October 16, 2024

Markets:

Stock futures were flat Wednesday as Wall Street looks to see whether equities can rebound to record highs this week.

Shares of Morgan Stanley rose 3% in premarket trading after topping Wall Street estimates for both its third-quarter earnings and revenue.

The Dow and S&P 500 both slipped from their recent records during Tuesday’s regular trading session, falling 0.75% and 0.76%, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite
fell 1.01%, but is still less than 2% from its own record high. Tech stocks – semiconductors, in particular – weighed on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The tech sector slid 1.8% on Tuesday, as Nvidia fell more than 4%.

Asia-Pacific markets traded lower on Wednesday, as investors await a high-level press briefing by China’s housing authorities on Thursday.

Portfolio:

We enter the new trading session holding set-ups in U, NVDL, NVAX, HOOD, and TSLL.  Wild session yesterday and expected turbulence leading into earnings season and after the runup we just had.  Market basically pulled back on ASML data yesterday. Its hard to avoid headline risk like that. The only thing you can do is lower risk – which we did exiting a few trades – and trying to add value when triggered. Lots of new opportunities will set back up in short order though, I'm positive of this.

Also, one item to note is the narrative most will try to push heading into elections.  Many of you know we love the opposite takes of headlines.  Current narrative we see trying to be pushed; "they will sell into elections".  While this hold some truth in the past, this market has done the exact opposite of what majority has thought would happen.  We believe this will be yet another example, especially with monster earnings prior to this event.  We continue to state that the headline risk for the year we face are the elections.  Once this passes the final hurdle is done and the runway opens.  Just remain patient here, do not get caught with narratives or headlines.  Do not chase day to day moves.  We stay the course and build for whats coming.