PUT IN WORK (7/8/2024)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day! The stock market has experienced yet another staggeringly impressive week, which is a sure surprise, especially considering the short trading week. Throughout the week, the Nasdaq (QQQ) found itself up 1% while the S&P 500 (SPY) found itself up 0.6%, pushing both indices—once again—to all-time highs. Although there’s not much to cover this time around, we’d still like to touch on a few things.

This week, investors have two primary focuses: firstly is Thursday’s June consumer price index report, which, as usual, could affect the market significantly. While most still believe that we’ll see a rate cut in September—assuming the pace of deaccelerating inflation remains the same—others believe that if the speed of inflation comes out slightly lower than anticipated, we could see a rate cut by the end of July. Naturally, this is a long shot, but some harbor this hope nonetheless, citing this in conjunction with the slightly cooler-than-expected jobs report we saw last Friday as a reason for such a belief.

The other major factor in investor activity this week is the start of quarter two earnings. Some of the more notable earnings to look out for are Pepsi (PEP) and Delta (DAL) on Thursday and banks such as JPMorgan (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Citibank (C) on Friday. The following week, even more prominent companies will be reporting, the culmination of which could shape the outcome of the market throughout the month. Keep an eye out for the aforementioned CPI report on Thursday!

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

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our stocks rose alongside the rest of the market, with the majority pushing a couple of percentage points higher. Whether the first rate cut comes sooner or later, we’re both hopeful and excited to see how it affects our portfolio. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.