The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.56 per cent to close at 14,510.30

The Nasdaq Composite closed lower on Thursday for a fifth session in a row — its longest losing streak since October 2022.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.56 per cent to close at 14,510.30. Since the December 27 close, the index has shed around 4 per cent. The S&P 500 slipped 0.34 per cent, marking a fourth day of declines, closing at 4,688.68. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the exception, eking out a 10.15-point gain, or 0.03 per cent, to end at 37,440.34.

Mega-cap tech stocks like Apple are underperforming to start the year, as overstretched valuations and uncertainty around when the Fed will begin to cut rates have investors worried that markets have gotten overly optimistic.

Apple stock is more than 5 per cent lower this week. Shares of the tech giant dropped over 1 per cent on Thursday after a downgrade by Piper Sandler, two days after Barclays also lowered its rating on the name.

The recent performance on Wall Street comes in sharp contrast to how the market ended 2023. The S&P 500 ended last year more than 24 per cent higher while enjoying its best weekly win streak going back to 2004.

But Steven Wieting, chief investment strategist of Citi Global Wealth, does not believe that the recent decline will have many long-term repercussions on the market.

Whether any of this lasts, I would not really look to the last few days as mattering very much, he told CNBC. It is really a statistical coin toss.

In fact, he thinks the S&P 500 could end the year around the 5,000 level, which would suggest more than 6 per cent upside from here.