The benchmark S&P 500 index on Friday notched a six-week win streak, its longest weekly advance of 2024. It also notched its 46th and 47th record close of the year. Meanwhile, it was a historic week for the Dow Jones Industrial Average which surpassed the 43,000 points mark for the first time ever while posting its 37th through 40th record close of the year.
With the third year of Wall Street’s bull run kicking off, markets continue to march upward. This week’s advance was driven by a combination of strong earnings, a continued rotation into all corners of the market, a robust retail sales report, and increased hopes that the Federal Reserve would be able to deliver a soft landing. Wall Street on Friday posted a five-week win streak for the first time since May.
The earnings season has been a bit of a roller-coaster following contrasting quarterly results from two high-profile companies – Dutch computer chip equipment supplier ASML on Tuesday sent shivers through chip stocks after missing quarterly bookings expectations. However, just two days later, sentiment in the chip space sharply reversed course after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, announced a blowout quarterly report and reinvigorated the artificial intelligence trade. Financials continued to advance after Morgan Stanley joined peers JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs in delivering results that showed a rebound in investment banking and dealmaking activity in the quarter. Finally, Netflix cheered investors by easily topping profit and subscriber growth expectations.
All eyes are on next week as earnings season becomes a deluge, with some of the world’s biggest and most well-known firms announcing their financials.
Future Wealth’s View
A little over two years ago, on Aug 14, 2022, our report was titled “Peak Inflation could signal the beginning of another bull market”. The link to the report is here – https://futurewealthllc.com/
On that day, the S&P 500 closed at 4228 and has risen to 5865 as of Friday this week, a whopping 39% return in a little over 26 months. But, we may not be done yet. Most bull markets last between 3-5 years and so it behooves investors to stay in the market but be cognizant of the direction that the market is taking us.
Broadening across mid cap and small cap stocks has become more prolific as has rotation into healthcare, industrials and financials. This shift away from technology and large cap stocks could have meaningful implications to one’s portfolio which is likely overloaded by the likes of Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft and the rest of the Magnificent Seven. The importance of having a flexible and liquid portfolio where one can shift as the tide turns is going to determine the extent of returns on their portfolio over the next 12 months.
Peter Lynch, one of the greatest stock pickers of all time, stated – “The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game”.