Even though the main stock indexes ended with very small changes at the end of the session yesterday, there was plenty going on within the indices themselves.  

For instance, the Dow had been ahead by more than 100 points just after 2pm but then collapsed at the end of the session to close with a 7 point decline to 42,924 and this took place was MCD got blasted lower due to reports of E-coli contamination in its quarter-pound meals which have been so widely promoted lately, and this has taken place mainly in the midwestern part of the U.S

Even on days when things start out sharply lower and end mainly down, there are always bright spots on the horizon, as per yesterday when the stock indexes mainly remained lower, there was a strong bright spot when some influential large-cap technology stocks really did well. And as a result, the Nasdaq actually ended higher with the most important stock of all, NVDA, breaking through its long-time resistance level of 140 and busting well above that price.

Once that took place, those who had successfully sold at that level were now forced to buy back their negative positions and buy at the market which pushed its close to a new high of 143.71.

The Nasdaq Composite did the best of all with a 116 point gain up to 18,489 led by the three aforementioned stocks plus additional help from GOOG and ASML which finally picked itself up from the floor after a poor earnings report earlier in the week.

The Russell 2000 Index of small stocks eased back by 5 points to 2276 after having done better earlier in the weekly session while the VIX got knocked back to 18.03 despite the fruitless attempts of buyers to push it to what appear to be unrealistic levels based on ostensible Middle Eastern tensions.

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Companies in the chip industry were some of the market’s strongest after global heavyweight TSMC reported a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. TSMC credited strong demand related to smartphones and artificial intelligence, and its stock that trades in the United States jumped by 10%.

It was a sharp turnaround from earlier in the week when a warnings from a major Dutch supplier, ASML sent stocks sinking across the industry. NVDA’s of 0.9% was Thursday’s strongest single force pushing upward on the S&P.‍

But a 1.4% slide for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and a 10.6% tumble for ELV helped keep stock indexes in check.

MS rallied after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Ted Pick said the investment bank enjoyed a “constructive environment” in its businesses around the world. And with stock prices near records, it is managing even more money for clients.  

UAL rose 12% after reporting a narrowed drop in summer profit than expected and announcing plans to send up to $1.5 billion to its shareholders by buying back its stock. JBHT gained 3% after the freight company delivered better-than-expected results.  

Crude prices have been weakening as China’s flagging economic growth raises concerns about demand for oil. At the same time, worries have receded about Israel possibly attacking Iranian oil facilities as part of its retaliation against Iran’s missile attack early this month. Iran is a major producer of crude, and a strike could upend its exports to China and elsewhere.  

Stocks for companies across the chip industry fell after Dutch supplier ASML reported its latest quarterly results. Its CEO said A.I. continues to offer strong upside potential, but “other market segments are taking longer to recover,” and ASML’s stock trading in the United States fell by 16%.  

The strongest action in global markets came from China, where the finance minister gave plans for the world’s second-largest economy. The government is looking at additional ways to boost the economy but stopped short of unveiling a major new stimulus plan that investors were hoping for. This is the reason the group is selling off sharply once again today.

The Nasdaq rose by 60 to 18,342 with the likes of some technology issues doing well but was restrained by the awful performance of TSLA after its farcical robotaxi outlook and the taking down of its founder who basically looked “lost” in his explanations. But the index was helped again by the shipping issues while the Russell 2000 really made a large gain of 46 to 2334, mainly due to the positive effect of the entire financial group. And the always “troubling” VIX dropped again down to a historically more normal 20.46 with two days to go in some really high-priced calls which do not seem to be able to be reached in the short-term.

These ongoing equity index gains are consistent with the fact that third-quarter profit growth is currently estimated to be higher by 4% and a much stronger gain of around 14% for the fourth-quarter of this year.

Thursday’s report showed inflation slowed to 2.4% in September from 2.5% in August, according to the consumer price index, but economists were expecting an even sharper slowdown to 2.3%. And after ignoring the swings for food, gasoline and other energy prices, underlying trends that economists say can be a better predictor for where inflation is heading were a touch hotter than expected.

At the same time, a separate report showed 258,000 U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. That number is relatively low compared with history, but it was a sharper acceleration than economists expected. Hurricane Helene and the strike by workers at BA may have helped make the number look worse.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose immediately after the release of the economic data, only to then swing up and down as traders tried to handicap what it would all mean for the Fed.

Leading the way were cruise-ship companies, whose customers stand to benefit from the surprisingly strong U.S. job market. In addition to RCLH, other gainers in this area were CCL and RCG.  

HELE, the company behind Hydro Flask water bottles and OXO kitchen tools, jumped 18% after reporting profit and revenue for the latest quarter that were better than analysts expected. That was even though the company said it is still seeing customers feeling increasingly stretched amid lingering inflation.

Once again, a barrel of crude oil, the international standard, fell 4.6% to $77.18 for its first loss in a week and a half. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude, meanwhile, eased 4.6% to $73.57.  

That also helped level off the pressure on the stock market from the bond market. Treasury yields eased a bit, a day after they shot to their highest levels since the summer.

