This week, it's all go as two of the products of the West and East coasts of the United States unite to make the markets a very interesting place once again.

The NASDAQ exchange, standing proudly over Times Square, its illuminations familiar to anyone who passes by midtown Manhattan, is performing very well this week largely due to the movements of stocks that form a major part of NASDAQ's ethos; that being technology stock.

Spotify, the Swedish music streaming company, has been one of the main contributors to the 2.2% rally of NASDAQ stock at the end of last week, as the company had found itself in many news reports about a controversy surrounding some podcasts by famous comedian and presenter Joe Rogan which had been available on Spotify.

Taking a political view is often a recipe for trouble in the corporate world, however given that Spotify's content is almost entire from the arts and music world, opinions can sometimes lead to direct action. Canadian rock star Neil Young, followed by India Arie and Graham Nash removed their music from the platform as part of a protest about recent content by Joe Rogan.

This left Spotify in the middle of the type of argument that often punctuates the world of musicians and artists, however it did very little to dent Spotify's performance.

Joe Rogan issued a public apology over the content concerned, and suddenly shares in Spotify jumped substantially.

Since Friday last week, a new month has begun and the rally has continued.

The NASDAQ has risen once again and is now at a 5-day high at 14,346 which is 3.42% up over the course of the last five trading days.

In a similar vein to Spotify, Apple flew up by 1.5% by midday on Monday, which may not sound like a big move, but it certainly is for one of the world's most stable and investor-friendly stocks.

Therefore, technology stocks led the surge this week, and made for one of the most interesting trading weeks on the NASDAQ exchange over the past six months.

Conversely, stocks in traditional industries have been taking the opposite direction and going down.

The S&P 500 index is on course for its lowest performing period in thirteen years, a matter that has been borne out by trading figures from Dow Jones Historical Data.

During the early part of 2022, major indices have been considerably more volatile than usual, and this jump in technology stock values shows that volatility is not as short-lived as had been originally anticipated in the new economy that is emerging after the period of lockdowns.

Apetites for investing and trading are now based on principles that perhaps did not exist a two years ago, however as per the sharp downward and upward movements in Spotify stock demonstrates, the mood of the moment is still enough of a hot topic to move the markets as well as sway opinions!

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