PUT IN WORK (4/14/2025)

Last week was a very interesting one for the stock market. Investors entered a frenzy, swinging stocks lower before bouncing them higher—much higher. The Nasdaq (QQQ) ended the week up a whopping 7.5%, while the S&P 500 (SPY) ended up 5.7%. A handful of factors led us down this path, but the one on everyone’s mind—and the one with the most influence—is tariffs.

Tariff uncertainty has been the dominating catalyst for investors’ decisions lately, and last week was no different. Monday saw the market try and fail to push higher after its worst week since 2020, with Trump—at the time—showing no signs of backing down from his plan to impose wide-ranging tariffs on United States trade partners. Tuesday was no better, with stocks starting high but ending substantially in the red. Just as Wednesday looked as if it would share the same fate, things changed.

Wednesday saw stocks soar higher as Trump announced a pause on previously discussed tariffs. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended the day up 12% and 10.5% respectively, marking the latter as the best performance the S&P 500 has had since 2008. The Nasdaq was equally historic, giving its best numbers since 2001. Tesla (TSLA) alone soared nearly 23%, and other popular stocks, such as Nvidia (NVDA), ended up 19%. Delta (DAL) and United Airlines (UAL) ended up 23% and 26%, respectively, and others followed suit, with the market seeing many double-digit gainers.

Naturally, Thursday acted as a day of correction, with the Nasdaq dropping 4% and the S&P 500 dropping 4.4%, but this was to be expected. With tariffs on hold, investors gave the country’s future some more thought, resulting in more volatile movement as they came to grips with potential realities. Friday was much tamer, with both indices above climbing a couple of percent higher. Last week was the S&P 500’s biggest weekly gain since late 2023. We’re curious how the market will react at open today, especially considering the chaos of last week.

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

While our big gainers saw equally big movements alongside the market, the rest of our portfolio remained relatively stagnant. Stocks such as Rocket Lab (RKLB) and SoundHound (SOUN) soared higher, while the rest of our portfolio remained flat or inched higher. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.