• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

The pig in the python: Baby Boomers are strangling the economy they built by refusing to move or retire

2

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

3

The U.S. campaigned to host the World Cup. Now soccer fans will trade their countries' train system for the U.S.'s 'D' rated infrastructure

1

The pig in the python: Baby Boomers are strangling the economy they built by refusing to move or retire

2

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

3

The U.S. campaigned to host the World Cup. Now soccer fans will trade their countries' train system for the U.S.'s 'D' rated infrastructure
Financeinvesting strategy

Why the huge stock market correction may be actually good news about the pandemic

Megan Leonhardt
By
Megan Leonhardt
Megan Leonhardt
Down Arrow Button Icon
Megan Leonhardt
By
Megan Leonhardt
Megan Leonhardt
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 22, 2022, 8:00 AM ET
Video Poster

Just like everyone else this January, the stock market has the Omicron blues.

Several “at-home” stocks, including Peloton and Netflix got crushed this week, amid reports of slipping demand and lower-than-anticipated performance. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq closed dow on Wednesday and fell deeper into correction territory on Friday when it dropped 2.7%—marking its worst week since 2020.

It shows that the stock market is reassessing how to value the companies that cater to people putting up with COVID quarantines and reduced socializing amid high caseloads.

Netflix tumbled more than 24% on Friday after the streaming service acknowledged it only added 8.3 million net new subscribers last quarter, missing expectations. Company executives piled onto the bad news by seemingly admitting that the growing competition in the streaming space may be taking a toll. 

“When we look at the data on a competitive impact, there may be some kind of more, on the marginal kind of side of our growth, some impact from competition,” Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann said on Thursday’s earnings call with analysts.

Shares of Disney, parent of the major Netflix competitor Disney+, were down more than 7% on Friday morning, while Discovery and ViacomCBS stock prices also slipped. 

The streaming stock hits come after Peloton stock fell 24% on Thursday after CNBC reported the fitness product company was planning to halt production of its bikes and treadmills as demand slipped. By Friday, though, the stock had recovered somewhat after Pelton’s leaders denied plans to pause manufacturing, yet admitted considering layoffs. 

But there’s a silver lining to all this pain in equity markets.

In some ways, it’s a sign of hope. There’s likely some optimism that the pandemic is moving into endemic mode as Omicron infections and hospitalizations wane. In that regard, the stock market is at odds with the public health experts warning that the U.S. is still in the thick of it, with Dr. Anthony Fauci even saying earlier this week that Americans were still in the first of a five-stage pandemic.

But there’s also a bigger, broader story going on in terms of the market, Schwab’s Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders told Fortune. 

This week’s wild ride is part of a broader trend

The question coming off Friday’s rocky performance of at-home stocks seems to be whether or not investors are still good with pandemic-related stocks. Or is the ride officially over?

“The latest bout of where selling has been concentrated is those stay-at-home stocks, but it’s not sort of a one-off thing happening solely tied to the virus,” Sonders says. Much of the interest is now in the “rearview mirror” when it comes to the highly speculative, low-quality meme stocks, non-profitable tech stocks,  zombie companies, bankruptcy stocks and even weak-balance sheet companies that really came into vogue in the first couple of months of last year. 

All of those sectors and individual stock have had their turn of “taking it on the chin,” Sonders says, and the hyped, perhaps even overhyped, at-home stocks now in the hot seat. “These stocks are now taking their turn in terms of being sold in an otherwise more treacherous environment that we’re in much more broadly,” she says. “The low-quality, kind of junkier parts of the market—even if they find trading lifts from time to time—I think are decidedly not where you want to be.” 

That’s especially true given the impact of the Fed’s decision to dramatically cut down the amount of bonds it buys each month and its signaling of plans for multiple interest rate hikes this year. 

“In any cycle when you go from very loose monetary policy on the way to tight monetary policy, that is almost always a gamechanger for the market in terms of volatility, in terms of leadership shifts—and it’s no different this time,” Sonders says, adding that the Fed’s moves have certainly spurred a “re-rating” of what’s considered high-value. 

Where does that leave at-home stocks like the streaming sector? 

Bank of America Research analysts wrote Friday that while Netflix’s end-of-year results are “thesis-shaking,” a selloff is likely “overdone” in the long term. Analysts blamed the recent volatility on the “unmitigated disaster” by Netflix to meet its guidance.

