It was startling this past week to see many of the hottest stocks stagger around and then fall down like drunken sailors in a dodgy street.

This is April, after all, and April has been one of the top months for investors since 1950. 

But stagger stocks did. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished below 5,000 for the first time since Feb. 21. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.5%, its worst weekly loss since its 5.65% fall during the week of Oct. 31, 2022.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended flat. 

Interest rates moved mostly higher, and so did mortgage rates.  

And now investors face a big week with some of the first quarter's most important earnings reports due from Tesla  (TSLA) , Meta Platforms  (META) , Microsoft  (MSFT)  and Exxon Mobil  (XOM) . 

Related: Wall Street faces make-or-break week with Tesla, GDP, inflation on deck

Plus two important economic reports: the first look at the U.S. Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter and the March report of the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index.

It sounds dangerous, but here are two bits of good news to consider:

• A big shooting war in the Middle East has NOT erupted.
• Early futures trading on Sunday suggests lower oil prices and hints that a short-term rally in stocks is forming. 

The big market challenges, part 1 

The shock that professionals and retail investors have been feeling of late starts with this challenge:

The market opened 2024 with most of Wall Street expecting inflation to fall and, with it, multiple interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. 

But inflation hasn't fallen enough to satisfy Fed officials, and this past week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell conceded what market veterans had expected: There may be one rate cut, maybe two in 2024 — if only inflation will cooperate.

The 10-year Treasury yield ended the week at 4.63%, up from 4.53% a week before and up 19% from the 3.88% at the end of 2023. 

Mortgage rates had fallen from about 8% in early October to the 6.5% range on a 30-year fixed-rate loan in January, giving hope to home buyers, sellers of existing homes,  and small homebuilders. Now, the rate is above 7%. The rising-rate trend hit the recent report on existing home sales.

The big market challenges, part 2

The big tech stocks that have led the big rally since the end of October have lost their mojo as the hype about artificial intelligence has faded. 

It feels somewhat like the hype around the Internet in early 2000 and the resulting dot.com bust. Just not as crazy.

Yes, AI is a powerful technology. How that technology gets used — and truly used profitably — by customers is not yet clear.  

Nvidia  (NVDA) , up nearly 83% in the first quarter, fell 11% last week and is off 15.7% so far in April. Chip designer Arm Holdings  (ARM) , up 66.3% in the first quarter, is down 30% just in April. 

More on markets

• Netflix’s latest decision frustrates investors
• Crude oil prices whipsaw on Mideast tension after Israel strikes Iran
• Most Day Traders Fail. Here’s Why and What to Do About It

Microsoft, up nearly 12% in the first quarter, is down 5.1% at $399.12 this month. It no longer sports a market capitalization above $3 trillion. 

Tesla, up nearly 102% in 2023, has struggled all year with a glutted electric-vehicle market and well-publicized manufacturing problems. It is down 41% year to date.

In fact, the real stress in the market was concentrated in technology, discretionary and communication services stocks. These include Ford  (F) , General Motors  (GM) , Home Depot  (HD)  and Starbucks  (SBUX) . 

Consumer staples, financial and utilities stocks moved higher.

Meanwhile, United Airlines  (UAL)  was up 22% after a blowout earnings report. Also rising this past week: Goldman Sachs  (GS) , up 3.7%, PepsiCo  (PEP) , up 3.6%, and Nike  (NKE) , 2.8%.

The strength in financial stocks in particular suggests investors aren't that worried about the economy. They are, however, moving money away from technology,  wrote market watcher Jon Markman this week.

How to handle this market 

Markets move up and down. A 5%-to-10% rundown is a given once or twice in a normal year, defined for our purposes as not battered by a pandemic or something like the 2008-2009 market crash. 

The S&P 500, in fact, fell 10.3% between July 31, 2023 and the market bottom of 4,119.37 on Oct. 27, 2023. 

The index still finished the year up 24%. 

As of April 19, the S&P 500 is down 5.5% from its record close of 5,254.35 reached on Feb. 28. 

So the question is how to handle this downturn. And one should start with these questions: Why am I in the market? When do I need the money? 

If the answer to the second question is soon, then think about getting some advice to protect yourself. 

If you have time, you consider at least three options. 

