Brains and circuits are fried. Traders/investors and robots (
AI) just have to have their brains (and wiring) fried watching the markets dive, zip and soar. We had swings down, dip buyers stepping in and winding up disappointed, bulls stepping in again and getting a big jump up allowing the major averages (Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite) to all finish higher on the week. Kind of hard to keep track of isn't it? Volatility is good, choppy not so much. So, the major averages finished up Monday, off a touch Tuesday, down and mixed Wednesday, way up Thursday and soft and sleepy Friday. Talk of
no
tax reform turned to expectations of a"BIG"
tax cut announcement next week, interest rates softened on reduced economic growth expectations, that was followed by some nice tech earnings late in the week and the very nervous French elections (Sunday) were thrown a "curve
" with a terrorist attack in Paris. Whew! Got all that? I obviously don't and I join all the others (except theAI
group......no intelligence here, artificial or not) with brain toasted. In any event, the Dow finished the weekUp
by half a percentage point, the S&P got up +.85%BUT
the NASDAQ Composite jumped +1.82% (see fintech below). Another market "cliff dive" averted (for now). With all the uncertainty and nervousness the traditional safe havens such as bonds and gold had a mixed message as well. Interest rates declined slightly (bonds rallied) (10 yr note at 2.22%) but gold remained flat despite a lot of bullish comments. The big"new"
star fast becoming an alternative to gold as a safe haven.....Bitcoin
.....rallied to new all time highs ($1250) before pausing a bit. The big move of the week belonged to the fintech sector. The KBW NASDAQ fintech indexKFTX
went from being one of the weakest sectors last week to an out-performer this week. TheKFTX
jumped up3.1%
on the week, a whooping34.15
points to close at1140.77
. Not quite a new all time high, but a nice upward turn none the less. So now what? Let me askGigi
(our brilliant kitty and smarter than a robot) for some crack advice. Well,Gigi
says "sell in May and go away
" (start now....only 5 days till May), don't get sucked in with these bullish pops, prepare for a13%-18% market decline
andFEED ME (she likes food)
. You heard it here first. Have a great week.