Less Friendly
US stocks closed higher with the S&P 500 climbing 0.7% to a record high, while the Nasdaq 100 gained 1.4%, and the Dow advanced 150 points on Wednesday.
Netflix soared 9.7% after reporting a record surge in new subscribers.
Oracle surged 6.7%, contributing to a nearly 20% weekly rise after announcing a joint venture with SoftBank and OpenAI tied to a $500 billion AI investment initiative.
Nvidia rose 4.4%, and Microsoft added 4.1%, aligning with the broader tech rally.
Smaller-cap stocks faced headwinds as fresh tariff signals from President Trump targeting Chinese imports.
Following the announcement of the AI infrastructure investment (promise) by Softbank, Trump did some Q&A with the press, and said tariffs could come as early as February 1.
It's unlikely to happen before Howard Lutnick (his Secretary of Commerce nominee) is confirmed - it looks like Lutnick's hearing will be next Wednesday.
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary nominee, is expected to be confirmed next week.
In his Senate hearing, Bessent said he was "100 percent on board for taking sanctions UP" on Russia, to bring them to the negotiating table.
And with that, Trump lobbed this…
So, given the confirmation timelines for Lutnick and Bessent, it looks like the first half of February will be less friendly for markets.
For oil, the Biden administration on the way out of the door ramped sanctions described as "the most significant yet" on Russia's energy sector, and oil prices spiked 9% in four days.
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