PUT IN WORK (3/10/2025)

We’re back with another issue! Unfortunately, the stock market has had a rough couple of weeks, with the Nasdaq (QQQ) and S&P 500 (SPY) ending last week down 3.3% and 3% respectively. Despite this heavy downward movement, there’s not much to cover, and that’s because the market’s plunge can be heavily attributed to only one or two factors.

Trump’s tariffs have become a whole debacle, especially for the stock market. For weeks now, tariffs have loomed over investors, influencing every trade and decision they make. Previously, Trump declared that his tariffs would take effect immediately, but they were delayed as Canada and Mexico sought to discuss their options with the United States. That delay ended last weekend as President Trump made yet another declaration.

With tariffs now set in stone, stocks dove during Monday’s open. Investors no longer thought tariffs could be avoided, so indices fell, and volatile stocks such as Nvidia (NVDA) fell even further. Furthermore, manufacturing data came in weaker than anticipated. These economic fears led to investors selling across the board, and come Tuesday, things didn’t get much better. It now looked like the market might be entering correction territory, and with those 25% tariffs finally going into effect, stocks continued to drop, pushed along by negative momentum garnered in the previous trading days.

Automakers such as General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) took a heavy hit, but come Wednesday, they received some good news: all were granted a one-month grace period before tariffs would begin. Despite this reprieve only being given to automakers, the rest of the market responded positively, climbing a good percent or so overall. Thursday and Friday saw investors fall into the same habits, however, and by Friday’s close, markets ended the week sharply lower, marking the 3rd straight week of declines for both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. This week will be very interesting as we analyze just what's next!

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our portfolio is naturally very volatile due to all our risky plays. Our stocks fell alongside the market, with some falling harder than others. We’ll keep a close eye on our stocks, but for now, we plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.