Sorry guys for the two week hiatus. I was out of town so I couldn’t get to write my blog. Now, lets get into this week’s events. Dow and the S&P closed at record highs and Nasdaq also did really well. Now, this was largely due to the September CPI coming in at 3%(this means that prices rose 3% year over year) which was slightly better than the 3.1% from the previous report. Q3 corporate earnings also did splendid. Nearly 80% of all companies on the S&P beat analyst expectations, which is a huge number. Google, Amazon and Apple all released their earnings and they also performed excellently. Their huge market share as well as overall tech growth shot Nasdaq up like crazy too. Trade also looked really good, with both the Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump planning a meeting for a potential trade deal. China and the US are the two biggest economies in the world, and any beneficial trade deal between these two would greatly help the market. Considering that China is also the biggest manufacturer in the world, it is of crucial importance that this upcoming meeting goes well, and the market certainly thinks that it will. This is all fine and dandy, but the main reason why everybody was in such a good mood was because the Fed cut the rates. If you have been reading my blog, you would know that the market loves interest rate cuts more than it loves itself. The Fed decided to cut rates by 0.25%, bringing it down to 3.75%, and the market absolutely loved that. Add the earning reports and the trade talks, and you would certainly understand the reason for record highs. Now, lets get to my amazing(hopefully it is) predictions section.
Riser
Palantir Tech- Palantir is a key player in the AI and data management space and this sector has been heavily rewarded over the last week. It is reporting earnings on Monday after the close, and considering the overall AI optimism surrounding the market over the past few weeks, an upward rise is a very likely possibility.
Faller
Brown and Brown– Bofa securities just marked the stock down from ‘Buy’ to ‘Neutral.’ They said this was because of the stock’s underperformance as well as softening property insurance rates. This negative sentiment could lead to a fall in the stock this week.
Market Memo 