• Move investments around to safe havens like bonds you can hold to maturity. The downside is it entails costs and, more importantly, more risk than you expect. 
• Buy into the lower prices. That's a different way to describe dollar-cost averaging. That's a strategy that works with mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. For the same cash, you're getting more shares. And it sets your investments up for a gain when the turn comes.  
• Do nothing. Market downturns usually turn around if you have the time to wait. The S&P 500 has weathered two serious selloffs starting in late 2007. It's up 657% since the bottom of the 2008-09 crash. 

What's ahead this week

Some 667 public-traded U.S. companies report quarterly reports this week. Of that total, 158 are components of the S&P 500. 

The big reports to watch: 

Monday (April 22): German software giant SAP  (SAP) , telecom giant Verizon  (VZ) , and grocery giant Albertsons  (ACI) .

Tuesday (April 23): Visa  (V) , Tesla, General Electric Aerospace  (GE)  (the survivor from breaking the old General Electric into three pieces), Texas Instruments  (TXN)  and United Parcel Service  (UPS) .

Wednesday (April 24): Meta Platforms  (META) , IBM  (IBM) , AT&T  (T)  and Boeing  (BA) . 

Thursday (April 25): Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet  (GOOG) , T-Mobile  (TMUS) , Caterpillar  (CAT) , Intel  (INTC)  and Southwest Airlines  (LUV) . 

Friday (April 26): Oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron  (CVX) , pharmaceutical giant AbbVie  (ABBV) , Colgate-Palmolive  (CL)  and Phillips 66  (PSX) . 

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

Read More

Sometimes plans get shared for Las Vegas Strip resorts, casinos, restaurants, and retail stores that never actually come to be. It's challenging to build in Las Vegas — it is a desert that has few raw materials where the weather can be punishing — and many projects never get off the ground.

In many cases, there are billion-dollar projects that kick off with great fanfare, which never even start. That's the case with the All-Net Arena planned by former NBA player Jackie Robinson on the north end of the Strip.

Related: Iconic Las Vegas Strip venue has last act before implosion

Plans have been filed, and ground was broken back in 2014, but numerous funding plans for the project have either fallen through or they were never real in the first place. It's a tantalizing dream as Las Vegas hopes to land and NBA expansion team, but Robinson's group has not moved past the announcement and theater stage of the project.

That's not uncommon on the Strip but long delays don't always mean a project has died. Another North Strip property, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, recently opened after a 20-year odyssey that included multiple stops and starts as well as several owners.

Now, another Las Vegas Strip project — one first made public in 2019 — appears to be back from the dead.

Long-closed Las Vegas Strip property may make a comeback

The former Atrium Hotel first went bankrupt back in 2008 during the housing crisis when a lot of businesses struggled due to failing consumer demand. Siegel Group, a Las Vegas real estate developer bought the property for $4.2 million in 2012 and shared plans to rebuild it in 2019.

Those plans never actually happened, likely due to concerns about the Covid pandemic, but now the company which owns Las Vegas' Gold Spike Hotel & Casino, has new plans for the Atrium site. 

"The Siegel Group is in its 'final stages' to get permits to move forward with plans to demolish the Atrium Hotel and build a 480-unit flexible-stay apartment complex," said Siegel Group CEO Stephen Siegel, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

No start date has been shared, but Siegel Group has asked Clark County to make some improvements to the area around the site including closing off a tunnel and widening "the stretch of Paradise Road between Harmon Avenue and Sands/Twain Avenue," the paper reported.

Another Las Vegas Strip project remains stalled

When construction on the Dream Hotel and Casino stopped in March 2023 over unpaid bills, the project's owner, Shopoff Realty Investments, said the pause would be short. It promised that new funding was coming, but construction on the property remains stopped.

The boutique hotel sits near the Harry Reid International Airport 5051 South Las Vegas Boulevard.

"According to developers, the new resort is expected to be 20 stories tall with 531 guestrooms and suites as well as dining and nightlife venues, a pool deck, a bar, and a lounge space on the gaming floor and on-site parking," KTNV Las Vegas reported.

The project, which was supposed to open in Fall 2024, was supposed to become a 531-room lifestyle hotel and casino with seven experiential dining and nightlife venues, 12,000 square feet of meeting and event space, and a 20,000-square-foot casino.

Construction stopped when the developer fell millions of dollars behind in paying its building partners. After sharing plans for new funding that would have led to a January 2024 restart, the developer has been silent about the future of the Dream Hotel and Casino.

