PUT IN WORK (1/13/2025)

Last week was yet another setback for the market. Stocks started Monday off strong before losing steam throughout the week. The S&P 500 (SPY) and the Nasdaq (QQQ) ended the week down 2% and 2.2%, respectively.

Although Monday was far from a stellar investing week, it was still an overall market win, especially after the sudden downward turn we’d seen it take in the prior week. Nvidia (NVDA), Micron (MU), and other chip-related stocks dragged tech stocks higher, which, in turn, pulled the market up along with them. Bitcoin (BTC) also pushed beyond that $100k threshold again, but that momentum didn’t follow investors into the next day.

Tuesday’s negative performance can be almost entirely attributed to the job openings and labor turnover report, which showed significantly more job openings than analysts had anticipated. This, in turn, sent investors into a temporary panic, now concerned that the Fed won’t cut interest rates anytime soon. Gains accrued the day prior—both in the stock and crypto market—were lost.

Wednesday saw next to no overall movement, with the market sitting stagnant as investors awaited the break provided by Thursday and the jobs report that came on Friday. Bitcoin also continued its decline throughout Wednesday. Friday was no different; the market’s worsening performance resulted from the December jobs report, which was significantly hotter than investors anticipated. This, again, added to the already existing concern that the Fed won’t cut interest rates at their upcoming meeting. Bitcoin, however, stabilized at approximately $95k. Though this news doesn’t seem to bode well for the market, these numbers are almost always reevaluated, and the market oftentimes shifts in response. We believe that the market will stabilize soon, but only time will tell.

(Nasdaq ETF (QQQ) price from January 2023 - 2024 — each candle is 1 week. Chart provided by tradingview.com.)

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Unsurprisingly, our portfolio took a major hit alongside the market, with one of our big gainers, SoundHound (SOUN), giving up some of those gains made over the last few weeks. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.