PUT IN WORK (4/15/2024)

Last week, the stock market experienced a significant downturn, driven by a mix of unexpected factors. The Nasdaq (QQQ) saw a moderate decline of 0.5%, while the S&P 500 (SPY) was hit harder with a 1.5% drop. The market initially showed signs of recovery after a harsh fall on Wednesday, triggered by a disappointing CPI report. However, these hopes were dashed on Friday.

High-flying gas, mortgage, and rent prices for March surprised investors and analysts alike. Consumer prices rose 3.5% month to month, meaning there's been a 0.4% increase since February. This would mean that CPI rose 0.1% higher than forecasted. Although this isn’t necessarily a significant difference, it was enough to put off investors and analysts alike. Ultimately, this sort of CPI performance reduces the odds of a June rate cut significantly, and as we’ve mentioned in previous issues, a June rate cut is many investors’ saving grace and hope as of right now. Some investors and analysts are now considering the possibility that the Fed won’t perform any rate cuts for the year of 2024, but naturally, nobody knows for sure.

This negative news brought the market to its current state, but even so, the following Thursday provided investors with some reprieve. The market shrugged this news off just as fast as it had been affected, and just like that, it looked as if a positive bounce was imminent—and then Friday hit.

It was revealed that Iran had plans to attack Israel. The adverse effects of this news were heightened by a negative consumer sentiment report released on the same day, and these factors, combined with the negative CPI data from the previous day, sent the market downward. It got people thinking: “How will this affect the market?” Investors began to overthink and act on immediate possibilities. Though we may see some residual effects in our markets from, for example, rising oil prices due to war in the Middle East, these numbers will more than likely stabilize in the future—as they often do. If the conflict escalates, this would, of course, not be the case. Either way, we are hopeful for the future. We pray for all those affected by these conflicts and hope to see things de-escalate soon for the sake of the innocent lives affected.

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Unfortunately, just like the market, our portfolio took a bit of a beating. While a few of our stocks saw mild gains over the last week, most fell hard on that final Friday. We’re still looking to make a couple of purchases seeing as the market is declining, so stay tuned. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.