In recent earnings seasons, stocks that haven’t met expectations have gotten hit disproportionately hard relative to the stocks that have met expectations and have rallied based on the strength that they’ve displayed, Sonders says. Netflix’s performance follows this trend.

But the BofA team led by Nat Schindler wrote that Netflix, as well as the broader streaming sector, is facing a number of substantial headwinds. The company’s disappointing guidance for the upcoming quarter was “without a doubt an unmitigated disaster,” they wrote, on top of which it faces mounting competition.

“We see this Netflix quarter as a worrying datapoint for the rest of the streaming industry on multiple fronts,” MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson said in a brief Friday. “Over the course of the past few months, Netflix’s stock price has declined from $700 to $400, which obviously makes it much harder to drive the models for Disney, ViacomCBS or Discovery.”

A separate BofA team, led by Jessica Reif Ehrlich, said they believe consumers “will only subscribe to a limited number of services” and it appears the U.S. is “approaching peak penetration levels.” In other words, there are no more people in lockdown left to sign up to new streaming services.

This, of course, likely sets the stage this year for more constrained profit margins and pricing power, which could kick off the long-anticipated consolidation in the streaming space. BofA is betting that Amazon, Netflix, Disney+ and Discovery will retain their top-tier positions, but everything else is seemingly up for grabs.

The market senses the end of the pandemic around the corner, and that means less streaming services will survive when it’s over.

Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you.

About the Author
Megan Leonhardt
By Megan Leonhardt
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

Current refi mortgage rates report for May 25, 2026
Personal FinanceReal Estate
Current refi mortgage rates report for May 25, 2026
By Glen Luke FlanaganMay 25, 2026
5 hours ago
g
PoliticsElections
Democrats want to run on corruption. Their own stock trades keep getting in the way
By Matt Brown and The Associated PressMay 25, 2026
7 hours ago
g
North Americawater use and conservation
America’s largest oil export hub is so starved of water that it’s been illegal to have a green lawn for 2 years
By Michelle Hummel and The ConversationMay 25, 2026
8 hours ago
g
EnvironmentLaw
You can’t repair your tractor because Hollywood was terrified of the VCR
By Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy and The ConversationMay 25, 2026
8 hours ago
r
Environmentclimate change
Rice feeds more than half the world. It’s also the climate equivalent of 239 million cars
By Hanqin Tian, Jingting Zhang, Pep Canadell, Shufen (Susan) Pan and The ConversationMay 25, 2026
8 hours ago
f
EconomyWorld Cup
The economist who wrote the book on sports finance has a number for FIFA’s World Cup haul: $15 billion
By Richard Sheehan and The ConversationMay 25, 2026
9 hours ago

Most Popular

The pig in the python: Baby Boomers are strangling the economy they built by refusing to move or retire
Economy
The pig in the python: Baby Boomers are strangling the economy they built by refusing to move or retire
By Nick LichtenbergMay 25, 2026
16 hours ago
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
Success
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
By Preston ForeMay 21, 2026
4 days ago
The U.S. campaigned to host the World Cup. Now soccer fans will trade their countries' train system for the U.S.'s 'D' rated infrastructure
Travel & Leisure
The U.S. campaigned to host the World Cup. Now soccer fans will trade their countries' train system for the U.S.'s 'D' rated infrastructure
By Catherina GioinoMay 25, 2026
12 hours ago
Elon Musk's best friend could make more than $100 billion from SpaceX's IPO. His firm is also owed billions by SpaceX
Investing
Elon Musk's best friend could make more than $100 billion from SpaceX's IPO. His firm is also owed billions by SpaceX
By Eva RoytburgMay 25, 2026
11 hours ago
A billionaire and an A-list actor found refuge in a 37-home Florida neighborhood with armed guards—proof that privacy is now the ultimate luxury
Real Estate
A billionaire and an A-list actor found refuge in a 37-home Florida neighborhood with armed guards—proof that privacy is now the ultimate luxury
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezMay 25, 2026
12 hours ago
Uber CEO says rideshare 'freed up' his son from having to get a driver’s license—and he's one of many Gen Zers who aren’t willing to drive
Lifestyle
Uber CEO says rideshare 'freed up' his son from having to get a driver’s license—and he's one of many Gen Zers who aren’t willing to drive
By Sasha RogelbergMay 24, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.