Market Recap Week Ending January 22

Monday – Market Closed in Observance of Martin Luther King Jr. day.

Tuesday – Dow +116 to 30,930 Nasdaq +198 to 13,197 and the S&P +30 to 3,798. Janet Yellen, the designated nominee for Treasury Secretary for the incoming Biden administration, called for the federal government to enact a large stimulus package saying that while the nation’s debt was considerable, that in going big, with interest rates at historic lows, the benefits will outweigh the costs. These comments, along with a good first week of Q4 earnings and today’s numbers from Goldman Sachs (absolutely crushed their eps and revenue numbers) helped set the stage for today’s rally. Last week’s earnings set a record with 88% of the S&P 500 companies that reported beating expectations…Netflix (NFLX) rallied more than 10% post close on strong subscriber growth and said they are considering stock buybacks. NFLX now has 8.5 million subscribers vs expectations of 6.47 million…Eight of eleven S&P sectors traded higher led by Energy (+2% and up 15% YTD), Communication Services and Technology…Tomorrow, at 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States and Kamala Harris will take the oath of Vice President as the first woman in said position in the history of our country.

Wednesday – Dow +241 to 31,188 (record high) Nasdaq +260 to 13,457 (record high) and the S&P +53 to 3,851 (record high). Markets rallied on hopes for quick action by the new Biden administration on stimulus and Corona-19 related matters. The rally was broad based with ten of eleven S&P sectors trading higher. Only Financials traded in the red today. Leading the charge were Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary and Technology…Netflix (NFLX) which traded up big last night after its earnings report blew out subscriber numbers, followed through today and rose 16%…Morgan Stanley (MSCO) beat their numbers but traded down slightly…Proctor and Gamble (PG) raised their 2021 numbers, but traded down 1.25%….

Thursday – Dow (12) to 31,176 Nasdaq +73 to 13,530 (record high) and the S&P +1 to 3,853 (record high). Tech rescued what would have been a fairly bad day. Eight of the eleven S&P sectors traded down, led by Energy (-3.43%). The FANMAG names were all up today, Facebook (FB +2%), Apple (APPL +3%), Amazon (AMZN +1.3%), Alphabet (GOOG +0.22%), and Microsoft (MSFT +0.63%), although NFLX (-1.11%) traded down after a blistering day the previous trading session…There was some talk from Barron’s saying that Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus plan was on the ropes, but I couldn’t find another backing source or names of Senators that may have spoken against the bill today…Jobless claims were marginally better than expected at 900,000 vs expectations of 910,000 and last week’s number of 926,000. Housing starts were also better than expected at 1.7 million starts…IBM fell 6% in extended hours after missing their quarterly numbers…In comments post close, the recently liberated Dr. Anthony Fauci confirmed that Johnson and Johnson’s (JNJ) single shot Covid-19 vaccine should be ready for CDC review within the next two weeks. However, JNJ’s Chief Scientific Officer stated that he didn’t expect approval from the CDC until March at which time the company should be able ship 100 million doses….

Friday – Dow (179) to 30,996 Nasdaq +12 to 13,543 (record high) and the S&P (11) to 3,841. Megacap growth and tech led the way again today. The FANMAG stocks were all higher with the exceptions of Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon (AMZN). The other two indices were held back by more murmurs that President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan is facing pushback from Republicans who are now citing national debt levels. A notable addition to the skeptics is Joe Manchen (D-WV), who stated that he may oppose $2,000 direct payment checks despite representing one of the poorest states in the Union…IBM (IBM) fell 9.9% after missing their Q4 revenues while beating on earnings…Intel (INTC) fell 9.2% after announcing that the majority of their products in 2023 will be made in house as opposed to being outsourced….

The week in review…Dow +182 or 0.59% Nasdaq +545 or +4.2 and the S&P +73 or +1.9%. The inauguration went off without a hitch, the defense production act has been authorized to produce much needed PPE and vaccines, Dr. Fauci is smiling again, and the markets responded positively with a big week. Earning were a mixed bag with Netflix (NFLX) the big winner on huge subscriber growth…Earnings and politics will dominate the headlines again next week. Apple (APPL) and Tesla (TSLA) both report and there is sure to be continuing drama from the Senate in terms of a power sharing agreement between the two parties and the details surrounding Mr. Trump’s second impeachment trial which is scheduled to begin February 8th…