower" revenues in Q4. This news has had a negative impact on most solar stocks, including Enphase Energy (ENPH, Financial), SunPower (SPWR, Financial), and Sunrun (RUN, Financial).
On the other hand, Philip Morris International (PM, Financial) announced that it has submitted Premarket Tobacco Product Applications and Modified Risk Tobacco Product Applications for its IQOS ILUMA heated tobacco products with the U.S. FDA. This move could potentially open up new markets for the company's products.
Finally, Citi Research analysts have predicted a hard landing for the economy in the first half of 2024. They believe that the current low unemployment rate suggests a recession is imminent, and that tightening credit conditions and rising real Treasury yields will slow the real economy.