"This project represents a new type of Vegas hotel experience, offering tourists and locals alike a unique boutique hotel option on the Las Vegas Strip. We are thrilled to break ground on Dream Las Vegas and watch as it energizes the southern end of the Strip, while providing countless jobs and revenue for local government," explained Shopoff Realty Investments CEO William Shopoff at the time.

Read More

The radio comedian Fred Allen once expressed his disdain for television by declaring, "They call it a medium because nothing is well done."

But that was a long time ago. TV has moved on from the old cathode ray tube machines of yesteryear that broadcast "Captain Video and His Video Rangers" to sophisticated, connected devices that offer all kinds of entertainment created all over the world.

Related: Roku is planning a change users won't like

Watching TV is America's favorite pastime, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the people at Roku  (ROKU)  have a nice piece of that action.

Founded in 2002 by Anthony Wood, Roku gets its name from the Japanese word for "six," as it was the sixth business the billionaire established. 

The San Jose, Calif.-based company announced in February that it had more "than 80 million active accounts and counting" as consumers continue to stream over to TV streaming.

Roku sees 'challenging environment'

Roku said that viewer engagement was also at a record high, where, for the first time, more than 100 billion hours were streamed on the platform in 2023, averaging a record of 4.1 hours per day per account in the fourth quarter.

However, there have been challenges as the streaming sector has become more competitive. 

The stock price has dropped from $473 per share in the years after the Covid pandemic, when in-home entertainment demand soared, to $57 at last check.

Related: Analysts reset Netflix price targets ahead of earnings amid ad-tier push

In addition, the company announced a security breach on April 12, saying that 576,000 customer accounts were affected. 

This followed an earlier breach, announced on March 12, that affected 15,363 customers and involved stolen credit card, password, and username information.

Roku is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on April 25. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect the company to post a loss of 61 cents per share on $844 million in revenue.

A year ago, the company posted a loss of $1.38 per share on revenue of $741 million.

Roku reported a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss in February, amid intense competition and lower customer spending. 

In a Feb. 15 letter to shareholders from Wood and Chief Financial Officer Dan Jedda, the company said it planned to increase revenue, free cash flow, and profitability over time.

"At the same time, we remain mindful of near-term challenges in the macro environment and an uneven ad market recovery," Roku said. 

"While we will face difficult year-over-year growth rate comparisons in streaming services distribution and a challenging (media and entertainment) environment for the rest of the year," the letter said, "we expect to maintain our Q4 2023 YoY Platform growth rates in Q1."

Analyst cites Roku's competitive disadvantages

Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese cut her price target for Roku to $80 from $120 per share, keeping her outperforming stock rating.

"We believe Roku has found religion in generating and expanding (free cash flow), and will not revert to excessive spending for long-term growth," Reese said in a note to investors. "Instead, Roku intends to balance new initiatives that result in near-term ROI with expanding FCF and tracking toward positive net income."

More Wall Street Analysts:

• Analyst unveils new Nike price target ahead of big summer for sports
• Analysts weigh in on Google-parent Alphabet’s stock after cloud event
• Analysts revamp Disney stock price target after proxy fight

She added that Roku continues taking market share as ad dollars shift from linear to digital-connected TV.

"While we were previously sanguine about Roku’s e-commerce opportunity, we are less so as we became aware of some competitive disadvantages for Roku, and its need to ramp investment to rise to the level of competition in the space," Reese said. 

Coupled with industry-wide headwinds in media and entertainment spending, the analyst thinks Roku’s focus on expanding positive EBITDA in 2024 may inhibit its ability to compete in e-commerce.

"As we continue to see significant opportunity for growth in all other areas of Roku’s business and believe that the company is committed to expanding profitably, we reiterate our outperform rating," Reese said.

The analyst said that Roku's growing prominence as a platform and ability to advertise on all avenues of CTV and TV benefits it immensely.

"However, Roku’s fight for ad dollar market share will be challenged as competition heats up on the e-commerce front from companies like Amazon, Google, and Walmart," she said, "especially as these companies have started to show increased ad capabilities and targeting from a vast amount of first-party data."

The analyst said that she believes that as media and entertainment spending normalizes, Roku will be the biggest beneficiary in the connected TV space.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

Read More