April 25, 2024

Markets:

Stock futures fell sharply Thursday after the latest U.S. economic data showed a sharp slowdown in growth and pointed to persistent inflation.

U.S. gross domestic product expanded by 1.6% in the first quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast GDP growth would come in at 2.4%.

Along with the downbeat growth rate for the quarter, the report showed consumer prices increased at a 3.4% pace, well above the previous quarter’s 1.8% advance. This raised concern over persistent inflation and put into question whether the Federal Reserve will be able to cut rates anytime soon.

In the short term, the numbers don’t appear to be a green light for either bulls or bears.

Following the GDP print, traders moved down expectations for an easing of Federal Reserve monetary policy. Traders now forecast just one interest rate cut this year, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Meta plunged 15% in premarket trading after the social media giant issued light revenue guidance for the second quarter. That would be the stock’s biggest one-day decline since October 2022. International Business Machines also fell 8% after missing consensus estimates for first-quarter revenue.

Microsoft and Alphabet are slated to post earnings after the close Thursday.

Portfolio:

Excellent day yesterday booking a number of profits and it was needed!  Today we are welcomed with new opportunity to add should we see signs and sector movement after the futures activity taking place. We enter the new sessions holding setups in PLTR, NYCB, PATH, and S. Stay patient here, do not overreact or chase price. Market has surged this week after getting hurt the last week. It's still swinging and tonight we have two monster reports that can once again switch the tide with GOOG and MSFT. Stay patient and look for opportunity to add. Nothing has broken, especially technically. Just please keep that in mind. 495 – 497 on Spy key level. Q's need a little more work but that 410-412 area is big for us personally. Be ready and on alert.