PUT IN WORK (4/7/2025)

As most of you know, last week was brutal for the stock market, with indices dropping majorly across the board. The S&P 500 (SPY) and the Nasdaq (QQQ) ended the week down 9% and 9.9%, respectively. It’s been an incredibly bumpy week due to recent economic events, so let’s talk a little about it.

Monday and Tuesday both showed promise, with markets a bit shaky to start but stabilizing and climbing higher by closing time. Things were naturally volatile as investors awaited news regarding Trump’s tariffs, but again, come market close, prospects were positive. Tuesday saw tech companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Alphabet (GOOG) climb higher. Wednesday was also an initially positive day, with indices pushing higher ahead of the announcement. It looked like investors were attempting to make a run, but that all changed once the market closed.

Extended trading wasn’t a pretty sight, with stocks dropping all across the board in response to President Trump’s various tariff-related announcements. Investors had a difficult time digesting the news, and with tariffs now in effect, the future of the country’s economy was brought into question. Thursday and Friday were more of the same, marking the worst couple of days for major stock indexes since 2020.

Regarding tariffs, the White House claims that they’ll help restore economic balance on a more international scale, but the speed at which that might happen—if it does—is very slow, thus threatening an economy that seemed to be on the mend finally. Jerome Powell also expressed that he’s only become more uncertain due to the tariff announcement, putting investors in a difficult spot.

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our portfolio was hit just as hard as the rest of the market, with some of our stocks dropping substantially and others inching lower. The entire thing averages out to about what the market lost, putting us further into the red. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.