After a solid month of September, the first higher one in five years that ended last Monday, things got hit by the old “High tech is High wreck” syndrome unfortunately making its presence felt again yesterday.

As a result, the Dow took the worst of the hit with a large 398 point decline down to 41,954 led by large selling in AAPL, CRM, MCD, MSFT, TRV and UNLV. The S&P got clobbered for 55 down to 5695 and it was hurt by some huge shellacking in AAPL, AMZN, MSFT, NFLX and META which had made an all-time high on Friday. The Nasdaq also got destroyed with a large 214 point collapse to 17,924 led by the likes of the ones just mentioned plus recently pathetic TSLA ahead of its widely anticipated robotaxi from this company on Wednesday and we shall see how this one goes. The Russell 2000 Index of small stocks also did poorly with a 19 point drop to 2193 and the VIX shot back up to 22.64 on a combination of Middle East concerns and the overall shellacking that the market took.

After a poorly-timed late selloff in the Dow and U.S. on Thursday, the market eventually made a strong upside recovery after the surprisingly strong September jobs report on Friday morning.‍

As a result, the Dow made a very strong gain of 341 up to 42,352 led by gains in some financials like AXP, GS, JPM in addition to CAT and CRM.

The S&P skyrocketed upward by 51 to 5751 led by those large financials and some strong high-tech leaders such as META at a new high plus AMZN and TSLA which were mainly lower for most of the week.

The Nasdaq surged ahead by 219 up to 18,137 upward led by those large technology issues while even the lagging Russell 2000 Index of small stocks leapt by 32 up to 2212.

Crude prices jumped Thursday on worries that increasing tensions in the Middle East could disrupt the global flow of oil, while U.S. stocks pulled back further from their records.

The Dow was the worst performer fell the most by 185 down to 42,011 led by weakness in GS, BA and CAT. The S&P, which tried to get nominally positive a few times during the session, ended lower by 10 down to 5700 as AAPL, MSFT did poorly while NVDA finally caught a nice upside bid and META reached a new all-time high but those recently hot Chinese stocks fell back as I said they would.

The Nasdaq did the “best” of all with a very nominal decline of 6 to 17,918 due to strength in NVDA and META while the Russell 2000 Index of small stocks was lower again by 15 to 2180 and the VIX went higher up to 20.49 on those Mideast tensions.

After two lower days to start the fourth-quarter, the market narrowly reversed direction yesterday to end a little higher, and Treasury yields rose following an encouraging update on the job market’s strength.  

The Dow finished 39 points higher to 42,196 led by gains in CRM and UNH of the larger variety in addition to AXP and HD. The S&P rose by 1 to 5709 with some technology advances such as NVDA and those ongoing Chinese stock advances. The Nasdaq rose by 15 to 17,925 on NVDA, ADBE, AVGO and the Chinese issues like BIDU while the Russell 2000 ended 2 points lower to 2195. And the VIX actually ended down to 18.90 despite all of the Middle Eastern hand-wringing.  

Oil prices rose again as the world waits to see how Israel will respond to Tuesday’s missile attack from Iran, but they pared their gains as the day progressed. After briefly topping $76 earlier, the price for a barrel of Brent crude settled at $73.90, up 0.5%.  

After a third-quarter which showed the Dow and S&P at all-time highs, the market went into a bad retreat to start the first day of the fourth-quart yesterday, and it looks like things can remain choppily bouncing around until this Friday’s September jobs report and then the start of the third-quart earnings season later in this month.

Equities retreated from their records Tuesday after missiles were fired from Iran into Israel, a sharp escalation of tensions in the Middle East that investors fear could lead to disruptions in the flow of oil.

The market ended higher after a choppy day on either side of unchanged and this followed a start to the week for financial markets in Asia, where Japanese stocks tumbled and Chinese indexes soared and this pattern continued what we saw for the past couple of weeks.

The Dow was able to sneak out a minor victory of 17 points to a new record high of 42,330 led by a strong gain in AAPL, plus HD, MSFT and UNH after being down by as much as 384 during the press briefing with Fed Chairman Jay Powell. The S&P advanced by 24 to 5762 led by those large technology gains plus some of the others mentioned above and it set its 43rd new high this year with its fifth straight winning month and fourth straight winning quarter.

For more than a year, the Fed had kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy enough to drive inflation toward its 2% target. Now that inflation has eased substantially from its peak two summers ago, the Fed has begun to lower rates to ease conditions for the slowing job market and prevent a recession.

Of course, the risk of a downturn still looms. U.S. employers have slowed their hiring, and the inflation report on Friday also showed growth in U.S. consumer spending in August fell shy of economists’ expectations. That is important because consumer spending is the main engine of the economy.

The Fed on Wednesday lowered its benchmark rate by 0.50 percentage points. Click to see the full video announcement.

After last week’s disastrous start to the sometimes tricky month of September, which was historical in some sense as mentioned in yesterday’s Notes, the market tried to redeem itself on Monday to claw back some of the losses from their worst week in nearly a year and a half.  

The Dow rallied by 484 to 40,829 led by gains in the financial components while the S&P took an upside moonshot of 62 to 5471 with strength in the beaten-down former financial leaders plus nice gains in the financials.