February 2, 2023

Markets:

Futures linked to the Nasdaq-100 were higher Thursday, boosted by sharp gains from Facebook-parent Meta Platforms.

Nasdaq-100 futures gained 1.3%. S&P 500 futures jumped 0.4%. Futures connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 134 points, or 0.4%.

Meta surged more than 19% in premarket trading after reporting a fourth-quarter beat on revenue and announcing a $40 billion stock buyback. That helped investors look past losses in the business unit overseeing the metaverse.

The moves follow a positive day for the three major indexes. The S&P 500 gained 1.05% on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq Composite closed 2% higher. Meanwhile, the Dow eked out a narrow 0.02% gain after dropping more than 500 points earlier in the day.

Wednesday’s gains came after the Federal Reserve announced a 0.25 percentage point interest rate hike. That marked a pull back from the 0.5 percentage point increase at December’s meeting, bolstering investor optimism that inflation is cooling enough for the central bank to take notice. But the central bank gave no indication of an upcoming pause in rate hikes.

Tonight we receive reports from AAPL, GOOG, AMZN, and SBUX.

Portfolio:

We continue on our monster pace to start 2023 and enter today's session holding positions in YEXT, U, TSLL, and AEHR. We expect to book another profit or two today while also adding a new trade or two as well. We are beyond the 4100 level. Monster level. The hated rally is here?? After tonight's earnings we will have further clarity. Follow the trend! Service is hot and just getting started to a monster year ahead.