Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 3.05.21 (plus map of 42 states restricting voting rights)

The usual weekly summation is included below, the main positive being that 83 million doses of the vaccine have now been given, the main negative being this week's broad-based sell off on the Nasdaq losing all YTD gains. The bonus this Sunday night is a graphic that is either disturbing or delightful depending on one's point of view. It is a map of all 50 states showing to what degree state legislatures putting forth bills to restrict voting rights are currently taking place and, as you can see, the majority of states are trying to pass such bills since the November election. As I said, it's either good news or bad news depending on your politics or how you feel about the 2020 election.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  

GameStop Investors

For your weekend reading and viewing, I once again offer the week's WealthTrack program and yet another perspective on the whole GameStop phenomenon. Whether this will ultimately prove to be illegal or just clever grassroots stock manipulation, the one thing that the experts seem agreed on is that this brand new trend of social-media fueled retail investor speculation is not going away anytime soon.  Enjoy the weekend.  

Fueled by tech, Wall Street rebounds at end of volatile week

All three indexes were heavily in the red until about noon when things began turning around with a big rally in the tech sector, particularly Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple and Oracle. Earlier in the day, the Nasdaq officially entered correction territory but recovered steam later and ended the day 8% down from the February high vs yesterday’s 9.7% down. The Dow recovered most of its previous losses with a gain of 572 points. 10-year Treasuries hit a one-year high at over 1.6% with payrolls increasing more than double the forecast. Both the Dow and S&P rose for the week with only the Nasdaq losing as funds continue to migrate away from pandemic tech stocks and into recovery cyclical stocks. Volume was considerably above the 4-week average at 17.4 billion. 

Nasdaq ends sharply lower after Powell comments

You might say the stock market has really gotten used to corporate welfare as today they expected the easy money from the Fed to continue with more bond purchases to bring down interest rates that are triggering a big sell off in tech. But today Powell made it clear that the Fed had no such intention except to continue status-quo. Thus the major sell off continued in spades driving the Dow down 345 points. And why shouldn’t it?  

Wall Street drops as high-flying tech stocks retreat

The Dow was about 150 points up most of the day until the last hour when it took a sudden drastic dive and closed down 121 points. Once again it was the ongoing flight from the tech stocks to the financial and industrial sectors and others that will do well in a recovering economy that ruled the day with rising interest rates continuing to erode growth stocks which sent major players like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon down. There was also less hiring in February suggesting a struggling labor market and today the exclusion of high-income individuals from the relief bill.  Volume was much closer to the 4-week average at 14 billion. 

Wall Street ends lower as Apple and Tesla retreat

What a choppy session, swinging back and forth between red and black in a 250 point range but closing with the Dow down 143 points. The trend continues with funds transferring from pandemic stocks to recovery stocks. Tech is taking an overdue dip with rising interest rates cutting in to their future cash flows and the Senate has begun debating the relief bill.  Yields on the 10-year Treasuries have stabilized. So even if the indexes took a dive today, the news remains largely positive. Volume remains well below the 4-week average at 12.3 billion. 

S&P 500 surges in strongest one-day rise since June

All three indexes surged back with great force today as concerns over rising bond yields and inflation got overrun by J&J’s approved 3^rd vaccine and the relief bill passing the House and bolstering expectations of a swift recovery. Sentiment is back to “risk-on” and cyclical stocks are again receiving the benefit with manufacturing increased to a 3-year high. Per today’s expert, “the recent weakness has dissipated.” But volume was considerably below the 4-week average at just 12.1 billion.