PUT IN WORK (3/18/2024)

The market is slowing down as we head into the middle of March. Last week saw stocks sitting reasonably stagnant, with the Nasdaq (QQQ) down 1% and the S&P 500 (SPY) down 0.3%. The name of the game hasn’t changed, either, with investors keeping their focus on the Fed’s progress in the fight against inflation.

This means that many eyes are on the upcoming Fed meeting, where the Fed will hopefully grant investors more insight into how things are shaping up. We’ve all seen that the fight against inflation is going relatively well, but that doesn’t mean inflation will vanish one day. We’ve stopped the bleeding, and that seems to be a crucial step. Inflation isn’t getting worse and worse like it was some years ago—instead, it’s slowed dramatically, meaning the Fed can look to begin cutting interest rates sometime this year if all remains the same. The Fed meeting will take place this Tuesday and Wednesday, and we’re expecting the results of such to affect the market in some way, as these meetings always do. How will the market be affected? Well, we can never be sure until it happens.

As we’ve discussed in past issues, it’s not uncommon for investors to react negatively to information they already know once it’s officially revealed. In the long term, we really want to see that the Fed’s plan has either remained the same or that they’ve decided to begin the cutting process sooner than anticipated. The latter will also be beneficial for the short term. Investors are mixed regarding what they believe will happen at this meeting. Some are hoping for and believe our first cut will come in June, while others believe that’s too early and have set their sights on cuts beginning in the year’s second half. There’s also the discussion about whether we’ll get one or two cuts in by the end of the year, but again, nobody knows.

Lastly, we still have a handful of earnings to go through. This week, companies such as Nike (NKE), Five Below (FIVE), FedEx (FDX), and Chewy (CHWY) will report. We’re excited to see where the future of investing takes us, and we’re hopeful throughout the journey.

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

While most of our stocks have inched downward along with the rest of the market, one standout we’d like to mention is SoundHound (SOUN). SoundHound has been on an absolute tear over these last several weeks, and we’re happy to see it. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.