March 18, 2024

Markets:

S&P 500 futures climbed Monday, as Wall Street awaited a key artificial intelligence conference and looked ahead to monetary policy guidance from the Federal Reserve later this week.

Nvidia shares were up more than 2% in the premarket ahead of the company’s GTC Conference — where the chipmaker is expected to showcase its latest inroads in artificial intelligence. Shares of Alphabet rose 4% after Bloomberg News reported that Apple was in talks with Google to include the company’s Gemini AI in iPhones. Meanwhile, Super Micro Computer climbed 2.8% ahead of the company’s first trading day as part of the S&P 500.

Those moves took place ahead of the Fed’s two-day policy meeting, which is slated to start Tuesday and end with an announcement Wednesday. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, Fed funds futures are currently pricing in a 99% likelihood that the Fed will leave benchmark interest rates unchanged this week. However, the expectation for a June cut has ticked down in recent days to about 55%.

Inflation concerns have pressured stocks in recent days, with the S&P 500 set to enter Monday trading riding a two-week losing streak. The 30-stock Dow and Nasdaq are also coming off marginal losses.

A hotter-than-expected February core and wholesale inflation reading frustrated equities and sparked anxiety that the central bank may be partial toward higher interest rates for longer before its policy meeting begins on Tuesday.

Portfolio:

It's all about AI and Nividia today and tomorrow for us.  We get the Fed on Wednesday and then we proceed to trade the end of Q1 and traders positioning themselves for Q2.  I canot stress enough the opportunity folks will have in the coming months with so much taking place and throw in the election cycle set to begin in Q2.  We get this opportunity once every 4 years.  It's here!  Today we will be watching the AI conference closely and at 1pm Jensen will speak and provide monster updates for Nividia and work they're producing.  Cannot wait to begin to see what the future holds.

We enter the new week holding set-ups in SOUN, NVDL, IBIT, HIMS, and PATH.  Expect new trade triggers.  Expect a busy week! Let's have a monster week after last weeks ho-hum sessions.