Insights Weekly Research Briefing
We are so back that you can hear Mark Knopfler and Sting singing in the background... "Get your money for nothing. And your chicks for free."
The financial markets are also enjoying a multi-phase period of time where investors' appetite for assets is large, and companies are increasingly open to fixing balance sheets and transacting operational assets.
The markets are off and running now. Big and small. U.S. and International. Low risk, but now shifting toward higher risk. 20-day new highs are breaking out across the market.
If you need any further proof that the stock market is now focused on earnings, NVIDIA just gave it to you. Not only were the company's results incredible, but the full earnings digestion gave investors a further look into just how big the AI data market could become.
Today's financial markets are also operating in a world that is less and less frozen every day. As you look at the news across the tape, in any newspaper or on any financial news network, you will see a system getting more liquid every day.
The S&P 500 moves through 5,000, the NASDAQ hits 16,000, and the Dow Jones Industrials is eyeing 40,000. Those are some landmark levels advertising that investors are hungry and want to be fed. What were the catalysts last week?
Last week was a big one for data (economic and earnings) as well as an update from the Fed. The full week of strong earnings and economic reports would have given the market enough to scratch its head about a March Fed rate cut.
Welcome to Fed week. This week's FOMC meeting is a big one. There won't be a rate cut. Instead, this will be the meeting where the Fed decides if it will stick with its previous measures of inflation and financial condition monitoring. If nothing changes, then Jerome Powell will likely show us how sharp the Fed's scissors are to cut the Fed Funds rate at the March meeting.
All-time new highs in the S&P 500 on Friday as the market finally broke through its previous peak from two years ago. There were many contributors to the market's good mood, but Taiwan Semiconductor's earning results and forward outlook was a big catalyst.
While many of our lives were flipped upside down due to the storms or football loyalties, the markets continued on in their boring trending pattern.