It’a always dangerous to construct a trend from Friday’s trading. Especially when the earlier part of the week has been so strong in one direction or another. (In this case, down, down, down.)
Ahead of the weekend, stocks often reverse the trend from earlier in the week as sellers (in this case) decide that they don’t want to be quite so bearish until the market opens on Monday.
So it’s not surprising that stocks gained today on nothing especially qualifying as news. (The PCE inflation surge can’t have been a surprise to anyone who read the CPI inflation numbers earlier. Different numbers but same big trend toward higher inflation.)
But with all those caveats, I still found today’s action “interesting” and “perhaps” indicative of a future trend.
Not only were stocks as a whole strongly higher–the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 2.44% on the day–but technology stocks led the move to the upside. The NASDAQ Composite ws up 3.13% at the close and the NASDAQ 100 rose 3.22%.
Now part of this tech rally is undoubtedly connected to blow-out earnings and revenue numbers from Apple (AALP) yesterday after the close of trading. Apple shares were up 6.98% day.
And it does make sense that Apple would carry BIG TECH peers such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) higher. Those two stocks gained 32.31% and 3.23%, respectively today.
But the tech strength was widespread and included a cast with a wide range of the usual suspects. Adobe (ADBE) gained 5.09%, for example. Nvidia (NVDA) climbed 4.08%. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) added 2.26%. Applied Materials (AMAT) rose 1.77%.
One long-standing view on how to deal with a period of rising interest rates and rising inflation is that its best to own big steady growth stocks because these companies don’t need to tap financial markets for cash; they’ve frequently got significant pricing power; and they’re growth is so strong that they can outgrow these economic conditions. The view that would favor these stocks in the economy that seems to be emerging has been buried under worries about the extreme valuation of these stocks–they’re growth was priced for perfection. But now, maybe, that this bout of selling has taken some of the premium off those prices, the “liking” for these stocks might have space to emerge.
Maybe.
It’s very early yet and it’s never wise to count your chickens before they hatch.
But worth watching.
