- Moving the markets
The market was in a holding pattern, as investors weighed the latest earnings reports and waited for the Fed’s policy decision.
Some stocks shone, while others fizzled. General Motors revved up 7% after beating earnings expectations. F5 and Sanmina also impressed investors with their strong financial results, gaining 2% and 27%, respectively. Whirlpool, on the other hand, plunged more than 5% after giving a disappointing outlook for the year. JetBlue also fell 5% despite reporting better-than-expected earnings.
The spotlight was on the tech giants, which are set to report their quarterly numbers this week. Microsoft and Alphabet were up first, followed by Amazon, Meta, and Apple. These companies, dubbed the “Magnificent 7,” have been driving the market higher with their massive growth.
The Fed kicked off its two-day meeting today, with most traders expecting no change in interest rates. The odds of a rate hike are only 3%, according to the futures market.
The bond market was mixed, as higher job openings boosted yields, but the 10-year Treasury slipped below its break-even point. The MAG7 stocks also gave up some of their gains ahead of Apple’s earnings announcement this afternoon.
The dollar edged lower, gold spiked and then retreated, and oil bounced back towards $78 a barrel.
In a hilarious twist, ZeroHedge reported that the Consumer Confidence data was revised down for the third month in a row.
This raised the same question as last month:
How do you lower consumer confidence after the fact? Do you call them back and say, “Are you sure you were feeling that good?”
Hmm…
2. Current “Buy” Cycles (effective 11/21/2023)
Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) have both crossed their trend lines with enough strength to trigger new “Buy” signals. That means, Tuesday, 11/21/2023, was the official date for these signals.
If you want to follow our strategy, you should first decide how much you want to invest based on your risk tolerance (percentage of allocation). Then, you should check my Thursday StatSheet and Saturday’s “ETFs on the Cutline” report for suitable ETFs to buy.
3. Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)
The market was mostly unchanged, except for the Dow, which rose slightly. Investors were cautious ahead of the big corporate earnings reports.
Our TTIs showed no clear direction and ended almost the same as the day before.
This is how we closed 1/30/2024:
Domestic TTI: +7.98% above its M/A (prior close +7.96%)—Buy signal effective 11/21/2023.
International TTI: +7.27% above its M/A (prior close +7.30%)—Buy signal effective 11/21/2023.
All linked charts above are courtesy of Bloomberg via ZeroHedge.
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