PUT IN WORK (12/2/2024)

Last week, the stock market clawed its way to new heights, with the S&P 500 (SPY) finding new footing at a new all-time high once more. While the S&P 500 gained new ground after a weekly gain of 1.2%, the Nasdaq (QQQ) ended the week up 0.7%, ending positive but not quite finding a new high. Surprisingly, stocks are still on the rise!

Ending Thanksgiving week with so much green is undoubtedly a good sign for investors, but there isn’t much information regarding where stocks are headed now. Investors are looking forward to the next Fed meeting on December 12th and 13th, with most of the opinion that we’ll see yet another cut of 25 basis points. Another indicator investors will be looking for is the November jobs report, which is scheduled to be released this Friday. As it stands, if the November jobs report is too optimistic, it’ll leave investors concerned that the Fed won’t cut rates in December—on the other hand, it can’t be too negative either. Analysts are hoping for something in the middle. A moderate report shows that the Fed’s actions over the last several years are still moving at a decent pace.

Some analysts are worried that if these conditions aren’t met, the stock market will come crashing down due to high valuations conflicting with higher interest rates. Now, it’s just a waiting game as investors wait to see what these next couple of events will bring to the stock market amidst this holiday season. In the meantime, stocks are wobbling back and forth despite ultimately ending the week positive. Bitcoin (BTC), which we briefly mentioned in last week’s article, continues to flip-flop as well, slipping last Thursday before rebounding late Friday. It’s currently sitting a few thousand dollars beneath its all-time high, but there’s still hope for it to reach that legendary $100k mark.

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Once again, our stocks performed wonderfully alongside the rest of the market, with a couple of our standouts from the last couple of weeks continuing to impress: Rocket Lab (RKLB) and SoundHound (SOUN). We recently took profits on both of these stocks, and they haven’t disappointed yet. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future.