January 22, 2019 3 min read

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More signs of slowing global growth rattled the stock market, sending the major indexes down for the first time in five trading sessions.

The Chinese government announced that the country had GDP growth of 6.6 percent last year. We should be so lucky, but that’s its weakest showing since 1990. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast for this year from 3.7 percent to 3.5 percent. Throw in a cancelled meeting between the U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators over intellectual property issues and investors were selling stocks through the day.

The Dow and S&P indexes were down 1.22 percent and 1.42 percent respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite index declined 1.91 percent. The Entrepreneur Index™ closed the day down 1.91 percent with only eight of 60 stocks posting gains.

Technology stocks were hit hardest. TripAdvisor Inc. was down 6.32 percent — the biggest decline on the Entrepreneur Index™ today. The semiconductor chipmakers NVIDIA Corp. (-5.2 percent), and Analog Devices, (-2.44 percent), were both down sharply and Twitter fell 3.07 percent. All four FANG stocks on the index were down more than 1.5 percent with Amazon.com declining 3.77 percent.

Netflix had the biggest drop of the four, falling 4.11 percent despite earning the most Oscar nominations, including best picture, for its movie Roma today. Since reporting better-than-expected earnings last week but expressing caution about its immediate outlook, the stock is down nine percent. The other FANG stocks have yet to report earnings.

NFLX Quotes by TradingView

Technology was only the weakest sector today. Stock prices were down across the market. Homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. was down 2.04 percent after existing home sales in December fell a bigger than expected 6.4 percent from November. Telecom giant Comcast fell 3.42 percent and retailer Gap Inc. declined 4.11 percent.

The two drug-makers on the index, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, (-3.36 percent) and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, (-2.36 percent), both had significant declines. Regeneron, up 23 percent since Christmas Eve, set a new high in early morning trading before falling with the rest of the market. Clothing-makers L Brands and Ralph Lauren Corp.ended the day down 2.12 percent and 2.01 percent respectively.

Chipotle Mexican Grill had the biggest gain on the Entrepreneur Index™ today, rising 1.33 percent followed by retailer Dollar Tree Inc. (1.13 percent). J.M. Smucker Company, Intercontinental Exchange and several REITs also had small gains.

The Entrepreneur Index™ collects the top 60 publicly traded companies founded and run by entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit is a valuable asset for any business, and this index recognizes its importance, no matter how much a company has grown. These inspirational businesses can be tracked in real time on Entrepreneur.com.