PUT IN WORK (10/9/2023)

The stock market had a very interesting performance last week. Initially, it seemed as if we were on the decline once again, but the Friday jobs report shocked the market back to life, ultimately resulting in a positive week across several indices. The S&P 500 (SPY) ended up 0.5%, while the Nasdaq (QQQ) ended up a whopping 1.8%.

This sudden stock market growth can almost entirely be attributed to Friday’s jobs report. In said report, we learned that job growth is increasing and wage growth remains relatively soft, indicating to some that we won’t see another rate hike this year, or so some analysts and investors say; everyone interprets the data differently. Our next Fed meeting will take place on October 31st and November 1st, so it’s still a ways out, but likely, we’ll at least get some indication as to when rate cuts will begin. Many believe that we’ll see these cuts later in 2024, though guessing in this case is similar to trying to hit a moving target; we won’t know until we know. Next week will see several big banks report earnings on Thursday and Friday. These companies include JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citi (C), Wells Fargo (WFC), and more.

In other news, big things are happening in the world, with the war between Hamas and Israel raging on as we write this issue. The devastating news has affected markets as well, with futures down significantly overnight as people worry about events to come. We will keep all those affected by this tragedy in our hearts and prayers. We encourage readers to take some time out of their day to do the same.

(Nasdaq ETF (QQQ) price from October 2022 - October 2023 — each candle is 1 week. Chart provided by tradingview.com.)

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our stocks remained flat throughout the week, with some inching upward as we saw indices push higher on Friday. However, one change to our portfolio that’s worth noting is our addition of one stock: SoundHound AI (SOUN). We believe this stock could be outstanding in the future, and we believe in both the product and its future potential. To read more about our purchase, click here.

We plan to hold all currently owned stocks into the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.