PUT IN WORK (2/24/2025)

Last week was short for the stock market, and there’s not too much to cover! Regardless, there are a few things we’d like to go over. The stock market was ultimately down by the end of the week, with the Nasdaq (QQQ) and S&P 500 (SPY) ending down 2.3% and 1.61%, respectively.

Markets were closed on Monday in recognition of President’s Day, so the trading week was short, but it started with a bang. Tuesday’s open saw the S&P 500 and Nasdaq near new all-time highs. They slipped in mid-day trading before closing at new all-time highs. This favorable momentum carried into Wednesday, with indices climbing even higher, thus setting new all-time highs two days in a row.

Despite all this positive movement, major tech companies were either down or mixed on either day. Meta’s (META) notable 20-day winning streak ended on Tuesday, and Wednesday sent the stock tumbling further. Others, such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Amazon (AMZN), followed suit, while stocks such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) inched higher. However, Thursday was a bit of a different story as investors took profits and sent the market lower. This sell-off extended into Friday trading, which sent the market into the red for the month! Friday alone was responsible for most of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq’s losses, putting them down 1.7% and 2.2%, respectively, in just one day.

Investors still seek guidance on past, current, and future earnings. This week is packed with earnings, with companies such as Home Depot (HD), Lowes (LOW), Snowflake (SNOW), C3.ai (AI), and—perhaps most notably—Nvidia (NVDA) reporting throughout. It’s a big week for earnings, and we’re excited to see what becomes of the market this week.

(Nasdaq ETF (QQQ) price from February 2024 - 2025 — each candle is 1 week. Chart provided by tradingview.com.)

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our portfolio performed rather well, but we still had a negative week overall. Some of our more volatile stocks fought well, dropping less than anticipated! Fewer performed as expected, dropping several percent. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.