August 1, 2024

Markets:

Stock futures rose in overnight trading Wednesday as investors weighed the latest corporate earnings reports, including strong results from Meta Platforms.

In extended trading, Meta Platforms 7% on stronger-than-expected second-quarter results and upbeat guidance. Arm Holdings shed 10% after offering an underwhelming current-quarter guide.

Stocks are coming off a winning session that saw the S&P 500 rally 1.58% for its best day since February. The Nasdaq Composite surged 2.64%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 99.46 points, or 0.24%.

Those gains came as Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank could cut at its next meeting if the data continues supporting the narrative that inflation is easing. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady.

Megacap technology and semiconductor stocks bounced on Wednesday. Nvidia surged nearly 13% on the heels of a strong quarter from Advanced Micro Devices. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) popped nearly 8% to secure its best session in more than a year. Amazon and Meta rose more than 2% each, while Apple added more than 1%.

The busy earnings week continues Thursday with key reports from Apple and Amazon after the bell.

On the economic front, investors await jobless claims data, construction spending for June and ISM Manufacturing data for July. The main event for the remainder of the week will be Friday’s keynote July jobs report.

Portfolio:

Another hurdle passed with Fed and earning from META and QCOM. Last task, AAPL and AMZN tonight. What a wild week and remain patient. Historically, August has been a pretty good seasonal month. Throw in the positive flow right now and we can easily make up July's terrible market performance – a feat within 10 days that has not been seen since 08. One thing to note, IWM remains super coiled! We enter todays session holding setups in S and TSLL. We will look to add as the queue is filling up but we do want to remain patient until after tonight's earnings. Just beast approach and the runway will be long should tonight's earnings be received well. It's as simple as that.