CrowdStrike failure weakens Wall Street, TSX flat
A faulty CrowdStrike software upgrade to Microsoft Windows unleashed havoc around the world Friday. It shut down banks, halted surgeries, paralyzed 911 emergency lines, knocked out financial companies, disrupted small businesses and governments alike, and cancelled over 4% of flights worldwide by mid-afternoon.
The outage was unprecedented and called into the question the vulnerability of cybersecurity companies, starting with CrowdStrike whose shares were punished 20% in pre-market trading and ended the session -11.1%. All the U.S. indices sank: the Nasdaq -0.81%, the S&P -0.8% and the Dow -0.93%. Tech stocks already had a rough week as investors began pulling out of the sector and into dividend-paying ones as more and more investors expect interest rates to soon fall. The Nasdaq sank 3.6% for the week while the S&P lost 2% and the Dow gained 0.72%. Major names Friday: CrowdStrike competitor Palo Alto up 2.16%, Intuitive Surgical 9.34%, Nvidia -2.61% as the most-traded and Walgreens 3.08%. The U.S. 10-year yield inched up to 4.239% as Bitcoin rallied 4.7% to nearly US$67,000.
In contrast, the TSX was flat, down only 15 points on Friday and up that much for the week. Staples rallied, but energy lagged. Manor movers on Bay Street: Bausch Health 3.36%, Goeasy 3.35%, Royal Bank -0.72%, TC Energy -2.04% and Ballard Power -3.95%. Gold sank US$46 to US$2,399 as WTI gave back over 3% to US$80.25.
💾 CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD-Q) -11.1%
💾 Palo Alto Networks (PANW-N) +2.16$
🧫 Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG-Q) +9.34%
💾 NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA-Q) -2.61%
💊 Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA-Q) -3.08%
🅱 Bitcoin (BTCUSD) (CRYPTO:BTC) +4.7%
👨⚕️ Bausch Health Companies Inc. (BHC-T) +3.36%
🏛 goeasy (GSY-T) +3.35%
🛢 TC Energy (TRP-T) -2.04%
🏛 Royal Bank (RY-T) -0.72%
🧬 Ballard Power Systems (BLDP-T) -3.95%
