PUT IN WORK (10/14/2024)

The stock market has had yet another outstanding week, with the S&P 500 (SPY) hitting yet another all-time high and the Nasdaq (QQQ) continuing to pick up the pace. Both indices ended the week up 1.2%, with Monday being their roughest day.

Although there was a quick market sell-off on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday saw stocks push higher in anticipation of both bank earnings and Thursday’s CPI report. On Thursday, the report showed that inflation came in higher than expected. Core inflation rose 0.3% throughout September, 0.1% higher than forecast. Additionally, yearly core inflation grew 3.3%, yet another 0.1% higher than anticipated. Weekly jobless claims also rose higher than they’ve been in the last year, with claims that came in for the week of September 30th reaching 258,000, up 33,000 from the previous week. It’s fair to assume that this spike is partly due to Hurricane Milton and Helene, and it’s unlikely that these claims will continue to increase at such a rate in the long term. Despite this, markets slumped on Thursday after what was perceived as bad news for the economy.

Friday, however, was a different story, with stocks jumping higher in response to better-than-expected earnings from banks such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC), whose stocks rose 4.4% and 5.6% respectively. The Nasdaq’s evident lack of upward movement could be heavily attributed to Tesla (TSLA) and investors’ response to Thursday’s Tesla event, which disappointed investors greatly, resulting in a single-day loss of 8.8%. Now, investors are waiting for more economic information that might clue them into the Fed’s next move. There’s some uncertainty in the market, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing investors down for the time being. Earnings season will be in full effect this week, with a variety of banks such as Citi (C), Bank of America (BAC), Charles Schwab (SCHW), and more reporting.

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our portfolio performed exceptionally well over the last week, with each stock performing just as well, if not better than the market as a whole. Additionally, we’ve added one asset to our portfolio—a cryptocurrency known as Maple (MPL).

Maple allows institutional borrowers to borrow money without going directly through a bank, giving borrowers various options and yield opportunities. Their methods are backed by digital assets (such as U.S. treasury bill yields), but thanks to Maple’s business structure, they can provide these interest yields without relying on traditional banks and mutual funds. Their inclusion of decentralized finance as a cryptocurrency also gives lenders and borrowers transparency and easy, quick transactions. All who participate in said structure must follow strict rules and standards to actually do so, and Maple makes sure of that. The company has seen $4.80 billion borrowed by just under 90 institutional borrowers and $61 million in earned interest, and they only continue to grow. Feel free to perform your own research by checking out their website here.

We purchased Maple (MPL) for $16.92. This coin can be purchased on Coinbase. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.