PUT IN WORK (12/30/2024)

Last week, the stock market had a positive but underwhelming performance, with the Nasdaq (QQQ) and the S&P 500 (SPY) up 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. Last Monday gave investors a scare as markets opened at a monthly low, but by close, stocks regained all that was lost and then some, carrying momentum garnered in the previous trading day forward.

Despite the shortened trading week, stocks continued to climb higher throughout. On Tuesday, stocks such as Tesla (TSLA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose substantially higher, propping up the greater market at large. The market was closed on Wednesday to celebrate Christmas, but Thursday saw stocks losing ground as what was being called a Santa Clause rally lost steam. While Apple (AAPL) neared and even reached an all-time high, stocks such as Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Nvidia (NVDA) all struggled to hold their current prices.

Bitcoin (BTC) also fell on Thursday. It's still struggling to climb over and maintain that $100k position, but even so, it seems stable for the time being. Stocks such as Coinbase (COIN) and Marathon (MARA) also fell as a result of Bitcoin’s short decline.

By Friday, stocks took a significant hit, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq falling 1% and 1.4% in that final day alone. As we mentioned, this resulted in stocks maintaining some of those overall gains, but not nearly as much as they could’ve had investors kept their heads on their shoulders. Previous Fed remarks regarding reduced cuts for 2025 still linger in investors’ minds, and even though their concerns are valid, the market has had a fantastic run—one that can continue as we head into this new year. We’ll have to wait and see what January has in store.

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Most of our stocks fell alongside the market, with few beating the odds. One such standout, however, is SoundHound (SOUN) once again, which rose another several hundred percent over the last couple of weeks. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.